Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

This article is on Tesla's record quarter which to put it bluntly 'smashed it', but last night a lot of the vlogger revues I watched got incredibly excited about the fact that solar and storage had both popped, and as we know, higher RE penetration will require more storage. So this article covers the storage side which could, and almost certainly will, grow massively now as costs fall and demand rises, especially for their newer and massive megapacks.

Tesla Breaks Another Record — This Time For Energy Storage Installations

Tesla has broken yet another record. This time it’s for energy storage installations. Tesla’s storage business deployed 750 MWh in Q3. Tesla noted in its Q3 earnings update that the production of its Megapack continued to ramp up at Gigafactory Nevada. Production volumes more than doubled in Q3 2020 compared to Q3 2019.

ASavvyBuyer

Scotland-based Orbital Marine Power is moving forward with the manufacturing process of its first O2 floating tidal turbine device rated at 2MW.

The O2 builds on the 2MW SR2000 turbine which generated over 3GWh in its first year of testing at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney, Scotland.

Martyn1981

It all makes sense, we just need somebody in the White House who is sensible!

Aggressive push to 100% renewable energy could save Americans billions – study

An aggressive push towards 100% renewable energy would save Americans as much as $321bn in energy costs, while also slashing planet-heating emissions, according to a new report.

Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, has vowed to eliminate greenhouse gases from the US power grid within 15 years and essentially zero out emissions by 2050, a plan assailed by Donald Trump as costly and detrimental to the American economy.

But a new analysis by Rewiring America, an energy policy organization, finds that households would benefit financially from a complete switch to clean energy sources such as solar and wind.

Martyn1981

RE + storage, it's happening and in lots of places. I assume the numbers will just keep getting bigger and bigger now, great fun to follow as they pop up like weeds.

TransAlta Uses Tesla Megapacks To Power WindCharger

The lithium-ion energy storage project has a nameplate power capacity of 10MW and a total energy storage capacity of 20MWh. This technology can thus be fully charged in about two hours (10 MWh per hour), and it will be getting its electricity from the company’s Summerview II Wind Farm, a 66 MW wind farm.

This technology shows strong commercial potential and this particular installation has enough capacity to power all the homes in nearby Pincher Creek for approximately 90 minutes on only one charge.”

Back in August, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (KAHRAMAA) chose Tesla for its first energy storage installation in the State of Qatar. The Tesla Megapack installation (1 MW/4 MWh) is planned to supply power at peak consumption and also provide power during off-peak periods. You can read more about that here.

Earlier this month, Teslarati reported that NGEN, a Slovenian energy company, added Tesla Megapacks to its current collection of Powerpacks. The Megapack, (15 MW/30 MWh) is located in the town of Kidričevo. Teslarati noted that back in 2019, Slovenia became the first country in the Balkin Peninsula to install a grid-scale battery storage unit — consisting of 126 Tesla Powerpacks that are capable of 22.2 MWh energy storage capacity in total. 

Coastalwatch

Good news for workers in the States at a time when Renewables featured on the Presidential debate fo rthe first time in history. Probably not sufficient incentive to encourage the average Redneck to vote along those lines but useful information toshare in the public domain all the same!

Clean energy jobs pay more

Clean energy jobs paid 25% more than the national median in 2019, according to a new report, released by BW Research Partnership for Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2), the American Council on Renewable Energy, and the Clean Energy Leadership Institute.

According to the report, workers in renewable energy, energy efficiency, grid modernization and storage, clean fuels and clean vehicles earned a median hourly wage of $23.89 in 2019 compared with the national median wage of $19.14. The median hourly income in the solar industry was actually higher than the clean energy average, coming in at $24.48/hour, 31% higher than the national median.

It’s not just higher wages that clean energy industries have to offer, as the report also finds that the unionization rate across all clean energy occupations came in at 9%, which is slightly higher than the national private-sector average of 6%. This is not true of solar, however, with an average unionization rate of 4%, which is lower than the national private-sector average.

Additionally, clean energy jobs are more likely to come with health care and retirement benefits than the rest of the private sector.

“These jobs pay better, come with better benefits – and they’re also helping fight climate change and the growing economic costs that come with it,” said Bob Keefe, executive director at E2. “We need policies that ensure these good-paying jobs continue to grow and are available to every American in every state.”

The comparison would not be complete without looking at how renewable generation jobs compare to jobs in fossil fuels. The report found that jobs in wind and solar combined for a $24.85 median hourly wage, while jobs in coal, natural gas and petroleum fuels registered at $24.37 an hour.

While that gap might not be as significant as some may hope, a key consideration is that clean energy industries employed about three times more workers than fossil fuels did in 2019 and that clean energy jobs are available in every state, regardless of geology or geography.

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2020/10/22/clean-energy-jobs-pay-more/?utm_source=pv+magazine+USA&utm_campaign=31599744b8-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_80e0d17bb8-31599744b8-159341337

Martyn1981

Exxon still doing what Exxon does best.

ExxonMobil Claims It’s Shifting On Climate, But Still Funding Climate Science Deniers

After decades of public denial, ExxonMobil now acknowledges that “the risk of climate change is real” and says it is “committed to being part of the solution,” at least according to the company’s website and statements. To that end, the largest investor-owned oil company in the world claims it supports a federal carbon tax and the Paris climate agreement.

But the company’s recently released grantmaking report shows that it has not ended its two-decade-long campaign to stymie government efforts to address climate change. By ExxonMobil’s own accounting, it gave $690,000 to eight climate science denier groups in 2019, a 10 percent drop from 2018. In addition, it continued to fund federal lawmakers who oppose a carbon tax, despite its supposed longtime support for the idea. Forty percent of the nearly $1 million it has contributed so far to congressional incumbent campaigns during the 2019-20 election cycle has gone to 115 of the 150 climate science deniers still in office.

What does ExxonMobil get for its money? Among other things, the business lobby goes to bat for it in court by filing lawsuits against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and in the court of public opinion by funding misleading climate-related reports. A prime example is the Chamber’s widely debunked 2017 report that grossly exaggerated the cost to the US economy of complying with the Paris climate agreement. President Donald Trump cited that report as his primary rationale for ignoring the US commitment to the accord, and he has vowed to officially pull the United States out in early November.

Martyn1981

A couple of US states and Finland seem particularly keen on bio-energy development from tree cellulose, which makes sense I suppose if you have quite a lot of trees.

Oil-Killing Bioeconomy Plan Catches Trump Administration Napping

The US oil and gas industry boomed under the Obama administration, and now it’s going bust thanks in part to the Trump* administration’s failure to keep the clean power revolution in check. For the latest twist in that sorry saga, check out the new bioeconomy partnership being forged as we speak between Maine, Michigan, and Finland — to say nothing of a new carbon negative vision for the entire US Department of Defense.

The Bioeconomy Of The Future: Why Not Finland?

Yes, Finland. The Maine-Michigan-Finland bioeconomy axis makes sense when you consider their shared interest in forest-based industries, and in that regard Finland could teach the two US states a thing or two.

According to Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Finland leads the world in wood cellulose-based fibers and the bio-based circular economy as a whole, with an educational system that supports top innovators.

“In recent years, Finland has produced world leaders in every aspect of sustainability: from sustainable steel to recyclable fabrics to micro-plastic-free solutions. These innovators are referred to as “bioneers” in the sustainability field,” the Ministry enthuses, “Everything derived from oil, for example, can also be fashioned from wood.”

Yikes!

Martyn1981

I've only skimmed, gotta run, but cork as a cladding material, inside and out, even 13 inches of it, and no finishing required. Hmmmmm sounds extremely interesting.

The house that cork built: is this the ultimate eco-friendly material?

The centrepiece of the redesign is a garden-facing extension, clad in cork inside and out, built on to a kitchen that replaced a dining room. “The kitchen dated back to the 1960s, so there was no guilt about tearing it out,” says Margolies. “We never in a million years imagined using cork,” says Barber, a graphic designer, who was surprised when architect Nimi Attanayake suggested this wildcard material, instead of brick. He initially worried that cork might leak until Attanayake reminded him that it’s used to seal wine bottles. The use of cork both internally and externally is “incredibly experimental”, says Attanayake; but while there aren’t many examples of this in the UK, it’s more widespread in Europe.

It’s an affordable option because it doesn’t need cladding externally or plastering internally, and installation is quick. “Cork has so many benefits – it’s waterproof, lightweight, a good insulator, breathable and sound-absorbing,” Attanayake says. “Over time, it weathers to a silvery-grey as it gets bleached by the sun,” Barber notes. “It’s so unprocessed, it’s got a beautiful pattern to it. It feels lovely and even has a nice, smoky smell.”

But it was the eco credentials that really did it for Barber and Margolies. Harvested from the bark of cork oak trees often grown in Portugal, it’s natural, chemical-free, carbon-neutral and cheap to produce. Cork trees are fast-growing and harvested only once every nine years throughout their 200-year lifetime. As a material, cork lasts decades, is biodegradable and easy to replace if necessary.

ASavvyBuyer

Found a new site that displays the UK energy mix, that I don't think has been posted here before.

https://www.energydashboard.co.uk/live 

The figures include estimated embedded generation, which I don't think all the other sites include.

Good to see the amount of current renewables generating;

ASavvyBuyer

Martyn1981 said:

I've only skimmed, gotta run, but cork as a cladding material, inside and out, even 13 inches of it, and no finishing required. Hmmmmm sounds extremely interesting.

The house that cork built: is this the ultimate eco-friendly material?

Now we know what to do with all the wine bottle corks. Rather than throw them away, use them to help insulate.

Good excuse for drinking more wine