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Has Fracking Killed RE?

Discussions about the economic and financial ramifications of PEAK OIL

Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Graeme » Sun 14 Jun 2015, 22:30:55

Again the answer is no. The main driver for investment in renewables is the falling cost to produce electricity. But as the following IEA report demonstrates (quoted by Bloomberg), more investment in RE is required to prevent global temperatures from rising above 2 degrees.

Fossil Fuels Just Lost the Race Against Renewables

The race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. And there's no going back.

The shift occurred in 2013, when the world added 143 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity, compared with 141 gigawatts in new plants that burn fossil fuels, according to an analysis presented Tuesday at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance annual summit in New York. The shift will continue to accelerate, and by 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added.

"The electricity system is shifting to clean,'' Michael Liebreich, founder of BNEF, said in his keynote address. "Despite the change in oil and gas prices there is going to be a substantial buildout of renewable energy that is likely to be an order of magnitude larger than the buildout of coal and gas."
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby ralfy » Mon 15 Jun 2015, 04:01:46

From what I remember, some types of unconventional production will peak after only a few years. If conventional production cannot be maintained, then total oil and gas production may peak and drop.

Also, renewable energy needs fossil fuels for mining, manufacturing, and shipping. In addition, other material resources needed, including various minerals and even fresh water, also face issues similar to peak oil.

Given that, the only way to prevent AGW is to decrease energy and material resource use significantly worldwide, and to use whatever is available only for basic needs. That means economic growth will at most be minimal, with economies coordinating with each other globally.

Given the fact that the complete opposite has been taking place for decades, and that RE development is still based on profit-making, high returns on investment, and increasing use of resources amid competition and markets based on price mechanisms, then conservation is not likely.
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby onlooker » Mon 15 Jun 2015, 04:23:15

Good points Ralphy. Which begs the question of whether we should have ever been under a capitalist economic system. The answer is obviously NO. Rather some sort of socialist / communist system. The reason being that it should have never been about profit or growth rather just taking care of peoples needs and allocating resources in a wise manner for precisely that purpose. If history shows us something it is that in fact it was working in both Soviet Union and China. NEEDS not wants. Also, for those that say Man does not live by bread alone, precisely that recognizes that we need a certain level of entertainment and relaxation.
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Subjectivist » Mon 15 Jun 2015, 06:13:18

onlooker wrote:Good points Ralphy. Which begs the question of whether we should have ever been under a capitalist economic system. The answer is obviously NO. Rather some sort of socialist / communist system. The reason being that it should have never been about profit or growth rather just taking care of peoples needs and allocating resources in a wise manner for precisely that purpose. If history shows us something it is that in fact it was working in both Soviet Union and China. NEEDS not wants. Also, for those that say Man does not live by bread alone, precisely that recognizes that we need a certain level of entertainment and relaxation.


If history teaches me anything it is that Communist countries like the USSR were focused on industrialization and internal growth for decades. It also had a brutal internal security apparatus that persecuted anyone even suspected of being disloyal.
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Pops » Mon 15 Jun 2015, 09:39:16

kublikhan wrote:But at least renewables are starting to stand on their own merits now.

We can hope. Looking at the CA RPS report, they expect most growth to come from PV to get to 33% by 2020.

Image

Not exactly sure why they don't include BIG hydro in that chart?
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby kublikhan » Mon 15 Jun 2015, 19:14:00

Pops wrote:We can hope. Looking at the CA RPS report, they expect most growth to come from PV to get to 33% by 2020. Not exactly sure why they don't include BIG hydro in that chart?
Yeah California went for the route of heavy investments in Solar PV. But they are not indicative of global renewable growth. For the world as a whole, hydro and wind will still be growing strong by 2020.

global renewable electricity generation is projected to grow by almost 45%, or 2,245 TWh, to over 7,310 TWh in 2020 (+5.4% per year). Hydropower, including output from pumped storage, represents about 37% of total growth, followed by onshore wind at 31% of total growth.
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As to why big hydro is not included, it's a combination of not wanting to include hydro because of the environmental damage it does. And the second reason has to do with renewable energy targets. If you included hydro, many states would already qualify and it would discourage the build out of non hydro renewable.

In general, hydropower is not even considered a renewable energy in most states or, for the most part, by the federal government. It comes with some “pretty significant environmental baggage. The reluctance to call hydropower a renewable energy is based on the impact of dams on fisheries and water flows.” Several large dams block migrating fish from reaching their spawning grounds. Dam reservoirs impact flows, temperatures and silt loads of rivers and streams. Over the years, these factors have drastically reduced fish populations.

That’s why hydropower doesn’t count toward utilities’ renewable energy mandates in most states—that, and the fact that there is already so much hydro out there. More than 30 states have renewable portfolio standards (RPS) that require utilities to generate a percentage of their power from renewable sources. Counting all hydropower would significantly lessen the impact of these standards, particularly in states where hydropower already provides a substantial amount of electricity. In those states, experts say, counting it would discourage the development of new renewable sources. Similarly, if hydropower were classified as renewable, some states would have to reset their targets and those might end up unrealistically high.

California, the second-largest U.S. hydroelectric producer, set goals for renewable energy sources in 2002 and 2011. Utilities in that state will be required to generate a third of their power from such sources by 2020. But the state set a limit on the inclusion of hydropower. It allows utilities to count only the hydropower produced by smaller hydropower projects—those capable of producing 30 megawatts or less—toward the renewable mandate.

Last year, a bill in the California State Assembly proposed allowing utilities to count large hydropower facilities as well. The Sierra Club and a nonprofit watchdog called The Utility Reform Network (TURN) opposed the bill. TURN wrote that the reversal “would effectively reduce the RPS targets for utilities with existing large hydroelectric generation in their portfolios and significantly undermine the impact of the RPS program on the development of new renewable energy projects in California and the West.” Ultimately, the bill failed to make it out of committee.
Is Hydropower a Renewable Energy or Not?

BTW, the IEA link above had other for the change in electricity generation 2012-2013. I must have made a math error somewhere. IEA data shows renewables rising 240 TWh, not 383 TWh. BP data is in the same ballpark. Further, the total electricity increase was larger: 762 TWh vs 506 TWh. This means fossil fuels still generated the majority of new electricity in 2013. My bad.
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Pops » Tue 16 Jun 2015, 10:10:11

Thanks Kub.
Below is a chart of US oil/gas E&P through last year. Not sure how much of that $300B spent every year for the last 6 or 8 years is fracking but I'm thinking it is big. It is similar to the amount spent on all new global investment in RE in the same period — again, just in the US alone, and of course probably much of it was fracking.

Image

I'm pretty sure no one who invests in PV expects to bring in a gusher, but I'm gonna say pretty well everyone who bets on an oil company does, LOL. Still, it is hard for me to believe that none of those trillions of investment would not have found their way to RE had it not been for the potential gusher of fracking.

Actually it dawns on me that some of the biggest RE players in the early 2000s were BP, Shell and Chevron — remember "Beyond Petroleum"? Take a guess at how much they are investing in RE now?

A growing portion of oil companies' portfolios these days is in the "unconventionals" -- the oil sands of Alberta, the natural gas formations of the Marcellus Shale, the ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the frigid Arctic, and the tight oil reserves that underlie South and West Texas and western North Dakota.

They require new techniques that are extraordinarily risky and expensive, and so the companies have turned their venture dollars away from "clean" technology and toward innovations in drilling, subterranean mapping and hydraulic fracturing.

Environment & Energy Publishing


I realize some folks feel it is their role to advocate for the impending die-off while some others advocate for imminent renewable nirvana, I'm not doing either, just trying to polish up my lexan ball.
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Pops » Wed 17 Jun 2015, 10:14:13

Roger at Euan Mearns' blog picked up on the same Bloomberg chart I did in the OP. He plotted the annual growth rate of EU wind and solar:

Image

The bump in '14 might make that trend a little shallower.
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Wed 17 Jun 2015, 12:18:51

Pops - isn't that the problem with looking at the PERCENT increase instead of the absolute increase? If the same amount of infrastructure is added yearly the % increase should consistently decline. IOW going from I to 1.5 is a 50% increase. And going from 1.5 to 2 (the same 0.5 absolute increase) is now just a 33% increase. And from 2 to 2.5 is a 25% increase. Etc.
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby hvacman » Wed 17 Jun 2015, 12:25:22

Re: "large hydro" vs "small hydro".
Small hydro is defined by the Federal Energy Act (FEA) as less than 10 mW capacity with dams and 40 mW or less for "conduit" hydro systems. The FEA exempts small hydro from many of the more stringent environmental and regulatory standards that "large hydro" have to comply with. Small hydro therefore "counts" as renewable when looking at the definition of the RES "renewable energy standard"

Most "small hydro" are systems with the following characteristics:

- turbines that have been retrofitted onto existing small storage reservoirs and dams that are just recovering energy from discharged water primarily dedicated for other purposes. The dams were already there. The power is fed into the grid similar to how PV is - when the water is released for its primary purpose, power is generated and fed into the grid. It is not "dispatched"

- turbines on tributaries and smaller creeks that just use diversion dams without any significant storage to divert some water from the stream channel into the system penstock. The water is then put back into the stream bed downstream, so overall flow is not impacted except in the small section where a percentage of the flow was diverted into the penstock. "Run of river" is the term.

- frequently owned by independent operators. Most have been installed since 1978, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission "FERC" redefined the FEA to allow independent generators to feed into the grid.

"large hydro", besides the higher MW rating, also typically use higher dams with significant storage and vary the flows significantly over the days and the seasons in the main stream channel. The turbine operations are managed based on grid and utility need. The operators will crank up output during peak demand, then back off during low-demand. Mostly owned by major utilities or governmental agencies. Because of the larger environmental issues of their storage reservoirs and dams, fewer have been built in recent decades and most have been in operation since going back to before the EPA came into existence.

Here's a link to FERC's licensing page. http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/gen-info/licensing/exemptions.asp
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby kublikhan » Wed 17 Jun 2015, 13:58:08

I still think you would be better off looking at the subsidy picture to get a better idea of what is going on with renewables instead of looking at fracking.

European picture:
[Renewable energy investment in Europe advanced less than 1% in 2014.]


The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) reported in February a sharp drop in new installations in 2014. The EWEA’s annual report shows investments in new wind facilities plummeted last year as a result of “erratic and harsh” changes in renewable energy policies in several countries. The rate of installations plunged by 90 percent in Denmark, 84 percent in Spain, and 75 percent in Italy.
Europe Cuts Wind Support

Wind projects built before 2005 will no longer receive any form of subsidy, and this affects more than a third of Spain’s wind projects. As a consequence of the government’s actions to rein in their subsidies and supports, Spain’s wind sector is estimated to have laid off 20,000 workers and its solar sector, which once employed 60,000 workers, now employs just 5,000. In 2013, solar investment in Spain dropped by 90 percent from its 2011 level of $10 billion.
Europe Slashing Renewable Subsidies

Subsidy cutbacks have been felt across the industry, as the cost of solar power has fallen closer to the cost of fossil fuel energy. From a zenith of $0.90 per kilowatt hour, German feed-in-tariffs that pay people for generating energy from solar have fallen to around $0.20 per kwh today. The guaranteed 20-year tariff offered to early household investors is now a thing of the past. The phase-out is expected to complete in 2022, adding to a sense of urgency in the energiewende transition strategy.
German solar ambitions at risk from cuts to subsidies

US Picture:
[US Renewable Energy investments in 2014 were up 7%. Biofuel investments fell 8% to a 10 year low.]


Over a 3-year period, from fiscal year 2010 through fiscal year 2013, total federal electricity-related subsidies increased from $11.7 billion to $16.1 billion, an increase of 38 percent over the 3-year period. The largest increases in federal energy subsidies were in electricity-related renewable energy, which increased 54 percent over the 3-year period, from $8.6 billion to $13.2 billion.

Subsidies for biofuels declined by 74 percent, from $7 billion to $1.8 billion.
EIA Report: Subsidies Continue to Roll In For Wind and Solar

China Picture:
[China increased renewable energy investment 39% in 2014.]


China is on course this year to build four times the total wind power installed in all of Denmark as developers push to build the turbines ahead of cuts to incentives. “The trend is toward a rush of installations.” Should that target be reached, China this year will surpass the 18 gigawatts of wind the nation installed in 2011, the highest annual number on record.

All that new wind energy means China’s policy makers are now at the stage where they’re set to withdraw the incentives brought in to encourage developments.
China has proposed cutting tariffs by as much as 11 percent for projects to be built after June 30, 2015. China surpassed the U.S. a year after the tariffs were brought in to become the world’s biggest wind market.

“If the tariff cut is implemented, China would see an obvious decline in installations in 2016.”
China Racing To Install Wind Power Before Government Subsidies Run Out

Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2015
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Pops » Wed 17 Jun 2015, 14:10:40

Thanks guys.
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Ulenspiegel » Wed 17 Jun 2015, 14:52:04

ROCKMAN wrote:Pops - isn't that the problem with looking at the PERCENT increase instead of the absolute increase? If the same amount of infrastructure is added yearly the % increase should consistently decline. IOW going from I to 1.5 is a 50% increase. And going from 1.5 to 2 (the same 0.5 absolute increase) is now just a 33% increase. And from 2 to 2.5 is a 25% increase. Etc.


Yep. Or from a slightly different point of view, one has to understand the difference between net addition and gross addition of capacity. The former can be zero, at the same time the latter could be still sufficiently high. :-)
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Pops » Wed 17 Jun 2015, 15:27:31

I understand the difference between new investment declining and declining investment.

The point I was trying to make is projecting a trend where new investment is continually increasing and one where it is not (like now) lead to different outcomes.
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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Graeme » Wed 17 Jun 2015, 18:26:00

New investment in solar is increasing in the US.

Survey Of Big Investment Companies Shows Why We Might Be On The Verge Of A Solar Power Boom

Approximately two-thirds of big investment companies plan to prioritize solar power in the next five years, according to a new survey.
The survey, commissioned by financial services firm Wiser Capital, got responses from 100 representatives from large investment companies in the United States. It found that 32 percent of those companies plan to invest in solar for the first time this year, and 28 percent will invest in solar for the first time in the next two to five years. It also found that about 80 percent of the companies polled want to invest in solar “to support a cleaner energy future, and a little over 60 percent want to invest in it because they’re confident they’ll get a return on the investment.”


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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Graeme » Sun 21 Jun 2015, 17:50:41

Pops, We've talked about the exponential rise of renewables before in the RE and economic growth thread part 1. Here is another recent source (GTM) quoted by Motley Fool, which emphasizes this.

Solar Boom: Global Solar Market Could Triple in 5 Years

The global solar boom that began a decade ago shows no signs of slowing, and by 2020 the amount of solar generating capacity installed worldwide could triple. That's according to new projections from GTM Research, one of the most reliable sources in the solar industry.

The simple fact that solar energy is growing that quickly is astounding, but the reasons for the industry's growth and the drivers are what makes this something everyone should be watching.

Solar energy's exponential growth

Over the past decade, global solar installations have grown from 1 gigawatt in 2005 to an expected 55 gigawatts this year. But that's just the beginning of solar energy's growth. By 2020, installations are expected to be 135 gigawatts per year as solar energy becomes more and more competitive with other sources of electricity.


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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby Tanada » Fri 31 May 2019, 11:39:06

Graeme wrote:Pops, We've talked about the exponential rise of renewables before in the RE and economic growth thread part 1. Here is another recent source (GTM) quoted by Motley Fool, which emphasizes this.

Solar Boom: Global Solar Market Could Triple in 5 Years

The global solar boom that began a decade ago shows no signs of slowing, and by 2020 the amount of solar generating capacity installed worldwide could triple. That's according to new projections from GTM Research, one of the most reliable sources in the solar industry.

The simple fact that solar energy is growing that quickly is astounding, but the reasons for the industry's growth and the drivers are what makes this something everyone should be watching.

Solar energy's exponential growth

Over the past decade, global solar installations have grown from 1 gigawatt in 2005 to an expected 55 gigawatts this year. But that's just the beginning of solar energy's growth. By 2020, installations are expected to be 135 gigawatts per year as solar energy becomes more and more competitive with other sources of electricity.


That turns out not to be the case.

'The Gas City' pulls plug on money-losing $13-million solar power project

The southern Alberta city of Medicine Hat is pulling the plug on a $13-million concentrated solar power facility after operating it for about five years.

The project’s goal was to test whether the technology was a feasible way to employ the sun’s heat to replace some of the natural gas used to make steam at the city-owned power plant, said Coun. Phil Turnbull, chairman of the city’s utility committee.

The answer, unfortunately, was no, as the project’s small and unreliable contribution to the community’s power needs didn’t justify the cost of maintaining its rows of mirrors and pipes through snowy winters and dusty summer days, he said.

“I think people sometimes look at what we did and say, ’What a waste of money.’ But it wouldn’t have been a waste if it had been successful in taking it to the next step,” Turnbull said Thursday.

“Sometimes you win on trying to develop new initiatives and sometimes you don’t.”

The project was to add about one megawatt of power to the 250-MW capacity main power plant, but it often didn’t even supply that much, he said.

Meanwhile, the price of natural gas — which the city can source from its utility’s gas wells — has fallen dramatically from when the project was contemplated and is now much more cost-competitive than solar, Turnbull said.

The solar project’s original $9-million cost was shared equally by federal, provincial and city governments, he said. The city stepped up to cover subsequent cost overruns.

Medicine Hat’s experience is consistent with evidence that suggests Canada is too far north and doesn’t get enough uninterrupted sun to make concentrated solar work, said Mike Johnson, technical leader on the energy supply team for the National Energy Board.

For that reason, a recent NEB report he wrote on the economics of solar power in Canada looked mainly at the use of photovoltaic panel systems, which convert the sun’s energy directly into electricity and are much cheaper to build than concentrated solar.

“Medicine Hat, it’s a really sunny climate for Canada, but it’s not quite the same as a place like Nevada,” Johnson said.

In February, the former NDP government granted a 20-year contract to buy power from a partnership that plans to build three new solar power plants for more than $100 million in southern Alberta.

The plants are to produce about 94 megawatts from photovoltaic cells at peak times, enough to power about 20,000 homes.

In Medicine Hat, meanwhile, the utility committee’s next chore is figuring out by next fall what to do with the mothballed project.

Turnbull said suggestions have included selling the gear to industry, donating it to a research college or creating a renewable energy park on the site.


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Re: Has Fracking Killed RE?

Unread postby kublikhan » Fri 31 May 2019, 12:21:23

Tanada wrote:
Graeme wrote:Pops, We've talked about the exponential rise of renewables before in the RE and economic growth thread part 1. Here is another recent source (GTM) quoted by Motley Fool, which emphasizes this.

Solar Boom: Global Solar Market Could Triple in 5 Years

The global solar boom that began a decade ago shows no signs of slowing, and by 2020 the amount of solar generating capacity installed worldwide could triple. That's according to new projections from GTM Research, one of the most reliable sources in the solar industry.

The simple fact that solar energy is growing that quickly is astounding, but the reasons for the industry's growth and the drivers are what makes this something everyone should be watching.

Solar energy's exponential growth

Over the past decade, global solar installations have grown from 1 gigawatt in 2005 to an expected 55 gigawatts this year. But that's just the beginning of solar energy's growth. By 2020, installations are expected to be 135 gigawatts per year as solar energy becomes more and more competitive with other sources of electricity.
That turns out not to be the case.
Actually it turned out to be a remarkably accurate forecast. We are on track to add 129 GW of solar installations in 2019, a year earlier than the forecast.

The global solar PV market is expected to bounce back from slower growth in 2018 with a return to form in 2019 that will see double-digit growth in the range of 25% and total solar installations nearing 130 gigawatts (GW).
25% Growth, Reach 129 Gigawatts Of New Capacity In 2019
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