@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

solar_chase

@solar_chase@mastodon.green

Solar analyst with BloombergNEF, goose keeper. Author, "Solar Power Finance Without the Jargon". All opinions my own. She/her.

Book (edition 2) available through all major booksellers, or directly from my publisher on https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/Q0437

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solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

My flock.

Just had a horrible moment finding Lae'zel on her back in an empty pond, but picked her up and she's walking and eating. I have every faith in the ability of goslings to survive almost any injury they walk away from.

The two little ones, Orin and Ethel, are really keen to start running loose with the big ones but there's still head-biting, and crows.

Short video panning over six goslings and their dad. The two smallest are snuggling with the camerawoman's leg.

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

This is my ninth year of having goslings here, and I'm still amazed by how big they are at three weeks old. They're fully waterproof (the top layer of fluff gets a bit soggy but the undercoat is now feathers) and safe to leave out with the adults.

You will read stuff about goslings on the internet like "goslings can be taken off heat at 6 weeks old" and WHAT?! Wild geese fly up to the Arctic to breed! Goslings are tough as old boots, and under good grazing conditions they grow like mushrooms.

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

I'm getting close to being a Public Figure by the 30k-social-media-follower definition, and I have 3 goals with this:

  • spread accurate information on the energy transition
  • make a low-carbon high-tech lifestyle look aspirational
  • combat misinformation about how to keep geese.

There is also a secret goal 4 that I will only admit on Mastodon, which is "have people to make stupid jokes for".

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

We've started handing over the big goslings to Samson the gander overnight, and everyone is happy about this. Especially him; doing childcare is peak goose masculinity.

Female geese can be hostile to goslings they know they didn't hatch, but ganders are always there for single dadhood.

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

BloombergNEF is hiring a new Grids and Utilities analysis team leader in London. Great role for someone experienced, knowledgeable and ready for a challenge.

https://careers.bloomberg.com/job/detail/125431

Lotje, to random
@Lotje@pancakesontuesday.com avatar

Some kind of Ugly Duckling situation?

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

@Lotje some crossbreeding with a white domestic drake on that one, probably. Same species as the mallard, different colour variety.

My understanding of duck colour genetics is rusty but it's possible the mother duck also has some hidden domestic genes to make that one duckling come out white.

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

I invariably think "I'm going to let the goslings loose, sit with them to keep them safe from crows, and do some writing" and then I do not do any writing.

(Image shows some goslings exploring a pond).

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

The thing about goslings is that they are adorable soft warm creatures who want nothing more than to cuddle and fall asleep with you (when they're not grazing), and also extremely inefficient grass processing machines which shit every few minutes.

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

I am generally anti jargon, but if you want to talk about infrastructure or equipment costs in any detail it is worth adding the words "capex" and "opex" to your working vocabulary.

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-12/biden-s-china-tariffs-salvo-to-range-from-doubling-to-quadruple

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

If you're interested in genuinely understanding clean energy as a business for work or fun, I wrote a book, Solar Power Finance Without the Jargon - now with new second edition - said to be "...broader in scope, and much more fun to read, than its title suggests".

The answer to "what impact do the new Section 301 US tariffs on Chinese cells and modules have on the solar sector?" is "none, the US has had tariffs on China for years so its cell and module imports come from southeast Asia anyway".

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

It's really easy to be skeptical of carbon trading, but the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme does actually seem to be working (along with great strides forward in the technology of solar, wind, batteries and heatpumps). Some reduction in industry, but mostly this is just having better options for generating and using energy.

https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/04/25/carbon-emissions-are-dropping-fast-in-europe

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

Review of my book!

"...broader in scope, and much more fun to read, than its title suggests. It's an expert-guided whirlwind tour of the solar industry as of the year 2023."

https://pubs.aip.org/aapt/ajp/article/92/5/399/3283232/Solar-Power-Finance-Without-the-Jargon-by-Jenny

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

Guardian: people in India are recycling solar panels and getting money from it, and that's bad.

(Obviously I think Hussain's workers and Tayyab should have appropriate safety equipment, but Tayyab at least works for himself).

The numbers as usual are so contextless. CEEC study has Indian solar making cumulative 600,000 metric tons of waste by 2030 - but India produces about 3 million tons of glass waste a year, 45% of which is recycled, according to Karo Sambhav.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/apr/18/india-clean-energy-solar-power-plant-panel-waste-recycling-pollution-regulation

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

The article also does the usual thing of claiming that solar panels contain rare earths: this is simply untrue.

The thing about standard solar panels is there's nothing especially toxic in them. Or, unfortunately, much of value except for the aluminum frames.

Overall the article isn't unbalanced. As it says, India's government introduced producer-pays e-waste rules for solar panels in 2022, the panels are being recycled albeit informally, glass is heavy and low value and can cut your hands.

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

I'm mostly impressed that there is enough value for an informal economy recycling the tiny volumes available of used solar panels. People here must be very poor for that to be worth the labour.

I'm just not sure stopping them doing it would help them.

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

Standard practice in Europe is to warehouse waste solar modules for recycling until you have collected enough volume to configure a glass recycling facility to process modules for a few weeks. The accumulation can take some time, because current volumes are so small.

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

General rule of thumb is bare minimum 10k/year of waste to set up a dedicated recycling plant. The CEEC study suggests that 2023-2030 solar waste will be about 35kt/year in India, so it's going to take a while for regional plants to be needed.

https://www.ceew.in/publications/how-can-india-enable-circular-economy-with-solar-energy-waste-management-disposal

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

Honestly I just get a bit exasperated by headlines implying there's a "dark secret" on articles proceeding to quote multiple named people and studies. It's like "nobody is recycling solar panels" - according to multiple solar panel recyclers.

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

My book Solar Power Finance Without the Jargon (2nd Edition) has a press release. The book is available from all good bookshops and libraries.

If you read it, please do consider rating and reviewing it on goodreads, amazon, or other platforms.

https://www.worldscientific.com/pressroom/2024-04-15-01

inquiline, to random
@inquiline@union.place avatar

The world:
is on fire

My Mastodon people:
keep remarking on and boosting this article about maintaining undersea cables 💙

https://www.theverge.com/c/24070570/internet-cables-undersea-deep-repair-ships

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

@inquiline this is so interesting though.

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

In much sadder news, after the two-meter electrified fence had worked for 11 years, an extremely athletic fox got in on Friday and killed 4 out of 9 geese. The rest of the geese are traumatised and we are very sad. And I am very annoyed with myself for the things I could have done differently.

Ultimately though if you are going to have pets you need to accept pet death, I tell myself. Eggs developing in the incubator and we'll fix the fence.

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

@samueljohnson oh, the fence is only electrified on top, it's two meters high and extends fifty centimeters into the ground. This is a fence that is more serious infrastructure than many people's houses.

However there's a wooden panel leaning on the other side of it on the neighbour's side, overgrown with ivy, and somehow the fox managed to scramble up that (we're pretty sure as there was a goose head stuck two meters up just under the electric strand).

solar_chase,
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

@samueljohnson yeah.... geese do not go into houses at night.

At least of their own accord - we can drive them in, and that's what we are currently doing, but it's hard to get holiday cover who can make geese go somewhere they don't want to go and are available in two one-hour windows twice a day.

Geese by nature seek open spaces, ideally lakes but fields if necessary, for safety.

solar_chase, to random
@solar_chase@mastodon.green avatar

EU emissions in sectors covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme (mostly power and heavy industry) fell 15.5% in 2023, the biggest fall since records began. Mostly due to renewables.

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-carbon-dioxide-emissions-drop-soaring-renewable-energy/

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