The Remarkable Progress of Renewable Energy

[lpetrich]

Now some selections from news.google.com

Renewable Energy Now Accounts for 33% of Global Power referred to numbers from IRENA – International Renewable Energy Agency - I found Falling Renewable Power Costs Open Door to Greater Climate Ambition noting Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2018

[*]Onshore wind and solar PV power are now, frequently, less expensive than any fossil-fuel option, without financial assistance.
[*]New solar and wind installations will increasingly undercut even the operating-only costs of existing coal-fired plants.
[*]Low and falling technology costs make renewables the competitive backbone of energy decarbonisation – a crucial climate goal.
[*]Cost forecasts for solar PV and onshore wind continue to be revised as new data emerges, with renewables consistently beating earlier expectations.

Solar photovolatic and onshore wind are currently at 5 US cents per kWh, and concentrated solar power and offshore wind are currently at 17 US cents per kWh. CSP's cost has been dropping fast, even if not as fast as PV's cost. CSP is nice because it can have significant thermal inertia, and that is a way of getting around the storage problem.

When 100% renewable energy doesn't mean zero carbon -- when one buys only the renewable part of the electricity generation.

Scotland will build a massive battery to store excess wind power

UK energy supplier Scottish Power plans to launch a massive battery-storage system to capture renewable power from its 214 wind turbines. The 50 megawatt lithium-ion battery will allow Scottish Power to store energy when wind speeds are high and release it when they're low. According to The Guardian, this is the UK's most ambitious energy storage project to-date, and it will take the UK one step closer to reaching a net zero carbon economy.

Opinion: Closing the door on renewable energy is bad news for rural Ohio

I build renewable energy projects. By the end of this year, my teams will have added over a gigawatt of truly clean energy across the United States and Canada. When I visit my sites after they have been completed, here’s what I see: corn, soybean, wheat, sorghum, cotton, cattle, dairy cows. I see landowners who’ve made property improvements with their lease payments, and I talk with school administrators who use the added tax revenue from the projects to advance local education at rural schools.

 

[lpetrich]

Powerful 100% renewable energy plan drafted in New Jersey – pv magazine USA

Unlike other 100% renewable plans we’ve seen in the past, Draft 2019 is aggressive and immediate. Now this isn’t to say that every action laid out is immediate, but some of the most aggressive ones are, specifically the deployment of 600 MW capacity of energy storage by 2021 and the deployment of 330,000 light-duty electric vehicles on the road by 2025. In the slightly more long-term, the plan calls for both the deployment of 3.5 GW of offshore wind and 2 GW of energy storage capacity by 2030.

The article's author notes that it is much more specific than some other states' plans.

Smithfield Foods renewable energy projects march on

Smithfield Foods Inc. announced this week the construction of new biogas gathering systems in Missouri and Utah, which bring the company steps closer to delivering renewable natural gas (RNG) to communities in multiple states using manure from its hog farms. Detailed in its recently released Sustainability Report, Smithfield’s “manure-to-energy” projects are part of Smithfield Renewables, the company’s platform that unifies and accelerates its renewable energy efforts to help meet its goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 25% by 2025.

Not quite capturing cow farts, but it will do.

For the US, Utility-scale wind becoming top renewable energy resource this year, EIA says - Power Engineering

Hydropower currently accounts for a 7 percent share of total generation and should maintain that over the next two years, according to the EIA. Wind, however, is closing in on that share and growing, while the forecast predicts that all renewable fuels—including wind, hydro and solar—will produce 18 percent of the U.S. generation mix this year and almost 20 percent in 2020.

Natural gas is at 35% and should reach 38% next year. Coal was at 27% in 2018, it is at 24% this year, and it should fall to 23% the next. Nuclear is at 20% and it should drop to 19% next year.

US renewable capacity surpasses coal for the first time despite Trump's promises, gap due to widen - Electrek by a hair -- 21.56% to 21.55% -- but it will continue to grow.

 

[lpetrich]

India Invites Proposals For Gravity-Based Energy Storage Projects | CleanTechnica - gravity on solid objects, like railcars.

GE Renewable Energy's 12 Megawatt Haliade-X Begins Shipping Towers | CleanTechnica

Announced in March 2018, GE Renewable Energy’s 12 MW Haliade-X will measure in at 260 meters in height and boast a 220-meter rotor, capable of generating enough clean electricity for 16,000 households all on its own, making it easily the largest wind turbine in the world.

China Stands Ready To Become Offshore Wind Powerhouse | CleanTechnica
Vietnam To See 1 Gigawatt Of Onshore Wind Installed By 2021 | CleanTechnica

Follow The Money: Global Investors Flee Coal Power Like A Hot Potato
Dubai Explores Feasibility Of Floating Solar Projects | CleanTechnica - in the Persian Gulf / Arabian Sea - unusual in floating on seawater instead of freshwater.

Concentrated Solar Power Costs Fell 46% From 2010–2018 | CleanTechnica -- CT does not have as much on CSP as on PV.

New Materials Could Make Concentrated Solar Power Cheaper Than Battery Storage | CleanTechnica noting Ceramic–metal composites for heat exchangers in concentrated solar power plants | Nature - so they can run hotter and thus more efficiently

 

[steve_bank]

Gravity based energy storage already exists. Use excess electricity to pump water up to a reservoir.

Lift weights with a pulley system, like an old clock mechanism.

Potential Energy = Mass x g x Height

 

[bilby]

Now some selections from news.google.com

Renewable Energy Now Accounts for 33% of Global Power referred to numbers from IRENA – International Renewable Energy Agency - I found Falling Renewable Power Costs Open Door to Greater Climate Ambition noting Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2018

In this context, reading "renewables" to mean "wind and solar" would be a gross error. Most of that 33% is hydropower, which is not very good for the environment, and is not at all easy to scale up much beyond existing capacity.

Nor are wind or solar, but for different reasons.

Also, this is nameplate capacity; which for sources other than nuclear is far less than actual generation capacity. For wind, divide by at least three. For solar, by at least four.

The headlines are a lie; The articles distort the truth beyond what is reasonable.

Solar photovolatic and onshore wind are currently at 5 US cents per kWh, and concentrated solar power and offshore wind are currently at 17 US cents per kWh. CSP's cost has been dropping fast, even if not as fast as PV's cost. CSP is nice because it can have significant thermal inertia, and that is a way of getting around the storage problem.

When 100% renewable energy doesn't mean zero carbon -- when one buys only the renewable part of the electricity generation.

Scotland will build a massive battery to store excess wind power


Opinion: Closing the door on renewable energy is bad news for rural Ohio

I build renewable energy projects. By the end of this year, my teams will have added over a gigawatt of truly clean energy across the United States and Canada. When I visit my sites after they have been completed, here’s what I see: corn, soybean, wheat, sorghum, cotton, cattle, dairy cows. I see landowners who’ve made property improvements with their lease payments, and I talk with school administrators who use the added tax revenue from the projects to advance local education at rural schools.

These cost figures assume that electricity is a commodity; But it's not, it's a service.

Cheap pizza that's only delivered when you are not hungry, and that you cannot keep for later, is useless, despite being cheap.

The same for electricity.

What matters isn't the cost of a kWh delivered when it's available; It's the cost of a kWh delivered when it's demanded. And wind and solar are SHIT on that measure. They supply cheap power when wholesale prices are low, and no power at all when wholesale prices are high.

What's the overall system coat of a kWh of solar power for delivery at 2am?

What's the overall system cost of a kWh of wind power for delivery on a calm day (or during a severe storm)?

For nuclear, coal, and gas, the cost per kWh is roughly the same whenever you want to deliver it.

Half-price pizza, as long as you are not hungry, and you can't keep it for later, is a horrible business model.

 

[lpetrich]

Scientists see global PV rocketing to 10 terawatts by 2030, for starters – pv magazine USA

Forty-five scientists and industry leaders envision global PV capacity soaring from 500 GW now to 20 times that amount by 2030, through 30% average annual growth in PV deployments.

But it won’t happen by magic. Given robust PV research programs, PV costs will keep falling, say the authors of the Science journal article “Terawatt-scale photovoltaics: Transform global energy”. Yet maintaining the 30% average growth rate in PV deployments, observed from 2008 to 2018, over the next 10-14 years will involve “opportunities and challenges at the systems level,” they say.

 Electric energy consumption,  World energy consumption - humanity's electricity consumption in 2012 was 20,900 terawatt-hours, giving a rate of 2.38 terawatts. So 10 terawatts should be enough for most of that.

PV development will also need energy storage and coordinated demand response -- meaning consuming lots of electricity only when a lot of it is being generated, like at local midday. For energy storage, one will need improved batteries, like flow batteries, and electrodes free of rare metals like platinum.

The “biggest challenge” may be meeting energy needs in winter at high latitudes, says the paper, noting that wind power may be helpful in these regions, and lower population densities than at low latitudes reduces the scale of the challenge.

Especially above the Arctic Circle, when the Sun is below the horizon at the winter solstice.

From 2030 to 2050, the path toward 30 to 70 terawatts of PV globally would involve “major electrification” in heating, transportation, desalination, and industrial sectors, matched with annual PV deployments increasing only 2% per year beyond the level reached by about 2030.

On the transport side, a lot of that will likely involve synfuels like hydrogen and ammonia and Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbons.

 

[bilby]

Scientists see global PV rocketing to 10 terawatts by 2030, for starters – pv magazine USA

 Electric energy consumption,  World energy consumption - humanity's electricity consumption in 2012 was 20,900 terawatt-hours, giving a rate of 2.38 terawatts. So 10 terawatts should be enough for most of that.

As long as the unicorns bring their magic storage dust

PV development will also need energy storage and coordinated demand response -- meaning consuming lots of electricity only when a lot of it is being generated, like at local midday.

Yeah, that's not going to happen. Nobody's going to run capital intensive production lines 25% of the time. Nobody wants street lighting or home lighting that doesn't work at night. Nobody's going to switch off grandad's ventilator at sundown and hope he's still alive in the morning.

You can dress it up in fancy words like 'coordinated demand response', but it's still living with energy poverty like a medieval peasant. Fuck that. Give me nuclear power. It's safer, it's reliable, it works 24x7, and no hypothetical (and/or hugely expensive) storage is needed.

For energy storage, one will need improved batteries, like flow batteries, and electrodes free of rare metals like platinum.

No shit. If they are to be affordable, they need to be free of even relatively abundant metals like lithium or copper.

Good luck with that.

Especially above the Arctic Circle, when the Sun is below the horizon at the winter solstice.

You would have to be crazy to use solar power for anything important above about 40° lattitude.

From 2030 to 2050, the path toward 30 to 70 terawatts of PV globally would involve “major electrification” in heating, transportation, desalination, and industrial sectors, matched with annual PV deployments increasing only 2% per year beyond the level reached by about 2030.

On the transport side, a lot of that will likely involve synfuels like hydrogen and ammonia and Fischer-Tropsch hydrocarbons.

 

[lpetrich]

pv magazine USA – Solar Energy Markets and Technology

World’s largest battery system planned for Nevada solar plant – pv magazine USA - "Plans for a 531 MW / 2125 MWh battery system are buried in the BLM’s assessment of the 690 MWac Gemini Solar project." - that's 4 hours of capacity. It will apparently use solar cells.

Monster 690 MW Solar Project outside Las Vegas announced – pv magazine USA - about 25 mi / 40 km northeast of Last Vegas off of I-15. Its area will be 11 square miles or 28.5 square kilometers.

Grass-fed beef meets big solar – pv magazine USA - "First Solar has completed the 280 MWac California Flats solar project, co-located with a 73,000-acre cattle ranch which raises grass-fed beef for Whole Foods. This is the biggest demonstration of the synergies between grazing and solar that we’ve seen to date."

The article was illustrated with a distant picture that did not give much of a clue as to how high up the panels are. But the panels are tilted, as one would expect for midlatitudes, and they may have enough space for cows on their north sides.

In addition to a US edition, PV magazine has a global one, and also ones for France, Germany, Spain, Latin America, Mexico, India, China, and Australia.

pv magazine Australia – Photovoltaic Markets and Technology
Australia’s largest battery retrofitted to solar farm officially opens – pv magazine Australia - "The 25 MW / 50 MWh Tesla battery collocated with the 60 MW Gannawarra Solar Farm has been officially opened."
Renewables still setting strong pace in South Australia – pv magazine Australia - "The April shelving of a major solar thermal plant has done little to slow the pace of renewable energy projects being proposed in South Australia."
Australia could install 179 GW of rooftop solar – pv magazine Australia - "With Australia amongst the world leaders in solar uptake, a new study finds the nation is currently using less than 5% of the potential capacity for rooftop solar."

Solar trees find more homes – pv magazine India -- solar panels attached to a post in a flowerlike arrangement

The US, Australia, and India ones are in English, the German one in German, the French one in French, the Spanish, Latin American, and Mexican one in Spanish, and the Chinese one in Chinese. I plopped the Chinese one's home page into an autotranslator, and it was mostly articles from places elsewhere in the world, unlike all the others. Though the India one is in English, it discusses plenty of Indian projects and plans.

 

[lpetrich]

Germany renewable energy share jumps to record 47% for first five months of year | RenewEconomy -- that's most welcome.

News and analysis for the clean energy economy - domain name reneweconomy.com.au

Batteries the winner, as 5-minute rule promises to end gas market gaming | RenewEconomy - could this be from batteries being very fast-reacting?
Why storage is key to NSW government plans, in race to clean energy | RenewEconomy
Store that thought: Batteries enter the energy mainstream | RenewEconomy
Renewable energy industry employed 11 million people in 2018 | RenewEconomy - worldwide

German pilot project produces kerosene from sunlight, water and CO2 for first time | RenewEconomy

The SUN-to-LIQUID approach uses concentrated solar energy to synthesise liquid hydrocarbon fuels from H2O and CO2, the DLR explains.

This reversal of combustion is accomplished via a high-temperature thermochemical cycle based on metal oxide redox reactions which convert H2O and CO2 into energy-rich synthesis gas (syngas), a mixture of mainly H2 and CO.

DLR - Institute of Solar Research - SUN-to-LIQUID
The process will be a two-stage one that will be driven by heat from concentrated sunlight. It will use metal oxides (MetO) that will react as follows:

H2O + (MetO) -> H2 + (MetO)-O
CO2 + (MetO) -> CO + (MetO)-O

The resulting "syngas" mixture of H2 and CO will be subjected to the Fischer-Tropsch process, a process that will make hydrocarbons.

The metal oxide will be regenerated by heating it to drive off its oxygen.

SUN to LIQUID project - SUN to LIQUID project

 

[lpetrich]

Clean Energy Wire

Start-up Sunfire’s e-fuels can decarbonise industries most addicted to fossil fuels | Clean Energy Wire

Power-to-gas and power-to liquid specialist Sunfire develops and manufactures systems for the production of renewable industrial gases and fuels – also known as e-gases, e-fuels or e-chemicals – that can substitute mineral oil and natural gas. It uses renewable electricity to produce so-called green hydrogen, which can either be used directly or transformed in further processes into CO2-neutral e-gasoline, e-diesel or e-kerosene.

Sunfire’s steam electrolysers use waste heat from industrial processes to make the conversion of electrical into chemical energy more efficient than in conventional electrolysers. German steelmaker Salzgitter and Sunfire will build the world’s largest High-Temperature Electrolyser to make green hydrogen for use in steelmaking.

Electrolysis + Fischer-Tropsch -- that mimics the "dark reactions" of plant photosynthesis, with PV cells mimicking the "light reactions".

Sunfire – Energy Everywhere - Sunfire -- high-temperature electrolysis
Climeworks Shop | About us -- carbon-dioxide capture from the air

Solar Developers Are Preparing for the Investment Tax Credit Step-Down. Here's How. | Greentech Media

The U.S. solar industry is staring down a decline in the federal Investment Tax Credit, which starts to drop from 30 percent next year and will reach a permanent 10 percent in 2022 (or nothing for customer-owned systems).

The industry’s main trade group, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), has made working toward an ITC extension its “number one priority.”

But solar developers are wary of banking on an uncertain outcome in Congress.

I would not be surprised if fossil-fuel lobbyists denounce this effort as big-business villainy -- it would be pure projection, but I wouldn't put it above them.

 

[lpetrich]

Canada’s Li-Cycle says 100% recycling commercially achievable for Li-ion batteries, including cobalt | Energy Storage News -- it works by shredding used batteries and sorting out the fragments.

Global news, analysis and opinion on energy storage innovation and technologies | Energy Storage News -- a site dedicated to energy-storage news. Remarkable how much the field has come to be able to provide a lot of business to a site like that.

Large-scale battery prevents Dutch wind farm’s power from being wasted | Energy Storage News -- 10 MW of batteries for a 24-MW wind farm
ScottishPower's 50MW battery project approval a 'significant step' towards renewables as baseload | Energy Storage News
1,000 tonnes of volcanic rock store energy at 130MWh pilot plant | Energy Storage News -- as heat. The rocks are heated by electrically-heated air, and their heat is extracted by blowing air past them and driving steam turbines with that heat. That does not strike me as very efficient, but it's likely a lot simpler than a battery.


Solar Power Installation | Development | Technology News and Features -- less surprising than that energy-storage site
Support for solar across the country is growing increasingly bipartisan in the US

GE lost billions by 'misjudging' renewables: report - "Investors in General Electric, once one of the world's most valuable companies, lost tens of billions of dollars after the Paris climate deal as it failed to adapt to the pace of the green energy transition, new analysis showed Thursday."
GE's management expected increased demand for coal and natural-gas electricity generation.

 

[lpetrich]

When Will Renewable Energy Prices Stop Dropping? | CleanTechnica - the article does not attempt to estimate that, but it does have some helpful links to similar effects in other industries:
 Experience curve effects Wright's Law Edges Out Moore's Law in Predicting Technology Development - IEEE Spectrum Statistical Basis for Predicting Technological Progress | Santa Fe Institute

Moore's law: (price) = (price 0)*10^(-m*t) ... (number produced) = 10^(g*t)
Wright's law: (price) = (price 0)*(number produced)^(-w)

Wright's law is a better predictor than Moore's law, though not by a wide margin. Exponential growth in production and fall in prices were both common, though the rates had a *lot* of variation.

A photovoltaic-cell dataset for 1977 - 2009 (33 data points) yielded g = 0.092, m = 0.045, w = 0.48, doubling time = 3.3 yrs, halving time = 6.7 years, progress ratio = 0.71

Their predicted cost for 2020 is 6 US cents/kWh with a range (3, 12), and for 2030, 2 cents/kWh with a range of (0.4, 11).
However, they don't give an assumed amortization time or capacity factor, so I can't compare these numbers with what I can find -- cost per watt.

The Problem With AOC’s Green New Deal: It Ignores Fusion Power
The Green New Deal Ignores Fusion Power | RealClearScience
That second one had this comment: "I wrote a term paper about fusion power for my freshman physics class in 1971. People have been saying it is just 20 years away for at least 60 years. Remember cold fusion? It would be great if fusion could become a practical energy source, but it makes sense to be very skeptical."

 

[Loren Pechtel]

PV development will also need energy storage and coordinated demand response -- meaning consuming lots of electricity only when a lot of it is being generated, like at local midday. For energy storage, one will need improved batteries, like flow batteries, and electrodes free of rare metals like platinum.

Yeah, this is the real sticking point.

 

[fromderinside]

We do have evidence we have adapted to external conditions such as temperature and resource availability Consider siesta in the heat of the day and hunter gatherer histories.

I find it not unreasonable that man will adapt to availability of resource when means to do things like store energy are not going to be available.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/06/1...d-first-electrothermal-energy-storage-system/


Spanish renewable energy giant and offshore wind energy leader Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy last week inaugurated operations of its electrothermal energy storage system which can store up to 130 megawatt-hours of electricity for a week in volcanic rock. Siemens Gamesa, a company known more famously for its offshore wind turbines, is nevertheless a large-scale renewable energy technology manufacturer, with its hands in various renewable technology pots. One of these pots is energy storage, and last week the company announced the beginning of operations of its electric thermal energy storage system (ETES), claimed by the company as a world first. The opening ceremony for the pilot plant in Hamburg-Altenwerder was held last week to celebrate the beginning of operations.

 

[Jokodo]

PV development will also need energy storage and coordinated demand response -- meaning consuming lots of electricity only when a lot of it is being generated, like at local midday. For energy storage, one will need improved batteries, like flow batteries, and electrodes free of rare metals like platinum.

Coordinated demand fairly easy for some use cases, e. g. seawater desalination, where the output - sweet water - can be cheaply stored in tanks, or to some extent where the demand intrinsically correlates with supply - like air conditioning and solar power. It is not going to be acceptable for many other consumers. Show me the industrialist who's willing to only operate his state-of-the-art machinery around local midday on sunny days, while it keeps devaluating at by the day regardless the weather.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

PV development will also need energy storage and coordinated demand response -- meaning consuming lots of electricity only when a lot of it is being generated, like at local midday. For energy storage, one will need improved batteries, like flow batteries, and electrodes free of rare metals like platinum.

Coordinated demand fairly easy for some use cases, e. g. seawater desalination, where the output - sweet water - can be cheaply stored in tanks, or to some extent where the demand intrinsically correlates with supply - like air conditioning and solar power. It is not going to be acceptable for many other consumers. Show me the industrialist who's willing to only operate his state-of-the-art machinery around local midday on sunny days, while it keeps devaluating at by the day regardless the weather.

I think desalinization is the perfect example of where coordination is useful. I don't agree with your approach, though--the desalinator is expensive. However, desalinators don't actually run on electricity, but on pressure. Thus a cheaper approach is to store pressure--pump the seawater up to a high enough place to run the desalinator, the desalinator runs fine without any power. (Same as the normal home reverse osmosis units--it's basically the same tech.)

 

[lpetrich]

Bees, Butterflies, & Solar Panels Learn To Share The Land In Minnesota | CleanTechnica

Borrowing an idea that is popular in the UK, Connexus is planting prairie grasses and flowers under and around the solar panels at one of its solar and storage facilities.

Pollinator-friendly plantings at large solar energy sites have become common in Minnesota in recent years, according to Minnesota Public Radio. Not only do they provide a habitat where bees and butterflies can thrive, they also promote soil health and may increase the solar panels’ electricity output on warm days.

Contrary to what some renewable-energy haters seem to think, one can put to use the land underneath a solar panel, and this is yet more evidence of that.

Ørsted Set To Build New Jersey's First Offshore Wind Farm | CleanTechnica - 1.1 gigawatts, near Atlantic City. Ørsted (or Oersted) is a Danish wind-energy company

Indian Railways Issues 140 Megawatt Solar-Wind Hybrid Tender | CleanTechnica

Norway Announces Plan To Cut Emissions From Ships 50% By 2030 | CleanTechnica

It focuses on four carbon reduction strategies: electrification/batteries, hybrid solutions, LNG, and biogas. Hydrogen is a component of the electrification strategy. Despite the fire and explosion at a hydrogen refueling station near Oslo this month, it is still considered an important part of the emissions reduction.

“I have been working with hydrogen for 17 years. We must find out what has happened and learn from it. But hydrogen is absolutely necessary to cope with emissions cuts in the transport sector, that is ships, trucks and trains,” says climate and environment minister Ola Elvestuen. He goes on to say the plan to cut shipping emissions by 50% in just 11 years is “difficult, but possible.

Despite Cold Shoulder From Federal Government, Many Australian Resource Companies Embrace Renewable Energy | CleanTechnica

According to Reuters, Rio Tinto is planning to convert the trains it uses to haul iron ore to hybrid power with renewable energy playing a role. Santos is installing a solar power plant to supply electricity to its oil and gas operations in South Australia. ConocoPhillips is adding battery storage to its LNG facility in Darwin. A host of other industrial companies are adopting renewable energy to power their operations as well, says Reuters.

Australian resource companies are becoming renewable energy believers: Russell - Reuters
Not just to seem environmentally virtuous, but also because it can be expensive to get diesel fuel to distant mines.

 

[lpetrich]

So might we see lots of oil wells powered by solar panels and wind turbines?

Red State Vs. Blue State: Climate Action Splits America | CleanTechnica

In the 2016 election, the 14 US states with the least carbon-intensive economies voted for Hillary Clinton, while 26 of the 27 most carbon-intensive states voted for Donald Trump, reports the New York Times. Of the 15 state governors who now support 100% zero emissions electricity, only one is a Republican — Larry Hogan of Maryland. Last month he allowed a new, more aggressive renewable energy mandate approved by the Democratic legislature to become law.

In the 2016 election, the 14 US states with the least carbon-intensive economies voted for Hillary Clinton, while 26 of the 27 most carbon-intensive states voted for Donald Trump, reports the New York Times. Of the 15 state governors who now support 100% zero emissions electricity, only one is a Republican — Larry Hogan of Maryland. Last month he allowed a new, more aggressive renewable energy mandate approved by the Democratic legislature to become law.

Yet the political divide does not always determine where each state gets its electrical power from. Texas, Ohio, North Dakota, and Montana are solidly red on the political map but have strongly embraced wind power — not because of its low carbon impact but because it blows away the competition when it comes to the cost of electricity. Even conservatives can do basic mathematical calculations and figure out that lower costs mean higher profits.

Then about how some Oregon Republicans have fled to Idaho to keep the Oregon Legislature from having a quorum to vote on California-inspired environmental measures. One of them has stated that the Oregon government should only “send bachelors and come heavily armed. I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.”

 

[Jokodo]

PV development will also need energy storage and coordinated demand response -- meaning consuming lots of electricity only when a lot of it is being generated, like at local midday. For energy storage, one will need improved batteries, like flow batteries, and electrodes free of rare metals like platinum.

Coordinated demand fairly easy for some use cases, e. g. seawater desalination, where the output - sweet water - can be cheaply stored in tanks, or to some extent where the demand intrinsically correlates with supply - like air conditioning and solar power. It is not going to be acceptable for many other consumers. Show me the industrialist who's willing to only operate his state-of-the-art machinery around local midday on sunny days, while it keeps devaluating at by the day regardless the weather.

I think desalinization is the perfect example of where coordination is useful. I don't agree with your approach, though--the desalinator is expensive. However, desalinators don't actually run on electricity, but on pressure. Thus a cheaper approach is to store pressure--pump the seawater up to a high enough place to run the desalinator, the desalinator runs fine without any power. (Same as the normal home reverse osmosis units--it's basically the same tech.)

And the pump is going to run on?