The Alternative Green Energy Thread

JKenH

Cardew said:

Is China still a 'Third World country?

They are the second richest counry in the world, with a GDP 7 times larger that UK. That economy is largely powered by coal and there are hundreds of coal plants being built.

They are second only to the USA in military spending, and are clearly expanding their interests in many parts of the globe.

How much should we give them?

I think, technically, yes, but I take your point. There are vast levels of inequality in both China and India. It does seem odd though that countries that have space programmes could  be considered third world.

The idea of assisting China with renewables does seem a strange one when they are assisting us with nuclear technology and selling us solar panels but if CO2emissions are the world’s  number one priority and for many people and politicians it seems they are then there is still a lot of levelling up to do. I don’t hold out much hope however as Europe can’t even get Poland in line as far as CO2 emissions are concerned. 

JKenH

How is the world doing using less fossil fuels?

Just to help keep things in perspective. Maybe we need to help wean the Middle East and CIS off fossil fuels. 

https://newsnet.scot/news-analysis/how-is-the-world-doing-using-less-fossil-fuels/

JKenH

Greta Thunberg accuses the UK government of being 'climate villains' 

Speaking to Sky News, Greta Thunberg says the British government are 'climate villains', claiming the climate crisis 'more or less started in the UK' during the industrial revolution.

https://news.sky.com/video/greta-thunberg-accuses-the-uk-government-of-being-climate-villains-12420643

EricMears

She's only about 100,000 years out and should be blaming the African hominids who discovered fire !    

QrizB

It's fair to say the crisis started with the Industrial Revolution, and there's certainly some national pride that the IR started in the UK. Whether that makes modern Britons culpable is a matter of opinion but does make for good headlines and keps the topic in the news (which, I guess, was the whole point).

JKenH

Risk of UK power cuts this winter has increased, says National Grid

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/07/risk-of-uk-power-cuts-this-winter-has-increased-says-national-grid

ABrass

JKenH said:

Risk of UK power cuts this winter has increased, says National Grid

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/07/risk-of-uk-power-cuts-this-winter-has-increased-says-national-grid

Damned unreliable Gas plants.

JKenH

Burning ‘renewable’ biomass for power emits more CO2 than coal

This process of wood burning generated 15.6Mt of CO2 emissions in 2020, compared to 10Mt from coal, according to analysis by think tank Ember and Duncan Brack, a political analyst at Chatham House.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/08/burning-renewable-biomass-power-emits-co2-coal/

ABrass

JKenH said:

Burning ‘renewable’ biomass for power emits more CO2 than coal

This process of wood burning generated 15.6Mt of CO2 emissions in 2020, compared to 10Mt from coal, according to analysis by think tank Ember and Duncan Brack, a political analyst at Chatham House.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/08/burning-renewable-biomass-power-emits-co2-coal/

Since we get twice as much power from Biomass as Coal, isn't that a fairly unsurprising number?

It also ignores that biomass is essentially carbon neutral so all those emissions are balanced by absorption. It's also based on a lot of assumptions. See the report here

https://ember-climate.org/commentary/2021/10/08/uk-biomass-emits-more-co2-than-coal/

shinytop

ABrass said:

JKenH said:

Burning ‘renewable’ biomass for power emits more CO2 than coal

This process of wood burning generated 15.6Mt of CO2 emissions in 2020, compared to 10Mt from coal, according to analysis by think tank Ember and Duncan Brack, a political analyst at Chatham House.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/08/burning-renewable-biomass-power-emits-co2-coal/

Since we get twice as much power from Biomass as Coal, isn't that a fairly unsurprising number?

It also ignores that biomass is essentially carbon neutral so all those emissions are balanced by absorption. It's also based on a lot of assumptions. See the report here

https://ember-climate.org/commentary/2021/10/08/uk-biomass-emits-more-co2-than-coal/

But isn't this the point the article is making, i.e. it's the relative amount, not the total. 

"Due to its lower energy density than fossil fuels, wood – the main source of biomass used for generating power in the UK – has to be burned in higher volumes than coal to produce the same amount of energy. This means that burning wood emits more carbon dioxide per kWh of electricity than coal"

And it is fairly scathing about the carbon neutrality of burning wood.  And the particulate emissions. I have idea of the validity of the claims, just that it's not about the total emissions.  If that were the case, how would gas compare with coal?