TV station KSL apparently affiliated with Deseret News, which is the voice of the Mormon Church, as I understand.
Month: August 2022
German Solar Sets Records in War on Russian Gas
More transmission needed.
German solar power is hitting new records this summer, and is set for further growth as the government enacts new policies to spur the expansion of renewable energy.
In May, German solar output hit a new high of 7.7 terawatt-hours, PV Magazine reported. That record was broken in June, when solar produced 8 terawatt-hours of power, and again in July, when it hit 8.2 terawatt-hours and supplied a fifth of Germany’s electricity. The July record is notable as solar output typically peaks in June, when the days are longest.
In the first half of 2022, Germany installed 3.8 gigawatts of solar power, up from 2.75 gigawatts installed in the first half of 2021, PV Magazine reported. The country is roughly on pace to match the record growth seen between 2010 and 2012.
Now, the government is looking to further speed the buildout of renewables to curb Germany’s reliance on Russian natural gas. Last month, Germany set a goal of drawing 80 percent of its power from renewables by 2030, up from its prior target of 65 percent. The plan calls for tripling solar power by 2030 and includes measures that will streamline approval of renewable projects and increase incentives for rooftop installations and small solar arrays.
The rapid buildout of solar poses a challenge for the grid, however, as on particularly sunny days the high volume of solar can overload power lines. There were 257 days last year when German grid operator N-Ergie limited the amount of electricity from solar panels. “The likelihood is that grid bottlenecks will actually increase in the coming years” as solar power grows, N-Ergie spokesperson Michael Enderlein, told AFP.
In his remarks on Germany’s energy policy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said a rapid buildout of renewables is needed to provide an affordable and reliable supply of power. “Energy policy is not just a question of price. Energy policy is also security policy,” he said at an event hosted by the Renewable Energy Association. “That’s why we need to kick the expansion of renewables into high gear now.”
The more the sun shines in the southern German town of Aurach, the more likely it is that Jens Husemann’s solar panels will be disconnected from the grid – an exasperating paradox at a time when Germany is navigating an energy supply crisis.
“It’s being switched off every day,” Husemann told AFP during a recent sunny spell, saying there had been more than 120 days of forced shutdowns so far this year.
Continue reading “German Solar Sets Records in War on Russian Gas”Husemann, who runs an energy conversion business near Munich, also owns a sprawling solar power system on the flat roof of a transport company in Aurach, Bavaria.
The energy generated flows into power lines run by grid operator N-Ergie, which then distributes it on the network.
But in sunny weather, the power lines are becoming overloaded – leading the grid operator to cut off supply from the solar panels.
Tough Summer for Europe’s Nukes
Above, update on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, currently being held hostage by Russia. The implied threat is a terrorist nuclear incident that could be devastating to Europe’s bread basket.
Below, in nuclear heavy France, already burdened by corrosion problems that have shut a number of power plants, high water temperatures have hampered the cooling process for the remainder, some of which have been allowed to bend the regs to keep running.
IRA’s Hidden Effect – Destroying Fossil Demand
The biggest climate impact of the new IRA bill is also one of the most under-appreciated: demand destruction for fossil fuels.
US oil and gas consumption has almost always gone up. Now we are quickly moving toward a world where clean energy is so cheap, demand will peak and fall
Even before the IRA a number of analysts (including some oil majors) were projecting peak oil demand between 2025 and 2030; (above) this will help further accelerate a global transition away from fossil fuels.
Falling US oil and gas demand substantially changes the equation going forward. It means that fossil fuel prices will likely fall as demand declines, which in turn has big implications for supply.
Even though the IRA bill unfortunately includes provisions opening up areas for fossil fuel development, an oil company today is going to have second thoughts developing high-cost offshore drilling that might take seven years to come onto the market.
In other words, the (much stronger) parts of the IRA that make clean energy cheap effectively undermine the provisions that enable additional fossil fuel supply, as supply will only be developed if enough demand exists to make it cost-effective.
And while the US will make up for some reduced domestic demand through additional fossil fuel exports, our export capacity for gas is limited and the dramatic growth of EVs globally will disadvantage relatively high-cost US oil.
So while I wish we didn’t have some provisions in the bill that support oil and gas development, I’m a lot less worried about them because the parts of the bill that reduce demand for fossil fuels are so strong.
More Carlson Conspiracies: Environmental Justice is “Race Hate”
Jigar Shah: Use Federal Help to Boost Local Energy Opportunities
The Biden administration has signed a host of legislation that will provide resources for the energy transition, and the infrastructure behind it. But the actual implementation can’t be from the top down – it has to start at the community level.
School boards, city councils, and county commissions, State and local governments, says Shah, need to look or the resources now available, and make the changes that will improve the lives of everyone in their communities now, and their children’s world tomorrow.
Jigar Shah (born August 30, 1974) is the director of the Loan Programs Office of the US Department of Energy. Shah gained prominence as an American clean energy entrepreneur, author, and podcast host. Shah is known for work to create and advocate for market-driven solutions to climate change. He authored a book, “Creating Climate Wealth: Unlocking the Impact Economy” published in 2013.
Shah maintains that Climate Wealth is created when mainstream investors team up with entrepreneurs, corporations, mainstream capital, and governments at scale to solve the big problems of our time while generating compelling financial returns – not concessionary returns.
Ford Motor Co. is unveiling its first version of an all-electric pickup truck police cruiser.
The F-150 Lighting Pro Special Service Vehicle, the new model shows the car manufacturing giant continuing to capitalize on the growth of the electric vehicle market. Earlier this month, the company announced that it secured enough battery supply to manufacture more than half a million electric vehicles a year by the end of 2023.
Since becoming CEO, Jim Farley has bumped spending on EVs up to $50 billion in an effort to push battery-powered vehicles to be half of Ford’s global sales by 2030.
Police departments have always been a reliable and lucrative customer base for the Dearborn, Michigan, based car group – cop utility vehicles provide stable profits and free visibility.
Ford’s announcement, however, comes after some law enforcement agencies scaled back on vehicle purchases due to budget cuts during the coronavirus pandemic and amid activist backlash from the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We are seeing a lot of interest in electric vehicles from police agencies since launching Mach-E,” the company said in an emailed statement. “F-150 Lightning Pro Special Service Vehicle marks the next step in our efforts to serve law enforcement into an electric future.”
To lure public agencies, municipalities and police departments into purchasing fleets of its new EVs, Ford is offering “flexible financing options” as well as making it easier for them to install charging stations to assist in their transition to electrified fleets.
Conspiracies and Climate Denial – Carlson Takes Fox Audience Down the Worm Hole
Report from respected tech writer Charlie Warzel notes that for some years now, Fox New’s Tucker Carlson has been cribbing strategies from conspiracy monger, Climate and Sandy Hook Shooting denier, Alex Jones.
During these years, Carlson has, on a parallel track, decided that leading his viewers farther down the conspiracy rabbit hole is a good way to draw eyeballs.
Jone’s twisted insights brought him a massive audience and huge sales of quack remedies and survival foods for increasingly paranoid audiences. Similarly, Carlson has focused on conspiracy theories about climate science and renewable energy, as well as, until recently, a creepy devotion to Vladimir Putin.
Charlie Warzel, a former technology writer for the New York Times and Buzzfeed, joined the Bulwark Podcast on Tuesday and was asked by host Charlie Sykes to explain the relationship between Fox News’s top-rated host Tucker Carlson and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
“So Jones has just gone from an absolutely absurd figure who should, in a rational, you know, completely fictitious Earth 2.0 be a pariah to being a role model, even for Tucker Carlson. What is the relationship between Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones?” Sykes asked Warzel about halfway through the podcast.
“Yeah, it’s I mean, and there’s a lot we don’t know that may actually be revealed from the messages in his phone, which have been turned over to certain committees,” Warzel began, noting that during Jones’s recent defamation trial, where he was found liable for some $49 million in damages, his text messages were inadvertently handed over to the plaintiff’s lawyer.
Those text messages were then requested by the House Jan. 6 committee, in which Jones has been a central figure.
“Carlson and the raving Infowars ranter trade text messages on a daily basis, according to two people familiar with their relationship,” the Daily Beast reportedlast week, adding, “If made public, these sources said, the text messages would be ‘highly embarrassing’ for Carlson.”
Warzel went on to describe a source of his who worked at Jones’s conspiracy theory show, InfoWars, and noted that the source, name Josh, once told him about a visit by Carlson.
“And he, during that time, told me sort of out of the blue that, you know, one time in, I want to say it was 2016, I might have that wrong, it’s in my notes, Tucker visited the InfoWars offices in Austin, Texas, and kind of palled around for the day with Jones,” Warzel said.
Climate’s Rising Rains Ramp Risk Ratings
Above, newest from CNBC Climate ace Diana Olick.
Rising rains and risks giving rise to new tech companies for the climate changed era. Meanwhile, increased prices for flooding insurance drive vulnerable customers to drop insurance coverage.
When the Federal Emergency Management Agency overhauled its flood insurance program last year, it wanted to encourage homeowners to buy coverage by showing them more precisely the risk that each property faces of being flooded.
But instead, hundreds of thousands of people have dropped the flood policies they were buying through FEMA, raising concerns that an unprecedented number of households are financially exposed to flood damage.
Records reviewed by E&E News show that more than 425,000 people have discontinued the coverage they had through FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program since October, when FEMA began to raise rates on millions of properties to reflect flood risk more accurately. FEMA also lowered premiums on hundreds of thousands of properties where rates were too high.
The NFIP provides most of the nation’s flood insurance and has been trying for years to increase the number of households with flood coverage as climate change and development intensify flood damage. Flood insurance is sold separately from homeowners’ insurance policies.
But FEMA’s own records and interviews with insurance agents indicate that so far, the restructuring is having the opposite effect, prompting some people to let their policies expire when faced with higher insurance premiums.
“It’s going to backfire in their face,” said Tammy Whitehead, an insurance agent in New Orleans who is critical of FEMA’s restructuring.
The number of NFIP policies dropped from 4.96 million on Sept. 30, 2021, to 4.54 million as of June 30 — a decline of nearly 9 percent.
It is unclear how many people who dropped NFIP policies have bought flood coverage through a private insurer.
Tuna Siraci, president of insurance brokerage National Flood Insurance LLC, said insurance companies are taking advantage of the rising NFIP rates and are starting to offer flood coverage, which insurers had avoided for decades because the losses are catastrophic and unpredictable.
“The portion of private flood insurance is increasing rapidly,” Siraci said.
FEMA told E&E News that “there are many factors that could influence this drop in policyholders, including the economic impact of the pandemic, inflation, the housing market, affordability or purchasing flood insurance from the private market.”
“We remain confident that policies will increase, over time, under our new Risk Rating methodology,” FEMA spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said, referring to the agency’s restructuring program, known as Risk Rating 2.0.
What the Hell is HALEU? And Where Will We Get it? Advanced Reactors Want to Know
Continue reading “What the Hell is HALEU? And Where Will We Get it? Advanced Reactors Want to Know”Nuclear fission startup TerraPower, founded and chaired by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, has raised $750 million to develop advanced nuclear reactors to serve as alternatives to the light-water reactors that make up the vast majority of the world’s civilian nuclear fleet. But cash alone won’t be enough to get the startup over the many hurdles that stand in its way.
TerraPower’s Natrium fast reactor design is radically different from the design of traditional nuclear reactors. For starters, it’s smaller. A typical reactor in the U.S. produces 1,000 megawatts of power. TerraPower’s first demonstration reactor, now being planned for a site in Wyoming, will have a capacity of 345 megawatts. The smaller size could enable the reactor to be built cheaply in a factory and not expensively on-site.
The Natrium reactor will also use a different fuel and a different coolant than standard nuclear reactors. It will be fueled by high-assay low-enriched uranium(HALEU), which is enriched with more uranium than the fuel used in traditional nuclear plants. And the coolant will be high-temperature liquid sodium instead of water.
TerraPower’s new funding includes $250 million from South Korean chaebol SKGroup. Previous funding for the firm has come from Gates and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway. The company was also awarded $80 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to work on its Natrium reactor design.
Canary covered TerraPower’s technology in detail last year when the firm announced that Bechtel will build its first reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming, near the site of a coal-fired power plant that is scheduled to be shut down. The U.S. Department of Energy and private investors will split the cost of the demonstration project.
The startup claims that this first reactor will be in operation by 2028 and will cost $4 billion, including engineering, procurement and construction. If TerraPower comes anywhere close to meeting those wildly ambitious goals, it will strongly differentiate itself from the traditional nuclear industry, which is notorious for missed deadlines and shocking cost overruns. The only two conventional nuclear reactors currently under construction in the U.S., at the Vogtle plant in Georgia, are already six years overdue and will cost utility customers over $30 billion, more than double the original price tag.
One big new problem for TerraPower emerged earlier this year: its fuel source. The only facility currently able to supply commercial quantities of HALEU is in Russia. That wasn’t a great situation even before Russia invaded Ukraine. Now that the war in Ukraine has been grinding on for six months and shows no signs of resolution, relying on fuel sourced from Russia is untenable.
In March, TerraPower said it had cut ties with Tenex, the Russian state-owned company from which it had planned to source HALEU, Wyoming-based nonprofit news outlet WyoFile reported. “When Russia invaded Ukraine it became very clear, for a whole set of reasons — moral reasons as well as commercial reasons — that using Russian fuel is no longer an option for us,” said Jeff Navin, TerraPower’s director of external affairs.
TerraPower did just get good news this week when President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. The legislation includes $700 million to help build up a domestic supply chain for HALEU. The funding could give a boost to the U.S. Department of Energy’s plans to launch a congressionally authorized HALEUAvailability Program. But developing HALEU production capacity in the U.S. will take years.
In a Cold State, Maine’s Whole-Home Heat Pumps Holding Their Own
Recent research by Efficiency Maine makes the case that replacing homes’ entire heating systems with heat pumps can be cost-effective and comfortable, even in Maine’s notoriously cold winters.
“Here, it got 21 below last winter,” said George Hardy, who participated in a pilot program as part of the research. “I was a little worried about the heat pumps, but they held out. They kept us warm.”
As Maine attempts to reach its ambitious goal of going carbon neutral by 2045, home heating is going to be a major problem to solve. More than 60% of the state’s home heating systems burn oil — one of the most carbon-intensive heating fuels — more than any other state.
Maine has made air-source heat pumps a centerpiece of its strategy. Heat pumps pull heat out of the surrounding air, even at cold temperatures, and transfer it into the home. The only fuel they use is the electricity needed to run the pump. Maine has set a goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps by 2025, a target it is well on its way to reaching: In 2021 alone, more than 27,000 new heat pumps came online in the state.
Often, however, homeowners install just one heat pump, but continue to use fossil fuel sources as a backup, an arrangement that can undercut the ability of heat pumps to save money and reduce emissions. Efficiency Maine, therefore, has been undertaking research to bolster the argument for jettisoning the oil and propane altogether and moving toward whole-home heat pump systems.
“We’re reaffirming our expectation that they work in cold climates and will keep you comfortable through the entire winter,” said Michael Stoddard, executive director of Efficiency Maine. “We want to see the heat pumps being used to their full capacity.”
