Green Energy Revolution Megathread

[Iormlund]

I thought that given the intermittent nature of pretty much all renewable energy sources, you literally couldn't hit 100% renewable.  Mass storage may eventually be the answer, but it doesn't exist yet.

You can, however, declare victory whenever you like, since it's relatively easy to achieve 100% renewable in the right circumstances.

Here there was a coal plant crisis a few years ago, after a relatively snowy winter led to unusually high water reserves (priority on allocation of reserves is usually given to agriculture, not electricity generation). The combination of hydro, solar and wind was enough to keep coal plants inactive for a while.

[Valmy]

You can, however, declare victory whenever you like, since it's relatively easy to achieve 100% renewable in the right circumstances.

Yep. As I said I suspect they will either achieve this goal anyway or they will find some way to declare victory. It is political stuff without any economy ruining implications of any sort.

[jimmy olsen]

is this the reason the state's cost of living is ridiculous and the state is deep in debt?

State's debt load is fine

http://www.usgovernmentdebt.us/state_debt_rank

[Valmy]

California had a debt crisis like a decade ago and for some reason everybody took that to mean that they were a failed state or something.

[PDH]

California had fiscal trouble with an unlettered actor at the helm of the state, but since 2011 budgets have been balanced, revenues up, and the economy is growing.  Sure, cost of living is too high in places where people want to live or near where the economy is really booming, but that shit isn't because the state fails.

People don't like to talk about how Moonbeam Jerry Brown has taken the state from huge budget problems and stagnation to far better things.

[Ed Anger]

Did Cali have less than a dollar in its rainy day fund at one point? No? OHIO WINS

[PDH]

Wyoming has a rainy fund and though it has sprinkled, drizzled, misted, stormed, shitfuck tornadic piss streamed, it has never actually rained there.

[jimmy olsen]

Yay! 

https://www.seeker.com/earth/energy/global-coal-production-plummets-as-energy-demand-and-emissions-flatten

Global coal production plunged by the largest percentage on record in 2016 amid flat demand for energy and inroads by cleaner sources of power, the oil major BP reported Tuesday. Coal production worldwide fell by more than 6 percent as the black rock's share of world energy production fell to its lowest level since 2004, according to BP's annual Statistical Review of World Energy.

Slower economic growth in China and a move away from coal in North America and Europe dimmed the fuel's prospects, resulting in a second straight year of decline. Worldwide, coal's share of the world's energy consumption fell for the second year in a row, down 1.7 percent to 28.1 percent.

...

[jimmy olsen]

Damn, that trend line looks really nice.

According to the Energy Information Administration's Electric Power Monthly, a bit more than 10 percent of all electricity generated in the US in March came from wind and solar power (including both distributed residential solar panels and utility-scale solar installations). That's a record number for the country, and it reflects continuing effort to install more renewable capacity across the nation.

The EIA shows that eight percent of total electricity generation that month came from wind, and the other two percent came from solar. The administration also predicts that wind and solar will contribute more than 10 percent of the total electricity produced in April, although numbers for that month aren't out yet.

Renewables have tended to hit records in spring and fall—often called shoulder seasons—because wind is plentiful and the northern hemisphere receives a more even amount of sunlight during those seasons than it does during winter. In addition, electricity consumers tend to use less during the shoulder seasons (mild weather means they're usually not running air conditioners or space heaters, for example). That means overall energy use is low and peak-demand fossil fuel-burning plants don't need to come online. All these factors together make it easy for renewable energy to shoulder a larger and larger share of the work.

Although solar electricity generation usually increases considerably in the summer, the EIA doesn't expect that increase to compensate for the reductions in spring and fall wind power this year.
In a separate study, GTM Research and the Energy Storage Association also found that stationary energy batteries have had a booming first quarter of 2017 as well. Batteries go hand in hand with intermittent resources like wind and solar because they can smooth out some of the times when those renewable sources can't provide electricity.

In the first quarter of 2017, a record 234 MWh of storage appear to have been installed around the US. The surge was partially caused by a mandate from California regulators that utilities in that state install batteries after a massive methane leak prompted the shutdown of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility. Tesla, AES Energy Storage, and Ice Energy all completed contracts in the first quarter of 2017 pursuant to California's mandate.

However, the study suggested that this first quarter may be the largest for energy storage in 2017 because few additional storage projects are currently planned for later in the year.

For now, the EIA says the renewable energy number to beat is seven percent, which is the percentage of electricity that was renewably generated in the US throughout 2016. Last year, Texas accounted for the most wind on the US grid, with California trailing Texas in wind and almost making up the difference in solar.

"As a share of the state's total electricity generation, wind and solar output was highest in Iowa, where wind and solar made up 37 percent of electricity generation in 2016," the EIA wrote. Part of Iowa's high percentage of renewable energy has to do with the state's electricity needs being comparatively low. California and Hawaii are two states that have aggressive renewable goals, too. If we include geothermal, biomass, and small-scale hydroelectric power in addition to wind and solar, California sourced 27 percent of its energy from renewable sources last year, and Hawaii hit 26 percent.

[sbr]

RIP Tim's pant.

http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/news/chinese-province-runs-on-100-renewables-for-7-days

Chinese province runs on 100% renewables for 7 days

The Qinghai Province, located in Northwest China, has successfully run on 100 per cent renewable energy for seven continuous days, as part of a trial conducted by the State Grid Corporation of China.

The trial – which ran from 17 June to 23 June – saw the entire province generate all of its power needs with clean energy sources, including solar, wind and hydro power.

The trial in the Qinghai Province – which has a population of around 6 million people – was deigned to prove that fossil fuels will not be required in the future, according to local reports.

Quan Shenming, General Manager of Qinghai Electric Power Corporation, a subsidiary of State Grid Corporation, said: "Being the first trial of this kind in the country and a major step in the transformation of energy supply, it will be of great importance in promoting the use of clean energy in China in a sustainable and effective way."

Quan Shengming detailed that during the seven day period electricity use was 1.1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), the equivalent of 535,000 tonnes of coal.

Hydro contributed as much as 72.3 per cent of the electricity, with new energy sources including wind and solar providing the balance, said Han Ti, Vice General Manager.

Qinghai has ample resources for solar and hydro power generation.

As of May 2017, Qinghai's power grid had a total installed capacity of 23.4 million kW, around 82.8 per cent of which came from solar, wind and hydro power.

According to the provincial 13th Five-Year Plan, the Qinghai Province plans to expand its solar and wind capacity to 35 million kW by 2020 and supply 110 billion kWh of clean electricity every year to central and eastern parts of China, Xinhua News said.

Han said: "Clean energy is the ultimate way. We need to reduce reliance on fossil fuel, improve our energy structure, and reduce carbon emissions."

China plans to invest 2.5 trillion yuan ($366 billion) in renewable energy technologies by 2020, creating more than 13 million jobs, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA).

In the first quarter of 2017, China installed an impressive 7.21 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity.

Total installed solar capacity now stands at around 85 GW – according to the NEA.

[Tonitrus]

Hydro contributed as much as 72.3 per cent of the electricity, with new energy sources including wind and solar providing the balance, said Han Ti, Vice General Manager.

The key fact in the story.

[jimmy olsen]

Not sure if Tesla is going to make Musk rich, but he's succeeding in killing the internal combustion engine.

Starting in 2019 every Volvo will be a hybrid or electric.
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-volvo-electric-motors-20170705-story.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-car-electric-volvo-hybrid-edit-0709-md-20170707-story.html

[garbon]

Oh you of strange assertions.

[Zanza]

A "mild hybrid" is much closer to a conventional combustion engine than it is to a true electric car. Nice announcement, but that's not yet the end of the combustion engine.


Tesla started the production of their new model recently. Their ramp up curve is fairly slow, but will be interesting to see if they can reach the 20,000 cars per month in December. Apparently the car only has two options: color and wheel size. That's an interesting approach when most other car companies go towards individualization of the vehicles with very small lot sizes, often lot size of one built to the customer's specific order.

[mongers]

A "mild hybrid" is much closer to a conventional combustion engine than it is to a true electric car. Nice announcement, but that's not yet the end of the combustion engine.


Tesla started the production of their new model recently. Their ramp up curve is fairly slow, but will be interesting to see if they can reach the 20,000 cars per month in December. Apparently the car only has two options: color and wheel size. That's an interesting approach when most other car companies go towards individualization of the vehicles with very small lot sizes, often lot size of one built to the customer's specific order.

Maybe he's not trying to kill off  the ICE, but rather the false totem of individualism with regard to mass transport by car?