Peak Oil News and Message Boards

dohboi wrote:"You can beg China and India and other nations not to build coal-fired plants all you want, but begging isn't going to make the Chinese stop."

India, either, apparently:

India still plans to double coal output by 2020 and rely on the resource for decades afterwards, a senior official said on Monday, days after rich and poor countries agreed in Paris to curb carbon emissions blamed for global warming....
...there were limitations to clean energy and coal would remain the most efficient energy source for decades, he said.

http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2015/12 ... -wont.html

"So you ride yourselves over the fields and
you make all your animal deals and
your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick."

GHung wrote:Plant said; " You'd last about 30 seconds waving "a big freakin sign" around in Tienamen Square---the Chinese military is everywhere there and so are the Chinese plainclothes security police."

Holy chit, Plant, you're as thick as a freakin' brick.

onlooker wrote: Anybody see any and I mean any indication that the world either the politicians or people really want to change direction? I do not. This latest Paris treaty is the perfect proof. Just alot of baloney and kicking the can down the road. Voluntary, Non enforceable and just for good measure strewn out over the entire century. What a huge JOKE. No longer is doom a state of mind it is simply reality.

Plantagenet wrote:Unfortunately Obama and the Chinese got in a tiff, and the Bali agreement was never ratified. Then Obama came up with the dumb idea of abandoning 20 years of work on the binding treaty, and instead instructed the US delegation to work towards another Kyoto-style non-binding agreement at Paris.

It didn't have to be this way---but Obama derailed the whole UN treaty process by abandoning the whole idea of crafting a treaty that would require binding limits on CO2 production.

We believe humanity can still prevent civilization-destroying global warming – but only if we undertake a WWII-scale Mobilization to restore a safe climate immediately. We need to transition off of fossil fuels and carbon-intensive agriculture as soon as humanly possible. That means an emergency restructuring of the entire economy at wartime speed to achieve net zero emissions in the U.S. by 2025, net zero emissions globally by 2030, as well as an urgent effort to draw down the excess carbon dioxide that has accumulated in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.

dohboi wrote:http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/12/16/paris-climate-talks-and-15c-target-wartime-scale-mobilization-our-only-option-left?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

The Paris Climate Talks and the 1.5C Target: Wartime-Scale Mobilization is Our Only Option Left

We believe humanity can still prevent civilization-destroying global warming – but only if we undertake a WWII-scale Mobilization to restore a safe climate immediately. We need to transition off of fossil fuels and carbon-intensive agriculture as soon as humanly possible. That means an emergency restructuring of the entire economy at wartime speed to achieve net zero emissions in the U.S. by 2025, net zero emissions globally by 2030, as well as an urgent effort to draw down the excess carbon dioxide that has accumulated in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.

Good to hear that at least some group out there is speaking about the urgency needed to have any glimmering chance to avoid the even more horrific consequences than we face from our current and even only slightly higher global temperatures.

onlooker wrote:Would of sounded alot better if those at the Paris conference would have talked this way. Oh well.

pasttense wrote:Plantagenet:
Are you totally unaware of the political situation in the United States? The Republicans have zero interest in doing anything about climate change. No binding treating would have been approved by the Senate.

pasttense wrote:Plantagenet:
Are you totally unaware of the political situation in the United States? The Republicans have zero interest in doing anything about climate change. No binding treating would have been approved by the Senate.

German coal, gas plant output at 5-year high in January

London (Platts)--3 Feb 2017 920 am EST/1420 GMT

* January average coal output at 17.3 GW, highest since Feb 2012
* Coal, gas ramped up to offset nuclear outages, low wind, demand gains
* Day-ahead power average at 59-month high, spot spikes to 2008-high

German coal and gas-fired power plant output in January rose to its highest in almost five years as cold weather boosted demand while below average wind and record-low winter nuclear availability reduced supply, according to power generation data compiled by think-tank Fraunhofer ISE.

The increased need to ramp up even less efficient thermal power plants helped to lift the day-ahead monthly average power price to its highest since February 2012 with spot prices spiking at their highest since 2008 at the height of the cold spell in late January, S&P Global Platts data shows. Output from coal-fired power plants was 12.9 TWh in January, up 37% on year and averaging around 17.3 GW for the whole month, a level not reached since the extended cold spell back in February 2012, the data shows.

Coal also removed lignite from the top of the power mix in January with lignite plants already running near maximum available capacity.

The increased coal burn may also have aggravated supply issues for coal transport on barges down the River Rhine with both RWE and EnBW warning of potential supply interruptions for some power plants inland and especially in southern Germany.

Very low Rhine levels still prevent barges from being fully loaded with coal, adding a premium to transport, according to sources.

Cold weather across Europe also lifted demand not just in Germany but also neighboring countries, especially France and the Alpine region.

Load in Germany itself was around 7% higher on year at 45.2 TWh, according to the Fraunhofer 'energy charts' data mainly based on TSO reports.

Output from gas plants also rose to its highest level since February 2012 at 5.6 TWh, up 14% on year, but with only a limited number of gas-fired plants reporting.

The Fraunhofer ISE data does not capture the full picture for gas plants with many combined heat-power plants (CHP) not accounted for in that data, but cold weather in general will see CHP plant output ramped to near maximum levels with a number of new CHP plants helping to boost overall gas-fired power output.

LACK OF WIND, NUCLEAR OUTAGES SEE POWER PRICES SPIKE

Wind power output in January dropped below 8 TWh, down 15% on year and averaging around 10.7 GW despite reaching a new hourly record just below 36 GW, the data shows.

Daily average wind production swung between 29.5 GW on January 4 and just 1.3 GW on January 24 when German spot power prices spiked above Eur100/MWh for the first time since 2008, the data shows.

German day-ahead baseload power prices averaged at Eur51.51/MWh this January, 74% above last January, Platts pricing data shows. Finally, nuclear output registered the biggest monthly deficit, down by over 2 TWh compared to last year with just 5.7 TWh generated, the lowest for a winter month in the modern nuclear era -- amid an unprecedented winter refueling schedule for four of the remaining eight reactors due to the expiry of the nuclear fuel tax at the end of 2016.

German nuclear operators had the short refueling stops scheduled many months in advance amid generally very low power prices over recent years.