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Post by missouriboy on May 8, 2020 17:27:56 GMT
"Mexico’s President Is Betting Big Against Renewables It sounds like a news report out of yet another dystopian novel: Mexico is halting grid connection for new solar and wind power projects. In a world rushing to produce clean energy, Mexico has suddenly stood out like a sore thumb. But, as usual, there's more to the story.
The country's National Energy Control Center, or Cenace, announced it would suspend grid connections of new solar and wind farms until further notice earlier this week. The motivation behind the decision was the intermittency of solar and wind power generation, which, according to the state-owned power market operator, could compromise Mexico's energy security in difficult times.
"The intermittent generation from wind and PV plants affects the reliability of the national electricity system, [impacting] the sufficiency, quality and continuity of power supply," Cenace wrote in a document setting out the rules of the country's electricity market during the Covid-19 lockdown."More here oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Mexicos-President-Is-Betting-Big-Against-Renewables.html Some journalists have sense of humor - "In short, one could safely say AMLO is not a fan of… fans."
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Post by nautonnier on Jun 8, 2020 15:15:37 GMT
"Germany’s Green Power Finance Is Becoming Unaffordable
The German program that’s spurred the nation’s switch to green power is buckling under the weight of surging costs and needs an urgent fix. That’s the assessment of one of the scheme’s chief designers, Hans Josef Fell. Designed in 2000 to enable Germany to meet United Nations pledges on climate change, it has pushed renewable energy to make up over 50% of the nation’s energy capacity. Yet the system’s increasing costs have become glaring in the during the coronavirus pandemic, the veteran Green Party lawmaker said. High and guaranteed payments made to investors in clean power plants are the problem Fell said in an interview. German power consumers have to contribute to help finance the payments through a surcharge in their monthly electricity bills, and a quirk of how they’re calculated threatens to send the program’s costs skyrocketing, he said."www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-05/germany-s-green-power-finance-is-becoming-unaffordable
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Post by nautonnier on Jun 26, 2020 9:43:50 GMT
"Claim: 11,000 Renewable Energy Jobs at Risk in Australia
p to 11,000 renewable energy workers are expected to lose their jobs over the next two years under current government policies, according to a university analysis.
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About 26,000 people are employed in renewable energy, but the study found this would fall to about 15,000 by 2022 under existing policies, including the Morrison government not replacing the national renewable energy target. The target, which requires energy companies to source about 23% of electricity from clean sources, was reached last year, triggering a 50% drop in large-scale renewable energy investment compared with 2018."wattsupwiththat.com/2020/06/26/11000-renewable-energy-jobs-at-risk-in-australia/
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Post by nautonnier on Jul 12, 2020 19:09:14 GMT
The Russians are actually building systems to actually work - there's a novel approach that would never suit the green new deal
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Post by nautonnier on Aug 1, 2020 14:21:39 GMT
"“Cheap” offshore wind power is an illusion Back in 2017, there was great excitement among environmentalists and the media, when it was announced that two offshore windfarms had bid remarkably low prices into the government’s Contracts for Difference auction, offering to supply electricity to the grid for around half the price that had been seen in earlier auctions.
How had this remarkable change in the economics of offshore wind power been achieved? Nobody really knew for sure, although eco-minded correspondents in the mainstream media were insistent that the change was real.
In a paper published shortly afterwards, Gordon Hughes et al. pointed out that there was little evidence that costs of offshore windfarms were falling at all. Indeed, they were generally rising, as developers moved into deeper waters in search of more reliable wind speeds. Even discounting factors like this, like-for-like costs seemed to be only falling slightly. There was absolutely no sign of revolutionary change. Defenders of the green orthodoxy argued that the Hughes analysis was backwards looking, and couldn’t take into account technological advances (although they never said clearly what these were)."Much more here:> www.thegwpf.com/offshore-wind-definitely-expensive/
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Post by nautonnier on Aug 1, 2020 18:05:13 GMT
"Offshore wind power vast boondoggle that New York can no longer afford
Offshore wind is the renewable-energy industry’s shiny new toy. Led by New York, seven Atlantic-coast states have now imposed mandates to expand offshore wind use over the next decade, with the Empire State last week soliciting bids for an additional 2,500 megawatts of offshore power, on top of the 1,700 megawatts procured previously.
Advocates claim offshore wind will contribute to a low-carbon future, spur an economic renaissance and create thousands of jobs. Don’t buy it. The mandates are yet another boondoggle that will benefit a well-connected few, saddling everyone else with even higher power costs.......
......Yet these prices, which are already high, are understated — because offshore wind projects have two dirty secrets. First, a detailed analysis of similar European projects has shown that their output decreases by an average of 4.5 percent a year (almost half after 10 years), with newer, larger turbines tending to suffer the most failures. Operation and maintenance costs also have proved to be much higher than anticipated.
These operational realities lead to a second, even more pernicious impact: The higher-than-expected operating costs mean that the projects are likely to be abandoned prematurely, creating a cascade of costs that consumers and taxpayers will absorb."More here:> nypost.com/2020/07/30/offshore-wind-power-vast-boondoggle-that-ny-can-no-longer-afford/amp/
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Post by sigurdur on Aug 3, 2020 1:23:29 GMT
I am soooooo surprised!
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Post by gridley on Aug 3, 2020 12:37:55 GMT
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Post by Ratty on Aug 3, 2020 12:55:38 GMT
Gridley, I see you haven't taken up my gift avatar.
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Post by gridley on Aug 4, 2020 12:27:35 GMT
Gridley, I see you haven't taken up my gift avatar. Just doesn't seem "me", somehow. :-(
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Post by Ratty on Aug 4, 2020 13:33:35 GMT
Gridley, I see you haven't taken up my gift avatar. Just doesn't seem "me", somehow. :-( I'll try to find a better one. No charge.
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Post by Ratty on Aug 5, 2020 20:27:11 GMT
Just doesn't seem "me", somehow. :-( I'll try to find a better one. No charge. Here's one for the rugged outdoors type:
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Post by gridley on Aug 6, 2020 12:50:56 GMT
I'll try to find a better one. No charge. Here's one for the rugged outdoors type: Many people try to keep cows from wandering freely. But I know their inner pain. I'm very sensitive to a cow's moooods.
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Post by Ratty on Aug 6, 2020 13:03:38 GMT
Here's one for the rugged outdoors type: Many people try to keep cows from wandering freely. But I know their inner pain. I'm very sensitive to a cow's moooods. You are well suited to this site, Gridley.
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Post by nautonnier on Aug 12, 2020 0:24:10 GMT
"Energy storing bricks for stationary PEDOT supercapacitors
Abstract
Fired brick is a universal building material, produced by thousand-year-old technology, that throughout history has seldom served any other purpose. Here, we develop a scalable, cost-effective and versatile chemical synthesis using a fired brick to control oxidative radical polymerization and deposition of a nanofibrillar coating of the conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). A fired brick’s open microstructure, mechanical robustness and ~8 wt% α-Fe2O3 content afford an ideal substrate for developing electrochemical PEDOT electrodes and stationary supercapacitors that readily stack into modules. Five-minute epoxy serves as a waterproof case enabling the operation of our supercapacitors while submerged underwater and a gel electrolyte extends cycling stability to 10,000 cycles with ~90% capacitance retention."More here:> www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17708-1
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