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Here’s the thing about renewables like wind and solar that many people don’t get. The “fuel” that makes them work is free. That is not to say the devices we construct to harvest energy from wind and solar don’t cost anything and don’t contribute some greenhouse gas emissions. But let’s not pretend that somehow all the concrete, steel, and piping that go into making a thermal generating plant are inexpensive and carbon free.

And yes, getting the power generated by renewables from where it is made to where it is used requires building new transmission lines. But they don’t leak oil and gas into our rivers and oceans the way pipelines do. Isn’t it odd how fossil fuel apologists question the need for new transmission infrastructure when it involves electricity from renewables but never do when it comes to electricity from thermal sources? One is a scourge while the other is a blessing? Does that make any sense?

The central point is, once the fuel for thermal generating plants gets consumed, we have to go out and find more of it. Prices for coal, oil, and gas aren’t stable. They fluctuate constantly — sometimes wildly — which makes it hard to make long term business decisions. The world is about to get a hard lesson in the true cost of relying on fossil fuels this winter. With unnatural gas in short supply, prices are expected to skyrocket. The cost of electricity in some places could double or triple as a result.

Yet the cost of sunlight never goes up. It is free and always will be. All we have to do is gather it up and distribute it efficiently and humans will have all the electrical energy they could possibly need forever.

Wind Is Solar

Wind is just solar energy in a different format. Think about it. Wind is air moving from one place to another. And what causes the air to move? Temperature differences. And what causes temperature differences? The sun. Whether we are talking about a breeze that fills the sails of a boat or the jet streams that encircle the globe, the sun is the ultimate source of all air movements on Earth.

Denmark Opts For Wind Islands

Denmark has been experimenting with offshore wind power since 1991. It’s no wonder two of the world’s largest wind turbine companies — Vestas and Ørsted — are both Danish. For years, it has thought about constructing artificial islands in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea to serve as bases for offshore wind farms. Now the government has officially sanctioned the idea. The Danish government will own 50.1% of the islands with private partners owning the rest.

The island in the North Sea will have a capacity of 3 GW, which is equal to the electricity consumption of three million households and twice the amount of energy provided by all offshore wind turbines in Denmark today. It also corresponds to approximately half of Denmark’s total electricity consumption. The capacity will be expanded in phases to a maximum of 10 GW, which could cover the electricity consumption of 10 million households and contribute to the further electrification of Denmark and its neighboring countries.

In the Baltic Sea, the artificial island will be located offshore near the island of Bornholm. Electricity from the offshore installation will be distributed from Bornholm to electricity grids on Zealand and neighboring countries. The turbines off the coast of Bornholm will have a capacity of 2 GW, corresponding to the electricity consumption of two million households.

The decision to establish the two energy islands was reached under the climate agreement of 22 June 2020, which was entered into by the Danish Government, the Liberal Party, Danish People’s Party, Social Liberal Party, Socialist People’s Party, the Red-Green Alliance, Conservative Party, Liberal Alliance and the Alternative.

The US Offshore Wind Initiative

Offshore wind is popular because the equipment can be placed well out to sea where it is invisible to people on land. We don’t object to a welter of poles, wires, and transformers cluttering up our built environment but heaven forfend we have to deal with the sight of a spinning turbine. Eeeek! Also, wind speeds tend to be more stable and predictable out over the ocean than they are on land, which makes offshore wind more reliable.

This past week, the US government announced plans for seven major offshore wind farms along both coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico. They are part of a plan by the Biden administration to create 30 GW of offshore wind energy by 2030 — enough for 10 million homes. Sharp eyed readers will note Danish authorities expect that much electricity to power 30 million homes, which tells you something about how much electricity the average home in the US uses compared to homes in the rest of the world.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said her department hopes to hold lease sales by 2025 for areas off the coasts of Maine, New York and the mid-Atlantic, as well as the Carolinas, California, Oregon and the Gulf of Mexico. The projects could avoid about 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions while creating up to 77,000 jobs, according to The Guardian.

In addition to offshore wind, the interior department is working with other federal agencies to increase renewable energy production on public lands, Haaland said, with a goal of at least 25 gigawatts of onshore renewable energy from wind and solar power by 2025.

The government’s wind initiatives will face a host of technical and political challenges. Who will ever forget a certain ex-president telling a group of fawning admirers that wind turbines “kill all the birds”? Yet the same people don’t bat an eye when offshore oil rigs (many of which are visible from land) spill millions of gallons of crude oil into the ocean, when pipelines threaten the water supply of millions of people, or fracking turns domestic drinking water toxic. Can you say “hypocrites,” boys and girls? Yeah, we knew you could.

The government is taking steps to address those concerns, however. The DOE announced last week it allocate $11.5 million to study the risks offshore wind development may pose to birds, bats, and marine mammals. It will also monitor changes in commercial fish and marine invertebrate populations at an offshore wind site on the east coast and spend $2 million on visual surveys and acoustic monitoring of marine mammals and seabirds at potential wind sites on the west coast.

“In order for Americans living in coastal areas to see the benefits of offshore wind, we must ensure that it’s done with care for the surrounding ecosystem by coexisting with fisheries and marine life – and that’s exactly what this investment will do,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced.

The Takeaway

The bottom line is what is known in the industry as the levelized cost of electricity — the triple net, absolute measure of what it costs to generate kilowatt of electricity. Water seeks its own level, nature abhors a vacuum, and business craves the lowest cost option. Today, the LCOE of wind and solar energy is lower than thermal generation and getting cheaper all the time. And why not? The cost of fuel for renewables is zero. It doesn’t get much cheaper than that!

Fossil fuel adherents will fuss and fume about national security, energy independence, and the wonders of military might, but the truth is renewables not only slash carbon emissions, they can enhance national security, provide energy independence, and eliminate much of the need for standing armies to any country and all for free. What could we possibly be waiting for?

 

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

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Economists, experts call for governments to ditch hydrogen, go fully electric

In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.

France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.

At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.

And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:

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While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.

FRANCO-GERMAN COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC EXPERTS (FGCEE)

That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.

“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”

The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.

You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.

Electrek’s Take

Hydrogen-sceptical truck maker MAN to produce limited series of 200 vehicles with H2 combustion engines
MAN hydrogen semi; via MAN Trucks.

MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.

He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”

With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.

SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

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Quick Charge | the terrifying Trump tariffs are finally upon us!

On today’s tariff-tastic episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got tariffs! Big ones, small ones, crazy ones, and fake ones – but whether or not you agree with the Trump tariffs coming into effect tomorrow, one thing is absolutely certain: they are going to change the price you pay for your next car … and that price won’t be going down!

Everyone’s got questions about what these tariffs are going to mean for their next car buying experience, but this is a bigger question, since nearly every industry in the US uses cars and trucks to move their people and products – and when their costs go up, so do yours.

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple PodcastsSpotifyTuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are recorded, usually, Monday through Thursday (and sometimes Sunday). We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage daily news.

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Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

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SunZia Wind’s massive 2.4 GW project hits a big milestone

GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.

GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.

At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.

The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.

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Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”

SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.

Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction


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