'Closing in on the theoretical maximum efficiency, devices for turning heat into electricity are edging closer to being practical for use on the grid, according to University of Michigan research.
Heat batteries could store intermittent renewable energy during peak production hours, relying on a thermal version of solar cells to convert it into electricity later.'
Milestone for floating offshore wind as world-first auction names winner and price
France has announced the winner of the world’s first commercial scale floating offshore wind auction which will see 250MW built off the coast of Southern Brittany in the country’s west.
In a nation where many revere cows, the animals' waste has become an energy resource.
BBC News reports: "Indian cattle produce around three-million tonnes of cow dung a day. ... The government wants more of that dung, and other agriculture waste, to be made into methane."
In some ways the green transition is already happening: it now looks like last year the world overall managed to supply around 30% of electricity through renewable energy (primarily wind & solar).
And solar continues to be the fastest growing renewable energy source, now (for the second year) being the most used source across the world.
This does offer some hope that (albeit late in the day) we are seeing a shift in energy generation!
To actually accomplish a green transition we (the world) needs to spend around $9 trillion a year.... well that's just not affordable, say climate sceptics.
You might say that, but lets have a look at the money we were prepared to pony up to deal with the pandemic.
While a more focused threat & certainly causing some fiscal issues, when required the money can be found.
(Don't get me started on fossil fuels subsidies!)
So its not the money stopping the green transition!
@ChrisMayLA6 utility grids have to replace old equipment anyway, and that budget runs into the trillion dollars a year anyway. If they just use their regular Investment budget only on renewable energy and batteries. They're most of the way to getting to the $9 billion a year.
Disinformation follow up! https://youtu.be/8ONGuJCIkpQ?si=fGQE-JAHD4k1wbfo
Highlighting fear campaign by
Atlas Network (interestingly not mentioned by name)
The #fossilfuels industry:
• manufacture doubt
• thrive on our fear
• promote idea they are the only thing between us & dystopian chaos eg promote #gas as #energy transition
• created myth they are working for us
• fuel fear of the other eg anti immigration #politics#statecapture#auspol
As with so many things in Britain, the green transition in housing is hampered by infrastructure under-investment - we (the country) have been living in a short-term present driven by the electoral cycle & a lack of vision in our political class.... and its now come round to bite us in the bum.
Only when we start to think strategically (not tactically) about our political economic problems will we be able to engineer better solutions!
I asked my dad (an architect in 1950’s UK) how Britain built houses after the 2nd world war he said - local authorities were allowed to obtain 65year mortgages at which repayments were covered by the rental income - it became self financing.
Current gov will not allow Local Authorities to do this now why not?
"Lithium-ion battery prices have declined from USD 1,400 per kilowatt-hour in 2010 to less than USD 140 per kilowatt-hour in 2023, one of the fastest cost declines of any energy technology ever, as a result of progress in research and development and economies of scale in manufacturing."
Remember: fossil fuel companies want people to focus on what uses#energy so we don't talk about the supply side.
They benefit from #environmentalists spending time and energy bickering with one another about whether AI uses too much #electricity, whether to support more #nuclear plants, whether we should mine more #lithium to have grid scale #batteries, and so forth.
That doesn't mean we can't talk about these things, but be #mindful where you spend your energy.
What happens when people complain about energy costs? We need drastic reductions in energy use and, implicitly, in production. How many even know what "Cuba's Special Period" was?
The point of understanding the demand side is to get onboard with drastically reducing that to match the drastic reduction in production based on fossil fuels. If production halts without that, what do you think happens - based on contemporary history?
#KnowledgeByte: The #Kardashev#Scale was developed as a way of measuring a civilization's technological advancement based upon how much usable #Energy it has at its disposal.
California power grid now has batteries that can supply 10GW of power, which is a lot. Yesterday they peaked at 4GW vs. total power demand of 25GW in the evening, when solar peters out, per CAISO. (Power demand gets much higher in summer with air conditioning.)
Molten hydroxide salt energy storage inaugurated in Denmark
"...the facility will ...demonstrate its ability to store energy charged from renewable power, which it can then discharge as heat or steam for either industry or the electricity system. Molten hydroxide generally melts at lower temperature than other kinds of salt, with Hyme claiming it is the first technology provider to enable its use for thermal energy storage. "
@ai6yr I remember using this as the context for a very difficult thermodynamics problem when I was teaching physics. It ended up requiring multiple partial differential equations to solve.
For those of you who (rightly) think that a key element in the world's response to climate change would be the retiring of coal-fired energy capacity & the halt to new building of plant will be concerned by the current record on both.
While we fret (rightly) about oil & gas, we shouldn't forget that coal continues to be a major problem.
Once again our political leaders are making pious pronouncements, but doing too little for a green transition!
