@arstechnica 👆 Sidebar: I need somebody knowledgable to go into the question about the feasibility of a #hydrogen infrastructure. H looks promising, but besides the fact that it's another fuel lock-in - in contrast to (improving) batteries which will take electricity from any (improving) sources - H is a highly combustible invisible gas which burns with an invisible flame & transports under high pressure, spelling a logistical nightmare to my layman's eyes...
We would need to ask Hazel Southwell (author of the article) about the actual message they were trying to convey with this article, but IMHO they are basically saying:
"Synthetic hydrocarbon fuels are so absurd, that even a very bad idea such as Hydrogen starts looking like almost sensible."
The article clearly destroys the case for synthetic fuel (and I fully agree with that), but it is not very clear to me what their point was with regard to Hydrogen.
To this day we don't have any scalable energy-efficient way of producing H that is not from fossil fuels and generating CO2 as part of the process, so until we sorted that out, there is no much value in discussing the transport, storage and safety challenges.
Yes, we could inject the CO2 back into the oil field, but that is only reasonably possible if the H plant is virtually next the oil field, which is unlikely to be the scenario in almost every case.
Electrolysis can be a clean process to produce H, but only if the electricity required comes from a clean source, so we are back to score 1.
The elephants in the room here are the vehicle and our mobility paradigm... Regardless of the technology used, if we keep displacing a 1,000 ~ 2,000 kg vehicle to transport a 70kg human body, there is no way in which this is not going to be wasteful.
The same applies for flying live lobsters from Maine to Tokyo or Singapore.
Of course we need to shift to clean sources of energy, but we must reduce our insatiable energy thirst significantly too.
So the challenge is not about choosing a more efficient car the next time, but about giving up our cars entirely and shifting to public transport instead for most of our needs.
Similarly, we must limit our air cargo and travel, including the private jets, to a bare minimum as well.
#India needs 2.5 percent of its GDP ($ 3.2 tn) to cut #emissions deeply. That's $ 80 bn a year.
"Estimates suggest that compared with a no policy action scenario that could increase India's carbon emissions to 3.9 gigatonnes by 2030 (from 2.7 gigatonnes in 2021), a balanced policy intervention can lower carbon emissions to 0.9 gigatonne by 2030, the report added."
Large majority of Indians are "alarmed" or concerned about #ClimateChange and ready to see climate action from their government.
“The implications of this report for India are significant, as it shows that the majority of the Indian public is concerned about global warming and supports #climate and #energy policies.
The “alarmed” and “concerned” segments are highly educated and younger than the rest of the categories.”
If you needed some more evidence of the UK's problem with #greedflation, then the RAC has some:
In April #Diesel was159.4p a litre across the UK's forecourts (on average), compared to 146.5p for #petrol But wholesale prices for diesel at the end of the month stood at 104.9p a litre, well below the 111.2p for petrol.
The RAC's evidence is pretty damning, but the BoE & #JeremyHunt will continue to blame #workers for #inflation, rather than publicly criticise their chums in the #energy sector!
"... the first long distance coach running on biogas will operate the Stockholm-Oslo route. Powered by liquid biogas (LBG), the coach will reduce climate impact and contribute to a fossil-free transport between the two Nordic capitals."
Our #Renewable future: Laying the Path for One Hundred Percent
Clean #Energy
"Our lives, communities, and economies changed radically with the transition from wood and muscle power to fossil fuels, and so it is logical that a transition from fossil fuels to renewables—
that is, a fundamental change in the quantity and quality of energy available to power human civilization—will also entail a major shift in how we live." https://www.resilience.org/resources/our-renewable-future-laying-the-path-for-one-hundred-percent-clean-energy/
Hi everyone.
I am a software researcher working in the energy space.
My research is around P2P, blockchain and the use of Hydrogen.
My latest paper is -https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.09.107
In my spare time I play guitar and drums, grow my own veg, and play with the dogs on the beach!
Energy flows through (in from sunlight and then radiated away into space some time later - Earth is just a temporary stop-off)
Stuff/atoms/matter goes round and round
Every decision we make about a sustainable future should bear those in mind. We can’t change these rules, so we have to choose what we do to work within this system, like the rest of nature does. And this illuminates a lot of issues (see following posts). #climate#Earth#Energy
There’s also a blog somewhere about the effect of adding fusion energy into the Earth system (it’ll all end up as heat) and the risk of us cooking ourselves, but I can’t just find it. #energy
Ukraine Minister of Energy Halushchenko: Ukraine considers up to 20 Small nuclear Modular Reactors instead of rebuilding thermal units destroyed during the war.
Criticism:
Not a single SMR has been built in the world yet.
It will take decades
Ukrainian authorities are flirting with foreign companies about long-term and expensive projects.
SMR don't comply with current rules in force in Ukraine.
#California is now producing more #solar#energy at this time of year than it consumes in total between 12pm and 3pm. (the big issue for utilities is the steep curve at the end of the day when solar goes offline, and they have to ramp up other production sources... since very small amounts of that solar energy is able to be stored).
Gazprom POTOK mercenary, retired Senior Lieutenant of the Interior Troops (Rosgvardiya) Яковенко Эраст Юрьевич (Yakovenko Erast Yurievich) has earned the right to wear the green beret, volunteered to Ukraine, where he was killed in Bakhmut on 24 April ’23 https://vk.com/wall-137533628_3871 (via @KilledInUkraine)
Danish TV showing map of route by Russian "research ship" sailing through Danish, Norwegian and British waters, paying particular attention to wind farms, pipelines and other offshore installations. 😬
Guests identifying important vulnerabilities in #energy infrastructure that could cripple Danish, British + European grids.
The eco-revolution that we need can't simply be to replace petro-capitalism with exploitative cobalt and lithium mining beneath a green-washed economy.
We need to rethink how we're going to produce energy production and store it safely and humanely throughout the entire energy economy, including at the very bottom of the supply chain.
How Bankruptcy Helps Coal Industry Avoid Environmental Liability
Jeff Hoops built Blackjewel into the nation’s sixth largest #coal company by acquiring #bankrupt mines. When it declared #bankruptcy, he pivoted to other ventures, leaving polluted streams and mud-shrouded roads in his wake.
In the Game of Musical Mines, Environmental Damage Takes a Back Seat — co-published with Mountain State Spotlight