Opinion:
¶ “Bill McKibben Lists Five Reason New LNG Terminals Won’t Be Approved. We Add One More” • After Russia cut Europe’s gas supply, the Europeans wanted new LNG terminals to ship US gas. Bill McKibben is campaigning to thwart the terminals. He listed five reasons why he thinks federal approvals may not be given. Here is a sixth. [CleanTechnica]
LNG tanker (HS Spender, Unsplash)
¶ “Coal State Sells Coal-Killing Iron-Air Energy Storage To Other States” • Oh the irony, it burns. Public officials in the iconic coal-producing state of West Virginia love to rant against renewable energy. But the state has just loaded up a $290 million incentive package to reel in the Massachusetts-based US energy storage startup Form Energy. [CleanTechnica]
Science and Technology:
¶ “Can Flow Batteries Finally Beat Lithium?” • A new type of flow battery uses anew kind of fluid called nanoelectrofuel. It can store 15 to 25 times as much energy as a traditional flow battery, allowing for a battery system small enough for use in an EV and energy-dense enough to provide the range and speedy refill of a gasoline-powered vehicle. [IEEE Spectrum]
Equipment to make flow battery anodes (Influit Energy image)
¶ “This New Recyclable Wind Turbine Is The World’s First To Use Elium Resin” • Taking a stride towards a circular economy in the wind industry, the ZEBRA consortium announced the production of the second recyclable thermoplastic wind turbine blade and the successful completion of the full-scale validation testing for the first. [Interesting Engineering]
World:
¶ “Christmas Eve: Hottest since 1997 after 15.3°C recorded near Heathrow” • It was declared the warmest Christmas Eve in the UK since 1997. Temperatures hit 15.3°C (59.5°F) in Heathrow, west London, and Cippenham in Slough, the Met Office said. The warmest 24 December ever was 15.5°C, in Aberdeen and Banff in Scotland, in 1931. [BBC]
Slough (N Chadwick, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
¶ “BYD’s Plan For Japan Is Good For Africa” • BYD has some big plans for the Japanese market, according to reports from Tokyo. Reportedly, BYD wants to sell at least 30,000 EVs in Japan each year, though a network of about a hundred dealers. This can be quite a good development for several countries in Africa that get most of their vehicles from Japan. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Suzlon Soars High With 193-MW Wind Power Contract In Gujarat” • Suzlon Group has secured a major contract from KP Group for a 193.2-MW wind energy project in Gujarat. The deal is for 92 units of their advanced 2.1-MW wind turbines, installed on 140-meter hybrid lattice tubular towers. This is a repeat order from KP Group. [Manufacturing Today India]
Suzlon wind turbine
¶ “ING Ditches Oil & Gas, Aims To Triple Renewables Financing By 2025” • The Dutch bank ING Groep NV has decided to phase out upstream oil and gas financing in favor of renewable energy. It said in a media release that its upstream oil and gas financing will be phased out by 2040, while its investment in renewable energy will be tripled by 2025. [Rigzone]
¶ “IEA Working To Cut Renewable Energy Costs In Developing World” • The International Energy Agency will work to ensure the World Bank, regional development banks, and others will prioritise the cost of investing in clean energy in developing countries following the COP28 summit last week, its Executive Director said. [The Fiji Times]
Wind turbines (Pagie Page, Unsplash, cropped)
¶ “Renewed Hope For Renewable Energy At The End Of A Rollercoaster Year” • The UK’s march towards a greener future took several blows over the last year, but ended with the return of optimism as 2023 ends. Despite a failed offshore wind auction in the summer, two of the biggest North Sea developers produced some good news in December. [Yahoo Finance]
¶ “Russian Emergency Service: Fire Reported On Nuclear-Powered Vessel, Quickly Extinguished” • A fire broke out on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker in the northern Russian port of Murmansk but was quickly extinguished by firefighters, the regional branch of Russia’s emergency ministry said. The fire was put out without casualties. [Yahoo News]
Sevmorput (Kinburn, Public domain)
US:
¶ “Record-High Temperatures, Cross-Country Storm Forecast This Holiday Weekend” • A white Christmas may not be a reality for a vast majority of Americans this holiday season. Record-high temperatures are possible for multiple regions around the United States for the Christmas holiday, while other regions could be hit with heavy rain. [ABC News]
¶ “Tesla 4680 Battery Production Is Trapped In Production Hell” • Tesla is making its new 4680 cells at the Gigafactory in Austin, where it builds the Model Y and the Cybertruck. But there are serious problmes with the new cell technology, both in the rate of rejection and in the time it takes to make them, which have suffered as manufacture scaled up. [CleanTechnica]
Tesla Model Y (Pontus Jerand Wernhammar, Unsplash)
¶ “US Electric Car Market at the Whim of Tesla Supply And Demand Trends” • During the pandemic, prices of both new and used EVs went up. Then, Tesla dropped its prices repeatedly. Now, new Tesla cars qualify for EV incentives, and Tesla ramped up production on lower priced cars, so the market values of EVs has had to drop. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Amazon Gives Surprising Second Life To Decrepit Coal Mine” • In November, Amazon came closer to using 100% renewable energy by adding two renewable energy projects in Maryland. The recently closed Arch Coal mine will become the largest solar farm in the state, with 300,000 panels. The other project will be an agrivoltaic system. [Yahoo News]
Have a blissfully cheerful day.
geoharvey 