Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

This tickled me as I remember all the anti-PV posts 10yrs ago explaining how PV wasn't suitable for countries as far north as the UK. This region of Siberia is similar to southern UK.
[Further digression, but a golden oldie - Fox News explained in 2013 that PV works in Germany because they get better sunlight than the US.]

Hevel Group commissions 10-MW solar farm in Siberia

January 23 (Renewables Now) - Russia’s PV cell and module manufacturer Hevel Group on Wednesday said its 10-MW Chemal solar park in the Altai Republic, southern Siberia, is now operational, marking the completion of the company’s solar construction programme in the region.

The park uses heterojunction (HJT) modules.

The Altai Republic now has 120 MW in installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity, which generates 154 million kWh a year, meeting over 30% of the region’s power needs, the company said. 

Martyn1981

IF this contentious bill makes it, and IF the old saying proves true - 'As California goes, so goes the country', then yet more to be positive about .... eventually.

'No time to waste': California bill would ban fracking in state by 2027

A new bill introduced in the California state senate on Wednesday would ban all fracking near schools and homes by 1 January 2022 and in the entire state by 2027.

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technique used to extract huge amounts of oil and gas from shale rock deep underground. It involves injecting high-pressure mixtures of water, sand or gravel and chemicals into rock. Environmental groups say the chemicals threaten water supplies and public health.

The bill introduced by the senators Scott Wiener and Monique Limón would halt new fracking permits and the renewal of current ones on 1 January 2022, in addition to banning new oil and gas production within 2,500ft (762 meters) of any home, school, healthcare facility or long-term care institution, such as dormitories or prisons. It would outlaw all fracking in the state by 1 January 2027, along with three other oil extraction methods: acid well stimulation treatments, cyclic steaming and water and steam flooding.

Coastalwatch

Ignore the politics. It's just great seeing the US moving in the right direction.

Biden’s DOI revokes Trump-era attack on Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan

As part of a government-wide approach to fighting climate change, President Biden ordered the DOI in late January to help boost responsible renewable energy development on public lands. Citing that directive, the DOI recently advanced a 350 MW solar project proposed for the California desert.

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2021/02/18/bidens-doi-revokes-trump-era-attack-on-desert-renewable-energy-conservation-plan/

Martyn1981

John Kerry (US climate envoy) seems to be saying all the right things as the country rejoins the Paris Accord.
I'd be more confident if it wasn't for recent events in Texas where the grid fell over as the generation wasn't built to cope with extreme winter weather events with conventional generation shutting down - but the Republican politicians and Fox News blamed it all on windmills. So as the US gets hit by more frequent and more extreme weather events as a result of AGW, some blame it on the very measures necessary to combat AGW ...... makes your head spin!

US rejoins Paris climate accord with warning: this year’s talks are ‘last, best hope’

The US has marked its return to the Paris agreement by urging countries to do more to confront the climate crisis, with America’s climate envoy, John Kerry, warning that international talks this year are the “last, best hope” of avoiding catastrophic global heating.

On Friday, the US officially returned to the Paris climate accord, 107 days after it left at the behest of former president Donald Trump. Joe Biden moved to reverse this on his first day in office and Kerry conceded that the US is returning “with a lot of humility, for the agony of the last four years”.

“This is a significant day, a day that never had to happen,” Kerry said to Al Gore, the former US vice-president, in a conversation filmed on the eve of the re-entry. “It’s so sad that our previous president without any scientific basis or any legitimate economic rationale decided to pull America out. It hurt us and it hurt the world.”

Kerry said that coal use needs to be phased out far more quickly, coupled with a rapid escalation of electric vehicles and renewable energy, and that he hoped to “build some new coalitions and approach this in a new way”. The US climate envoy said he had reached out to the pro-fossil fuel leaderships in Brazil and Australia, which have “had some differences with us, we’ve not been able to get on the same page completely”.

“The climate crisis is a race against time, and the US is just reaching the starting line after years of inaction,” said Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “As the world’s largest historical polluter, the United States must take its fair share of robust climate action on both the domestic and global stage.”

[My bold, but what a perfect sentence. M.]

Martyn1981

This is kinda ironic, but an article on the additional PV and wind planned for Texas over the next 3yrs, and a mention of storage capacity expansion too. Both of these would have helped Texas with the recent power cuts (if built with appropriate cold weather protection, rather than penny pinching).
For context +35GW of capacity would be an increase of over 100% in wind and PV, and roughly +15% in annual leccy generation.

Texas To Add 35 Gigawatts Of Wind & Solar In Next 3 Years — Boosting Grid Resilience

Clearly, the news story of the week — well beyond CleanTechnica — has been Texas and some neighboring regions freezing over and losing electricity. The vast majority of the power plants that went offline were thermal power plants (mostly natural gas). They were not equipped enough for the cold. A number of wind turbines were also down because no one had bought the “cold-weather package.” (Note that there’s an enormous number of wind turbines in cold, snowy, icy climates that do just fine. The Texas problem was just a Texas problem of poor planning and cutting costs.)

In fact, even while some wind turbines were down, other wind turbines were producing more than expected, helping with the crisis. One of the great things about renewables is that they are widely distributed, decentralized, reliable, and resilient. The more renewables are on a grid, in general, the more reliable and resilient the grid becomes.

With that in mind, the following news brings a bit of light in a dark week: Texas is expected to add another 35 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power capacity in the coming few years, from 2021–2023. That’s according to data from ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council Of Texas Inc.) on what’s in the development pipeline for the coming few years. If Greg Abbott, Tucker Carlson, and the shale gas mafia get their way, they will slow that clean energy growth down — incorrectly blaming all of the grid problems Texas has for other reasons on renewables seemed like a good option for them. However, the response has been strong and broad to that nonsense, and ERCOT’s “free market” approach to the grid is going to remain apolitical on electricity sources anyway, which means buyers choosing the cheap renewables.

Martyn1981

And a background article for those wondering how Texas could have failed so badly.

Texas freeze shows a chilling truth – how the rich use climate change to divide us

In Texas, for-profit energy companies have no incentive to prepare for extreme weather or maintain spare capacity. Even if they’re able to handle surges in demand, prices go through the roof and poorer households are hit hard. If they can’t pay, they’re cut off.

Martyn1981

This is surprisingly great news. India may have peaked in coal consumption / generation.
It's common for the deniers and trolls to suggest 'we' shouldn't do anything, as China and/or India's coal consumption is growing, despite of course taking emissions per capita into account as these nations modern and industrialize. But as we know, both nations are also rolling out vast amounts of RE to meet growing leccy demand ..... and possibly some current demand, which means their emissions could fall, or rise slower, sooner than expected.

India May Have Already Passed Peak Coal

Coal in India may be past its days of growth as the share of solar and wind energy projects continues to rise.

According to a recent report by a think tank, India may have passed peak coal share in its electricity mix in 2018. Energy think tank Ember reports that the share of coal-based electricity has been on the decline since 2018. In 2020, the share of coal power declined by 5 percent, taking the total decline in its share since 2018 to 8 percent.

At present, coal accounts for 70 percent of electricity generated in India, while solar contributes just 4 percent. However, the country is expected to see an aggressive deployment of renewable energy capacity, led by solar, over the next two decades driven by its goal to achieve 450 gigawatts renewable energy capacity by 2030. A sharp and continued decline in solar power prices have been making it increasingly attractive over coal-based power plants.

Martyn1981

So a carbon tax isn't as controversial as I feared. If 'we' nudge up FF costs, then that should help to shift us away from, may even reduce clean subsidies, or pay for them.
I think it's high time for something like this, especially if it can be applied in a way that is cost neutral for consumers on energy bills, or give us options to shift/switch, in order to make it cost neutral.

Carbon tax would be popular with UK voters, poll suggests

Two-thirds of people said a carbon tax was a fair way to raise money, and that the proceeds should be spent to benefit the country, according to a poll of 2,000 people carried out by Opinium for the Zero Carbon Campaign, which is trying to persuade the government to put a price on carbon ahead of the UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow this November.

A similar number (68%) would also like to see poorer people protected from the impacts of carbon taxes, and there was strong support for redirecting revenues towards creating green jobs and retraining workers, investing the revenues in clean energy, and using them to fund the NHS.

michaels

I think it is important any carbon tax captures 'embedded carbon' in imported items, otherwise there is the risk that we just offshore carbon emissions, along with jobs.

Martyn1981

michaels said:

I think it is important any carbon tax captures 'embedded carbon' in imported items, otherwise there is the risk that we just offshore carbon emissions, along with jobs.

Paragraph 2:

Carbon taxes could be levied on energy suppliers, transport including flying, food, imports and other high-carbon goods and services.