Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Cardew

Exiled_Tyke said:

I thought someone would have posted this one up by now. So if I've missed it I apologise.  It doesn't tell us anything we don't know but it's good to have the mainstream media refuting the nonsense that renewable sceptics are pushing.   

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60489328

From that article:

'What might be the cost of doing nothing?

The UK government's latest report into the risks of climate change warns that based on a conservative estimate of a 2C temperature rise by 2100, flooding for non-residential properties across the UK is expected to increase by 27% by 2050 and 40% by 2080. At 4C this increases to 44% and 75% respectively.

The report estimates that for eight risk factor areas, which include things like food supply and human health, the cost under one of the optimistic scenarios of a rise of less than 2C, could exceed £1bn a year by 2050.'

That may well be true.

So the UK achieves its targets, but will China/India/USA et al??

QrizB

Cardew said:

So the UK achieves its targets, but will China/India/USA et al??

They live on this planet, too, so let's hope they do.

ABrass

Cardew said:

Exiled_Tyke said:

I thought someone would have posted this one up by now. So if I've missed it I apologise.  It doesn't tell us anything we don't know but it's good to have the mainstream media refuting the nonsense that renewable sceptics are pushing.   

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60489328

From that article:

'What might be the cost of doing nothing?

The UK government's latest report into the risks of climate change warns that based on a conservative estimate of a 2C temperature rise by 2100, flooding for non-residential properties across the UK is expected to increase by 27% by 2050 and 40% by 2080. At 4C this increases to 44% and 75% respectively.

The report estimates that for eight risk factor areas, which include things like food supply and human health, the cost under one of the optimistic scenarios of a rise of less than 2C, could exceed £1bn a year by 2050.'

That may well be true.

So the UK achieves its targets, but will China/India/USA et al??

If we choose not to when we clearly can, then we won't have any right to ask China to do so.

Verdigris

Well, I must have missed it, too, so thanks for posting, E_T.

edgex

Martyn1981 said:

Talking of storage, now that's a funny thing. I love the idea, and you've probably noticed I go on and on about it at any opportunity, but I'm not sure we need medium scale storage yet. I may be completely wrong, but we don't seem to be pushing gas low enough, and often enough yet, to make that storage viable. Investors will want a rate of return, so it will need to operate enough times, and at a high enough level of arbitrage to be profitable. Perhaps we're not there yet, and hence the lack of movement so far?

Ironically, it might well achieve profitability in today's freak market, but presumably shorter term storage can be deployed faster to take advantage of that.

We don't have good enough internal transmission to move enough peak RE generation around the country yet, so perhaps that might be the opening for medium scale storage? I don't know the numbers, nor the economics, but we often see Scottish wind generation having to curtail to some degree, so maybe there's a viable market there?

I'm partly dodging subsidies and support too, as I'd hope the storage market could be viable on it's own, and I don't know how much support it would need today, since high support, might mean monies would be better spent on more RE, even if it does for now mean more spill?

I may be wrong, or wrong soon, but I suspect that the cheapest decarbonization today is still expanding RE generation to minimise gas gen at any point in time.

Hope this doesn't sound negative, it's just my thoughts and opinions, and I really do want to see storage (beyond batts) asap. If anyone spots any papers or articles on this, then please post them, I will do the same. Presumably, someone, somewhere is tracking all the numbers and doing some cals to work out when we need to go beyond batts.

[Note - I got bored writing medium scale storage, and wondered if 'beyond batts' was a decent descriptor of the next stage in the RE + storage journey?]

One storage location that has been mooted is at the substations where offshore wind connects. If there's an abundance of power being generated by a specific windfarm that isn't needed on the grid, instead of turning the turbines off, you put the energy into storage. Then whenever there's a period of that windfarm under producing, the storage tops it up to the level usually seen. It would be largely transparent to the overall grid, & doesn't involve moving energy across the grid to store it.

edgex

QrizB said:

Martyn1981 said:

We don't have good enough internal transmission to move enough peak RE generation around the country yet, so perhaps that might be the opening for medium scale storage? I don't know the numbers, nor the economics, but we often see Scottish wind generation having to curtail to some degree, so maybe there's a viable market there?

... and we've got a decent national natural gas network, so you might not need "storage" in the near- to medium-term if you can instead blend hydrogen into the methane.

You can mix in up to ~20% hydrogen before you run into issues with the infrastructure.
Hydrogen is also less energy dense, so you end up needing more of it to do the same work.

If we've got truly spare hydrogen from industrial processes, & it can be added to the gas network now'ish, then it makes sense to do so.
If it's going to be 5+ years away, then that's too late.

Martyn1981

Saw the title and immediately thought "Sharknado, shirley not!"

So, shark skinned aircraft to reduce drag, interesting.

Shark Inspired Film Cuts Tons Of Carbon Emissions

How can studying biology can help reduce global carbon emissions? Meet AeroShark, it’s a thin film that replicates the teeth-like, aerodynamic scales on a shark’s skin (properly called “denticles“) to reduce the wind resistance on a large surface — like an airliner’s wing. It’s a small, but noticeable improvement in overall efficiency that could save even small airlines like Swiss (shown) thousands of tons of jet fuel and C02 emissions every year.

Martyn1981

Perhaps timely, talking about the massive leaks from methane extraction in Russia, we've previously talked about the massive losses from US shale gas/oil production.

Perhaps RE and heatpumps would be a good idea, just like they've been suggested for decades now?

Methane Is Killing Us. Does Anyone Care? Does Anyone Even Know?

New satellites that are capable of seeing methane plumes from space are telling a chilling tale. Now all you fossil fuel apologists out there, listen up. Yes, we know methane burns cleaner than coal. But — and this is a huge “but” — exploring for, drilling, compressing, and transporting the stuff causes massive amounts of environmental damage. Some scientists estimate methane emissions in the atmosphere account for 30% of global warming.

The latest research by the International Energy Agency contains shocking news. Well, it should be shocking news to anyone who can put aside Tinder and TikTok long enough to pay attention. In its Global Methane Tracker report for 2022, it says actual global methane emissions are 70% greater than what the nations of the world are reporting.

2nd_time_buyer

It is really interesting to see such a strong day for wind and solar today. Most be close to a record for winter renewable generation?

 It will be interesting to see how much energy has been diverted to pumped storage and hydro to be released this evening. Also interesting to see that biomass is currently low, suggesting that there is some capacity for supply to respond to demand.

Perhaps a sign of the future for UK power generation.

paul991

yes  a good  day for  renewable s personally generating best  ever for  feb, but we are still importing 10%of our load and generating 1% from coal on  a sunday