Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

gefnew

More nuke news in Cheshire.
UK invests £196m in Europe's first advanced nuclear fuel facility - BBC News

michaels

There is a basic lack of understanding that climate change (and it's impact) are non-linear

Climate change: World's oceans suffer from record-breaking year of heat - BBC News

WE will not like where this is going.  I don't tell my kids, why should they not have a few happy years before the truth becomes unavoidable?

Martyn1981

The World has hit 30% RE leccy generation, a nice milestone. But the article stresses the need for the rollout of RE to continue accelerating, as current rates aren't good enough.

Suggestion that leccy emissions may have peaked in 2023. [That's particularly good news, given that leccy demand is still growing slightly, and other fossil fuel consumption is transitioning to leccy demand, such as heatpumps (space heating) and BEV's (transport).]

I'm always amazed at the rate at which PV production is growing, whilst costs/prices fall. Shame the UK's solar potential isn't as great as sunnier climes, but I suppose you can't have it all - "where would you put it?" [Steven Wright.]

'The renewables future has arrived': Renewables provide 30 per cent of global electricity for first time

New Ember report confirms renewables generation continued to soar last year, making peak emissions from the power sector 'inevitable'

Almost a third of electricity globally was generated from renewable sources last year, fuelling hopes emissions from the power sector could have already peaked.

That is the headline finding from the latest Global Electricity Review from think tank Ember, which shows that renewables generated a record 30 per cent of the global electricity mix in 2023. The gains were driven by a 10 per cent increase in wind energy generation and a 23 per cent increase in solar power generation. In contrast, fossil fuel generation grew just 0.8 per cent year-on-year.

Record construction of new wind and solar farms last year mean the trend is likely to continue throughout 2024, while any increase in hydro generation following drought conditions in key markets during 2023 should ensure power sector emissions start to fall.

As such, Ember expects global power sector emissions to have peaked in 2023 and should experience a modest fall in 2024. "Already the rollout of clean generation, led by solar and wind, has helped to slow the growth in fossil fuels by almost two-thirds in the last ten years," it added. "As a result, half the world's economies are already at least five years past a peak in electricity generation from fossil fuels. OECD countries are at the forefront of this, with power sector emissions collectively peaking in 2007 and falling 28 per cent since then."

However, the report also stressed that the growth in renewables generation will need to continue to accelerate rapidly if global climate goals are to be met.

Martyn1981

Rapid transition to RE for Portugal, with 27% in 2005, 54% in 2017, and perhaps another 27% increase, as this year could be 81%+ as a whole.

Portugal is averaging 91% renewable electricity in 2024, with Europe’s lowest power prices

In the first four months of 2024, renewables met 91% of Portugal’s electricity needs, pushing spot power prices to a four-year low.

According to network operator REN, renewable energy generation covered 95% of the nation’s electricity demand in April. That follows a 91% share in March, 88% in February, and 81% in January.

Portugal’s electricity mix has changed fast, with the share of renewables up from 27% in 2005 and 54% in 2017. The nation’s last coal-fired power plant was shut in 2021. Here’s how it got to this point.

Martyn1981

Blast from the past - I remember talking on here a long time back (2012?) about an island nation looking to displace diesel generated leccy with PV, and bio-diesel from coconuts.

I don't believe it was Papua New Guinea (the subject of this article), but nice to read how this is working in many locations. I suppose for generation, we now have ever better, bigger and cheaper batts to help balance PV generation too, and the bio-diesel being suitable for vehicles, ships etc is good to hear.

Double win, as there's also a lot of energy/emissions involved in transporting the fuel to them, and I was surprised to see that for the area in question, they have displaced 2/3rds of fuel imports already. Very impressive.

How the humble coconut is starting to fuel parts of Papua New Guinea

The oil from copra – the white flesh from the coconut – is used to produce biodiesel, a renewable fuel made from biological sources, such as vegetable oils or animal fats. On Karkar that fuel is helping to power schools, hospitals and cargo ships.

It is made at the Kulili plantation, a large estate with roughly 980 hectares filled with coconut trees and cocoa plants that spread across the island. Derek Middleton, the managing director at Kulili, says they are producing 600,000 litres of coconut-based biofuel each year.

“It’s just diesel but rather than using crude oil, we use coconut oil in the process of making it,” says Middleton, adding that it can be used alone or blended with traditional fuels – without the need to modify engines.

Middleton says biodiesel has replaced about 50,000 litres of fuel each month, but that about 25,000 litres of traditional fuel is still imported.

Coastalwatch

Martyn1981 said:

How the humble coconut is starting to fuel parts of Papua New Guinea

Thanks for those two posts Mart as they each show what can be achieved given the right encouragement or even just a level and consistent playing field so that long term plans by companies can be made.

It seems that coconuts are looking to give Celtic Renewables up in Grangemouth a run for their money when it comes to Bio fuels. Speaking of which they are undergoing another raise on Crowcube to aid their ambitious expansion plans.I'd love to take further part but have had to draw the line until other investments come to fruition. I was hoping they would be able to supply me with some Bio fuel to try out in my ageing scrambler but no joy so far I'm afraid.

Martyn1981

Another news piece on the development of Perovskite. I'd suggest that all is going well with the development of this technology, and hopefully then the tandem cells using both Silicon and Perovskite, that could lift efficiency of PV panels from 22% to 30%+.

But, at the same time, I'd also suggest that there isn't much to see yet, till we get to the end.

However, this article includes a massive bit of news, that TBH I missed when reading, until I read a comment discussing it. Briefly, Perovskite PV doesn't like sunlight (WHATTTTT?), and suffers from rapid degradation. But steady improvement have been made. Then I read this paragraph:

In contrast to the limited lifespan of first-generation perovskite solar cells, the EPFL team reported that their perovskite solar module maintained 94.66% of its initial efficiency after exposure to continuous one-sun illumination at room temperature for 1,000 hours (complete details are available in the journal Nature under the title, “Dopant-additive synergism enhances perovskite solar modules”).

Ok, not great, down to 95% after 1,000hrs of sunlight, but even in Wales that's just one year 

Then I read this comment, highlighting the importance of that word 'maintained':

Re-read: that 1000 hours is the breaking-in period, not the total lifespan. The cells maintained 94.66% at that point.

So I looked at the link to Nature, and it says this:

Furthermore, the PSMs showed long-term operational stability, maintaining 94.66% of the initial efficiency after 1,000 h under continuous one-sun illumination at room temperature.

We're not there yet, but this sounds like we are getting closer.

Record-Setting Perovskite Solar Cells Close The Benchtop-To-Rooftop Gap

Magnitio

Interview with Greg Jackson of Octopus, which might be of interest...
https://www.carbonbrief.org/the-carbon-brief-interview-octopus-energys-greg-jackson/

EricMears

Martyn1981 said:

Another news piece on the development of Perovskite. I'd suggest that all is going well with the development of this technology, and hopefully then the tandem cells using both Silicon and Perovskite, that could lift efficiency of PV panels from 22% to 30%+.

But, at the same time, I'd also suggest that there isn't much to see yet, till we get to the end.

However, this article includes a massive bit of news, that TBH I missed when reading, until I read a comment discussing it. Briefly, Perovskite PV doesn't like sunlight (WHATTTTT?), and suffers from rapid degradation. But steady improvement have been made. Then I read this paragraph:

In contrast to the limited lifespan of first-generation perovskite solar cells, the EPFL team reported that their perovskite solar module maintained 94.66% of its initial efficiency after exposure to continuous one-sun illumination at room temperature for 1,000 hours (complete details are available in the journal Nature under the title, “Dopant-additive synergism enhances perovskite solar modules”).

Ok, not great, down to 95% after 1,000hrs of sunlight, but even in Wales that's just one year 

Then I read this comment, highlighting the importance of that word 'maintained':

Re-read: that 1000 hours is the breaking-in period, not the total lifespan. The cells maintained 94.66% at that point.

So I looked at the link to Nature, and it says this:

Furthermore, the PSMs showed long-term operational stability, maintaining 94.66% of the initial efficiency after 1,000 h under continuous one-sun illumination at room temperature.

We're not there yet, but this sounds like we are getting closer.

Record-Setting Perovskite Solar Cells Close The Benchtop-To-Rooftop Gap

Indeed,  not even the sunniest part of \Wales is going to see 1000 hours of continuous sunshine ! Doubtful if they'd ever get more than 18 hours before having a 6 hour 'rest'  and probably not very often getting more 'exposure' than 'rest' in a single day.   Also,  rooftops tend not to be maintained at 'room temperature' for very long.

Netexporter

An eye-opening video about future energy demand:

Why Energy Consumption will PLUMMET by 2050 (youtube.com)

You can see why the fossil fuel industry is generating so much FUD at the moment.