I just returned from a month in France. Still plenty of single-use water bottles, but also water filling stations in every train station. I traveled exclusively by train -- most full, but if you missed your connection, there's be another train in an hour (or less) (if it wasn't full). US trains are a disgrace. But the most startling, or disturbing?, was the fact that the pilot pointed out the thousands and thousands of icebergs in the sea between Labrador and Greenland. He even dropped the plane 500 feet so we could all get a better look. Was I the only one on that plane to understand why there were so many icebergs?
The idea of batteries reminds me of my first year teaching at Flagler-Palm Coast High School in Florida: the somewhat unusual air conditioning system had been borrowed from nearby Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Electricity rates were much lower during night time hours, so the system used electricity then to create ice cubes. During the day the HVAC system blew air over the ice to cool it, rather than using a regular AC compressor system. The effect - cooler air - is exactly the same, but the rates for cooling are much lower than a system that produced cold air immediately. In effect, the ice behaved much like the batteries described here.
Along the shore of Lake Michigan there is a similar system: a huge reservoir that is several feet above the surface of the big lake. During times of low power usage, water is pumped to the higher level; when demand is higher, the flow is reversed and power is generated. (See "Ludington Pumped Storage Power Plant")
Both of the above cases - and of course the topic of the article here - indicate the myriad ways we can store energy for the short term. Such an ability to manipulate the ebb & flow of energy offers so many more options for power generation that we soon run out of excuses for continuing to burn fossil fuels because "gosh, the sun doesn't shine at night, and the wind doesn't always blow!"
And one of the strategies that saved California's grid on Sept 6 was a "virtual" power source - a network of Tesla wall batteries whose owners had opted into a program that triggered a grid assist from their aggregated batteries when the grid was overburdened. Going forward, as more folks install home batteries AND car companies add bidirectional EV capability which could allow folks to plug their car battery into the grid (Nissan and Mitsubishi make cars with this V2G capability now) through their homes or at a (still to be invented) bidirectional public EV charger, a ton of flexibility will be added to protect the grid. Hawaii has a network of electric hot water heaters managed by a machine learning computer "brain" that delivers super efficient energy usage - yet another strategy that can play a useful role as more folks replace gas water heaters with heat pump electric water heaters.
Tesla's battery network in CA is only drawn upon when the grid is in dire straights. Sunrun is piloting a different virtual power system where their network of batteries is tapped every day at a certain time that may change with seasons. This is how innovation occurs!
The latest exciting storage strategy I've heard about is using old mineshafts surrounded by new renewable energy sources to raise and lower heavy weights! Typically abandoned mines have at least some of the utility connections needed to get juice to the grid, and in many cases they are situated within poverty stricken communities that would benefit dramatically from the jobs these energy storage facilities would create!
I would take issue with a number of assertions here – despite Shue's enthusiasm, there is no evidence that Engine #1 has materially improved Exxon’s approach to its business model. They are still diverting massive amounts of money to technology like carbon capture that most climate scientists say is a waste of resources. We have the technology right now if deployed at scale with government and regulators fully on board and funding from the infrastructure bill and the IRA bill rolled out expeditiously. The transition to a modernized efficient national energy grid is one of the huge bottlenecks. “Carbon capture” is a way to divert attention away from the need to dramatically boost build out and delivery of renewable energy and storage technologies to the grid.
The Freakonomic discussion seems to miss a number of salient points – ESG provides as much carrot as stick. So-called brown firms can lower their cost of capital by simply improving their ESG scores. Many ESG fund managers will own shares of a well run, successful company if it is clearly improving it’s climate, social and governance practices.
I’m very happy that the SEC is requiring more transparency around a company’s ESG metrics.
Finally one of the desired impacts of divestment from the fossil fuel industry is to impair their “social license” – make people aware of their long history of willingness to sacrifice a livable climate for short term financial reward. To move the US out of it’s moral abyss I believe it is paramount to come to terms with the devastating negative consequences of the US version of capitalism.
Despite being the wealthiest country in history the US has created a society where huge portions of the population live paycheck to paycheck and suffer from the scourge of medical debt and poor quality healthcare and where a tiny fragment of society has a vastly disproportionate impact on the political process, the judicial process and tax policy and live like kings and queens by legally exploiting and extracting massive amounts of profit from the labor of their employees. Over half the discretionary national budget goes to warring. Trillions of dollars that could be used to turbocharge our pivot to a green, low-carbon, renewable energy future have been squandered on decades of useless wars and utterly unconscionable tax breaks for wealthy families and corporations.
Changing the mood of our country’s citizens to one of moral outrage and disgust that the fossil fuel dinosaurs have allowed so much climate destruction will hopefully impact the outcomes of elections and the legislation enacted by legislators and help us survive this climate cataclysm bearing down on us. My brother lives in Austin, and without the rapid buildout of solar there, they’d be in danger of mass fatalities from a failing electric grid, due to the “heat dome” in that region.
I just returned from a month in France. Still plenty of single-use water bottles, but also water filling stations in every train station. I traveled exclusively by train -- most full, but if you missed your connection, there's be another train in an hour (or less) (if it wasn't full). US trains are a disgrace. But the most startling, or disturbing?, was the fact that the pilot pointed out the thousands and thousands of icebergs in the sea between Labrador and Greenland. He even dropped the plane 500 feet so we could all get a better look. Was I the only one on that plane to understand why there were so many icebergs?
thank you for the first hand report.
I bet at least a few others on the plane had some clue that all that beauty had an ominous overtone
The idea of batteries reminds me of my first year teaching at Flagler-Palm Coast High School in Florida: the somewhat unusual air conditioning system had been borrowed from nearby Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Electricity rates were much lower during night time hours, so the system used electricity then to create ice cubes. During the day the HVAC system blew air over the ice to cool it, rather than using a regular AC compressor system. The effect - cooler air - is exactly the same, but the rates for cooling are much lower than a system that produced cold air immediately. In effect, the ice behaved much like the batteries described here.
Along the shore of Lake Michigan there is a similar system: a huge reservoir that is several feet above the surface of the big lake. During times of low power usage, water is pumped to the higher level; when demand is higher, the flow is reversed and power is generated. (See "Ludington Pumped Storage Power Plant")
Both of the above cases - and of course the topic of the article here - indicate the myriad ways we can store energy for the short term. Such an ability to manipulate the ebb & flow of energy offers so many more options for power generation that we soon run out of excuses for continuing to burn fossil fuels because "gosh, the sun doesn't shine at night, and the wind doesn't always blow!"
check this out! https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2019/02/13/ice-energy-brings-the-deep-freeze-to-u-s-energy-storage/
yes, there's pump storage, and even--quite remarkably--concrete block storage https://onezero.medium.com/the-new-super-battery-made-of-concrete-aeee436ecc67
I love the concrete towers! Classic use of the elementary-school-physics principle of kinetic vs. potential energy!
And one of the strategies that saved California's grid on Sept 6 was a "virtual" power source - a network of Tesla wall batteries whose owners had opted into a program that triggered a grid assist from their aggregated batteries when the grid was overburdened. Going forward, as more folks install home batteries AND car companies add bidirectional EV capability which could allow folks to plug their car battery into the grid (Nissan and Mitsubishi make cars with this V2G capability now) through their homes or at a (still to be invented) bidirectional public EV charger, a ton of flexibility will be added to protect the grid. Hawaii has a network of electric hot water heaters managed by a machine learning computer "brain" that delivers super efficient energy usage - yet another strategy that can play a useful role as more folks replace gas water heaters with heat pump electric water heaters.
Tesla's battery network in CA is only drawn upon when the grid is in dire straights. Sunrun is piloting a different virtual power system where their network of batteries is tapped every day at a certain time that may change with seasons. This is how innovation occurs!
The latest exciting storage strategy I've heard about is using old mineshafts surrounded by new renewable energy sources to raise and lower heavy weights! Typically abandoned mines have at least some of the utility connections needed to get juice to the grid, and in many cases they are situated within poverty stricken communities that would benefit dramatically from the jobs these energy storage facilities would create!
once we just stop burning stuff, there's little limit to our ingenuity!
If only someone could get the Mormon Church on board. And what about the Catholic Church? After Laudato si they would have to be!
That opening tribute was fantastic. The power of innovation.
Your readers might find this interesting:
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/are-e-s-g-investors-actually-helping-the-environment/
I would take issue with a number of assertions here – despite Shue's enthusiasm, there is no evidence that Engine #1 has materially improved Exxon’s approach to its business model. They are still diverting massive amounts of money to technology like carbon capture that most climate scientists say is a waste of resources. We have the technology right now if deployed at scale with government and regulators fully on board and funding from the infrastructure bill and the IRA bill rolled out expeditiously. The transition to a modernized efficient national energy grid is one of the huge bottlenecks. “Carbon capture” is a way to divert attention away from the need to dramatically boost build out and delivery of renewable energy and storage technologies to the grid.
The Freakonomic discussion seems to miss a number of salient points – ESG provides as much carrot as stick. So-called brown firms can lower their cost of capital by simply improving their ESG scores. Many ESG fund managers will own shares of a well run, successful company if it is clearly improving it’s climate, social and governance practices.
I’m very happy that the SEC is requiring more transparency around a company’s ESG metrics.
Finally one of the desired impacts of divestment from the fossil fuel industry is to impair their “social license” – make people aware of their long history of willingness to sacrifice a livable climate for short term financial reward. To move the US out of it’s moral abyss I believe it is paramount to come to terms with the devastating negative consequences of the US version of capitalism.
Despite being the wealthiest country in history the US has created a society where huge portions of the population live paycheck to paycheck and suffer from the scourge of medical debt and poor quality healthcare and where a tiny fragment of society has a vastly disproportionate impact on the political process, the judicial process and tax policy and live like kings and queens by legally exploiting and extracting massive amounts of profit from the labor of their employees. Over half the discretionary national budget goes to warring. Trillions of dollars that could be used to turbocharge our pivot to a green, low-carbon, renewable energy future have been squandered on decades of useless wars and utterly unconscionable tax breaks for wealthy families and corporations.
Changing the mood of our country’s citizens to one of moral outrage and disgust that the fossil fuel dinosaurs have allowed so much climate destruction will hopefully impact the outcomes of elections and the legislation enacted by legislators and help us survive this climate cataclysm bearing down on us. My brother lives in Austin, and without the rapid buildout of solar there, they’d be in danger of mass fatalities from a failing electric grid, due to the “heat dome” in that region.
The fossil fuel industry's business plan is fundamentally in opposition to a livable climate. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/climate-change/despite-cutbacks-exxonmobil-continues-to-fund-climate-science-denial-79902