Renewable-Energy Progress

[lpetrich]

That's a rather easy assertion to test. Energy density has the numbers. I'll add in medium to heavy hydrocarbons, like liquid petroleum gas, gasoline, diesel fuel, and fuel oil.

Atomic and molecular weights:
H = 1.008 g/mol -- grams / mole (gram molecular weight)
C = 12.011 g/mol
Natural gas (methane) = CH4 = 16.043 g/mol
Oil (molecular building block here) = CH2 = 14.027
Coal (treated as pure carbon) = C = 12.011 g/mol

Energy:
NG: 55.5 MJ/kg -- megajoules / kilogram
HC: 48 MJ/kg
Coal: 35 MJ/kg (using best case)

NG: 882 kJ/mol
HC: 673 kJ/mol
Coal: 420 kJ/mol
This is relative to their carbon content.

Combined cycle -- that's how natural gas is often used to generate electricity. It uses a combination of a combustion turbine and a steam turbine to get an efficiency of around 1/2. The steam turbine alone would get around 1/3. That adds to the usable energy of natural gas, making it go from twice that of coal to three times per carbon atom.

[Tubby]

[quote=""lpetrich""]Energy:
NG: 882 kJ/mol
Coal: 420 kJ/mol
[/quote]

882:420 ~ 2:1

[Tubby]

"Exxon has been slow to invest in renewable energy," it is claimed in this brief article. "Exxon’s head-in-the-sand approach could spell doom for the company, much as it did for the financially ravaged coal industry."

[lpetrich]

Lots of stuff related to renewable energy in What we are doing to the planet and its inhabitants - Secular Café

From World War II: Fischer-Tropsch Archive > U.S. Government Technical Oil Mission Fischer-Tropsch Report No.1 - Table of Contents > Fischer-Tropsch Report - Synthesis of Aromatic Hydrocarbons:

"It is known that, in general, mixtures of CO and H2 produce straight-chain paraffins at relatively low temperatures, alcohols in the range 300-400°C. and aromatics in the range 475-500°C."

Synthetic motor oil has become common, since one can control its properties much better than with conventional motor oils.
The technology of synthetic oil. How is synthetic oil made?
What is the best synthetic motor oil? -- Amsoil's tests
Separating Facts from Friction | Best Motor Oil | Consumers Digest | Motor Oil | Consumers Digest
The Consumers Digest reviewer:

Don’t hold your breath waiting for an independent test that determines which oil is the best, Garthe says. “That costs a zillion dollars to do it, so it doesn’t get done.” Motor oil-makers perform such tests themselves, he says, but most aren’t interested in sharing the information besides, of course, that their oil came out on top.

One company that did share its test results with us is Amsoil, which makes a specialty high-performance synthetic oil that costs about $9 per quart—compared with about $5.50 per quart for the big national brands’ synthetic oils. You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that Amsoil’s tests show that its oil tops all of the mainstream brands. What was notable was that other brands took turns in second place—the brand depending on which engine issue was the focus of the test. Although that’s a far cry from independent testing, Amsoil has no vested interest that we know of in the finishing order of the other brands that were tested. The results support what industry experts tell us about the mainstream brands that tout specific purposes—some are better than others at specific tasks, but it all depends on which task that you choose.

Some hydrocarbon terminology:

• Alkane ~ paraffin ~ saturated hydrocarbon (single bonds only). Names end in -ane
• Cycloalkane ~ saturated hydrocarbon with a ring structure in it
• Alkene ~ olefin ~ unsaturated hydrocarbon (at least one C-C double bond). Names end in -ene
• Alkyne ~ unsaturated hydrocarbon (at least one C-C triple bond)
• Aliphatic ~ having no benzene rings
• Aromatic ~ having at least one benzene ring

I think I'll stop here.

[lpetrich]

What’s the EROI of Solar? | Ramez Naam
Mentioned estimates of the energy payback time of photovoltaic cells. The older ones would indeed require something like 8 or 9 years, while the more recent ones require only about 1.5 - 2 years. With improved fabrication technologies, that number may drop even further.

Also criticized a paper by Weißbach et al., Energy intensities, EROIs, and energy payback times of electricity generating power plants for having very misleading results.

I’ll let others comment on the wind numbers. For solar, which I know better, this paper is an outlier. Looking at the bulk of the research, it’s more likely that solar panels, over their lifetime, generate 10-15 times as much energy as it takes to produce them and their associated hardware. That number may be as high as 25. And it’s rising over time.

The most comprehensive review of solar EROI to date is Bhandari et al Energy payback time (EPBT) and energy return on energy invested (EROI) of solar photovoltaic systems: A systematic review and meta-analysis

That paper: Energy payback time (EPBT) and energy return on energy invested (EROI) of solar photovoltaic systems_ A systematic review and meta-analysis - life_cycle_assesment_ellingson_apul_(2015)_ren_and_sustain._energy_revs.pdf

Ramez Naam:

So how does Weißbach et al find a number that is so radically different? There are three things that I see immediately:

1. Weißbach assumes that half of all solar power is thrown away. ...

2. Weißbach uses an outdated estimate of silicon use and energy cost. ...

3. Weißbach assumes Germany, while Bhandari assumes a sunny place. ...

However, I've found an enthusiastic supporter of Weißbach's work: The Shocking Reasons Why We Should Go Nuclear - Richard Carrier However, he has the decency to keep comments that criticize his assertions.

That ß (es-zet) in German spelling is a ss preceded by a long vowel.

[lpetrich]

For extraction of energy from natural resources, an important figure of merit is the Energy returned on energy invested, or EROEI or EROI for short.

If it is less than 1, then one is getting less energy than one is putting into the process of extracting it, and that means a net energy loss. If it is not much greater than one, then one is getting some energy, but at a high cost. So one wants it to be relatively large.

DFID_Report1_2012_11_02 - DFID_Report1_2012_11_04-2.pdf -- EROI of Global Energy Resources Preliminary Status and Trends
By Jessica Lambert, Charles Hall, Steve Balogh, Alex Poisson, and Ajay Gupta
State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry

That article has an interesting list of EROEI values for various activities, calculated for conventional sweet crude oil.
[table]What | EROEI
Arts and Other | 14
Health Care | 12
Education | 9 - 10
Supporting Families | 7 - 8
Growing Food | 5
Transportation | 3
Refine Oil | 1.2
Extract Oil | 1.1[/table]
The ones at the bottom are from the published literature, while the ones at the top are highly speculative and hand-wavy.

The EROI for discovering oil in the US has decreased from more than 1000:1 in 1919 to 5:1 in the 2010s, and for production from about 30:1 in the 1970s to less than 10:1 today [72]. The global EROI for the production of oil and gas has declined from 30:1 in the 1995 to about 18:1 in 2006 [80]. It is difficult to establishing EROI values for natural gas alone as these values are usually aggregated in oil and gas statistics [70, 71].

Tar sands have an EROEI of about 5, and oil shales about 1.3.

Coal has an EROEI that in the US has varied from 80 to 30 (1980's) and back to 80 (1990's, from increasing strip mining).

Nuclear energy has an EROEI of about 5 to 15.

Of renewable sources, hydroelectric is the best, at around 75 or thereabouts. Wind energy is good, at about 18.

Photovoltaic cells had 7 - 10 around when this article was published (2012 Nov 4), but this is a rapidly developing technology, and some more recent ones do even better.

Corn ethanol has 0.8 - 1.6 (range of estimates), and biodiesel has 1.3.

[Peez]

[quote=""lpetrich""]Lots of stuff related to renewable energy in What we are doing to the planet and its inhabitants - Secular Café

From World War II: Fischer-Tropsch Archive > U.S. Government Technical Oil Mission Fischer-Tropsch Report No.1 - Table of Contents > Fischer-Tropsch Report - Synthesis of Aromatic Hydrocarbons:

"It is known that, in general, mixtures of CO and H2 produce straight-chain paraffins at relatively low temperatures, alcohols in the range 300-400°C. and aromatics in the range 475-500°C."

Synthetic motor oil has become common, since one can control its properties much better than with conventional motor oils.
The technology of synthetic oil. How is synthetic oil made?
What is the best synthetic motor oil? -- Amsoil's tests
Separating Facts from Friction | Best Motor Oil | Consumers Digest | Motor Oil | Consumers Digest
The Consumers Digest reviewer:

Don’t hold your breath waiting for an independent test that determines which oil is the best, Garthe says. “That costs a zillion dollars to do it, so it doesn’t get done.” Motor oil-makers perform such tests themselves, he says, but most aren’t interested in sharing the information besides, of course, that their oil came out on top.

One company that did share its test results with us is Amsoil, which makes a specialty high-performance synthetic oil that costs about $9 per quart—compared with about $5.50 per quart for the big national brands’ synthetic oils. You shouldn’t be surprised to learn that Amsoil’s tests show that its oil tops all of the mainstream brands. What was notable was that other brands took turns in second place—the brand depending on which engine issue was the focus of the test. Although that’s a far cry from independent testing, Amsoil has no vested interest that we know of in the finishing order of the other brands that were tested. The results support what industry experts tell us about the mainstream brands that tout specific purposes—some are better than others at specific tasks, but it all depends on which task that you choose.

Some hydrocarbon terminology:

• Alkane ~ paraffin ~ saturated hydrocarbon (single bonds only). Names end in -ane
• Cycloalkane ~ saturated hydrocarbon with a ring structure in it
• Alkene ~ olefin ~ unsaturated hydrocarbon (at least one C-C double bond). Names end in -ene
• Alkyne ~ unsaturated hydrocarbon (at least one C-C triple bond)
• Aliphatic ~ having no benzene rings
• Aromatic ~ having at least one benzene ring

I think I'll stop here.[/quote]

[lpetrich]

With Donald Trump As CiC, US Navy Is Caught In Clean Power Crosshairs | CleanTechnica

President-elect Donald Trump is not such a big fan of clean power, but the Pentagon sure is. That’s especially true of the US Navy. The Department of the Navy has been leveraging its history of maritime innovation to make the case for transitioning to biofuel, solar energy, wind energy, energy storage, energy efficiency, and any other technological edge that can support its position as the most powerful fighting force on the seven seas — and make its bases more secure and resilient, too.

Under Trump, States May Drive US Climate Policy | CleanTechnica -- let's see if right-wingers will be good losers about states' rights.

Where Did All Our Jobs Go? | CleanTechnica -- automated out of existence.

Latin America Solar Market Flourishes In 2016, Is Expected To Continue In 2017 | CleanTechnica, from 1.4 GW in 2015 to as much as 10 GW in 2021. Nice to see it doing so well in some of the poorer countries of the world.

Throwing Fireworks Into A Fast-Burning Fire — Don The Con Keeps Going | CleanTechnica

Portland Curtails New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

If approved on December 8th, Portland’s new ordinance will:

• Prohibit expansion of existing bulk fossil fuel storage tanks
• Limit new tanks to a capacity of 2 million gallons or less
• Prevent aggregation of small terminals
• Prevent all new coal storage capacity (there are currently no coal export facilities in the City of Portland).

The Power Of The Pen & Grassroots Media — Anti-Solar Amendment 1 Blocked In Florida | CleanTechnica

The big falsehood of Amendment 1 that was perpetrated throughout Florida via millions of dollars of utility money, as well as on the ballot, was the implication that it was a pro-solar amendment — when it was quite the opposite. Several of our articles untangled the cunning deception embedded in the wording. These articles pulled in views for days and days, and kept getting shared.
I believe the work helped to eventually stop Amendment 1 and protect rooftop solar in Florida. Nullified, the amendment’s halt shows some of Floridians’ more sublime unity. Grassroots movements can create subtle but powerful changes in energy, understanding, and action.

Santa Monica To Require New Single-Family Homes To Be Net-Zero Energy | CleanTechnica -- using lots of solar panels.

New Study Nails Elusive Link Between Fracking & Earthquakes | CleanTechnica

[Tubby]

[quote=""lpetrich""]President-elect Donald Trump is not such a big fan of clean power, but the Pentagon sure is. That’s especially true of the US Navy. The Department of the Navy has been leveraging its history of maritime innovation to make the case for transitioning to biofuel, solar energy, wind energy, energy storage, energy efficiency, and any other technological edge that can support its position as the most powerful fighting force on the seven seas — and make its bases more secure and resilient, too.[/quote]

That surprises me. Big vessels have traditionally burned bunker oil, which has been described as "tar-like," such that it needs warming to flow through the lines to the boiler, and produces lots of smoke once there.

[Tubby]

[quote=""Tubby""]Pardon one more intrusion of gasoline-burning into this thread. I wondered why the rotary engine for automobiles was such a short-lived phenomenon. ...[/quote]

There may one day be an electric car with an "extender" rotary engine in it, per this article----

http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2016/11/23/ ... -2019.html

[lpetrich]

Amazon Announces Five New Solar Farms In Virginia | CleanTechnica
Canada To Virtually Phase Out Coal By 2030 & Accelerate Clean Tech Investment | CleanTechnica
RE100 Urges EU Policymakers To Support Businesses To Go 100% Renewable | CleanTechnica

Gerrymander Voting Maps In Wisconsin Struck Down By Federal Court | CleanTechnica -- very welcome, but a rather peripheral issue.

Solar & Wind Belong Together Like Peanut Butter & Jelly | CleanTechnica

What’s keeping solar and wind power from fully taking over the electric grid? For starters, the sun only shines during the day. Wind blows intermittently, is seasonally variable, and is not always blowing when the energy is needed. But what if solar and wind work together? “Wind resource tends to complement solar resource,” says Sarah Kurtz of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “Here in Colorado, for instance, the windiest time is during the winter and spring months. In winter, we don’t have as much sunshine, but we tend to get more wind and stronger wind.”

US Business Leaders To Trump: Focus On Climate Change | CleanTechnica

1 Million Pure EVs Worldwide: EV Revolution Begins! | CleanTechnica -- electric vehicles: electric cars, electric buses, electric trucks

Self-contained electric vehicles are having remarkable success, despite the low energy density of batteries as opposed to combustible fuels. Perhaps not surprisingly, they still have relatively short range compared to combustible-fuel vehicles.

I say "self-contained", because the most successful electric vehicles until recently are those that continuously get their electricity from outside: overhead cables or extra rails. They thus save on onboard storage, eliminating a major difficulty with self-contained electric vehicles.

[lpetrich]

World Wide Woodard: As Trump Age dawns, a dispatch from the city Sanders built -- he was the mayor of Burlington, VT for some years. It's not a very big city (2010: city proper: 42,417, urban area 108,740, metro area: 214,796), but as author Colin Woodard says about it,

I did field research for this story a couple weeks before election day; now it reads like a dispatch from an alternate universe, where a town with few meaningful fissures is creating a sustainable economy under the guidance of their municipal government, itself run for much of the past four decades by social democrats.

Shows what good government can do. Government can't do everything, but it can do a lot more than torment people that one dislikes.

In any case, the new story is on Burlington, Vermont's 37-year drive to build a sustainable city, protected from international fossil fuel markets and the whims of distant corporate boards.

It now generates all its electricity from non-fossil-fuel sources, and it's working on transport also.

America’s First All-Renewable-Energy City - POLITICO Magazine

Burlington's decades-long commitment to sustainability has paid off with cheap electricity—and some pretty great homegrown food.

Though the city runs a thermal electric powerplant, its heat comes from burning not coal, not oil, not natural gas, but wood harvested from 60 miles around. That powerplant supplies half the city's electricity, and the other half comes from hydroelectric generation on the nearby Winooski River, some wind turbines, and some solar panels. All without raising electricity rates in 8 years.

And Burlington is not done in its quest for energy conservation. Add in the city’s plan for an expansive bike path, a growing network of electric vehicle charging stations and an ambitious plan to pipe the McNeil station’s waste heat to warm downtown buildings and City Hall’s goal to be a net zero consumer of energy within 10 years starts looking achievable.

Also,

The environmental sustainability revolution has spread to other sectors of civic life. Outside the gates, farmers, community gardeners and food-minded social workers tend fields and plots spread out over 300 acres of once-neglected floodplain just two miles from the city’s center. Together the agricultural enterprises in the valley—working land controlled by a non-profit that partners with the city—grow $1.3 million in food each year, much of it sold at a massive, member-owned cooperative supermarket, its own origins traced back to City Hall.

During the Sixties-radical era, the city and the state attracted many people fleeing the social problems of much of the rest of the country, from the state advertising itself as a place of natural beauty and good government.

Because many who came were from college-educated middle class and upper middle class backgrounds—and had engaged in social justice organizing before their arrival— they would have an outsized effect on the state’s political trajectory generally and its largest city in particular.

Thus making Burlington politically much like a college town. Complete with getting a nickname title often used for left-leaning cities: the People's Republic of Burlington.

[lpetrich]

I should note that Burlington has been a college town for a long time -- it hosts the University of Vermont.

Renewable energy is seeping into small-town America - Vox -- meaning that it's for more than lefty college towns.

Author David Roberts calls it "A small source of optimism."

Climate change is a highly polarized and contentious issue. ...

Clean energy, however, is different. In public opinion polls, it is supported by virtually every demographic, region, and party.

What’s more, unlike the abstractions involved in climate, clean energy is real, tangible, and — perhaps most important of all — commercially viable. There are many things that divide Americans, but they are generally united on the benefits of making money.

Even as the (small and shrinking) number of coal jobs gets endless media attention, renewable energy has scaled up to become a serious employer in the US. And it’s happening in places far outside the usual blue urban enclaves — think solar in rural North Carolina or wind in Texas and Oklahoma.

...
It’s about wind turbines dotting the farms around Spearville, Kansas, a biodiesel refinery in Erie, Pennsylvania, solar on California’s Central Valley farms, and energy conservation in Fresno. Yes, Fresno.

To the fossil-fuel lobby, they must seem like traitors. Real Americans aren't supposed to use alternatives to their products, they might think.

But right-wingers may still find a lot to like about renewable energy -- it's easier to be self-reliant with it than with typical fossil fuels. Most people don't have coal mines or oil wells on their property, while it's easy to have solar panels on one's property.

[plebian]

[quote=""Tubby""]

President-elect Donald Trump is not such a big fan of clean power, but the Pentagon sure is. That’s especially true of the US Navy. The Department of the Navy has been leveraging its history of maritime innovation to make the case for transitioning to biofuel, solar energy, wind energy, energy storage, energy efficiency, and any other technological edge that can support its position as the most powerful fighting force on the seven seas — and make its bases more secure and resilient, too.

That surprises me. Big vessels have traditionally burned bunker oil, which has been described as "tar-like," such that it needs warming to flow through the lines to the boiler, and produces lots of smoke once there.[/QUOTE]

I don't think any Navy ships burn bunker oil any more. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure I would know about it if they did. It's pretty much a strictly freighter phenomenon. It drastically limits performance and the Navy is all about performance. The US Navy has at least one solar powered destroyer. Most of their big ships run on electric already, typically supplied by gas turbines or nuclear. It matters a lot to the Navy to have electric power because both railguns and the new laser systems use a lot of electricity and there isn't room on a ship for two full size power systems. But they use very little if any bunker oil.

[Tubby]

Microwaves to extract oil from underground? Does anybody know more about this? I picture the microwaves warming the water/oil mix, lowering the viscosity so that it flows to the well pipe, but that's just a guess.

[Tubby]

An aspect of supply-and-demand which has struck me as odd is that in certain industries, a new breakthrough in technique can actually hurt the business. Drillers get much better at extracting oil, supply increases, price of oil comes down, stock price of producers drops, employees are laid off.

I've wondered what the curve would look like for CFL light bulb sales vs. time. They last so much longer than incandescents that I'm guessing there was a rapid rise after the invention of CFLs, and a peak, and a slowdown to a rate well below peak, and well below the pre-CFL sales rate of incandescents.

[Tubby]

Another tactic in power smoothing is pumped water. The novel aspect of this proposed project is that the lower reservoir is an obsolete mine.

[lpetrich]

Will It Or Won't It? Cutting-Edge Solar Company Races To Meet Grant Deadline | CleanTechnica -- claiming that it could undercut fossil fuels in cost by a factor of 10. That may be overly optimistic, but it's revealing that fossil fuels are starting to lose on cost, at least for generating electricity.

Beijing Establishing "Environmental Police Force" To Deal With Polluters & Air Pollution | CleanTechnica

China Usurps United States As Global Clean Energy Leader | CleanTechnica

These 5 States Host Two-Thirds Of India’s Solar Power Capacity | CleanTechnica

Just five states — Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu — host more than 67% of the total solar power capacity operation in India. Three of these states (Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) have been leading in terms of fresh capacity added this financial year, data up to the 31st of October 2016 released by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy shows.

UK Wind Outperformed Coal In 2016 | CleanTechnica

New Jersey Offshore Wind Energy Not Dead, Christie Or No Christie | CleanTechnica -- despite Governor Christie's successfully opposing a proposed wind farm off of Atlantic City.

Buffalo (New York) Completely Eliminates Parking Minimums, 1st Large City In US To Do So | CleanTechnica

To explain, some cities — such as Rochester, for instance — have selectively eliminated parking minimums (e.g., in downtown areas, etc.) in recent years, but Buffalo is the first in the US to do some across the table, with the whole city now freed from the requirements of parking minimums.

Why?

Streetsblog USA provides some context: “Like many cities, Buffalo is scarred by parking lots and pocked with garages built to satisfy the mandates. … The move is expected to improve the market for development in Buffalo, which hollowed out during the decades when the region sprawled and the city planned for cars, rather than people.”

Craig Morris: "There are lessons to learn from Germany" | CleanTechnica

Which countries are doing the most efforts in term of renewable energy policies?

If we talk about electricity for the moment (as opposed to energy) Costa Rica, Norway, and Iceland are almost 100% renewable already thanks to hydro and/or geothermal. You can’t compare with other countries. If the French government says ‘Norway is 100%, let’s copy Norway: be a small population on a bunch of fjords’, it will not work. You can’t copy Norway. ‘OK, let’s copy Iceland then. Everybody sits on a volcano.’ That doesn’t work either. These are not policy recommendations.

The interesting question is not which country is the best now in term of renewables, it’s how can we move forward, and there are lessons to learn from Germany here. Germany is a super interesting example. They are doing it with wind and solar, which every country has at a significant level. In fact, Germany has a bad potential for both. So today, Germany is doing something that is more easily replicable everywhere.

[lpetrich]

Ohio Gov. Hearts Renewables, Takes A Swipe At Oil & Gas | CleanTechnica

Ohio Governor John Kasich is not exactly known as a champion of the environment, but apparently he knows a good deal when he sees one. The Republican governor made his conservative supporters hopping mad last week when he vetoed a bill that would have undercut Ohio’s goals for renewable energy. Adding insult to injury, Governor Kasich went out of his way to explain the importance of renewables to the state’s economy.

Renewables = 25% Of UK Electricity Generation In 3rd Quarter, Met 60% Of Scottish Needs In 2015 | CleanTechnica

Cost of Solar Power vs Cost of Wind Power, Coal, Nuclear, & Natural Gas -- wind and solar are starting to beat coal and natural gas.

India's Largest Subway System Will Fully Switch To Solar Next Year | CleanTechnica -- the Delhi Metro

World’s Second Largest Zinc Producer Will Go Solar | CleanTechnica -- in India

3 Reasons President-Elect Donald Trump Won’t Kill The Solar Industry | CleanTechnica
Jobs, jobs, jobs
Money, money, money
Support across party lines

Maybe not. But it could be a nasty fight. DT has a history of objecting to wind farms as eyesores.

Cape Light Compact Goes 100% Renewable For Electricity | CleanTechnica -- Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard

Abandoned For 20 Years, Former Farm Grows Solar Power Now -- And It's Dirt Cheap | CleanTechnica

In what is being billed as a record low price for utility-scale solar power in California, the new 155 megawatt Springbok 2 solar farm is now operational and cranking out the juice at $58.00 per megawatt-hour, slightly less than its previously anticipated rate of $58.65. According to the developer, 8minuteenergy, that beats fossil fuel for power generation in California — both coal and natural gas.

The company's name:

In just eight minutes, energy from the Sun reaches the Earth.
We take it from there.

Bringing Solar To Mexicans Without Electricity

They recently launched a crowdfunding campaign on Donadora to finance installations in 100 homes. There are 26 days left. Vitaluz is a third of the way to reaching its goal of raising $63,167.

“If we reach our goal it will be the most successful crowd funding campaign ever run in Mexico,” said Hannah Bouline, the strategic planning assistant at Vitaluz.

In addition, the company has 272 active users and another 150 on the waiting list.

Bouline explained, “Vitaluz is working to bring solar power to the 2.2 million people in the country with no access to electricity. Currently, these families must resort to using alternatives that are harmful to their health and the environment such as candles, kerosene lamps or diesel generators. The most ironic and unjust part is that these alternatives are also the most expensive and inefficient lighting and electricity methods that exist.”

Vitaluz = light life

All Dutch Trains Now Run 100% On Wind Power | CleanTechnica

Las Vegas Government Now Running Entirely On Renewable Electricity | CleanTechnica

Wind Energy Is Behind A Historic Shift in US Electricity Production | CleanTechnica

[lpetrich]

Wind & Solar Go Together Like Cake & Ice Cream | CleanTechnica

Most people think wind power and solar power are competitors, but Sarah Kurtz of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory says that the opposite is true. “Wind resource tends to complement solar resource,” says “Here in Colorado, for instance, the windiest time is during the winter and spring months. In winter, we don’t have as much sunshine, but we tend to get more wind and stronger wind.”

New Arizona Policy Would Mandate Solar After Dark | CleanTechnica

Full Text Of 74-Item Questionnaire Trump Transition Team Sent To DOE | CleanTechnica

China Is Now The Center Of The Lithium Universe | CleanTechnica

How Much Energy Storage Is Needed In A Solar & Wind Powered Grid? | CleanTechnica

Australia will have a number of options for storage: battery storage located “behind the meter” (i.e. in households and businesses), battery storage located at grid level (next to wind and solar farms, and at various points in the network), plus hydro, pumped hydro, molten salt storage with solar towers, and other technologies such as fly-wheels.

Right now, however, it looks like the most prominent will be battery storage, if only because it will be the favoured technology of the anticipated 10 million homes and businesses that will combine rooftop solar and storage to reduce their bills, do their bit for clean energy, and to ensure energy security.

Battery Storage Sector May Be In Early Stages Of Mass-Market Uptake In Australia | CleanTechnica

Time-Shift Your Excess Solar With Ice Storage | CleanTechnica

Ice Energy’s technology is simple. Where a conventional central air conditioning unit has a compressor outside, an Ice Cub adds a tank of water next to that compressor, with refrigerant running in coils through the tank. Excess electricity is used to freeze the water. The ice then keeps the refrigerant cool for hours, making that stored electricity available for cooling the home.

[lpetrich]

There is so much to report on at Cleantech News — Solar, Wind, EV News (#1 Source) | CleanTechnica.

Like this: Workhorse Hybrid Delivery Vans Are 5 Times More Efficient Than Conventional Delivery Vans | CleanTechnica, republishing this: UPS Adds Hybrid Electric Delivery Van To Its Fleet - Gas 2

A hybrid electric engine uses an internal combustion engine to generate electricity. It can then be stored in batteries and then used to drive the vehicle with electric motors. A sort of electric transmission instead of the usual hydraulic one, and one that can store energy for accelerating and recover energy while braking. It uses a 30-hp / 22-kW engine, an engine that may seem rather wimpy for a delivery van.

New Interactive Tool Shows "The Evolution Of Wind Power" Around The World | CleanTechnica linking to Evolution of Wind Power - Breeze -- showing its dramatic growth and spread: a factor of 5 over the last 10 years.

US Governors Call On Donald Trump To Back Wind & Solar | CleanTechnica

Europe Installs 12.5 Gigawatts Of New Wind Energy Capacity In 2016 | CleanTechnica was 6.5 GW in 2005, giving a total of 153.7 GW.

US Installs 8.2 Gigawatts Of New Wind Energy In 2016, Finishes With Second Strongest Quarter Ever | CleanTechnica -- at 82.183 GW, wind is now bigger than hydroelectric (about 80 GW) in installed capacity in the US.

New York Approves Country's Next Largest Offshore Wind Project | CleanTechnica -- 90 megawatts, enough to power 50,000 homes

Urea May Be Key To Affordable Grid-Scale Batteries | CleanTechnica -- its electrolyte contains that substance and its electrodes are made of aluminum and graphite.

Possible Trump Science Adviser Calls Climate Scientists "Glassy Eyed Cult" | CleanTechnica

[lpetrich]

2017 Could Be A "Huge Year" For Large-Scale Renewables In Australia | CleanTechnica with plans to build over 2 gigawatts of capacity.

Jimmy Carter Builds 1.3 Megawatt Solar Farm For His Hometown Of Plains, Georgia | CleanTechnica -- has some video on the installation of solar panels on the White House roof. I don't know what President Trump has decided to do about them, if he has given any thought to them.

India Officially Doubles Its Solar Parks Target To 40 Gigawatts | CleanTechnica, Ukraine's Solar Capacity Will Hit 1 Gigawatt This Year | CleanTechnica

US Solar Grows 95% In 2016 In Record-Breaking Year | CleanTechnica Adding 14.626 gigawatts, beating the previous record of 7.492 GW in 2015, the previous year. More data from its source: Solar Industry Data | SEIA (US)

6 Charts that Will Make You Optimistic About Clean Energy - Renewable Energy World (US Department of Energy's collected statistics) -- they show dramatic growth in installations of wind-energy and solar-energy systems.

Global Wind Energy Insight: Strong Year Ahead - Renewable Energy World

Although we didn’t reach the 60-GW mark in 2016, largely because China ‘only’ installed 23 GW instead of last year’s phenomenal 30 GW, the industry chalked up 12.6 percent growth in cumulative capacity. In addition, China, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, South Africa and Canada were down a bit on the 2015 market; but these are largely cyclical issues (except in the cases of Germany and South Africa), and we expect to see them all turn around in 2017.

More numbers: India: 3,612 MW installed last year, Germany: 5,443 MW, passing 50-GW total, US: 8,203 MW, but 18+ GW under construction or in advanced stages of planning. Turkey: 1,387 MW, France 1,561 MW, Holland 887 MW, Brazil 2,014 MW, Chile 542 MW, Uruguay 365 MW, both countries now having over 1 GW total. Argentina has 1.4 GW in the works.

But the big story that developed in 2016 and promises to begin to bear fruit in 2017, is the cratering of offshore prices. It started with the Dutch tender for Borssele 1 & 2 in June coming in at €72/MWh, well below expectations; followed by a Danish nearshore tender in September at €64/MWh. This was followed in November with the winning bid for the Danish Krieger’s Flak project coming in at an astonishing €49.90/MWh; and then Borssele 3 & 4 in the Netherlands coming in at €54.50/MWh in December.

Currently, USD 1 = EUR 0.94, meaning as low as 5.3 US cents per kWh.

Renewable Energy Growth Blows EIA Forecasts Out of the Water, Again | DeSmogBlog From early last year, how renewable-energy use has grown much faster than many official predictions of it.

• “In 2009, the federal government’s Energy Information Administration made a forecast for the next two decades: U.S. wind power would grow modestly, reaching 44 gigawatts of generating capacity in 2030, while solar power would remain scarce, inching up to 12 GW. Just six years later, U.S. wind capacity is already up to 66 GW, and solar has shot up to 21 GW. There's now enough installed wind and solar to power 25 million American homes— more than three times what the EIA expected before President Obama took office.” Michael Grunwald in Politico
• “In 2005, EIA forecast that U.S. solar power capacity would hit about 1.2 GW in 2013. Where are we right now [in 2013]? According to Greentech Media, the U.S. is closing in (if it already hasn’t passed) the 10 GW mark in solar PV capacity right about now, and that’s not even counting solar thermal power generating capacity (according to this article, you can add another 1 GW or so of U.S. solar thermal power capacity). In sum, EIA forecast 1.2 GW of U.S. solar power capacity in 2013; the actual figure is around 11 GW – nearly 10 times higher than EIA forecast!” Former EIA employee Lowell Feld, in 2013.
• “The report this year [2015] predicts that by 2040, the U. S. will have added only 48 gigawatts of solar generating capacity. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) expects that the industry will add half of that by the end of 2016. “ Samantha Page in ThinkProgress
• In an update on June 2015, the EIA projected that the cheapest solar deployed in 2020 would cost $89 / mwh, after subsidies. That’s 8.9 cents / kwh to most of us. (This assumes that the solar Investment Tax Credit is not extended.)…How has that forecast worked out? Well, in Austin, Greentech Media reports that there are 1.2GW of bids for solar plants at less than $40/mwh, or 4c/kwh. And there are bids on the table for buildouts after the ITC goes away at similar prices. Ramez Naam

[Tubby]

Another brief article on the promise of graphene.

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/02/gr ... citor.html

...with all the advantages that come from physical storage of energy as opposed to chemical storage.

[lpetrich]

First, a few numbers.
Electric energy consumption: electricity consumption in terawatts in 2008:

• World: 2.313
• US: 0.502
• EU: 0.415
• China: 0.324
• Japan: 0.110

This is consumption -- generating capacity will be greater than that by a factor of 2 or thereabouts.

GSR_2016_Full_Report.pdf -- has a table of data from 2014 and 2015. Electricity-generation highlights:

• Total renewable, with hydro: 1,701, 1,849 GW
• Total renewable, without hydro: 665, 785 GW
• Hydroelectric: 1,036, 1,064 GW
• Wind: 370, 433 GW
• Solar photovoltaic: 177, 227 GW
• Solar concentrated: 4.3, 4.8 GW
• Biofuels: 101, 106 GW
• Geothermal: 12.9, 13.2 GW

Also,
New investment (annual) in renewable power and fuels: USD 273, 285.9 billion

Actual generation will be about something like 1/3 of capacity.

Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016 -- more on it. Notable is that investment in the poorer countries is now at least as big as investment in the richer countries. Also, "Policy support for renewables remains fickle."

Renewables to lead world power market growth to 2020

“Renewables are poised to seize the crucial top spot in global power supply growth, but this is hardly time for complacency,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol as he released the IEA’s Medium-Term Renewable Energy Market Report 2015 (MTRMR) at the G20 Energy Ministers Meeting. “Governments must remove the question marks over renewables if these technologies are to achieve their full potential, and put our energy system on a more secure, sustainable path.”

A Record Year For Renewable Energy -- it keeps on beating its own records. From the looks of it, it does not look like it will be leveling off anytime soon. It also looks like it will be able to survive the phasing out of the subsidies that it has had in some places. That will be politically good if it happens, because it could make fossil-fuel lobbies on the defensive about subsidies.

[Rie]

Just on a lighter note but relevant IMO... what about farting? Methane, depending on it's use or re-use, could be useful