Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Big potential for Aus and the environment:

Plan that tackles recession and climate change could create 76,000 Australian jobs, report says

Nearly 80,000 jobs could be quickly created through a stimulus plan that aims to rebuild the Australian economy from recession while tackling the climate crisis, an analysis commissioned by the Climate Council says.
The report by the consultants AlphaBeta says 76,000 positions could be created over three years through nearly $22bn of combined public and private investment. It focuses on 12 areas including creating large-scale renewable energy projects, restoring degraded ecosystems, better dealing with organic waste, retrofitting inefficient public buildings and expanding electric vehicle networks.

Martyn1981

Bit of wave power news:

Scots grant £1.4m to reduce wave power costs

Wave Energy Scotland (WES) has awarded a total of just under £1,400,000 to four projects aimed at bringing down the cost of wave power.

The projects will develop quick connection systems to improve the installation efficiency and infrastructure of wave power devices. 

Once completed, they should reduce the duration, cost and risk of offshore operation for wave energy convertors by supporting projects to design and develop quick connection and disconnection systems between devices and moorings and/or electrical systems.

Martyn1981

Still splashing around in the Wave news, here is some Welsh news as massive components for a sea bed wave power device are moved through the streets:

[Note, perhaps start by just scrolling down on this page for a quick animation of how the membrane idea works.]

Wales On Route to a Clean Marine Energy Future

Early risers saw a sight to behold in Pembroke Dock at 6am on Sunday 12th July as Bombora’s bright yellow mWave™ wave energy converter ‘cell module’ structure travelled the 2 mile journey from the fabrication workshop of Altrad Services to the assembly workshop at Mainstay Marine Solutions. Onlookers could not be blamed for wondering what the giant yellow steel structure was. The first of its kind, full-scale ‘cell module’ is part of an innovative new marine energy solution being built and tested in Wales. The cell module transported on Sunday is the first of four 15-meter-long, structures that form Bombora’s 75-meter-long, subsea mWave. The cell module is a key component part of Bombora’s 1.5MW mWave Pembrokeshire Demonstration Project, which will be installed off the coast of Pembrokeshire in the first half of 2021.

Martyn1981

So is it worth sharing good news and pushing back against science deniers and the FF industry? I think so, after all, if 'they' were winning then they wouldn't be spending ~$9bn pa on disinformation.

How Big Is The Anti-Cleantech Propaganda Industry?

Martyn1981

Interesting argument from the CBI suggesting installing new gas boilers in existing housing (not just new housing) be banned by 2025. It mentions hydrogen ready boilers, and renewable hydrogen. I wonder if Ecotricity's idea to produce 97% of future domestic methane (based on a reduction in demand through heat pumps and insulation) from grass mills is viable, as that would/might help with the problem. 

Ban new gas boilers in UK from 2025 or risk missing net zero target, says CBI

The installation of new gas boilers must be banned from 2025 or the UK’s net-zero climate target will be “doomed”, according to a high-level commission convened by the CBI.

The ban would apply to conventional gas boilers, but hybrid or hydrogen-ready boilers would be allowed under the business organisation’s recommendations, which were developed in collaboration with energy industry leaders.

The commission also said that by 2035, no boilers burning any fossil gas should be installed into homes, with technologies including heat pumps and district heating being used instead.

Grants or loans should be given to help people and businesses make the switch, it said, which when combined with energy efficiency measures, would lower household energy bills.

Martyn1981

So it seems the US nuclear industry has been learning from the FF industry - if you have a product that no longer makes any financial sense, then just pay off a politician or five!

Bribery! Corruption! Renewable Energy! (Whelp, 2 Of 3 Ain’t Bad)

The wide world of energy policy suddenly got a little more interesting yesterday, when FBI agents swooped into the state of Ohio to arrest House Speaker Larry Householder and four others on $60 million worth of federal racketeering charges, all on account of a $1 billion nuclear bailout bill under the title HB6. With that kind of firepower behind nuclear energy, it’s little wonder that the state’s renewable energy sector has been drifting in the doldrums. The big question is, what’s next?

Bribery! Corruption! $1 Billion Bailout!

According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, Ohio’s two nuclear power plants account for 87% of the state’s zero emission electricity.

That’s not exactly something to write home about. Considering that the cost of renewable energy is continuing to drop with no end in sight, this would be a bad time to double down on expensive nuclear energy.

Nevertheless, Ohio Citizen Action estimates that the HB6 nuclear bailout will sock ratepayers with $200 million in increased costs.

HB6 was signed into law last year, saddling Ohio ratepayers with two aging nuclear power plants and two old coal power plants, to boot.

“Governor Mike DeWine signed House Bill 6 (HB 6) into law on July 23, 2019, approving bailouts for the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants, which are owned by FirstEnergy’s former subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), and were previously scheduled to close in 2020 and 2021, respectively, after FES announced its bankruptcy,” explains Ohio Citizen Action. “The final version of the bill extends the bailout to two old and dirty coal plants—Kyger Creek in southern Ohio and Clifty Creek in Indiana.”

Adding insult to injury, HB6 also rolled back Ohio’s renewable energy and energy efficiency standards.
Ouch!

Martyn1981

Good news, the highest temp rises for the climate crisis are a bit less likely. Bad news, the lowest temp rises have been ruled out.

Global heating: best and worst case scenarios less likely than thought

Doomsayers and hopemongers alike may need to revise their climate predictions after a study that almost rules out the most optimistic forecasts for global heating while downplaying the likelihood of worst-case scenarios.

The international team of scientists involved in the research say they have narrowed the range of probable climate outcomes, which reduces the uncertainty that has long plagued public debate about this field.

Their increased confidence about the sensitivity of the climate should ease the job of policymakers and diminish the scope for scepticism but it is far from reassuring for the future of the planet.

“The main message is that unfortunately we can’t expect that luck will save us from climate change,” Reto Knutti, professor of climate physics at ETH Zurich’s Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science.

“The good thing is that we’ve somewhat narrowed the range of future long-term warming, the bad thing is that we can no longer hope or claim that the problem will just magically go away.”

Until now, the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change has estimated a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide from its pre-industrial level of about 280 parts per million has a 66% chance of heating the planet by between 1.5C to 4.5C. In May, atmospheric CO2 reached 417ppm, and is rising by about 2.5ppm per year.

Optimists could seize on the lower number to say no action was necessary. Pessimists could point to the higher figure to warn apocalypse was nigh.

The study, published in Reviews of Geophysics, shrinks that 66%-likely range of climate sensitivity to between 2.6C and 3.9C, or slightly wider if more uncertainties are included. This smaller band is still dangerously high, which means there is no room for complacency, but the most dire predictions are now considered less probable.

This confluence of sources has allowed scientists to estimate with a 90% level of probability that climate sensitivity is between 2.3C and 4.7C. The most likely level of climate sensitivity has nudged slightly above 3C. Hausfather says a figure below 2C is extremely unlikely. Above 5C remains possible, though the study lowers that likelihood to 10%.

Martyn1981

Having found our RE niche, it looks like the UK could use it to help with the economic recovery.

Offshore wind 'critical' to UK Covid-19 recovery

The UK expects the offshore wind sector to play a critical role in the country's economic recovery post Covid-19, according to BEIS director of clean power strategy and deployment Declan Burke.

Burke, who was speaking at RenewableUK’s Virtual Festival dedicated to Global Offshore Wind, said there had been good and open dialogue with industry in recent months as the pandemic created unexpected challenges in construction and operations.

“Now as we transition to economic recovery i hope that that dialogue will turn to deployment and some of the industrial benefits we can bring to the UK,” he said.

Martyn1981

Couple of repeat / update articles.

More on the UK's changes to planning laws and large scale, long duration storage:

This Simple Rule Change Unleashes Energy Storage Rager Upon UK For Green COVID-19 Recovery

If all goes according to plan, the rule change will enable the UK to build more than 100 bulk, long duration energy storage systems in short order, tripling the number currently operating in England and Wales.

High capacity and long duration are essential for the sparkling green grid of the future, and that means new technologies must be shepherded on through. Today’s lithium-ion batteries perform well enough, but they only discharge for a few hours. Meanwhile, grid planners are asking for a full day, or even multiple days, in order to introduce more wind and solar.

Long duration battery technology already exists, but speeding up construction is the key factor considering the urgent need for swift action on climate change and the need to get people back to work on the heels of the COVID-19 outbreak.
In order to get that done, the UK government is lifting restrictions on large-scale batteries of more than 50 megawatts in England and 350 megawatts in Wales.

And more on the AGW science update, and how the lowest end and Paris Accord best hope of +1.5C may now be impossible:

The Best Case Climate Warming Scenario Is So Not Happening

Four years in the making, the latest climate report prepared on behalf of the World Climate Research Program looks closely at three climate models and concluded the best case 1.5° C path is extremely unlikely to happen. In fact, the report claims there is a 66% chance the planet will warm over the next 5 decades between 2.6 to 3.9 degrees Celsius. If the warming reaches the midpoint of this new range, it would be extremely damaging, said Kate Marvel, a physicist at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies and Columbia University. If that happens, it will be the equivalent of a “five-alarm fire” for the planet, she warns.

If no slackening in the pace of carbon emissions takes place, there is a 6 to 18% chance that average global temperatures will increase by more than 4.5° C, in which case humanity’s goose will be well and truly cooked, both literally and figuratively. The research says there is a very small chance that global temperatures could increase by more than 5° C.

Martyn1981

No idea if this will change anything, but nice to know that green spending is at least being taken seriously / reviewed:

MPs to check if the government's green plans are fit for purpose

MPs plan to scrutinise the government’s green economic plans and industrial strategy to test whether they are still fit for purpose in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

The government will face two separate inquiries into its plans, by the Treasury and business department parliamentary select committees, to question whether its existing policies will help or hinder sustainable post-pandemic economic growth.

The government’s green spending plans have already come underattack by green groups which have pointed out that the proposed £3bn to spur a green economic recovery falls well short of Germany’s £36bn investment, and French government’s £13bn plans.

Mel Stride, the Conservative chair of the Treasury committee, said “clearly much has changed” in the economy since the committee began its investigation, “so now is the time to ask whether the government can seize the opportunity presented by the crisis to further green the economy to achieve net zero by 2050”.

“Whether the level of Treasury support should depend on how much companies pollute, or if it should directly fund green infrastructure, are some of the issues that we would like evidence on,” Stride said.