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Monthly Archives: June 2016
Renewable California
California is considered by many to be a world leader in the transition to renewable energy. But how much progress is it really making? This post looks into this question and finds that California has indeed significantly increased the percentage of renewable energy in its in-state generation mix – or at least would have done were it not for the impact of the recent drought on hydro output – but that it has made no progress towards increasing zero-carbon generation, which because of the shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear plant remains lower than it was in 2002. Continue reading
The ERoEI of High Altitude Wind Power
For several weeks I have been researching and writing a review post on high altitude wind power. It has grown into a 6000 word monster that should hopefully fly on Monday. While doing this it has been difficult to find time to write other posts. Hence this is a preview of one section on Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI) which makes a nice post in its own right. Continue reading
Blowout Week 130 – Brexit Special
The news this week is totally dominated by the Brexit vote and so is this edition of Blowout. How will Brexit affect the UK, the EU and the world economies? Will there be a sea change in UK energy and climate policy? How long might it take to complete negotiations for an orderly exit? Will the EU now start to unravel? Will the UK itself start to unravel with a Scottish independence vote? Continue reading
Blackout California
The shutdown of the leaking Aliso Canyon underground gas storage facility has caused a loss of about 70bcf of stored gas that Southern California utilities have historically counted on to see them through the hot, high-demand summer months. The California Independent Service Operator (CAISO), which manages the California grid, estimates that as a result all customers should expect to be without power for a total of 14 days this summer. Some 21 million Southern Californians stand to be directly affected. Continue reading
Climate change claims its first species – or does it?
This post briefly reviews the demise of the Bramble Cay melomys, a rat-like mammal that is no longer to be found on Bramble Cay, a tiny coral atoll between Australia and Papua-New Guinea and the animal’s only known habitat. The acknowledged cause of the extinction – which appears in this case to be real – was a series of storm surges that inundated Bramble Cay and killed off the vegetation. There is, however, no evidence linking these storm surges to human-induced climate change. The University of Queensland’s claim that the Bramble Cay melomys ….. is the first mammal to go extinct due to human-induced climate change must therefore be considered invalid as well as grossly misleading. Continue reading
Posted in Climate change
Tagged bramble cay melomys, extinction, university of queensland
24 Comments
Solar in Chile
Solar power in 2015 accounted for less than 5% of Chile’s total electricity generation, but because of decreased demand and inadequate grid connections it’s already generating surpluses that have to be curtailed or which result in the power being sold at zero cost . Yet to meet its target of 20% renewable energy from non-hydro sources by 2025 Chile plans to install yet more intermittent solar and wind energy by 2020/21. Continue reading
The UK’s Small Modular Reactor Competition
The UK government has launched a competition to select a design of small modular reactor (SMR) for future deployment in the UK. The idea behind SMRs is that they can be factory built and stamped out like aircraft and transported to location on the back of a truck. With thirty-three companies / designs on the shortlist, this looks like the process could take a while to complete.
In this post, nuclear engineer Andy Dawson provides an overview of SMR technology together with descriptions of the leading contenders. Continue reading
BP 2016: Global Energy Production at a Glance
Oil, gas, nuclear, hydro and new-renewables production all grew in 2015 while coal production declined by 4%, the first significant decline for many decades. But global CO2 emissions were still up by 0.1%. Notably, CO2 emissions rose in Germany, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland.
Fossil fuels still dominate with 86.1% of primary energy in 2015 compared with 86.8% in the year 2000. Continue reading
Blowout Week 128
This week we focus on Germany’s Energiewende followed by turning the C in CCS into rock, further job losses expected in UK oil and gas, forecast decline in non-OPEC oil supplies, England not windy enough, unscheduled global oil supply disruptions, more US oil patch bankruptcies, Westinghouse to build nuclear plants in India, Sweden goes nuclear again, Finland to build another nuclear plant, “incident” shuts down Tihange plant, signs of recovery in coal, Brexit to cause loss of UK energy sovereignty, ENSO events influence global temperatures for hundreds of years. Continue reading
Posted in Blowout
Tagged brexit, ccs, energiewende, nuclear power, nuclear tax, oil price crash, opec, subsidies, venezuela, westinghouse, wind lull, wind power
31 Comments
Oil Production Vital Statistics May 2016
The big news in April’s production numbers is the surge in global production by 250,000 bpd that is largely down to a 300,000 bpd surge from Iran that the IEA now deems to be producing at capacity. The oil price rally continued through May into June with Brent now over $50 supported by the Fort McMurray black swan and growing unrest in the Niger Delta that the WSJ reports has knocked 1 Mbpd off Nigeria’s production. Continue reading
Posted in Energy
Tagged baker hughes, eia, iea, iran, nigeria, oil price crash, oil production vital statistics, opec, rig count
7 Comments
El Hierro May 2016 update
During May Gorona del Viento (GdV), a “hybrid” wind-hydro plant designed ultimately to provide the Canary Island of El Hierro with 100% renewable energy, provided only 25.4% renewable electricity to the El Hierro grid, thereby lowering the average renewables fraction since project startup last June to 32.8%. This was a result of a change in operating procedures that resulted in even lower renewables generation than usual and which is documented in this post. (Details on GdV plant layout, operation and capacities are given in the September update. Previous posts on GdV are accessible through the El Hierro Portal.) Continue reading
Blowout Week 127
Global temperatures falling, two Illinois nuclear plants to close, UK solar house-holds to pay insurance for grid access, more threats from Niger Delta Avengers, gas guzzler sales rise, first oil shipment from Yamal, Merkel puts brakes on the Energiewende, fule shortages in France, UK to reconsider coal shutdown, more islands seek 100% renewables, a brighter future for North Sea oil, microbe energy storage, Brexit, US-Russia nuclear cooperation, the Fukushima “ice wall” and why the world isn’t going to meet the 2˚C warming goal. Continue reading
Posted in Blowout
Tagged 100% renewables, el nino, fukushima daiichi, ineos, niger delta, nigeria, oil price crash, opec, paris accord, roy spencer, rspb, uah, wind turbines, yamal oil
24 Comments
The Energy Return of The Three Gorges Dam
In preparing my previous post on Net Energy Trends I wanted to include a back of the envelope calculation on the ERoEI of hydro electric power using the Three Gorges Dam as an example.
Looking at just the labour and embedded energy of the concrete and steel and assuming a 45% capacity factor and 70 year life yields a partial ERoEI of 147. And so, despite substantial environmental harm and social disruption I must give dispatchable hydro electric power a big thumbs up.
Continue reading
The revealing numbers on solar employment in the USA.
Once again the green media are being transported into flights of ecstasy over the fact that the US solar industry now employs more people than the US oil & gas and coal industries. The data, however, show that the solar industry contributes virtually nothing to US energy supply, which is still filled dominantly by fossil fuels. Reviews also show that the problem of accurately estimating annual US solar generation has still not been solved. Continue reading
Brexit and The Simple Solution
With a very high turnout of 72% the Brits took the Brexit vote very seriously and exercised their democratic right to speak on this issue while they still had it. Shame on all those politicians and commentators who do not respect our courage to speak out. Any hint of retribution smacks of dictatorship. Continue reading →
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