Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

michaels

Hopefully as with EVs the market will deliver with a bumper round of supply in the CFD auction and innovative approaches like the North Africa renewable 'power station' and link, doesn't matter how much subsidies you throw at Nuclear, the more cheap renewable RE and storage that the market brings on stream the less margin there will be for other solutions. 

I really can't see why the announcement today wasn't all about looking at investment in developing long term storage solutions which is what we need to complement RE not inflexible nuclear and blue hydrogen plus CCS which relies on price volatile fossil fuels.  I can't see why a a country we wouldn't want to lead rather than investing in technologies of the past?

QrizB

michaels said:

I can't see why a a country we wouldn't want to lead rather than investing in technologies of the past?

We have a government that seems nostalgic for the 1950s. And in the 1950s, nuclear energy was going to be "too cheap to meter" (here's a reference for anyone who hasn't heard that before):

https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/energy/2015/11/13/head-too-cheap-to-meter-i-dont-think-so/

The output of nuclear power is ‘too cheap to meter’. This is a quote often attributed to the Central Electricity Board’s Walter Marshall but it was actually the US’s Lewis Strauss of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in a 1954 speech to the National Association of Science Writers. He said: “Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap to meter…’

Verdigris

I'm pretty sure Harold Wilson also used it. I also heard Super Mac say "you've never had it so good".

I'm getting old...

EVandPV

Not particularly surprising .....

COP26: Document leak reveals nations lobbying to change key climate report

The leak reveals Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia are among countries asking the UN to play down the need to move rapidly away from fossil fuels.

COP26: Document leak reveals nations lobbying to change key climate report - BBC News

Martyn1981

Good news for battery storage and all of the technologies and areas that will need to expand battery deployment. The recycled minerals from 'old' batts is of as high a quality (or better) than newly mined material. That should mean that the demand for new material will not rise quite as fast as the demand for additional batteries, helping with supply issues and pressures. Eventually we may reach a point where the majority of material comes from recycling.

New Study Shows Recycled Lithium Batteries As Good As Newly Mined Lithium Batteries

The study, which is published in the academic journal Joule, noted that recycled materials are deemed inferior to commercial materials and that is a hindrance to an industry that needs to adopt recycled materials in new batteries. In the study, the team demonstrated how recycled NMC111 cathodes actually are superior in both rate and cycle performance and verified this with various industry-level tests.

Martyn1981

LOL. I thought this was quite interesting, then realised it sorta points out the obvious that different locations around the World will need different mixes of longer term energy storage, to go with their different mixes of RE generation. Then again, if it was so obvious, why didn't it occur to me sooner as I was reading?

So perhaps worth a quick read, just to help sort and file things in your brain, and realise that both RE and storage will need to evolve / develop and roll out in tandem, and reflect local issues. For example in the UK, we will have a generation system weighted towards wind energy, so storage would also need to be weighted towards wind variability, than for example solar variability.

Energy Storage Ecosystem Offers Lowest-Cost Path To 100% Renewable Power

As states reach higher toward 100% renewable operation, energy storage will be key to enabling a more variable power supply. But no single technology will be a silver bullet for all our energy storage needs.

Rather, a portfolio of storage solutions makes best economic sense for future energy systems, according to a recent National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) analysis titled “Optimal energy storage portfolio for high and ultrahigh carbon-free and renewable power systems,” published in Energy & Environmental Science.

shinytop

I’ve no idea whether these claims are true but if they are, this is a good example of the sort of innovation that is going to reduce emissions without asking people to just stop doing things.  Imagine if you could keep ICE cars but cut emissions by 50% by just choosing a different route.  Of course, it might be a load of nonsense. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58769351

EVandPV

China May Have Found a Cheap Energy Storage Method: Compressed Air

When there’s peak demand for electricity, and prices get higher, the unusual energy storage facility uses that air to propel turbines and generate power. According to CCTV, the facility can deliver up to 40 MWh of energy per day, enough to power 3,000 houses.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/china-may-have-found-a-cheap-energy-storage-method-compressed-air-172384.html

Solarchaser

shinytop said:

I’ve no idea whether these claims are true but if they are, this is a good example of the sort of innovation that is going to reduce emissions without asking people to just stop doing things.  Imagine if you could keep ICE cars but cut emissions by 50% by just choosing a different route.  Of course, it might be a load of nonsense. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58769351

The bbc used to be a bastion of impartiality and truth, but more recently its become little more than a tory party mouthpiece unfortunately.
The article... I mean I can see how maybe maybe maybe it's possible, but it seems to be more than a little of a stretch.

As for keeping ice cars, once you have driven premium ice cars, then drive a run of the mill EV, you will soon decide you want to drive a premium EV, ice is all but dead, long lice the EV's

Verdigris

China May Have Found a Cheap Energy Storage Method: Compressed Air

Liquefied air storage has been under development for years in the UK. Highview Power are now building commercial scale plants.

https://highviewpower.com/