‘Renewable surge powers all UK homes in 2023’
Renewable electricity production in the UK reached a significant milestone
in 2023, generating more than 90 terawatt hours (TWh) of power from wind,
hydro and solar sources. This amount surpasses the energy needed to power
all of the UK’s 28 million homes.
Energy Live News 2nd Jan 2024
Swedish nuclear outage extended by 3 weeks
The outage coincides with a winter cold snap that has sent Nordic temperatures to their lowest levels in decades
Terje Solsvik, Reuters News, January 3, 2024, https://www.zawya.com/en/world/uk-and-europe/swedish-nuclear-outage-extended-by-3-weeks-njnyjkcb
A partial outage at Sweden’s Forsmark 2 nuclear reactor was extended by three weeks until Jan. 24 while repairs are made to a generator, the operator said in a market message posted via Nordic power exchange Nord Pool on Wednesday.
Forsmark Block 2 will operate at just 490 megawatt (MW) of its total 1,121 MW capacity, the note said.
The outage coincides with a winter cold snap that has sent Nordic temperatures to their lowest levels in decades, boosting demand for electricity in heating. (Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Nora Buli)
Why Artificial Intelligence is a disaster for the climate.
What this excellent article does not go on to explain is that the “tech gods” (that’s Musk, Gates, Bezos etc) are happy to have nuclear power expand – to fill the endless hunger for electricity of artificial intelligence and the rest of the digital marvels to come.
AI requires staggering amounts of computing power. And since computers require electricity, and the necessary GPUs (graphics processing units) run very hot (and therefore need cooling), the technology consumes electricity at a colossal rate. Which, in turn, means CO2 emissions on a large scale – about which the industry is extraordinarily coy, while simultaneously boasting about using offsets and other wheezes to mime carbon neutrality.
Guardian, John Naughton, 24 December 23
Amid all the hysteria about ChatGPT and co, one thing is being missed: how energy-intensive the technology is.
What to do when surrounded by people who are losing their minds about the Newest New Thing? Answer: reach for the Gartner Hype Cycle, an ingenious diagram that maps the progress of an emerging technology through five phases: the “technology trigger”, which is followed by a rapid rise to the “peak of inflated expectations”; this is succeeded by a rapid decline into the “trough of disillusionment”, after which begins a gentle climb up the “slope of enlightenment” – before eventually (often years or decades later) reaching the “plateau of productivity”.
Given the current hysteria about AI, I thought I’d check to see where it is on the chart. It shows that generative AI (the polite term for ChatGPT and co) has just reached the peak of inflated expectations. That squares with the fevered predictions of the tech industry (not to mention governments) that AI will be transformative and will soon be ubiquitous. This hype has given rise to much anguished fretting about its impact on employment, misinformation, politics etc, and also to a deal of anxious extrapolations about an existential risk to humanity.
All of this serves the useful function – for the tech industry, at least – of diverting attention from the downsides of the technology that we are already experiencing: bias, inscrutability, unaccountability and its tendency to “hallucinate”, to name just four. And, in particular, the current moral panic also means that a really important question is missing from public discourse: what would a world suffused with this technology do to the planet? Which is worrying because its environmental impact will, at best, be significant and, at worst, could be really problematic.
How come? Basically, because AI requires staggering amounts of computing power. And since computers require electricity, and the necessary GPUs (graphics processing units) run very hot (and therefore need cooling), the technology consumes electricity at a colossal rate. Which, in turn, means CO2 emissions on a large scale – about which the industry is extraordinarily coy, while simultaneously boasting about using offsets and other wheezes to mime carbon neutrality.
The implication is stark: the realisation of the industry’s dream of “AI everywhere” (as Google’s boss once put it) would bring about a world dependent on a technology that is not only flaky but also has a formidable – and growing – environmental footprint. Shouldn’t we be paying more attention to this?
Fortunately, some people are, and have been for a while. A study in 2019, for example, estimated the carbon footprint of training a single early large language model (LLM) such as GPT-2 at about 300,000kg of CO2 emissions – the equivalent of 125 round-trip flights between New York and Beijing. Since then, models have become exponentially bigger and their training footprints will therefore be proportionately larger.
But training is only one phase in the life cycle of generative AI. In a sense, you could regard those emissions as a one-time environmental cost. What happens, though, when the AI goes into service, enabling millions or perhaps billions of users to interact with it? In industry parlance, this is the “inference” phase – the moment when you ask Stable Diffusion to “create an image of Rishi Sunak fawning on Elon Musk while Musk is tweeting poop emojis on his phone”. That request immediately triggers a burst of computing in some distant server farm. What’s the carbon footprint of that? And of millions of such interactions every minute – which is what a world of ubiquitous AI will generate?……………………………………………………more https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/23/ai-chat-gpt-environmental-impact-energy-carbon-intensive-technology
Talen Energy Is Building Data Centers That Run on Nuclear Power. Now, It Needs to Find Buyers
A potential partnership for data campus can boost independent power producer’s earnings
WSJ, By Soma Biswas, Dec. 27, 2023
Independent nuclear power company Talen Energy is betting its future on supplying power to technology companies that are looking for carbon-free energy sources to develop their artificial-intelligence capabilities.
Talen, which exited bankruptcy this year, is developing a 1,200-acre data-center campus with dedicated power supply from the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Berwick, Pa., according to the company’s public presentations. Talen could lease, sell or form a joint venture with technology companies such as Google, Microsoft or Amazon.com to operate the facility, according to Talen shareholders and a report by investment bank Oppenheimer.
In December, Oppenheimer analysts initiated coverage of the company, and added that such a deal could boost the company’s cash flow by $50 million annually. A power-supply contract to a tenant or buyer would yield higher rates than what Talen would earn in the wholesale power market since commercial customers, such as data centers, pay more for electricity, the company has said. ……………………………. (Subscribers only) more https://www.wsj.com/articles/talen-energy-is-building-data-centers-that-run-on-nuclear-power-now-it-needs-to-find-buyers-c9c8c4a9—
CSIRO says wind and solar much cheaper than nuclear, even with added integration costs
The big mover – and one that is significant in the context of the Australian debate on the energy transition, and the federal Coalition’s insistence that nuclear is the answer to most questions – is the cost of nuclear and small modular reactors.
Giles Parkinson 21 December 2023 ReNewEconomy
The CSIRO has published the latest edition of its important GenCost report, and responded to critics by dialling in near term integration costs for wind, solar and storage. But the result is just the same – renewables are clearly Australia’s cheapest energy option, and the story for nuclear just got a whole ot worse.
The annual GenCost report, prepared in collaboration with the Australian Energy Market Operator since 2018, is an important guide to where Australia’s energy transition is at and where it should be heading, but over the past has become the target of attack from conservative naysayers and the pro-nuclear lobby.
CSIRO has defended its methodology, but to satisfy the critics has added in pre-2030 integration costs – including the new transmission lines being built to connect new generation – and finds that the story is much the same.
“While this change leads to higher cost estimates, variable renewables (wind and solar) were still found to have the lowest cost range of any new-build technology,” the CSIRO says, noting that this includes all integration costs up to and including 90 per cent renewables.
In the past year, cost of solar and offshore wind has fallen, the cost of battery storage has remained steady, but the cost of other technologies such as onshore wind and pumped hydro has increased.
The big mover – and one that is significant in the context of the Australian debate on the energy transition, and the federal Coalition’s insistence that nuclear is the answer to most questions – is the cost of nuclear and small modular reactors.
The CSIRO has been attacked by the pro-nuclear lobby, including conservative media and right wing think tanks, for what the lobby claims are inflated cost estimates, but the CSIRO says recent events have backed its numbers. In fact, they make clear that nuclear SMR costs are worse than thought.
CSIRO economist Paul Graham points to the collapse of a major deal this year involving the most advanced SMR projects in the US, the NucScale projects in Utah, which were withdrawn because of soaring costs.
Graham says it is significant because, as NuScale was listed and had to abide by strict regulatory disclosure rules, it had to be “honest” about the anticipated costs of SMRs.
And these were nearly double what was previously thought. In fact they ended up at the equivalent of $A31,000/MW, according to NuScale filings, and much higher than the $A19,000/MW estimated by the CSIRO in its previous report, and for which it was accused of inflating.
“The UAMPS (Utah utility) estimate implies nuclear SMR has been hit by a 70 per cent cost increase which is much larger than the average 20% observed in other technologies,” the CSIRO writes.
“The cancellation of this project is significant because it was the only SMR project in the US that had received design certification from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission which is an essential step before construction can commence.” Graham says that all other claims on nuclear SMR costs are just marketing and sales talk.
The reality, however, is that talk of nuclear SMRs as a solution for Australia’s energy transition and near term emissions targets are a distraction, given that the SMR technology is simply not available, and unlikely to be so for two decades.
The CSIRO report says some interesting things about the costs of wind and solar, technologies which are available and which do work. It says the costs of these technologies will continue to fall in coming years after the various price shocks that have affected the technologies over the last couple of years.
By including the costs of transmission and storage that is underway now and committed out to 2030 adds 40 to 60 per cent to the 2023 cost of deploying high shares of wind and solar, although that also ignores the technologies cost falls that will occur over time……………………………………………………………………………………….more https://reneweconomy.com.au/csiro-says-wind-and-solar-much-cheaper-than-nuclear-even-with-added-integration-costs/
German nuclear plant to be replaced by Europe’s biggest battery.
PreussenElektra, operator of the decommissioned Brokdorf nuclear power
plant in northern German state Schleswig-Holstein, which was taken offline
at the end of 2021, wants to transform the site into a power storage
facility, reports NDR.
Initial plans could see a 100-megawatts (MW) battery
plant operating on a site close to the nuclear power station in 2026. A
second phase would add 700-megawatts of capacity, hosted on the 12-hectare
site of the nuclear power plant itself. (No storage duration was cited).
The company hopes to have the entire project online in 2036, but is waiting
for authorisation to begin dismantling the decommissioned reactor.
Renew Economy 15th Dec 2023
Chernobyl, site of world’s worst nuclear disaster, could soon be home to an exciting new project: ‘Tolerable exposure levels for limited periods of time’
Jeremiah Budin, November 20, 2023 , https://news.yahoo.com/chernobyl-world-worst-nuclear-disaster-213000130.html
Chernobyl, the site of the world’s most well-known nuclear disaster, has been essentially abandoned since the infamous reactor meltdown of 1986 — with good reason, as the site has been contaminated by radiation.
Nonetheless, Ukraine now plans to give Chernobyl a makeover that will have it generate power once again. But this time, it’s going to be a massive wind farm.
The current plan, according to a report from Popular Mechanics, is to turn Chernobyl into a one-gigawatt wind farm, which would be one of the largest in Europe. At full capacity, the wind farm could power up to 800,000 homes in nearby Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, according to the report.
As for whether it will actually be safe for workers to spend time in the radiated zone, the answers are somewhat unclear. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there is still radioactive material in the atmosphere, but it exists at “tolerable exposure levels for limited periods of time.”
However, there were also reports of Russian soldiers experiencing radiation sickness as recently as last year after digging into the dirt near the power plant. Russian forces seized the Chernobyl site during its invasion of Ukraine and held it for several weeks before abandoning it.
The Ukrainian government and Notus Energy, the German company that has been brought on to build out the project, are reportedly still assessing how to move forward safely. While there are certainly concerns around the projects, the Chernobyl site also comes with big upsides, as there is already a lot of power plant infrastructure in place. Furthermore, no residents will be displaced by the project, as the radiation zone is still basically a ghost town.
There is also a nice symmetry to the site of one of the world’s worst-ever power-related disasters being rehabilitated into a modern power plant that can produce clean, renewable energy that allows Ukraine to transition away from harmful dirty energy sources.
It could “become a symbol of clean, climate-friendly energy, providing Kyiv with green electricity,” said Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi, Ukraine’s deputy ecology minister.
Portugal made great strides in renewable energy.
This week Portugal made strides to meet its 2045 deadline, by producing
more renewable energy than it needed for 149 hours straight – a new record.
Portugal aims to generate 85% of its electricity from renewable sources by
2030 and be carbon neutral by 2045 – five years earlier than most European
nations.
Positive News 10th Nov 2023
Solar panel advances will see millions go off grid, scientists predict
Solar energy costs have fallen 90 per cent over the last decade, while new discoveries have seen efficiency rates rise
More than 30 million homes in Europe could meet all their energy needs
using rooftop solar panels alone, according to a new study. Researchers
from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany found that more than
50 per cent of Europe’s 41 million freestanding homes could have been
self-sufficient in 2020 using just solar and batteries, with this figure
expected to rise to 75 per cent by 2050.
Advances with solar technology
mean that it will also make it economically viable for a portion of these
freestanding single-family homes to abandon the electrical grid altogether
in the coming decades. Rather than abandoning the grid altogether, however,
the researchers said it would make more sense at a macroeconomic scale for
households to remain connected and feed excess energy back to other users
during times of overproduction.
Independent 3rd Nov 2023
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/solar-panels-cost-renewable-energy-b2440891.html #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
Nuclear plays minor role in IEA World Energy Outlook 2023
31 October 2023
IEA’s new World Energy Outlook 2023 sees a phenomenal rise of clean energy technologies. It describes an energy system in 2030 in which clean technologies play a significantly greater role than today. This includes almost 10 times as many electric cars on the road worldwide; solar PV generating more electricity than the entire US power system does currently; renewables’ share of the global electricity mix nearing 50%, up from around 30% today; heat pumps and other electric heating systems outselling fossil fuel boilers globally; and three times as much investment going into new offshore wind projects than into new coal- and gas-fired power plants…………………………………………….
The WEO-2023 proposes a global strategy for getting the world on track by 2030 that consists of five key pillars. These are: tripling global renewable capacity; doubling the rate of energy efficiency improvements; slashing methane emissions from fossil fuel operations by 75%; innovative, large-scale financing mechanisms to triple clean energy investments in emerging and developing economies; and measures to ensure an orderly decline in the use of fossil fuels, including an end to new approvals of unabated coal-fired power plants.
It is notable that the press release makes no mention at all of nuclear. The 353-page report itself mentions nuclear 114 times – mostly in passing or in tables. By contrast, renewables are mentioned 174 times, solar 408 times, wind 233 times coal 492 times and gas 792 times.
The only reference to nuclear in the Foreword is to note: “A second difference between the 1970s and today is that we already have the clean energy technologies for the job in hand. The 1973 oil shock was a major catalyst for change, driving a huge push to scale up energy efficiency and nuclear power. But it still took many years to ramp them up while some other key technologies like wind and solar were still emerging. Today, solar, wind, efficiency and electric cars are all well established and readily available – and their advantages are only being reinforced by turbulence among the traditional technologies. We have the lasting solutions to today’s energy dilemmas at our disposal.”
…………………………………………………. in line with previous IEA publications, the overall impression is that nuclear is at best, an afterthought, which receives only grudging attention.
Nuclear Engineering International 31st Oct 2023
https://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsnuclear-plays-minor-role-in-iea-world-energy-outlook-2023-11258986 #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
Is Energy Efficiency our Panacea for Power?
Forbes Saleem H. Ali, Environmental systems scientist at the University of Delaware, 29 Oct 23
Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment hosted their annual meeting on October 27th with an informative and entertaining keynote by Amory Lovins, founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and on the adjunct faculty of Stanford’s newly endowed Doerr School of Sustainability. Mr. Lovins, who is a MacArthur Fellow, was introduced by Dr. Barry Rand, who heads external relations for the center, as the “Einstein of Energy Efficiency.” In his presentation, the take-home message from Mr. Lovins was that we neither need massive sources of baseload power such as nuclear energy or massive battery storage for renewable energy infrastructure to meet our energy needs for the foreseeable future.
Instead, we need a smart transition to energy efficiency and a more robust interlocked grid which is able to act as backup for baseload power.
Furthermore, Mr. Lovins also suggested that carbon capture and storage and other forms of engineered “decarbonization” were largely unnecessary as well because a much faster transition away from fossil fuels was possible……………………………………………
Energy efficiency and a relatively less painless transition towards a lower carbon future are perhaps within our reach, but in a world of suboptimal decision-making we cannot be complacent that the best paths will be chosen. Furthermore, research on multiple new energy sources such as geological hydrogen or nuclear fusion will provide us with a broader range of opportunity sets if the material-energy nexus becomes a constraint in specific pathways for renewables.
We are at an exciting moment in the Anthropocene where a systems perspective on energy is being embraced by eminent research institutes, and consumers are becoming more informed about their resource usage decisions. Embracing efficiency is a first but not the final step to securing our future. https://www.forbes.com/sites/saleemali/2023/10/29/is-energy-efficiency-our-panacea-for-power/?sh=10843fc04b6d #nuclear #antinuclear #NoNukes
Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than most countries, study suggests
To offset the carbon footprint of mining the leading cryptocurrency, a UN report has said more than 3.9 billion trees would need to be planted.
Sky News, Tuesday 24 October 2023
Bitcoin mining consumes more electricity than most countries, according to a new report on its damaging environmental impact.
Mining is the process by which transactions are added to and validated on the blockchain, the public ledger for cryptocurrencies.
Competing miners race to use computers to solve complex mathematical puzzles using extremely powerful hardware – receiving new Bitcoin as a reward for their efforts.
In 2020 to 2021, Bitcoin consumed 173.42 terawatt hours of electricity – enough to rank it 27th among nations, trumping the likes of Pakistan with a population of over 230 million people.
The resulting carbon footprint was the equivalent of burning 84 billion pounds of coal……………………………………………………………………………..
At the time of the UN study in 2021, China was by far the biggest Bitcoin mining nation – but it has since been overtaken by the US after Beijing launched an aggressive clampdown on the practice.
Combined, the 10 countries that mined the most Bitcoin were responsible for 92% of the climate footprint……………………………………………….. https://news.sky.com/story/bitcoin-mining-consumes-more-electricity-than-most-countries-study-suggests-12991456?fbclid=IwAR0y79GtFUU0bYTTo_bP2LbMSt5ybmCw19OTTF2jPZAUUWktAcYQJvDOSaQ#:~:text=In%202020%20to%202021%2C%20Bitcoin,84%20billion%20pounds%20of%20coal
South Australia is leading the world on the integration of wind and solar.
There is little doubt that South Australia is leading the world on the
integration of wind and solar. Now, it’s about to take an even bolder
leap into a deep green energy future through its hydrogen jobs plan.
The state has sourced more than 70 per cent of its electricity demand from wind
and solar over the past year, and when RenewEconomy interviewed state
energy minister Tom Koutsantonis on Sunday afternoon for its Energy
Insiders podcast, it was nearing the end of a 60-hour period where it
average more than 100 per cent wind and solar. Earlier that day, the state
had reached a stunning new peak of 264 per cent “potential” wind and
solar, the combination of renewable energy actually produced, and the
renewable energy curtailed by the lack of a market.
South Australia response to the this excess of green energy is to encourage even more, with
another bold step that it hopes will make it a global leader in green
hydrogen, just as it has done with renewables.
Renew Economy 25th Oct 2023 #Australia #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
Dunkelflaute (or… can we keep the lights on when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine?)
Prof. Andrew Blowers tackles this question in the BANNG column for Regional Life, October, 2023 https://www.banng.info/news/dunkelflaute/—
The Blackwater estuary is a place where sea, land and sky meet. It is a vast natural environment where wind and sun provide unlimited resources that are transforming our energy supply as we shift from fossil fuels to low carbon renewables, in the desperate race to avert impending climate catastrophe.
There is one problem with a carbon free energy future built on wind and sun. That problem is Dunkelflaute, a German word meaning ‘dark doldrums’, times when there is little wind and sunlight. Think of those short, dark and windless days in mid-winter when lights and heating are on all day and the demand for power rises and the energy supply system is fully stretched. As we become more dependent on intermittent sources of electricity supply can we keep the lights on?
The answer must be ‘yes’, since not to have light is unthinkable in our modern society. But, how? For some, the answer lies in nuclear power which provides ‘firm power’, continuous generation able to meet baseload whenever Dunkelflaute persists. The Government recently proclaimed that ‘Nuclear is the critical baseload of the future energy system’. But, even if it were true, it hardly justifies the plans for massive investment in outmoded, dangerous and costly nuclear power plants that cannot conceivably be delivered until well into the next decade – if then. Installing big, inflexible nuclear will just get in the way of the flexible supply and demand management system for the future
‘Firm power which cannot be switched off when you don’t need it will be as much of a problem as variable power which cannot be switched on when you do. What is called for is flexibility, in huge quantities and of all types’. (Michael Liebreich quoted in Carbon Brief)
That future lies in wind and solar backed up by green power and by long duration storage (including battery, hydrogen and pumped hydro-electric). Distributed local heat and power systems, interconnectors with other countries and reducing and managing demand through energy efficiency and smart metering will all contribute to an energy system that meets net zero by the middle of the century.
It is already happening. At its present moment of hubris nuclear is already doomed. On the Blackwater estuary, the hulk of Bradwell A provides a forlorn epitaph to a bygone era. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
World may have crossed solar power ‘tipping point’
The world may have crossed a “tipping point” that will inevitably make
solar power our main source of energy, new research suggests. The study,
based on a data-driven model of technology and economics, finds that solar
PV (photovoltaics) is likely to become the dominant power source before
2050 – even without support from more ambitious climate policies.
However, it warns four “barriers” could hamper this: creation of stable
power grids, financing solar in developing economies, capacity of supply
chains, and political resistance from regions that lose jobs.
The researchers say policies resolving these barriers may be more effective
than price instruments such as carbon taxes in accelerating the clean
energy transition. The study, led by the University of Exeter and
University College London, is part of the Economics of Energy Innovation
and System Transition (EEIST) project, funded by the UK Government’s
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Children’s Investment
Fund Foundation (CIFF).
“The recent progress of renewables means that
fossil fuel-dominated projections are no longer realistic,” Dr Femke
Nijsse, from Exeter’s Global Systems Institute.
Exeter University 17th Oct 2023 #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes
1 This Month
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com/
12 February – Webinar The Big Push: New Nuclear Projects in Canada
Thursday, February 12, 7 pm Eastern | 2nd of 4 sessions in the 2026 Nuclear Waste Online webinar series
Join a webinar on the push for new nuclear generation in Canada. Go to Northwatch.org to register or use the registration link https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZfWOf1GITqSRIZX8CB-A9w
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