21.20 Environmental Issues with Mining Resources for Renewable Energy
This is a briefing note to indicate the massive scale of mining that is required to deliver the raw materials required for the international net zero effort.
Background
Serious environmental issues arise at all stages of wind and solar power generation, from mining to the disposal of turbines, batteries and solar panels at the end of their working lives.
Critical issues with the volume of raw materials required
The transition towards a renewable energy-based economy and electric vehicles requires a complex mix of metals including copper, cobalt and nickel, and rare earths. Many of these have previously only been mined
in small amounts. The International Energy Agency calculated that the needs for “energy transition minerals” such as
Read more ...
21.19 Wind Fails in South Australia
Windpower enthusiasts measure success by the ever-increasing penetration of RE in the electricity grid and especially the high points in South Australia on Sunday afternoons. This enables them to ignore the failure of the system on windless nights.
A chain is only as strong as the weakest link? And the flood defence is only as good as the lowest point of the barrier – never mind the high points or the average height of the defensive wall!
The weak links and the low points of the RE “wall” are windless nights and periods of high demand (breakfast and dinnertime) when the wind is low.
Wind-droughts in August and September last year showed the failure of the system in SA.
The chart shows the amount of wind power generated in South
Read more ...
21.18 The Cost of Green Hydrogen
This note explains the very high cost of electricity generated by burning green hydrogen instead of natural gas in turbines.
Background. There is worldwide enthusiasm for producing ‘green’ hydrogen by electrolysis of water using electricity generated by wind and solar farms. This does not generated CO2, unlike the current commercial methods that extracts hydrogen using coal or gas.
The objective is to use hydrogen as a form of green energy storage.
One of the end uses is to generate electricity in gas turbines using hydrogen as the fuel instead of natural gas.
Critical Issues. The major issue is the cost of production. All the plans for green hydrogen at present are hopes and wishes that depend on major technological advances and
Read more ...
21.17 Fake Climate Alarms
October 2021
The release of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has triggered an explosion of bad news stories about the impending disasters that will be caused by global warming.
The Critical Issue is that fake news is circulating regardless of the best available evidence.
Much of the bad news comes from the 41 page Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis , Summary for Policymakers that is released for the benefit of politicians and journalists who are too busy to read the report.
Frequently the alarming news in the summary is contradicted by the scientific papers in the 4000 pages of the main report
Some of the bad news is not even in the summary, like the widely reported “Code
Read more ...
21.03 Australia is Probably a Carbon Sink
Purpose. To pose the question, do we need to pursue “net zero” if we are already a carbon sink?
Background. According to the Climate Council “Net zero emissions refers to achieving an overall balance between greenhouse gas emissions produced and greenhouse gas emissions taken out of the atmosphere.”
Proposal. It is time for the Government to stop playing the “net zero” game for two reasons.
- Australia is probably already a carbon sink.
- The push to eliminate fossil fuels in favour of RE is not sustainable with the storage technology that is available at present or in the near future.
By comparing Australia’s annual CO2 absorption with the total Australian emissions, we may conclude
Read more ...
