Energetika juče, danas, sutra

[Meho Krljic]

Da ne bismo dalje zagađivali druge topike koji su tangencijalno vezani za temu proizvodnje (tj. konverzije), skladištenja,  distribucije i potrošnje (tj. opet konverzije) energije samo zato što je energija vezana i za ekološka pitanja i za teorijsku fiziku itd., evo posebnog topika za energetska pitanja. Inauguracioni post nek bude ovaj:


Tesla’s Battery Revolution Just Reached Critical Mass

Tesla Motors Inc. is making a huge bet that millions of small batteries can be strung together to help kick fossil fuels off the grid. The idea is a powerful one—one that’s been used to help justify the company’s $5 billion factory near Reno, Nev.—but batteries have so far only appeared in a handful of true, grid-scale pilot projects.
That changes this week.   
Three massive battery storage plants—built by Tesla, AES Corp., and Altagas Ltd.—are all officially going live in southern California at about the same time. Any one of these projects would have been the largest battery storage facility ever built. Combined, they amount to 15 percent of the battery storage installed planet-wide last year.
Ribbons will be cut and executives will take their bows. But this is a revolution that’s just getting started, Tesla Chief Technology Officer J.B. Straubel said in an interview on Friday. “It’s sort of hard to comprehend sometimes the speed all this is going at,” he said. “Our storage is growing as fast as we can humanly scale it.”

A Fossil-Fuel DisasterThe new battery projects were commissioned in response to a fossil-fuel disaster—the natural gas leak at Aliso Canyon, near the Los Angeles neighborhood of Porter Ranch. It released thousands of tons of methane into the air before it was sealed last February.
In its wake, Southern California Edison (SCE) rushed to deploy energy storage deals to alleviate the risk of winter blackouts. There wasn’t any time to waste: All of the projects rolling out this week were completed within 6 months, an unprecedented feat. Tesla moved particularly nimbly, completing in just three months a project that in the past would have taken years.


“There were teams working out there 24 hours a day, living in construction trailers and doing the commissioning work at two in the morning,” Straubel said. “It feels like the kind of pace that we need to change the world.”A Question of PriceThe battery storage industry—a key part of the plan if wind and solar power are to ever dominate the grid—is less than a decade old and still relatively small. Until recently, batteries were many times more expensive than natural gas “peaker” plants that fire up to meet surging demand in the evening and morning hours.
But prices for lithium-ion batteries have fallen fast—by almost half just since 2014. Electric cars are largely responsible, increasing demand and requiring a new scale of manufacturing for the same battery cells used in grid storage. California is mandating that its utilities begin testing batteries by adding more than 1.32 gigawatts by 2020. For context, consider this: In 2016, the global market for storage was less than a gigawatt.
California’s goal is considerable, but it’s dwarfed by Tesla’s ambition to single-handedly deliver 15 gigawatt hours 1 of battery storage a year by the 2020s—enough to provide several nuclear power plants–worth of electricity to the grid during peak hours of demand. Not everyone, however, is that optimistic.
“I’m not convinced,” said Yayoi Sekine, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst who covers battery technology.  The market is “moving faster than ever, but it’s not on the gigawatt scale yet.”


Battery costs and profitability for utilities are difficult to evaluate. Companies are reluctant to give up their pricing data, and the expense is highly variable. Nevertheless, battery plants take up a much smaller footprint than gas-powered plants, they don’t pollute, and their instant response can provide valuable services better than any other technology. In a small but increasing number of scenarios, batteries are already the most economical option.
But for the most part, according to a BNEF analysis, the costs of new projects would need to drop by half in order to be profitable on a wider scale in California, and that’s not likely to happen for another decade. The total installed cost of a battery plant would need to fall to about $275 per kilowatt hour. While Tesla declined to provide its pricing data, the similarly sized Altagas project was expected to cost at least $40 million, or $500 per kilowatt hour. It's possible that with the remarkable scope of Tesla's Reno operations, the company will be able to establish new floors for pricing, forcing the industry to follow, BNEF's Sekine said.



It’s still early days, even with this week’s announcements. It will probably be a few years before Tesla’s battery-storage sales are material enough to break out separately from automotive sales on quarterly filings, Straubel said.The End of the Gas PeakerBut the battery’s day is coming, while those of natural gas peaker plants are numbered. That’s the prediction of John Zahurancik, AES’s president of battery storage. Zahurancik is one of the pioneers of energy storage, having cobbled together profitable edge-case storage projects since 2008, when battery prices were 10 times higher than they are today.
AES has completed installation and is doing final testing of a 30 megawatt/120 megawatt hour plant that’s even bigger than Tesla’s 20 MW/80 MWh. AES is also working on a longer-term project that will be five times the size of Tesla’s project when complete by 2021. 2 That’s a scale that would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
“This is my fifth time doing the largest project in the world for energy storage, and each time people tell me, ‘well this is the test, this is really the test’” Zahurancik said in an interview Friday. “The next big test is how do we scale this up broadly.”


The biggest thing that sets Tesla and AES apart is that Tesla is building the components of its storage units itself at the company’s Gigafactory in Reno, including battery cells with partner Panasonic, modules, and inverters. Tesla says this vertical integration will help reduce costs and make a seamless system. AES says that dealing with a diverse supply chain allows it to seek the cheapest price and the best technology on the market. It's the same debate going on in the electric-car business, where Tesla is manufacturing an unprecedented percentage of its own parts in-house.



For now, gas peaker plants still win out on price for projects that aren’t constrained by space, emissions, or urgency, said Ron Nichols, President of SCE, the California utility responsible for most of the biggest battery storage contracts. 3   But that may change in the next five years, he said.
“Long term, will large amounts of batteries be able to take over?” Nichols asked. “We’ll need to get some hours under our belts to know for sure.”
—With assistance from Dana Hull.

[Meho Krljic]

Pa onda:

Researcher Develops Completely Explosion-Proof Lithium Metal Battery With 2X Power Of Lithium Ion

It seems that we're constantly hearing about promising new battery technologies and eventually one of them will stick. Mike Zimmerman, a professor at Tufts University and founder of Ionic Materials, hopes that his remarkably resilient ionic battery technology will be the one that does. At a glance, his ionic battery technology appears to a legitimate shot at finally pushing the category forward in a significant way.
 
 The reason scientists and researchers pay so much attention to battery design is because today's lithium-ion units have several downsides. As we saw recently with Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 recall, they can overheat and catch fire. Even when they work correctly, lithium-ion batteries degrade over a relatively short time as they go through recharge cycles, and they don't last all that long to begin with.


 If you were to take apart a lithium-ion battery, you'd find a positive electrode called the anode and a negatively charged electrode called the cathode. There's a thin sheet with microscopic pores called a separator that sits between the anode and cathode. Everything else is filled up with liquid, or electrolyte.
 
 Charging the battery causes positively charged ions to flow through the liquid from the negative side to the positive side. As you use the battery, the ions flow in the opposite direction. It's a serviceable solution, but the electrolyte is extremely flammable and sensitive to being poked—they can explode when pierced. This is called thermal runaway, which is what the Galaxy Note 7's batteries experienced.
 
 Zimmerman's ionic battery trades the flammable liquid for a piece of plastic film to serve as the electrolyte. It isn't prone to overheating and catching fire. You can even take a lighter to it and it still won't catch fire. The same goes for piercing it, cutting it, or otherwise destroying the battery in some other physical manner.


 This is something Zimmerman has demonstrated by connecting an LED panel to his ionic battery. Even as he bends and cuts the battery, the LEDs remain lit. He's also done this while powering an iPad with his battery, as shown above.

That's not the only benefit. Unlike lithium-ion batteries, Zimmerman's ionic batteries use actual lithium-metal, which can store twice as much power. Lithium-ion batteries don't contain lithium-metal because they're even more prone to overheating and exploding than lithium-ion, but that risk is removed by Zimmerman swapping out the liquid electrolyte for a solid.

Will this be the next big thing in batteries? We don't know, though Zimmerman says that electronic companies have paid him a visit at his Ionic Materials facility in Woburn, MA. Zimmerman admits there is still a lot of reliability testing to be done and it will be difficult to scale his operations, but he's confident it can and will be accomplished.
 

[Meho Krljic]

China is now the world’s largest solar power producer            

While China's solar energy capacity isn't that impressive when compared to the size of its population, it's showing a renewed dedication to renewable energy.
Not only is it the world’s most populous country, it’s now also the world’s biggest producer of solar energy. On Saturday, the National Energy Administration (NEA) noted that the nation officially claimed the title after doubling its installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity last year. By the end of 2016, China’s capacity hit 77.42 gigawatts, and while this is great in terms of raw numbers, it’s a lot less impressive relative to the country’s massive population.
As it stands, solar energy represents only one percent of the country’s energy output. But this may soon change as China devotes more and more of its attention towards clean energy. The NEA says that China will seek to add more than 110 gigawatts within the next three years, which could help the nation up the proportion of its renewable energy use to 20 percent by 2030. Today, it stands at 11 percent.


China’s geography certainly lends itself to large solar energy farms. Last year, Shandong, Xinjiang, and Henan provinces enjoyed the greatest increase in their solar capacity, whereas Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, and Inner Mongolia ended up with the most overall capacity at the end of 2016.
 Weaning itself off of fossil fuels will require quite a hefty investment; one that China appears ready to make. As per a Reuters report, the nation will be pouring some 2.5 trillion yuan ($364 billion) into renewable power generation by the end of the decade. This dedication to environmentally friendly energy sources could put pressure on other nations around the world to do the same. Already, Ireland has passed a bill that would make it the first country to divest from fossil fuels. And some countries are finding increasingly creative ways of moving away from fossil fuels — Iceland, for example, is drilling the world’s largest well for geothermal energy.

[Meho Krljic]

Pa, lepo:
 

  Almost 90% of new power in Europe from renewable sources in 2016

[Labudan]

Eto, ne kukajte zbog Trampa, sve će biti u redu!

[Meho Krljic]

Već smo pominjali da je skladištenje 'n' transfer problem koji treba rešiti ako želimo da živimo u eokološkom raju koji nam je Star Trek obećao. E, sad:

 
Liquid battery could last for over 10 years
 

It might be an ideal form of energy storage for solar and wind power.
     Modern batteries aren't hampered so much by their capacity as their long-term lifespan -- a lithium-ion pack can easily become useless after a few years of heavy use. That's bad enough for your phone, but it's worse for energy storage systems that may have to stick around for the long haul. If Harvard researchers have their way, you may not have to worry about replacing power backs quite so often. They've developed a flow battery (that is, a battery that stores energy in liquid solutions) which should last for over a decade. The trick was to modify the molecules in the electrolytes, ferrocene and viologen, so that they're stable, water-soluble and resistant to degradation. When they're dissolved in neutral water, the resulting solution only loses 1 percent of its capacity every 1,000 cycles. It could be several years before you even notice a slight dropoff in performance.
          The use of water is also great news for both the environment and your bank account. As it's not corrosive or toxic, you don't have to worry about wrecking your home if the battery leaks -- you might just need a mop. The safer materials are also less expensive than the polymers you usually need in flow batteries, and wouldn't require exotic pumps and tanks to withstand harsher chemicals. It needs less maintenance than other flow designs, too.
There's no concrete roadmap for bringing this battery tech to the real world. There's definitely a market for it, though. Renewable energy is becoming increasingly cost-effective, and inexpensive, long-lasting batteries would only help that. You could install solar power at home knowing that the cost of energy storage won't wipe out the money you save on your electricity bill.
     

[Meho Krljic]

Često se priča da bi torijumski nuklearni reaktori bili najbolje rešenje za ovu planetu: velika gustina energije, gorivo koje je pristupačnije od uranijuma, plus mnogo manje cimanja oko otpada i bezbednosnih rizika. Evo svežeg, veoma opširnog teksta na biznis insajderu koji obrazlaže ovu argumentaciju, daje istorijat itd.:
 

A forgotten war technology could safely power Earth for millions of years. Here's why we aren't using it
 

[mac]

Ha, još ćemo mi videti parne automobile na torijumski pogon

[Meho Krljic]

Li-Ion Battery Inventor Creates Breakthrough Solid-State Battery, Holds 3X Charge
 

Short Bytes: A new glass electrolyte-based solid-state battery has been developed by the researchers at UT Austin. Led by the Li-ion battery inventor John Goodenough, the team demonstrated that their battery is better than Li-ion. It can hold an almost 3x charge, has more charging cycles, supports fast charging, and isn’t prone to catch fire.
 
 
 A new fast charging all solid-state battery has been created by a research team led by John Goodenough at the Cockrell School of Engineering. The American physicist John Goodenough got a Charles Stark Draper prize for the lithium-ion batteries which are now omnipresent in the digital world. It was decades ago, but even at 94, the physics pioneer isn’t going to stop developing things that impress and benefit the human kind.
 
The team has published a research paper in the Energy & Environmental Science journal. The noncombustible fast charging battery can hold a considerable amount of extra charge – almost three times – than the conventional batteries.
 
Goodenough says cheap batteries having more charging of cycles can improve the capabilities the battery driven cars and increase their adoption.
 
The design limitations of lithium batteries containing liquid electrolytes don’t allow them to charge quickly. If done forcefully, it would lead to the formation of metal whiskers (dendrites). Eventually, a short circuit would happen, or the battery would explode. However, that’s not the problem with the solid-state batteries.
 
The researchers have used a solid glass electrolyte in place of the liquid one. The glass electrolyte allows the researchers to use the alkali metal anode (negative side) which increases the charge density of the battery and prevents the formation of dendrites. Also, the glass electrolyte enables a battery to operate in extreme temperatures of -20-degree celsius.
 
Senior research fellow Maria Helena Braga has been working with Goodenough on this solid-state battery. She has been developing glass electrolyte since the last few years. It was until her collab with Goodenough, and another researcher, that she was able to come up with a new, now patented, version of the glass electrolyte.
 
Goodenough and Braga are working to improve their solid-state battery. Hopefully, some battery maker would step forward to adopt the new tech. Surely, solid-state batteries are the future, adding extra to miles to your Tesla ride or a day to your computer’s life.
 

[Meho Krljic]

U Americi je vjetar pretekao vodu po količini energije koja se ovim putem proizvede/ uskladišti. Naravno, dosta su tu pomogle velike poreske olakšice.

US wind capacity surpasses hydro, overall generation to follow

[Meho Krljic]

Ilon Mask kao da je stvarno izašao iz stripa:
 
  Elon Musk: I can fix South Australia power network in 100 days or it's free

[Meho Krljic]

Li-Ion Battery Inventor Creates Breakthrough Solid-State Battery, Holds 3X Charge
 

E, sad:


Has lithium-battery genius John Goodenough done it again? Colleagues are skeptical

Researchers have struggled for decades to safely use powerful—but flammable—lithium metal in a battery. Now John Goodenough, the 94-year-old father of the lithium-ion battery, is claiming a novel solution as a blockbuster advance.
If it proves out, the invention could allow electric cars to compete with conventional vehicles on sticker price. The improbable solution, described in a new paper from Goodenough and three co-authors, has drawn intense interest from leading science and technology publications. He estimates that the solution could store five to ten times as much energy as current standard lithium-ion batteries. That’s enough to have Google’s Eric Schmidt tweeting about it.
However, other leading battery researchers are skeptical, even mystified, by Goodenough’s claim. For his invention to work as described, they say, it would probably have to abandon the laws of thermodynamics, which say perpetual motion is not possible. The law has been a fundamental of batteries for more than a century and a half.
Goodenough’s long career has defined the modern battery industry. Researchers assume that his measurements are exact. But no one outside of Goodenough’s own group appears to understand his new concept. The battery community is loath to openly challenge the paper, but some come close. “If anyone but Goodenough published this, I would be, well, it’s hard to find a polite word,” Daniel Steingart, a professor at Princeton, told Quartz.
Goodenough did not respond to emails. But in a statement released by the University of Texas, where he holds an engineering chair, he said, “We believe our discovery solves many of the problems that are inherent in today’s batteries. Cost, safety, energy density, rates of charge and discharge and cycle life are critical for battery-driven cars to be more widely adopted.” In addition, Helena Braga, the paper’s lead author, in an exchange of emails, insisted that the team’s claims are valid.Goodenough towers over the battery worldFor almost four decades, Goodenough has dominated the world of advanced batteries. If anyone could finally make the breakthrough that allows for cheap, stored electricity in cars and on the grid, it would figure to be him. Goodenough invented the heart of the battery that is all but certainly powering the device on which you are reading this. It’s the lithium-cobalt-oxide cathode, invented in 1980 and introduced for sale by Sony in 1991. Again and again, Goodenough’s lab has emerged with dramatic discoveries confirming his genius.
 “If anyone but Goodenough published this, I would be, well, it’s hard to find a polite word,” Still, batteries remain wanting. Inferior battery technology is perhaps the biggest impediment to mainstream electric-car manufacturing. Batteries cost too much, take too long to charge, and don’t transport drivers far enough.
Hence the excitement over the new paper by Goodenough and his team published in Energy and Environmental Science. A Feb. 28 release from the University of Texas reported they had figured out how to incorporate an electrode—an anode—made of pure lithium or sodium metal, which because of their potential energy has been a top goal for decades. A key is the use of glass as the electrolyte, the substance that connects a battery’s two electrodes and facilitates the shuttling of ions to create electricity.
Goodenough reported that his new battery cell had achieved a 10-fold improvement in energy density—the amount of energy stored—in one case, and a three-fold improvement in another. In one experiment, Goodenough estimates a 30-fold improvement on the best density in a lithium-ion battery today—8,500 watt-hours per kilogram. Moreover, this was accomplished not using exotic materials, but cheap sodium and sulfur. That means, unlike many other reported battery breakthroughs, this one could actually be used in mainstream-priced cars.Still, the paper has baffled battery researchersIt’s what is not stated in the paper that has some of the battery community stumped. How is Goodenough’s new invention storing any energy at all? The known rules of physics state that, to derive energy, differing material must produce differing eletro-chemical reactions in the two opposing electrodes. That difference produces voltage, allowing energy to be stored.
 It’s kind of like cold fusion. Here is an experiment that is unbelievable. But Goodenough’s battery has pure metallic lithium or sodium on both sides. Therefore, the voltage should be zero, with no energy produced, battery researchers told Quartz.
Goodenough reports energy densities multiple times that of current lithium-ion batteries. Where does the energy come from, if not the electrode reactions? That goes unexplained in the paper.
The unstated physics would lead to creation of a battery that, once charged, requires no further energy in order to keep pushing out electricity—violating the laws of thermodynamics. “He’s technically made a perpetual motion machine,” said Venkat Viswanathan, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“It’s kind of like cold fusion. Here is an experiment that is unbelievable,” said Dalhousie University’s Jeff Dahn, a leading researcher whose Canadian laboratory is on a contract with Tesla. “There could be a small possibility that it is right.”
Steingart, the Princeton professor, has published a long essay about the paper at Medium (see his notes below). He is among researchers calling Goodenough’s stealth energy “anomalous capacity.” Both he and Dahn wondered whether oxygen had leaked into the cell, making it an inadvertent “lithium air” battery that would explain the burst of energy. Lithium air is a second Holy Grail of battery researchers, even more elusive than the metallic lithium anode; no one has ever made one that lasted more than a few cycles.Steingart tries to figure out Goodenough. (Dan Steingart)Braga, the lead author on the paper, rejects the lithium-air explanation, insisting that the concept is solid: “Well if we have a Lithium-air battery then we have a very good Lithium-air battery,” she said, noting that the experiment ran for hundreds of cycles, far longer than any rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Here is the diagram to which Braga is referring: (Braga, Grundish, Murchison and Goodenough)The history of battery advances—and Goodenough’s history in particular—has been filled with surprises. In at least two cases—the development of the pivotal manganese oxide cathode and of the iron phosphate cathode—Goodenough initially disbelieved his post-docs when they suggested the theses, only to be proven wrong.
In an email exchange, Steingart said, “There’s not a question in my mind that Goodenough and company measured what they say they measured based on what they thought was in the cell. The question is why did the system behave the way it did, and the explanation as to why raises many questions.”

[Meho Krljic]

Japanese company develops a solar cell with record-breaking 26%+ efficiency

[Meho Krljic]

Blumberg tvrdi da je ugalj gotov:



The Cheap Energy Revolution Is Here, and Coal Won’t Cut It

[Meho Krljic]

Navodnici su ovde s razlogom, ali ipak, zanimljivo:

A “World First” Fusion Reactor Just Created Its First Plasma

• Tokamak Energy's fusion reactor has achieved first plasma and is on track to produce temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit) by 2018.
• Tokamak Energy CEO says to expect fusion energy "in years, not decades.”

Achieving First Plasma After being turned on for the first time, the UK’s newest fusion reactor has achieved first plasma. This simply means that the reactor was able to successfully generate a molten mass of electrically-charged gas — plasma — inside its core.
Called the ST40, the reactor was constructed by Tokamak Energy, one of the leading private fusion energy companies in the world. The company was founded in 2009 with the express purpose of designing and developing small fusion reactors to introduce fusion power into the grid by 2030.


Now that the ST40 is running, the company will commission and install the complete set of magnetic coils needed to reach fusion temperatures. The ST40 should be creating a plasma temperature as hot as the center of the Sun — 15 million degrees Celsius (27 million degrees Fahrenheit) — by Autumn 2017.
  By 2018, the ST40 will produce plasma temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenheit), another record-breaker for a privately owned and funded fusion reactor. That temperature threshold is important, as it is the minimum temperature for inducing the controlled fusion reaction. Assuming the ST40 succeeds, it will prove that its novel design can produce commercially viable fusion power.
Tokamak Energy CEO David Kingham commented in a press release: “Today is an important day for fusion energy development in the UK, and the world. We are unveiling the first world-class controlled fusion device to have been designed, built, and operated by a private venture. The ST40 is a machine that will show fusion temperatures – 100 million degrees – are possible in compact, cost-effective reactors. This will allow fusion power to be achieved in years, not decades.”
 Fusion Power: Coming Sooner Nuclear fusion is a potentially revolutionary power source. It is the same process that fuels stars like our Sun, and could produce a potentially limitless supply of clean energy without producing dirty waste or any significant amount of carbon emissions. In contrast to nuclear fission, the atom splitting that today’s nuclear reactors engage in, nuclear fusion requires salt and water, and involves fusing atoms together. Its primary waste product is helium. It’s easy to see why scientists have tried to figure out how to achieve this here on Earth, but thus far it’s been elusive.
The journey toward fusion energy undertaken by Tokamak Energy is planned in the short-term and moving quickly; the company has already achieved its half-way goal for fusion power delivery. Their ultimate targets include producing the first electricity using the ST40 by 2025 and producing commercially viable fusion power by 2030.
Kingham remarked in the press release: “We will still need significant investment, many academic and industrial collaborations, dedicated and creative engineers and scientists, and an excellent supply chain. Our approach continues to be to break the journey down into a series of engineering challenges, raising additional investment on reaching each new milestone.”

[Meho Krljic]

Ovo je, naravno, više revijalnog tipa - u normalne dane Nijemci uglavnom prže ugalj za svoje energetske potrebe - ali je svejedno vredno pomenuti:
 
 
 
 In record-breaking weekend, Germany got 85% of its electricity from renewables    

Germany is kicking all kinds of sustainable butt when it comes to its use of renewable energy sources. According to recently released figures, for the last weekend of April, the country established a jaw-dropping new national record in this department — with 85 percent of all electricity consumed in Germany being produced through wind, solar, biomass, and hydroelectric power.
Aided by a seasonal combination of windy but sunny weather, during that weekend the majority of Germany’s coal-fired power stations weren’t even operating, while nuclear power stations (which the country plans to phase out by the year 2022) were massively reduced in output.
To be clear, this is impressive even by Germany’s progressive standards. By comparison, in March just over 40 percent of all electricity consumed in the country came from renewable sources. (According to the most recent figures we could find, in 2015 just 16.9 percent of the electrical generation in the United States came from renewable sources.)
  However, while the end-of-April weekend was an aberration, the hope is that it won’t be for too much longer. According to Patrick Graichen of the country’s sustainability-focused Agora Energiewende Initiative, German renewable energy percentages in the mid-80s should be “completely normal” by the year 2030.
This is all thanks to an aggressive focus on investing in renewable energy resources, which have seen a massive boost since 2010. Despite criticism from some parts of the media, the push to embrace sustainable energy sources has received strong support from the German public, as well as from chancellor Angela Merkel.
In all, it’s a timely reminder of what renewable energy sources are able to deliver if given the chance. While private companies like Apple in the U.S. have made their pro-sustainability stance clear, for the most part this is still an area the United States is lagging behind other parts of the world — particularly Germany.
 

 

[Labudan]

Vikend ili čitava sedmica?

Jbt ili ja ne kontam ovaj ingliš ili ga spinuju do zla boga

[mac]

Tri puta u tekstu piše weekend, pa ti vidi šta to znači.

[Labudan]

Pa zašto je onda ovo vijest?

Kad rade fabrike onda dere nuklearka.

[mac]

Vest je zato što se to nikada ranije nije desilo.

[Labudan]

U Parovima išćerali demone iz Jovane, to je vijest bre

[džin tonik]

Ovo je, naravno, više revijalnog tipa - u normalne dane Nijemci uglavnom prže ugalj za svoje energetske potrebe - ali je svejedno vredno pomenuti:

manje je revijalnog tipa no sto se cini na prvu.

elem, njemacka je na "pravom putu" iz nekoliko razloga, te takav vikend nikako slucajan, u svrhu reklame ili slicnog.

prvo, njemacka zivi od visoke tehnologije.
nekad davno je lobi oko solarne energije nadjacao nuklearni. dogovor je bio jednostavan: drzava nama milijarde, mi drzavi naprednu tehnologiju koja ce postati hit u izvozu.

tu je solarna energija krajnje ozbiljno subvencionirana, moze se reci bez ogranicenja velikodusno.
tom prilikom velika sredstva su ulagana u formiranje svijesti naroda, bez kojeg pravac nije bio moguc, t.j. bio je kupac sredstva proizvodnje energije; znaci, dio sredstava ulagan je u usmjeravanje ka regenerativnim izvorima energije.
tako fenomen postaje omasovljen.

tehnologiju konacno kopiraju kinezi, preplavljaju svijet svojim proizvodima, uvode se carinske mjere, ne luce zadovoljavajuci rezultat, kinezi pobjedjuju pri dumpingu, nedavno i zadnja evropska proizvodnja odredjenih modula prijavljuje stecaj.

ali ostaje svijest u obrazovanog naroda (t.j. jednom obrazovanje ironicno polucuje i uspjeh, znaci, van svrhe osposobljavanja bezmozdne mase, t.j. alfabetizacije i tako mogucnosti manipulacije kroz kurir i informer, a koja je inace najjaca kad u skladu svojih mogucnosti i intelektualnog kapaciteta: nepismena i u oslanjanju na dobrog diktatora).

prilikom razvoja svijesti, omasovljenja ideje, ujedno se posljedicno iz nekoliko razloga liberalizira trziste energije. konkurencija izmedju stotinjak ponudjivaca cini ostalo:
omasovljenoj svijescu za potrebom regenerativne energije moras ponuditi adekvatan proizvod. tako da ne moze opstati nitko tko ne nudi izbor opcije iz kojeg izvora zelim crpiti energiju (tu postoji milion stvarcica, van osnovne opskrbe mogu birati i koji energetski izvor koristim i kad se vozim javnim prevozom).

sad, tehnoloski nije izvodivo u ril tajmu uskladiti unos energije u mrezu sa specificnom potrosnjom (vrstom potrazivanog izvora energije). i tako, taj vikend se rabio da se izjednaci prevaga potrosnje energije koju narod ne zeli, u korist one koju platio.

primjer kako se opismenjivanje tumplaste mase ponekad ipak moze okrenuti protiv vladajuce kaste.

[džin tonik]

sad, posto smo na knjizevnom forumu koji se bavi sf-om, u tom duhu jedan hint kako napisati pricu koja se moze poslati na kakav internacionalni natjecaj koji se ne bavi nob-om:

uzmite okvir koji upravo izesejisao, ubacite elemente koje naveo, pa izucite k. dicka, te u njegovom stilu odaberite jedan element koji izvucete iz trenutacno realnog okvira, zategnite ga (kao primjer moze vam posluziti prica gdje dick obradio pobacaj, te pomjerio granicu legalnog abortusa na dob od 12 godina).
i imate odlicnu sf-pricu.

[Meho Krljic]

Znam da ovo zvuči kao početak zapleta Matriksa, ali zapravo deluje kao odlično rešenje za pejsmejkere i slične sprave:

New Battery Technology Draws Energy Directly From Human Body

[Meho Krljic]

Switzerland votes to phase out nuclear power

Switzerland has voted to phase out nuclear power in favour of renewable energy.
More than 58% backed the move towards greener power sources in a referendum on Sunday.
Switzerland has five ageing nuclear power plants, which provide a third of the country's energy needs.
There is no date yet to decommission the facilities, but the country will now aim to increase reliance on sources like solar, wind and hydro power.
Opponents had warned the move away from nuclear energy would cost too much money and lead to the landscape being "disfigured".
But the president of Switzerland's Green party, Regula Rytz, hailed the vote as a "moment of historic change".


"The Swiss population has said 'no' to the construction of new nuclear power plants and yes to the development of renewable energy," she added. "The conditions have also been set whereby the economy and households will need to take responsibility for the future.
"It's absolutely magnificent."
The Swiss government first proposed phasing out nuclear energy in favour of renewables after Japan's Fukushima plant was destroyed in a tsunami in 2011.
The vote now paves the way for them to move ahead with the plan, beginning in January 2018.
However, a referendum which asked if people wanted to limit the nuclear plants lifespan to 45 years failed to get enough support in November.

[Labudan]

Vole vještačka jezera u Švici, kao to je manja eko katastrofa od nuklearki. Naivčine!

[Meho Krljic]

Naslov je malčice nejasan jer deluje skoro kao da je izmišljeno sagorevanje u kome se ne proizvodi ugljendioksid, ali u pitanju je zapravo tehnologija koja omogućava da se ugljendioksid izdvoji od ostalih produkata sagorevanja i skladišti, bez ispuštanja u atmosferu.
 
 
 New Technology Burns Natural Gas with No CO2 Emissions 
 

How can we burn natural gas without releasing CO2 into the air? This feat is achieved using a special combustion method that TU Wien has been researching for years: chemical looping combustion (CLC). In this process, CO2 can be isolated during combustion without having to use any additional energy, which means it can then go on to be stored. This prevents it from being released into the atmosphere.
The method had already been applied successfully in a test facility with 100 kW fuel power. An international research project has now managed to increase the scale of the technology significantly, thus creating all the necessary conditions to enable a fully functional demonstration facility to be built in the 10 MW range.
Isolating CO2 from other flue gases
It is much cleaner to burn natural gas than to burn crude oil or coal. However, natural gas has the huge disadvantage that it generates CO2 during combustion, which has a detrimental effect on the climate. The CO2 is usually part of the flue gas mixture, together with nitrogen, water vapour and other substances. In this mixed form, the CO2 can neither be stored nor feasibly recycled.
“In the facilities we are working with, however, the combustion process is fundamentally different,” explains Stefan Penthor from the Institute of Chemical Engineering at TU Wien. “With our combustion method, the natural gas does not come into contact with the air at all, because we divide the process into two separate chambers.”
A granulate made of metal oxide circulates between the two chambers and is responsible for transporting oxygen from air to fuel: “We pump air through one chamber, where the particles take up oxygen. They then move on to the second chamber, which has natural gas flowing through it. Here is where the oxygen is released, and then where flameless combustion takes place, producing CO2 and water vapour,” explains Penthor.
The separation into two chambers means there are two separate flue gas streams to deal with too: air with a reduced concentration of oxygen is discharged from one chamber, water vapour and CO2 from the other. The water vapour can be separated quite easily, leaving almost pure CO2, which can be stored or used in other technical applications. “The large-scale underground storage of CO2 in former natural gas reservoirs could be very significant in the future,” believes Stefan Penthor. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also sees underground CO2 storage as an essential component of any future climate policy. However, CO2 can only be stored if it has been separated as pure as possible – just as it is with the new CLC combustion method.
  By separating the two flue gas streams, there is no longer any need to scrub the CO2 from the flue gas, thus saving a great deal of energy. Despite all this, electricity is generated in the usual way and the amount of energy released is exactly the same as that produced when burning natural gas in the conventional manner.

Successfully scaled up
Several years have passed since TU Wien was first able to demonstrate on a test facility that the CLC combustion method works. Now the big challenge was to redesign the process so it could be transferred to large-scale installations that would also be economically viable. Not only did the entire facility design have to be revised, new production methods for the metal oxide particles had to be developed too. “You need many tonnes of these particles for a large facility, so the economic feasibility of the concept depends significantly on being able to produce them easily and to a sufficiently high degree of quality,” says Stefan Penthor.
The SUCCESS research project has been working on issues like this one for three and a half years now. TU Wien has coordinated the project, involving 16 partner establishments from across the Europe, and between them, the group has managed to resolve all the important technical questions. The revised facility design was based on two fluidised bed technology patents held by TU Wien. “We’ve reached our goal: we’ve developed the technology to such a degree that work on a demonstration facility in the 10 MW range can begin any day now,” says Stefan Penthor. However, that next step is not one for the research institutes; what is needed now are private or public investors. The technology’s success will also depend on political will and on the prevailing conditions within the energy industry of the future. Additionally, this next step is also important because it is the only way to gain the experience necessary to be able to use the technology on an industrial scale in the long term.
In the meantime, the TU Wien research team has already set its sights on its next scientific goal: “We want to develop the method further so it can burn not just natural gas, but biomass too,” says Penthor. “If biomass were combusted and the CO2 separated out, not only would that be a CO2-neutral process, it would even reduce the total amount of CO2 in the air. So you could produce energy and do something good for the global climate at the same time.”
 

[Labudan]

Eto, sav vam reko da će sve biti u redu, samo mac oće da se grije na šargarepu

[mac]

Male su šanse da će ovaj proces biti konkurentan drugim obnovljivim vidovima energije. Istina je da se zauzuma manje mesta na površini Zemlje, ali moraš deo dobijene energije da uložiš u kompresovanje ugljendioksida. I uvek postoji opasnost da se to uradi loše i pogrešno, i da kompanija "deponuje" ugljendioksid, a zapravo da taj ugljendioksid prosto curi na sve strane u proizvodnom procesu. I za razliku od radioaktivnog curenja ovo curenje se ne može tako lako detektovati. Dakle skupo i opasno. A skupoća će vremenom proizvođača navoditi da posluje još opasnije.

Takođe, umesto da se ugljendoiksid ispušta u atmosferu kiseonik iz atmosfere bi se vezivao za ugljenik i uklanjao iz atmosfere. Koncentracija ugljendioksida bi se time povećavala, ali naravno bitno manje nego prostom emisijom. Znači i dalje će morati da plaćaju CO2 taksu, kad se uvede, samo manju.

Solarna energija je budućnost, i zbog solarne energije ja verujem da će sve biti u redu, a ne zbog ove prevare.

[Meho Krljic]

'Instantly rechargeable' battery could change the future of electric and hybrid automobiles

A technology developed by Purdue researchers could provide an "instantly rechargeable" method that is safe, affordable and environmentally friendly for recharging electric and hybrid vehicle batteries through a quick and easy process similar to refueling a car at a gas station.
  The innovation could expedite the adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles by eliminating the time needed to stop and re-charge a conventional electric car's battery and dramatically reducing the need for new infrastructure to support re-charging stations.
John Cushman, Purdue University distinguished professor of earth, atmospheric and planetary science and a professor of mathematics, presented the research findings "Redox reactions in immiscible-fluids in porous media -- membraneless battery applications" at the recent International Society for Porous Media 9th International Conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Cushman co-founded Ifbattery LLC (IF-battery) to further develop and commercialize the technology.
"Electric and hybrid vehicle sales are growing worldwide and the popularity of companies like Tesla is incredible, but there continues to be strong challenges for industry and consumers of electric or hybrid cars," said Cushman, who led the research team that developed the technology. "The biggest challenge for industry is to extend the life of a battery's charge and the infrastructure needed to actually charge the vehicle. The greatest hurdle for drivers is the time commitment to keeping their cars fully charged."
Current electric cars need convenient locations built for charging ports.
"Designing and building enough of these recharging stations requires massive infrastructure development, which means the energy distribution and storage system is being rebuilt at tremendous cost to accommodate the need for continual local battery recharge," said Eric Nauman, co-founder of Ifbattery and a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering, basic medical sciences and biomedical engineering. "Ifbattery is developing an energy storage system that would enable drivers to fill up their electric or hybrid vehicles with fluid electrolytes to re-energize spent battery fluids much like refueling their gas tanks."
The spent battery fluids or electrolyte could be collected and taken to a solar farm, wind turbine installation or hydroelectric plant for re-charging.
"Instead of refining petroleum, the refiners would reprocess spent electrolytes and instead of dispensing gas, the fueling stations would dispense a water and ethanol or methanol solution as fluid electrolytes to power vehicles," Cushman said. "Users would be able to drop off the spent electrolytes at gas stations, which would then be sent in bulk to solar farms, wind turbine installations or hydroelectric plants for reconstitution or re-charging into the viable electrolyte and reused many times. It is believed that our technology could be nearly 'drop-in' ready for most of the underground piping system, rail and truck delivery system, gas stations and refineries."
Mike Mueterthies, Purdue doctoral teaching and research assistant in physics and the third co-founder of Ifbattery, said the flow battery system makes the Ifbattery system unique.
"Other flow batteries exist, but we are the first to remove membranes which reduces costs and extends battery life," Mueterthies said.
Ifbattery's membrane-free battery demonstrates other benefits as well.
"Membrane fouling can limit the number of recharge cycles and is a known contributor to many battery fires," Cushman said. "Ifbattery's components are safe enough to be stored in a family home, are stable enough to meet major production and distribution requirements and are cost effective."
Ifbattery licensed part of the technology through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization and has developed patents of its own. The company is a member of the Purdue Startup Class of 2017.
 
                     Story Source:
Materials provided by Purdue University. Original written by Cynthia Sequin. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
 

[Meho Krljic]

Tesla plans to disconnect ‘almost all’ Superchargers from the grid and go solar+battery, says Elon Musk





Lepa ideja, ali, čini se, funkcionalna samo ako ne punite baš MNOGO vozila tokom dana i ako je vreme stalno lepo... Still, lepa ideja.

[Meho Krljic]

There is a point at which it will make economic sense to defect from the electrical grid 
 
Ja sam već, čini mi se, izrazio svoje nelagode u vezi individualizacije proizvodnje/ skladištenja energije koje mi malo kvare priznajem utopijsku viziju nestajanja moćnih energetskih lobija... U svakom slučaju, stvari se kreću na neku stranu.

[Meho Krljic]

Kalifornija proizvodi toliko solarne energije da nema gde da je skladišti, pa plaća drugim američkim državama da je uzmu od nje. 1st World problems!!!!!!!!!!



https://mic.com/articles/180607/california-is-making-so-much-solar-energy-the-rest-of-the-country-looks-like-a-joke#.YImspnUwH

[Meho Krljic]

Eh, videćemo....


Renewable energy is becoming so cheap the US will meet Paris commitments even if Trump withdraws

[Meho Krljic]

Here's Elon Musk's Plan to Power the U.S. on Solar Energy

“If you wanted to power the entire United States with solar panels, it would take a fairly small corner of Nevada or Texas or Utah; you only need about 100 miles by 100 miles of solar panels to power the entire United States,” Musk said during his keynote conversation on Saturday at the event in Rhode Island. “The batteries you need to store the energy, so you have 24/7 power, is 1 mile by 1 mile. One square-mile.”It’s “a little square on the U.S. map, and then there’s a little pixel inside there, and that’s the size of the battery park that you need to support that. Real tiny.”

Ima još u tekstu, mrzelo me da kopiram sve ali ovaj deo je baš interesantan.

[Labudan]

Pa da, neko reče Sahara za čitavu Evropu i Afriku.

[Meho Krljic]

World's first floating wind farm emerges off coast of Scotland

[Meho Krljic]

Dead Set Legends: Australian Scientists Just Worked Out How Zinc-Air Batteries Can Replace Lithium-Ion Batteries

[Meho Krljic]

Za obnovljive izvore energije se često kaže da nisu dovoljno atraktivni jer bez subvencija nisu isplativi na jako duge staze.  Health benefits of wind and solar offset all subsidies

[Meho Krljic]

Finland to introduce law next year phasing out coal

[Meho Krljic]

China joins the growing movement to ban gasoline and diesel cars

[Meho Krljic]

Britain opens first subsidy-free solar power farm

[Meho Krljic]

Optimistično.

Solar Grew Faster Than All Other Forms of Power for the First Time

[Meho Krljic]

Puerto Rico governor says ‘Let’s talk’ after Elon Musk offers to solve the island’s power crisis

[Meho Krljic]

Rice University adds a bit of asphalt to speed lithium metal battery charging by 20 times

[scallop]

Pre milijon godina sam ponešto znao o visokoj poroznosti aktivnih ugljeva. Čak sam i napisao SF priču o avanturi pronalazača novog univerzalnog goriva - briketa aktivnog uglja. Ko zna gde je završila. Možda u rubrici "Svašta i koješta", koju su pokupili oni koji su pokrenuli otmicu Damjana Fileva u romanu UNAZAD.

[Meho Krljic]

The Dutch government confirms plan to ban new petrol and diesel cars by 2030

[Meho Krljic]

Dobro, bar su ovde malo bliskiji svom nekadašnjem "Don't be evil" sloganu:
 
 
 
 Google Will Hit 100 Percent Renewable Energy This Year

[Meho Krljic]

Why China is winning the clean energy race

[scallop]

Više im stalo?