Green, ethical, energy issues in the news

Coastalwatch

Cardew said:

Netexporter said:

I think NG might be a good punt for my SSIPS. (when I finally get round to rounding up my bits and pieces of other pensions)

NG shares dropped today by a record 10.86%. Their plans?? or the probability of a Labour government in 6 weeks??

Then Buy, Buy, as Delboy would insist.

Cardew

Coastalwatch said:

Cardew said:

Netexporter said:

I think NG might be a good punt for my SSIPS. (when I finally get round to rounding up my bits and pieces of other pensions)

NG shares dropped today by a record 10.86%. Their plans?? or the probability of a Labour government in 6 weeks??

Then Buy, Buy, as Delboy would insist.

If Delboy had bought yesterday he would have found his investment had fallen by a further 11.5% today!!

Martyn1981

Carbon Commentary newsletter from Chris Goodall:

1, Comparative prices of EVs and petrol equivalents. The gap is smaller but still remains substantial. Opel, a Stellantis brand, says that a new Frontera small SUV will be on sale in Germany for ‘less than €30,000’ but that the same car with an engine will be ‘about €24,000’. Citroen, also part of Stellantis, will put its electric C3 on the market for less than €25,000 but the equivalent petrol car will be €10,000 cheaper. This is progress, but I don’t think the difference has narrowed enough yet. However the threat of Chinese competition has hugely increased the speed of action from European manufacturers. In the US, GM showed a new Chevrolet EV, promising a basic model at around $35,000 for 500 km range by the end of the year.

2, Microsoft emissions rise. Microsoft has stressed its commitments to reaching zero carbon. Its key target is to be carbon negative by 2030, which is now less than six years away.  But the recent sustainability report for 2023 showed the scale of the challenge it is facing. Total emissions (Scopes 1-3) were 40% higher than in 2020, while the carbon for which it is directly responsible (Scopes 1 and 2) was 6% lower than in 2020 but had risen 25% in 2023. The principal cause is probably electricity use, which has substantially more than doubled since 2020. The growth of AI is making the achievement of Microsoft’s goals almost impossible. (As an aside, its carbon reporting is exceptionally good, and seems honest, but this annual report wasn’t completely open about the regression over the last couple of years).

3,  Bio-energy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in Sweden. Microsoft’s emissions in 2023 (Scopes 1-3) were about 17 million tonnes. It announced a deal with Stockholm Exergi, a Swedish power company, to purchase more than 3 million tonnes of permanent CO2 storage over ten years from a biomass electricity generating plant near Stockholm. (About 2% of its current annual emissions). Many commentators are sceptical about whether biomass carbon capture and storage genuinely reduces emissions. The huge use of wood at Drax power station in the UK, for example, is often said to decrease US forest cover in the supply plantations. But Microsoft seems to overcome these concerns after investigating the sourcing of the wood for the power station. The station owner, Stockholm Exergi, has well-developed plans for carbon capture but the storage aspect seem under-researched. All we are told is ‘Permanent geological storage will take place in the Nordic region.’ Stockholm Exergi is also keen to tell us how much financial support the project will need. Not only will the final investment decision require Microsoft’s purchases but also future subsidy from the Swedish state and its BECCS programme and its existing support from the EU. (Thanks to Gage Williams).

4, Australia green steel. Most of Australia’s ample resources of ore are not of a high enough quality to work well with hydrogen for iron manufacture. This poses a challenge for ore sales, the single most important Australian export. A new $2bn project intending to use a higher quality deposit in Queensland is now at its early stages but has strong economic logic behind it. The ore can be easily transported to a port town that has an existing large scale hydrogen plan as well as good electricity infrastructure.  The hydrogen project is planned to exceed 2 gigawatts in size and this part of Queensland has ample solar and wind resources. Iron-making using hydrogen will generally move towards places with high grade iron ore and abundant electricity. Queensland would seem one of the best places to make green iron for steel manufacture in the world. (I saw this story on RenewEconomy).

5, Hydrogen cost. Estimates for 2030 hydrogen costs around the world remain hugely divergent. A useful summary from the International Council on Clean Transportation details estimates that range from over $8 to well under $2 a kilogramme. The perhaps five-fold difference is striking evidence of the uncertainty around the future of hydrogen even a few years into the future. At under $2, the price is equivalent to around 5 cents a kilowatt hour, competitive with traded electricity in many countries whereas at the higher price hydrogen will have few possible uses. And, as I commented about Microsoft’s plans, 2030 is only six years away so uncertainty about the evolution of price is having obvious impacts on decisions whether or not to invest in production of H2.

6, Electricity for high temperature industrial applications. The last few years have suggested that electricity will be able to fulfil a much larger fraction of heating needs for industry than previously expected.  Some processes, such as making ceramics, might require higher temperatures but 1000 degrees Celsius will be sufficient for many industrial tasks that currently use natural gas (and which might use hydrogen in the future). A new piece of research from ETH Zurich, which continues to develop exceptional academic work, suggests that solar thermal plants which concentrate the sun’s rays onto a small area may be able to raise the temperature of quartz to over a thousand degrees because this substance can retain heat rather than radiating it. If this approach proves practical, solar heating in sun-rich countries will be another force that will shift manufacturing away from the industrial north towards the equator.

7, Recycling of cement. A huge variety of different approaches to decarbonising cement are in trials around the world. (Much of the chapter on cement in Possible covers these alternatives). A new option was proposed by academic researchers in Cambridge.  They suggest that recovered cement from concrete can be added to electric arc furnaces in the steel recycling process and turned back into the raw materials for making fresh cement. This is already done at a small scale but the researchers propose that large amounts of cement can be produced in this way. More surprisingly perhaps, the paper also suggests that the new technique will be ‘economically viable’ in many parts of the world even though it uses a substantial amount of heat.

8, Auction for hydrogen power generation. Energy poor states such as S. Korea and Japan will need to use imported hydrogen for power generation. Korea announced the world’s first plan to encourage power station to switch to co-firing of either H2 or ammonia as well as 100% use in turbines or fuel cells. The auction will target the use of hydrogen by 2028, and will provide the financing for 6.5 terawatt hours of production a year, just over one per cent of Korea’s needs. Korea’s high reliance on fossil fuel generation (still over 60%) makes the auction particularly important.

9, Quilt heat pumps. Here’s an interesting idea: make heat pumps that look good, both in their internal and external components. Quilt, a startup founded by ex-Google employees, came out of stealth to show off its attractive units. The product features easy room by room control and automatic sensors that detect when a room isn’t occupied. Internal units can be painted, or even have wallpaper added, and contain a downwards light, while the outdoor kit is far less visually obtrusive than the current products being installed. One publication even described the outdoor fan as ‘architectural’. To help give the customer a better experience, installation will be handled by Quilt itself. Sales will start in the US and Canada but this product has worldwide importance and will push the existing manufacturers into the necessary redesign of their products, and the user interfaces. (Thanks to Marcel Moran).

10, Enhanced rock weathering (ERW).  Proposed routes to greater storage of carbon in soils typically go through cycles of excitement and disappointment. Interest in ERW is currently booming. Larger scale trials of spreading dust from silicate rocks, such as basalt, on agricultural soils are still rare but look as they will become increasingly frequent. Basalt dust exists in large amounts because it is a by-product of several mining activities. The French waste and water company Veolia partnered with UK biotech firm FabricNano to plan a project to spread 30,000 tonnes of dust over land near Oxford. Eventually, the science suggests, this could store about 10,000 tonnes of CO2 by absorbing the gas and turning it into bicarbonate ions. However this process will typically be very slow unless the basalt is very finely ground. But the energy used for process of grinding may generate CO2 and offset the benefits. Veolia’s trial uses a FabricNano engineered enzyme to increase the pace of carbon dioxide absorption even on larger dust particles typically found in mining waste. And, of course, all the evidence suggests that the weathering of basalt improves fertility for agricultural purposes by adding key elements, such as potassium, to the soil.

Exiled_Tyke

Cardew said:

Netexporter said:

I think NG might be a good punt for my SSIPS. (when I finally get round to rounding up my bits and pieces of other pensions)

NG shares dropped today by a record 10.86%. Their plans?? or the probability of a Labour government in 6 weeks??

Planned.  It's because of the rights issue which they are offering at a signficant discount to ensure they riase what they need for investment.

Martyn1981

This little item jumped out at me, partly because of the simplicity behind the idea, and the fact I'd never thought about it before - but others probably have.

So, using a phase change material to stabilise the temp of fridges/freezers, and effectively time shift their energy demand to low demand periods.

Made me wonder if this is something we can try ourselves with some experimentation using a large(ish) container of salted water, and a power timer switch. Probably better to use a number of smaller containers, one on/in each shelf. I suspect I'd struggle to get the salinity / freezing point right, and potentially cause me and Mrs Mart food poisoning,  but it's been a fun ponder for the morning. 

Less Carbon, More Chill Novel Refrigeration Approach Uses PCMs To Freeze, Cool Perishables

ORNL’s innovation uses advanced evaporators with PCMs installed in each compartment for cold energy storage. PCMs are useful for heating and cooling because they store and release energy when changing from solids to liquids or vice versa. Researchers applied porous metals, direct-contact defrosting technology and a refrigerant with low global warming potential to enhance performance and minimize environmental impact.

“PCMs are integrated with evaporator coils to keep temperature constant, requiring one operating cycle and allowing refrigerators to operate almost 100% at nighttime, when energy use is lower,” ORNL’s Zhiming Gao said. “This reduces electricity demand, saves costs and maintains efficiency.”

Martyn1981

I should be used to this by now, but I still go wow when I see news of wind farms being repowered. In this example the 98x 0.8MW WT's have been replaced by just 13x 6.5MW's. Plus the newer, bigger WT's have a higher capacity factor too.

Acciona begins Spanish wind repowering

Acciona Energia has started the repowering of its Tahivilla wind farm in Cadiz, Spain.

The repowering will involved replacing the original 98 turbines with 13 Nordex machines.

The old hardware will begin to be dismantled this year, after which the new units will be installed and are scheduled to come into operation in 2026.

The replacement of the turbines with new machines will increase the wind far’s capacity from 78.4MW to 84.4MW, while the evacuation capacity of the site will remain the same.

The production of Tahivilla, once repowered, will increase by 72%.

Exiled_Tyke

In other news the positives for going down the RE route just keep coming.  

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/29/renewable-energy-us-financial-benefits

Magnitio

Might be of interest....

https://friendsoftheearth.uk/system-change/green-policies-and-general-election-who-leads-pack

zeupater

Hi

.... IMO they used to have more sway with many when their political position was more than a little overt, but since they've pushed an air of impartiality in order to not politically alienate anyone who could possibly want to donate (always follow the money!) they seem to have taken on the appearance of a 'grey man' ideology whilst covertly operating totally differently ....

Last time I looked even their own impartiality statement seemed to be more than a little hypocritical, along the lines of 'politically, we're totally impartial but our core position does align with that of .....'   ....    ...    

... As such I'd take such an article as nothing but an opportunistic (timing) gentle nudge to further influence an upcoming election in favour of a particular ideology (therefore parties), no matter how sensible (/affordable/acceptable/logical) the various manifesto offerings may be .... now, looking at the article, what direction would that seem to be ????

HTH - Z     

Martyn1981

This week's Carbon Commentary newsletter:

1, Methanol to kerosene. My guess is that the dominant fuels for shipping and aviation will be green methanol and kerosene respectively. I’ve assumed very different production processes for each fuel but this may be incorrect. Last week green methanol pioneer European Energy announced a deal to divert some of the production from a site in southern Denmark to Metafuels. This young Swiss company will convert the methanol directly into kerosene. Planned volumes are small; the daily production of e-kerosene will be about 12,000 litres, enough to keep an Airbus 350 in the air for about an hour. Nevertheless, this announcement suggests that the conversion of methanol to kerosene by the Metafuels process may be a plausible way of generating competitively priced aviation fuel.

2, Hydrogen from Africa. TotalEnergies and Austrian hydropower utility Verbund gave details of plans to make green hydrogen in Tunisia using electricity from onshore wind and solar. The intention is to build the capacity eventually to make 1 million tonnes of hydrogen a year, which would require about 50 gigawatts of new solar power. The hydrogen will be transported via a pipeline across the Mediterranean to Italy and taken northwards to Austria and southern Germany.  This pipeline project, also agreed in outline last week, will be managed by Italy’s gas network operator SNAM which committed €4bn of investment. The new pipeline is backed by the EU, which is looking to set up routes for at least 10 million tonnes of hydrogen to get to major industrial areas from low-cost renewables locations such as Tunisia within the next few years. Hydrogen transport from North Africa into Europe will a major source of EU stored energy.

3, PET recycling. An important symbolic moment. Chemical recycling pioneer Carbios showed off a small number of fully recycled small PET bottles for perfume manufacturer L’Occitane. The transparent product was made from coloured PET products and other wastes, none of which could be recycled using existing mechanical technologies. Chemical recycling, such as the enzymatic process used by Carbios breaks down plastics into the constituent monomers which can be rebuilt into clear polymers. Carbios specialises in PET recycling but its technology can be extended to many other types of plastics.

4, Bacteria to eat N20. Norwegian researchers published work which suggested that adding a specific and tenacious type of bacteria to soil could help break down nitrous oxide (N2O), a powerful global warming gas. Nitrous oxide on farmland arises mostly from the addition of artificial fertilisers The bacterium identified by the scientists is hungry to get access to the nitrogen in the gas and can be supplied mixed with the waste from biogas manufacture. The researchers say that their technique reduced emissions from soil by ’50-95%’. In the UK nitrous oxide emissions from soil account for only about a quarter of one percent of the national total but the figure is much higher in some other countries. In India, N2O emissions, most of which arise from the applications of fertilisers to soil, are possibly as much as 7% of total emissions so extensive use of this bacterium can make a measurable dent in the national GHG output.

5, EV sales. New forecasts from EV Volumes suggest a rise in global sales from 14.2 million vehicles in 2023 to 16.6m this year. World market share for all plug-in vehicles will rise to 19%. This rise is being driven by China, which saw a 44% share of car sales for plug-in cars in April, up from 33% a year earlier. Chinese EV sales now account for substantially more than half of the world market with total sales in 2023 of over 8 million cars, almost three times the EU figure and five times the volume sold in the US.

6, Hydrogen-ready power stations. UK utility Centrica said it would installing gas turbines capable of running on 100% hydrogen in a new ‘peaking’ electricity generator. The turbines will be gradually ramped up from 3% hydrogen in trials beginning in late 2024/early 2025. Hydrogen will be produced and stored locally. The process for making the hydrogen is innovative, using natural gas as a source and with the carbon being stored as carbon black.

7, Growing cotton. Some estimates suggest that cotton cultivation is responsible for almost half a percent of global emissions. This arises largely because of the extensive use of fertilisers (as well as unequalled amounts of pesticide and increasingly scarce fresh water). One experiment in the Netherlands grew cotton in greenhouses. The positive results suggests a possibility that cotton production could be transferred to regions outside the normal hot and humid growing areas. The Dutch textile manufacturer sponsoring the work reports that production per unit of land was up to 23 times the levels expected in the tropics while fresh water use was minimised and pesticide spraying was avoided completely. The cotton was whiter and higher quality than field grown products. Fertiliser use was also significantly reduced because the cotton was not grown in conventional soil. The manufacturer reports that the cotton grown in this small trial was used to make jeans using an entirely local supply chain. If greenhouse growing works in high latitudes the long term impact on the poorer countries that specialise in cotton growing and textile manufacture could be severe but climate change is unfortunately likely to make cultivation increasingly difficult in decades to come.

8, Netherlands steel. One of the most important steelworks in Europe at IJmuiden on the Dutch coast gave more details of its plan to convert to hydrogen. It expects that the large blast furnace at the site will be switched to direct reduction and electric arc furnaces by 2030. The equipment will be provided by Italian engineering companies Danieli and Tenova, which seem to be gaining a good share of European steel decarbonisation business. The owner of the steelworks, Tata looks to achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2045 with substantial backing from the Dutch government. The measures announced this week will reduce emissions by 40%, or around 3% of total Netherlands emissions, by about 2030.

9, Small Modular Reactors. Several nations are attempting to build SMR fleets, although without clear sight of the likely costs or timescales. Britain has set up a competition between 6 potential suppliers to find the best design. One of the six – Holtec, a US energy engineering business – has started the process of finding a manufacturing site in the UK. The publicity for this announcement said that Holtec’s 160 megawatt reactors, which are still at the design stage, would cost between £1-£2 billion. This is between 25% and 150% higher than specified on Holtec’s US web site, which offers a figure of $1 billion. The troubling lack of certainty over any aspect of SMRs should trouble the backers of this technology. This week IEEFA put out a short report stressing the huge cost overruns in the tiny number of SMRs that have been developed worldwide. The only SMR currently in construction, CAREM 5 in Argentina, is now expected to cost at least seven times its initial estimate.

10, Electric trucks for mining. The huge energy consumption of enormous mining trucks, and the need to work continuously for many hours of the day, has made some think that this sector will be one of the few transport markets to use hydrogen or low carbon ethanol rather than batteries. But BHP and Rio Tinto are going to trial electric trucks made by Caterpillar and Komatsu over the next few years at their Pilbara mines in Australia. Data from the experiments will be shared. The Caterpillar 793 battery vehicle weighs 240 tonnes and a further announcement recently said another vehicle will also be working at a Vale mine in Brazil.