Green Energy Revolution Megathread

[mongers]

Electric cars in the UK now save nearly as much energy as UK preserved steam railways use, 8,000 tonnes oil equivalent vs 9,000 tonnes in 2015.

[mongers]

So how much more efficient have cars gotten over the years?

Between 1970 and 2015 UK road transport passenger efficiency improved by just 8.5%, in terms of thousand tonnes oil equiv. used per billion miles travelled.

source: UK Govt. Energy review: https://tinyurl.com/p8vqtl2

[grumbler]

So how much more efficient have cars gotten over the years?

Between 1970 and 2015 UK road transport passenger efficiency improved by just 8.5%, in terms of thousand tonnes oil equiv. used per billion miles travelled.

source: UK Govt. Energy review: https://tinyurl.com/p8vqtl2

You are using the efficiency of the entire transport system to measure the efficiency of a single element of it.  That's one way to create fake news like yours.

As cars have gotten more efficient and affordable, the numbers of them have gone up, and so the time spent burning fuel while caught in congestion increased.  That's not a matter of lower vehicle efficiency, it's a matter of road efficiency declining almost as fast as vehicle efficiency has risen.

[jimmy olsen]

Trump like the douche he is just issued a 30% tariff on solar panels

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/breaking-trump-admin-issues-a-30-solar-tariff

Breaking: Trump Admin Issues 30% Solar Panel Import Tariff

The decision includes a quota for imported solar cells.

Julia Pyper  January 22, 2018


The White House announced Monday that President Trump has issued a 30 percent year one tariff on imported solar cells and modules.

Tariffs will decline over a four-year period. The first 2.5 gigawatts of imported cells are excluded from the additional tariff, according to the U.S. Trade Representative fact sheet.

The USTR noted that China's industrial planning "has included a focus on increasing Chinese capacity and production of solar cells and modules, using state incentives, subsidies, and tariffs to dominate the global supply chain."

As a result of these state-directed initiatives, China's share of global solar cell production skyrocketed from 7 percent in 2005 to 61 percent in 2012. China currently produces 60 percent of the world's solar cells and 71 percent of solar modules, according to the fact sheet.

Over this period, the U.S. solar manufacturing industry "almost disappeared," the USTR stated, with 25 companies closing since 2012.

While the administration's fact sheet centered on China, it is not the only country affected. Section 201 trade cases are intended to apply globally, and today's proclamation makes no mention of tariff exemptions for specific countries or for any companies. It's unclear if any exclusions will be announced at a later date.

U.S.-based crystalline-silicon solar PV (CSPV) manufacturers Suniva and SolarWorld Americas filed the Section 201 petition last May under Section 201 of the Trade Act of 1974, arguing that increased imports had caused serious injury to the domestic industry.

The U.S. International Trade Commission made an injury determination last year, followed by a set of recommended tariffs. Two commissioners agreed on a 30 percent ad valorem tariff on imported CSPV modules, to decline by 5 percentage points per year over four years, as well as a four-year tariff-rate quota that would allow for up to 1 gigawatt of tariff-free cell imports, increasing by 0.2 gigawatts per year.

The Trump administration offered a more generous cell quota. Coupled with a relatively high module tariff, the decision could incentivize manufacturers to open domestic solar module production facilities. Reports have already been circulating that Jinko Solar may open a module factory in Jacksonville, Florida.

Juergen Stein, president of SolarWorld Americas, thanked Trump and the USTR for recognizing the importance of solar manufacturing to U.S. economic and national security.

"We are still reviewing these remedies, and are hopeful they will be enough to address the import surge and to rebuild solar manufacturing in the United States," he said. "We will work with the U.S. Government to implement these remedies, including future negotiations, in the strongest way possible to benefit solar manufacturing and its thousands of American workers to ensure that U.S. solar manufacturing is world-class competitive for the long term."

In the near term, President Trump's decision will deal a blow to the U.S. solar market. The Solar Energy Industries Association said today's decision will cause the loss of roughly 23,000 American jobs this year, including many in manufacturing. It's also expected to trigger the delay or cancellation of billions of dollars in solar investments.

"While tariffs in this case will not create adequate cell or module manufacturing to meet U.S. demand, or keep foreign-owned Suniva and SolarWorld afloat, they will create a crisis in a part of our economy that has been thriving, which will ultimately cost tens of thousands of hard-working, blue-collar Americans their jobs," said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA's President and CEO.




R Street Trade Policy Counsel Clark Packard said the Trump administration's decision is regrettable.

"The domestic solar industry has been growing at a rapid pace in recent years," he said. "The petitioners in this case -- both bankrupt firms that are majority foreign-owned -- employ about 1,000 Americans, while the rest of the domestic industry employs more than 260,000 Americans up the entire value chain."

"More good-paying jobs will be jeopardized by today's decision than could possibly be saved by bailing out the bankrupt companies that petitioned for protection," Packard added. "Today's decision also will jeopardize the environment by making clean energy sources less affordable."

According to MJ Shiao, head of Americas research for GTM Research, today's announced tariff levels are likely to increase solar panel costs by 10 to 12 cents per watt. According to a GTM analysis conducted last fall, a 10 cent per watt tariff is expected to slow the market by 8.3 percent.



Tony Clifford, chief development officer at Standard Solar, said Trump's tariff decision may slow, but will not stop the U.S. solar industry.

"The solar industry has come through worse policy decisions and will come through this one, too," he said. "The solar industry is nothing if not resilient, and I'm confident the innovative, tough and resourceful members of the industry will find workarounds to the latest obstacle placed in solar's path. The Solar Century is here, and not even unfair tariffs will stand in its way."

Earlier this year, Tesla, in partnership with Panasonic, confirmed that solar panel and solar tile production is now underway at the company's solar manufacturing facility in Buffalo, New York. This is the most recent solar cell and module production facility to open in the U.S. Nonetheless, Tesla opposed the imposition of new tariffs on imported solar products because its domestic factory is not expected to meet all of Tesla's solar panel needs -- at least not in the short run.

A company spokesperson reaffirmed today that Tesla is dedicated to making solar panels in America. "Tesla is committed to expanding its domestic manufacturing, including Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York, regardless of the solar tariff decision today."

FirstSolar, which makes thin-film solar panels that are not subject to tariffs on CSPV products, came out in support of the Suniva and SolarWorld case last year. The thin-film manufacturer saw its stock price shoot up by nearly 6 percent in after hours trading, at the time of publication.

[The Minsky Moment]

Funniest part is the case was brought by a Chinese-owned manufacturer (HK based).
If I were of a conspiratorial mind I might think the whole thing was engineered by Xi to systematically set back the US economy and in the long run give Chinese manufacturers whose products incorporate modules a heads up.   it is self-industrial sabotage on a massive scale. 

[mongers]

Funniest part is the case was brought by a Chinese-owned manufacturer (HK based).
If I were of a conspiratorial mind I might think the whole thing was engineered by Xi to systematically set back the US economy and in the long run give Chinese manufacturers whose products incorporate modules a heads up.   it is industrial scale self-sabotage on a massive scale.

Given his conduct within the white house, on twitter and in the wider world I FYP. 

[Valmy]

it is self-industrial sabotage on a massive scale. 

Yeah. It is what we do.

But this is just the beginning. Tariffs are going to go up all over the place.

[mongers]

Nuclear, Coal and Gas currently doing the heavy lifting for our electricity generation here, 71.5%.

Plus our French and Dutch friends are each chipping in a few percent.

Wind is on 14.5%, hydro 1.25%, biomass 3%(essentially on very expensive power station burning imported N.A wood)

And I think pretty much all of the pump storage is being used for an additional 3%

In the right thread, though as the figures for 6.30 GMT, I've looked them up again on this rather neat website:

http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/index.php

Haven't changed much in the last 2-3 hours the holy trinity is still on 71-72%.

[The Minsky Moment]

But this is just the beginning. Tariffs are going to go up all over the place.

Give the man a prize.

[garbon]

But this is just the beginning. Tariffs are going to go up all over the place.

Give the man a prize.

If you are feeling so generous, why don't you?

[jimmy olsen]

Insanely awesome!

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-28/saudi-arabia-softbank-ink-deal-on-200-billion-solar-project

Saudi Arabia and SoftBank Plan World's Largest Solar Project

By Vivian Nereim                   
•Venture may cost $200 billion, add 100,000 jobs in the kingdom
•Plan envisions 200GW of solar capacity in Saudi Arabia by 2030

Saudi Arabia and SoftBank Group Corp. signed a memorandum of understanding to build a $200 billion solar power development that's exponentially larger than any other project.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, known for backing ambitious endeavors with flair, unveiled the project Tuesday in New York at a ceremony with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The powerful heir to the throne of the world's largest crude exporter is seeking to diversify the economy and wean off a dependence on oil.

The deal is the latest in a number of eye-popping announcements from Saudi Arabia promising to scale up its access to renewables. While the kingdom has for years sought to get a foothold in clean energy, it's was only in 2017 that ministers moved forward with the first projects, collecting bids for a 300-megawatt plant in October.

At 200 gigawatts, the Softbank project planned for the Saudi desert would be about 100 times larger than the next biggest proposed development and a third more than what the global photovoltaic industry supplied worldwide last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

"It's a huge step in human history," Prince Mohammed said. "It's bold, risky and we hope we succeed doing that."

Over The Top

SoftBank-Saudi solar vision dwarfs other planned PV projects

Source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance; SoftBank

If built, the development would almost triple Saudi Arabia's electricity generation capacity, which stood at 77 gigawatts in 2016, according to BNEF data. About two thirds of that is generated by natural gas, with the rest coming from oil. Only small-scale solar projects working there now.

Son said he envisions the project, which runs the gamut from power generation to panel and equipment manufacturing, will create as many as 100,000 jobs and shave $40 billion off power costs. The development will reach its maximum capacity by 2030 and may cost close to $1 billion a gigawatt, he said.

"The kingdom has great sunshine, great size of available land and great engineers, great labor, but most importantly, the best and greatest vision," Son told reporters at a briefing.

Deepening Ties

The agreement deepens SoftBank's ties with the Saudi Arabia, and advances the crown prince's ambition to diversify its economy.

"SoftBank seeks investment and Saudi needs energy, so it may make sense to sort the financing out in a large block and then separately hammer out the phases and the technical details," said Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis at BNEF. "It is worth noting that many of these memorandums of understanding do not result in anything happening. "

said to be planning to invest as much as $25 billion in Saudi Arabia over the next three to four years. That's a boost for Prince Mohammed, who's been at the forefront of the Vision 2030 campaign to diversify the kingdom's economy away from oil by that year. SoftBank is said to have aimed to deploy as much as $15 billion in a new city called Neom, which the crown prince plans to build on the Red Sea coast.




The Japanese company's Vision Fund is also said to plan investments of as much as $10 billion in state-controlled Saudi Electricity Co. as part of efforts to diversify the utility into renewables and solar energy.




Vision, Investments

Son, who is known as a savvy investor with a flair for the spotlight, has been promoting clean energy since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and recently completed a 50-megawatt wind power farm in Mongolia. He has also pushed a plan dubbed "Asia Super Grid," a plan to connect Asian nations by grids and undersea cables to distribute clean energy.




The kingdom's deal-making has quickened as it pursues Prince Mohammed's diversification goals. Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, which has more than $224 billion in assets, spent about $54 billion on investments last year. The sale of about a 5 percent stake in oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co. is expected to provide more funds.

Saudi Arabia also plans to build at least 16 nuclear reactors over the next 25 years at a cost of more than $80 billion. Electricity demand in the country has risen by as much as 9 percent a year since 2000, according to BNEF.

[Jacob]

Saudi Arabia does have a lot of sun, so it's not a bad place to build solar power stations I reckon.

[Tonitrus]

I would think a good business plan might be for the EU to partner with Morocco/Algeria to build up a lot of solar plants/undersea cables and thus help move away from the Russia-sourced energy pressures.

[The Minsky Moment]

Saudi Arabia does have a lot of sun, so it's not a bad place to build solar power stations I reckon.

Heat decreases PV efficiency.  So the best place is probably someplace dry and cool as long as it doesn't get snow.  That said, SA is definitely dry and that helps compensate for any efficiency loss due to heat.

[jimmy olsen]

I would think a good business plan might be for the EU to partner with Morocco/Algeria to build up a lot of solar plants/undersea cables and thus help move away from the Russia-sourced energy pressures.

I believe they do have long term plans to that effect.