Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

zeupater

Martyn1981 wrote: »

OK, I'm putting my hands up and admitting that this is more than a stretch for the thread title, but given I'm a bit of a softy for animals, and a free labour source for professional land drainage and flood defence 'experts' is not something to be sniffed at, I just had to pop this one in:

Dam fine: estate owners across UK queue up to reintroduce beavers

Hi

On the opposite side is the damage & costs involved with 'managing' their presence ...

Some good friends in Canada have experienced terrible trouble with beaver damage on & near their land, with their local area regularly experiences outages of both telephone & power courtesy of the not so 'little' critters ... I believe that it's still the case that once they're there, the combination of red tape & environmentalists work pretty well together to hinder the farming community from making best economic use of their own property, whilst there are regular reports of the huge costs to their local authorities for maintaining/clearing/repairing drainage ditches, bridges & culverts.

Essentially, for every 'pro' there's a 'con' ... it's just a case of remembering to weigh them carefully to see where the balance lies, especially so when considering that the UK would provide limited territory size & our relatively large (human) population density could well result in the introduction of 'friction' down the line.

HTH
Z

Martyn1981

I think this is enormous!

In the US you have lots of news channels with business sections, and share 'experts', 'advisors' etc.. One of the most famous is Jim Cramer, he's a very funny guy, easy to love or hate, but famous and people will be influenced by his comments, or at least polarized.

So what did he say on Friday - he was done with fossil fuels, there is divestment all over the World, the World is changing, they are 'tobacco'.

Flippin Heck!

Jim Cramer: 'I'm done with fossil fuel' stocks

Martyn1981

Big energy and storage contracts in India, storage of 3GWh:

India Allocates 1.2 Gigawatts In World’s Largest Renewable Energy Storage Tender

Greenko Energy Holdings has secured rights to develop 900 megawatts of capacity with a peak period tariff of Rs 6.12/kWh (US¢8.55/kWh) and an off-peak period tariff of Rs 2.88/kWh (US¢4.02/kWh). ReNew Power secured a capacity of 300 megawatts with peak period tariff of Rs 6.85/kWh (US¢9.57/kWh) and off-peak period tariff of Rs 2.88/kWh (US¢4.02/kWh). To meet the firm supply of 1.2 gigawatts, developers would be required to have storage capacity of 3,000 megawatt-hours.

Martyn1981

cool.

Greta Thunberg Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

Two members of the Swedish Parliament have nominated 17-year-old Greta Thunberg for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling submitted her name just prior the expiration of the nominating period at midnight on January 31. Last year, she was nominated by a Norwegian legislator. According to the rules of the Nobel Prize committee, any “members of national assemblies and national governments (cabinet members/ministers) of sovereign states as well as current heads of states” are eligible to make nominations.

Martyn1981

this might be good news, at least it sounds promising and sensible

Ofgem to probe new offshore wind connection regime

“The UK has made great progress in developing offshore wind, but capacity will have to increase enormously to achieve net zero,” stated the decarbonisation plan.
“To facilitate this, Ofgem will work with government and industry to explore regulatory approaches that could enable an expansion of the offshore network at lowest cost. This will include considering a more coordinated approach to offshore networks, and how this could make it easier and cheaper for the electricity generated to reach the shore.”

The regulator will undertake the work with industry, government and the Electricity System Operator starting in the spring.

Martyn1981

bit late, apologies, but here are some eztracts from this weeks carbon commentary newsletter

1, Hydrogen from surplus wind. As Belgian offshore wind grows, the threat of electricity surpluses rises. A total of about 4 GW is likely to be built within the next decade alongside about 4-5 GW onshore. Output will sometimes exceed weekend overnight demand. If Belgium has high winds, neighbouring countries will also have surpluses, impeding exports and reducing the market price for power. The port of Oostende and two commercial companies announced a plan for a 50 MW electrolysis project to use excess wind for hydrogen production. The partners envisage using the hydrogen as the fuel for cars and lorries and for industrial use. This is the largest currently planned electrolyser installation in the Benelux region. (Although, as mentioned last week, bigger projects are in early development in Germany).


3, Hydrogen storage for a power plant. A power plant in Utah that currently uses coal will be converted to a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen. Eventually, the plant will use 100% hydrogen. A new coalition is looking to build electrolysis capacity nearby, using the excellent resources of wind, solar and geothermal energy. Utah also has huge salt caverns, usually seen as the best location for hydrogen storage. This project will be an important model for the utilities of the future, with its tight integration of hydrogen manufacture, storage and then use in a power station when renewable resources are temporarily insufficient.

4, Carbon capture. Svante of Canada captures CO2 from industrial processes, such as cement making. It claims by far the lowest cost technology, based partly on a proprietary nanomaterial that offers a surface area of a football field from an original solid the size of a matchbox. My guess is that this is the company to watch in industrial CO2 capture. Svante announced a partnership with Climeworks, the Swiss specialist in the capture of carbon dioxide directly from the air. I assume Svante will sell Climeworks its absorption material, significantly reducing Climeworks’s capital costs. Climeworks also says that it can use the waste heat from Svante’s installations for the c. 2.5 MWh of heat it needs for each tonne of CO2, although there is no shortage of sources of waste heat around the world. Another step towards $100 a tonne carbon capture. (A UK equity research report this week forecast a very steep rise in the cost of cement as a result of the need for CCS. I suggest that the researchers probably didn’t incorporate the much lower costs of carbon capture now made possible by Svante).

5, Indoor farming. 80 Acres Farms is, I think, the first vertical farming company to completely automate its growing process, using robots throughout its newest food factory in Ohio right through from planting seeds to packing the produce. There isn’t a human being in the entire production area. The funding for this latest farm came partly from Ocado, the British home delivery service for food. Ocado also seems to have provided expertise in robotic picking. 80 Acres claims its new Cincinnatti farm will be able to supply green vegetables at price to match local organic produce. At the other end of the size spectrum, Freight Farms, which uses shipping containers, trumpeted a partnership with Sodexo to supply its units to operations around the US run by the catering giant.


7, Local electricity. As the world moves very slowly towards matching local users with local energy, EdF made a tentative step in Brittany, France. A small group of customers will be able to buy electricity from two local wind farms, at a price premium of 10%. These are older turbines that no longer get support from subsidy or from guaranteed prices for electricity production. If the offer succeeds beyond the first 1,000 customers, EdF will purchase more from additional renewable sources of electricity within Brittany. It can be argued that this is simply a cosmetic change; the wind farms would have produced the electricity anyway. But in the longer term, retail arrangements like this can help incentivise the construction of new renewable installations.


9, Thermal energy storage. Norwegian storage specialist EnergyNest will supply a 6 MW heat store to Austrian brick manufacturer Senftenbacher. Heat from one part of the production process - which would otherwise be wasted - is converted to steam which runs through pipes contained in a large cube made of a concrete-like substance. The concrete absorbs the heat, which can then extracted for use in a later phase of the brick production process. The bricks will be made more cheaply, and with a lower carbon footprint, than at present. This is still an early stage technology but has wide potential importance.

10, Wine growing and climate change. Last week’s newsletter mentioned the extraordinary experiment by the Torres family in Chile growing a pilot plot of vines in southern Patagonia. A scientific study published this week suggested that over half the world’s wine output will be lost with a 2 degree rise, assuming no change in vineyard location. The industry itself recognises its unusual vulnerability to rising temperatures. But over half of the possible loss could be recouped by switching to grape varieties more suited to the warmer temperatures, says the new study. Unsurprisingly, this happens also to be an important project of the Torres family, which have vineyards in already highly stressed areas in Catalonia and elsewhere. Torres’s plan has been to switch to ancient varieties grown in Spain prior to the destruction caused by phylloxera, and which the company’s researchers have found by diligent detective work around Spanish villages. In addition, vines are being planted further apart to reduce temperatures and leaves are being left untrimmed to reduce the impact of the sun. These measures may cope with 2 degrees of warming in some place, but a 4 degree rise means places such as Patagonia or Sweden will become the world’s premier wine growing districts.

Cardew

Martyn1981 wrote: »

cool.

Greta Thunberg Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize





Two members of the Swedish Parliament have nominated 17-year-old Greta Thunberg for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling submitted her name just prior the expiration of the nominating period at midnight on January 31. Last year, she was nominated by a Norwegian legislator. According to the rules of the Nobel Prize committee, any “members of national assemblies and national governments (cabinet members/ministers) of sovereign states as well as current heads of states” are eligible to make nominations.

50 year secrecy rule

The Committee does not itself announce the names of nominees, neither to the media nor to the candidates themselves. In so far as certain names crop up in the advance speculations as to who will be awarded any given year’s Prize, this is either sheer guesswork or information put out by the person or persons behind the nomination. Information in the Nobel Committee’s nomination database is not made public until after fifty years.

Martyn1981

that's your takeaway :rotfl:

nbc news -

COPENHAEN, Denmark — Two lawmakers in Sweden have nominated Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.

new york post -

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has been nominated for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize by two Swedish lawmakers, a report said on Monday.

Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling, members of Sweden’s Left Party, said the 17-year-old Thunberg “has worked hard to make politicians open their eyes to the climate crisis.”

huffpost

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Two lawmakers in Sweden have nominated Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize.

Jens Holm and Hakan Svenneling, who are both members of Sweden’s Left Party,

bbc news

The 16-year-old was nominated by three Norwegian MPs.

The names of nominators and nominees are not normally made public until 50 years have elapsed, it adds.

Martyn1981

a years ayear

UK coal phase-out date pulled forward, as latest stats show emissions fell again last year

The UK's phase-out date of unabated coal power is to be bought forward by one year to 2024, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced today as he officially kicked off the countdown to this autumn's COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow.

Martyn1981

12megawatt turbine runs at max for 24hrs during testing, not bad i suppose. 

Haliade-X prototype sets production record

GE Renewable Energy has hailed the performance of its 12MW Haliade-X prototype after the demo turbine broke 24-hour production records.
The company said the turbine has become the first to generate 288 megawatt-hours continuously over the course of a day during testing at the Dutch port of Rotterdam.