The renewable energy changes and policy

DIY-HP-LED said:

Maybe I should post retail news...

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It would be a nice break from all the frothy maybeware that is to be found on no online salespoint.

Toss the current consumer a bone and show us these prices in actual products being shipped retail.

DIY-HP-LED said:

In addition to that, by 2030, there will be a $5,000, 200-mile range EV and by 2046, that same EV will cost $300. At that point, transportation is virtually free.

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In 2046 dollars and CA registrable, otherwise pfeh.

Put graphene in it and it might get even stronger

A lot of older people use ebikes for exercise, helps on the hills and if you feel poorly, let the bike take you home or cool you off after your cardio. Makes controlling the amount of exercise you get easier and expands your biking and exercise options. I can see it being politically popular among older adults who actually vote, and the numbers should increase, especially in warmer parts of the country and with climate change that is expanding north.

Take some fossil fuel subsidies, when the industry can absorb the cash.


Global Clean Energy Spending Surges to $1.8 Trillion. It’s Not Enough
While the US, EU and UK boosted clean-energy investments, China remains the biggest market in the energy transition.

Global spending on the clean-energy transition hit record highs as the world moves to rein in climate change, but it’s still not enough to get on track to net-zero emissions.

Total spending surged 17% last year to $1.8 trillion, according to a report Tuesday from BloombergNEF. These include investments to install renewable energy, buy electric vehicles, build hydrogen production systems and deploy other technologies. Add in the investments in building out clean-energy supply chains, as well as $900 billion in financing, and the total funding in 2023 reached about $2.8 trillion.

The record spending reflects the growing urgency of international efforts to combat climate change on the heels of the hottest year on record — and even more heat expected this year. However, the world needs to be investing more than twice as much in clean technology in order to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century, according to BNEF.

“The opportunity is large and spending is accelerating, but we need to do so much more,” Albert Cheung, BNEF’s deputy chief executive officer, said. Total spending on the energy transition last year was well short of the more than $4.8 trillion that the London-based research provider estimated will be needed annually from 2024 to 2030 to get the world on a net-zero pathway.

BNEF is warning that governments need to do even more in the coming years. Cheung estimates that investments needs to surge by 170% for the world to get on pace to reach net zero.

“We’re in the steep part of the curve, and we’ll see rapid growth” for spending every year, he said. “But whether we get on track for net zero, that’s a difficult ask.”

China remains the biggest market by far with $676 billion spent last year. That’s an increase of only 6% compared to 2022, though. Investments in the US, the UK and Europe grew by at least 22%, in comparison, to a combined total of $718 billion. That was driven in part by incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act, the flagship US climate law, which is starting to have a significant impact. Strong sales of electric vehicles in the UK as well as booming demand for renewables across Europe also helped drive up the total.

Spending on EVs globally climbed 36% to $634 billion. That made it the sector that saw the largest investments, surpassing renewable energy, which gained 8% to $623 billion. Investors poured $310 billion into power grids, which will be a critical tool to deliver clean energy that will be generated from new wind and solar farms coming online, making it the third-biggest market.

Some nascent technologies saw torrid growth. Hydrogen investments, for example, tripled to $10.4 billion in a sign of increasing interest in the technology, though it has yet to be proven at scale.

Oxford PV, a spin-off from the University of Oxford, says it’s achieved the world record for the most efficient solar panel.


In collaboration with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, the company says its solar panel achieved 25% conversion efficiency – the percentage of solar energy shining on a panel converted into electricity. That’s a big deal compared to the more typical 16-24% in commercial solar panels.

Oxford PV’s secret sauce is perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells, which could theoretically hit over 43% efficiency, leaving traditional silicon solar cells with a theoretical limit of less than 30% in the dust. Its record-setting panel cranked out 421 watts over an area of 1.68 square meters. The researchers used standard mass production gear and optimized it for the tandem technology.

Oxford PV, which has a production line near Berlin, used Fraunhofer’s multispectral solar simulator to verify its world record efficiency claim. It’s like re-creating natural sunlight in a lab to test the panel’s perovskite and silicon layers.

What’s more, Oxford PV has already hit a 28.6% efficiency record for its commercial-sized perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cell and says it has a clear roadmap to take that technology beyond 30% efficiency.

Why’s this important? Solar power is the MVP of renewable energy, making up a massive chunk of new clean energy sources. By upping the efficiency game, Oxford PV’s solar panels have the potential to change the landscape with more power from the same space, which means cheaper electricity and a faster shift to clean energy.

Chris Case, chief technology officer at Oxford PV, said, “Our record-breaking solar panels demonstrate that we are on the cusp of the next solar revolution, which will be delivered, in part, by our tandem cell technology.

“2024 is set to be a pivotal year for Oxford PV, as the company scales up manufacturing and continues to progress plans for a new factory to produce its tandem solar cells in high volumes.”

Not a big fan of VAWTs, but apparently, they are worth a second look and offer advantages over the HAWTs we commonly see. I thought the debate was settled, apparently not with some new research. There are issues with HAWTs that this can resolve.


2200 Wind Turbines - The Future Is Vertical

A shift towards a more sustainable global food system could create up to $10tn (£7.9tn) of benefits a year, improve human health and ease the climate crisis, according to the most comprehensive economic study of its type.

It found that existing food systems destroyed more value than they created due to hidden environmental and medical costs, in effect, borrowing from the future to take profits today.

Food systems drive a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, putting the world on course for 2.7C of warming by the end of the century. This creates a vicious cycle, as higher temperatures bring more extreme weather and greater damage to harvests.

Food insecurity also puts a burden on medical systems. The study predicted a business-as-usual approach would leave 640 million people underweight by 2050, while obesity would increase by 70%.

Redirecting the food system would be politically challenging but bring huge economic and welfare benefits, said the international team of authors behind the study, which aims to be the food equivalent of the Stern review, the 2006 examination of the costs of climate change.

Johan Rockström, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and one of the study’s authors, said: “The global food system holds the future of humanity on Earth in its hand.”

The study proposes a shift of subsidies and tax incentives away from destructive large-scale monocultures that rely on fertilisers, pesticides and forest clearance. Instead, financial incentives should be directed towards smallholders who could turn farms into carbon sinks with more space for wildlife.

A change of diet is another key element, along with investment in technologies to enhance efficiency and cut emissions.

With less food insecurity, the report says, undernutrition could be eradicated by 2050, with 174 million fewer premature deaths, and 400 million farm workers able to earn a sufficient income. The proposed transition would help to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels and halve nitrogen run-offs from agriculture.


Overall, they estimate the costs of the transformation at between 0.2% and 0.4% of global GDP per year.

In early research, Rockström and his colleagues found food was the largest sector of the economy breaching planetary boundaries. As well at the climate impact, it is a major driver of land-use change and biodiversity decline, and is responsible for 70% of freshwater drawdown.

Battery demand is growing exponentially, driven by a domino effect of adoption that cascades from country to country and from sector to sector. This battery domino effect is set to enable the rapid phaseout of half of global fossil fuel demand and be instrumental in abating transport and power emissions. This is the conclusion of RMI’s recently published report X-Change: Batteries. In this article, we highlight six of the key messages from the report.

All I can say is falling battery and solar prices, there are and will be other options for homeowners. If they drive EVs and charge from home, they will get hit harder.

It's paywalled, but there is enough to get the gist, much cheaper cars are coming, especially now that LFP battery prices are due to fall through the floor. CATL is building factories in America, even selling the whole operation to American automakers, the cars will be coming through Mexico along with more batteries. They will be a lot cheaper than ICE cars and American or European EVs.

Personally, I think hydrogen might be best used for industrial processes, be generated close to where it is used by PV and wind. I believe batteries will out compete it for most transportation and energy storage and using it as a replacement for LNG is not practical with hydrogen embrittlement issues. There are also greenhouse gas issues with hydrogen, at least powering whole societies with it.

Same batteries they will drop the price on in China to $56/kWh by June.


Feb 13, 2023
Ford announces new U.S. factory for batteries, licenses tech from China's CATL
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss Ford's latest attempt to bring down the cost of EV batteries and the decision to license technology from China's CATL. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO

When EVs get cheaper than ICE cars they might end the incentives since economic forces are taking over, with cheaper batteries coming that will happen in a couple of years I figure. It might be a good idea to change the incentives and base them on income to qualify, when the cheaper smaller EVs arrive, no incentives for kilowatt guzzling luxury behemoths either. There might be little need for rebates when economic factors take over for solar, batteries and EVs as prices drop.

With the bottom falling out of LFP batteries in June, I dunno about the viability of sodium and its ability to compete on price. There appears to be no looming lithium shortage, new sources are constantly being found and refining processes are getting better, more efficient and cheaper. This new battery price of $56/kWh might short circuit a lot of other efforts including sodium ion.

Now here is a neat simple idea that can make silk from recycled plastic milk bottles or other such polyethylene using bacteria. Silk is useful and it looks like it can be easily scaled and would be low cost too, it is also biodegradable and plastic microfibers from clothing are an issue in the sea and water supplies.


Waste Plastic To Spider Silk

Paper link is on Youtube

One Minnesota startup has been working to address this looming shortage. Niron Magnetics is building a large-scale manufacturing facility to produce iron nitride, a magnetic material derived from common elements, while also working to improve the material’s properties so that it can be used in stronger magnets to power more products. The results may help address yet another coming supply crunch that threatens to slow down action on climate change.

Is Ford partners with CATL?



In February, Ford announced it would start producing low-cost lithium-ion batteries by 2026 at its plant in Michigan using technology licensed from CATL, the world's biggest maker of EV batteries.Dec 7, 2023

CATL says Ford project on track despite new U.S. battery rules

A new frontier in offshore wind energy | FT Climate Capital

Taiwan has some of the best wind speeds in the world, and urgently needs to boost its supplies of green energy. But getting an offshore wind industry off the ground is proving complicated. The FT's Rachel Millard investigates