Bullshit. Constantly referring to results published nowhere from a study that never took place remains bullshit.
Reduce ocean swells, killing surfing.
Bullshit. You would have to build a literal wall of turbine towers to stop ocean swell, which developes over hundreds of kilometres. The best surf involves ocean swell and offshore winds, which simply can't be affected by offshore wind turbines.
Reduce onshore winds by 40%.
Bullshit. There is no indication that wind turbines reduce onshore winds. The wind continues past the turbine blades, they don't block it; they don't even slow it down by any reasonable measure. A couple of hundred metres past the turbine you can't measure any effect at all.
Reduce fishing catches.
Bullshit. The tower bases, buried in the ocean bed, provide safe places for fish nurseries and coral growth, increasing the local fish population.
Don't buy into the disinformation being spread in order to stop offshore wind turbine installations. Look at who benefits from them not going ahead.
@DrOinFLA my utility in iowa generated more renewable energy last year than customers used. You probably didn't know that and so think I should be impressed by 6 days.
"The expansion of #RooftopSolar in #NewEngland is keeping the lights on during #winter, surprising the region’s grid operator and challenging long-standing assumptions that the growth of #RenewableEnergy could destabilize the power system."
So many experts were surprised by this outcome, but #solar and #wind keep the #grid stable and save customers on their power #bills:
"The influx of solar has paved the way for the retirement of one of NewEngland’s dirtiest #PowerPlants. #Mystic Generating Station, the third-largest power plant in the region, is slated to close next summer. New England electric customers have been paying a subsidy in recent years to keep the 1,413 megawatt gas plant from shutting down."
#ableg Alberta is currently capable of generating 19671 mWh of power between all the various power plants, wind, solar, geo, hydro, etc.
So I'm wondering, which claims actually make no sense?
The skeptics will say "but solar doesn't work at night"... which is true! But wind still does. Hydro still does. Nuclear still does. And guess what? It works for Ontario, Quebec, BC, and the Maritimes.
@chad “Solar doesn’t work at night” - and neither do most people. Go check your grid operator’s demand charts.
Done well, solar can produce so much power that you have to pay people to use it (See: Germany) which means there’s an economic opportunity in grid-scale storage.
People arguing against green power are today’s version of “The internet is a fad” or “Who needs a mobile phone?”
In this specific case, they’re paid for not understanding how it might work.
#Renewableenergy is approaching an important possible inflection point... what happens when #windfarms reach the end of their (expected) technical lifespan?
Do owners of early windframs (often in prime wind locations) invest in upgraded & now much more efficient (if expensive) new installations, or will they walk away having already earned a return... & if the latter, what happens with those sites; will they remain wind farms ?
This may become the key Q. for #windpower this decade.
@Jawaka@ChrisMayLA6 Repowering costs less than the original construction as you’re literally just fitting a new generating head and blades on an existing tower and wiring. It would be a strange business which, knowing for 25 years that it was going to be needed, didn’t provision for renewal out of revenue. After all, the depreciation is a tax deductible operating cost for precisely that reason.
@Jawaka@ChrisMayLA6 ..don’t have to shut down the whole farm to replace power heads one by one, refurbishment can be funded on a rolling basis out of current revenue. It’s not necessary to go looking for a huge big investment again so you’re not dependent on the financial climate. Your wind farm is like the Ship of Theseus.
The EU installed a record 16.2 GW of wind power capacity last year, and WindEurope expects this to grow to an average of 29 GW/year in the period up to 2030.
Permitting is speeding up, grids seen as the main bottleneck now. #windpower#windenergy#renewables#renewableenergy
#Renewableenergy has expanded at a pace not seen in years. An estimated 507 gigawatts of renewable electricity were added to grids around the world in 2023, an almost 50% year-over-year increase from 2022.
Interestingly, when looking at which #renewableenergy source to prioritise governments might be well advised to (for the moment at least) to pivot towards #solar.
It looks like both the ease of manufacture of components & the current post-Covid glut in the #supplychain are driving down the prices of solar components, while the more complex mechanical needs of #windpower are keeping prices high(er).
So a pragmatic policy right now would be to focus on ramping up solar energy...
Gone are the days when developers could ignore Indigenous rights with impunity.
Now, even if projects that threaten Native land and cultural resources ultimately proceed, they may come with years-long delays that tack on millions of dollars. As more companies look to build wind and solar farms or mine minerals for #RenewableEnergy, failing to recognize #Indigenous sovereignty could make the clean energy transition a lot more expensive and much farther away.
I appreciated this Foreign Policy article that talks about how the green transition will mean LESS mining, not more.
Though I wouldn't call the argument that renewables require an unacceptable amount of mining an "emerging narrative" – seems like people have been making that claim for years now.
I am baffled that people actually still believe buying an EV will not have an immediate positive impact on their family's monthly budget. And yes, I know the initial cost is out of many people's range, but I also know for a great many, it is in their range. So lets talk operating cost:
Case in point: Our EV is at the doctor getting rear end surgery (due to no fault of ours or its, insurance covered, yay).
We received a courtesy car we nicknamed "The Beast". It's a Dodge Journey. I figure one trip to work and back (160km) would probably cost $50. I was forced to use it today so I took the time-hit and drove it to the Transit park-and-ride 35km away
instead.
It means leaving 15min early and getting home 45min later. But that's another topic...
What taking the bus does do immediately is saves me more than half the cost of fuel for The Beast.
A full 160km roundtrip in the EV is about $5 worth of electricity. $50 vs $5.
Fossil fuels? In this economy?
P.S. Oh ya, and you want to talk "range anxiety"? Not only is The Beast only good for around 200km on $50 of gas... that's almost half a tank! Which is not farm from the EV on "range". Sorry, I'll take the EV "anxiety" any day of the week!
@cferdinandi@josie_osborne of course a fully paid off car not ready for replacement would be. As I said in my opening, I acknowledge not everyone can afford that bracket of ICE or EV right now but many many people can. As a family of four in 2019 we made that choice and I can say 100% that it was the better financial decision.
@chris@josie_osborne I get what you're saying, but the cost of the car is 100% part of that cost/benefit equation. You can't just ignore the cost of the car and say it saves you money. That's not how money works.
Well, well, #HinkleyPointC is delayed agin, and the costs are spiralling, but of course given how much has already been invested, no Govt. is going to pull the plug.
Just think what sort of #renewableenergy could have been bought for the (current) total cost of £46bn.
The Govt. is currently trying to hold the line that this is a private sector project to provide #nuclearenergy & so it will not be bailed out.... yeah, right!.
@ChrisMayLA6 Hornsea 3 was estimated at £8bn last I read, so you could build 5 of them, generating maybe 3 times as much power, at half the cost per MWh.
Also - SSE are building a large pump storage scheme very near me. It has a bit less than half the capacity (1.5GW) of Hinckley but you could build 30 of them for £45bn.
It's hard to take: At #COP28, chancellor Scholz presents himself as the leader of a Climate Club with ambition, calls for determination in ramping up #RenewableEnergy and ending coal.
But his own gvmt follows none of that. They're watering down our climate law by diffusing responsibilities, coalition partners block ambitions of the Greens. There's little progress in housing, traffic, heating. Renewables are stagnant.
Such hypocricy undermines the public's already shaky trust in politicians.
@takvera
Politically, they're "scared to death" that any action that causes any real change will only boost further the already strong far-right. It's an open question whether that fear is justified, it might well be. But the battle surely won't be won if one doesn't come out fighting but timidly retreats to a strategy of appeasement that mainly has one thing in mind, the next election - rather than the future or the public good.
Everything from Low-tech Magazine is always meticulously researched and wonderful, but this was especially great.
We are basically trapped in the Iron Age, and our dependence on steel for modern tech and infrastructure poses a carbon emissions challenge. Can low-tech solutions and shifting to renewable-powered electric arc furnaces offer a sustainable escape?
A few short weeks ago, some learned chaps were schooling me on all the reasons hydrogen isn't viable as an energy carrier for vehicles. They obviously forgot to communicate all this to the people actively developing hydrogen infrastructure in Aotearoa.
@strypey@gabriel what it really comes down to for me is, is this system able to be employed by small operators or is it a centralized operation that only works at large scale for big capital?
Introducing the world's first steel produced without using fossil fuels. As a significant contributor to emissions, this breakthrough is critically important.
There are numerous solutions available to address the climate crisis. Let's implement them.
"#RenewableEnergy accounted for more than 30% of the world’s electricity for the first time last year following a rapid rise in wind and solar power, according to new figures.
The surge in clean electricity is expected to power a 2% decrease in global fossil fuel generation in the year ahead, according to Ember."
Fossil gas met just 9 per cent of demand in the first four months of 2024, with gas consumption in the power sector halving compared to the same period in 2023."
"Wind and #solar power generation in the #EuropeanUnion increased by 46% from 2019, when the current European Commission took office, to 2023, displacing a fifth of the bloc's #FossilFuel generation, a report by think tank Ember showed.
Without this expansion, fossil generation would have fallen just 1.9% (21 TWh) instead of 22%."
Technically Nostr doesn't have instances. It has something called relays though, which I think is more intended as a way to get posts from one user to another than as the kind of social home that instances are where all your data rests. Not super clear about that though.
