Let there be light. At Dave's house.
Sustainable energy - General. Pools and hot tubs. Metal powders (carbon-free fuel) Clean diesel? HEP. Waste incineration. UK progress. Active v passive relationship with energy. LED lights. Microgrids. Battery technology. Oil from plastic. Charging points. Micro-hydro. REPOWER Balcombe.
Tidal sails. Wave energy. Tidal power. #maps shows radioactive fallout from Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Source. #Map shows average household carbon footprint across #Europe. I was surprised just how high the brits are. Nuclear: Molten salt reactors. Solar energy. Hydrogen / Fuel cells.
Wind energy. Nuclear fusion. UNDP Climate sur Twitter : "Heard of 'swarm' technology? @power_blox's new way of managing the use of solar energy is currently being used by citizens of Lelepa island in Vanuatu - contributing to its climate goals. @UNDP's @ASoezer explains. *****#China outperforms #USA in #RenewableEnergy. Falling behind in technology of the future is most un-American. Plunging solar & wind costs means green fuel exports could replace coal & gas for Australia #hydrogen #auspol. *****UK launches ‘world first’ research programme into negative emissions. The public money will fund projects exploring the real-world potential of “negative emissions” technologies (NETs), including soil carbon management, afforestation, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), enhanced weathering and direct capture of methane from the air.
NETs will “almost certainly be needed” to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, one of the researchers tells Carbon Brief. Yet there is huge uncertainty over whether it will be possible to deploy them quickly – and at scale – without causing knock-on environmental and social problems. The new research programme is designed to investigate their potential, as well as the political, social and environmental issues surrounding their deployment. It is coordinated by the UK’s government-funded National Environment Research Council (NERC). Carbon Brief has the details.
Paris goals Most of them agreed it was highly unlikely to be possible. New research Infographic: Ten options for negative emissions. Costa Rica ran entirely on renewable #energy for more than 250 days last year. Coalition gives $54m from CEFC to large-scale solar and renews pumped hydro push. The Turnbull government has given a $54m loan from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to a large-scale solar development which it says has the potential for pumped hydro storage.
Malcolm Turnbull and the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, have announced the government had directed the CEFC and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) to fund large-scale storage and other flexible capacity projects including pumped hydro. *****Why China has become the world leader in renewable energy @TheEconomist. *****In 2016 alone, US solar created more new jobs (51,000) than there are coal miners still working in the US (50,200). Today saw 4 records. Highest ever solar generation: 26% Highest ever renewable generation: 47% Highest ever low carbon generation: 71% #wow! *****The best countries in Europe for using renewable energy. The share of renewables energy used in the EU has risen to almost 17% in 2015.
That’s double the 2004 share of 8.5%, and within range of the 2020 target of 20%. Two years after the financial crisis, the EU put in motion a ten-year jobs and growth strategy, Europe 2020. Among its targets was the aim to source 20% of EU energy needs from renewables by 2020. A recent news release by Eurostat, the statistics arm of the European Union, has revealed the progress different countries within Europe are making towards their targets. As a whole, the EU is on the right track, with the share of renewables increasing in 22 of the 28 member states over the last year. Image: Eurostat Which countries are performing the best? The good news is that 11 member states have already achieved their 2020 targets. *****IEA Report: World Energy Outlook 2016. World Energy Outlook 2016 sees broad transformations in the global energy landscape As a result of major transformations in the global energy system that take place over the next decades, renewables and natural gas are the big winners in the race to meet energy demand growth until 2040, according to the latest edition of the World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency’s flagship publication.
A detailed analysis of the pledges made for the Paris Agreement on climate change finds that the era of fossil fuels appears far from over and underscores the challenge of reaching more ambitious climate goals. Still, government policies, as well as cost reductions across the energy sector, enable a doubling of both renewables – subject of a special focus in this year’s Outlook – and of improvements in energy efficiency over the next 25 years. Natural gas continues to expand its role while the shares of coal and oil fall back. *****#Renewableenergy is the major growth story in all of our World Energy Outlook 2016 scenarios by @IEA. *****Could these megaprojects help Africa become a renewable superpower? Read more. *****This Hawaiian island will be powered by nothing but solar #energy. *****Global Energy Architecture Performance Index 2017. In just 10 years, over half of India's electricity will come from non-fossil fuels. Read more.
*****London Taxi Company opens £300m Coventry plant for electric cabs. The first new car plant in Britain for more than a decade will open in Coventry on Wednesday, creating more than 1,000 jobs and boosting the automotive industry despite concerns that uncertainty caused by Brexit could hold back new investment.
The London Taxi Company (LTC), maker of the London black cab, is officially opening a plant that will make electric taxis. The factory is being funded with £300m of investment from LTC’s owner, Chinese company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, as well as a £16.1m grant from the government through the regional growth fund. Greg Clark, the business secretary, said the new facility, which will also house research and development, demonstrated that the UK was a “world leader in the development of new automotive technologies”. Clark has pledged to put support for the development of electric vehicles at the heart of the government’s industrial strategy.
The business secretary said: “Our iconic black cabs are famous across the world. Northvolt Will Build $4 Billion Battery Manufacturing Facility In Scandinavia #storage is key #eletriccars. EV Utopia Norway Pushes for ZERO Petrol & Diesel Cars by 2025 With New "polluter pays" Tax System #feebate. Joining Norway & India Holland Wants To Ban Gas Cars By 2025 #EV HT @3lprof3. *****Liquid nuclear fuels. *****February 2017 in review – MyGridGB. In this blog, I compare the electricity generation in February 2017 to the same period last year.
For readers concerned about carbon emissions, there is good news. Electricity was less carbon intensive and there was lower demand in February 2017 than there was for the same month in 2016. Overall there was 11% less greenhouse gas from British power stations in February 2017 than in February 2016. This is shown on the chart below. There are two big reasons for the fall in carbon emissions. The two pie charts below which compare the electricity generation in February 2016 and February 2017. Readers of this blog will know that in 2016, electricity generation from coal fell to record lows. Falling coal use has contributed to lower carbon emissions which is good news. Investment in low carbon generation or more efficient use of energy is the only way to hit our targets for reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy matters more in Trumpland than you might think - Axios. Read on for an edited and condensed version of our conversation.
During the election, you gave $100,000 to your cousin's super PAC, then shifted support to John Kasich, and then finally to libertarian Gary Johnson. You clearly did not like Trump, but now here we are. Said he feels "very good" about his vote for Johnson, but is getting used to Trump. On the good reviews for Trump's speech to Congress: "I was glad to see that he could read a speech. " He likes Tom Price, the new Health and Human Services secretary: "Tom Price is very supportive of the kinds of things that we're focused in terms of data transparency, getting access to information, allowing for shopping, allowing doctors to profit from finding savings elsewhere the health care supply chain.
But do you still have concerns about Trump? Share of #renewables in #energy mix by country. #Hydro boosts a few countries right to the top. #Australia in the middle of the pack. Donald Trump actually has very little control over green energy and climate change. Yes, there are reasons to fear an impending environmental disaster: Donald Trump has spent much of his campaign claiming the mantle of climate-change-denier-in-chief, and his vice-presidential running mate isn’t much better.
Now they are mulling their picks for key Cabinet posts: Interior Secretary Sarah “Drill, baby drill” Palin, if elephant hunter Donald Trump Jr. doesn’t get that gig? Energy Secretary Harold Hamm, if the oil and gas mogul decides he is willing to spend the Trump administration outside the private sector? Environmental Protection Administrator Myron Ebell, unless the fringe-hugging climate skeptic dismantles the agency instead? And yes, Trump often airs unfounded concerns about wind and solar energy related to bird safety and outdated notions of how long it takes for investments in renewable power to pay off.
What improvements? Most wood energy schemes are a 'disaster' for climate change. Image copyright Getty Images Using wood pellets to generate low-carbon electricity is a flawed policy that is speeding up not slowing down climate warming.
That's according to a new study which says wood is not carbon neutral and emissions from pellets are higher than coal. Subsidies for biomass should be immediately reviewed, the author says. Energy from trees has become a critical part of the renewable supply in many countries including the UK. Plans for 100MW pumped hydro plant in SA using seawater #renewableenergy storage is key. Denmark's newest power station will be a bit different. It has a ski slope on top of it. Read more. Lightbulb moment: UK streetlights get innovative green makeover. Streetlights connected to electricity networks in Kensington and Chelsea will now act as charge points for electric vehicles (EVs), while a Lanarkshire-based IT specialist has agreed to fund development of wind-harvesting lampposts in the UK.
Trials for the charging lamps are underway, while wind-harvesting technology has been backed by a new partnership UK Power Networks, the biggest electricity distributor in the country, has partnered with charging specialists Ubitricity to trial three EV-charing streetlights to be used by local residents in Onslow Gardens, in a first for Central London. The trials, which started in November, allow vehicles to charge from street lights near domestic buildings, before being billed via a smartphone or computer.
Smart-charging cables are used to accurately determine the price of the electricity generated. Windswept streets. Fact: #Solar employs way more people than #FossilFuels. Any leader promising #jobs should focus on #renewables. What is geothermal energy, and what has it got to do with Cornwall? Find out in our March #PlymEarthTalks. What can Tidal Power Contribute? – MyGridGB. The UK is committed to carbon reduction in all sectors of the economy be that electricity, heating, transport, agriculture or industry. The £1.3bn, 320MW tidal power station at Swansea Bay could be the next mega-project to help generate sustainable, local energy and assist with climate goals.
The question asked is how much it can reduce our carbon emissions per year. I believe that I can answer that using the same tools to run my Manifesto. The UK is committed to carbon reduction in all sectors of the economy be that electricity, heating, transport, agriculture or industry. The £1.3bn, 320MW tidal power station at Swansea Bay could be the next mega-project to help generate sustainable, local energy and assist with climate goals. Predicting the future is subjective and difficult.
The chart below shows our electricity mix over the last 12 months. A fuel revolution in maritime transport? Share. Seawater Offers a Brand New Way to Produce Clean Energy. Noelle Phansalkar Saturday, 14 January - 0:10AM A new 27 million dollar fund aimed at teaching AI religion, morality, and ethics has been collected from a group of high-profile investors. MIT media lab and the Berkman Kein Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard will serve as hubs for the initiative, which is dubbed the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund.
The purpose of the fund is to apply the humanities, social sciences, and other non-technologically based fields to push the development of AI in a more positive and conscious direction. Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, as well as eBay founder Pierre Omidyar each committed $10 million, while the Knight Foundation, a non-profit which supports areas like journalism, pledged $5 mil. "As a technologist, I'm impressed by the incredible speed at which artificial intelligence technologies are developing," Omidyar said on the Knight Foundation's website. "AI's rapid development bring along a lot of tough challenges. Dutch trains become 100% powered by wind energy HT @DanielPAldrich #renewableenergy #Netherlands. Victoria's plans for hydrogen exports to Japan are 'way of making brown coal look green' Victorian government plans to work with a Japanese company to produce hydrogen from brown coal in the Latrobe Valley are “a way of making brown coal look green”, according to one expert.
The proposed plant, which would be run by Kawasaki Heavy Industries as part of their Kawasaki Hydrogen Road project, would produce liquid hydrogen that would then be exported to Japan to be used in hydrogen-powered vehicles. Maritime authorities from both Australia and Japan signed a world-first deal to ship liquid hydrogen in Canberra on Wednesday, but Victoria’s acting resources minister, Philip Dalidakis, said the project was still “in the very early stages”. Dalidakis said the Victorian government has been working with Kawasaki Heavy Industries and the commonwealth on an engineering study to investigate the feasibility of producing hydrogen from brown coal.
Latrobe’s Hazelwood power station will close on 31 March, with a loss of up to 1,000 jobs. Solar fuels could be Australia’s biggest energy export. Australian developers are hoping to tap into the voracious demand for clean energy from the big north Asian economies, and create a “solar fuels” export industry at a scale many would have thought unimaginable. Proponents such as Renewable Hydrogen’s Andrew Want are talking of the prospect of developing massive solar arrays in the Australian outback at a scale of “multiple tens” of gigawatts.
“This is a great opportunity to create a solar industry which is not limited to the scale of our electricity network,” Want tells RenewEconomy at the sidelines of the 6th World Hydrogen Technologies Congress in Sydney. “This plan is bolted on to the prospects of the biggest economic growth region in the world.” As RenewEconomy reported on Wednesday, there is a big push in Australia to tap into Japan’s emerging “hydrogen” economy, and use Australia’s rich solar and wind resources to provide clean fuels to Japan and other countries. Vision of a sustainable hydrogen fuel community. Huge world-first man-made tidal lagoon could power over 155,000 homes. Energy trade association RenewableUK calls the UK "the undisputed global leader in marine energy.
" If plans for a tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay go ahead, that claim will be reinforced. Tidal Lagoon Swansea Bay would be the world’s first man-made energy-generating lagoon and could power over 155,000 homes. Renewable energy is, of course, an area of huge importance and growth. A 2011 study by researchers at University of California-Davis and Stanford University suggests that the world could be powered completely by clean energy within 20-40 years. Of the renewable options available, tidal is particularly intriguing.
Dutch trains now run 100% on wind-generated electricity. Dutch fishing trawler trades fumes for volts. 1.1MW Solar Plant Starts Operations Using 'Solar Sharing' Method. Kenji Kaneko, Nikkei BP CleanTech Institute. Shiitake Mushrooms Grown Under 290kW of Solar Panels. Kenji Kaneko, Nikkei BP CleanTech Institute. ***Costa Rica's electricity was produced almost entirely from renewable sources in 2016. A New Model for Investing in Energy Innovation. By the middle of this century, the world will use twice as much energy as we use today. Advanced solar-powered cars gear up for grueling World Solar Challenge. If you're looking to bring together the world's brightest budding engineers to push solar technology to its very limits, then there may be no better backdrop than the dusty, sun-drenched expanses of central Australia.
The biennial World Solar Challenge will kick off this Sunday, with competitors set to cover a monster 3,000 km (1,864 mi) journey from Darwin, Northern Territory to Adelaide, South Australia in cars powered purely by the sun. 'World-first' solar car under development in Queensland could cost owners $250,000. UK car shapes up for solar challenge. How we can limit global warming to 1.5°C. France to pave 1000km of roads with solar panels.
New recycled plastic sidewalk harvests energy from footsteps and the sun. World's first solar panel road opens in Normandy village. New design guide will help solar panels shine. Tesla Updates Supercharger Map For 2017 (Plans) Google to run on 100% renewable energy in 2017. National Grid sees major boost for solar, electric vehicles and batteries. Wind energy in the US. Wind turbine with human for scale. This fully transparent solar cell could make every window and screen a power source - ExtremeTech. This fully transparent solar cell could make every window and screen a power source - ExtremeTech. Electric Cars Could Take an OPEC-Sized Bite From Oil Demand - Bloomberg. Undersea link to export WA solar to Indonesia deemed "viable" Madrid is giving itself a 9-day car ban for Christmas. Water as hot as lava could change renewable energy.
Tesla Launches In Spain. US Electric Cars Sales Up 44% In November — 1.1% Of US Car Sales! Jaguar Land Rover's electric car plans could prove game-changer for industry. *Stats: Countries with the most electric cars. Student's award-winning graphene battery could slash electric-car charging times. It’s Official: Japan Now has More Electric Car Charging Spots than Gas Stations* Europe's First Urban Fast Charging Station in the Hague. Will electric cars cause the next oil crisis? Electric Cars Could Take an OPEC-Sized Bite From Oil Demand - Bloomberg.