The Remarkable Progress of Renewable Energy

[Swammerdami]

What we need are variable power sinks--energy intensive processes that can readily be turned up/down based on available power. Desalination and cracking water to make hydrogen -> ammonia come to mind.

Charging EV's (or other batteries) is another such application. I think there are pumping and refrigeration applications which also qualify. Making electricity prices reflect actual cost might go a long way toward allocating electricity optimally. To what extent is such pricing in use?

Connecting supply to a far-away demand might also help. Roughly how much power is lost per kilometer?

Google shows "About 3% per 1000 km of transmission distance" but that's for HVDC. Is AC a lot worse?

 

[bilby]

Making electricity prices reflect actual cost might go a long way toward allocating electricity optimally. To what extent is such pricing in use?

It's almost completely non-existant.

Wind and solar power from large projects are typically bought at a pre-determined minimum price per MWh, which is set based on average prices across a long timescale (typically a year; The producer is then paid that price even when the wholesale price falls below zero.

A similar thing occurs with domestic feed-in tarrifs.

Wind and solar projects are only viable because coal, gas, nuclear and hydro projects are forced into a hidden subsidy. Which ultimately just leads to higher prices for consumers, as those utilities pass on the increased costs.

The important thing though is that the cost increases aren't blatantly obviously the fault of intermittent renewables. Politicians, voters, and electricity purchasers don't have the time or the interest in digging down to find the real culprits, and the "environmentalist" lobby actually use the rising costs as part of their pro-renewables propaganda (alongside the utter nonsense of conflating the fact that wind and solar plants don't pay for fuel, with the fiction that they are therefore a source of free electricity).

Wind and solar power are fairly cheap; But they generate electricity that's often completely valueless.

It's profitable to have a plant that generates electricity for $110/MWh 24x7, (and which can take advantage of occasional spikes above $5,000/MWh); while it is not profitable to have one that generates electricity for $60/MWh, but only when the wholesale spot price is below $40/MWh (and often when that price is negative) - but you can make money from the latter, if you persuade the government that the mean wholesale price is $114/MWh, and so you should be paid a minimum of $100 for any MWh you generate.

From the Australian Energy Regulator report:

Electricity Q3 2023​

• Average quarterly prices were lower than the preceding quarter across all regions. Prices ranged from $31/MWh in Tasmania to $114/MWh in South Australia.
• South Australia was the most expensive region partly due to 8 occasions of 30-minute prices above $5,000/MWh, increasing from 5 the previous quarter.
• South Australia (29 MW), New South Wales (4,202 MW) and Victoria (2,103 MW) reached new record minimum demands.
• There was a record number of 30-minute negative prices (4,285) in the NEM driven by strong solar output. Most of these occurred in South Australia and Victoria.

(My bold)

(Source)

Solar power in South Australia has long ago surpassed the level at which new installations could be profitable on a level playing field, and have even passed the point where they could profitably sell excess electricity to Victoria. But domestic solar installations put in before August 2010 are still paid 44c/kWh ($440/MWh) for any electricity supplied to the grid (regardless of the spot price), and will be for another five years.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Pro-nuclear-energy people ought to thank pro-renewable-energy people for promoting the development of new and improved energy-storage systems. Such systems will make peakers unnecessary for nuclear reactors also.

New Flow Battery Deploys Salt For Long Duration Energy Storage

Flow batteries sport several advantages over conventional Li-ion battery arrays for stationary energy storage. For starters, they can deploy non-toxic, non-flammable, earth abundant materials, which drives down costs on the supply chain end.

Flow batteries are also relatively easy to scale up or down, by strategically adjusting the size of the holding tanks.

Aquabattery describes its signature technology as an “acid-base flow battery based on reversible water dissociation.”

The company: AQUABATTERY - revolutionising long duration energy storage

It uses plain old table salt, NaCl, dissolved in water.

Charging: with electricity, separated out into separate NaOH and HCl solutions.

Discharging: the NaOH and HCl are combined, making NaCl, H2O, and electricity.

Na and Cl are very common elements, and they are the most common solutes in seawater. (10) How much table salt is produced each year, and where does it come from? - Quora with estimates like 250 - 300 million tons per year.

 Hydrogen chloride and  Sodium hydroxide are dangerous in high concentration, it must be noted. However, we make concentrated HCl in our stomachs. I've found this: The Evolution of Stomach Acidity and Its Relevance to the Human Microbiome | PLOS ONE and Gastric acid level of humans must decrease in the future - PMC and Gastric Acid in Vertebrates: Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology: Vol 27, No sup193 with Gastric Acid in Vertebrates - 135-GastricAcidinVertebrates.pdf

Flow batteries are still highly experimental. We need capacity long before the technology has time to mature.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What volume of NaOH and HCl does that imply, and where are you planning to keep it?

I checked Aquabattery's site again, and I couldn't find anything about how many liters per kWh it needs. But I'm guessing that it's comparable to a batter or somewhat worse for greater dilution.

So the volumes required are similar to the volumes of water stored at hydroelectric plants.

Sounds emminently practical as a solution to the foolish and pointless unpopularity of nuclear power.

Ouch! Scratch flow batteries for backing up renewables.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What we need are variable power sinks--energy intensive processes that can readily be turned up/down based on available power. Desalination and cracking water to make hydrogen -> ammonia come to mind.

Charging EV's (or other batteries) is another such application. I think there are pumping and refrigeration applications which also qualify. Making electricity prices reflect actual cost might go a long way toward allocating electricity optimally. To what extent is such pricing in use?

It would require a realtime communication system telling the consumers the desire behavior. Without that it can only be done at a crude level of time of day pricing.

Connecting supply to a far-away demand might also help. Roughly how much power is lost per kilometer?

Google shows "About 3% per 1000 km of transmission distance" but that's for HVDC. Is AC a lot worse?

I believe AC is worse than that. I also think you can't actually put a number on it. There are two types of losses:

Resistance. Same for AC or DC. The higher the voltage the lower the amps and the less loss to resistance. Stepping DC up/down like that used to be a major problem and I think still has some efficiency issues.

Corona. The higher the voltage the more leaks off into the environment. This is a function of voltage and wire configuration (but configurations that lose less cost more to build), I believe it's independent of current. I think it hits AC worse than DC.

Since we do not have a linear system there's no way to give a general loss per km. You can figure the loss for any given system and you can compare standard setups (that are the current economic best choice) but you can't make a generalized statement.

 

[bilby]

you can't make a generalized statement

Sure you can.

"Minimise transmission distances wherever possible".

 

[Loren Pechtel]

you can't make a generalized statement

Sure you can.

"Minimise transmission distances wherever possible".

I'm saying it's far more complex than 3% per 1000km. And I find that figure wrong, anyway. In another discussion on this I dug out current transmission losses on the biggest lines and concluded you couldn't ship power to night side of the planet--it would virtually all be lost. I don't recall the numbers, though.

 

[steve_bank]

I believe there have been underwater cables crossing the Mediterranean from Africa to Europe

Since the 90s there has been research on high temperature superconductors for transmission lines. I don't think anything came of it.

And DC instead of AC distribution. One of te main reasons for AC circa early 1900s was the use of transformers to boost voltages. DC power control was problematic. Large scale semiconductor devices are up to the task. Breaking a DC current is a different problem than AC. With AC current you can switch at or near the current zero point minimizing arching..

In Scramble for Clean Energy, Europe Is Turning to North Africa

In its quest for green energy, Europe is looking to North Africa, where vast solar and wind farms are proliferating and plans call for submarine cables that will carry electricity as far as Britain. But this rush for clean power is raising serious environmental concerns.

e360.yale.edu

Solar panels in sun-rich North Africa generate up to three times more energy than in Europe. And North Africa has a lot more room for them than densely populated Europe. Result: Europe’s drive to end its reliance on Russian natural gas supplies, triggered by the Ukraine conflict, is resulting in a rush to install giant solar energy farms and lay underwater cables to tap into North Africa’s abundant renewable energy.

https://www.eetimes.com/are-superconducting-power-lines-still-a-viable-option/

Starting about 20 years ago, there was a lot of interest, excitement, hype, and promise that power–transmission lines using superconductors rather than conventional copper or aluminum conductors would be coming soon, resulting in dramatic reduction of losses in these lines. Estimates were that about 5% to 10% of the power sent through these liens is dissipated due to ohmic resistance, and while that’s not a huge number, it is still high enough that any significant decrease — especially down to near zero using superconductors — would be a big plus with respect to basic efficiency and other beneficial attributes.

Benefits of HVDC Transmission Systems | Cence Power

High-voltage direct current (HVDC) is cheaper and more environmentally friendly to transmit than HVAC after the break-even distance. HVDC power lines have less power losses, and are lighter and cheaper to produce. So why are HVAC transmission lines still the standard?

www.cencepower.com

High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) can be transmitted over long-distances with minimal power losses, unlike Alternating Current (AC) electricity. This means that, once cost-effective infrastructure for HVDC is developed, it will be very beneficial to primarily transmit DC power because transmitting it will cut down on both energy waste and copper use. Not to mention, when power can more efficiently be distributed to buildings, less electricity needs to be generated to satisfy electrical demands. When less electricity needs to be generated, less carbon emissions are produced, making DC electricity a significant piece of the puzzle when it comes to meeting global emission reduction targets.

 

[bilby]

you can't make a generalized statement

Sure you can.

"Minimise transmission distances wherever possible".

I'm saying it's far more complex than 3% per 1000km. And I find that figure wrong, anyway. In another discussion on this I dug out current transmission losses on the biggest lines and concluded you couldn't ship power to night side of the planet--it would virtually all be lost. I don't recall the numbers, though.

So, in summary, "Minimise transmission distances wherever possible".

 

[Swammerdami]

Sabine Hossenfelder's latest video is "Is nuclear power really that slow and expensive as they say?" She seems much more pro-nuclear than last time I watched one of her videos on the topic.

The 28-minute video is probably a waste for those already well-informed. She does claim that regulations, "red tape" and financing are a major part of nuclear power's cost in the West. But Japan avoids most of these costs. "Fukushima is a good argument FOR nuclear power." She thinks small modular reactors are part of a solution.

 

[lpetrich]

What’s slowing down America’s clean energy transition? It’s not the cost | Renewable Energy News | Al Jazeera - 7 Mar 2024 - "New report finds renewable energy faces organised opposition and grid connectivity issues."

For the first time, clean energy in the United States is at the same price as energy from burning fossil fuels thanks to policy measures, including President Joe Biden’s signature climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). But a new report says non-cost barriers are now slowing the country’s transition to renewables.

The report, released in February by the Clean Investment Monitor, analysed different modelling scenarios and found that the IRA is expected to meet its goal of reducing GHG emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030.

Passed in 2022, the IRA is the largest investment to address the climate crisis ever passed in the US. The investment is significant in a country that is one of the world’s largest contributors to GHG emissions. (China, the US and India are the world’s top three emitters.)

The report found that electric vehicle sales were at the top of the projected range in 2023, and investment in utility-scale clean electricity reached record levels last year. However, factors like local opposition to renewables and long delays in grid connection are slowing the pace of the clean energy transition.

America's Farmers Embrace Solar Panels to Protect Against Volatile Crop Prices - Bloomberg - "US farmers are turning to solar power as a buffer against volatile crop prices, and Biden's clean-energy tax incentives are set to boost the trend."

That's something that's not talked about as much as it ought to be -- the weather is much more predictable than commodity markets, making renewable energy much more reliable than those markets.

The article described a conflict of solar panels vs. farming, but there is something called "agrivoltaics" - mount the panels on long-enough poles and the land underneath will be available for farming.

 

[lpetrich]

She’s a clean-energy pro. Electrifying her home was still a slog | Canary Media - "She’s a clean-energy pro. Electrifying her home was… | Canary Media"

India Cabinet Approves $9 Billion Plan for Rooftop Solar - Bloomberg - 10 million homes with 30 GW of solar panels

So is "a solar panel on every roof" a new version of "a chicken in every pot and a car in every backyard"?

Some Arizonans Face Rising Power Bills and a New Fee for Going Solar - CNET - "When utilities charge you money for having your own solar panels, it changes the math on going solar. How to tell if it's still worthwhile."

These canceled New York offshore wind farms totaling 1.7 GW just officially made a comeback

Alberta banning renewables on prime land, declaring no-build zones for wind turbines - The Globe and Mail

Renewable energy sources are being banned across the US. Here's where - "Statewide blocks and limits put the nationwide goal to reach 100% clean energy by 2035 at risk"

Inside how wind and solar energy are being restricted across the US - "Across America, local bans, moratoriums and construction impediments are blocking wind and solar energy with increasing levels of red tape. Here's what USA TODAY's analysis found."

The opposition to renewable energy isn't as simple as left vs. right. There’s no one group fighting renewables. Instead, there are many, with a range of objections. But the overall result is rapidly increasing the limits on clean energy.

 

[lpetrich]

Spain's Andalusia region installs record 1.6 GW of solar, wind in 2023

US Department of Defense Plots Renewable Energy Takeover - CleanTechnica

The US Department of Defense has been an early adopter of solar power at its own facilities, especially out West where abundant space is available. Now the agency aims to deploy its buying power towards parts East. Earlier this month the DOD hooked up with the General Services Administration in a scheme to draw more renewable energy resources from a wide swath of the US, covering 65 million people in 14 Atlantic and Midwest states along with the District of Columbia, all with the aim of transitioning its facilities to 100% carbon free electricity.

India aims to reach clean energy goals by boosting rooftop solar - "India’s government has made it easier and faster for people to adopt technology that’s seen as critical for the country to reach its clean-energy goals and defend itself against climate change."

Here are 3 standout rooftop solar trends that emerged in 2023 | Electrek

• Solar prices fell for the first time since 2021
• Lower interest rate loans can come with large fees
• Battery storage interest increased sharply (in CA)

Georgia utility “adamantly opposed” to community solar – pv magazine USA - "Georgia Power is “adamantly opposed” to a bill that would establish a market for community solar. The state ranks high in the nation in utility-scale solar deployment but is near the bottom in rooftop and distributed solar."

Nigerians opt for alternative energy sources amid high fuel costs - "As the country continues to grapple with an epileptic electricity supply, more individuals and businesses are turning to alternative energy sources for their power needs, HENRY FALAIYE writes"

The national grid collapsed 12 times in 2023 and experienced the first collapse this year on February 4 as generation companies blamed low gas supply.

The country’s poor electricity supply has made Nigerians rely on diesel and petrol power generators for their electricity need, weighing heavily on business’ operating costs. It was even worsened when the government removed fuel subsidies in June 2023, causing the average pump price of petrol to jump from N238.11 per litre to over N600 per litre. This has forced Nigerians to turn to solar power and biomass for their electricity needs.

 

[lpetrich]

A Native American tribe is building a $1B solar farm in Colorado | Electrek

This is the year the world’s green juggernaut becomes unstoppable - The Telegraph - "The greatest economic growth story since the industrial revolution has crossed a critical threshold"

The Telegraph is often nicknamed the Torygraph because of its political leanings, so it's remarkable to see something like this article in it.

Bloomberg NEF (BNEF) estimates that capex investment in clean energy was $1.2 trillion in 2021, $1.5 trillion in 2022, and $1.8 trillion in 2023, despite a stiff rise in interest rates and a credit crunch for green start-ups. The total is now over three times as much as upstream capex on oil and gas.

You would scarcely know it from the political noise but the pace of decarbonisation accelerated last year, and has crossed a critical threshold.

The renewable energy roll-out is running near 800 gigawatts (GW) a year, greater than the 700 GW annual increase in power consumption.

These seem to be worldwide numbers, and it looks like fossil-fuel electricity generation is starting to decline in absolute numbers, and not just in fraction of overall generation.

Capex = capital expenditure

The West has woken up to the technology threat from China, pulling slightly ahead last year with combined capex spending of $718bn on clean tech and the mineral supply chain. Clean capex rose 38pc in Europe, reaching $341bn in the EU and to $74bn in the UK – more than France ($56bn), or Italy ($30bn), which might surprise some.

...
Global capex on EVs, fuel-cell vehicles and charging infrastructure rose 36pc last year to $634bn. Spending on energy storage has risen fivefold in two years. There is now enough investment in the pipeline for solar, batteries and mine production to meet the world’s immediate CO2 target by 2030.

Then mentioning how sodium-ion batteries will reduce the cost of electricity storage by 2/3. Sodium is a chemical relative of lithium that is much more common.

UK Prime Minister

Rishi Sunak has hurt Britain’s reputation by breaking the cross-party consensus on climate policy. He has set back the City’s ambitions to be the world’s green finance hub. Tory recourse to anti-green pub-bore tropes as a “wedge issue” has been squalid.

Also noting a difference in policy.

Europe has made a bad mistake by relying on green coercion. The US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) uses the carrot of tax cuts to lure investment. It is “technology-neutral” so long as it is low-carbon. It does not pick winners and losers. The result has been spectacular.

Goldman Sachs estimates that it set off $282bn worth of clean-tech projects in the first year, and will ultimately unleash $3 trillion. Every week there is a new IRA catch.

 

[lpetrich]

California introduces bill to assess rooftop solar net metering – pv magazine International - "California Assembly member Laura Friedman has introduced a bill to require the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to consider the costs and benefits of rooftop solar and its non-energy benefits when designing net-metering rates."
NEM = net energy metering

NEM helped California launch the nation’s leading rooftop solar market, achieving Governor Schwarzenegger’s million solar roofs initiative, and under NEM the state has since reached two million solar roofs.

...
California’s rooftop solar market has been screeching to a halt ever since the NEM 3.0 rule-making decision was implemented. The rate structure lowers compensation for exported solar production by about 75% and makes batteries an essential component of a residential solar project. This, combined with high interest rates, has worsened customer economics for rooftop solar, no longer presenting a cash flow positive investment in many cases, said installer HES Solar.

...
The California Energy Commission (CEC) projects that the state will need to build 6 GW of solar-plus-storage every year for the next 26 years straight to meet the 2045 target. Over the past five years, California has only averaged about half of the 6 GW deployment figure.

Then discussing efforts to get installation of rooftop solar panels going again.

 

[lpetrich]

Why Are China’s Solar Panels So Cheap? | OilPrice.com

• China's advantage in solar panel production stems from lower costs in materials, electricity, and labor, resulting in a 44% price difference compared to the US.
• The US lags significantly behind China in every stage of the solar manufacturing process, from polysilicon production to solar panel assembly.
• Efforts by the US to impose tariffs on Chinese imports aim to level the playing field but may lead to higher costs for consumers and further complications in achieving renewable energy goals.

China’s About To Change The World With Massive Renewable Energy Desert Bases - huge solar and wind farms

Jordan launches online platform for residential solar subsidies – pv magazine International - that Middle-Eastern nation

China’s Carbon Emissions Are Set to Decline Years Earlier Than Expected - WSJ - "China’s rollout of 300 gigawatts of new wind and solar power last year was for the first time enough to cover its new electricity demand"
noting
China Goes All In on Green Industry to Jolt Ailing Economy - WSJ - "Capital is pouring into factories that make items such as electric vehicles, batteries and renewable-energy gear as Beijing looks for new sources of growth"

European consortium aims to deploy 150 MW of offshore PV in North Sea – pv magazine International - "Dutch offshore solar company Oceans of Energy is leading a project to scale up offshore solar blocks. Backed by 15 European partners, it is expected that the 150 MW building blocks will set a new standard in offshore energy and allow the construction of gigawatt-scale offshore solar farms."

The proposed solar farms will be placed within offshore wind farms, which Oceans of Energy says will make better use of sea space, increase energy output and provide more continuous power over the seasons, while driving down costs for green electricity production and the energy system.

The co-located offshore solar and wind farms would use the same grid connection, which Oceans of Energy says will reduce the need for investments in expanding the energy system.

Home | Oceans of Energy | Offshore solar: clean and renewable energy
Floating solar panels - floatovoltaics

Seems difficult in the ocean, because waves can get very high in a storm.

Brazil Hits 92% Renewable Energy Milestone - The Rio Times - for generating electricity

Hydrogen Refueling Station Closures In Multiple Countries More Painful News For Hydrogen Proponents - CleanTechnica - not enough hydrogen-powered vehicles to make them economically viable

It’s not clear how long the heavy vehicle stations will be operating given how failure prone heavy fuel cell vehicles have proven to be, with 50% higher maintenance costs than diesel vehicles and double the costs of battery electric, per my assessment of California’s hydrogen bus fleet data.

 

[lpetrich]

The Space Review: Did a NASA study pull the plug on space solar power?
noting
New Study Updates NASA on Space-Based Solar Power - NASA

“We found that these space-based solar power designs are expensive. They are 12 to 80 times more expensive than if you were going to have renewable energy on the ground,” said Erica Rodgers, science and technology partnership forum lead in NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist, in a talk at AIAA’s SciTech Forum conference in Orlando, Florida, January 11, where the agency unveiled the report.

In another thread - The best future "sustainable" energy source - I calculated that space-based solar-panel systems are 10 times more expensive than ground-based ones, using only the numbers for the SpaceX Falcon-9 booster for low Earth orbit, the best case. So those numbers are plausible.

28-ton, 1.2-megawatt tidal kite is now exporting power to the grid

Minesto | Kite systems - they are big, comparable in size to a standard shipping container. They have an onboard propeller which acts like an aquatic version of a wind turbine, driving a generator.

Diesel power stations to close as big batteries take centre stage | RenewEconomy - "outh Australia’s remarkable transition to renewable energy has claimed new fossil fuel scalps, with Engie revealing this week it will shutter two diesel plants in the state years ahead of schedule, as solar, wind and battery storage have muscled them out of the market."

South Australia, which is long since coal free, is expected to reach “net” 100 per cent renewables within four years, according to a stunning prediction made by transmission company ElectraNet in November last year – the first time South Australia’s break-neck trajectory has been formally acknowledged by such an authority.

Alongside South Australia’s wind power, large-scale solar and huge rooftop solar resource – which on numerous occasions has generated enough electricity to briefly meet all demand – the state’s growing grid-scale battery storage fleet is starting to fill the supply and grid-services gaps that have recently been the core business of diesel and gas peaker plants. And other gas plants will be next.

Americans on the Coast Actually Love Offshore Wind, a New Poll Shows - Heatmap News

Last year, I got two kinds of stories about offshore wind in my inbox. One was about the industry’s struggle with inflation and higher interest rates. The other was about rampant claims that the industry was killing whales — an idea for which there is no evidence, and which was found to be spread by groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry.

But while both narratives have set the industry back to some extent, neither appears to have damaged public support for building wind farms in the ocean. Americans living on the coasts largely support offshore wind and want to see the industry continue to grow, according to a new poll.

...
One of the more intriguing parts of the poll tried to suss out what people had heard and read about offshore wind, and where they were getting information about the emerging industry. Local opposition groups like Protect Our Coast New Jersey have developed large followings on Facebook, where members share their fears that wind turbines will harm marine mammals, tourism, and property values — and also argue against the basic facts of climate change. Several grassroots groups, including Protect Our Coast New Jersey, have been found to have financial relationships with fossil fuel-funded think tanks like the Caesar Rodney Institute.

So it's not a grassroots group but an astroturf one, named after a kind of fake grass.

Even if the majority of coastal citizens support an American offshore wind industry, a vocal minority can still wield a lot of power to hold it back — especially when they have the backing of fossil fuel money.

If a silent majority stays silent, it won't have any influence. Activists aren't usually much of the population, but that's activists for *anything*.

I think I'll leave off here. It's amazing how vigorous renewable-energy development continues to be.

 

[crazyfingers]

I recall meeting with a tech company in Kentucky and they were explaining that their sustainability efforts were handicapped by, at least at the time, Kentucky law which required that all electricity needed to be generated by coal fired electrical plants. That was maybe 20 years ago + or - I think. So I don't know if the law has been changed.

They were at a disadvantage against their other US and Japanese competitors because of that.

 

[lpetrich]

I recall meeting with a tech company in Kentucky and they were explaining that their sustainability efforts were handicapped by, at least at the time, Kentucky law which required that all electricity needed to be generated by coal fired electrical plants. That was maybe 20 years ago + or - I think. So I don't know if the law has been changed.

Seems like a relic from before the recent development of renewable energy.

Looking at this development, it seems so much like the development of new technologies. Photovoltaic cells had long been trapped in a vicious cycle of low demand and high price, but subsidies of their development and installation have helped with both, making possible economies of scale.

What we are seeing is  Experience curve effects with no clear sign of leveling off.

Something that we may be seeing a lot more of is  Sodium-ion battery and How sodium could change the game for batteries | MIT Technology Review

Na-ion batteries are potentially much cheaper than Li-ion ones, because sodium is much cheaper than lithium. But getting them to work has been a challenge, since Na ions are larger than Li ones, making it harder for this design of battery to work.

From  Ionic radius - Li 90 pm - Na 116 pm - K 152 pm - Rb 166 pm - Cs 167 pm - Fr 194 pm
pm = picometer, 10^(-12) meter

So we are not likely to see potassium-ion batteries, let alone rubidium-ion ones or cesium-ion ones or francium-ion ones. Though Fr has the problem that its most stable isotope, Fr-223, has a half-life of 22 minutes. The others are stable, though Rb and Cs are like Li in being rare.

 Abundances of the elements (data page)

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

If a silent majority stays silent, it won't have any influence. Activists aren't usually much of the population, but that's activists for *anything*.

I think I'll leave off here. It's amazing how vigorous renewable-energy development continues to be.

Vigorous, public, but useful?

Ontario Power.
When we drove from Bruce Peninsula to Sarnia, we saw massive wind farms, several of them. Very visible, very there. A ton of acreage with wind farms.

In 2019, about 92% of electricity in Ontario was produced from zero-carbon sources: 59% from nuclear, 24% from hydroelectricity, 8% from wind, and 1% from solar. The remainder is primarily from natural gas and some biomass. Ontario’s electricity generating capacity is mainly located in southern parts of the province, but large hydro generating stations located in eastern Ontario in the Ottawa River Basin and northeastern Ontario in the Moose River Basin.

These huge farms are being put up... to what end? 83% of the energy in Ontario is being provided by nuclear and hydro. New hydro ain't a thing. We can't store energy efficiently. The renewable-energy development has been effectively non-existent. It is being deployed, but there has been no game changer with solar or wind.

The 400-lb gorilla in the room are heat pumps. They are the future (err... past technology), but they are electric (boogie wogie). California is trying to get all new construction to be electric. We have a lot of energy that is powered via burning gas to heat homes at the moment. So our need for electricity with the transition to heat pumps is going to increase. We need to expanding our power base with... efficient and large scale carbon free energy. That isn't wind/solar.