Comment not directly related to Oil or Natural Gas production in this thread. Thanks.
28 thoughts to “Open Thread Non- Petroleum, September 27, 2019”
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Comment not directly related to Oil or Natural Gas production in this thread. Thanks.
Comments are closed.
1962 — US: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is published.
https://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=236927
https://www.technocracy.news/shock-google-claims-it-has-achieved-quantum-supremacy/
“interesting” implications if true
I wonder if they will know what I’m thinking…
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/09/20/imagine_if_facebook_could_read_your_mind_er_i_have_some_bad_news_for_you/
It’s a bit later in the article…
In other parts of the real world-
In the lush green fields of my primarily agrarian constituency of Ambedkar Nagar, it is the season of rice. The 500,000 farmer families in the region have spent the last few months harvesting the winter’s wheat yield, burning their empty fields, and sowing rice seeds. And now, they lie in their huts of grass and mud (an indication of a landless family) or a bungalow of bricks and paint (a landowner family), waiting for the month of June. “The monsoon is late this year,” says Bansiram, staring up at the clear blue skies. “It has been late for the last five years.”
Two more coal power plants closing in Colorado in favor of a 240 MW solar facility.
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/09/28/xcel-energy-solar-pueblo-steel-mill-evraz/
And Now, the Really Big Coal Plants Begin to Close
by Benjamin Storrow / Scientific American
https://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2019/08/16/and-now-the-really-big-coal-plants-begin-to-close/
Except for the ones opening in China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Korea, Japan etc.
https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-worlds-coal-power-plants
When your electricity demand is flat and powered by coal and gas, it is easy to close a few coal power stations.
When your electricity demand requires 40 or 50 new large plants each year, things are a little bit different.
I could be wrong but, the growing number of coal fired power plants might just be momentum, carrying on BAU and building what has traditionally been the cheapest, most reliable way to generate electricity. Renewable sources, specifically solar and wind, are significantly undercutting the cost of electricity generated by coal and it may be that some markets will find that despite the fact that the sun doesn’t shine on demand, it is an inconvenience they are willing to accommodate in favour of significantly lower costs of electricity.
There are pundits who are saying that most of the recently built FF powered generating assets and virtually all the plants currently under construction will become stranded assets long before they are paid off. Meanwhile investments in solar are continuing apace as can be seen from viewing the news at:
https://www.pv-magazine.com/news
Among other stories over at Utility Dive (utilitydive.com), this one about Texas is particularly telling:
Texas wind poised to outstrip coal generation with 87 TWh in 2020, report projects
If coal is failing to hold market share in Texas and as Shyam wrote in his top post on the recent “Electric Power Monthly” thread, Texas is just getting started in solar, how is it going to hold market share in some of the other places where it is being built? We shall see.
Islandboy
It is a mixed picture.
Coal and gas are cheap because they have been built and improved on for over 100 years. They also deliver power 24 hours a day 365 days per year.
It is easy to close down a few coal powered stations where there is excess capacity and build wind or solar.
Where excess does not exist, solar cannot meet demand in the evening and winter. That is why China, India etc and building lots of wind, solar and coal and gas and nuclear.
Meanwhile:
Wind and solar continue rapid growth, help cut Australia’s grid emissions
Australia is expected to be a major source of coal for much of the new coal plants under construction and yet wind and solar are undercutting aging coal plants in Australia. Something does not compute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQxJSe7oryE
It’s official. Jesus was a capitalist and supports republican ideals.
Really now? Do you mean Jesus was an absolute asshole who supported republicans ideals? I suspected it all along. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
Bad Bronze Age fiction—
I hardly think so.
The Bronze Age (About 3700 BC to about 500 BC)
You are right—
So, shall we go with the Iron Age?
Actually, the more ancient parts of the Jewish bible (the so-called Old Testament) do possibly date back to the late Bronze Age.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jahwist
And who knows how far back that writer’s sources go…
Pagan origins of Judaism
https://youtu.be/ZECezMYug8c
Late Bronze Age tribal dogma.
Wondering about life; why not check in on what ancient nomadic goat herders in the Levant had to say about it?
Think of it as an idiot test.
The Creepy Religion That Explains All Of Trump’s Actions
https://www.cracked.com/blog/trumps-bizarre-religion-weirder-than-scientology/
Those Goat Herders were kinda violent:
Our Bloodthirsty Bible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQFI66E12sU
Christianity fit the view.
The dude is snarking. Watch the video. It’s atheists in discussion. Funny stuff.
“Jesus said give away all your stuff. Marx didn’t even say that.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_egalitarianism
Careful now, or someone might come along and type 6 yards on the Obama-Castro conspiracy to dominate the world, starting off with Venezuela of course.
I would imagine it is a lot easier to run an EV charging station compared to a traditional ICE service station.
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1125257_gas-station-shuts-down-pumps-goes-all-in-on-electric-vehicle-charging
Oil is still not all that expensive. Alternatives for basic stuff like passenger transportation are cheaper, but some things are harder to replace. But…I’d say cheap oil depends on what’s included in the price. If society chooses to internalize the cost of pollution (including GHGs) and supply security, then alternatives to FF for and aviation, long distance water freight, seasonal ag, etc would be very competitive. If not, then…not.
Choices, choices…Here’s a question for everyone: have you called your representatives? Even better, have you visited their offices and talked to their staff? There will be someone to whom the representative has delegated research and advice for energy issues – they’re the one to talk to. They’re likely to be impressed with real information, and you might make a difference.
So…have you talked to your representative or their staff, and let them know your priorities??
yes – I have told them I want Brexit …..
that I want safe on demand power that’s cheap . I also pointed to the University of Reading report on wind power and about the reverse forecast of its power output , not to be confused with name plate max output capacity , as it indicates that wind looks to have a factor of 0.2 average with a max of 0.7 ( the 20GW capacity gave max of approx 14GW peak ) .
and yes that does matter , its lower than the previous reported figure of approx 0.33 .
meaning we will need to build more windmills , and that lacking any credible ( so far ) storage , they will still need to be backed by Nat Gas . Or we stuff the greens and build hydro and the Severn Barrage and other such projects because in the end we will have to build them
or nuclear GenIV , or have the lights go out and get someone in who will REALLY get things done….
I doubt it will make any difference as our leaders are so obsessed with power for themselves that they are fighting like a pack of ferrets in a sack .
Forbin
Forbin.
You may want to restate your wind power pronouncements, because as they now stand it is gibberish-
“on wind power and about the reverse forecast of its power output , not to be confused with name plate max output capacity , as it indicates that wind looks to have a factor of 0.2 average with a max of 0.7 ( the 20GW capacity gave max of approx 14GW peak ) .”
Maybe review the definitions of capacity factor, annual generation, peak power.
If you remain severely confused, you could share the information source to have others sort it out for you.
Average EU capacity factor [CF] onshore=22%, offshore=37% as of 2018. Some of the newer big installations offshore have CF over 40%
https://windeurope.org/wp-content/uploads/files/about-wind/statistics/WindEurope-Annual-Statistics-2018.pdf
315 billion-tonne iceberg breaks off Antarctica
https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1178720902370009090
Big ice fractures were looking more highly probable once NASA announced Antarctic ice was growing and the biggest extent ever recorded a couple of years ago. More ice = more ice available to break off.
https://youtu.be/9a3eCHij4Vo