Ron Wagner + 649 June 12, 2023 https://www.yahoo.com/news/britain-green-energy-disaster-awful-050000590.html Britain’s green energy disaster should be an awful warning to Americans 1.1k Capell Aris Sun, June 11, 2023 at 12:00 AM CDT Blade inspectors carry out work recently in the North Sea - Antonie Robson ast year, the Biden administration set an ambitious new goal for the USA: to deploy 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity by the year 2030, increasing US offshore capacity more than seven hundred times over. The UK already has 15 GW of offshore wind, more than 300 times as much as the USA: and our experience should be a terrible warning to Americans. The UK’s electricity prices are the highest since records began in 1920 and are now amongst the highest in all Europe. One reason for this is obvious: slightly less than half our electricity comes from gas-burning Combined Cycle Gas Turbines (CCGTs) and gas now costs £90 per megawatt-hour (MWh), nearly five times higher than normal. CCGTs are cheap to build (around £650m per GW) and operate. In normal times they would generate electricity at a total cost of £40 per MWh. That’s now risen to nearly £150/MWh, thanks to Vladimir Putin and his impact on the gas market. But that’s not the whole story. The other reason why British electricity is so expensive is because we have so much wind power: particularly, so much offshore wind power. Bad though the current situation is, we would be an even worse state if we had built even more offshore wind, as the British government plans to. As an example, the offshore wind farms Hornsea Two and Moray East were completed in 2022 with capital costs of £2.77 billion per GW and £2.75bn/GW, more than four times the cost of CCGT capacity. They’re expensive to maintain, which is not surprising since offshore windfarms have all their many generators mounted at the top of 200-metre tall masts far away from land. Estimates of maintenance costs are as high as £200m per GW installed, per annum. The nominal cost of offshore wind generation is £170/MWh – noticeably higher than that for CCGTs, even in these dire times of high gas prices. The other factor to bear in mind is that not only is wind capacity extremely expensive to build, wind farms do not deliver anything like their rated capacity over time. This is bad news for the customer, because the higher the capacity factor – that is, the higher the percentage of the rated capacity the powerplant actually delivers over time – the cheaper the energy. In 2022 the UK’s onshore and offshore windfarms operated with a capacity factor of 33 per cent. In 2021 it was only 29 per cent. It gets worse. Like most other renewable generation technologies, wind power is unpredictably intermittent and highly variable. Also, since wind turbines are not synchronously connected to the grid, they provide no “grid inertia” – more on that shortly. Wind turbines cannot be asked to deliver energy when it is required, and their output changes rapidly. These failings must be mitigated and costed, and users have to pay for these costs on top of the price of the electricity. In 2021 the UK annual grid balancing costs reached £4.19 billion, £150 per household. For context, back in 1995 when we didn’t have much wind power the balancing cost for the grid was a mere £250 million per annum. A large, and growing, contribution to these costs is constraint management, as when a wind farm producing electricity which isn’t wanted – perhaps when it is windy in the middle of the night – is paid not to put that electricity into the grid. The problems and costs don’t stop there. Our transmission grid system was originally designed to link generation centres close to sources of fuel (coal, gas) and load centres such as cities. Now our generation sites are moving further away from load centres. Our grid transmission system has to be expanded to connect the new renewable generators, which is bad enough when they are on a remote hilltop and worse still when they are out at sea. The National Grid estimates that on current plans this work will cost £46 billion – £1,533 per household – to 2030. Then there’s grid inertia. The British grid is termed an island grid, which means that we are solely responsible for controlling the grid frequency between tight limits so that things plugged into the grid will work as expected. Frequency control becomes easier as the inertia of the grid system increases. Grid system inertia is a key measure of how resilient the system is in response to transient changes. Inertia is the sum of the energy stored within the rotating mass of the machines (generators and motors) connected directly to the system. Low system inertia increases the risk of rapid system changes, which may then lead to disconnection of load or generation and then system instability. Apart from tree-burning biomass stations and hydro generation, renewables plants bring no inertia to the grid: as the proportion of renewables rises, system inertia falls and the risk of major problems such as blackouts increases. We have attempted to reduce the issue of intermittency by expanding our connections to the European electricity grid – the hope being that the wind will be blowing somewhere else even if it is not blowing here – but we’re still exposed to periods when wind generation across the whole of Europe falls near to nothing. And these connections do not help with inertia and stability either because few of the connections to the continent are synchronous connections. In 1995 the problem of grid frequency stability required provision of rapidly responding generators capable of changing their combined output at a rate of 0.13 GW per second in order to deal with fluctuations. With the arrival of so much unpredictable wind power, that figure has now increased almost tenfold to 1.15 GW per second! Extra services like very rapid response gas generators, required in order to make it possible to connect renewables to the grid, add between £30/MWh and £50/MWh to renewables’ cost. Thus the true cost to the customer of offshore wind generators is actually between £200/MWh and £220/MWh, much more than CCGTs even in these times of ruinously high gas prices. Phasing out CCGT production will therefore increase domestic electricity prices painfully. But it seems that CCGTs will be phased out much sooner than planned. The government has proposed an expansion to 60 GW of offshore wind by 2030 (capital expenditure £122 billion) and solar to 70 GW by 2035 (capital expenditure to 2030 £30 billion). This is extremely unwise: we still have no way of storing electricity at scale and the planned transitions of home heating and transport to electrical power are progressing weakly and may yet stall completely. Creating such a large solar generation fleet raises the nightmare scenario of early summer mornings, with little demand and the vast majority of generation being solar with zero inertia: massive grid collapses would be all but a certainty. Vast amounts of energy will be generated only to be expensively constrained off and probably wasted, and the scenario of unmet demand – with attendant blackouts – will become unavoidable. The UK grid is simply not able to cope with the proposed amounts of renewables. And we simply cannot afford all this. If we add the costs of an even more extended National Grid, this programme of wind and solar generation expansion will cost £232 billion – more than £8,000 per household this decade – all to be paid for by the suffering energy user. It should be emphasised that these figures do not include the costs of the huge energy storage industry which will also be necessary, whatever that may turn out to be: hydrogen or ammonia or something even more dangerous and expensive. Heat pumps and switching to electric vehicles could lift total costs above £1 trillion. Truly, Americans should look at the British renewables disaster and give thanks that today they have hardly any offshore wind. And they might, looking at the UK, recoil with horror from the plans of the Biden administration: especially as most US offshore wind will need to be floating offshore wind rather than built on the seabed, and so even more expensive. If either nation would like to reduce carbon emissions and/or reduce its dependence on fossil fuels supplied by unsavoury overseas regimes, an immediate measure would be to build new, modern, high efficiency CCGT plant which would immediately cut the need for gas and reduce emissions without requiring vast, expensive alterations to the grid and special measures so that they don’t cause it to collapse. We should also begin building new nuclear plant with some genuine urgency, as that is the only genuine, affordable, practical way to seriously cut emissions and achieve secure energy supplies. Dr Capell Aris PhD has spent his career in the electricity generation sector. He is a former Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer. View comments 1 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob Plant + 2,635 RP June 12, 2023 On 6/9/2023 at 8:07 PM, Ecocharger said: You neglected this final judgment in the article, which changes the forecast massively. "However, soaring battery demand is putting pressure on the supply chain for materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel, BNEF noted." The article is what it is, I wouldnt cherry pick parts out of it as it would lose context. However regarding REE this was also on Oil Price recently. https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Norway-Considers-Opening-Huge-Area-To-Deep-Sea-Mining.html Not to sure how they can do this without ruining their fisheries and the subsea environment as a whole though. That being said they mine for diamonds on the sea bed off the coast of Namibia and South Africa by using massive suction pipes to suck up the sand and smaller rocks. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob Plant + 2,635 RP June 12, 2023 On 6/10/2023 at 2:08 AM, Ron Wagner said: There are still twice as many natural gas vehicles on the road and they are larger. This fact is not made public in the mass media. It does not fit their game plan. That is a good and valid point, however NG powered vehicles are generally not passenger vehicles but heavier vehicles. 26 million NG vehicles globally https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/research-centres-and-groups/sustainable-gas-institute/Technical-Report-1-Natural-Gas-as-a-Fuel-for-Heavy-Goods-Vehicles.pdf However again the growth in NG vehicles is pretty stagnant whereas EV's grew by 60% last year to over 10 million globally last year. they will soon overtake NG powered vehicles. There are also range issues with CNG vehicles and limited refuelling service stations. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/03/ev-car-sales-energy-environment-gas/ https://afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/natural_gas.html Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob Plant + 2,635 RP June 12, 2023 On 6/10/2023 at 1:24 AM, Eyes Wide Open said: There Is No Supply Chain Eh? Have you let Elon Musk know?? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Old-Ruffneck + 1,177 er June 12, 2023 More Than Half Of China’s Power Capacity Is Now Non-Fossil Fuels More Than Half Of China’s Power Capacity Is Now Non-Fossil Fuels | OilPrice.com Now who woulda guessed that?? 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eyes Wide Open + 3,542 June 12, 2023 (edited) 5 hours ago, Rob Plant said: Eh? Have you let Elon Musk know?? Have a read grasshopper... Tesla beyond all the hype is a mere novelty. The next 2 quarters will be extraordinary eye popping... EV Has a Problem: 90% of the Battery Supply Chain ‘Does Not Exist’ June 20, 2022 https://www.industryweek.com/supply-chain/article/21244607/ev-has-a-problem-90-of-the-battery-supply-chain-does-not-exist Edited June 12, 2023 by Eyes Wide Open Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eyes Wide Open + 3,542 June 12, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, Old-Ruffneck said: More Than Half Of China’s Power Capacity Is Now Non-Fossil Fuels More Than Half Of China’s Power Capacity Is Now Non-Fossil Fuels | OilPrice.com Now who woulda guessed that?? How China has Become the World's Fastest Expanding Nuclear Power Producer Laura Gil https://www.iaea.org/bulletin/how-china-has-become-the-worlds-fastest-expanding-nuclear-power-producer Edited June 12, 2023 by Eyes Wide Open Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob Plant + 2,635 RP June 12, 2023 29 minutes ago, Eyes Wide Open said: Have a read grasshopper... Tesla beyond all the hype is a mere novelty. The next 2 quarters will be extraordinary eye popping... EV Has a Problem: 90% of the Battery Supply Chain ‘Does Not Exist’ June 20, 2022 https://www.industryweek.com/supply-chain/article/21244607/ev-has-a-problem-90-of-the-battery-supply-chain-does-not-exist Your article grasshopper is from June 2022 and ONLY applies to the USA so quite out of date already. My understanding is there is significant traction required with EV uptake in your country hence the lack of investment in EV battery production. Then again there is this little thing called imports either EV batteries or the actual finished car! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Eyes Wide Open + 3,542 June 12, 2023 (edited) 47 minutes ago, Rob Plant said: My understanding is there is significant traction required with EV uptake in your country hence the lack of investment in EV battery production. Then again there is this little thing called imports either EV batteries or the actual That would be a very good outcome..no traction. You see Mr.Plant the sheer scale of such a event would disrupt the raw material chain into utter chaos... EV Automakers Fight For Access To Better Batteries The electrification wave is among the most important revolutions of our lifetime. Fossil fuel advocates and corporations aren’t particularly sanguine about this coming change—their infrastructure investments and assets are worth many trillions and have woven themselves into the fabric of just about every economy on the planet—but technological change is an all-consuming and ultimately inexorable force. When a better way of doing something comes along—especially if it’s profitable—that better way steamrolls the older tech. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnfrazer1/2023/04/03/ev-automakers-fight-for-access-to-better-batteries/ Edited June 12, 2023 by Eyes Wide Open Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob Plant + 2,635 RP June 12, 2023 (edited) 12 minutes ago, Eyes Wide Open said: That would be a very good outcome..no traction. You see Mr.Plant the sheer scale of such a event would disrupt the raw material chain into utter chaos... EV Automakers Fight For Access To Better Batteries The electrification wave is among the most important revolutions of our lifetime. Fossil fuel advocates and corporations aren’t particularly sanguine about this coming change—their infrastructure investments and assets are worth many trillions and have woven themselves into the fabric of just about every economy on the planet—but technological change is an all-consuming and ultimately inexorable force. When a better way of doing something comes along—especially if it’s profitable—that better way steamrolls the older tech. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnfrazer1/2023/04/03/ev-automakers-fight-for-access-to-better-batteries/ Hey look I would be amazed if there werent some supply issues with a fledgling new industry, name one where that hasnt been the case! It doesnt mean they arent insurmountable. Do you think there were loads of roadside service stations around before the ICE vehicle became mainstream, or for that matter replacement parts or even mechanics and garages to repair them? Edited June 12, 2023 by Rob Plant 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ron Wagner + 649 June 13, 2023 https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/britain-fires-coal-plant-weather-185612922.html Britain fires up coal plant as solar panels suffer in hot weather 261 Melissa Lawford Mon, June 12, 2023 at 6:01 PM CDT Ratcliffe-on-Soar - David Davies/PA Britain has started burning coal to generate electricity for the first time in a month and a half, after the heatwave made solar panels too hot to work efficiently. One unit at Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant in Nottinghamshire started producing electricity for the first time in weeks on Monday morning, while another coal-powered plant was warmed up in case it was needed by the early afternoon. The National Grid turned to coal to generate electricity as a rush to turn on air conditioning and fans across the country during the heatwave led to a spike in demand. High temperatures over the weekend also reduced the amount of energy generated from solar panels. Output on Sunday was almost a third lower than a week earlier, despite temperatures climbing above 30 degrees celsius across large parts of the country. Solar panels are tested at a benchmark of 25C. For every degree rise in temperature above this level, the efficiency is reduced by 0.5 percentage points. The temperature level refers to the solar cell temperature, rather than the air temperature. In direct sunlight, the cells can easily reach 60 or 70 degrees. Alastair Buckley, professor of organic electronics at the University of Sheffield, said: “Both days were largely sunny in the morning, so a good part of the reduction in output will be due to the efficiency reduction from higher temperatures on Saturday compared to Friday. “Compared with a cool cloudy day, the cells might be a maximum of 25pc less efficient.” Supply was also lower because of depressed wind speeds, which hit turbine output, and some gas power plants being shut for maintenance. The weekend’s heatwave was followed by storms across Britain, which disrupted both domestic and international travel. More than 15,000 easyJet passengers have seen their flights cancelled over the past few days as a result of the thunderstorms. The airline axed 54 flights scheduled to take off or depart from Gatwick Airport on Sunday, with a further 55 grounded on Monday. Meanwhile, Londoners battled through flood water on Monday evening after thunderstorms overwhelmed drainage systems. Motorists in Barnet, North London, were filmed driving through water-filled streets, while London Fire Brigade said it had been called to “several reports” of flooding. A yellow weather warning was in place for parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and much of England on Monday. A more severe amber alert was issued for parts of southern England and the Midlands, where the Met Office said homes and businesses were “likely” to be flooded. Members of the public were advised to keep their phones charged in case of power cuts. Grahame Madge, a Met Office meteorologist, said: “By their nature, [thunderstorms] develop quickly and in almost seemingly random areas. “We are advising that people might want to think about how suddenly they can be subjected to flash flooding or a power cut. Are people prepared? Make sure mobile phones are charged and that sort of thing.” While the rain brought some welcome relief to plants after weeks without precipitation, woodland conservation charities have raised the alarm about the survival of urban trees during Britain’s increasingly hot, dry summers. Charities including the Arboricultural Association are asking the public to help water street trees. It is thought that between 30-50pc of newly-planted urban trees die within the first year. Each needs up to 50 litres of water per week. Coal was producing around 0.7pc of the electricity being used in the UK on Sunday. It brought to an end a 46-day coal-free period for Britain’s grid, shy of the nearly 68-day record it set in the summer of 2020. That was the longest single period since 1882 that the grid went without burning coal to produce electricity. Before Monday, the last time the National Grid used coal was for a 22.5-hour period ending at half past midnight on April 27. Octopus Energy on Tuesday called for the National Grid to introduce a permanent scheme to reward customers for using less energy at peak times in order to reduce dependence on coal. Nearly 700,000 Octopus smart meter users received £5.4m under its Savings Session trial over winter, where customers were paid to use less power than they otherwise normally would during peak times. In total, Octopus said its scheme shifted 1.86Gwh of electricity demand to times of less stress on the network - the equivalent of stopping two million washing machine runs. Octopus argued that rolling out the system across Britain would reduce the cost of the National Grid’s coal contingency by about three quarters, from £340-395m last winter to just £106m. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer. View comments Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ron Wagner + 649 June 13, 2023 19 hours ago, Rob Plant said: That is a good and valid point, however NG powered vehicles are generally not passenger vehicles but heavier vehicles. 26 million NG vehicles globally https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/research-centres-and-groups/sustainable-gas-institute/Technical-Report-1-Natural-Gas-as-a-Fuel-for-Heavy-Goods-Vehicles.pdf However again the growth in NG vehicles is pretty stagnant whereas EV's grew by 60% last year to over 10 million globally last year. they will soon overtake NG powered vehicles. There are also range issues with CNG vehicles and limited refuelling service stations. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/03/ev-car-sales-energy-environment-gas/ https://afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/natural_gas.html Natural gas vehicles will still be hauling needed products around the world including across oceans, lakes, estuaries, rivers, etc. Add up all that energy produced by natural gas and it will far surpass electric vehicles. They will continue to be built and the ratio of energy use may not change at all. Also, What percentage of worldwide electric vehicles will be fueled from coal and natural gas versus wind turbines and solar? I doubt we will see the day that happens worldwide. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
specinho + 440 June 13, 2023 3 hours ago, Ron Wagner said: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/britain-fires-coal-plant-weather-185612922.html Britain fires up coal plant as solar panels suffer in hot weather 261 Melissa Lawford Mon, June 12, 2023 at 6:01 PM CDT Ratcliffe-on-Soar - David Davies/PA Britain has started burning coal to generate electricity for the first time in a month and a half, after the heatwave made solar panels too hot to work efficiently. One unit at Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant in Nottinghamshire started producing electricity for the first time in weeks on Monday morning, while another coal-powered plant was warmed up in case it was needed by the early afternoon. The National Grid turned to coal to generate electricity as a rush to turn on air conditioning and fans across the country during the heatwave led to a spike in demand. High temperatures over the weekend also reduced the amount of energy generated from solar panels. Output on Sunday was almost a third lower than a week earlier, despite temperatures climbing above 30 degrees celsius across large parts of the country. Solar panels are tested at a benchmark of 25C. For every degree rise in temperature above this level, the efficiency is reduced by 0.5 percentage points. The temperature level refers to the solar cell temperature, rather than the air temperature. In direct sunlight, the cells can easily reach 60 or 70 degrees. Alastair Buckley, professor of organic electronics at the University of Sheffield, said: “Both days were largely sunny in the morning, so a good part of the reduction in output will be due to the efficiency reduction from higher temperatures on Saturday compared to Friday. “Compared with a cool cloudy day, the cells might be a maximum of 25pc less efficient.” Supply was also lower because of depressed wind speeds, which hit turbine output, and some gas power plants being shut for maintenance. The weekend’s heatwave was followed by storms across Britain, which disrupted both domestic and international travel. More than 15,000 easyJet passengers have seen their flights cancelled over the past few days as a result of the thunderstorms. The airline axed 54 flights scheduled to take off or depart from Gatwick Airport on Sunday, with a further 55 grounded on Monday. Meanwhile, Londoners battled through flood water on Monday evening after thunderstorms overwhelmed drainage systems. Motorists in Barnet, North London, were filmed driving through water-filled streets, while London Fire Brigade said it had been called to “several reports” of flooding. A yellow weather warning was in place for parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and much of England on Monday. A more severe amber alert was issued for parts of southern England and the Midlands, where the Met Office said homes and businesses were “likely” to be flooded. Members of the public were advised to keep their phones charged in case of power cuts. Grahame Madge, a Met Office meteorologist, said: “By their nature, [thunderstorms] develop quickly and in almost seemingly random areas. “We are advising that people might want to think about how suddenly they can be subjected to flash flooding or a power cut. Are people prepared? Make sure mobile phones are charged and that sort of thing.” While the rain brought some welcome relief to plants after weeks without precipitation, woodland conservation charities have raised the alarm about the survival of urban trees during Britain’s increasingly hot, dry summers. Charities including the Arboricultural Association are asking the public to help water street trees. It is thought that between 30-50pc of newly-planted urban trees die within the first year. Each needs up to 50 litres of water per week. Coal was producing around 0.7pc of the electricity being used in the UK on Sunday. It brought to an end a 46-day coal-free period for Britain’s grid, shy of the nearly 68-day record it set in the summer of 2020. That was the longest single period since 1882 that the grid went without burning coal to produce electricity. Before Monday, the last time the National Grid used coal was for a 22.5-hour period ending at half past midnight on April 27. Octopus Energy on Tuesday called for the National Grid to introduce a permanent scheme to reward customers for using less energy at peak times in order to reduce dependence on coal. Nearly 700,000 Octopus smart meter users received £5.4m under its Savings Session trial over winter, where customers were paid to use less power than they otherwise normally would during peak times. In total, Octopus said its scheme shifted 1.86Gwh of electricity demand to times of less stress on the network - the equivalent of stopping two million washing machine runs. Octopus argued that rolling out the system across Britain would reduce the cost of the National Grid’s coal contingency by about three quarters, from £340-395m last winter to just £106m. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer. View comments This image below is highly informative... It might also give a hint on how to allow trees to be self sustained amidst city streets... Have been thinking how much energy would it take shall they feed the not moving wind turbines with part of the electricity and let them run despite there is no wind...? Would it be worth it? Or, can they modify the blades to be mechanically incline? For example, old water mill located beside a stream ( shown in a movie) used buckets of water arranged in diagonal arrays as leverage to turn the turbine. Would wind turbine be able to create this leverage i.e. once in the momentum, it would be self sustaining... Do not recall if the buckets were in fixed direction or free moving... The later design could be seen in water park or children play ground where water is spilled from the top into the buckets, creating a force, either when the water is filled or when the water is empty out. Those solar panels... '~' Would it be worth it to use part of the electricity generated to stimulate the jump of electrons? '-' Free sources is probably not really free now, if they want it to work at higher efficiency... 'n' 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob Plant + 2,635 RP June 13, 2023 4 hours ago, Ron Wagner said: Natural gas vehicles will still be hauling needed products around the world including across oceans, lakes, estuaries, rivers, etc. Add up all that energy produced by natural gas and it will far surpass electric vehicles. They will continue to be built and the ratio of energy use may not change at all. Also, What percentage of worldwide electric vehicles will be fueled from coal and natural gas versus wind turbines and solar? I doubt we will see the day that happens worldwide. Who knows? You may be right Ron and yes there will always be a need for some NG vehicles IMO, however their numbers will be dwarfed by EV's in the next 10 years. How that electricity is produced is dependent on government policy in each region/country. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ecocharger + 1,380 DL June 14, 2023 On 6/12/2023 at 9:44 AM, Eyes Wide Open said: Have a read grasshopper... Tesla beyond all the hype is a mere novelty. The next 2 quarters will be extraordinary eye popping... EV Has a Problem: 90% of the Battery Supply Chain ‘Does Not Exist’ June 20, 2022 https://www.industryweek.com/supply-chain/article/21244607/ev-has-a-problem-90-of-the-battery-supply-chain-does-not-exist Nice article, here is one paragraph from the above, "Mining remains a key challenge, too. EV batteries require nickel, lithium, manganese, and cobalt—elements not easily accessible to American producers due to highly restrictive U.S. mining policies. As a result, the U.S. remains dependent on imports for battery production. Currently, the U.S. only has one lithium-producing mine, and still imports the majority of its lithium. Nickel is in tight supply as well due to the conflict in Ukraine—with Russia and China among the world’s largest nickel producers. The U.S. only has one operating nickel mine; it’s slated to close by 2025." 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ecocharger + 1,380 DL June 14, 2023 On 6/12/2023 at 11:05 PM, Ron Wagner said: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/britain-fires-coal-plant-weather-185612922.html Britain fires up coal plant as solar panels suffer in hot weather 261 Melissa Lawford Mon, June 12, 2023 at 6:01 PM CDT Ratcliffe-on-Soar - David Davies/PA Britain has started burning coal to generate electricity for the first time in a month and a half, after the heatwave made solar panels too hot to work efficiently. One unit at Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant in Nottinghamshire started producing electricity for the first time in weeks on Monday morning, while another coal-powered plant was warmed up in case it was needed by the early afternoon. The National Grid turned to coal to generate electricity as a rush to turn on air conditioning and fans across the country during the heatwave led to a spike in demand. High temperatures over the weekend also reduced the amount of energy generated from solar panels. Output on Sunday was almost a third lower than a week earlier, despite temperatures climbing above 30 degrees celsius across large parts of the country. Solar panels are tested at a benchmark of 25C. For every degree rise in temperature above this level, the efficiency is reduced by 0.5 percentage points. The temperature level refers to the solar cell temperature, rather than the air temperature. In direct sunlight, the cells can easily reach 60 or 70 degrees. Alastair Buckley, professor of organic electronics at the University of Sheffield, said: “Both days were largely sunny in the morning, so a good part of the reduction in output will be due to the efficiency reduction from higher temperatures on Saturday compared to Friday. “Compared with a cool cloudy day, the cells might be a maximum of 25pc less efficient.” Supply was also lower because of depressed wind speeds, which hit turbine output, and some gas power plants being shut for maintenance. The weekend’s heatwave was followed by storms across Britain, which disrupted both domestic and international travel. More than 15,000 easyJet passengers have seen their flights cancelled over the past few days as a result of the thunderstorms. The airline axed 54 flights scheduled to take off or depart from Gatwick Airport on Sunday, with a further 55 grounded on Monday. Meanwhile, Londoners battled through flood water on Monday evening after thunderstorms overwhelmed drainage systems. Motorists in Barnet, North London, were filmed driving through water-filled streets, while London Fire Brigade said it had been called to “several reports” of flooding. A yellow weather warning was in place for parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and much of England on Monday. A more severe amber alert was issued for parts of southern England and the Midlands, where the Met Office said homes and businesses were “likely” to be flooded. Members of the public were advised to keep their phones charged in case of power cuts. Grahame Madge, a Met Office meteorologist, said: “By their nature, [thunderstorms] develop quickly and in almost seemingly random areas. “We are advising that people might want to think about how suddenly they can be subjected to flash flooding or a power cut. Are people prepared? Make sure mobile phones are charged and that sort of thing.” While the rain brought some welcome relief to plants after weeks without precipitation, woodland conservation charities have raised the alarm about the survival of urban trees during Britain’s increasingly hot, dry summers. Charities including the Arboricultural Association are asking the public to help water street trees. It is thought that between 30-50pc of newly-planted urban trees die within the first year. Each needs up to 50 litres of water per week. Coal was producing around 0.7pc of the electricity being used in the UK on Sunday. It brought to an end a 46-day coal-free period for Britain’s grid, shy of the nearly 68-day record it set in the summer of 2020. That was the longest single period since 1882 that the grid went without burning coal to produce electricity. Before Monday, the last time the National Grid used coal was for a 22.5-hour period ending at half past midnight on April 27. Octopus Energy on Tuesday called for the National Grid to introduce a permanent scheme to reward customers for using less energy at peak times in order to reduce dependence on coal. Nearly 700,000 Octopus smart meter users received £5.4m under its Savings Session trial over winter, where customers were paid to use less power than they otherwise normally would during peak times. In total, Octopus said its scheme shifted 1.86Gwh of electricity demand to times of less stress on the network - the equivalent of stopping two million washing machine runs. Octopus argued that rolling out the system across Britain would reduce the cost of the National Grid’s coal contingency by about three quarters, from £340-395m last winter to just £106m. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer. View comments Coal Is King. Even with a crazed panic-stricken government pushing renewable energy, they still need coal. 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob Plant + 2,635 RP June 14, 2023 (edited) On 6/13/2023 at 4:05 AM, Ron Wagner said: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/britain-fires-coal-plant-weather-185612922.html Britain fires up coal plant as solar panels suffer in hot weather 261 Melissa Lawford Mon, June 12, 2023 at 6:01 PM CDT Ratcliffe-on-Soar - David Davies/PA Britain has started burning coal to generate electricity for the first time in a month and a half, after the heatwave made solar panels too hot to work efficiently. One unit at Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant in Nottinghamshire started producing electricity for the first time in weeks on Monday morning, while another coal-powered plant was warmed up in case it was needed by the early afternoon. The National Grid turned to coal to generate electricity as a rush to turn on air conditioning and fans across the country during the heatwave led to a spike in demand. High temperatures over the weekend also reduced the amount of energy generated from solar panels. Output on Sunday was almost a third lower than a week earlier, despite temperatures climbing above 30 degrees celsius across large parts of the country. Solar panels are tested at a benchmark of 25C. For every degree rise in temperature above this level, the efficiency is reduced by 0.5 percentage points. The temperature level refers to the solar cell temperature, rather than the air temperature. In direct sunlight, the cells can easily reach 60 or 70 degrees. Alastair Buckley, professor of organic electronics at the University of Sheffield, said: “Both days were largely sunny in the morning, so a good part of the reduction in output will be due to the efficiency reduction from higher temperatures on Saturday compared to Friday. “Compared with a cool cloudy day, the cells might be a maximum of 25pc less efficient.” Supply was also lower because of depressed wind speeds, which hit turbine output, and some gas power plants being shut for maintenance. The weekend’s heatwave was followed by storms across Britain, which disrupted both domestic and international travel. More than 15,000 easyJet passengers have seen their flights cancelled over the past few days as a result of the thunderstorms. The airline axed 54 flights scheduled to take off or depart from Gatwick Airport on Sunday, with a further 55 grounded on Monday. Meanwhile, Londoners battled through flood water on Monday evening after thunderstorms overwhelmed drainage systems. Motorists in Barnet, North London, were filmed driving through water-filled streets, while London Fire Brigade said it had been called to “several reports” of flooding. A yellow weather warning was in place for parts of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and much of England on Monday. A more severe amber alert was issued for parts of southern England and the Midlands, where the Met Office said homes and businesses were “likely” to be flooded. Members of the public were advised to keep their phones charged in case of power cuts. Grahame Madge, a Met Office meteorologist, said: “By their nature, [thunderstorms] develop quickly and in almost seemingly random areas. “We are advising that people might want to think about how suddenly they can be subjected to flash flooding or a power cut. Are people prepared? Make sure mobile phones are charged and that sort of thing.” While the rain brought some welcome relief to plants after weeks without precipitation, woodland conservation charities have raised the alarm about the survival of urban trees during Britain’s increasingly hot, dry summers. Charities including the Arboricultural Association are asking the public to help water street trees. It is thought that between 30-50pc of newly-planted urban trees die within the first year. Each needs up to 50 litres of water per week. Coal was producing around 0.7pc of the electricity being used in the UK on Sunday. It brought to an end a 46-day coal-free period for Britain’s grid, shy of the nearly 68-day record it set in the summer of 2020. That was the longest single period since 1882 that the grid went without burning coal to produce electricity. Before Monday, the last time the National Grid used coal was for a 22.5-hour period ending at half past midnight on April 27. Octopus Energy on Tuesday called for the National Grid to introduce a permanent scheme to reward customers for using less energy at peak times in order to reduce dependence on coal. Nearly 700,000 Octopus smart meter users received £5.4m under its Savings Session trial over winter, where customers were paid to use less power than they otherwise normally would during peak times. In total, Octopus said its scheme shifted 1.86Gwh of electricity demand to times of less stress on the network - the equivalent of stopping two million washing machine runs. Octopus argued that rolling out the system across Britain would reduce the cost of the National Grid’s coal contingency by about three quarters, from £340-395m last winter to just £106m. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month, then enjoy 1 year for just $9 with our US-exclusive offer. View comments Ron this is a non story Ratcliffe coal plant has to remain on stand by and be used when there is an issue with the grid, sensible to do so IMO. Recently there has been a problem with the interconnector to Norway which is a 1.4GW link combined with an unplanned outage at Torness nuclear power station. The link is now functioning correctly so now no coal. its 27degrees C still in the UK (yeah bring on that global warming, we're loving it) and there is 0.00MWh being produced by coal. https://grid.iamkate.com/ https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/uk-news/2023/06/13/uk-fires-up-coal-power-plant-as-air-cons-drain-energy-in-heatwave/ A diverse mix of powergen is IMO the best solution. Edited June 14, 2023 by Rob Plant 1 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
notsonice + 1,080 DM June 14, 2023 RENEWABLE ENERGY In a First, Wind and Solar Generated More Power Than Coal in U.S. Wind and solar produced more U.S. power than coal during the first five months of this year, as several coal plants closed and gas prices dropped By Benjamin Storrow, E&E News on June 12, 2023 Solar panels energy in a California desert at sunset with mountains in the background. Credit: thinkreaction/Getty Images CLIMATEWIRE | Wind and solar generated more electricity than coal through May, an E&E News review of federal data shows, marking the first time renewables have outpaced the former king of American power over a five-month period. The milestone illustrates the ongoing transformation of the U.S. power sector as the nation races to install cleaner forms of energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Power markets have witnessed a precipitous drop in coal-fired generation this year, driven by low natural gas prices, a mild winter and a wave of coal plant retirements. “From a coal perspective, it has been a disaster,” said Andy Blumenfeld, an analyst who tracks the industry at McCloskey by OPIS. “The decline is happening faster than anyone anticipated.” Renewable energy generation exceeded coal-fired power in 2020 and 2022, but only when hydropower was counted as a source of renewable energy, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This year has been different. Wind and solar sources generated a combined 252 terawatt-hours through the first five months of 2023, compared with coal output of 249 TWh, EIA data shows. Hydro generated an additional 117 TWh through May. EIA’s numbers for April and May are preliminary, said Chris Higginbotham, an agency spokesperson. “Our official estimates from the Electric Power Monthly show that combined electricity generation from wind and solar exceeded generation from coal in January, February and March,” he said. “Our real-time data, which is subject to revision, indicate that trend continued in April and May.” Coal generated almost half of the country’s electricity as recently as 2008. It has been in steady decline ever since, as a wave of older coal facilities retired and were replaced by a combination of natural gas and renewables. Yet even by that standard, coal’s sudden drop in 2023 has been remarkable. The beleaguered industry experienced something of a reprieve last year. A spike in natural gas prices, driven by a strong economy and surging energy demand in Europe, where gas markets were thrown into flux by Russia's war in Ukraine, left utilities scrambling for coal. Many signed contracts to purchase coal at elevated prices in 2022, said Blumenfeld, the OPIS analyst. Energy markets have swung in the other direction since then. A relatively mild winter and a slowing U.S. economy has pushed electricity demand down 3 percent this year. Natural gas production has continued to climb. The result has been a glut of gas followed by low prices. Henry Hub, the national benchmark for gas prices, averaged $2.15 cents per million British thermal units in May, down from a high of $8.81 in August 2022. Coal plants will have difficulty competing against gas in that market, analysts said. But structural factors have also contributed to the fall in coal output. The U.S. has retired around 14 gigawatts of coal capacity, or roughly 7 percent of the coal fleet, since the start of 2022. While coal was declining, wind and solar have been growing by leaps and bounds. Power companies added 22.5 GW of wind and solar capacity in the 12 months ending in May, EIA reported last week. Gas, meanwhile, has continued to grow. The result has been a crash in coal generation. EIA figures show that coal was down 27 percent compared with the same time last year and below levels recorded in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down large parts of the economy. “I don’t think it’s too shocking those shares of generation paths are crossing,” said Harrison Fell, a researcher at Columbia University. “The writing has been on the wall for coal for a while. There are a lot of incentives to build renewables, and really only delays with interconnections are really holding them back.” The rapid retirement of fossil fuels has prompted growing debate about the reliability of the country’s web of power grids. In recent testimony to Senate lawmakers, North American Electric Reliability Corp. CEO Jim Robb said, “The pace of change is overtaking the reliability needs of the system.” Others said those worries could be eased by unclogging a bottleneck that's preventing clean energy projects from connecting to the grid. “My opinion is we are not at the point of hurting reliability at this point. There are so many things that can be done on the demand side and the generation side to maintain reliability,” said Metin Celebi, an analyst who tracks the industry at the Brattle Group. “But there is this concern that capacity is not coming online fast enough, not because it isn’t economic, but because the interconnection process is really clogged at this time.” The decline in coal generation is a boost to U.S. climate efforts. Coal accounted for 55 percent of power sector emissions in 2022, according to EPA data, despite representing just 20 percent of total power generation. Carbon Monitor, an emissions tracker run by academics, estimates U.S. emissions were down 5.6 percent through April compared with the same time in 2022. Power sector emissions were down by nearly 1 percent. This story also appears in Energywire. Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2023. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ecocharger + 1,380 DL June 15, 2023 (edited) Chinese oil imports are ramping up to an all-time high. https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/China-Boosts-Crude-Oil-Import-Quotas-By-20-From-Last-Year.html "China’s crude oil imports in 2023 have already broken all previous records. In April this year China’s imports hit 13.0 million barrels a day (mbd), the highest ever in its history and in May crude imports were the third-highest level on record." Edited June 15, 2023 by Ecocharger Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ecocharger + 1,380 DL June 15, 2023 (edited) 19 hours ago, notsonice said: RENEWABLE ENERGY In a First, Wind and Solar Generated More Power Than Coal in U.S. Wind and solar produced more U.S. power than coal during the first five months of this year, as several coal plants closed and gas prices dropped By Benjamin Storrow, E&E News on June 12, 2023 Solar panels energy in a California desert at sunset with mountains in the background. Credit: thinkreaction/Getty Images CLIMATEWIRE | Wind and solar generated more electricity than coal through May, an E&E News review of federal data shows, marking the first time renewables have outpaced the former king of American power over a five-month period. The milestone illustrates the ongoing transformation of the U.S. power sector as the nation races to install cleaner forms of energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Power markets have witnessed a precipitous drop in coal-fired generation this year, driven by low natural gas prices, a mild winter and a wave of coal plant retirements. “From a coal perspective, it has been a disaster,” said Andy Blumenfeld, an analyst who tracks the industry at McCloskey by OPIS. “The decline is happening faster than anyone anticipated.” Renewable energy generation exceeded coal-fired power in 2020 and 2022, but only when hydropower was counted as a source of renewable energy, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This year has been different. Wind and solar sources generated a combined 252 terawatt-hours through the first five months of 2023, compared with coal output of 249 TWh, EIA data shows. Hydro generated an additional 117 TWh through May. EIA’s numbers for April and May are preliminary, said Chris Higginbotham, an agency spokesperson. “Our official estimates from the Electric Power Monthly show that combined electricity generation from wind and solar exceeded generation from coal in January, February and March,” he said. “Our real-time data, which is subject to revision, indicate that trend continued in April and May.” Coal generated almost half of the country’s electricity as recently as 2008. It has been in steady decline ever since, as a wave of older coal facilities retired and were replaced by a combination of natural gas and renewables. Yet even by that standard, coal’s sudden drop in 2023 has been remarkable. The beleaguered industry experienced something of a reprieve last year. A spike in natural gas prices, driven by a strong economy and surging energy demand in Europe, where gas markets were thrown into flux by Russia's war in Ukraine, left utilities scrambling for coal. Many signed contracts to purchase coal at elevated prices in 2022, said Blumenfeld, the OPIS analyst. Energy markets have swung in the other direction since then. A relatively mild winter and a slowing U.S. economy has pushed electricity demand down 3 percent this year. Natural gas production has continued to climb. The result has been a glut of gas followed by low prices. Henry Hub, the national benchmark for gas prices, averaged $2.15 cents per million British thermal units in May, down from a high of $8.81 in August 2022. Coal plants will have difficulty competing against gas in that market, analysts said. But structural factors have also contributed to the fall in coal output. The U.S. has retired around 14 gigawatts of coal capacity, or roughly 7 percent of the coal fleet, since the start of 2022. While coal was declining, wind and solar have been growing by leaps and bounds. Power companies added 22.5 GW of wind and solar capacity in the 12 months ending in May, EIA reported last week. Gas, meanwhile, has continued to grow. The result has been a crash in coal generation. EIA figures show that coal was down 27 percent compared with the same time last year and below levels recorded in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down large parts of the economy. “I don’t think it’s too shocking those shares of generation paths are crossing,” said Harrison Fell, a researcher at Columbia University. “The writing has been on the wall for coal for a while. There are a lot of incentives to build renewables, and really only delays with interconnections are really holding them back.” The rapid retirement of fossil fuels has prompted growing debate about the reliability of the country’s web of power grids. In recent testimony to Senate lawmakers, North American Electric Reliability Corp. CEO Jim Robb said, “The pace of change is overtaking the reliability needs of the system.” Others said those worries could be eased by unclogging a bottleneck that's preventing clean energy projects from connecting to the grid. “My opinion is we are not at the point of hurting reliability at this point. There are so many things that can be done on the demand side and the generation side to maintain reliability,” said Metin Celebi, an analyst who tracks the industry at the Brattle Group. “But there is this concern that capacity is not coming online fast enough, not because it isn’t economic, but because the interconnection process is really clogged at this time.” The decline in coal generation is a boost to U.S. climate efforts. Coal accounted for 55 percent of power sector emissions in 2022, according to EPA data, despite representing just 20 percent of total power generation. Carbon Monitor, an emissions tracker run by academics, estimates U.S. emissions were down 5.6 percent through April compared with the same time in 2022. Power sector emissions were down by nearly 1 percent. This story also appears in Energywire. Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2023. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals. A lot of hopeful mush....fossil fuels are necessary because of affordability, reliability, and abundant supply. Renewables are unaffordable and unreliable. It doesn't take an Einstein to see where the necessities lie. Edited June 15, 2023 by Ecocharger Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
notsonice + 1,080 DM June 15, 2023 41 minutes ago, Ecocharger said: A lot of hopeful mush....fossil fuels are necessary because of affordability, reliability, and abundant supply. Renewables are unaffordable and unreliable. It doesn't take an Einstein to see where the necessities lie. “From a coal perspective, it has been a disaster,” said Andy Blumenfeld, an analyst who tracks the industry at McCloskey by OPIS. “The decline is happening faster than anyone anticipated.” Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ecocharger + 1,380 DL June 15, 2023 (edited) 9 minutes ago, notsonice said: “From a coal perspective, it has been a disaster,” said Andy Blumenfeld, an analyst who tracks the industry at McCloskey by OPIS. “The decline is happening faster than anyone anticipated.” Coal is ramping up. Faster than expected. Oil is soaring, Chinese oil imports are ramping up to an all-time high. https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/China-Boosts-Crude-Oil-Import-Quotas-By-20-From-Last-Year.html "China’s crude oil imports in 2023 have already broken all previous records. In April this year China’s imports hit 13.0 million barrels a day (mbd), the highest ever in its history and in May crude imports were the third-highest level on record." Edited June 15, 2023 by Ecocharger Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
notsonice + 1,080 DM June 15, 2023 Reuters China's installed non-fossil fuel electricity capacity exceeds 50% of total China's non-fossil fuel energy sources now exceed 50% of its total installed electricity generation capacity, state media outlet Xinhua said... . 3 days ago Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
notsonice + 1,080 DM June 15, 2023 1 minute ago, Ecocharger said: Coal is ramping up. Faster than expected. HA HA HA and you once again post no facts...... try this one Bloomberg.com China Nearing Inflection Point for Solar Power and EVs Ahead of 2030 Target Nation's transition is nearing a crucial stage where fossil fuel use falls into long-term decline. 2 weeks ago Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
notsonice + 1,080 DM June 15, 2023 The Guardian Australia set for cheaper solar power as supply of panels soars, says report Climate Energy Finance calculates the price of systems will fall by 10% thanks to cheaper raw materials and more production in China and US. . 1 day ago Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
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