Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Martyn1981

Magnitio said:

Coastalwatch said:

An eye catching headline and given Ethiopias sunny climate one could imagine renewable energy being available in abundance to cover all their energy requirements. Reckon they'll need a few battery's to assist with that then.

Ethiopia to ban importation of non-electric cars

APA-Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) The Ethiopian Ministry of Transport and Logistics on Tuesday announced that it will not allow vehicles to enter into the country unless they are electric ones.

The ministry made the announcement while it presented a six-month performance report to the Urban Development and Transport Standing Committee in the House of People’s Representatives (Ethiopian Parliament).

https://apanews.net/ethiopia-to-ban-importation-of-non-electric-cars/

Ethiopia has a variety of renewable energy: hydro, solar, wind and geothermal. Kenya has a similar mix. Both countries see huge environmental and financial benefits of avoiding fossil fuels. It would be good if both countries could do more to stop deforestation as well.

Very, very true. I went down some random Youtube rabbit hole a year or so back, and now get lots of vids recommended on reforestation. Be it US states building micro dams on streams in 'desert' like areas, or the hopes to re-establish the huge Caledonian Forests in Scotland. Many vids on China and their attempts to fight back against the massive deserts they have.

But have to say, I seem to see a lot of vids relating to the work being carried out in Ethiopia, and the records they often set for the number of saplings planted in a single day, such as 566m last year (July 17th).

Strongly recommend searching for a few vids to watch, as they are very inspiring, especially the 'before and after' pics.

Magnitio

Martyn1981 said

Very, very true. I went down some random Youtube rabbit hole a year or so back, and now get lots of vids recommended on reforestation. Be it US states building micro dams on streams in 'desert' like areas, or the hopes to re-establish the huge Caledonian Forests in Scotland. Many vids on China and their attempts to fight back against the massive deserts they have.

But have to say, I seem to see a lot of vids relating to the work being carried out in Ethiopia, and the records they often set for the number of saplings planted in a single day, such as 566m last year (July 17th).

Strongly recommend searching for a few vids to watch, as they are very inspiring, especially the 'before and after' pics.

Do you use Ecosia as a search engine? They have just reached 200 million trees planted at various sites around the world funded mainly by internet searches. This includes projects in both Ethiopia and Kenya.

Martyn1981

This week's Carbon Commentary newsletter. [Note at end stating no newsletter next week.]

1, Direct Air Capture of CO2. In its quarterly results presentation, Exxon Mobil said it had ‘Completed construction of a direct air capture (DAC) prototype piloting proprietary technology’. Few further details were provided and the company divulged little information in response to an oral question (at about minute 55 of this recording). It has been working with Global Thermostat, one of the start-ups in DAC, but there was no reference to this company in the presentation itself. Exxon seems to have a growing interest in carbon capture, both from high concentration streams of CO2 and from the air. In September of last year, a senior Exxon executive was quoted as saying the company sees a clear place for DAC in a net-zero future and a recent acquisition gives it a very substantial capacity to ship CO2 through pipelines in the southern US, as well as developed CO2 storage sites.

2, Energy efficiency of electric cars. The contention that EVs are no more energy efficient than internal combustion engine vehicles continues to erode the confidence of potential customers. The erroneous hypothesis is that the electricity used to fill the battery will often have been generated by fossil fuels so there is no advantage to driving an electric car; the energy losses in the power station will be the same as the losses in a petrol engine. An article on a Yale site provides an excellent visual summary of the correct numbers, showing that an EV uses about half as much primary energy as an internal combustion engine car with the current US electricity mix. As electricity decarbonisation proceeds, this advantage will increase.

3, Perovskite solar efficiencies. Followers of Oxford PV will have been pleased by the world record efficiency of 25% reported last week. This was for a commercial size panel composed of a perovskite layer deposited on silicon in the so-called ‘tandem’ arrangement. But, like me, some observers may have been initially confused by the news. The first minor grumble is that Oxford PV also claimed a world record efficiency in May of last year, stating that its cells had achieved 28.6% conversion of solar energy into electricity. The lower figure given a few days ago was for a complete panel of 1.68 m2 whereas last year’s figure was for the constituent cell of a solar panel, measuring about 258 cm2. Perhaps readers should have been told clearly of the likely percentage efficiency losses when solar cells are put together into panels. More seriously, other perovskite cell producers have recently claimed much higher efficiency than Oxford PV. Chinese producer Longi said three months ago that its perovskite tandem cells had reached 33.9% efficiency, a far higher figure than Oxford PV’s numbers. Additionally, the Financial Times has twice published a chart based on the figures from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory agreeing that ‘tandem’ perovskite cells can now reach well over 33% efficiency. When these cells are combined into panels, the conversion of the sun’s energy into electricity will beat Oxford PV’s new record. And, of course, we still have to be reassured that perovskite panels will last more than a few months in strong sun or very high humidity. Perovskite panels may eventually give the world more electricity per square metre than pure silicon but we are not there yet.

4, Hydrogen from methane. Several companies are focusing on splitting methane (CH4) directly into its constituent atoms as a way of producing hydrogen. Most of the innovators are producing the carbon from the methane in the form of carbon black, a product that is used in tyre manufacturing. Hazer Group, an Australian company, uses an iron catalyst to instead make H2 and graphite, the type of carbon that is required for the anodes of batteries. Hazer said this week that it has commenced production at its first commercial test plant, using 900 degree heat and a process which ‘fluidises’ the catalyst to ensure a rapid breakdown of the methane in the natural gas. In countries with cheap natural gas, this process could be a cost competitive route to making hydrogen, with the graphite as a valuable by-product.

5, New clothing materials. Alternatives to leather and other clothing materials are appearing more and more frequently. The UK edition of Vogue featured a new ‘fabric’ that is derived from industrial fruit waste that is turned into something resembling leather. Made by Spanish company Polybion, this product is said to be carbon neutral, or even carbon negative. The wide range of abundant raw material sources means that scaling up the manufacturing process to produce large volume will be possible.

6, Biochar from animal manure. Cow waste is a major source of methane across the world. A farm in New York state uses an anaerobic digester to break down the manure. As with other digesters on farms, the methane that is produced is then combusted to generate electricity. The solid matter that remains, which is usually spread on fields at other locations, is heated at this innovative farm to a very high temperature in the absence of air, producing more combustible gases and biochar. Biochar is a form of charcoal that persists for centuries, permanently adding to the carbon in the soil. It also helps retain fertility and improve soil structure. This is an important early demonstration project, intending to show whether creating biochar in this way will reduce emissions and improve the farm’s finances. The trial is helped by the active interest of Johannes Lehmann, a professor at nearby Cornell University and among the world’s most authoritative researchers on biochar.

7, Offshore wind and hydrogen. The investment arm of IKEA’s owner teamed up with a major wind developer to begin the application process for a 3 gigawatt wind farm off southern Sweden intended for completion in 2030. (This farm will be over twice the size of the world’s largest existing offshore site). The intention is to use the electricity to produce about a third of a million tonnes of hydrogen offshore each year. A unique feature of the application is that the electrolyser producing the hydrogen is planned also to collect the oxygen arising from the process, rather than releasing it to the atmosphere. The oxygen will then be added to nearby parts of the Baltic Sea that are currently anoxic and unable to support any marine life. The intention is to regenerate this part of the Baltic and allow the rebuilding of the marine ecology.

8,  Global transition. Among a wide variety of other products, Chinese company Mingyang Smart Energy produces turbines and announced a contract for a 240 megawatt wind farm in Brazil last month, its first major project in the country. This week, the company’s hydrogen arm signed a deal in Thailand to provide 25 megawatts of electrolysers and to construct the first infrastructure in Thailand for the generation, storage and use of hydrogen. The continuing rise of Chinese manufacturing and its growing domination of all aspects of the energy transition is becoming more evident each week.

9, Green steel. All the attention is focused on H2 Green Steel in Sweden but a large Spanish project is also moving forward. Aided by grants from the state, Hydnum Steel proposes to build a new electric arc furnace and a hydrogen direct reduction plant at Puertollano in southern Spain. The intended capacity is said to be over 2 million tonnes of steel a year (about 40% of H2 Green Steel’s 2030 planned output)  and it will probably be the first hydrogen steelmaking plant in southern Europe. Why in Puertollano, an inland town with no nearby iron ore? Puertollano is Spain’s hydrogen hub, with Iberdrola and Fertiberia already making green fertiliser in the area. Other hydrogen businesses and a research centre are also close and a suitable 1.3 sq.km site is available. The town is also on the proposed hydrogen pipeline network to be established by the Spanish gas distributor and has very good solar resources. Major energy using businesses, such as steel manufacture, will shift to where that energy is abundant and cheap.

10, Shipping fuels. Taiwan container shipping giant Evergreen said it was working with a smaller Singapore-based company to operate a feeder network in the Baltic and Scandinavia regions operating out of the port of Rotterdam. The 14 feeder ships will use methanol dual fuel engines to collect the containers for Evergreen to ship over long distances. The deal envisages the two companies working together to develop the port infrastructure to guarantee green methanol supply. The fuel itself will be supplied by OCI, the world’s largest current producer of methanol made from biomass wastes. In the longer run, green methanol will be made from CO2 and hydrogen as the available sources of biomass are used up. Separately, the French container shipper CMA CGM announced that it is intending to convert at least one of its existing ships to methanol duel fuel as a trial in 2025. This is one of the first conversions of an in-service ship and strengthens the argument that green methanol will be the low carbon fuel of choice for the shipping industry.

Apologies but no newsletter next week because of other commitments. Back on February 18.

NigeWick

Martyn1981 said:

This week's Carbon Commentary newsletter. [Note at end stating no newsletter next week.]

1, Direct Air Capture of CO2. In its quarterly results presentation, Exxon Mobil said it had ‘Completed construction of a direct air capture (DAC) prototype piloting proprietary technology’. Few further details were provided and the company divulged little information in response to an oral question (at about minute 55 of this recording). It has been working with Global Thermostat, one of the start-ups in DAC, but there was no reference to this company in the presentation itself. Exxon seems to have a growing interest in carbon capture, both from high concentration streams of CO2 and from the air. In September of last year, a senior Exxon executive was quoted as saying the company sees a clear place for DAC in a net-zero future and a recent acquisition gives it a very substantial capacity to ship CO2 through pipelines in the southern US, as well as developed CO2 storage sites.

What utter tripe. I believe THE way to capture carbon is to grow Billions of suitable trees and use them as building materials.  DAC is just very expensive greenwashing by fossil energy companies and others who want to make a lot of money for very little or no real benefit.

Martyn1981

NigeWick said:

Martyn1981 said:

This week's Carbon Commentary newsletter. [Note at end stating no newsletter next week.]

1, Direct Air Capture of CO2. In its quarterly results presentation, Exxon Mobil said it had ‘Completed construction of a direct air capture (DAC) prototype piloting proprietary technology’. Few further details were provided and the company divulged little information in response to an oral question (at about minute 55 of this recording). It has been working with Global Thermostat, one of the start-ups in DAC, but there was no reference to this company in the presentation itself. Exxon seems to have a growing interest in carbon capture, both from high concentration streams of CO2 and from the air. In September of last year, a senior Exxon executive was quoted as saying the company sees a clear place for DAC in a net-zero future and a recent acquisition gives it a very substantial capacity to ship CO2 through pipelines in the southern US, as well as developed CO2 storage sites.

What utter tripe. I believe THE way to capture carbon is to grow Billions of suitable trees and use them as building materials.  DAC is just very expensive greenwashing by fossil energy companies and others who want to make a lot of money for very little or no real benefit.

Yep, whilst removing CO2 is essential to the long term max temp targets, it looks like DAC may never be cost/energy effective.

I'm not a big fan of UK bio-mass, as we can't produce enough material ourselves, and transporting it undoes most of the savings, or all. But where bio-mass is a bit more sensible and viable, then BECCS* (bio-energy CCS) may work, using the high CO2 exhaust gases, but raises as many questions as answers.

*Potentially negative CO2, in the scenario, grow a tree, burn a tree, capture the CO2 and bury it, and grow another tree. Nice in theory ...... in theory.

NigeWick

Martyn1981 said:

I'm not a big fan of UK bio-mass, as we can't produce enough material ourselves, and transporting it undoes most of the savings, or all. But where bio-mass is a bit more sensible and viable, then BECCS* (bio-energy CCS) may work, using the high CO2 exhaust gases, but raises as many questions as answers.

Biomass burning is just greenwashing. We must stop burning stuff for energy or our descendants won't have a decent planet to live on.

zeupater

NigeWick said:

Martyn1981 said:

I'm not a big fan of UK bio-mass, as we can't produce enough material ourselves, and transporting it undoes most of the savings, or all. But where bio-mass is a bit more sensible and viable, then BECCS* (bio-energy CCS) may work, using the high CO2 exhaust gases, but raises as many questions as answers.

Biomass burning is just greenwashing. We must stop burning stuff for energy or our descendants won't have a decent planet to live on.

Hi

The real issue is where the energy form sits within the 'bad things' hierarchy and how it impacts on 'other things' ... this is a really important consideration because getting too close to any particular 'solution' tends to lead towards outcomes broadly following the laws of untended consequences .... it's not that potentials couldn't be predicted, it's just that myopia is a real thing when considering a plan which can only be addressed by addressing planning horizons ....in effect, what you do now from today's perspective may not have as great an outcome as setting a goal and working a plan backwards to see what you should be doing today ...

.... bit deep but it is reality ... for example ...

Where short cycle biomass is readily available and easily replaceable and can almost immediately substitute for long cycle fossil fuel generation with little investment/disruption then what's the issue? .... it's not adding carbon that was sequestered millions of years ago back into the atmosphere, it's simply utilising a carbon rich fuel source which would naturally decompose and release methane with a short term (~20years) GHG/GWP impact around two orders of magnitude greater than immediate disposal through biomass energy conversion through burning .... I'm pretty sure that this realisation alone deserves weighing against the carbon cost of transport, in which case the discussion/argument may change to accept biomass as a positive along the road to achieving future sustainability ...

What needs to be considered is that sustainability doesn't mean 'no' or 'none', it simply means that the impact needs to be small enough and for such a short time that the net effect is zero through natural or artificial processes .... in basic terms (no pun intended ...  ), if a component of a sustainable solution is deemed to be ... 

1. grow a tree (-CO2)
2. burn a tree (+CO2)  
3. goto 1 

... and it replaces ...

1. do while coal/oil/gas exists
2. burn coal/oil/gas (+CO2)
3. enddo

... then what's the specific issue to affect future generations? ... building on this we have simplified sequestration which doesn't involve mechanical/chemical CCS or the need for vast, expensive & complex projects/solutions ...

1. grow 2 trees (-2CO2)
   
2. burn 1 tree (+1CO2)
3. make 1 long lasting thing
4. goto 1

... feel free to substitute the number of 'things' and 'trees' to suit the scale needed, but the logic remains not only sound, but cheap and readily doable too!

Personally, obviously I don't consider biomass burning to be 'greenwashing', but neither do I consider it to be a 'silver bullet' solution ... but it should certainly be considered as being a component in the overall goal of balanced sustainability ... after all it's the very existence and cycling (/recycling) of biomass that differentiates our planet and it's ability to sustain life from anywhere else that our current level of scientific knowledge can identify .... 

On that, "beam me up Scotty I need a cuppa!" ... Z

Martyn1981

Very interesting Z. I think your statement ....

Where short cycle biomass is readily available and easily replaceable and can almost immediately substitute for long cycle fossil fuel generation with little investment/disruption then what's the issue?

...... is extremely important.

Personally, I think bio-mass looks to be both viable and important, when caveated as you have done. The most obvious locations (for me) would be North America, and Eastern Europe. In the case of the US and Canada, their forestry mass has been increasing, and actually does better when demand for wood/wood products is higher. That's because the replanting is more thorough and extensive when profits are greater.

Just considering Ukraine out of the vast potential of Eastern Europe/Russia, and the scale of bio-mass potential is vast. Or to put it another way, the impact of bio-mass on forestry is small. But a large bio-mass generation there doesn't just add an additional tool to the RE toolbox, but adds a very special one - one that comes with built in storage (the store of bio-mass on site), and the ability to demand follow.

Also a lesson I learned last week when visiting my bio-mass supplier*, was that leccy costs play a part in the prices, due to the amount consumed pressing domestic pellets. Since the Ukraine invasion, the prices I pay have risen 150%, but as leccy (and transport fuel) costs have fallen, they are now down to just +25%. Perhaps, and I'm stretching here, this could even be a potential seasonal storage of energy, if excess summer gen, can be used to operate machinery, vehicles, and processes, to produce material for winter consumption?

Back to the UK, and sadly I'm far less bullish, especially as regards Drax, since we need to import most of the material, which introduces shipping and transport energy consumption, thus negating many of the savings v's FF generation. But ..... perhaps longer term, if that transport energy could come from RE sources, that would help, but again I appreciate I'm stretching. So large scale bio-mass in the UK may not be a good thing.

There is of course UK based bio-mass production, but not on a scale for Drax's need. And I've mentioned before the promising news for expanding UK production of hemp. Hemp is an incredibly versatile material, and can provide two crops pa for farmers, whilst also producing a potentially large amount of bio-mass material, with only a 6 month carbon cycle.

Back to the issue of CCS - as this is an essential part of the calculations to keep to a long term (by 2100) temp max, I genuinely wonder how it can be managed since DAC looks to be unviable. I've even pondered if the only way would be to burn bio-mass sustainably, for the high concentration CO2, for a co-located BECCS scheme, even if the energy wasn't used for generation. I'm probably getting that very wrong, but if it is necessary, then generating and using the leccy would seem sensible.


*I buy about 4tn of wood pellets pa (approx 375kg car load every 4-6 weeks), from a supplier of domestic and commercial bio-mass, for a local animal rescue, for cat litter. [Personally, after removing solids, I use the leftover sawdust for composting, as it, and urine, are an excellent addition when layered in.]

NigeWick

zeupater said:

Personally, obviously I don't consider biomass burning to be 'greenwashing', but neither do I consider it to be a 'silver bullet' solution ... but it should certainly be considered as being a component in the overall goal of balanced sustainability ... after all it's the very existence and cycling (/recycling) of biomass that differentiates our planet and it's ability to sustain life from anywhere else that our current level of scientific knowledge can identify .... 

On that, "beam me up Scotty I need a cuppa!" ... Z

We'll have to agree to disagree. I am an adherent of Tony Seba as he has been proven to be right over a number of years. By building a lot more renewables than enough, with adequate storage, he has shown numbers that offer comparatively cheap electricity without nuclear or fossil energy production. 

I really do appreciate the time an effort you put into your explanations. I am having a cuppa as I write.

Martyn1981

New battery commissioned, but as things often do, something caught my eye.

The launch of the storage pipeline begins with the 25MW/50MWh Tiln battery project (pictured), that accompanies Lightsource BP’s 61MWp Tiln solar project, in Lincolnshire, UK, which is now also energised.

The Tiln battery is co-located with the solar project, sharing grid connection infrastructure.

I'm sure this isn't the first, but fits in with something we've talked about many years ago, and that's the co-locating of storage at RE sites, once storage costs fall far enough to make it viable. Back then it was also pointed out by the solar and wind trade bodies, that there is no problem nor cost penalty to adding storage at existing RE sites at a later date.

With that in mind, the package of 61MWp with 25MW/50MWh of storage may be a guide for the ratio/numbers we will see for such schemes. Also, and I don't know if this is still the case, but I think the prices that get agreed for a PPA (power purchase agreement) deal are a little bit higher when storage is involved, as the rate of supply can be smoothed out a bit - or perhaps more importantly, troughs are minimised/reduced.

Lightsource BP energises UK battery

Lightsource BP has energised the first battery project of its multi-gigawatt global energy storage pipeline.

The project is anticipated to participate in both traded markets and the provision of ancillary services which are critical to grid stability.

This facilitates deeper penetration of renewables and greater flexibility, while improving energy security.

Large-scale batteries like this provide a wide range of applications, including optimising renewable generation, stabilising the grid, and meeting the urgency for more sustainable power without the need to wait for grid updates, all while helping to lower costs for consumers.