Renewable Energy Growth Rate Jumped 45% Worldwide In 2020; IEA Sees 'New Normal'

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 5/12/2021 at 11:00 PM, turbguy said:

While you may have a different take, this is what extreme looks like:

 

That is a valuable graph. An even better one would estimate the number of years of life that were lost from all causes (beyond the expected causes). Also a comparison of the deaths from the "Spanish Flu" and the number of years lost. The Spanish flu killed mostly young healthy people. Partly due to the percentage of soldiers overseas with poor health care. 

[markslawson + 1,057]

16 hours ago, Jay McKinsey said:

EnergyAustralia has today announced that electricity rates for Victorian household and business customers will decrease in 2021, reflecting lower wholesale prices and network costs. 

Jay - you do know I've been covering/following the energy debate in Australia for many years now, right? What the press release doesn't think to mention is that the declines are coming off major highs in power prices. Electricity use to be cheap in Australia partly thanks to low wholesale power prices but then grid requirements and government regulations changed - a big driver of costs - and later major brown coal plants went out of service, in part but not solely due to renewables, and wholesale prices doubled.. They may well skyrocket again when another plant goes out of service in a few years. The battery you point to in another post won't count for much. As I've also pointed out in another post the wholesale spot price market and actual wholesale power prices are beginning to diverge.

As for your post about China, again you simply have no idea of just how that government operates on even a basic level. Almost all the countries involved in the climate debate have made completely unrealistic promises on emissions, and China is the least accountable of them all. Assuming that anyone notices the efforts of those who track emissions in 2030 to point out that the Chinese have not made good on a promise of 10 years previously, they'll denounce it as "western misinformation" and keep right on bullying others. I would urge you to at least look at some of the foreign news.

Anyway, if you don't want to accept correction on these points its time to move on.. leave it all with you..     

[markslawson + 1,057]

7 hours ago, gkam44 said:

But that is not all: We do not need to go to gas stations, we fuel up at home at night with cheap baseload power. During the daytime, the PV system turns our meter backwards powering the neighborhood with clean local power, which we trade for the stuff to be used that night.

I'm not arguing with any of this but of course because you're doing it you're reducing the support for the central grid which is still very much needed.. so to complete the green revolution the local power suppliers should completely overhaul the power pricing structure, so that people are charged for access to the grid - the expensive part - and a reduced price per kilowatt hour or whatever .. I suppose you sell your power into the grid? If so is it the same wholesale price as the grid has to pay or retail or some special Feed In Tariff? 

[Ecocharger + 1,447]

On 5/14/2021 at 12:58 PM, gkam44 said:

Being a former engineer for a large power company and having earned a Master of Science in Energy and the Environment, I had PV panels installed five years ago, with my estimated payback of 15-17 years, . . the right thing for an eco-freak to do. Before they could be installed, we acquired a VW e-Golf electric car. The savings in gasoline alone took the solar system payback down to 3 1/2 years. So, we added a used Tesla Model S, P85, and that took the payback down to less than three years, which means we now get free power for household and transportation.

 

But that is not all: We do not need to go to gas stations, we fuel up at home at night with cheap baseload power. During the daytime, the PV system turns our meter backwards powering the neighborhood with clean local power, which we trade for the stuff to be used that night. If we paid for transportation fuel, the VW would cost us 4 cents/mile to drive, and the Tesla would cost 5 cents/mile at California off-peak power prices.

 

No oil changes are a real treat along with no leaks. And since it has an electric motor, it needs NO ENGINE MAINTENANCE at all. We do not go "gas up", or get tune-ups or emissions checks, have no transmission about which to worry, no complicated machined parts needing care.

 

THAT is what will sell the EV, and the real problem is not powering them, (the power companies have been working on and praying for the EV for a generation), the problem will be dealing with an economy which has had a large portion taken out of it. Too much of our economy is dependent on the needs of the internal combustion engine, from mechanics to emissions checkers to the folk who make oil filters, and all the folk who support them. I see a rush to EVs, (go drive one, and see), and the implications of this advance as an impending wave of dislocation for this society for which we must plan now.

 

EV's are only a tiny, tiny percentage of the vehicle stock, less than 1%. It will remain a tiny percentage going forward. But it will continue to carry a large carbon footprint.

Edited May 16, 2021 by Ecocharger

[El Gato + 254]

On 5/13/2021 at 5:39 PM, Jay McKinsey said:

Xi will lose face if China doesn't bring carbon emissions to a peak before 2030. So there will have to a hard cap on the amount of fossil fuel used or else implement carbon capture.

XI doesn't give a flying fart about carbon emissions. It's about what China can do to expand their global power and ambitions. They more or less just give lip service to The greenie countries to keep the noise to a minimum and go full bore with their plans in the meantime. If they do anything green like electric cars or Solar cells, it's to benefit CHINA, not the Earth or carbon emissions or anything grand like that.

Edited May 16, 2021 by El Gato

[specinho + 459]

 

On 5/14/2021 at 11:27 AM, Boat said:

Healthcare is expensive. A large amount of our healthcare problems are caused by pullution. Not all but much of our pollution is FF driven. Now google pollution deaths, health care costs from pollution by state and by country. Big cities will even have numbers. 
 

there might be a disparity in understanding the term "large amount" used...

According to the data shown here:

https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#what-do-people-die-from

out of 26 diseases listed, may be one or two are lungs and respiratory tract related. The causes could vary from infection, self induced toxication from smoking, complication from weak immune system particularly in the old etc. Air pollution mentioned might cause irritation to respiratory tract, lead poisoning particularly on children, discomfort from suffocation etc...

Was reminded of an assignment from an online course asking about prospect of health condition in a particular country. To my surprise, out of so much highlight on the severity of death caused by diseases,  the greatest, but neglected, cause of death worldwide is actually natural death of old age.

* fainted *   x ^ x

There rest of the diseases are generally diseases induced by modern lifestyles or  infectious diseases.

The high costs of healthcare might be associated to mismanagement of allocation and such........ e.g. imported vs generic for large volume of basic usages like test tubes, pipettes, syringes, medicine etc.... ; over staffing induces underpay for some; inefficient management scheme and complicated calculus theories etc...

[specinho + 459]

On 5/15/2021 at 12:58 AM, gkam44 said:

Being a former engineer for a large power company and having earned a Master of Science in Energy and the Environment, I had PV panels installed five years ago, with my estimated payback of 15-17 years, . . the right thing for an eco-freak to do. Before they could be installed, we acquired a VW e-Golf electric car. The savings in gasoline alone took the solar system payback down to 3 1/2 years. So, we added a used Tesla Model S, P85, and that took the payback down to less than three years, which means we now get free power for household and transportation.

 

But that is not all: We do not need to go to gas stations, we fuel up at home at night with cheap baseload power. During the daytime, the PV system turns our meter backwards powering the neighborhood with clean local power, which we trade for the stuff to be used that night. If we paid for transportation fuel, the VW would cost us 4 cents/mile to drive, and the Tesla would cost 5 cents/mile at California off-peak power prices.

 

No oil changes are a real treat along with no leaks. And since it has an electric motor, it needs NO ENGINE MAINTENANCE at all. We do not go "gas up", or get tune-ups or emissions checks, have no transmission about which to worry, no complicated machined parts needing care.

 

THAT is what will sell the EV, and the real problem is not powering them, (the power companies have been working on and praying for the EV for a generation), the problem will be dealing with an economy which has had a large portion taken out of it. Too much of our economy is dependent on the needs of the internal combustion engine, from mechanics to emissions checkers to the folk who make oil filters, and all the folk who support them. I see a rush to EVs, (go drive one, and see), and the implications of this advance as an impending wave of dislocation for this society for which we must plan now.

 

pardon me, I am an outsider of electricity but was a fan of solar power and granddaddy had the only solar heater in town since more than 30 years ago.

The idea to power the grid with your PV during day time, and use it to charge VW e-golf car is really plausible. It gives a wonderful suggestion that e-golf cart is theTHE CHOICE of future short distance mobility.

solar power has been in the market for more than half a century, may be. There might be reasons why it is not popular in a profit oriented market, even after half a century, no? For example, the costs, the geographical weather related efficiency,  availability of technology etc. The reason of this discussion is not to discourage the good effort but fine tune the perspective to what is working and what is not.......

Off grid, individual projects, or new PV grid zones themselves, are probably easier to be encouraged. But connecting ad hoc PV with the existing grid posts a danger of interfering the centuries old preexisting flow and load. Could these ad hoc additions be the reason for frequent blackouts lately??

non renewable minerals and popular products in high demand would generally stimulate production of substandard products which eventually will cause more harm than good....... or no/?

[Wombat + 1,028]

On 5/14/2021 at 7:27 AM, footeab@yahoo.com said:

I'm not sure why anyone thinks China's consumption of Coal, NG, Oil, Uranium, Hydro, Solar, Wind will be dropping.... IT will be going UP.  Same with India, Africa, etc etc etc. 

That is unfortunately true. They are all breeding like rabbits. Same in South America and Middle East and other parts of Asia but I suppose that is the etc etc etc? 

[Wombat + 1,028]

On 5/14/2021 at 10:41 AM, markslawson said:

Dunno about a chart but there is this article from Reuters. Coal consumption increased by 0.6 per cent in 2020. This year's consumption and some of last year's would be complicated by the fact that the Chinese government has a partial ban on Australian coal as part of an on-going trade war. One result, if the media is to be believed, is that some of its citizens had reduced power and heat during the winter..  

Yes, that is true, but the Chinese have since replaced Australian coal with that from Mongolia, Indonesia, South Africa, and even the USA. They are paying an extra $30/tonne because they are so upset with the Australian Govt for calling the inquiry into the origins of covid. They also plan to stop buying our LNG and Iron Ore within 5 years but that will cost them even more dearly. We will be producing green steel by then and crush their dominance of the global steel market. Same with Aluminium. We just can't do it whilst they manipulate their currency so severely but when the US dollar crashes, it will destroy China too. And commodity producers will be the big winners. Even with a crash in global demand, prices will skyrocket because there will be a new global currency system based on hard assets. 

[Ecocharger + 1,447]

A big snag for batteries coming up.

"Amid the most bullish expectations about the lithium market in years, analysts warn that even the increased project pipeline may not be sufficient to meet the booming demand for lithium—a critical battery metal—in the energy transition. Experts and forecasters also warn that rising raw material prices in the current commodity bull run could actually slow down the energy transition because it could slow the decline in battery costs. Lower battery costs would be critical to EVs reaching price parity with conventional vehicles and allowing for more energy storage deployment to support the rising share of renewables in the electricity generation mix."

"The current project pipeline could result in capacity deficits that could triple lithium prices towards the end of this decade, Rystad Energy says.

According to the IEA, lithium demand in 2040 could be 13 to 51 times higher than today’s levels, depending on the advancement in battery technology and the climate targets."

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-World-Is-Facing-A-Lithium-Supply-Crunch-As-Demand-Soars.html

https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-transitions/mineral-requirements-for-clean-energy-transitions

Edited May 18, 2021 by Ecocharger

[Boat + 1,323]

On 5/16/2021 at 8:55 AM, El Gato said:

XI doesn't give a flying fart about carbon emissions. It's about what China can do to expand their global power and ambitions. They more or less just give lip service to The greenie countries to keep the noise to a minimum and go full bore with their plans in the meantime. If they do anything green like electric cars or Solar cells, it's to benefit CHINA, not the Earth or carbon emissions or anything grand like that.

I’ll go for that reasoning. When the EIA says 90% of the worlds new power will come from renewables, it will be because their more competitive in the market place than FF. The rednecks saw the cost saving coming in the windy states and of course wind has had steady growth. They were not thinking green. California saw the potential in solar reducing major air qualities which are also a cost in healthcare. So green is a byproduct of cost savings if done right.

The EIA suggests no more oil exploration for climate health. That’s just wrong. To gain market share you need a cheaper widget. Pushing tech with government funds is tradition. A direction. But most of the planet can’t afford higher prices of energy. I wish renewables a happy future but only if cheaper than FF. In today’s world that is a lower bar to reach in a growing number of areas. 

[Boat + 1,323]

On 5/14/2021 at 1:54 AM, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Your "woke" is a boogeyman with no tie to reality... Brilliant argument... Absolutely Brilliant

Rednecks still love coal, they can do basic economics after all and do not live in Utopia like Greenies.

Coal being flat in China for 8 years is not exactly utopia for a greenie. Facts do matter and charts of facts add historical data and a picture that supersede opinion by rednecks. Or any other for that matter. When you rednecks come flying out of the barn to engage, use facts and charts please. You might get woke with some information.

[Boat + 1,323]

On 5/14/2021 at 5:53 AM, Rob Plant said:

Totally agree and its not just the US its every developed country!

The whole green agenda is political and pushed through by those who stand to earn fortunes by doing so. They pray on the stupid and the lazy, those who either don't understand the science or those too lazy to actually research it properly.

The only good thing I can see from the whole green agenda is that it will certainly drive down pollution which kills tens of thousands each and every year. The climate change issue is bull*hit.

 

So what billionaires or corporations are kept away from participating from earning these fortunes? Selling death prevention in big cities would seem like a good idea for those who live in smog. The idea of better health leading up to death seems reasonable. Every explosion in Houston turns into the plume watch and the direction of the wind. Then we wait for how toxic the plume is. Then we wait for directions of who should stay inside and for how long. Yep the citizens of Houston are stupid, lazy and don’t know the science. The biggest oil town in the world. Them damm greenies even went so far as to spend millions on air monitors to record the pollution from these events. Down right unAmerican to know who to sue, just in case. 

[-trance + 114]

37 minutes ago, Boat said:

Every explosion in Houston turns into the plume watch and the direction of the wind.

I ride my bicycle by gas plant sometimes as it generally is low-traffic.  However, the number of windsocks you see everywhere is rather disturbing; almost like they know these things explode.

I have H2S training but that won't do me much good without PPE. Leaving in the appropriate direction is all I have.

Edited May 18, 2021 by -trance

[Boat + 1,323]

On 5/17/2021 at 2:35 AM, specinho said:

 

there might be a disparity in understanding the term "large amount" used...

 

According to the data shown here:

 

 

https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#what-do-people-die-from

out of 26 diseases listed, may be one or two are lungs and respiratory tract related. The causes could vary from infection, self induced toxication from smoking, complication from weak immune system particularly in the old etc. Air pollution mentioned might cause irritation to respiratory tract, lead poisoning particularly on children, discomfort from suffocation etc...

Was reminded of an assignment from an online course asking about prospect of health condition in a particular country. To my surprise, out of so much highlight on the severity of death caused by diseases,  the greatest, but neglected, cause of death worldwide is actually natural death of old age.

* fainted *   x ^ x

There rest of the diseases are generally diseases induced by modern lifestyles or  infectious diseases.

The high costs of healthcare might be associated to mismanagement of allocation and such........ e.g. imported vs generic for large volume of basic usages like test tubes, pipettes, syringes, medicine etc.... ; over staffing induces underpay for some; inefficient management scheme and complicated calculus theories etc...

We would need another category to discuss where many of these normal deaths come from. The US food pyramid for example is a leading cause for death from bad recommendations. You want an interesting story? Listen to Nina Teicholz on YouTube called the big fat surprise. And yes, science and politics collide. 

[-trance + 114]

16 minutes ago, Boat said:

We would need another category to discuss where many of these normal deaths come from. The US food pyramid for example is a leading cause for death from bad recommendations. You want an interesting story? Listen to Nina Teicholz on YouTube called the big fat surprise. And yes, science and politics collide. 

If you like those videos watch "Sugar the biter truth."  Real science, and yes type II is curable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Edited May 19, 2021 by -trance

[Boat + 1,323]

8 minutes ago, Boat said:

We would need another category to discuss where many of these normal deaths come from. The US food pyramid for example is a leading cause for death from bad recommendations. You want an interesting story? Listen to Nina Teicholz on YouTube called the big fat surprise. And yes, science and politics collide. 

FF’s along with chemicals are necessary. But to not aggressively look for long term replacements doesn’t pass the smell test. When many of these refineries were built they were outside town. Add a few million people and the landscape changes. Acting like refineries are still in a pasture kinda misses the new picture. 
1/2 the people in the US make less than $30,000 per year. They can’t afford higher prices. So it’s tech, innovation and time to find solutions. That is the base of the conversion for me. The practical greenie.

[Ecocharger + 1,447]

6 hours ago, Boat said:

Coal being flat in China for 8 years is not exactly utopia for a greenie. Facts do matter and charts of facts add historical data and a picture that supersede opinion by rednecks. Or any other for that matter. When you rednecks come flying out of the barn to engage, use facts and charts please. You might get woke with some information.

China's new coal production overwhelms all the reduction in coal production in the rest of the world.

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,187]

6 hours ago, Boat said:

When you rednecks come flying out of the barn to engage, use facts and charts please. You might get woke with some information.

Still waiting for a fact or chart from you.... You might get woke with some math...

Here is a simple fact: Most of the world is building the infrastructure to live like you and me with far higher energy per capita that is reliable....   Guess where that will come from.  Not wind/solar as they only work some of the time. 

[Boat + 1,323]

8 hours ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Still waiting for a fact or chart from you.... You might get woke with some math...

Here is a simple fact: Most of the world is building the infrastructure to live like you and me with far higher energy per capita that is reliable....   Guess where that will come from.  Not wind/solar as they only work some of the time. 

[Boat + 1,323]

The top chart is China with the rest of the world. The bottom is just China. So where is this gain in coal production my non Google non chart providing non woke red neck propagandists. I keep asking. 

[nsdp + 449]

The Australian coal that China is not buying is sub-bituminous or 'brown" coal that has a low heat value and will not burn in China's new ultrasupercritical  plants. The old plants burning Australian high btu dirt  run about 10,600btu/kwh and are retired when a new plant comes on line. . The new ultra supercritical units run at about 88200-9700 btu/kwh.  Still coal is dirty but less so.  There is only 1 Chinese city in the dirty 30 of the world now.  There were 16 in 2008 when China hosted the Olympics.   How soon you forget.   Remember the brown haze the television cameras showed.  Well Xi does give a damn about cutting coal soot in the air.  It is a domestic political problem for him. 

I doubt any of you have anything similar to show you even know  to go to the bathroom without Grey's Anatomy and a geology text book and maps.

china06042018.pdf

Edited May 21, 2021 by nsdp
spelling

[nsdp + 449]

On 5/17/2021 at 3:10 AM, specinho said:

pardon me, I am an outsider of electricity but was a fan of solar power and granddaddy had the only solar heater in town since more than 30 years ago.

 

The idea to power the grid with your PV during day time, and use it to charge VW e-golf car is really plausible. It gives a wonderful suggestion that e-golf cart is theTHE CHOICE of future short distance mobility.

solar power has been in the market for more than half a century, may be. There might be reasons why it is not popular in a profit oriented market, even after half a century, no? For example, the costs, the geographical weather related efficiency,  availability of technology etc. The reason of this discussion is not to discourage the good effort but fine tune the perspective to what is working and what is not.......

Off grid, individual projects, or new PV grid zones themselves, are probably easier to be encouraged. But connecting ad hoc PV with the existing grid posts a danger of interfering the centuries old preexisting flow and load. Could these ad hoc additions be the reason for frequent blackouts lately??

non renewable minerals and popular products in high demand would generally stimulate production of substandard products which eventually will cause more harm than good....... or no/?

 

I would suggest  you not speculate on engineering matters that you have never demonstrated any competence in . You obviously don't know anything about parallel path.  Take a couple of years and earn something like this below.  The real problems on the grid are many but you don't seem to know what they are.

IEEE04082018.pdf

[specinho + 459]

4 hours ago, nsdp said:

I would suggest  you not speculate on engineering matters that you have never demonstrated any competence in . You obviously don't know anything about parallel path.  Take a couple of years and earn something like this below.  The real problems on the grid are many but you don't seem to know what they are.

IEEE04082018.pdf 361.93 kB · 3 downloads

this world is in so much mess may be is due to people like yourself....... no? 👿

firstly, you do not understand what forum is and how discussion used to be carried out.

secondly, you do not have the right attitude to improve what could be wrong but the kind that would insist on carrying on despite it might have been proven seriously wrong......

thirdly, what i do not know should not be a shameful thing that invites you to use humiliate tune. Since all of us have become highly specialized nowadays, being open-minded to learn new things that one does not know could be a very rare, near extinct, characteristic, do you realize?  😈

without proper attitude, i am doubting what you have done in your life might be all self or relative approved shit that you might not be aware but still be highly proud..... cheers..... 🥳