Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

I don't know much about wood burning, but from what I've picked up on the Navitron website, (and I think from Z's posts), burning wet wood is not only inefficient but also causes the bulk of waste and chimney/flue coatings, so this policy change seems entirely sensible and actually cost efficient too ...... ?

House coal and wet wood to be phased out by 2023 to cut pollution

The sale of the most polluting fuels burned in household stoves and open fires will be phased out from next year to clean up the air, the government has said.

Plans to phase out the sale of house coal and wet wood have been confirmed as part of efforts to tackle tiny particle pollutants known as PM2.5, which can penetrate deep into lungs and the blood and cause serious health problems.

Wood burning stoves and coal fires are the single largest source of PM2.5, contributing three times as much of the pollution as road transport, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said.

Sales of two of the most polluting fuels, wet wood and house coal, will be phased out from 2021 to 2023, to give householders and suppliers time to move to cleaner alternatives such as dry wood and manufactured solid fuels.
These produce less smoke and pollution, and are cheaper and more efficient to burn, officials said.

The environment secretary, George Eustice, said: “Cosy open fires and wood-burning stoves are at the heart of many homes up and down the country, but the use of certain fuels means that they are also the biggest source of the most harmful pollutant that is affecting people in the UK.

“By moving towards the use of cleaner fuels such as dry wood we can all play a part in improving the health of millions of people. This is the latest step in delivering on the challenge we set ourselves in our world-leading clean air strategy.

“We will continue to be ambitious and innovative in tackling air pollution from all sources as we work towards our goal to halve the harm to human health from air pollution by 2030.”

Martyn1981

Off-shore wind doing well, it's still small, but expanding and finding interest in more and more areas/countries as costs fall thus creating a virtuous circle of more deployments and lower costs.

Offshore wind in 'record' 5.2GW global surge

Last year set a new record for offshore wind installations with 5.2GW of capacity entering into operations globally, according to a new report by World Forum Offshore Wind (WFO).
The 2019 figure marks a 24% growth on 2018 and means 27.2GW of offshore wind was installed worldwide at the end of last year.
Some 16 new wind farms entered operations last year across China, the UK, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and Taiwan.
The UK retains its crown as the world’s biggest market, with 9.7GW of all installed capacity. Germany follows with 7.5GW, but China is hot on the both countries' heels thanks to a rapidly growing industry which swelled to reach 4.9GW of installed capacity by the end of the year.

Martyn1981

Always nice to see oil and gas companies expanding into RE.

Portugal's Galp plans 10GW renewables gold rush

Portugal-headquartered oil and gas company Galp is targeting 10GW of installed renewables capacity by 2030 as part of its strategy to diversify its business into more clean energy generation.

Martyn1981

Some Lab based solutions/improvements, but always interesting to see/hear what might develop.

3 Reasons Why Cheap Abundant Electricity Is Getting Closer To Reality

Martyn1981

And a fun little factoid for the sometimes used FUD of wind turbine waste v's FF generation:

Coal & Gas Emissions Are 1500–3000× The Mass Of Waste Wind Turbine Blades

That’s right. A coal plant producing the same amount of electricity as a wind farm will produce 3,000 times as much CO2 by weight, 6 times as much nitrous oxides, 15 times as much sulphur oxides, and a third the mass of the wind turbine blades in fine particulate matter.

But hey, we’re shutting down coal and replacing it with gas plants, right? So that should be a lot better! Yeah, no. Gas still has about 500 kg of CO2 per MWh, so it’s still producing about 1,500 times as much mass of pollutants that actually cause global harm as the wind turbine blades.
Next time you see an article blaring about the horrors of wind turbine blades in landfills, provide some perspective. 

NigeWick

Martyn1981 said:

 burning wet wood is not only inefficient but also causes the bulk of waste and chimney/flue coatings, so this policy change seems entirely sensible and actually cost efficient too ...... ?

We've got a wood burner. I would never consider burning unseasoned or dried wood. Looks to me like a bit of greenwashing as nobody in their right mind would burn the stuff. I have tried coal briquettes but they were expensive and didn't do well in our burner.

silverwhistle

I've now had 5 annual visits since my wood stove install. The sweep comes out, looks up the chimney and tells me I don't need a sweep. It's been free too, although he charges for a certificate. I've had one actual sweep and that was precautionary and brought down very little, and I'll probably have a precautionary sweep this summer.

Out of curiosity I once bought a net from Alddl and although it seemed dry I ended up getting the tongs  out and hoiking it out of the stove. Only then did I check the moisture with my meter, lesson learnt, and the bag ended up in wood store no.2 for the following winter..

The stove is an important source of heat for me and my wood is all scrounged and processed by myself apart from some briquettes I keep in the house for when the weather is really 'orrible and to act as a good base for the fire. This is one of the reason I used to be with Ebico for their standing charge free tariff which is no more.

Martyn1981

silverwhistle said:

Out of curiosity I once bought a net from Alddl and although it seemed dry I ended up getting the tongs  out and hoiking it out of the stove. Only then did I check the moisture with my meter, lesson learnt, and the bag ended up in wood store no.2 for the following winter..

Can I ask what moisture content is OK? I might be wrong, but the 20% referred to in this follow up article sounds 'tough' to me, but I can't honestly remember what level well stored dry logs naturally 'aspire' too. Cheers.

Coal and wet wood burning: how will UK restrictions work?

Does this mark the end of the cosy country hearth and the cool urban stove?
Not yet. The restrictions are limited and will be phased in over several years. Even after they come into full effect, fire lovers will still be able to collect their own kindling and branches and buy seasoned or kiln-dried logs (as long as they have moisture levels below 20%). This fuel is more expensive, but burns more efficiently and more cleanly, which means more heat, lower flue maintenance costs and fewer health concerns. It is also easier to light and produces a satisfying crackle rather than a sputtering hiss.

Martyn1981

Nice little storage package of 250MW/1,000MWh, would certainly support RE gen, especially in rural areas.

Blue Nova Launches The MegaBoy 1 MWh Storage Product

The MegaBoy, which Blue Nova also calls the intelligent Energy Storage System (iESS), is a grid-scale stationary storage product. Blue Nova says this is the first of its kind to be manufactured in South Africa. The MegaBoy is a 250 kW, 1 MWh, scalable battery pack, making it also suitable for rural mini-grids, commercial & industrial (C&I), as well as grid-scale applications. The MegaBoy is designed for both off-grid and grid-connected applications.

With power outages in South Africa ranging from about 2 to 4 hours a day, the MegaBoy could be a perfect drop-in replacement for diesel backup generators at schools, small office parks, small supermarkets, and small shopping centres whose peak power demand is around 250 kW, giving them at least 4 hours of backup time. This would be perfect for space-constrained sites that may have limited space for solar, with the MegaBoy charging from the grid at low demand times.

Energy security is top of the mind for most facilities managers at this point in time, when businesses have been severely affected by the ongoing power cuts. Any savings from charging the battery during off-peak tariff times and discharging during the peak tariff periods would be an added advantage that would make the business case more attractive in the long term.

markin

20% is not hard to achieve it just takes time and being out of the rain, If the bags of wood have been sat in the warm shop for a month i can't believe it would be that far away from 20%, have they actually done a survey on it?

And Banning coal could put millions into fuel poverty.

It could be real money spinner for the council though, The smoke coming out your chimney indicates your burning wet wood that will be a £100 fine sir/madam.