Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has committed to donating $1 to Conservation International for every unique use of the hashtag #NatureIsSpeaking, up to $1 million.
Month: October 2014
Big Coal Takes a Page from Big Tobacco
Chris Haye’s has had a very useful and worthwhile series on Coal, Appalachia, and the changing economy in recent days. Above, the political and social parallels between Big Coal and Big Tobacco.
Below, an interview with Don Blankenship, the “Dark Lord” of the Appalachian Coal fields.
Don seems somewhat medicated in the clip above, but stays on doggedly on message.
Transmission Lines, and What it Takes to Maintain Them.
On my way to looking up something else, again.
When I was a medic, I had the opportunity to work on a chopper team, but stayed away. I was on duty when one of the crews in the area crashed and lost a couple of people. That makes an impression.
Obviously, I had a lot of trepidations about our means of transportation in Greenland.
So this video from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers blew my bleepin mind.
It’s relevant to our topic because the cost of any large power producing facility is in large part, transmission. Extreme weather events that are becoming more common, make us vulnerable – and does anyone need reminding about the fact of global terrorism and asymmetrical warfare.
Something to think about when we advocate for Wind, Nuclear, large solar, or whatever – and also when we consider whether distributed, islandable microgrids may be the wave that is coming.
Below, toecurling chopper footage from Søndre Strømfjord, 2013. Continue reading “Transmission Lines, and What it Takes to Maintain Them.”
#Natureisspeaking – Ocean
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has committed to donating $1 to Conservation International for every unique use of the hashtag #NatureIsSpeaking, up to $1 million.
Kansas Wind Hits Turbulence
Three-quarters of the way through 2014, Kansas’ wind energy industry is shifting from ice cold to red hot.
The state has nearly 3,000 megawatts of wind energy capacity in 25 wind farms, placing it among the top states in the nation.
This year started slowly, with months going by with little activity. But at this point, there are four wind farms under construction, with about 475 megawatts of capacity. They are Slate Creek wind farm in Sumner County, Waverly wind farm in Coffey County, Alexander wind farm in Rush County and Marshall wind farm in Marshall County.
In the development stage are a number of larger wind farm projects that may be built in 2015 or 2016.
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What makes wind power so compelling is that, at the moment, it is close to the lowest-price electricity, and that price can be locked in for 20 years by contract.
“It’s a way to hedge gas price volatility and the environmental regulation of coal,” Riley said.
That means, he said, there will be a market for wind energy even when projects no longer qualify for the production tax credit after 2016.
Kansas’ conservative Governor Sam Brownback used to like wind energy, and was a big proponent of the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), until major supporters of his, the Koch Brothers, called. Continue reading “Kansas Wind Hits Turbulence”
#NatureIsSpeaking – Water
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has committed to donating $1 to Conservation International for every unique use of the hashtag #NatureIsSpeaking, up to $1 million.
Walkin on the Sun
Can’t believe I haven’t posted this before. Have I?
#NatureIsSpeaking – Redwoods
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) has committed to donating $1 to Conservation International for every unique use of the hashtag #NatureIsSpeaking, up to $1 million.
No Surprises: Sea Ice Continues Historic Downward Slide
Here’s your all purpose handy dandy recap of the current arctic melt season, just concluded.
National Snow and Ice Data Center press release:
Sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean melted to its sixth lowest extent this year, while sea ice surrounding the Antarctic continent continued to break winter records, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
Arctic sea ice cover grows each winter as the sun sets for several months, and shrinks each summer as the sun rises higher in the northern sky. Each year, the Arctic sea ice reaches its minimum extent in September. Summer sea ice extent is important because, among other things, it reflects sunlight, keeping the Arctic region cool and moderating global climate.
At the end of its melt season, Arctic sea ice fell to the sixth lowest extent in the satellite record, both in the daily and monthly average. Sea ice hit 5.02 million square kilometers (1.94 million square miles) on September 17 and averaged 5.3 million square kilometers (2.05 million square miles) for the month of September.
“Twenty years ago, having ice extent this low would have astounded us,” said NSIDC Director Mark Serreze. “Now it is expected.”
This year edged out last year as the sixth lowest extent since satellites started measuring sea ice in 1979. The lowest Arctic extent on record occurred in 2012, when sea ice measured 3.41 million square kilometers (1.32 million square miles). The succeeding lowest years are 2007, 2011, 2008, and 2010.
NSIDC has discussed how sea ice long term decline has been documented in the pre-satellite era:
To look back into the past, researchers combine data and records from indirect sources known as proxy records. Researchers delved into shipping charts going back to the 1950s, which noted sea ice conditions. The data gleaned from those records, called the Hadley data set, show that Arctic sea ice has declined since at least the mid-1950s. Shipping records exist back to the 1700s, but do not provide complete coverage of the Arctic Ocean. However, taken together these records indicate that the current decline is unprecedented in the last several hundred years.
Other longer term records exist as well, such as a nice series of ice maps from the Danes, who, historically, know a thing or two about ice. Below is from 1938 – the whole series, from 1893 to 1956, is available here:
“Danske Meteorologiske Institut published a series of annual reports on arctic sea ice covering most years from 1893 to 1956. The link has one folder per year, with each containing individual pages (month identified by the trailing digit) and the whole annual report (about 5 meg each).
Just referring to August extent…
Its true that ice extent was lower in the 1930s than it had been in the preceding 30 years. In particular, 1938 saw a dramatic reduction from the previous years – it was probably 1.4 M km^2 below the then long term average and maybe 0.6 M km^2 below the already low years in the late 30′s (carefully measured using Eyeball, Mk I).
So, it is fair to say there were some big melts in the 30′s. But Christy’s false equivalence is an epic fail – “similar melts” is pretty nice weasel-wording for mine. 1.4 M km^2 below recent climatology? Considered like that, 1938 was like 2010, I guess.
But in absolute terms, August 1938 extent was much greater (4 M km^2?) than today. So any attempt to conflate the two is…well…I can[‘t think of an adjective suitable for polite company.”
Through 2014, Arctic sea ice has now been declining at a rate of 13.3% per decade relative to the 1981 to 2010 average. The ten lowest September ice extents over the satellite record have all occurred in the last ten years.
“This year was nothing surprising. Overall we’re continuing the long-term decreasing trend,” said Walt Meier, research scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. “We’re still well below average and there’s no indication that we’re going to recover.”
Below, Walt Meier interviewed a year ago in December, 2013:
Continue reading “No Surprises: Sea Ice Continues Historic Downward Slide”
Solar Plus Storage on the Verge
I interviewed Dr. Michelle Chitambar at last month’s EV and Battery show in Novi, MI, near Detroit.
Dr. Chitambar has a job description I’d love to have on my business card – Technology Futurist at Spider9 – and some insights into what that company is doing on the frontiers of energy storage.
Dr. Chitambar would neither confirm nor deny whether she actually has any super powers – but I don’t think its a coincidence that the show went off with absolutely no interference from super criminals, mutants, or extra-terrestrials.
Conventional electricity generators have already received a battering from the revolution inspired by rooftop solar. Most fossil fuel generators – particularly those in Europe and Australia, are struggling to make a profit.
But things are likely to get worse. The influx of battery storage is destined to further reduce demand from conventional generators.
A major new analysis from global investment bank HSBC – Energy Storage, Power to the People – says the boom days for the fossil fuel generation are over. “There is no prospect of any return to anywhere near the level of profitability seen in the latter part of the last decade in generation,” it writes.
The HSBC analysis looks at a range of storage technologies and how that will impact the conventional energy systems. Its major conclusion is that affordable battery storage will increase distributed generation – solar panels on household and business rooftops – and further reduce demand from the grid.
As this graph shows, the combined cost of solar and storage is on the way to being lower than the residential price. Welcome to “storage parity”.
