Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Martyn1981 said:

Another attempt to make Big Oil pay up for the deceptive practices they used to downplay (or deny) AGW. I've no idea if (or when) one of these cases will succeed, it took a lot of attempts and many years to win against Big Tobacco. Perhaps the lesson learned from that, that the industry will be broken, actually works against these cases:

Minnesota Sues ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, & American Petroleum Institute

And another one, this time D.C. is suing ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, and Chevron.
But what struck me, was just how accurate the CO2 ppm predictions of the oil industry was, they really knew what they were doing, both in calculating the risk, and then in denying the risk. I think this makes it much worse as they were knowingly causing harm the whole time.

These violations are both misrepresentations and omissions of information that influence DC consumers’ decisions when it comes to buying products made with fossil fuels. The suit also cites a 1968 report paid for by the American Petroleum Institute (API) that projected atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations would rise from 280 to 370 parts per million (ppm) by 2000 as proof that the oil companies knew about the deadly effects of climate change — they knew and actively sought to lie and manipulate for more profits anyways.

In 1982, scientists from ExxonMobil also predicted that the atmospheric carbon dioxide would reach nearly 415 ppm by 2019 — and this proved true on May 11, 2019, when they actually surpassed 415 ppm. This was the Earth’s highest level in 3 million years. The suit points out that the oil corporations knew that these increases in greenhouse gas concentrations would increase the global temperatures and wreak havoc on the planet. They knew it would cause long-lasting changes in all parts of the climate system and result in severe and irreversible impacts for all living beings on this planet.

D.C. Attorney General Is Suing Oil & Gas Companies For Their Misinformation Campaigns

The lawsuit was filed in the D.C. Superior Court. It alleges that these four companies knew about the adverse environmental effects of their products since the 1950s. The suit seeks a court order for the companies to pay civil penalties, provide financial relief for consumers in the District, and to stop their deceptive campaigns.

In a statement, Racine said:
“For decades, these oil and gas companies spent millions to mislead consumers and discredit climate science in pursuit of profits. The defendants violated the District’s consumer protection law by concealing the fact that using fossil fuels threatens the health of District residents and the environment. OAG filed this suit to end these disinformation campaigns and to hold these companies accountable for their deceptive practices.”

Martyn1981

Extracts from this week's Carbon Commentary Newsletter:

1, Emissions reduction in aluminium manufacture. Aluminium is made by passing electricity through bauxite. If the electricity is from renewable sources, no emissions arise from the energy use. But the production process uses electrodes that contain carbon. During smelting, these electrodes dissolve, emitting about 2 tonnes of CO2 for each tonne of aluminium produced, amounting to about 120 million tonnes a year from this source alone (about 0.3% of world CO2). The Elysis project in Canada, backed by Apple, is attempting to replace carbon electrodes with metal equivalents and expects commercial production to start in 2024. Iceland is another aluminium refining centre and production is responsible for one third of national emissions. Researchers there announced an alternative electrode that could completely decarbonise production, reducing Iceland’s total emissions by one third if used in all the country’s smelters. The new approach will take several years to commercialise (as will the Elysis technology) but the prospects look good for emissions reduction for this important global industry. (Thanks to Sam Penrose, Daniel McQuillen).
 
2, Micro data centres for heat. A Swiss city utility has installed a data centre in the basement of a small apartment building in Basel. The heat given off by the server is used to provide heat and hot water to residents. 33 megawatt hours a year of otherwise wasted energy comes from a server of a less than one cubic metre. This heat will replace about 75% of the gas consumption of the building, says the utility IWB. According to the International Energy Agency, data centres use about 1% of world electricity, or about 200 Terawatt hours. Other estimates are higher. Although using small data centres will not create a huge impact on overall heat requirements, this technology will help reduce costs in areas of high gas prices. (Thanks to Elmar Grosse Ruse).

3, Denmark. An impressive basket of measures passed almost unanimously through the Danish Parliament. The package included funding for the two 'energy islands' mentioned in an earlier newsletter. These islands will collect and transmit the output from 5 GW or more of new offshore wind farms in the North Sea and the Baltic. In addition, the government will invest in power-to-gas infrastructure and move the country completely away from oil and gas for domestic heating. Discussion of the very high carbon tax proposed by the government's climate advisers - about €250 a tonne - seems to have been postponed. In addition to the domestic measures, the Netherlands and Denmark agreed a deal to fund electrolysers The €100m payment to Denmark for hydrogen production capacity arises because the Netherlands would otherwise not meet is EU obligations for emissions reduction. Under the rules of the scheme one country can purchase CO2 cuts from another EU member state.

6, Hydrogen supply chain in Asia. A small step but with considerable significance. A Japanese power plant burnt hydrogen shipped from Brunei. The backers call it the world’s ‘first successful hydrogen supply chain’. The amounts are unimportant – only about 200 tonnes of hydrogen a year – but the intention is to ramp up the chain to handle 350,000 tonnes by 2030 to power a 1 GW power station. One of the interesting features of this project is the use of Chiyoda’s technology for transporting the hydrogen as an organic hydride (methylcyclohexane). This is safe and doesn’t require high pressure or low temperatures. I think there is a reasonable chance that this will become the standard way of shipping hydrogen. Chiyoda claims that its approach reduces the risks of storing and transporting hydrogen to the same level as other hydrocarbons such as petrol/gasoline. In another move to create a hydrogen supply chain, the German utility RWE announced it would explore the partial conversion of the country’s proposed first LNG import terminal to receive hydrogen as well as gas. Germany knows it will need to import large quantities of hydrogen to meet the country’s need.
 
7, Policymaking. UK government advisers, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) published an annual report, detailing what needs to happen to get the country onto a net zero trajectory. As might be expected, hydrogen takes a far bigger role than in all past submissions, with three times the number of mentions of last year. Nuclear power has almost disappeared from view for the first time and there is no reference to synthetic fuels anywhere in the 200 page report. But the most striking omission is any discussion of policies, debates, technologies or other actions being taken in other countries that might help set the right strategy for the UK. In its 200 pages there are a couple of comments on steps taken in France and Germany over the last few months in response to the virus but otherwise nothing. The insularity of policymakers in the UK continues to disappoint.
 
8, Hydrogen power station. Scottish utility SSE said it wanted to build a new 900 MW thermal power station on the east coast of England but committed to either use hydrogen as the fuel or to employ carbon capture if the plant uses natural gas. (As far as I could see, SSE makes no promise to use ‘green’ hydrogen from electrolysis should the plant go ahead). The location is important, being close to the proposed cluster of hydrogen generation and carbon capture in north-eastern England. Siemens, a possible supplier of turbines, has committed to being able to provide gas turbines that work on 100% hydrogen by 2030. 
 
9, Soil carbon. Australian start-up Soil Carbon raised $7m from high profile investors to move its carbon capture technology to commercial development. Soil Carbon coats seeds in a solution of microbial fungi. These fungi capture and use CO2 in the soil that would otherwise have otherwise have drifted back into the atmosphere. Early trials have suggested that the approach can add between 7 and 17% to the carbon stored in the soil, meaning that the use of fungi could result in gigatonnes per year of highly cost effective biological storage of CO2. In addition, the fungi could help improve soil fertility and drought resistance. The claimed cost of storage, at around $20 a tonne, may make this approach one of the cheapest yet. 
 
10, Synthetic fuels. I wrote an article for Business Green arguing that financial support for the aviation industry should be dependent on a commitment to decarbonisation, principally through the development of synthetic fuels similar to those proposed by Norsk e-Fuel, covered in previous newsletters. At any one moment, there are more UK citizen travelling on international flights than from any other country. We have an obvious responsibility to lead this new industry. However the CCC report commented on in note 7 makes absolutely no mention of the urgent need to develop the technology for replacements for liquid fossil fuels. In addition, the international body charged with reducing aviation emissions now appears to be likely to reduce the obligations on airlines in the wake of the virus. So the case for government action in the UK is strong. (Thanks to Ned Molloy for all the generous help on this article).   

Martyn1981

Shell 'copying' BP, with a write down on the value of reserves.

Shell to cut £18bn from value of assets amid coronavirus crisis

Shell has warned it will slash up to $22bn (£18bn) from the value of its oil and gas assets as it counts the cost of falling energy prices during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In a market update on Tuesday, the oil company said it was likely to take a post-tax impairment charge of between $15bn and $22bn on global assets spanning Australia, Brazil and North America.

“Given the impact of Covid-19 and the ongoing challenging commodity price environment, Shell continues to adapt to ensure the business remains resilient,” the company said. “In light of this, Shell is announcing today a revised long-term commodity prices and margin outlook, which is expected to result in non-cash impairments in the second quarter results.”

It comes just weeks after rival BP announced it would slash the value of its own assets by $17.5bn (£14bn), its largest writedown in a decade, after cutting its own 30-year energy price forecasts by a third.

Martyn1981

Oh well, the hope of a green recovery was nice while it lasted. Appears Mr Cummings was not keen on improving UK home efficiency.

Environmental experts dismayed by details of Johnson's 'New Deal'

Boris Johnson is to set out a “new deal” for jobs and infrastructure on Tuesday, painting himself as a “Rooseveltian” prime minister lifting Britain out of the biggest recession in centuries, and a pledge to use the coronavirus crisis to tackle unresolved challenges such as health, education and regional inequalities.

“To that end, we will build build build,” he is expected to say. “Build back better, build back greener, build back faster, and to do that at the pace that this moment requires.

However, his promise to “build back greener” was greeted with dismay by environmental experts, who were concerned that the climate crisis receives scant attention in what the government is revealing so far of its plans.

Missing from the prime minister’s speech were much-trailed plans to boost energy efficiency through a national programme of home insulation, which was a £9.2bn Conservative manifesto pledge. The UK has the most inefficient housing stock in Europe, and renovating draughty homes would reduce people’s energy bills, improve living conditions, and cut carbon emissions. However, a report in the Financial Times suggested Dominic Cummings was against the programme.

michaels

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53219331

Rental e-scooters to be allowed on the road from Saturday but not privately owned ones...que?

Time for a very interesting business model when it comes to selling e-scooters?  Could my wife buy one and rent it to me?

joefizz

michaels said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53219331

Rental e-scooters to be allowed on the road from Saturday but not privately owned ones...que?

Time for a very interesting business model when it comes to selling e-scooters?  Could my wife buy one and rent it to me?

I predict a roaring trade on ebay in lime, bird, etc stickers ;-)

Coastalwatch

Presumably some states in the US have more confidence in the ever decreasing costs of Solar, Wind and Storage than seems to exist here.

More utilities bypassing natural gas bridge and going straight to renewables

Utilities that are transitioning away from coal are starting to view the creation of a natural gas “bridge” to renewable energy as an unnecessary step. Last week utilities in Arizona, Colorado and Florida announced plans to close one or more of their coal plants and build renewables without adding any new gas-fired generation.

Separately, staff at the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission recommended a similar gas-free transition when assessing the future capacity needs of the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM).

Renewable energy economics have been challenging the competitiveness of coal for a while now, but these latest moves indicate a greater confidence that the switch from coal to renewables can be done cost effectively and reliably without the construction of new gas fired generation as an interim step.

“Up until recently, the easy option for utilities would have been to propose using gas to replace coal. But not any longer. Rising concerns about climate change and continuing reductions in wind, solar and battery storage costs coupled with improved performance have altered the playing field,” Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said.

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2020/07/01/more-utilities-bypassing-natural-gas-bridge-and-going-straight-to-renewables/?utm_source=pv+magazine+USA&utm_campaign=916c40a3cc-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_80e0d17bb8-916c40a3cc-159341337

Coastalwatch

Progress on this important subsea link continues in spite of Covid 19 and once complete will add further to the existing five subsea links between Europe and Ireland.

‘World’s longest’ subsea cable project worth £2bn passes halfway point

Construction of the ‘longest subsea power cable in the world’ has now passed the halfway point.

National Grid and the Norwegian system operator have joined forces to bring a subsea electricity cable project into life.

Named ‘North Sea Link’, the project will have a cable, which will connect the UK and Norwegian electricity grids.

When wind generation is high and electricity demand is low in the UK, North Sea Link will allow up to 1,400MW of power to flow from the UK, conserving water in Norway’s reservoirs.

If the demand is high in the UK and there is low wind generation, up to 1,400MW could flow from Norway, helping to secure electricity supplies.

By 2021, the two parallel 720 kilometres cables between Northumberland in the UK and Kvilldal, in Norway are expected to be completed, making North Sea Link the longest subsea power cable interconnector in the world.

Nigel Williams, Construction Director for National Grid North Sea link, said: “The engineering, which has taken place to lay high-voltage cables below the seabed is remarkable.

“The difficult terrain, the depth of the waters and all in amidst of operating during a pandemic has made it extremely challenging. Nevertheless, we have powered through and remained on track with our project timelines.”

Once North Sea Link is operational, the 1.4GW electricity interconnector will allow the UK to import enough clean energy to power up to 1.4 million homes.

https://www.energylivenews.com/2020/06/26/worlds-longest-subsea-cable-project-worth-2bn-passes-halfway-point/

Martyn1981

With connections to Norway, we are sorta getting closer to the Desertec idea of linking up the different RE resources of Europe and N. Africa, and the massive 'battery' potential of Norway's hydro.

There really is so much to be optimistic about.

Martyn1981

Some big wind news. In fact it's really big news, but I think I'm becoming a bit blaise about these schemes now, forgetting just how enormous they are. The UK will soon be known as the country full of wind.

UK gives go-ahead to giant windfarm project off Norfolk coast

The construction of two giant offshore windfarms is poised to go ahead off the Norfolk coast in what the renewable energy industry claims could provide a “huge boost” to the UK economy.

The business secretary, Alok Sharma, gave the green light on Wednesday evening to the Norfolk Vanguard project and said he was “minded to approve” the Hornsea 3 proposal later this year.

The 1.8GW Norfolk Vanguard windfarm will be more than 40 miles off the Bacton coast by the Swedish energy group Vattenfall. The 2.4GW Hornsea 3 windfarm, which is being proposed by the Danish company Orsted, would extend the Hornsea 1 and 2 projects further into the North Sea.

Together the two new projects would generate enough clean electricity to power almost 4m UK homes, as well as providing a boost to the economy, according to Renewable UK.