Green Energy / Climate Issues - Failures - Lies and Falsehoods

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Grids Can’t Handle All the Solar and Wind Dems Want to Hook Up



Surprise.

Our electric grids were shaky to begin with. They cover vast distances and are not being properly maintained. But then the Democrats come in with the brilliant idea of spending hundreds of billions on erratic and unreliable wind and solar which then delivers power erratically and puts a further strain on the grids. As the money gets shoveled out the door, unworkable and unfeasible green energy projects go out the door.

And the grids can’t handle them.

PJM Interconnection, which operates the nation’s largest regional grid, stretching from Illinois to New Jersey, has been so inundated by connection requests that last year it announced a freeze on new applications until 2026, so that it can work through a backlog of thousands of proposals, mostly for renewable energy.

It now takes roughly four years, on average, for developers to get approval, double the time it took a decade ago.

And when companies finally get their projects reviewed, they often face another hurdle: the local grid is at capacity, and they are required to spend much more than they planned for new transmission lines and other upgrades.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Forget lithium ion — world’s first silicon-carbon battery blows that tech away




Phone maker Honor showed off a world-first battery that's made using silicon and carbon to give upcoming handsets a distinct capacity advantage over those using currently available battery tech.

During the on-stage announcement(opens in new tab) at MWC 2023, Honor CEO George Zhao claimed the battery features a 12.8% higher energy density compared to regular graphite batteries. That means either the same capacity as a typical battery in a smaller space, or more capacity in the same space, depending on how you wish to take advantage of the new technology.

Zhao put this announcement in context by saying that if the newly released Honor Magic5 Pro used this technology, its 5,100 mAh battery would instead have a capacity of 5,450 mAh.

Honor drew attention to the "low voltage aggregation technology" that makes this capacity increase possible. Capacity at 3.5V is 240% better on the silicon-carbon battery than on a normal battery, which Zhao claimed would help in those awkward moments when your smartphone is on low charge and starts draining the battery faster to continue drawing the same current.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Major Banks Bend The Knee To Climate Activists, Accelerate Plans To Cut Coal Investments



Both U.S.-based bank Citi and German Deutsche Bank announced plans to reduce investments in coal this week, the latest step in the movement amongst major banks to reduce their funding of fossil fuels and other industries that produce greenhouse gasses.

Citi announced plans to reduce emissions from its coal mining investments by 90% by 2030, while Deutsche announced that it would no longer finance companies that generate more than 30% of their revenue from coal, down from 50%, if they have no “credible plans” to reduce their dependence by 2025. Both banks are founding members of the United Nations’ Net Zero Banking Alliance, which requires its 126 members to set goals and disclose financial data related to their efforts to reduce the emissions of their lending portfolio to net zero by 2050.

Banks have been increasingly investing in green energy, investing $0.81 in the sector for every $1 spent on fossil fuels in 2021, Reuters reported Tuesday, citing a report from BloombergNEF. The same report found that Deutsche invested $2.2 in green energy for every $1 in traditional fossil fuels.

“Addressing the world’s energy and climate needs will be a balancing act,” said Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup, in a press release. “On the one hand, investing in energy security is essential – the global economy still runs primarily on oil and natural gas and many developing nations have neither the resources nor the infrastructure to make a quick shift to renewables. At the same time, investment in clean energy technologies is critical to addressing climate change, and support for companies working to dramatically reduce their carbon footprints must continue wherever they may be on their respective journeys.”
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
But the author goes on to point out this is just an acceleration of a pre-existing trend.

To a degree hardly anyone but wonks really appreciates, green energy in the United States was a heavily red-state phenomenon before the legislation even hit Mr. Biden’s desk in August. Already, Texas produces more renewable energy than anywhere else in the country — in fact, almost twice as much as California, the second biggest producer. In third, fourth and fifth place are Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas. Judged by percentage of overall power use, the most prolific source of renewables is Iowa, followed by South Dakota. Then, after Vermont, come Kansas, Oklahoma, Maine and New Mexico.
When it comes to non-hydro renewable power, Texas is today producing more than the entire Midwest. It doubled its solar capacity from 2019 to 2020 and almost did so again from 2020 to 2021. You may think of Texas as hostile to green energy, given not just its oil industry but also its recent grid problems and widespread blackouts and the grandstanding of its fossil-friendly, climate-skeptic governor. But on the ground, the state is probably the biggest green-energy success story in the country.

Looking around I see this hasn’t gone unnoticed. Last month KXAN published a story on Texas’ leadership in this area. Just today there was an announcement from Duke Energy about a huge new solar plant in Texas which is now operating.



 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
The end of the offshore wind power dreams?...

Except more whales are still dying unnecessarily since Mr. Oliver and the NOAA are missing the [whale] in the room by failing to acknowledge any culpability of offshore wind turbines. The rub is, if they did, it would be religious heresy in the Biden administration, so they obfuscate. Federal bureaucrats may have civil service protection, still they dare not risk climate-change apostasy by raising concerns about wind turbines mortally injuring whales. Such could lead to a transfer to the Aleutian Islands, court martial or the guillotine, figuratively speaking.

The NOAA is not the only entity in fatuous disbelief. Major media outlets and organizations that fanatically promote climate doom and its corresponding political agenda such as Greenpeace and the New York Times are circling the wagons. Yahoo News claimed that “scientists and environmental groups say there is no evidence linking the [off-shore wind turbines] to the deaths” of whales.

At the very least, there needs to be a moratorium on construction of off-shore wind turbines, which from a climate perspective alone are ineffective and a colossal waste, and now hazardous to the largest mammals on the planet. Indeed, U.S. Representatives Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and a dozen mayors in that state are demanding just that, along with a growing number of conservation groups, CFACT among them.

The salient question is, how can the federal government and professed environmentalists, which for decades bent over backwards to deny construction and development over snails, owls, salmon and sundry rodents, continue blithely with wind turbines that are demonstrably contributing to “elevated” whale deaths?


Interesting commentary

Condors keep dying in Cali ... so :sshrug:
 

stgislander

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
Besides the little wind farm off Block Island, where else do we have wind farms operating off the east coast that you could pin the blame of these whale deaths on? So far it has been nothing but survey operations.
 

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
Besides the little wind farm off Block Island, where else do we have wind farms operating off the east coast that you could pin the blame of these whale deaths on? So far it has been nothing but survey operations.
Pesky fax. For all we know, it could be the prop noise from a Coast Guard buoy tender causing the whales to go berserk.
 

Gilligan

#*! boat!
PREMO Member
Maybe Rosie O'Donnell was nude sunbathing on the beach.
eekjawdrop.gif
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Maryland becomes the 5th state to follow California off the green-energy cliff, and its governor relies on pseudoscience to promote this plan.

Maryland joins California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington in making the move.
In a statement, Moore said that, by 2040, the step could “potentially provide net in-state health benefits equal to about $39.9 million per year due to decreases in respiratory and cardiovascular illness and associated lost work days.”

The bans prevent automakers from selling new gasoline-powered cars in the seven states. But they don’t require anyone to stop driving their current car or prevent them from selling it used.
Maryland residents will still be able to buy and sell used gas-powered cars or buy new gas-powered cars in other states and title them in Maryland.

The state officials are not heeding the warning of a true expert in car technology: Toyota Motor chief Akio Toyoda.

“People involved in the auto industry are largely a silent majority,” Toyoda said. “That silent majority is wondering whether EVs are really OK to have as a single option. But they think it’s the trend so they can’t speak out loudly.”
“Because the right answer is still unclear, we shouldn’t limit ourselves to just one option,” he added.
The remarks come as supply chain issues that were sparked by the coronavirus pandemic have continued to make it difficult for manufacturers to get the raw materials needed to make new cars, especially electric vehicles.

All the reasons that Toyoda expresses are still valid. Lithium supplies remain a concern, even for proposed “solid state” batteries that may eventually work better than the lithium ion batteries now in use.

Although the internal constituents of batteries vary based on construction, lithium is a key factor in most. Globally, lithium prices have tripled in the past year alone, and that’s despite global lithium production tripling in just the past five years. There is, quite simply, a global shortage of the stuff.
The problem is that solid-state batteries could actually use even more lithium than today’s lithium-ion packs. Remember those higher-density anodes mentioned above? They’ll likely be made of pure lithium metal. “Now, lithium metal can increase the specific energy of your battery by up to three times but it comes as pure lithium, which means the lithium intensity is also increased,” [Rory McNulty, co-author of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence’s Solid-State and Lithium Metal Batteries Report] said, noting this will exacerbate the lithium shortage.


 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
This might have been considered a once-in-a-lifetime event in the past, but mass blackouts are starting to become a more regular feature of modern American life. Power outages have increased 64% from the early 2000s, and weather-related outages — many driven by the worsening climate crisis — have increased 78%. But it's not just nature making our grid shakier: A system that was once largely controlled by localized public entities has been handed over to layers of regional authorities and private companies whose goal is maximizing profits — not reliability. As a result, our electrical system has been plagued by decreasing reliability, lagging maintenance, and soaring costs. All this has left America's energy system woefully unprepared to handle our uncertain future.

Climate-change blackouts​

Cities across the US are increasingly going dark at the worst moments. A record-breaking blizzard in Buffalo, New York, this winter caused power outages throughout the city, resulting in the deaths of 47 residents. In 2021, a heat wave led to power outages and the deaths of hundreds in the Pacific Northwest. Texas shocked the world when a winter storm shut down power for more than 11 million people for several days in 2021, which resulted in 700 deaths, according to a BuzzFeed News analysis. And on Christmas Eve, record-breaking freezing temperatures caused millions of people in the South — 500,000 just in North Carolina — to lose power when the regional energy giants Duke Energy and Tennessee Valley Authority were forced to do their first-ever preventive rolling blackouts.

And it's becoming clear that these events are linked to the worsening climate crisis. An expansive new report by top climate scientists found that the Pacific Northwest heat wave was 43 times more likely due to human influence on the climate. And a 2019 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that the number of days that reached temperatures over 90 degrees in Ohio would likely triple to 30 to 70 days a year by midcentury.

These increasingly extreme temperatures cause outages in a variety of ways. When everyone cranks up their thermostats or blasts their air conditioning, it increases demand for electricity and strains the grid's capacity. Heat also causes power lines to sag, which increases the risk of contact with trees, and frozen temperatures can freeze power-generation equipment. When intense temperatures mix with weather events like storms, a combination of damaged power lines and increased demand often leads to intentional shutdowns to avoid larger regional blackouts. In the case of the Ohio blackout, the regional transmission organization PJM Interconnection ordered the power company AEP to "load shed," or initiate a blackout in some parts of Ohio, to avoid a larger failure. The same thing happened during the Christmas freeze in the South: Power companies initiated blackouts to prevent a worse crisis.




 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

JPMorgan Chase CEO Suggests Seizing Private Property To Build More Solar Farms





Dimon, regarded as one of the most powerful investment bankers on Wall Street, wrote in his annual shareholder letter that “bolstering growth” in the global economy “must go hand in hand with both securing an energy future and meeting science-based climate targets.” He mentioned eminent domain, the power of a government to seize private land for public use, as one possible mechanism to accelerate the development of green energy sources.

“Permitting reforms are desperately needed to allow investment to be done in any kind of timely way. We may even need to evoke eminent domain,” he said. “We simply are not getting the adequate investments fast enough for grid, solar, wind and pipeline initiatives.”

Dimon also noted that the Russian invasion of Ukraine complicates efforts from many nations to move toward renewable energy due to elevated worldwide fuel costs. “We need to do more, and we need to do so immediately,” he continued. “Governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations need to align across a series of practical policy changes that comprehensively address fundamental issues that are holding us back. Massive global investment in clean energy technologies must be done and must continue to grow year-over-year.”
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

GERMANS HAVE GIVEN UP ON “GREEN” ENERGY

Not the German government, which continues on a collision course with reality. But Germans have figured out that the green dream is turning into a nightmare. This report is on a survey of Germans done by forsa:

An overwhelming majority of the German population is of the opinion that a successful energy transition is not realistic. According to a Forsa survey, 88 percent of respondents share this view.

88 percent! That is stunning.

The Germans have less and less confidence in the Federal Government’s plans for the energy transition. Only ten percent still believe that renewable energy systems such as photovoltaics and wind power can adequately meet the country’s energy needs.
In 2011, 39 percent of respondents were still optimistic and 61 percent skeptical.
Even among the supporters of the Greens, skepticism now prevails, reports the world.
A majority of 59 percent of respondents continue to support the use of natural gas as an energy source in Germany. 57 percent are in favor of a continuation of nuclear energy.
 

spr1975wshs

Mostly settled in...
Ad Free Experience
Patron
Heard on the news a bit ago that France has licensed several new nuclear power plants to be built over the next decade.
 
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