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Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Discussions of conventional and alternative energy production technologies.

Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby KaiserJeep » Wed 03 Jan 2018, 15:24:48

Additional fuel taxes are political suicide. Even if only proposed, they will cause a huge voter backlash, and make further Republican majorities in Congress and the Senate, and guarantee Trump a second term. Those are just the realities in the most wealthy country on this planet, among the retired or unemployed American citizens who are still numbered among the wealthiest 1% in the world. Because just about everybody wants more than they can afford.

The candidates who strike the right balance of talking Green and promising additional prosperity will win office. Likely that will be Trump and the R's. BAU in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Wed 03 Jan 2018, 16:02:08

KaiserJeep wrote:Additional fuel taxes are political suicide. Even if only proposed, they will cause a huge voter backlash, and make further Republican majorities in Congress and the Senate, and guarantee Trump a second term. Those are just the realities in the most wealthy country on this planet, among the retired or unemployed American citizens who are still numbered among the wealthiest 1% in the world. Because just about everybody wants more than they can afford.

The candidates who strike the right balance of talking Green and promising additional prosperity will win office. Likely that will be Trump and the R's. BAU in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Agreed. It's too bad the dems, who at least tend to TALK a green game (compared to the GOP) don't try a more intelligent path to get fuel taxes raised.

For example, they could call it a roads and bridges infrastructure tax, and raise the price by a dime or so, each year for a number of years. And they could actually USE the money for roads and bridges until those are all in great shape (probably would take two decades or more), and then use it for plenty of other critical infrastructure needs. (I like reliable and safe drinking water, reliable electricity, natural gas, and on and on).

And the desired marginal push against FF burning in ICE's would be achieved.

They could at least seriously TRY this, and likely gain some left wing fans to compensate for the obvious right wing booing.

...

But of course, thinking like this is why I know da*n well I'd never be elected anything. Telling the truth and being principled (I'd tell the lobbyists to go F. themselves) don't keep you in office in the good old US.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby vtsnowedin » Wed 03 Jan 2018, 16:34:27

Don't think they will ever fix it all and have everything in spanking new condition. There are just too many miles of roads, pipelines, sewer lines, railroad tracks, water mains, and electric grid etc. out there to ever fix it all faster then it is rusting around you. Even the interstate highway system which was built on a very aggressive schedule had sections and bridges that needed to be reworked before the last sections were complete for the first time. A dime increase in the gas tax , if well spent, would let you catch up with the rate of rust, and the rate of rut, at the same time as it boosted the economy and employment but the roads are just not bad enough yet to get public support for that dime. Let a few bridges get closed or fall down and things will come to a head.
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby roccman » Fri 05 Jan 2018, 11:53:40

vtsnowedin wrote:Don't think they will ever fix it all and have everything in spanking new condition. There are just too many miles of roads, pipelines, sewer lines, railroad tracks, water mains, and electric grid etc. out there to ever fix it all faster then it is rusting around you. Even the interstate highway system which was built on a very aggressive schedule had sections and bridges that needed to be reworked before the last sections were complete for the first time. A dime increase in the gas tax , if well spent, would let you catch up with the rate of rust, and the rate of rut, at the same time as it boosted the economy and employment but the roads are just not bad enough yet to get public support for that dime. Let a few bridges get closed or fall down and things will come to a head.


gotta leave something for the chinese to work on when 400 million move in here.
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby vtsnowedin » Fri 05 Jan 2018, 12:00:38

roccman wrote:gotta leave something for the chinese to work on when 400 million move in here.

Well at least they will know how to deal with the Mexican drug gangs.
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby AdamB » Fri 05 Jan 2018, 22:17:59

roccman wrote:
vtsnowedin wrote:Don't think they will ever fix it all and have everything in spanking new condition. There are just too many miles of roads, pipelines, sewer lines, railroad tracks, water mains, and electric grid etc. out there to ever fix it all faster then it is rusting around you. Even the interstate highway system which was built on a very aggressive schedule had sections and bridges that needed to be reworked before the last sections were complete for the first time. A dime increase in the gas tax , if well spent, would let you catch up with the rate of rust, and the rate of rut, at the same time as it boosted the economy and employment but the roads are just not bad enough yet to get public support for that dime. Let a few bridges get closed or fall down and things will come to a head.


gotta leave something for the chinese to work on when 400 million move in here.


Did you learn this while on walkabout during your years in the wildness after you became scared of the 2008 recession rocc? Spent some time in China, as opposed to banana republics down south looking for a fine Inca princess to help dig up your buried gold for the mad max days after you fled BAU? The grid in Phoenix must be down by now, weren't you telling people to max out their credit cards to escape the zombies? Did you ever even find a SINGLE zombie?
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby vtsnowedin » Fri 05 Jan 2018, 22:49:21

AdamB wrote:
roccman wrote:
vtsnowedin wrote:Don't think they will ever fix it all and have everything in spanking new condition. There are just too many miles of roads, pipelines, sewer lines, railroad tracks, water mains, and electric grid etc. out there to ever fix it all faster then it is rusting around you. Even the interstate highway system which was built on a very aggressive schedule had sections and bridges that needed to be reworked before the last sections were complete for the first time. A dime increase in the gas tax , if well spent, would let you catch up with the rate of rust, and the rate of rut, at the same time as it boosted the economy and employment but the roads are just not bad enough yet to get public support for that dime. Let a few bridges get closed or fall down and things will come to a head.


gotta leave something for the chinese to work on when 400 million move in here.


Did you learn this while on walkabout during your years in the wildness after you became scared of the 2008 recession rocc? Spent some time in China, as opposed to banana republics down south looking for a fine Inca princess to help dig up your buried gold for the mad max days after you fled BAU? The grid in Phoenix must be down by now, weren't you telling people to max out their credit cards to escape the zombies? Did you ever even find a SINGLE zombie?

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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Sat 27 Jan 2018, 18:05:23

vtsnowedin wrote:Don't think they will ever fix it all and have everything in spanking new condition. There are just too many miles of roads, pipelines, sewer lines, railroad tracks, water mains, and electric grid etc. out there to ever fix it all faster then it is rusting around you.

Oh absolutely. I'm not even remotely pondering having it "all" in anything close to new or even excellent condition. I'm just talking about getting, for example, the bridges to the point where one doesn't have to worry about any of them coming down within a few years because of a real bad storm, etc.

Or the roads to where they are in consistently reasonable condition re potholes, chronic flooding in heavy rains, having signs and signals where appropriate and well enough maintained to consistently see and rely on, etc.

In other words, a reasonable turnover of maintenance to have a reasonably safe and reliable road and bridge network.

There is a tremendous amount of room between some middling ground like that and what we have.

Unlike most voters, I realize that you don't get such maintenance without paying for it. And IMO, who better to pay for it than the people who USE it (drivers of all kinds)?

...

To me, same for the grid, NG lines, water system, etc. I'd be happy to pay more, IF it meant (with someone supervising to ensure real compliance), better maintained systems, a meaningful inventory of crucial spare parts (stored in faraday cages where appropriate), etc. Most taxpayers think I'm crazy, apparently convinced extra tax money won't do squat.

It's really too bad when the system is so screwed up that the faith in it is so bad that voters won't support doing rational maintenance on the infrastructure our lives depend on over time.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby KaiserJeep » Sat 27 Jan 2018, 18:40:51

Outcast_Searcher wrote:-snip-
It's really too bad when the system is so screwed up that the faith in it is so bad that voters won't support doing rational maintenance on the infrastructure our lives depend on over time.


Please, we are adults here, and understand that the electorate is a dumb unthinking beast and that the government is a greedy bunch of self-serving confidence men.

Government is a necessary evil. The reason it is necessary is that people do not act naturally for mutual benefit. That's why we have government, laws, police, and ultimately armed forces. The problem being that all of those groups share the basic corrupt nature of the populace.

I have known decent honorable men and women who serve in government, law enforcement, and the armed forces. I have known decent ordinary folks, and make all efforts to live among them. But decency, honesty, and a desire to benefit your fellow man can never be assumed.
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The Great Crude Oil Fireball Test

Unread postby AdamB » Tue 06 Feb 2018, 11:05:17


If all goes well, a massive fireball of hydrocarbons will ignite in the New Mexico desert some time in the next year. It will be part of a multiyear Department of Energy research project to understand whether the chemical composition of unconventional crude oils changes the risk they pose to the nation’s highways, pipelines, and railroads. If all doesn’t go well, a similar massive fireball could go up over a derailed train, as happened in the town of Lac-Mégantic in July of 2013, killing 42 people, or outside Casselton, North Dakota, in December of that year, where somehow there were no reported injuries. These explosions, and several other high-profile derailments and spills, called attention to the danger of transporting crude oil in unprecedented amounts on the North American rail system. As more pipelines have come into play, the rail-transport boom out of


The Great Crude Oil Fireball Test
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby kublikhan » Wed 13 Jun 2018, 17:14:28

Renewable power accounted for 70% of net additions to global power generating capacity in 2017. Renewable power generation capacity saw its largest annual increase ever with an estimated 178 gigawatts added globally. New solar photovoltaic generating capacity alone was greater than additions in coal, natural gas and nuclear power combined. And while China, Europe and the United States accounted for nearly 75% of the global investment in renewable power and fuels, 2017 saw significant investment in developing country markets. When measured per unit of gross domestic product, the Marshall Islands, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Guinea-Bissau and many other developing countries are investing as much as or more in renewables than developed and emerging economies. These positive developments need to be scaled up for a global energy transition.

The year 2017 was another record-breaking one for renewable energy, characterised by the largest ever increase in renewable power capacity, falling costs, increases in investment and advances in enabling technologies. Many developments during the year impacted the deployment of renewable energy, including the lowest-ever bids for renewable power in tenders throughout the world, a significant increase in attention to electrification of transport, increasing digitalisation, jurisdictions pledging to become coal-free, new policies and partnerships on carbon pricing, and new initiatives and goals set by groups of governments at all levels.

Increasingly, sub-national governments are becoming leaders in renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives. At the same time, many developing and emerging countries are expanding their deployment of and investment in renewables and related infrastructure. The private sector is also increasingly playing a role in driving the deployment of renewable energy through its procurement and investment decisions.

HEATING AND COOLING
Modern renewable energy supplied approximately 10.3% of total global energy consumption for heat in 2015. Another 16.4% was supplied by traditional biomass, predominantly for cooking and heating in the developing world.

TRANSPORT
The renewable energy share of transport continues to be low (3.1%), with more than 90% provided by liquid biofuels. Electrification of the transport sector expanded in 2017 – with electric vehicles (EVs) exceeding 1% of global light vehicle sales – and a number of countries announced plans to phase out sales of petrol and diesel vehicles. There are signs that the shipping and aviation sectors also may become open to electrification. Further electrification of the transport sector has the potential to create a new market for renewable energy and to facilitate the integration of higher shares of variable renewable energy, provided that the policy and market settings are suitable.

POWER
The electricity transition is well under way, due mostly to increases in installed capacity and in the cost competitiveness of solar PV and wind power. Renewable power generating capacity saw its largest annual increase ever in 2017, raising total capacity by almost 9% over 2016. Overall, renewables accounted for an estimated 70% of net additions to global power capacity in 2017, due in large part to continued improvements in the cost-competitiveness of solar PV and wind power.
2018 Renewables Global Status Report
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby kublikhan » Wed 13 Jun 2018, 17:25:43

Code: Select all
Global Power Capacity               
Year   Wind     Solar   Renewable  Coal    All
2006   74 GW    5 GW     1,020 GW   N/A    N/A
2007   94 GW    8 GW     1,070 GW   N/A    N/A
2008   121 GW   13 GW    1,150 GW   N/A    N/A
2009   159 GW   23 GW    1,170 GW   N/A    N/A
2010   198 GW   40 GW    1,260 GW   N/A    N/A
2011   238 GW   70 GW    1,360 GW   N/A    N/A
2012   283 GW   100 GW   1,440 GW   N/A    N/A
2013   318 GW   137 GW   1,560 GW   N/A    N/A
2014   370 GW   177 GW   1,712 GW   1,723  N/A
2015   433 GW   227 GW   1,849 GW   1,807  5,047 GW
2016   487 GW   303 GW   2,017 GW   1,915  6,473 GW
2017   539 GW   402 GW   2,195 GW   1,964  N/A


Code: Select all
Global electricity generation(TWh)                   
Year   Renew   Nukes   Coal    FFs      Total    Renewable Share
2012   4,830   2,346   *****   15,644   22,820   21.20%
2013   5,070   2,359   *****   16,029   23,458   21.60%
2014   5,420   2,465   *****   16,034   23,919   22.70%
2015   5,651   2,571   *****   16,068   24,290   23.30%
2016   5,881   2,612   9,451   16,269   24,930   23.60%
2017   6,221   2,636   9,723   16,528   25,551   24.30%
2018 BP Statisical Review of World Energy
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby kublikhan » Wed 13 Jun 2018, 18:22:20

EVs will displace about 279,000 bpd of oil this year. Buses account for over 80% of that.

China had about 99 percent of the 385,000 electric buses on the roads worldwide in 2017, accounting for 17 percent of the country’s entire fleet. Every five weeks, Chinese cities add 9,500 of the zero-emissions transporters—the equivalent of London’s entire working fleet.

All this is starting to make an observable reduction in fuel demand. And because they consume 30 times more fuel than average sized cars, their impact on energy use so far has become much greater than the passenger sedans produced by companies from Tesla Inc. to Toyota Motor Corp. For every 1,000 battery-powered buses on the road, about 500 barrels a day of diesel fuel will be displaced from the market. This year, the volume of fuel not needed may rise 37 percent to 279,000 barrels a day because of electric transport including cars and light trucks, about as much oil as Greece consumes. Buses account for about 233,000 barrels of that total. “This segment is approaching the tipping point. City governments all over the world are being taken to task over poor urban air quality. This pressure isn’t going away, and electric bus sales are positioned to benefit.”

China is ahead on electrifying its fleet because it has the world’s worst pollution problem. A decade ago, Shenzhen was a typical example of a booming Chinese city that had given little thought to the environment. Its smog became so notorious that the government picked it for a pilot program for energy conservation and zero emissions vehicles in 2009. Two years later, the first electric buses rolled off BYD’s production line there. And in December, all of Shenzhen’s 16,359 buses were electric. Other cities are taking notice. Paris, London, Mexico City and Los Angeles are among 13 authorities that have committed to only buying zero emissions transport by 2025.
Electric Buses
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby kublikhan » Wed 01 May 2019, 16:28:45

In the US last month, renewables passed coal to become the second largest electricity generator for the first time.

In a historic first, renewable energy may have generated more electricity than coal in the entire U.S. for the month of April.

Coal has long been the backbone of the U.S. electric grid. In the 2000s, coal accounted for more than half of electricity generation. But while King Coal was not dethroned overnight, its demise has been years in the making.

According to the EIA’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook, coal-fired power plants only accounted for 20 percent of total U.S. electricity generation in April, while renewables made up 24 percent. It’s the first time on record that renewable energy generated more than coal on a monthly basis. The trend is expected to continue in May, with coal accounting for 21 percent and renewables capturing 22 percent. Natural gas is the largest source of electricity in the U.S. at this point, taking home 35 percent in April and expected to account for 36 percent in May.

Coal-fired generation ebbs and flows depending on prices and seasonal demand, so it will rebound here and there in the months ahead. Coal tends to suffer the most during soft periods of demand in spring and fall, while seeing higher demand in summer and winter. But the trend is clear: Coal is in terminal decline[ in the US].

As renewable energy continues to scale up and coal-fired power plants continue to shut down, renewables will top coal on a monthly basis more frequently.
U.S. Renewable Energy Just Set An Historic Record
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby Newfie » Thu 02 May 2019, 15:24:50

That sounds like good news. What would be better is if overall consumption decreased.
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby kublikhan » Fri 31 May 2019, 19:47:41

The amount of electricity generated in the UK last year fell to its lowest level in a quarter century.

At the same time, output from renewable sources rose to another record high, generating an estimated 33% of the UK total in 2018. In combination with nuclear, low-carbon sources contributed 53% of UK generation in 2018, with the share from fossil fuels at its lowest ever.

Generation in 2018 was some 63TWh (16%) lower than in 2005. Overall, the amount of electricity generated per person in the UK has fallen by 24% since 2005, down to its lowest level since 1984 (34 years).

Growing economy
The UK trend since 2005 breaks with the economic orthodoxy that a growing economy must be fuelled by rising electricity use. Instead, the economy has continued to grow even as electricity generation has levelled off and then started to decline, as the chart below shows.

A similar, if less extreme version of the UK decoupling of GDP and electricity use has been taking place in many other developed countries as their economies shift away from energy-intensive industries towards services and high-value manufacturing. This includes the US, where electricity demand has been flat for a decade after more than half a century of uninterrupted growth. This shift towards a service-led economy initially saw growing imports of goods and their associated CO2 emissions. However, the outsourcing of UK emissions stopped growing around 2007.

Code: Select all
UK electricity generation share 2018:
gas:     39%
nuclear: 19%
wind:    17%
biomass: 11%
coal:     5%
solar:    4%
hydro:    2%
other:    3%
Analysis: UK electricity generation in 2018 falls to lowest level since 1994

Biomass has a potentially important role to play in meeting UK climate targets, but needs to be used in a different way in future, the CCC says in a report published today. Existing biomass power subsidies – which mostly expire in 2027 – should be allowed to run their course, adds the government’s official climate advisory body.

The UK’s use of biomass for energy has significantly increased over the past decade. Home-grown supplies of plant biomass have expanded, including straw and energy crops. Anaerobic digestion has also grown. This involves wastes being used to produce gas in the absence of oxygen. But much of the increase has been met with imported wood pellets where supplies have more than tripled.

Most of these imported wood pellets are burnt at Drax in Yorkshire – formerly Europe’s largest coal plant – which has converted four of its six units to use biomass instead. These imports account for around a quarter of UK bioenergy.
UK should ‘move away’ from large-scale biomass burning
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby kublikhan » Wed 26 Feb 2020, 18:19:49

Alternative fuels and advanced hybrid drivetrains powered more than half of all transit buses in 2017 and 2018. In the ten-year period from 2008 to 2018, the share of conventional diesel buses dropped from 70% to 42%. Natural gas and diesel hybrid drivetrains have replaced the greatest share of diesel buses followed by biodiesel and “other” buses, which include hydrogen, electric, and propane.
More than half of transit buses in the US were powered by alternative fuels and advanced technologies in 2018

Code: Select all
Year Percent of US public transit buses using alt fuels
1996 4%
2000 8%
2006 18%
2011 35%
2015 48%
2018 57%


Code: Select all
2018 US transit bus breakdown
Fuel Type       Percent of Buses
Diesel/gasoline 43.3%
Natural gas     28.5%
Hybrid          20.9%
biodiesel        6.4%
other            0.9%

2019 Public Transportation Fact Book(Table 34)
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Re: Energy Infrastructure Progress Report

Unread postby kublikhan » Wed 04 Mar 2020, 17:38:25

Well, it happened once again. Sales of electricity in the US declined in 2019 by a significant 2.8%, despite solid domestic economic growth with real GDP increasing 2.3%. Sales across all categories of users—residential, commercial and industrial— all fell. To put this in context electricity sales have fallen in five of the past ten years.

From 2010-2019 electricity sales actually declined by a slight 0.1% while real GDP rose 22%, the population increased 7% and industrial production rose 17%. Note especially the last number. It has been an easy (and we believe lazy) claim to attribute every slackening period of electricity demand to a weak or disappearing manufacturing sector. In this ten-year period of industrial growth, electricity sales to industrial customers nevertheless declined by 2%.

Server farms, pot farms, bitcoin mines and even electric vehicles—why don’t these new, supposedly prodigious consumers of electricity push upward electricity consumption in the aggregate? The annual drip-drip-drip of efficiency measures applied to electricity consumption throughout the economy offsets new sources of demand. Lower consumption due the switch to more energy efficient LED lighting by itself may have offset a large part or all of the growth in demand from the three new uses.
Has U.S. Electricity Lost Its Spark?
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