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The blah-blah-blog

As time permits, I'm going to put the esoterica I encounter related to climate change here rather than trying to update the various pages. So this will be in reverse chronological rather than logically organized within the structure of the rest of this website. Please don't rely on this as a consistent and current source for climate change information updates. Sadly, we cannot rely on our corporate-controlled mass media for good information on this, and my time is limited.

Past blog pages:
2019: May    June    July    August    September    October    November    December   
2020:
January    February    March    April    May    June    July [COVID gap]
2021: [COVID gap] October-December
2022: January-February    March    April    May-August    September    October    November-December
2023: January    February    March-April    May-July    August-September    October-November    December
2024: January    February    March    April    May    June    July    August    September   


The 10n10 Catastophic Climate Change Blog - January 2024

2024.02.01 As some jurisdictions are still shy about adding battery storage to save money, businesses are stepping up.

Solar self-consumption boosted as battery cuts grid imports by 94% (pv magazine)
This set-up gives a second-life to Nissan Leaf electric car batteries, allowing the company to store electricity from solar panels during the day and use it to power operations after dark, reducing their overall energy costs and providing the ability to operate during grid outages.
From the article:
the installation of the battery has marked a pivotal step in the company’s journey to achieving a net-zero operation, noting that the battery “gives us the opportunity to store the solar energy we’ve generated during the day and utilise it to meet our energy needs around the clock.”


2024.02.01 We don't have to wait for 'breakthroughs' to address most of our industrial carbon emissions.

We just have to decide to make it financially attractive for industry to get serious about it.
How to decarbonize 85% of all industry using today's technology (New Atlas)


2024.01.31, In summer 2022, sweltering heat killed an estimated 61,672 people across Europe.

Most of those who died already had existing health issues like heart and lung disease. But their deaths were not inevitable: their breathing stopped and their hearts failed in searing temperatures made 160 times more likely by climate change.
Climate change kills millions: An expert explains why most deaths aren't attributed to the crisis (Euronews)


2024.01.30 The deny, delay, disinform strategy continues 70 years later. I guess it's still working.

‘Smoking gun proof’: fossil fuel industry knew of climate danger as early as 1954, documents show (The Guardian)


2024.01.26 The consequences of climate change are more expensive than fixing it ...

unless you're a fossil carbon extraction company. We've known this since the Stern report, or earlier.
Clusters of atmospheric rivers are costlier than expected (Phys.org)


2024.01.25 Dear Alberta, take note, this is how renewables plus storage is done: 3.3 GWh

The US’s largest solar + battery storage project just came online (electrek)


2024.01.25 Canadian taxpayers make all this possible, and foreign-owned oil companies profitable.

Canadian tar sands pollution is up to 6,300% higher than reported, study finds (The Guardian)
"Academics said this means that damaging reactive pollutants from the oil sands are equivalent to those from all other human-made sources across Canada with severe health implications."


2024.01.24 The oil industry lied to us? After we gave them all that money? (sigh)

Total organic carbon measurements reveal major gaps in petrochemical emissions reporting (Science)


2024.01.24 Climate change is like COPD for the lungs of the planet

Global warming was primary cause of unprecedented Amazon drought, study finds (CTV News)


2024.01.24 Not there yet, and progress is too slow, but finally EU CO2 emissions going in the right direction

EU fossil fuel CO2 emissions hit 60-year low (The Guardian)


2024.01.24 Grid transition to renewables for electricity is coming, because it's cheaper than fossil fuels

Australia’s wholesale power prices fall by almost half as carbon emissions drop (The Guardian)


2024.01.23 A twist on agrivoltaics - wildflowers and native grasses for biodiversity.

Here’s how utility-scale solar farms may just help save the bees (electrek)


2024.01.23 SaskPower commits to more solar, after dissing renewables last week

Energy politics in SK and AB (OK, also BC and ON) continue to confuse me. After Danielle Smith falsely accused renewables of being the problem behind power shortages last week (when they were actually the hero of the couple of hours of generation shortfalls from Alberta's natural gas generators going offline due to the weather), here we have SaskPower moving ahead with another tranche of 100 MW of solar panels (and no storage). Although the facility will be built on land owned by SaskPower adjacent to its Boundary Dam generating station, SaskPower won't be building or operating the PV facility. Instead, they're off-loading the financial risk onto an independent power producer (IPP). The biggest risk for this project is that SaskPower may simply choose not to buy the power produced, as the only available market or connection point for this 100 MW of capacity is the SaskPower grid. Not inconceivable as this province could choose to keep burning coal or fossil methane if they can just tweak the numbers to make it look like PV is more expensive.
SaskPower chooses developer for Estevan-area 100 megawatt solar project (Pipeline Online)


2024.01.22 Modelling from Australia

Sceptics, look away: a mostly renewable electricity grid is highly feasible (Cosmos)


2024.01.22 Australia believes in storage for renewables, but at the time of peak demand, the batteries were charging

Queensland smashes demand records in heatwave, and solar eats coal’s lunch again (Renew Economy)


2024.01.21 As you see these energy transition stories out of Australia, it's worth remembering ...

that until just a few years ago, that country was Fortresss Fossil Fuels with an enormous coal sector.
Nuclear goes backwards, again, as wind and solar enjoy another year of record growth (RenewEconomy)


2024.01.21 SMRs have no future outside of Canadian taxpayers - anoother distraction from real solutions

Big costs sink flagship nuclear project (Beyond Nuclear International)
In addition to wasting time and money, SMRs don't in any way resolve the issue of high level nuclear waste or potential for a nuclear incident.


2024.01.19 Who really saved the Alberta electrical grid on January 13th?

Manitoba Hydro hero behind Saskatchewan’s support: Kinew (Winnipeg Free Press)
So, let's see how this really worked. Alberta was in an electricity supply crunch because it turns out their natural gas generating stations were going off-line or reducing output due to the cold weather, and they're supposed to be reliable baseload supply. Unfortunately for Alberta, it was nighttime so solar wasn't producing; the winds were slack due to the still air of the massive cold high pressure system surrounding Alberta, and Alberta has a trivial amount of energy storage to back up their grid. So they imported 150 MW of power from Saskatchewan, nominally from SK's coal-fired generation. That's the fossil-fuel fans' story. But it turns out that Saskatchewan was importing 200 MW of power from Manitoba - more than they were exporting to Alberta, so presumably Saskastchewan was also potentially in a bind without their backstop from the east.
So, how was it that Manitoba, also experiencing the same cold snap, could export electricity to Saskatchewan (and fed through to Alberta)? Because they had additional generation capacity available based on hydro reservoirs. And 'reservoir' is another word for 'storage'.
TL;DR version: Alberta had an electricity supply scare on January 13th because its natural gas baseload generators failed to supply power at capacity due to the cold weather. The key thing that averted blackouts was not coal or fossil methane generation in Saskatchewan as advertised by the Alberta and Saskatchewan premiers, but rather clean electricity from Manitoba Hydro's hydro reservoirs. The premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan served up self-serving disinformation about this incident, and contrary to their narrative, it was renewable energy plus storage that averted blackouts.


2024.01.19 You may have heard recently that wind turbines don't work in the cold. And yet ...

Kotzebue has been producing electricity from wind power successfully since 1997. Kotzebue is in Alaska, north of the Arctic Circle. The average annual temperature there is below the freezing mark. The wind chill value in the depth of winter can drop to -100 degrees F. So, it's kind of cold there.
Do Wind Turbines Stop Working In Freezing Temperatures? (IFL Science)


2024.01.19 If we continue to deny reality, we can't establish effective policy.

Environmentalists say federal tracking of forest health replete with ‘spin’ (Global News)


2024.01.19 North America needs more truck drivers, so trucking companies should care about their workplace.

And the price of electric trucks is dropping, while range and reliability is increasing as we move from prototypes and tiny pilot projects to actual production
Electric Truckers Love Their Rigs, But Employers Don't Love The Costs (Jalopnik)


2024.01.18 When Goldman-Sachs enters the chat, you know taxpayers are going to be screwed.

Canada’s biggest banks behind latest $2-billion loan to Trans Mountain (National Observer)
"Canada’s largest banks continue to pump billions of dollars into the beleaguered Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project after the federal government promised taxpayers would cover the costs if the Crown corporation couldn’t."
"The latest tranche marks Goldman Sachs' first time lending to the project, while the other seven banks have participated in previous loans."
Where I went to school, government backstopping of massive loans that would not happen without the backstop is called a subsidy. And any way you slice it, having a free ride for the for-profit banks is 'inefficient'.


2024.01.18 Oceans absorb 90% of Earth's excess heat. That will have long-term consequences.

When it comes to climate change, we should be paying more attention to our oceans (CBC)


2024.01.18 The fossil fuel shllls smell a story they can twist, and they're not letting go.

Disappearing wind turbines almost leaves Alberta, Canada in the dark (Center for the American Experiment)
Like other fossil fuel shills, CAE chooses to confuse nameplate capacity with generation, and ignore the reality that intermittent generation sources require storage to be considered dispatchable power. As Alberta remains allergic to installing storage (a law passed in the Alberta Legislature in May 2022 to enable energy storage still has not been proclaimed into law), they can keep on trotting out this spurious talking point.
Like other fossil-fuel promoters, CAE doesn't include the inconvenient fact that Alberta's core generation capacity issue a few days ago was that some of its baseload natural gas generators were unexpectedly off-line when they were needed the most; at least one of them because of the weather conditions.
The Alberta government and the AESO have long criticized wind power as a poor solution because it generates nothing when the wind isn't blowing, so they have to keep expanding their fossil fuel generation to have a reliable supply. Yet, when this very situation occurred (a dark, cold, windless night), it caused a scare because the natural gas generation failed to show up to do its job as baseload power.
Per AESO spokesperson Leif Sollid, part of the problem was "one natural gas generator was out on planned maintenance, while frigid temperatures caused several others [natural gas generators] to go off-line completely or partially". The shills can't have it both ways: it's a crisis because we relied on wind and solar and they weren't available when we needed them; or, they're unreliable so we have to plan our system to not rely on them. Pick one story.
Or do the rational thing, and start installing storage for intermittent renewables so they can be a reliable source of dispatchable power. Less than 1% of Alberta's nameplate supply capacity is storage, an afterthought. Yet, it was key to avoiding rolling blackouts on the night of January 13, per the Pembina Institute's Jason Wang. ' Alberta doesn't have much energy storage, and most came online only recently, but Wang noted that it made a difference over the weekend — the grid alerts would have been longer without them, he said. "It basically bought us a couple of hours of time." ' Perhaps the UCP should not have killed the 'capacity initiative' for the Alberta grid in 2019.
If you're wondering what the CAE is, here's a summary from SourceWatch.


2024.01.18 Key fact to counter the headline hysteria: There were ZERO blackouts in Alberta during the cold snap.

Extreme weather a growing risk to Canada's electricity grid: experts (CTV)

We can approach the immediate issue in a number of ways, none mutually exclusive.
a) we could try to actually fix climate change by reducing GHG emissions and waste heat generation.
b) we could actually invest in the power grid to ensure there is energy storage online (pumped, battery ...)
c) we could provide incentives to property owners to reduce their demand for electricity at peak times, create their own local storage, increase efficiency and conservation measures ...
As Alberta has no appetite for solving the problem in a rational way that acknowledges climate change as an issue or shifting to lower cost generation options than fossil methane or coal, there is a looming opportunity for BC to sell electricity to Alberta at high demand times based on transmission capacity and storage - no additional generation capacity required. During the recent cold snap, according to the Alberta government, they bought expensive electricity from Saskatchewan's gas and coal generators. Alberta produces surplus wind power routinely ( driving wholesale prices to $0 as recently as December 26th, 2023), they just aren't prepared to store it within their own borders. So, BC could just take low-cost (or free) electricity from Alberta when it's on offer, store it in BC, and sell it back at a profit a couple of weeks later.

By the way, a more fact-based report on this situation points out that: a) the core cause of low generation during this period was 2 gas plants being off-line b) the things that actually prevented blackouts were voluntary load-shedding and energy from batteries previously charged using renewable energy.
[dead link: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/premiers-pan-green-energy-plans-as-cold-weather-strains-albertas-electricity-grid/ar-AA1mYhLD] batteries were able to supply power for the first time during a grid event


2024.01.17 A less-hysterical report on the Jan. 13th from Calgary

The deceptive politics of winter in Alberta (National Observer)


2024.01.16 So who do you think is willing to pay to slant the messaging on YouTube regarding climate change? And why is it worth it to thme?

YouTube earns millions a year from channels that promote climate denial content, says new report (CBC)


2024.01.15 The EV haters have trotted out another old myth: EVs don't work in the cold.

So, I have been driving EVs for a long time - before it was cool, before Tesla, before the GM Impact ...
So, I know from personal experience that EVs start on cold mornings when the gassers don't. I still recall a bitterly cold morning circa 1983 where my EV and I were late getting me to work. Not because of a problem with the EV, but because I stopped at 3 houses on my street to jump start their gas cars before starting my actual commute.
Electric vehicles fail at a lower rate than gas cars in extreme cold (electrek)


2024.01.15 Why is DFO tilting the playing field in favour of fossil fuel projects instead of carrying out its legally mandated duties?

‘No excuse’: feds withheld key information when a Coastal GasLink site flooded (The Narwhal)


2024.01.15 Solar plus battery storage is displacing fossil fuel generation, because it is more profitable.

South Africa’s biggest solar battery now online — with more power than an old Eskom coal power station (Mybroadband)


2024.01.15 Speaking of Canadian taxpayer subsidies to the oil industry ...

Ironically here on the Ides of January, the feds hand out a few bucks to Canadians labelled the "Climate incentive", while tagging each Canadian with another $2 billion gift to the oil industry to keep the TMX project lurching forward, on top of the CER giving express approval to a change in the pipeline construction route and materials, without a full environmental assessment for the change, just so the previously much-delayed in-service date doesn't get pushed back again. All this for a project that the oil industry itself was not prepared to build because they knew it wasn't economically viable. (Remember Kinder Morgan?)
By my count, we're now at about $1000 per Canadian in tax money to the oil industry just for the still not operational TMX fiasco. That's on top of the $1,250 per year each Canadian is paying in giveaways and subsidies to the oil industry, per the IMF. (See Jan. 8th entry in this blog). Feds approve $2B loan guarantee to help TMX over finish line (National Observer)

If Poilievre wants to axe a tax, how about starting with some big numbers like the massive taxpayer hits feeding foreign-owned oil industry record profits?


2024.01.12 Spoiler: there are mostly losers on a net carbon basis, but all are financial losers for taxpayers.

The article does at least mention that enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is by far the biggest part of the CCUS charade at 75% of existing CCUS capacity world-wide, and most of these projects are funded - at least in part - by taxpayers to fatten up oil industry profits. Not all carbon-capture projects pay off for the climate – we mapped the pros and cons of each and found clear winners and losers (The Conversation)


2024.01.11 From the 'who saw that coming?' files: Leading PR firm lied about climate change change of heart

PR giant Edelman worked with Koch network, despite climate pledges (The Guardian)


2024.01.11 Nice summary article on the Canadian Carbon Capture greenwash sham

Good thing for oil industry profits that Canadian taxpayer money is infinite, so long as it goes to profits of foreign multinationals and not feeding or housing Canadians
Ottawa supports Big Oil’s costly climate scam (Toronto Star)


2024.01.11 UK sees record number of heat pump installations in 2023

Installation of rooftop solar panels in UK hits 12-year high in 2023 (The Guardian)


2024.01.11 More grid-scale battery storage in Australia makes room for more renewable energy production

Key milestone for Western Australia’s biggest battery, with all storage units installed (Renew Economy)


2024.01.10 Another coal-fired generating station gets shut down because a battery is cheaper and better (and cleaner)

A huge battery has replaced Hawaii’s last coal plant (Canary Media)


2024.01.10 More proof we can grow the economy and deliver better quality of life ...

BECAUSE of lowering fossil fuel burning, not in spite of it. But, there's more opportunities available.
U.S. Emissions Fell by 2 Percent in 2023, Even as Economy Grew (Scientific American)


2024.01.10 Why spend money on energy storage when we can just burn more coal? Emmm, because money?

UK could save $31bn through energy storage rollout: report (Recharge)


2024.01.09 Corporate media keeps screaming that EV sales are collapsing ... but, facts

VW sold fewer vehicles - all models including gas and diesel and electric - than Tesla in 2023 in the U.S.
Volkswagen delivered 394,000 EVs in 2023 as it falls behind Tesla (electrek)


2024.01.08 Canadian taxpayers subsidized fossil fuels $50 BILLION in 2022 alone - IMF

Let's see, that's about $5,000 for a household of 4, and at an average tax rate of 25%, that would require the household to earn $20,000 to cover the tax cost. For one year. Now, how much extra are you paying on that mortgage or rent because inflation went up? The worst part, cutting your own living costs doesn't help bring these costs down. Do you find it comforting that these subsidies are going mostly to foreign-owned oil and gas companies currently making record profits? But the legacy of past Conservative governments is that your taxes are paying those subsidies so they can accelerate climate change.
Canada needs to phase out tax breaks for fossil fuels (National Observer)


2024.01.07 In most of the developed world, the electric grid is ubiquitous.

Finding places EV chargers is mostly about looking for existing opportunities.
BT Group to turn old street cabinets into electric vehicle charging points (BBC)


2024.01.05 Again, facts show that the shift to electric vehicles continues, and is not slowing down.

Electric cars dominate new vehicle sales after massive law changes introduced this week (GBN)


2024.01.04 Another massive solar PV installation now fully online: 300 MW

Wisconsin’s largest solar farm is now fully online (electrek)


2024.01.04 Spain ends 2023 with another record for renewable energy production

Spain generated record 50% of power from renewables in 2023 (RTE)


2024.01.04 More coal-fired generation going offline - this time: Germany

Germany’s coal power production drops to lowest level in 60 years in 2023 after nuclear exit (Renew Economy)


2024.01.03 More wind power now supplying the U.S. grid

Two large offshore wind sites are sending power to the US grid for the first time (AP)


2024.01.03 UK in 2023 - 42% of electricity generation from renewables

UK use of gas and coal for electricity at lowest since 1957, figures show (The Guardian)


2024.01.02 The world is transitioning from fossil fuels to less expensive renewable energy.

21 Gigawatts of US Coal to Retire in Next 3 Years, 88–211 Gigawatts of Solar to Join Grid (CleanTechnica)


2024.01.02 Slow down on EV uptake? Not in Norway.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-extends-lead-norway-evs-take-record-82-market-share-2024-01-02/ (Reuters)

However, there likely are places where consumers are slower to shift to electric drive vehicles, and this is largely shaped by the behaviour of big players like the automakers and governments. Norway provides incentives for EVs and disincentives for GHG-belchers. By contrast, some U.S. states are taking precisely the opposite approach, penalizing EVs and subsidizing fossil fuels. Today, I'm looking at Kentucky.
Kentucky electric cars now pay two taxes where gas cars only pay one
Given that Americans are generally allergic to paying taxes, there's no better way to kill a good idea than slapping a couple of visible taxes on it. Still, it's the disinformation underlying the "logic" of this move that really disturbs me. EVs don't cause nearly the wear on roads that heavy trucks do, so a rational approach to funding road maintenance would be based on gross vehicle weight, not the fuel. Incidentally, a big cause of road damage around here is gasoline leaking from vehicles onto asphalt, which dissolves the asphalt. Battery EVs don't leak gasoline or diesel.

Note for Canadians: fuel taxes in Canada are not used for road maintenance. Fuel taxes are collected by federal and provincial governments and go to general revenue. About 99% of roads in Canada are maintained by municipal governments, which don't collect any portion of fuel taxes. Municipal roads are paid by property taxes, even for property owners that don't own a road vehicle.


Past blog pages:
2019: May    June    July    August    September    October    November    December   
2020:
January    February    March    April    May    June    July [COVID gap]
2021: [COVID gap] October-December
2022: January-February    March    April    May-August    September    October    November-December
2023: January    February    March-April    May-July    August-September    October-November    December
2024: January    February    March    April    May    June    July    August    September   

You can find many earlier postings (going back to year 2000) related to climate change at:
Keith's List Archive and
the Sustainable Biofuel List Mail Archive.

I present a lot of information in this blog and on this website. If you need some help sorting through the noise level and getting a forward-looking, proactive approach to climate change for your business, I can do that work for you via my consulting business. Contact

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