Climate Change & Alternative Energy

[Midfielder]

 

[Midfielder]

worth watching its about costs.

 

[Midfielder]

 

[Midfielder]

As I have often posted the miss direction by our media on for example...When will China & India""' do their bit is beyond sad... 

Any time you hear that in the future then show them this.

China’s quest for clean, limitless energy heats up

A powerful fusion reactor built by Chinese scientists is at the centre of a critical mission for the country to create a limitless, clean energy source.

AFP

news.com.auAPRIL 29, 201910:16AM

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A new form of renewable energy - compact fusion

 

A ground-breaking fusion reactor built by Chinese scientists is underscoring Beijing’s determination to be at the core of clean energy technology, as it eyes a fully-functioning plant by 2050.

Sometimes called an “artificial sun” for the sheer heat and power it produces, the doughnut-shaped Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) that juts out on a spit of land into a lake in eastern Anhui province, has notched up a succession of firsts.

Most recently in November, it became the first facility in the world to generate 100 million degrees Celsius -- six times as hot as the sun’s core.

Such mind-boggling temperatures are crucial to achieving sustainable nuclear fusion reactions, which promise an inexhaustible energy source.

EAST’s main reactor stands within a concrete structure, with pipes and cables spread outward like spokes that connect to a jumble of censors and other equipment encircling the core. A red Chinese flag stands on top of the reactor.

“We are hoping to expand international cooperation through this device (EAST) and make Chinese contributions to mankind’s future use of nuclear fusion,” said Song Yuntao, a top official involved in the project, on a recent tour of the facility.

China is also aiming to build a separate fusion reactor that could begin generating commercially viable fusion power by mid-century, he added.

RELATED: The race to harness the perfect energy source

RELATED: The Z Machine and the pursuit of nuclear fusion

RELATED: Scientists to create the world’s first man made star

This handout picture released by Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Plasma Physics, shows a vacuum vessel inside the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) device at a laboratory in Hefei, east China's Anhui province.Source:AFP

Fusion energy has yet to achieve the milestone of actually generating more energy than is required to get the process going but holds the immense potential of curing humanity’s energy woes forever.

Billions of dollars have been promised for the ambitious project. EAST is part of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, which seeks to prove the feasibility of fusion power.

Funded and run by the European Union, India, Japan, China, Russia, South Korea, and the United States, the multi-billion-dollar project’s centrepiece will be a giant cylindrical fusion device, called a tokamak.

Now under construction in Provence in southern France, it will incorporate parts developed at the EAST and other sites, and draw on their research findings.

UNLIMITED POWER, MEGA BUDGETS

Fusion is considered the Holy Grail of energy and is what powers our sun. It merges atomic nuclei to create massive amounts of energy -- the opposite of the fission process used in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants, which splits them into fragments.

Unlike fission, fusion emits no greenhouse gases and carries less risk of accidents or the theft of atomic material.

But sustaining the high temperatures and other unstable conditions necessary is both extremely difficult and prohibitively expensive -- the total cost of ITER is estimated at 20 billion euros (A$32.5 billion).

A ground-breaking fusion reactor built by Chinese scientists is underscoring Beijing's determination to be at the core of clean energy technology, as it eyes a fully-functioning plant by 2050.Source:AFP

Wu Songtao, a top Chinese engineer with ITER, conceded that China’s technical capabilities on fusion still lag behind more developed countries, and that US and Japanese tokamaks have achieved more valuable overall results.

But the Anhui test reactor underlines China’s fast-improving scientific advancement and its commitment to achieve yet more.

China’s capabilities “have developed rapidly in the past 20 years, especially after catching the ITER express train,” Wu said.

In an interview with state-run Xinhua news agency in 2017, ITER’s Director-General Bernard Bigot lauded China’s government as “highly motivated” on fusion.

“Fusion is not something that one country can accomplish alone,” Song said. “As with ITER, people all over the world need to work together on this.”

[Midfielder]

 

[Midfielder]

https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/uk-becomes-first-country-in-world-to-declare-climate-emergency/11074582

The UK has become the first country in the world to declare a national climate emergency following protests and acts of civil disobedience from a grassroots environmental group that launched in October.

It's a spectacular success for the Extinction Rebellion, while most climate protests have failed to capture the attention of the public, media and politicians. Although the declaration on its own does not mandate action on climate, it was the first of the protester's three demands, along with reducing emissions to net zero by 2025, and creating an assembly of citizens to lead the government on climate issues.

On Wednesday in the UK, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called on the government to declare the climate emergency: "We are living in a climate crisis that will spiral dangerously out of control unless we take rapid and dramatic action now."

We have no time to waste.

The proposal, which demonstrates the will of the parliament on the issue but does not legally compel the government to act, was approved without a vote.

Extinction Rebellion said in a statement: "This is the first step in the government telling the truth about the climate and ecological emergency.

"Pressure on politicians will now increase as nothing but decisive action will suffice."

What happened?

The Extinction Rebellion has changed the paradigm of climate protests, according to Leo Barasi, the author of Climate Majority, a book investigating how to shift public opinion about climate change.

He's also written a Master's thesis on whether climate protests will ever convince lawmakers to act on climate change (his conclusion, they wouldn't).

"I found that extreme weather sometimes influences public opinion, while UN climate conferences and IPCC reports often trigger media coverage and parliamentary debates," Barasi wrote on his blog.

"But climate protests generally have little direct effect on any of these."

Police officers attempt to remove Extinction Rebellion climate change activists who have locked their hands together.

Getty

For the thesis, Barasi looked at public protests from 2006-2014 and found no examples of them leading to debates in parliament, while every UN conference or report, and half of the extreme weather events, were mentioned in the UK parliament.

Then came the Extinction Rebellion (XR).

For 10 days in April, tens of thousands of people committed acts of civil disobedience, including blocking traffic across the Thames, gluing themselves onto trains, graffiting the headquarters of oil giant Shell, and blockading the stock exchange.

And it apparently worked: The protests led to two separate parliamentary debates, and these were capped this week by the successful climate emergency motion.

The UK media has also mentioned climate change more in April than it has at any other time in the last five years - including during the Paris Agreement negotiations in 2016.

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Leo Hickman@LeoHickman

 

 

It's official...

Thanks to #ExtinctionRebellion protests, Attenborough's BBC One film and @GretaThunberg's UK visit, April 2019 has now overtaken Dec 2015 (Paris COP) as seeing the most mentions of "climate change" in UK media over past 5 years.

(& still 5 days of April to go)

 

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1,149 people are talking about this

 

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As Barasi points out, during April there's also been a rapid increase in the number of Google searches for climate change coming from the UK.

UK searches for 'global warming' (red) and 'climate change' (blue) in the last 90 days (top) and since January 2004 (bottom).

Supplied

Interestingly, Australia saw a sharp spike in searches for climate change on March 14 - the day of the national climate strike. If we assume google searches are a good indicator of public attention, Australians hadn't been this engaged by climate change since 2010.

Australia searches for 'global warming' (red) and 'climate change' (blue) in the last 90 days (top) and since January 2004 (bottom).

Supplied

How did the protests work where others have failed?

But showing the protests have worked doesn't help explain why this happened now, in April 2019, after apparently failing every other time.

One theory is that the climate denial movement has run its course.

Richard Black, a former BBC environment correspondent and author of Denied: the Rise and Fall of Climate Contrarianism, told the Guardian the BBC appears to have stopped giving air time to climate deniers to 'balance' the debate.

Mainstream media is now taking the issue seriously, he said: "The facts have changed. And in the end, if you want to be credible you have to go with the facts."

Environmental protesters from the Extinction Rebellion in London on April 15, 2019.

Public opinion also seems to be shifting.

Some have put that down to David Attenborough broadcasting a hard-hitting climate documentary, The Facts, on BBC One. Also, his eight-part Netflix series Our Planet, which conveys the heartbreaking realities of environmental collapse.

Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish student climate activist who initiated the school strike for climate movement last year, visited the UK over Easter; she made headlines and delivered another surge of public interest.

A poll published this week found that nearly 63 per cent of the British public supported the UK declaring a climate emergency and 76 per cent would vote differently to protect the planet against climate change.

According to the ABC's vote compass, the environment is rated as the number one issue by 29 per cent of respondents, a massive shift from just 9 per cent in 2016.

The latest Ipsos poll found 23 per cent of Australians rated the environment among their biggest worries this month compared with 14 per cent in July 2016.

It found anxiety about the environment was most pronounced among those aged under 25 but there has also been a marked rise in the number of older voters ranking it among their biggest worries.

The 2019 triple j What's Up In Your World survey of young people found climate change was the most important election issue.

Last year's survey asked about the most pressing issue affecting young people. That time, climate change languished fourth on the list: now it appears to be gaining momentum.

 

[Midfielder]

 

[Cynth]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/climate/us-arctic-climate-change.html

[wendybr]

13 hours ago, Cynth said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/climate/us-arctic-climate-change.html

Disgusting....and sad.

[theguyyouwishyouwere]

On 08/05/2019 at 9:14 PM, wendybr said:

Disgusting....and sad.

and unsurprising

[Midfielder]

Over the past two weeks ... two I think major milestones where achieved.... In many ways this makes me ill that the news below is not reported by the ABC who indicate this is want they want but good news or major renewable milestones just don't make even social media in Australia ... 

1] In England they have gone a month without using any coal fired power stations and believe this year they will reach 3 months without using coal and have reduced coal to about 16% only of their peak usage and under a hard right government [hint hint Tony and Jones boy}.... further by I think it was sometime in 2021 they will not use coal fired power stations at all.

2] In the US [of all places given Trump} last month they created move energy from renewable's than from coal & gas.and similar to England they think about 3 months over the next year and by I think they said 2022 they will be producing more energy from renewable's than coal & gas.

The entire f.......k.....g world is moving this way and we have dip sticks still arguing and as Cyth's link above shows we still have people arguing the case for coal & gas...  

The last time I voted for the ALP was Keating ... but the Libs have lost it on climate change and just tell and say so much BS and it will hurt them big time on Saturday..... 

 

 

[Cynth]

So what a surprise, the delayed emmisions report for 2018 shows that emissions are up.....again.....not that most Australian citizens care...

 

[Unlimited]

14 minutes ago, Cynth said:

So what a surprise, the delayed emmisions report for 2018 shows that emissions are up.....again.....not that most Australian citizens care...

 

Sad that the electorate doesn't care about it - would rather save their franking credit refunds

[wendybr]

The ditching of the Carbon Tax should go down in history as the most disgusting and disgraceful action undertaken by a Coalition govt in history.

[sonar]

7 minutes ago, wendybr said:

The ditching of the Carbon Tax should go down in history as the most disgusting and disgraceful action undertaken by a Coalition govt in history.

wendy, while I agree with you, you have to remember that the coalition had the backing of the people at an election. They campaigned to repeal, were elected, and did what they said they would. If anyone is to blame it's us, the electorate at large, or to be more precise those who have voted for the coalition in the last 3 elections and in whom the voters have put in place members and senators who have voted accordingly. Until climate change starts to burn holes in peoples wallets nothing will change.

[wendybr]

Yes...this is true.

It came down to people being promised $500 a year in electricity bill reductions.

And a proportion of the electorate was mindlessly led by the nose to "axing the tax"....that "great big tax".

Sigh.

[wendybr]

PS I'll always mainly blame Abbott. 

[sonar]

4 minutes ago, wendybr said:

Yes...this is true.

It came down to people being promised $500 a year in electricity bill reductions.

And a proportion of the electorate was mindlessly led by the nose to "axing the tax"....that "great big tax".

Sigh.

I have no doubt that vested interests...ie coal...etc played a part but in all reality the ALP did not help itself with it's conduct....Rudd/Gillard/Rudd which played into Abbott and his backers hands. A shame for the country but it is what it is and we fight the good fight till something like a change of govt or policy happens.

Edited June 7, 2019 by sonar

[Unlimited]

46 minutes ago, wendybr said:

The ditching of the Carbon Tax should go down in history as the most disgusting and disgraceful action undertaken by a Coalition govt in history.

Nah, I'd say it's the bastardisation of the NBN

The fact that I'd rather use my 4G to do work at home on my work laptop rather than my wi-fi connection is absolute BS

[wendybr]

1 hour ago, Unlimited said:

Nah, I'd say it's the bastardisation of the NBN

The fact that I'd rather use my 4G to do work at home on my work laptop rather than my wi-fi connection is absolute BS

Lol to me...but there you go.

[Midfielder]

I am a huge fan of Elon Musk and he is despised by the fossil fuel industry and they advertise a lot on traditional media in the US.... anywho CNBC a right wing channel on one of their leading investment shows wanted to put out another negative Tesla story.... they did not run this vid ...

Its beyond funny seeing the guy doing the interviewing trying to get negative comments from the investor.

 

[Paul01]

This article points to the effect of lobbying by the fossil fuel industry. 

Australia missing out on huge cuts in emissions through energy efficiency failure https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/12/australia-could-cut-emissions-halfway-to-paris-target-under-global-energy-standards?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

[Midfielder]

3 hours ago, Paul01 said:

This article points to the effect of lobbying by the fossil fuel industry. 

Australia missing out on huge cuts in emissions through energy efficiency failure https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/12/australia-could-cut-emissions-halfway-to-paris-target-under-global-energy-standards?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

That was a good pick up... 

[Paul01]

21 minutes ago, Midfielder said:

That was a good pick up... 

If we changed our appliances away from always being on standby, it would make a difference too.

[Legionista]

On how much coal is burned?

Not likely. 

[wendybr]

It's been a while since I've seen stats, but I think I recall it being something like 7% of the average power we use goes on appliances being left on standby.

Collectively, that's a significant waste of power and money. And a stupid/wasteful contributor to emissions.

 

[Paul01]

51 minutes ago, wendybr said:

It's been a while since I've seen stats, but I think I recall it being something like 7% of the average power we use goes on appliances being left on standby.

Collectively, that's a significant waste of power and money. And a stupid/wasteful contributor to emissions.

 

More like 70% on standby.

[wendybr]

70% of items maybe??

But the average % of household consumption is about 10% .....apparently.

This was the first thing I got when I searched.

https://reductionrevolution.com.au/blogs/news-reviews/5842600-is-standby-power-really-10-of-household-electricity-consumption

So, where did the 10% come from?

It seems that the 10% figure came from a very detailed study of standby power (PDF) consumption back in 2005.

This intrusive survey covered some 120 houses... A total of 8000 individual appliances were recorded during the survey.

Appliances were recorded in all relevant standby modes, such as active standby, passive standby or off mode.

And the results:

The average standby consumption for 2005 was found to be 92.2 Watts per household, or some 807 kWh per year. This equates to around 10.7% of residential electricity consumption in 2005.

[Midfielder]

Must read must  share

I will be beyond disappointed if this article nay story is not shared on left learning sites and on the ABC.... tis an article hidden on ""'The Australian"" [right wing rag] in their business section and its about a """Coal Fired Power Station """and not just any but Australia's largest...

Essentially the coal part if all goes to plan will at best operate for at best only half the day.... BUT BUT its a major company trying to maximise from its profits ... that is the most telling part of the article... this is renewables being shown to be way way way cheaper than coal... Further their plans for other coal fired power station they own..

IMO a must read and must share and sent to ""One Nation"""who are wanting to build a coal fired power station.

I have copied the article as it sits behind a paywall..... please read... and share...

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/cheap-renewables-put-old-coal-plants-to-test/news-story/112b4ebe22b8598e9ef5d7b168e7346d

 

Renewables put old coal to test

Australia’s largest coal plant is facing its biggest test yet: cheap renewable energy.

 

Australia’s largest coal plant is facing its biggest test yet: cheap renewable energy.

The Eraring power station on the shores of NSW’s Lake Macquarie supplies 20 per cent of the state’s daily consumption, helping to keep the lights on after ageing coal facilities like Victoria’s Hazelwood were mothballed in 2017.

But nearly four decades into its life, owner Origin Energy is contemplating a radical rethink of the way Eraring feeds electricity into the east coast’s grid, including shutting the facility down during the day when huge slabs of solar often beat coal on price.

Traditionally the country’s big coal generators run round the clock, reflecting both market demand for the fuel but also the difficulty in tweaking output from huge pieces of machinery that can take hours to properly synchronise with the grid.

But the relentless surge of cheap and plentiful renewables — solar, wind and hydro and battery storage — is sparking a shift among the big baseload coal producers that supply 70 per cent of the grid’s needs.

Origin estimates 2800 megawatts of clean energy made its way into the grid in 2018, representing the same annual capacity Eraring can produce.

But whereas once Origin may have ploughed on running the plant through the day and night, the ability of solar to cut wholesale prices during the day means Eraring may make a better return ramping its output up and down to meet peak demand.

“Solar is now the lowest cost form of generation and it will create an oversupply situation during the day,” Origin’s Eraring operations manager Tony Phillips told The Weekend Australian on a tour of the plant.

“That surplus energy will mean that we may likely back off and it could even mean that we shut down for periods during the day. It’s a commercial decision — if the price gets to a point where it’s sensible to do — we will make that decision.”

Making that call may come sooner than originally thought for Origin and rivals AGL Energy, EnergyAustralia and Alinta.

A likely tipping point for Eraring to pare output is when wholesale power prices fall below $50 a megawatt hour during the day on a consistent basis.

Origin already estimates solar can supply into the grid for between $40-$50/MWh, albeit on an intermittent basis, with costs higher once storage options like batteries or hydro are baked into the equation.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty, but it’s possible we change the way we operate Eraring within two years,” Phillips says.

“It may be much longer. But for us, it’s about being ready when it happens.”

Origin has just completed a trial shutting down one of its four Eraring generators after meeting morning demand and firing it back up to meet evening peaks.

Still, after running the mega plant much the same way since it opened in 1982, running a coal generator more flexibly is no small feat. Unlike quick-start gas plants which are designed to fill gaps in the grid, the complex interplay between coal boilers, pipes, cooling towers and turbines pose a challenge for Eraring.

“It’s a totally different operating model,” Phillips says. “If you look at the valves and dampers and equipment out there, that traditionally sits in one spot and never moves. Now we’re asking it to move up and down and this sort of equipment can jam, get stuck, doesn’t operate, gets fatigued and generally wears out.

“The tests were designed to look at reliability issues to ensure that when the time comes we can do this day, in day out or, if needed, a few times a week.”

The retooled strategy for Eraring reflects a pragmatic response to a renewables transition which shows no sign of slowing down, according to expert Tony Wood, energy program director at the Grattan Institute. “It reflects the way these coal plants are going to be running. They’re soon going to be operating in a different world if they’re not already and they need to adapt to that.”

To be sure, attempting to apply that level of flexibility may be out of reach for less modern plants already grappling with debilitating breakdowns. During the January heatwave the lost output from three ageing coal plants contributed to rolling outages in Victoria.

Moving Australia’s coal plant fleet to so-called “two shift” operations that Eraring is considering poses a raft of challenges, Wood says. “One of the potential problems is, if you do this with older plants it can actually make them worse in that they can become less stable and less efficient in burning coal, which can mean they produce even more emissions.”

Despite the huge strides made by renewables, clean energy still only accounts for 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity generation and mapping the future generation mix of the country’s energy grid over the next few years remains highly uncertain.

The next big jolt to the grid could be when AGL’s Liddell coal plant exits in 2022, stripping 1800MW of supply and potentially creating another Hazelwood-type shock to the market if not handled with care.

AGL is planning a raft of replacement generation through gas and renewables but for Origin, it means being prepared to step in and run near full capacity if required while at the same time preparing for a reduced role during the day in the long run.

“Coal will obviously be important through the transition. No one argues that renewables is a better solution. So it’s really about getting there in the right time frame and making sure we don’t go too quick and end up with reliability issues,” Phillips says.

The Eraring chief doesn’t yet count the exit of Liddell as a foregone conclusion, but says if it does happen the NSW plant will have plenty of grunt left ahead of its own eventual retirement in 2032.

The exit of Liddell “is likely to reset the National Electricity Market, so other generators will pick up some of that gap depending on how much renewables comes into the market. That’s likely to be picked up by remaining coal fired generators in the short term but could also be picked up by gas. That’s part of the challenge,” he says.

In the meantime, Eraring will concentrate on its job as the biggest power station in the country.

“We understand the journey to renewables and everyone wants to get there,” Phillips says. “It’s just about it doing it sensibly and responsibly and we just have to work out our role in that transition. In the meantime, we’ll focus on Eraring continuing to be a big generator in the market and keeping the lights on for a long time to come.”

PERRY WILLIAMS

SENIOR BUSINESS WRITER

Perry Williams joined The Australian in 2018. Previously he was Asia energy reporter for Bloomberg News and prior to that held senior roles at the Australian Financial Review including resources editor and dep... Read more

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Edited June 15, 2019 by Midfielder

[wendybr]

Good find Middy!