Global Climate Change Science News

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Rum » Mon Dec 18, 2017 9:54 pm

Trump may be wilfully dismissing climate change as an issue - for local political purposes no doubt - he may well think it is happening but doesn't give a fuck. Meanwhile ordinary and rather more sensible Americans are doing what needs to be done - at least in part.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pow ... 5562337abc


The Energy 202: Solar power is forging ahead, even if Trump doesn't talk about it
By Dino Grandoni December 18 at 7:45 AM

You may have missed the fact that exactly one week ago two major solar power plants, with a combined generating capacity of 179 megawatts, shifted into commercial operation on Bureau of Land Management property in southern Nevada. It’s totally understandable, since the Interior Department didn’t even issue a news release (although its Nevada state director did show up for the formal opening ceremony, and provides a quote for a solar firm’s publicity package).

The launch of Switch Station 1 and Switch Station 2, which deliver electricity to massive data centers in Las Vegas and Reno, highlights the fact that solar power is still expanding in the United States even if President Trump rarely mentions it (despite his talk of a solar-powered border wall). The nation’s solar output rose 47 percent for the first three quarters of 2017, according the Energy Department — and the switch stations mark the first utility-scale energy facility built on BLM land through a streamlined process the Obama administration established in 2014.

Backers of the project — which include First Solar (which built it); EDF Renewable Energy (which runs it); and the Nature Conservancy (which developed the plan to offset its environmental impacts) — say it proves that federal land has tremendous renewable energy potential if the planning is done right. The project lies within the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone, one of 19 zones that Interior identified as ideal for large projects, and siting it there cut the permitting time in half and reduced its cost to 3.8 cents per kilowatt hour.

The span of the two stations stretches across about 1,797 acres. It boasts 1,980,840 solar panels and generates enough energy to meet the demand of 46,000 homes. Switch, a major data center operator, is tapping the energy as part of its plan to be powered by 100 percent renewable energy.

“The administration is completely supportive of ‘all of the above’ energy,” BLM Nevada director John Ruhs said in an interview Sunday, adding that when it comes to large-scale solar projects on BLM land, “It’s just the first of more that are coming, especially for Nevada, and probably California, as well.”

Deploying renewable energy on federal land ranked as a high priority during the previous administration. A year ago, then-Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced that the department had approved 60 such utility-scale projects, including 36 solar, 11 wind and 13 geothermal plans.

The GOP tax overhaul bill that could pass as soon as this week keeps key production and investment tax credits that have boosted investment in solar and wind power, which has eased fears within the renewable energy sector.

But these companies still have some concerns about another provision aimed at preventing multinational firms from taking advantage of the U.S. tax code, on the grounds that it might curb investors’ ability to claim a part of production or investment credits. More broadly, the Trump administration’s emphasis on spurring fossil fuel production nationwide has raised questions about the outlook for renewable energy projects on federal land and in federal waters.

The Nature Conservancy helped develop the $6.9 million restoration project that will offset the solar plant’s environmental impact by improving desert tortoise habitat about a 45-minute drive away. John Zablocki, its Mojave Desert program director, said in an interview Saturday that the stations’ launch “shows there’s a better way of doing things.” Now, he added, “It’s a question of whether that will continue. I’m confident it will here in Nevada. Stay tuned.”

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by mistermack » Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:23 pm

Who is generating the power at night though? I'm all for solar, but it doesn't store.
Presumably, the people keeping the lights on at night need to turn a profit. If your power station isn't needed during the day, then you have to charge more at night to break even. They aren't charities.

You can combine wind and solar to bridge the gap a bit, but neither can be relied on. You HAVE to have a source of power that can fill the gaps, and people want to make a profit, otherwise they won't do it.

So either you subsidise them, or let them charge a huge amount for supplying intermittent power.
Either way, the consumer pays more.
While there is a market for shit, there will be assholes to supply it.

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Tero » Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:46 pm

Gas, Burn gas at night. Till we get thorium going.

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Hermit » Sun Dec 31, 2017 1:06 pm

mistermack wrote:Who is generating the power at night though? I'm all for solar, but it doesn't store.
Presumably, the people keeping the lights on at night need to turn a profit. If your power station isn't needed during the day, then you have to charge more at night to break even. They aren't charities.

You can combine wind and solar to bridge the gap a bit, but neither can be relied on. You HAVE to have a source of power that can fill the gaps, and people want to make a profit, otherwise they won't do it.

So either you subsidise them, or let them charge a huge amount for supplying intermittent power.
Either way, the consumer pays more.
Even though non-fossil power generation cannot be used as a base-load supplier of electricity, it has chopped billions of dollars off the consumers' power bill in Australia. I have explained how that happens before, but you handwaved the fact away and now forgotten it altogether because it does not mesh with your ideological stance. And before you attempt to argue that Australia is an exceptional case, do have a look at the situation in European countries.
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by pErvinalia » Sun Dec 31, 2017 2:03 pm

mistermack wrote:Who is generating the power at night though? I'm all for solar, but it doesn't store.
It does if you have storage.
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by pErvinalia » Sun Dec 31, 2017 2:04 pm

Hermit wrote:
mistermack wrote:Who is generating the power at night though? I'm all for solar, but it doesn't store.
Presumably, the people keeping the lights on at night need to turn a profit. If your power station isn't needed during the day, then you have to charge more at night to break even. They aren't charities.

You can combine wind and solar to bridge the gap a bit, but neither can be relied on. You HAVE to have a source of power that can fill the gaps, and people want to make a profit, otherwise they won't do it.

So either you subsidise them, or let them charge a huge amount for supplying intermittent power.
Either way, the consumer pays more.
Even though non-fossil power generation cannot be used as a base-load supplier of electricity,
It can with the right storage.
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Hermit » Sun Dec 31, 2017 2:16 pm

pErvinalia wrote:
Hermit wrote:
mistermack wrote:Who is generating the power at night though? I'm all for solar, but it doesn't store.
Presumably, the people keeping the lights on at night need to turn a profit. If your power station isn't needed during the day, then you have to charge more at night to break even. They aren't charities.

You can combine wind and solar to bridge the gap a bit, but neither can be relied on. You HAVE to have a source of power that can fill the gaps, and people want to make a profit, otherwise they won't do it.

So either you subsidise them, or let them charge a huge amount for supplying intermittent power.
Either way, the consumer pays more.
Even though non-fossil power generation cannot be used as a base-load supplier of electricity,
It can with the right storage.
Of course. We don't have it yet, though, have we? The battery Elon Musk installed a month ago near where I live is not even equivalent to a drop in the ocean. Reverse hydro is not doing much better yet either.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by DRSB » Sun Dec 31, 2017 2:27 pm

Bastard
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Tero » Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:10 pm

MAG(hot)A
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

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Turn stone to bread right away...

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by cronus » Mon Jan 01, 2018 5:57 am

What will the world be like after its ruler is removed?

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Tero » Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:11 am

They were told in 1959 and did nothing.https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... al-warming

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by pErvinalia » Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:26 am

Cabinet papers from the Australian government back in the early 90's have just been released, and they were considering a trading scheme and/or carbon tax back then. They decided against it as they decided it would hurt the economy. Short-termism at it's best.
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Tero » Tue Jan 02, 2018 3:41 am

Yeah, everything hurts the economy. Taxes, regulation, minorities, Obama, Comey, Putin. Lack of concealed weapons. Elvis. All but Trump.

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by mistermack » Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:51 pm

Hermit wrote:Even though non-fossil power generation cannot be used as a base-load supplier of electricity, it has chopped billions of dollars off the consumers' power bill in Australia. I have explained how that happens before, but you handwaved the fact away and now forgotten it altogether because
Because it was bollocks. :funny:
While there is a market for shit, there will be assholes to supply it.

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Rum » Tue Jan 02, 2018 12:55 pm

mistermack wrote:
Hermit wrote:Even though non-fossil power generation cannot be used as a base-load supplier of electricity, it has chopped billions of dollars off the consumers' power bill in Australia. I have explained how that happens before, but you handwaved the fact away and now forgotten it altogether because
Because it was bollocks. :funny:
And bollocks back..

“Meanwhile these solar systems will also save consumers $1.5 billion off their electricity bills over the next 10 years.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... lian-homes

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