Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Pressure building on Barclays to reduce funding of FF's.

Barclays under investor pressure over fossil fuel stance

Barclays is facing increasing pressure over its environmental stance after one of its top 25 investors came out in favour of a shareholder resolution urging the bank to stop lending to fossil fuel companies.

Jupiter Asset Management, which holds a 1.2% stake, is the largest shareholder to back the resolution, which will be voted on at Barclays’ annual investor meeting on 7 May.

It ratchets up the pressure on Barclays to phase out services to fossil fuel companies that fail to align with Paris climate goals, amid concerns about Barclays role as Europe’s largest financier of fossil fuel companies.

And some bad news on air pollution, but at least that means it could get better!

Outdoor air pollution cuts three years from human lifespan – study

Humans are missing out on almost three years of life expectancy on average because of outdoor air pollution, researchers have found.

However, the study reveals more than a year of life expectancy could be clawed back if fossil fuel emissions are cut to zero, while if all controllable air pollution is cut – a category that does not include particles from natural wildfires or wind-born dust – global life expectancy could rise by more than 20 months.

Martyn1981

The big Aussie batt is still proving the case well for storage and grid stabilisation.

Neoen Says Hornsdale Tesla Battery Has Exceeded Expectations

Engineering consultant Aurecon Group said in a statement last week the Hornsdale battery installed two years ago in South Austrialia has exceeded expectations for the way it has stabilized the grid and lowered grid related costs. So far, the Hornsdale facility has successfully met the challenge of three major system outages and reduced network costs by about $76 million in 2019, according to a report by Bloomberg. The battery has slashed the cost of regulating the South Australia electrical grid by 91%, bringing it in line with other regions in the nation, Aurecon said. Those savings are passed on to utility customers in South Australia.

Garth Heron is the head of development for French energy company Neoen, which owns and operates the Hornsdale installation. He says batteries smooth out fluctuations in the flow of electricity that can destabilize the grid. The Tesla battery is capable of responding to such frequency events more quickly than coal or gas fired generators and at much lower cost. “The grid has a heartbeat that needs to be regulated,” Heron tells Bloomberg. “I think there will be a faster battery roll-out than most people expect. They really are able to solve a multitude of problems.”

Martyn1981

A bit more ethanol proposed for UK petrol.

E10 petrol: UK to standardise higher ethanol blend

The government is set to introduce E10 fuel containing 10% ethanol as a new form of “cleaner” petrol aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary said the government was consulting on plans to make it the standard grade at British filling stations from 2021.

EricMears

Martyn1981 said:

A bit more ethanol proposed for UK petrol.

E10 petrol: UK to standardise higher ethanol blend

The government is set to introduce E10 fuel containing 10% ethanol as a new form of “cleaner” petrol aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

But will it cut carbon dioxide emissions ?

Ethanol burns to release CO2.  Not sure how it & petrol compare when measured as CO2 released per unit of energy generated though - but it's certainly not "add 10% ethanol and reduce CO2 output by 10% !  Indeed, a quick Google suggests that burning Ethanol releases a third less CO2 than burning petrol - but it also produces a third less energy.  If correct,  adding ethanol to petrol is almost CO2 neutral.

There are of course other advantages to using ethanol in fuel.  It's said to produce a 'cleaner burn' hence reducing NOx emissions and of course much ethanol is 'bio-ethanol' - i.e. produced from renewable feedstocks but OTOH ethanol can also be produced from crude oil.

The headline is therefore a bit of sloppy reporting !  Adding BIOethanol is 'A Good Thing' but headline missed the "bio" and concentrated on CO2 reduction which is probably minimal.

Martyn1981

EricMears said:

Martyn1981 said:

A bit more ethanol proposed for UK petrol.

E10 petrol: UK to standardise higher ethanol blend

The government is set to introduce E10 fuel containing 10% ethanol as a new form of “cleaner” petrol aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

The headline is therefore a bit of sloppy reporting !  Adding BIOethanol is 'A Good Thing' but headline missed the "bio" and concentrated on CO2 reduction which is probably minimal.

Headline looks perfectly correct to me.

EricMears

Martyn1981 said:

EricMears said:

Martyn1981 said:

A bit more ethanol proposed for UK petrol.

E10 petrol: UK to standardise higher ethanol blend

The government is set to introduce E10 fuel containing 10% ethanol as a new form of “cleaner” petrol aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

The headline is therefore a bit of sloppy reporting !  Adding BIOethanol is 'A Good Thing' but headline missed the "bio" and concentrated on CO2 reduction which is probably minimal.

Headline looks perfectly correct to me.

If you want to be pedantic,  I'm referring to the subheading of "Government says ‘cleaner’ fuel will help cut carbon dioxide emissions before electric cars become the norm".  

I'm really not sure that the undoubted benefits will include cutting carbon dioxide emissions !

zeupater

EricMears said:

Martyn1981 said:

EricMears said:

Martyn1981 said:

A bit more ethanol proposed for UK petrol.

E10 petrol: UK to standardise higher ethanol blend

The government is set to introduce E10 fuel containing 10% ethanol as a new form of “cleaner” petrol aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

The headline is therefore a bit of sloppy reporting !  Adding BIOethanol is 'A Good Thing' but headline missed the "bio" and concentrated on CO2 reduction which is probably minimal.

Headline looks perfectly correct to me.

If you want to be pedantic,  I'm referring to the subheading of "Government says ‘cleaner’ fuel will help cut carbon dioxide emissions before electric cars become the norm".  

I'm really not sure that the undoubted benefits will include cutting carbon dioxide emissions !

Hi

All it'll really do is move CO2 emissions from long cycle (fossil source) to short cycle (biomass source) so the benefit would be term related ... doesn't reduce CO2 as such, just makes the issue more manageable, similar to burning biomass vs coal etc!!

HTH - Z

EricMears

zeupater said:

Hi

All it'll really do is move CO2 emissions from long cycle (fossil source) to short cycle (biomass source) so the benefit would be term related ... doesn't reduce CO2 as such, just makes the issue more manageable, similar to burning biomass vs coal etc!!

HTH - Z

Quite so.  Except of course not all Ethanol is bioethanol !  Some is a by-product of crude oil refining.

Martyn1981

EricMears said:

Martyn1981 said:

EricMears said:

Martyn1981 said:

A bit more ethanol proposed for UK petrol.

E10 petrol: UK to standardise higher ethanol blend

The government is set to introduce E10 fuel containing 10% ethanol as a new form of “cleaner” petrol aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions.

The headline is therefore a bit of sloppy reporting !  Adding BIOethanol is 'A Good Thing' but headline missed the "bio" and concentrated on CO2 reduction which is probably minimal.

Headline looks perfectly correct to me.

If you want to be pedantic,  I'm referring to the subheading of "Government says ‘cleaner’ fuel will help cut carbon dioxide emissions before electric cars become the norm".  

I'm really not sure that the undoubted benefits will include cutting carbon dioxide emissions !

I think you are looking for negatives, based on assumptions, based on one short article. If it helps, this article was posted on the BEV thread :

Greener petrol at UK pumps to target emissions

Current petrol grades in the UK - known as E5 - contain up to 5% bioethanol.
E10 would see this percentage increased up to 10% - a proportion that would bring the UK in line with countries such as Belgium, Finland, France and Germany.

Some countries have E85, but I think the vehicle has to be built (or adapted) to use this as specialised fuel lines are needed. So

"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

As Z points out, this would be short term carbon emissions, which aren't a concern, like you eating food and emitting CO2 (when exhaling), it's all part of the natural cycle and natural CO2 atmospheric balance.

It's the issue of releasing long term (and long buried) FF CO2 that is driving AGW. As part of the decarbonisation, If we can reduce some fuel CO2 emissions to short term cycle fuels, then that's fine.

Martyn1981

More news, dare I say fantastic news, on the UK re-opening up the CfD mechanism to on-shore wind (and PV and other 'established technologies'):

UPDATE: UK confirms onshore wind CfD return

Boris Johnson's UK government has confirmed that onshore wind will be eligible to compete in the next Contracts for Difference round, which is to take place in 2021.

UK Energy Department BEIS said readmitting the technology into the auction, the first time since 2015, is a step in the direction of quadrupling renewable energy generation in the UK and hitting its net zero targets.

BEIS Secretary Alok Sharma said: “Ending our contribution to climate change means making the UK a world leader in renewable energy.

“We are determined to do that in a way that works for everyone, listening to local communities and giving them an effective voice in decisions that affect them.”

Solar, floating wind and energy storage will also be able to participate in the scheme, BEIS confirmed. Consultation documents on the proposals are available here.

Contracts for Difference for Low Carbon Electricity Generation

Pot 1 ‘established’ technologies CfDs are allocated in a competitive auction process, in which different technologies compete against each other within groups or ‘pots’. The technologies in Pot 1 are ‘established’. Among these, some are expected to be the lowest cost renewable technologies and we therefore expect them to play an important role in supporting the government’s objective of decarbonising at lowest cost to meet net zero as part of a diverse energy mix.

We are aware of a number of projects (mainly solar PV and onshore wind) that have deployed or are planning to deploy on a merchant basis since the last Pot 1 auction was held. Unsubsidised renewables are now also eligible to participate in the capacity market. We are pleased to see the costs of these technologies continue to fall, enabling some deployment without subsidy. However, there is a risk that if we were to rely on merchant deployment of these technologies alone at this point in time, we may not see the rate and scale of new projects needed in the near-term to support decarbonisation of the power sector and meet the net zero commitment at low cost.

We expect that some of these technologies have the lowest costs and would be able to secure CfDs at strike prices below the average expected wholesale price for electricity, and so over the course of a contract may pay back as much, or more, than they receive in CfD top-up payments (based on current market forecasts). Therefore, running an allocation round in 2021 which includes established technologies will help deliver a diverse generation mix at low cost, as well as give a clearer signal of the costs of these technologies, several years on from the previous auction.

In light of this the fourth CfD allocation round (AR4), scheduled for 2021, will therefore include auctions for both established (‘Pot 1’) and less-established (‘Pot 2’) technologies.