The Remarkable Progress of Renewable Energy

[bilby]

it could store a full day’s worth of energy

If that is the case, then why does this follow?

You could not use it to charge an EV at night

???

I was unclear.
From the article
"The team calculated that a block of nanocarbon-black-doped concrete that is 45 cubic meters (or yards) in size — equivalent to a cube about 3.5 meters across — would have enough capacity to store about 10 kilowatt-hours of energy, which is considered the average daily electricity usage for a household. "
In an Aussie's thinking when they buy storage batteries for their house, one use would be to power their shiny new EV at night. A Tesla Model 3 > 30kw to recharge. You could not use the specs they gave to charge your EV and run your house at night.

Indeed; And the average usage isn't necessarily typical. I use about 32kWh/day, because I have a bunch of refrigeration and as a Yorkshireman now resident in the subtropics, don't believe in skimping on the air conditioning.

 

[lpetrich]

Looking some more at that proposed supercapacitor, a capacitor's stored energy is

(1/2)*Q*V = (1/2)*C*V²

for charge Q and voltage V.

Its energy density is thus (1/2)*(eps)*(V/sep)² = (1/2)*(eps)*E²

where E is the internal electric field.

This should not be too large or the insulator will suffer  Electrical breakdown --  Breakdown voltage --  Dielectric strength

Looking for some material that is chemically similar to concrete, window glass has a dielectric strength or breakdown electric field of 9.8–13.8 megavolts/m or volts/micron. Turning to other easily-manufactured materials, plastics have similar values, like polystyrene at 19.7 MV/m.

So it will be hard to make a supercapacitor with electrode separations much less than a few microns, because one has a strong risk of shorting it out with even very small voltages, like typical battery voltages (a few volts).

 

[bilby]

It's also worth noting that a short circuit in a capacitor will dump its entire stored energy as heat in short order. For a capacitor that is storing 10kWh (36MJ) of energy, that's a good way to start a fire.

There's some reason to believe that many people would prefer not to live in a house whose foundations occasionally spontaneously cause them to burn to the ground.

Electricity storage is a dangerous business (ask Samsung about their Galaxy Note 7 phones, which had a capacity of just 13.5Wh, or 0.135% of the energy storage of these proposed super-capacitors).

 

[lpetrich]

 Energy density in megajoules per kilogram of reactant material (oxygen ignored if from the environment) -  Nuclear fusion

• Mechanical
  • 100-meter dam: 10^(-3)
  • Flywheel: 0.5
  • Compressed air at 30 MPa (300 bar): 0.5
• Electrical
  • Electrolytic capacitor: 10^(-5) to 2*10^(-4)
  • Electric double-layer capacitor ("supercapacitor"): 0.01 to 0.03
• Electrochemical
  • Lead-acid battery: 0.17
  • Nickel-metal-hydride battery: 0.41
  • Alkaline battery: 0.48
  • Lithium-ion battery: 0.36 to 0.875
  • Zinc-air battery: 1.59 (O2 external)
• Chemical (O2 external in all of them)
  • Dry dung: 15.5
  • Wood: 18.0
  • Ammonia: 18.6
  • Methanol: 19.7
  • Ethanol: 30
  • Coal (lignite): 10 to 20
  • Coal (bituminous): 24 to 35
  • Coal (anthracite): 26 to 33
  • Diesel fuel: 45.6
  • Gasoline: 46.4
  • Natural gas: 53.6
  • Hydrogen: 119.93
• Nuclear
  • Uranium fission: 8.1*10^(7)
  • Deuterium (hydrogen-2) fusion: 8.8*10^(7)
  • Deuterium-tritium (hydrogen-3) fusion: 3.4*10^(8)
  • Deuterium-helium-3 fusion: 3.5*10^(8)
• Elementary particle
  • Matter-antimatter annihilation: 8.99*10^(10)

ETA: bumped down the nuclear and particle estimates by a factor of 1000, because of earlier mistaken conversion factor.

 

[bilby]

Elementary particle

• Matter-antimatter annihilation: 8.99*10^(13)

This seems too high. c is approximately 3x10⁸m/s, so c² is ~9x10¹⁶m²/s², which is ~9x10¹⁶J/kg, or ~9x10¹⁰MJ/kg.

That value would be the MJ produced from annihilation of a tonne of mass.

Likewise the other figures you give for nuclear fuel energy densities are a thousand times those quoted in the Wikipedia article at your first link.

 

[lpetrich]

Elementary particle

• Matter-antimatter annihilation: 8.99*10^(13)

This seems too high. c is approximately 3x10⁸m/s, so c² is ~9x10¹⁶m²/s², which is ~9x10¹⁶J/kg, or ~9x10¹⁰MJ/kg.

That value would be the MJ produced from annihilation of a tonne of mass.

Likewise the other figures you give for nuclear fuel energy densities are a thousand times those quoted in the Wikipedia article at your first link.

You're right. I've fixed my post to take that into account.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

• Electrochemical
  • Lead-acid battery: 0.17
  • Nickel-metal-hydride battery: 0.41
  • Alkaline battery: 0.48
  • Lithium-ion battery: 0.36 to 0.875
• Chemical (O2 external in all of them)
  • Diesel fuel: 45.6
  • Gasoline: 46.4

Which is why electric vehicles are hard to do. Even with the vastly improved efficiency of electric motors they start out at least 50x in the hole.

 

[Bomb#20]

The idea of "wind storage" came to mind.

It was considered, but global baked bean production turns out to be entirely inadequate for grid-scale systems.

You just use the Bag of Aeolus. But you know how it goes -- inevitably, your stupid underlings think your bag is full of gold, and open it, and all the winds of the world get set loose at once.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I carefully read that article, and I don't quite see how it's going to work. I'm guessing that they make two kinds of conductive material and mix them in with an insulating material. Type 1 only sticks to type 1 and the insulator, and typ2 only sticks to type2 and the insulator. Type 1 and type 2 sticking together will create a short circuit, and there must be some way of avoiding that. The type 1 and type 2 materials then become capacitor electrodes.

I think this paragraph addresses it.

As the mixture sets and cures, he says, “The water is systematically consumed through cement hydration reactions, and this hydration fundamentally affects nanoparticles of carbon because they are hydrophobic (water repelling).” As the mixture evolves, “the carbon black is self-assembling into a connected conductive wire,” he says. The process is easily reproducible, with materials that are inexpensive and readily available anywhere in the world. And the amount of carbon needed is very small — as little as 3 percent by volume of the mix — to achieve a percolated carbon network, Masic says.

And it continues later indicating:

After a series of tests used to determine the most effective ratios of cement, carbon black, and water, the team demonstrated the process by making small supercapacitors, about the size of some button-cell batteries, about 1 centimeter across and 1 millimeter thick, that could each be charged to 1 volt, comparable to a 1-volt battery. They then connected three of these to demonstrate their ability to light up a 3-volt light-emitting diode (LED). Having proved the principle, they now plan to build a series of larger versions, starting with ones about the size of a typical 12-volt car battery, then working up to a 45-cubic-meter version to demonstrate its ability to store a house-worth of power.

So umm... a tad bit too early to tell, but please write us checks! I'm wondering about heat and grounding. What is stopping this electricity from discharging into the Earth? That wouldn't be dangerous, but it'd make the entire thing useless. I'm also curious how do they get the electricity out of a 10 ft x 10 ft x 10 ft block of this stuff. I'd imagine it'd be like trying to dewater an aquifer.

If this works, it'd be awesome, but it seems a tad too good to be true. I'm also stunned they reported on this at the button battery state. Which also leads to an obvious problem here. This effectively replaces button batteries. It'd be cleaner and a lot more sustainable... but they aren't talking about using these as button or other types of small batteries. Which to me implies this whole thing is just messing around in an MIT lab working on a Doctoral Thesis.

 

[lpetrich]

EV owners and solar rooftops find mutual attraction | AP News

When Jim Selgo moved to his home in Goodyear, Arizona in 2019, he quickly had rooftop solar installed, having had a positive experience with solar at his previous home.

Less than a year later, motivated to take more action to address climate change, he said, Selgo bought his first electric vehicle, a Nissan Leaf. He hasn’t paid for electricity or gasoline since.

With solar, “You take advantage of what you’re producing at your own house,” he said. “Adding an EV just increases your savings and adds to the value of the whole project.”

Coal-producing West Virginia is converting an entire school system to solar power | AP News

The big problem continues to be initial cost, but once one passes that hump, one gets essentially zero continuing cost.

Recyclable, plant-based material could take a spin on next generation of wind turbines

Nicknamed PECAN, the new resin boasts a novel composition, but it is neither flavored nor made with its nutty namesake. Instead, the name is an acronym representing the material's chemical structure (PolyEster Covalently Adaptable Network). The researchers designed the PECAN resin using biobased chemicals that can be easily extracted from plant waste. The study is published in the journal Matter.

Now, you may be thinking, "What's the point of using plant waste to make a wind turbine blade?"

The answer lies in sustainability and recyclability.

I was expecting wood, but this was a pleasant surprise.

 

[lpetrich]

Energy storage of the future? 'Hot rocks' in a box | CNN - a "thermal battery". I think that it's using rocks because that material is very common, very cheap, and very refractory. But that material is solid, meaning that one has to use some fluid to supply heat and to extract it. Some fluid like air.

European project shows potential for significant reduction in tidal energy costs - Offshore Energy - expecting as much as 40%.

Coal will be all but gone by 2034 under Australia's latest energy roadmap

Australia’s coal power stations will all close in 2038 – five years earlier than previously expected – and variable renewable energy capacity will need to triple by 2030 and increase sevenfold by 2050.

The end of coal is coming 3 times faster than expected. Governments must accept it and urgently support a 'just transition' - in Australia

There are two main drivers for this significant substitution of coal for new technologies.

First, the cost of these technologies continues to fall rapidly and consumers are voting with their feet. Some of Australia’s largest and most iconic businesses are increasingly buying 100% of their energy from renewable resources, including Woolworths, BHP and Coles.

Second, state governments have filled the void left by the lack of a nationally consistent energy and climate policy, and are now implementing ambitious policies to drive the uptake of renewable energy and firming.

Great.
As to big businesses moving to renewable energy, I have a suspicion that it's more than greenwashing, that it's to get more easily predictable sources, ones not affected by the vagaries of fossil-fuel markets.

 

[bilby]

The big problem continues to be initial cost, but once one passes that hump, one gets essentially zero continuing cost.

No, one pays essentially zero. That's not the same as the cost being zero.

The cost is still there, it's just being imposed on other electricity consumers via the accounting trick of pretending that the very low value solar kWh he puts into the grid in the daytime, is worth the same as the very high value kWh he uses to charge his car at night.

There's a very large and important difference between "this costs nothing" and "the cost of this has been entirely pushed onto someone else".

 

[Tigers!]

Energy storage of the future? 'Hot rocks' in a box | CNN - a "thermal battery". I think that it's using rocks because that material is very common, very cheap, and very refractory. But that material is solid, meaning that one has to use some fluid to supply heat and to extract it. Some fluid like air.

European project shows potential for significant reduction in tidal energy costs - Offshore Energy - expecting as much as 40%.

Coal will be all but gone by 2034 under Australia's latest energy roadmap

Australia’s coal power stations will all close in 2038 – five years earlier than previously expected – and variable renewable energy capacity will need to triple by 2030 and increase sevenfold by 2050.

The end of coal is coming 3 times faster than expected. Governments must accept it and urgently support a 'just transition' - in Australia

There are two main drivers for this significant substitution of coal for new technologies.

First, the cost of these technologies continues to fall rapidly and consumers are voting with their feet. Some of Australia’s largest and most iconic businesses are increasingly buying 100% of their energy from renewable resources, including Woolworths, BHP and Coles.

There is much angst in Australia at the moment about supermarket "*price gouging".
Inquiry into supermarket price gouging (though the Greens are the fairies at the bottom of the garden)
I wonder if some of the increase in prices is due to our supermarkets installing solar panels on their stores and/or buying wind power. The supermarkets will push these added costs onto consumers as they are not benevolent institutions.

*(To remind me that the more a claim is repeated is not the same as proof)

Second, state governments have filled the void left by the lack of a nationally consistent energy and climate policy, and are now implementing ambitious policies to drive the uptake of renewable energy and firming.

Having just been in Southern Africa and experiencing the daily rolling power blackouts and noticed that we are following South Africa path to power supply security (shortages?) it may not be long before Eastern Australia experiences rolling power blackouts.
Power blackouts in East. Australia this summer?

Great.
As to big businesses moving to renewable energy, I have a suspicion that it's more than greenwashing, that it's to get more easily predictable sources, ones not affected by the vagaries of fossil-fuel markets.

And do not forget the vagaries of the renewables i.e. if the wind is not blowing enough that 1GW wind farm will produce 0KWH

 

[lpetrich]

COP28 in the rearview mirror | European Union Institute for Security Studies

First, the work on methane emissions reduction is gaining momentum. ... Methane is responsible for about a third of the global warming we see today and is more potent than CO2 (although it has a shorter lifespan).

...
Unlike some of the other pledges that have been made over the years, there is a very good chance this one will succeed. This is because it is sound both from a climate and a financial perspective. In simple terms, it is good for the bottom line of the oil and gas producers to focus on methane emission reduction measures because the costs associated with their deployment are less than the market value of the captured methane.

Second, the world is taking big steps towards renewable energy and energy efficiency.

...
For example, according to some estimates, around 86 % of all the newly commissioned renewable capacity in 2022 cost less than fossil fuel-fired electricity. Meanwhile, energy efficiency is often regarded as the unsung hero of the clean transition because the cheapest and the cleanest energy is energy that does not need to be used.

Third, nuclear energy is back on the agenda. The pledge from more than 22 states to triple nuclear generation capacity by 2050 is a strong sign that a growing list of countries is keen on placing nuclear energy at the centre of the clean energy transition.

... The nuclear energy industry in Europe and the United States has so far struggled hard to develop new projects, not least because of long construction times and massive cost overruns.

Fourth, climate finance is being beefed up. The United Arab Emirates – the host of this year's conference – pledged some $270 billion in green finance by 2030 through its banks. Meanwhile, governments have also collectively promised hundreds of millions of euros more to establish a ‘loss and damage’ fund to help developing states deal with climate change.

Nuclear-energy enthusiasts will like this decision, I'm sure. But when it's much quicker and easier to build wind turbines and install solar panels, I'm thinking that there might not be much of a use case of nuclear energy. High latitudes?

Energy storage is now being developed at a much more rapid pace than earlier because of the intermittency of wind energy and solar energy. But this storage will also benefit nuclear reactors, which are usually run on constant throttle. Some reactors may be designed for variable output, but their rate of output adjustment does not seem to be very high, comparable to other steam-turbine systems like coal and combined-cycle natural gas.

 

[lpetrich]

Floating Offshore Wind Turbines Keep Getting Weirder
Showing an artist's conception of a wind turbine with tall triangular frames on both ends of its axis. That does not look very easily steerable, but if winds are regular enough in direction, that would be tolerable.

New Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Showcases Vertical Axis Tech

US Offshore Wind Stakeholders Fan The Fires Of Hope
Showing an artist's conception of a single-blade turbine that looks like it extends in both directions. A two-blade turbine?

Italy Orders Up Weird Offshore Wind Energy Harvesters
Like a two-turbine platform. No artist's conception, however.

State charts a new energy future for Mass., beyond natural gas - The Boston Globe - with a steep paywall

Two articles on this project:
In the salt deserts bordering Pakistan, India builds its largest renewable energy project | AP News
Adani Group setting up world's largest green energy park in Gujarat. See pics - Hindustan Times

 

[lpetrich]

Indonesia floats Southeast Asia’s biggest solar plant for 50,000 homes - 250 hectares of solar panel that float on a reservoir.

Why solar energy will continue to lead the pack among renewable energy sources in 2024 - in the US - "Wind power generation, however, struggled in part due to cost pressures, the report said."

Meanwhile, renewables have often outshined conventional power sources, generating electricity even as those conventional power sources could not, as the “frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, outages and potential electricity supply shortages rise,” the report said.

Still, more of the respondents of the Deloitte survey were concerned about the “resilience of renewables.” Renewable energy ranked the lowest among survey respondents when to comes to being resilient to extreme weather events in their territory, the report said.

Native Americans are building their own solar farms

It was at Standing Rock, as he watched a fellow protester be cuffed and manhandled into a police car, that Cody Two Bears, member of the Sioux tribe in North Dakota, decided he would build a solar farm.

"I realised I didn't want to just talk about it, protest about it," he says, reflecting on the months-long protests that took place in 2016, to prevent the Dakota Access Pipeline from being built on sacred tribal land. "I wanted to be about it."

At the time, Two Bears was on the tribal council of the Cannon Ball community of Standing Rock. He was a key member in organising the pipeline protests, which had hoped to prevent a 1,172 mile (1,886km) long underground pipe to transport crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois. The pipeline was eventually built despite multiple appeals to have the line shut down. However, a lawsuit brought by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was successful, requiring a complete environmental review of the pipeline.

"I learned about the impacts of fossil fuels on communities like ours, who don't really have a voice," says Two Bears. "And it seems these large infrastructural projects always happen in places of low-status communities. And one came to my back yard."

When Two Bears left politics in 2017, he formed Indigenized Energy – a native-led energy company installing solar farms for tribal nations – free of charge. Not only have tribes struggled to tap into the billions in renewable energy incentives offered by the government, they've struggled to have access to any electricity at all.

 

[lpetrich]

A new kind of solar cell is coming: is it the future of green energy? - "Firms commercializing perovskite–silicon ‘tandem’ photovoltaics say that the panels will be more efficient and could lead to cheaper electricity. "

Rooftop solar installs smash record as households turn to bigger systems, put pressure on coal | RenewEconomy

The latest monthly update from market analysts SunWiz shows just over 330MW of new rooftop solar systems (0-100kW) was installed in November 2023, “smashing the previous record” of 314MW set in December 2020.

The average system size jumped to 9.9kW, reflecting a growing push towards electrification, electric vehicles and energy independence, and putting further pressure on the country’s remaining coal generators, and the gas industry.

Already in the past spring, rooftop solar has set numerous output records, eating into the midday market traditionally by coal fired generators, and boosting the case for battery storage and a rethink of energy market rules and regulations.

Harvesting more solar energy with supercrystals - LMU Munich - "Hydrogen is a building block for the energy transition. To obtain it with the help of solar energy, LMU researchers have developed new high-performance nanostructures. The material holds a world record for green hydrogen production with sunlight."

 

[lpetrich]

California rooftop solar installations drop 80% following NEM 3.0 – pv magazine USA

California, once a leader in residential solar, is feeling the effects from unpopular policy changes like the introduction of Net Energy Metering (NEM) 3.0 and more recent market rate cuts for rooftop solar generation by renters, schools, and farms.

The two policy changes cut compensation rates for exporting local, clean solar generation to the grid by about 75%. State regulators said the change facilitating was a necessary evolution in the grid, but opponents argued that the move was a thinly veiled move to protect the profits of major utilities.

South Africa approves 1 GW solar project – pv magazine International

Polysilicon prices could hit all-time low by year-end – pv magazine USA - polycrystalline silicon - good for PV cells. By comparison, computer chips need single large crystals of high-purity silicon.

Michigan passes 100% clean energy mandate – pv magazine USA

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law the Clean Energy and Jobs Act, a series of bills that include a mandate for 100% clean energy sales by utilities by 2040. Michigan now becomes the 12th state to enact a 100% clean energy mandate.

D.C. Region Sets ‘Ambitious’ Goal For Rooftop Solar | DCist

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments passed a resolution this November that sets a goal of having solar panels installed on 250,000 rooftops in the Washington, D.C. metro region, an area encompassing the nation’s capital, Northern Virginia and parts of Maryland, by 2030.

The Greenest US State Is Deep-Red, Oil-Loving Texas - from the state's wind and solar energy development.

As of October, wind and solar met between 25% and 41% of Texas' energy demand, depending on the month, according to data from the state's grid operator ERCOT. Add in nuclear power, which doesn't produce greenhouse-gas emissions, and green energy met upward of 50% of the state's demand in some months.

First offshore wind farm to power CT homes wins final approval; will be south of Block Island | Business | dailyitem.com

New Zealand’s largest solar farm near Kaitāia has started to generate electricity - NZ Herald - 60 hectares

Revealed: Scale of The Telegraph's Climate Change ‘Propaganda’ - DeSmog - "The influential newspaper featured ten opinion writers with links to the UK’s main climate science denial group."

elegraph columnists routinely questioned climate science and criticised green reforms as a major backlash against net zero policies raged in the UK, DeSmog can reveal.

A new analysis by this website reviewed over 2,000 Telegraph opinion pieces and editorials published online over a six month period, ending in 16 October. Of the 171 opinion pieces that dealt with environmental issues, 85 percent were identified as “anti-green” : attacking climate policy, questioning climate science and ridiculing environmental groups.

That's why it's nicknamed the Torygraph.

 

[lpetrich]

China's Goldwind installed a 16 MW offshore wind turbine in just 24 hours - a speed record in such installations

Japan's solar-powered electric tiny-van PUZZLE headed for the US

New York just installed its first offshore wind turbine | Electrek - 35 miles from Montauk, at the eastern end of Long Island.

Portugal Just Ran On Entirely Renewable Energy For A Record-Breaking 6 Consecutive Days | IFLScience

Giant batteries drain economics of gas power plants | Reuters - " Giant batteries that ensure stable power supply by offsetting intermittent renewable supplies are becoming cheap enough to make developers abandon scores of projects for gas-fired generation world-wide." and "They said some battery operators are already supplying back-up power to grids at a price competitive with gas power plants, meaning gas will be used less."

Seems like some success in handling intermittency.

Indonesia launches $20 billion renewable energy investment plan | Reuters

Redox electrolyte-enhanced carbon-based supercapacitors: recent advances and future perspectives

 

[lpetrich]

Floating solar positively affects aquatic environments, says BayWa re – pv magazine International - "The results show that artificial habitats under the panels, or “biohuts,” are very beneficial for aquatic ecosystems." and "Biohuts have a nursery function, protecting small fish from predators. They also serve as spawning grounds for fish and habitats for microorganisms and invertebrates."

Renewables Have Provided More Than Half Of All Germany's Electricity This Year - CleanTechnica

In some places, particularly those whose economies depend on extracting fossil fuels, renewables are said to be unreliable and too costly, but Germany is proving all the doubters wrong. According to the latest calculations by the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and German utility association BDEW, Germany has generated more than half of the electricity it used this year with renewables for the first time.

Zeekr's New Golden Batteries Are ... Golden - CleanTechnica

Eureka Gold Mine In Zimbabwe Is Getting 7MW Of Solar PV To Cut Costs & Emissions - CleanTechnica - solar panels are good for out-of-the-way places because they can be installed on site or nearby.

Offshore Wind Miracle Happening In USA

For better or worse, the offshore wind profile of the United States has broken down cleanly along partisan political lines. However, one huge crack has finally appeared. Officials in the deep red state of Louisiana have just approved not one but two new offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico. In an interesting twist, neither project is located in federal waters controlled by the Biden administration. Instead, dozens of new wind turbines will be planted in state waters — if all goes according to plan, that is.

Molten Tin Deployed For Lithium-Free Energy Storage - welcome to see that alternative to lithium-ion batteries.

On Tuesday, Fourth Power let slip word that it raised $19 million in Series A funding to help bring its new long duration energy storage system to market, beginning with a 1 megawatt-hour prototype to be located near Boston.

...
“By using readily available and less expensive materials, the overall system cost is lower, enabling energy storage that is ten times cheaper than lithium-ion batteries,” Fourth Wall stated in a press release on December 12.

Whoa if true. That seems a little overly ambitious, but it also seems that the pieces are in place to drive costs down. The Fourth Power system deploys hot liquid tin and carbon blocks, which are relatively inexpensive and readily available as well as non-toxic and non-flammable.

The hot tin is applied to carbon blocks until they reach a white-hot temperature. Light from the blocks is then bounced onto thermophotovoltaic cells, which are designed to convert solar energy from heat into electricity.

...
Thermophotovoltaic cells don’t need sunshine to generate electricity, just the infrared light emitted by hot objects. The technology is relatively new to the commercial market, but some people are beginning to pay attention.