Right now, could you prepare a slice of toast with zero embodied carbon emissions?
Since at least the 2000s, big polluters have tried to frame carbon emissions as an issue to be solved through the purchasing choices of individual consumers.
Yet, right now, millions of people couldn't prepare a slice of toast without causing carbon emissions, even if they wanted to.
In many low-density single-use-zoned suburbs, the only realistic option for getting to the store to get a loaf of bread is to drive. The power coming out of the mains includes energy from coal or gas.
But.
Even if they invested in solar panels, and an inverter, and a battery system, and only used an electric toaster, and baked the loaf themselves in an electric oven, and walked/cycled/drove an EV to the store to get flour and yeast, there are still embodied carbon emissions in that loaf of bread.
Just think about the diesel powered trucks used to transport the grains and packaging to the flour factory, the energy used to power the milling equipment, and the diesel fuel used to transport that flour to the store.
Basically, unless you go completely off grid and grow your own organic wheat, your zero emissions toast just ain't happening.
And that's for the most basic of food products!
Unless we get the infrastructure in place to move to a 100% renewables and storage grid, and use it to power fully electric freight rail and zero emissions passenger transport, pretty much all of our decarbonisation efforts are non-starters.
This is fundamentally an infrastructure and public policy problem, not a problem of individual consumer choice.
This is a common sense move by the UK government. Pumping #hydrogen into homes to replace natural gas was always a stupid idea and only gained any traction in the first place due to extensive lobbying by incumbent gas suppliers looking to secure their future. Home heating has to go 100% electric and Green Hydrogen has its place in the mix of energy storage solutions we need to smooth out lumpy renewable energy supply.
If you were hoping that somehow #renewableenergy would exclude #nuclear power (most obviously due to its financial costs & the historic problem of its waste products)... the fact that the rising price of #uranium would suggest demand (by Governments' #energy programmes) is rising will be disappointing news.
Whether its a victory for sectoral lobbying or a lack of confidence in developments around energy storage from renewables, its not good news for anyone wanting the end of nuclear power.
Lets get one thing clear about Hydrogen: The reason its being promoted is that its a method that could in theory allow us to decarbonize society, without transforming society.
Every other method of decarbonization will require us to abandon the "50s American style" of development (suburbs and cars for everyone), and a lot of people cant fathom that - so theyll hang on to the hope of Hydrogen redeeming their lifestyle, price be damned.
"The up-front energy investment in renewable energy infrastructures has not been visible as a hurdle thus far, as we have had surplus energy to invest (and smartly, at that; if only we had started in earnest earlier!). Against a backdrop of energy decline—which I feel will be the only motivator strong enough to make us serious about a replacement path—we may find ourselves paralyzed by the Trap."
Globally we produce A LOT of #energy, but did you know the majority of fossil energy gets wasted? In the US alone, two-thirds of that energy is wasted as heat.
As Hannah Ritchie has pointed out, we don’t actually need to produce a low carbon equivalent of all of the coal, oil & gas we currently use.
That means we can decarbonize quickly by being less wasteful & more efficient. #ClimateChange#science
WAIT WHAT?!
We are capable of pulling energy straight out of (humid) thin air now?! 🤯
"“To be frank, it was an accident,” says the study’s lead author, Prof Jun Yao. “We were actually interested in making a simple sensor for humidity in the air. But for whatever reason, the student who was working on that forgot to plug in the power.”
The UMass Amherst team were surprised to find that the device, which comprised an array of microscopic tubes, or nanowires, was producing an electrical signal regardless.
(...)
However, 20,000 of them stacked into a washing machine-sized cube, they say, could generate 10 kilowatt hours of energy a day – roughly the consumption of an average UK household. Even more impressive: they plan to have a prototype ready for demonstration in 2024."
Renting a relative's house while my house is pieced together due to a plumbing disaster, and pulled out my FLIR this morning--around 40F (4.4C) outside--and this building's thermal envelope is dismal. That said, I will likely end up fixing what I can here at some point, assuming they plan to keep this house. #EnergyEfficiency#flir#energy
🆕 blog! “Why are there no viable nuclear power plants for the home?”
Whenever you talk about renewable energy, it's impossible to avoid a very particular strain of reply-guy. The "Nuclear is really good actually" dude is convinced that you have critically misunderstood Our-Lord-And-Saviour Uranium. Nukes are clean! They are cheap! They are s…
Incandescent lightbulbs are now banned in the US (qz.com)
The Biden Administration's rules seek to make lighting cheaper and less polluting