Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Green energy production, or energy demand reduction, in France. Nice idea, plants and/or PV on the roof.

New Law In France: Green Roofs On All New Commercial Buildings

The French Parliament recently approved a new law requiring all new commercial buildings to partially have their roofs covered with plants or solar panels. The new requirement will apply to all new buildings in commercial zones. Initially, the proposal posed by French environmental activists was for the roofs to be completely covered by greenery.

The new law adds costs for both building owners and developers, so the government decided to ease up a bit on the cost by allowing for the roofs to be partially covered instead of fully covered.

Martyn1981

Not a subject that comes up often in the news - polymetallic nodules on the seabed. These take millions of years to form, and contain high concentrates of materials 'we' hold valuable. Hopefully mining these nodules is less intensive than other forms of mining, but I'm not sure the issue is settled yet, so to speak, but trials are underway.

The Metals Company Success: Deep-Water Collector Vehicle Tested At Depth Of Almost 2,500 Meters

The Metals Company announced along with Allseas the successful results of a deep-water test of its polymetallic nodule collector vehicle in the Atlantic Ocean. The vehicle was tested at a depth of almost 2,500 meters.

The Metals Company is focused on polymetallic nodules on the seafloor. These little mineral balls are filled with critical metals used in the production of electric vehicles — primarily batteries. In my interview with Gerard, he shared why the focus was on the nodules.

“We’re only impacting the top 5 cm of the ocean floor. The way I like to frame it is that if we took a step back and took a planetary perspective and if we had our time again, it would make sense to carry out extractive industry in parts of the planet where there’s the least life. We wouldn’t naturally go to our biodiverse rainforests where there’s a lot of biomass and which serve as huge carbon sinks. We’d go to the deserts, and that’s where we are. We’re in the biggest desert on the planet, which just happens to be under 4,000 meters of water.

The company stated that all of the trials to date are preparing for the full pilot nodule collection system trials that will take place later this year over an 8 km2 section of the NORI-D contract area.

In the press release, The Metals Company stated:

“The trials are an integral part of the International Seabed Authority’s regulatory and permitting process and the environmental impact data collected both during and after this nodule collection test work will form the basis of the application for an exploitation contract by TMC’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI).”

QrizB

Martyn1981 said:

Not a subject that comes up often in the news - polymetallic nodules on the seabed. These take millions of years to form, and contain high concentrates of materials 'we' hold valuable. Hopefully mining these nodules is less intensive than other forms of mining, but I'm not sure the issue is settled yet, so to speak, but trials are underway.

Now you've reminded of the Hughes Glomar Explorer and Project Azorian, one of those too-strange-to-be-true Cold War stories. Except this one really happened.

From the first of those Wikipedia links:

GSF Explorer, formerly USNS Hughes Glomar Explorer (T-AG-193), was a deep-sea drillship platform built for Project Azorian, the secret 1974 effort by the United States Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division to recover the Soviet submarine K-129.

Hughes told the media that the ship's purpose was to extract manganese nodules from the ocean floor. This marine geology cover story became surprisingly influential, causing many others to examine the idea.

Coastalwatch

Not good news by any standard but maybe another wake up call to those still in doubt!

Climate change: 'Fifty-fifty chance' of breaching 1.5C warming limit

The likelihood of crossing a key global warming threshold has risen significantly, according to a new analysis.

UK Met Office researchers say that there's now around a fifty-fifty chance that the world will warm by more than 1.5C over the next five years.

Such a rise would be temporary, but researchers are concerned about the overall direction of temperatures.

It's almost certain that 2022-2026 will see a record warmest year, they say.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61383391

Coastalwatch

I'm aware of retired coal mines being put to good use by erecting solar farms in their place but this is the first example I've come across of a retired nuclear site being used for the same purpose.

Considering its troubled past I wonder if there will be any objections from local residents for the change of use?

EDF building solar park at closed nuclear plant in France

EDF Renouvelables expects to switch on a solar array at a nuclear plant in France in early 2023. It will rely on 22,000 solar modules. The Creys-Malville nuclear plant, which was shut down in 1997, is set to be dismantled by 2024.

The project is part of EDF's solar plan aimed at deploying 30 GW of PV in France.

The Superphenix reactor was commissioned in 1986. It was shut down permanently in 1997, after several years of difficult operations and much public protest. The facility was closed by former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospen due to its high costs, safety issues and several court cases. It is now expected to be dismantled by French conglomerate Areva by 2024.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/05/09/edf-building-solar-park-at-closed-nuclear-plant-in-france/

EricMears

Coastalwatch said:

I'm aware of retired coal mines being put to good use by erecting solar farms in their place but this is the first example I've come across of a retired nuclear site being used for the same purpose.

Considering its troubled past I wonder if there will be any objections from local residents for the change of use?

EDF building solar park at closed nuclear plant in France

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/05/09/edf-building-solar-park-at-closed-nuclear-plant-in-france/

I'd say that was a perfect site !

Should still have a good connection to grid
Nobody is likely to want to build houses on the site (or at least nobody would want to live in one)
People would have serious reservations about eating any crops grown there or animals that had grazed there.
Solar panels should be far less visible than previous buildings.

Local residents ought to be over the moon !

Exiled_Tyke

Coastalwatch said:

I'm aware of retired coal mines being put to good use by erecting solar farms in their place but this is the first example I've come across of a retired nuclear site being used for the same purpose.

Considering its troubled past I wonder if there will be any objections from local residents for the change of use?

EDF building solar park at closed nuclear plant in France

EDF Renouvelables expects to switch on a solar array at a nuclear plant in France in early 2023. It will rely on 22,000 solar modules. The Creys-Malville nuclear plant, which was shut down in 1997, is set to be dismantled by 2024.

The project is part of EDF's solar plan aimed at deploying 30 GW of PV in France.

The Superphenix reactor was commissioned in 1986. It was shut down permanently in 1997, after several years of difficult operations and much public protest. The facility was closed by former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospen due to its high costs, safety issues and several court cases. It is now expected to be dismantled by French conglomerate Areva by 2024.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/05/09/edf-building-solar-park-at-closed-nuclear-plant-in-france/

EDF often annoys me because of their 'zero-carbon' strapline.  Which makes consumers think of RE but of course in EDF's case also means heavy reliance on nuclear. We are long way from a nuclear free world but I'm pleased to see an example of RE replacing nuclear.  Let's have more please! 

Coastalwatch

Exciting or What!

Octopus backs plans to build the world’s largest subsea power cable to power seven million homes

Octopus Energy Group(Octopus) is backing Xlinks’ plans to build the world’s largest subsea power cable to deliver renewable energy from Morocco to the UK.

Xlinks wants to construct four 3,800km-long subsea cables to connect a huge renewable energy farm in the Moroccan desert with Devon in South West England.

The site will provide wind and solar power, supplying 3.6 GW of reliable, clean energy to the UK for an average of 20 hours a day, enough to power about 7m heat pumps all year round.

Once up and running, Xlinks is expected to deliver power at £48/MWh, a comparable rate to offshore wind.

Currently, the project is in the development phase, and is undertaking economic, environmental and archaeological impact assessments.

It is scheduled to become operational in 2027.

The latest announcement follows reports last month from Sky News that Xlinks was looking for a backers, with the overall cost of the project estimated at £16bn.

The amount of money Octopus is putting forward remains undisclosed, but City A.M. understands the figure is a seven-figure sum,

QrizB

Coastalwatch said:

Exciting or What!

I saw Octopus tweeting about it earlier and (thanks to the forum) thought to myself "I know which project that is!"

https://twitter.com/OctopusEnergy/status/1524773151242080256

https://twitter.com/OctopusEnergy/status/1524775266815442948

Martyn1981

If £48/MWh, even £60/MWh (if the lower figure is at the 2012 baseline) is doable, I'd invest. But I suspect they need institutions with vastly larger piggybanks.