Opinion:
¶ “What Is COP28 In Dubai And Why Is It Important?” • COP28 is the 28th annual UN Conference of the Parties meeting on climate change. It is a venue where governments will discuss how to limit and prepare for the future climate change. The “parties” of COP28 are countries that signed up to the original UN climate agreement of 1992. [BBC]
Representatives at COP28 (USDA, public domain)
¶ “CCS, CDR, DAC – The Dangerous Lies Behind Those Carbon Management Schemes” • We are told, “Trust us,” by people we know have been lying to us for fifty years. They want us to think their carbon management plans are a done deal, when in fact they are just pie in the sky blandishments with no possibility of living up to their promise. [CleanTechnica]
Science and Technology:
¶ “Highview, Ørsted Seek To Unlock More Value From Wind” • Highview Power and Ørsted completed a joint investigation into the benefits of combining long-term energy storage and offshore wind. They showed that combining offshore wind with Liquid Air Energy Storage has value for reducing wind curtailment for a more flexible zero carbon grid. [reNews]
Offshore wind turbines (Shaun Dakin, Unsplash)
¶ “Wärtsilä Is Putting Out Grid-Scale Battery Fires Before They Start” • Wärtsilä recently completed rigorous fire safety testing of its GridSolv Quantum energy storage system, and the enormous scope and scale of the test program set a new standard for grid-level fire safety testing. They did this despite the fact that their batteries have never caught fire. [CleanTechnica]
World:
¶ “Labour Vows To ‘Rewire Britain’ As Pylon Plans Spark Row In Tory Party” • Labour is promising to “rewire Britain”, making its case to rural areas that it will connect farmers and businesses to the National Grid at record speed. Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak faces a battle over electricity pylons with some urging him to pull the plug on crucial grid infrastructure. [The Guardian]
Pylons (Casey Horner, Unsplash)
¶ “27% Of New Cars In France Now Plugin Electric Cars!” • Plugin vehicle sales continue to rise in France, with last month’s plugin vehicle registrations ending at 40,379 units, divided between 25,473 BEVs (17% overall market share) and 14,906 PHEVs (10% market share). The former jumped 51% year over year, while the latter were up by 34%. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “‘One Of The World’s Largest’: Battery Farm To Be The First Project Funded By Victoria’s Resurrected Electricity Agency” • A battery farm that can power 200,000 homes was announced as the first project funded by the Victorian government’s State Electricity Commission. The project’s 600 MW of capacity will be in three battery components. [The Guardian]
Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub (Equis Australia image)
¶ “Clean Energy Council Notes Decline In Australian Renewable Energy Investment” • Utility-scale renewables in Australia are in dire straits. A Clean Energy Council report says 2023 looks to be “the worst [year] for large-scale renewable energy investment” since it began tracking data in 2017. Announcements have come out, but little else. [PV Magazine]
US:
¶ “GOP Bill Would Pull Farmland Tax Credits From Farmers Hosting Solar Power Installations” • Farm fields with solar PVs would no longer qualify for state tax credits under a Republican bill. GOP lawmakers claim it’s about protecting farmland from “nonsense” renewable projects, and Wisconsin should pursue nuclear energy instead. [Wisconsin Public Radio]
Solar farm in Wisconsin (Wikideas1, public domain)
¶ “’Ghost Forests’ Threaten New Jersey’s Water, Ecosystem” • Acres of “ghost forests” have been popping up in southern New Jersey, as an increase of saltwater in the soil has been killing what remains of the Atlantic white cedar trees that populate the area. Climate change events and logging created a situation where the soil lost its fresh water, experts say. [ABC News]
¶ “Coal Mine Is Shedding Jobs Ahead Of A Power Plant’s Coal-To-Gas Conversion” • A Wyoming coal mine plans to lay off 19 workers, because the power plant it supplies fuel to is converting to gas. It is the latest of thousands of jobs lost in the US coal industry in recent years. The workers at the Black Butte Mine will lose their jobs in mid-December. [ABC News]
Coal mine (Dominik Vanyi, Unsplash)
¶ “A $30 Billion Meltdown In Clean Energy Puts Biden’s Climate Goals At Risk” •No one expected the transition from fossil fuels to be easy. But a year after President Joe Biden’s climate law promised billions of dollars for America’s switch to clean energy, some of the nation’s most ambitious renewable power projects have been shelved. [MSN]
¶ “Fervo Energy Revs Up Its First Geothermal Generating Station” • Fervo Energy is using the horizontal drilling perfected by the oil and gas industry to access regions where it is hot enough to make superheated steam for generating electricity. The drilling can be expensive, but once a heat source is tapped, free energy can be had for years. [CleanTechnica]
Project Red (Courtesy of Fervo Energy)
¶ “US Discovers Lithium Bonanza For EV Batteries Right In Its Own Backyard” • The DOE released the results of an analysis of Salton Sea lithium resources by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Direct Lithium Extraction technology could lead to production of more than 3,400 kilotons of lithium, enough for over 375 million EV batteries. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Will Keeping California’s Last Nuclear Power Plant Open Raise Your Utility Bill In San Diego?” • The price tag to keep Diablo Canyon open is a matter of debate. That’s important because costs to extend the plant’s operations would be passed onto all customers of power companies regulated by the Public Utilities commission. [San Diego Union-Tribune]
Have a remarkably cozy day.
geoharvey 