Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

ABrass said:

Heathrow runway 3 has been blocked, at least for now.

Plans for a third runway at Heathrow airport have been ruled illegal by the court of appeal because ministers did not adequately take into account the government’s climate change commitments.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/27/heathrow-third-runway-ruled-illegal-over-climate-change

I'm probably getting too carried away, but the extension won't be quick, so maybe there's a possibility of electric flight, at least for small aircraft, to become more viable in that time span. The beauty of this is that for short hops (UK based) it would open up Heathrow to night flights, and possibly(?) make the existing infrastructure more efficient/profitable.

Just pondering, not expecting large capacity leccy aircraft anytime soon, just looking for potential alternatives. I'm going to guess that my other idea - leccy powered (instead of steam) catapult launches for energy saving take-offs is not viable, but come on ......  it'd be a laugh.  

Martyn1981

Drax is dead, long live Drax.

So, it's to end coal generation early, might burn gas, and is burning sustainable wood pellets. Progress of sorts, and hopes to go carbon negative by capturing CO2 - BECCS (bio-energy carbon capture and storage).

I appreciate that wood burning, especially when shipped from the US is controversial, but if it's sustainable, and that appears to be the case, then bio-mass does provide guaranteed, even demand following generation, which will help to bolster/reinforce other intermittent forms of RE.

Drax power plant to stop burning coal, with loss of 230 jobs

The Drax power plant in Yorkshire will end all coal generation by next year after almost five decades as one of western Europe’s most polluting power plants.

Drax Group will stop burning coal at Britain’s biggest power plant in March 2021, four years ahead of the government’s ban on coal-fired electricity, which comes into force in 2025.

The company said its milestone decision is part of its ambition to become a “carbon negative” company by 2030 but will lead to the loss of 230 jobs from the site at Selby.

Will Gardiner, the chief executive of Drax, said: “Ending the use of coal at Drax is a landmark in our continued efforts to transform the business and become a world-leading carbon negative company by 2030. Drax’s journey away from coal began some years ago and I’m proud to say we’re going to finish the job well ahead of the government’s 2025 deadline.”

He said ending coal burning is “the right decision for our business, our communities and the environment but it will have an impact on some of our employees, which will be difficult for them and their families”.

Drax claims to be Europe’s largest decarbonisation project after decades as Britain’s most polluting power plant since it began producing electricity in the 1970s.

Martyn1981

So this is quite big (understatement of the year?)

Also, slightly misleading as the Tesla scheme will be 730-1,100MWh, whilst Denegy's will be 1,200MWh.

Tesla’s massive 1GWh Megapack battery project with PG&E is approved

We first learned of the project at PG&E’s Moss Landing substation when they submitted it to CPUC and the company was in talks with Tesla in 2017.

It involves four separate energy storage projects and two of them should become the world’s largest battery systems.

Dynegy is going to deploy a 300MW / 1,200MWh project on PG&E’s grid while the Tesla project will be a 182.5MW / 730MWh, which could eventually go up to 1.1GWh.

Martyn1981

Credit where credit's due? Hard to trust BP, but change has to start somewhere.

BP Withdraws From Three Fossil Fuel Industry Trade Groups

BP, which may have done more damage to the Earth’s environment than any corporation in history, with the possible exception of ExxonMobil, says it wants to clean up its act and become a “net zero” business by 2050. New CEO Bernard Looney hasn’t been exactly clear on how he intends to make that happen, however, and there are plenty of skeptics who think all this happy talk from Looney is little more than greenwashing.

This week, BP severed ties with three oil industry lobbying groups, saying it had a basic philosophical difference with them when it comes to their climate-related policies and activities, according to The Guardian. During the past 6 months, BP says it has reviewed its climate policies and compared them with those of 30 industry trade groups.

Looney says, “BP will pursue opportunities to work with organisations who share our ambitious and progressive approach to the energy transition. And when differences arise we will be transparent. But if our views cannot be reconciled, we will be prepared to part company. My hope is that in the coming years we can add climate to the long list of areas where, as an industry, we work together for a greater good.”

And so BP says it is withdrawing from membership in the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a group that also saw Shell and Total depart last year. It is also ending its association with the Western States Petroleum Association and the Western Energy Alliance. It cited differences of opinion on carbon pricing as a basis for its decision regarding all three groups, as well as a conflict with WEA over federal rules for methane emissions.

Martyn1981

Calls for a large ramp up of wind energy in France. I'm not clear now what their policy is going to be regarding nuclear. They had planned to reduce it from around 75% of leccy supply to 50% of future (2035) supply, but perhaps the large reductions in RE costs and the 'troubles' (costs) with their new EPR reactors (Flamanville, Finland and HPC) might result in a bigger change.

French wind industry urges for wind framework

The Syndicate of Renewable Energies (SER) and France Energie Eolienne (FEE) have called upon the French government to implement measures to support a target of 34GW of wind by 2028.

Wind energy companies represented by the two trade bodies have urged the government to “guarantee a stable development framework” for wind power in France, while working jointly on solutions that take into account expectations of citizens and regions.

The government has recently concluded a public consultation on the country’s Multiannual Energy Programming (PPE).

SER and FEE have asked the government to maintain its commitment to wind.

The PPE provides for a regular ramp-up in the rate of installation of wind turbines with a target of more than 24GW by 2023 and 34GW by 2028.

Martyn1981

Just out of curiosity (and having raised the question of France's plans going forward) I've had a very basic look to see if they are changing, or may change, given the falling costs of RE. Not found anything to suggest policies are changing yet, but this recent article does set out the planned landscape to 2030.

Personally I have my fingers crossed for a change in French policy to an ever lower figure from nuclear. Not nuclear bashing, but if it can be avoided, that sounds sensible, and if the alternative(s) RE + storage are cheaper, then that benefits all, and might allow for a faster transition for their non low-carbon consumption.

In case anyone else gets completely confused by the contradiction in future RE capacity, I suspect the opening paragraph should say 75.3GW, not 25.3GW by 2030, and also bear in mind that this article is talking about capacity, not actual generation, and of course RE has a lower capacity factor than nuclear. Hope that makes sense.

Renewable energy to lead the capacity mix over nuclear power in France by 2028

Installed non-hydro renewable capacity in France is expected to reach 25.3 GW (75.3GW ?) by 2030 (from 8 GW in 2018) at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.03%, according to a report by GlobalData. 

The country is aiming to boost the renewable energy sources at a CAGR of 8.9% during 2019-2030 with net capacity addition of around 50 GW. Installed capacity for onshore wind will double from its current levels of 15.1 GW by 2026, and to support the expansion the government has announced doubling of the renewable energy budget. Solar PV is not behind by much in terms of growth and will witness an addition of more than 24 GW during 2019-2030. In the long-term, the government has decided to cut down its fossil fuel dependency and is replacing coal and oil-fired plants with gas-based plants. The government has also announced to bring down the nuclear power generation to 50% of the net generation by 2035. The plan is to decommission around 14 nuclear reactors by 2035 and fill the gap by renewable energy sources.

Martyn1981

German windy record, with Feb producing ~21TWh, beating the previous record of Mch 2019 and 16.5TWh

German wind power soars to new record in February

Wind power in Germany generated a record of almost 21 terrawatt-hours of electricity in February, according to preliminary data.

About 20.9TWh of electricity is expected to have been generated in the country by the end of the month, according to analysis by the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Wurttemberg (ZSW) and Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW).

Onshore wind farms account for 17.9TWh, with offshore wind generating 3TWh in February, they said.

The previous record was in March 2019 when 16.5TWh was generated.

Prompting me to look for UK news (can't remember if it's already been posted):

Storm Ciara leads to record breaking weekend for wind generation

During this, wind hit a new record for instantaneous generation, as well as a new record for power produced in a day, overtaking a record set on December 10 during the end of Storm Atiyah.

At just before 2am on Saturday 8 February, wind turbines generated 56% of the country’s electricity. This was nearly 15GW of power, according to Drax Electric Insights.

Throughout Saturday, wind power accounted for 44.26% of power produced, a second record beating that set on 9 December.

Wind dwarfed all other forms of generation, with nuclear providing 18.40% and gas just 17.73%.

Eoghan Quinn, global offshore wind director at Worley said that he expects wind generation records to “continue to tumble” during 2020.

Martyn1981

Another 'credit where credit is due' article. Hopefully it's not greenwahing but an actual plan to transition from oil and gas to RE. Especially liked this bit:

Other steps to achieve this will include carbon capture and storage and converting refineries to produce hydrogen, methanol, biomethane and products from recycling of waste materials.

Converting, suggests to me, an acceptance of a new role in a non FF future?

Eni unveils 55GW clean power goal for 2050

Italian oil and gas company Eni is planning to have 55GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2050.

Eni set out the goal in a Long-Term Strategic Plan to 2050 announced today together with an Action Plan 2020-2023.

In the short term, the company is aiming to have 3GW of clean power installed by 2023 and 5GW by 2025.

The capacity drive to 2025 represents investments of €2.6bn, Eni said.

Martyn1981

Some extracts from this weeks Carbon Commentary newsletter:

[Nice to see Bristol get a mention as they've really been working hard, and making the news quite a lot over the years.]

1, Low carbon cement. Cement production is responsible for about 5% of global emissions and - apart from aviation - is often said to be the most difficult sector to decarbonise. International producer Cemex introduced a new range of low carbon products in the UK that offer reductions in embodied CO2 of up to 70%. (Interestingly, on the company’s French web site, where the product was first introduced, the percentage cuts are said to be far smaller). The product uses a new class of materials called ‘geopolymers’ as its source. Customers are also offered a route to a fully ‘net zero’ product by the purchase of tree-planting offsets. No details of the price premium are provided but Cemex joins other large industrial companies promising carbon neutrality by 2050.
 
2, Liquid air storage. Highview Power of the UK is the leader in using liquefied air as a storage medium. When power is abundant it is used to chill air to a liquid. In times of deficit, the air is allowed to gasify, expanding to drive turbines to generate power. Japanese industrial giant Sumitomo paid $46m to invest in Highview and gain access to its technology. Perhaps I have been wrong to be sceptical about whether the large plants needed to liquefy air can be competitive with batteries; Highview is now claiming a capital cost half that of lithium ion. (But I still suspect the round-trip efficiency is lower, wasting more of the surplus electricity than batteries). A Highview plant does have the substantial advantage over batteries at being better at generating ‘inertia’, an important feature of a reliable electricity system.
3, Bristol Net Zero. Bristol, a city in western England, has a population of about half a million. It produced a hugely impressive plan for complete decarbonisation by 2030 that should form a model for other cities in northern Europe. Amongst other things, it argues for 500 MW of solar PV on local roofs (about 4% of the UK’s current total installations) and a programme of massive upgrading of building insulation standards. All vehicles sold locally should be low carbon by 2023 and total car travel should fall by 50% as public transport is improved. The plan envisages infrastructure costs of around £6bn (€7bn/¢8bn), or around £12,000 per head of population, to get to net zero. This is clearly expensive but at current interest rates on sovereign debt of less than 2% the annual cost is probably manageable. 
 
4, Technology forecasts. DNV GL brought out a forecast of technology trends to 2030 across a wide variety of sectors. The three crucial improvements in energy are expected to be solid state batteries, very high temperature heat pumps (which will make it much cheaper to electrify the production of heat) and the advance of ‘green’ hydrogen towards cost-competitiveness with fossil sources. DNV says that batteries are on a downward cost curve steeper than wind and solar power, meaning that price of electric vehicles will decline faster than expected. However EV sales will only exceed conventional cars by 2032. This seems too pessimistic to me as I suspect that most major markets will have banned petrol and diesel by then. Solar power is expected to see cost reductions of another 50% by 2030 but capital expenditure on fossil fuel sources is expected to exceed renewables spending until 2034. (But note below that Repsol, for example, is on target to achieve this much earlier).
 
5, Tax credits for carbon capture. A change to US tax law allows industrial CO2 producers to claim $50 a ton for carbon capture and storage. Observers are noting a rapid increase in planning for CCS in industries such as cement manufacture. Some sources already put the cost of capturing and storing CO2 from industrial processes at $60/tonne - if nearby storage in aquifers is possible – and the tax credit means that CCS projects should move ahead in large volume
 
6, Oil company capital expenditure on low carbon businesses. The international oil majors publicise their involvement in low carbon activities but typically devote much less than 5% of their capital spending away from fossil fuels. Repsol, the large Spanish oil company which promised full carbon neutrality by 2050, said that it would devote €700m to wind and other renewables this year. This about 40% of the amount it will spend on oil and gas, a much higher percentage than any other large producer. Much of this cash will go on the development of wind farms in northern Spain, where it hopes to add about 0.9 GW of capacity this year, on route to a total renewables portfolio of 7.5 GW in 2025. It is also investing heavily in developing an electricity business in the Iberian peninsula.
 
8, Netherlands hydrogen. Another northern Europe plan to use offshore wind solely for hydrogen. The Netherlands gas grid operator, already the most active participant in worldwide hydrogen trials, has started planning with Shell for a 4 to 10 GW offshore wind project that is entirely devoted to producing hydrogen onshore. Expectations of a rapidly rising carbon tax in the Netherlands make green hydrogen financially attractive because producing one tonne of H2 from natural gas results about 10 tonnes of CO2. If Shell invests the capital necessary to build 10 GW of wind by 2040, this project alone would absorb very roughly 5% of its worldwide investment budget. (Thanks to George Georgiev) 
 
9, Ammonia as the key energy storage medium. Britain’s top science body, the Royal Society, put out a highly accessible report on ammonia, detailing its many advantages for energy storage. Because it can be easily transported across existing networks and storage facilities are widespread, it may make sense to use ammonia (a molecule containing nitrogen and hydrogen) as a means of storing the hydrogen from which it is derived. The Royal Society estimates the cost of converting H2 to ammonia as about £0.80 per kilogramme (€0.95/$1.05), adding as much as 50% to the price. However this burden can be outweighed by a much lower transport cost, particularly over long distances. Ammonia can then be combusted for energy or converted back into hydrogen. (Thanks to Thad Kurtz)

 

Martyn1981

Government finally see's sense, and Scotland's crystal ball is proven right.

UK government lifts block on new onshore windfarm subsidies

The UK government has abandoned its opposition to subsidising new onshore windfarms, four years after ministers scrapped support for new projects.

The government has agreed to reverse its block against onshore wind projects by allowing schemes to compete for financial support contracts alongside other renewable energy technologies.

The government’s current energy policies have led to a sharp decline in the number of new onshore windfarms since a decision to block onshore windfarms from competing for subsidies was put in place by the former Tory prime minister David Cameron in 2016.

The decision has caused the rollout of new onshore wind power capacity to fall to its lowest level since 2011 last year, prompting warnings from the clean energy industry that the UK risks missing its climate targets unless it allows new onshore wind farms to be built.

The Guardian revealed late last year that Scottish Power has begun plans for a major expansion of onshore windfarm projects across Scotland in anticipation of a government U-turn on support for wind-power projects.