Exxon (oil market), Climate Change, Tesla

[Jayes]

Still enjoying the reading

[ggies]

Originally Posted by Jayes Still enjoying the reading

Awesome and good to hear.

[ggies]

Tesla, again, taking their product to a whole new level. One of the many reasons I love this company is because they never stop innovating.....always pushing the limit.

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This is not only great for today's market, but think about when the Model 3 and beyond cars are in production and what is the safest car out there for new teen drivers.....parents will be asking themselves what is the safest car they should be buying their inexperienced child....

EV? Check! - no engine, more space to absorb energy from a collision
Best autopilot/self-driving software? Tesla - Check!
Best car company to update its software to keep my child safe in the future? Tesla - Check!

Tesla is setting itself up for a whole new demographic. Love it.

[Jayes]

Saw a Model S on the highway today. Slowed down to admire it very excited to see what comes of these EV's. Most of my family isn't plugged into the state of EV's/power storage. I'm car shopping right now and have been saying that this next purchase is going to be my last ICE vehicle. A few laughed and didn't think so until I redirected their reading

[ggies]

Originally Posted by Jayes Saw a Model S on the highway today. Slowed down to admire it very excited to see what comes of these EV's. Most of my family isn't plugged into the state of EV's/power storage. I'm car shopping right now and have been saying that this next purchase is going to be my last ICE vehicle. A few laughed and didn't think so until I redirected their reading

nice

Awesome and that's great to hear It's all about educating others right now. I think once Tesla starts producing their cheaper car, the Model 3, which is at the end of next year, the general public will finally wake up to all of this. And even though GM has their 200 mile EV coming out soon and by 2020 other companies like Nissan should as well, Tesla just has the desire that others won't have with their EVs. I think it's going to take the general public to want and not just buy an EV and Tesla is making that happen.

[ggies]

Finally this is happening:

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“Offshore wind energy holds the promise of significant environmental and economic benefits for the United States. It is an abundant, low-carbon, domestic energy resource. It is located close to major coastal load centers, providing an alternative to long-distance transmission or development of electricity generation in these land-constrained regions. Once built, offshore wind farms could produce energy at low, long-term fixed costs, which can reduce electricity prices and improve energy security by providing a hedge against fossil fuel price volatility.”

[ggies]

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Aspen’s energy portfolio now primarily consists of wind power and hydroelectric, with smaller contributions from solar and geothermal.

Burlington, Vermont and Greensburg, Kansas were the first two cities to achieve all-renewable energy portfolios.

To drive this point home again.......

Aspen’s new energy portfolio was made possible by the extraordinary drop in the price of renewable energy.

[ggies]

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Yesterday, Texas Republican Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Science Committee, heard arguments from a panel of experts—two of whom work for Exxon-funded think tanks—on why his committee has the authority to intervene in the investigations into Exxon’s denialism.

but the real reason to pay attention to all this chess-like maneuvering is to understand how it affects research.

It also sends a signal to the public that science is an ideologically-driven process, like politics. And while climate science may be irrevocably political, the place to fight out scientific disagreements is in the peer reviewed literature, not a stacked hearing.

[ggies]

The transition can and will be done! Here's another example of the utility side changing:

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Last October, a catastrophic rupture in the Aliso Canyon natural gas reservoir caused a methane gas spill that displaced more than 8,000 Californians and released an unprecedented 1.6 million pounds of methane into the atmosphere.

Last week, through a competitive process, Tesla was selected to provide a 20 MW/80 MWh Powerpack system at the Southern California Edison Mira Loma substation. Tesla was the only bidder awarded a utility-owned storage project out of the solicitation. Upon completion, this system will be the largest lithium ion battery storage project in the world. When fully charged, this system will hold enough energy to power more than 2,500 households for a day or charge 1,000 Tesla vehicles.

[Jayes]

Awesome

[ggies]

More grid transitions:

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Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to determine appropriate targets, if any, for each load-serving entity to procure viable and cost-effective energy storage systems to be achieved by December 31, 2020.

This bill would require the PUC, in consultation with the State Air Resources Board and the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, to direct the state’s 3 largest electrical corporations to file applications for programs and investments to accelerate widespread deployment of distributed energy storage systems, as defined.

[ggies]

I remember reading about this months ago, but since it was brought up in here how is it possible for renewable energy to be cheaper than the grid now, I thought I would post another example. This shows how the utility side is outdated with cost and efficiency and how renewable energy is changing the grid:

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The motivations for the departure were energy independence and the desire for more renewable energy, said Cindy Ortega, senior vice president and chief sustainability officer at MGM

Meanwhile, Ortega has led an effort to cut down MGM’s load so it doesn’t need to buy as much electricity. Its Las Vegas properties have seen electricity demand drop 11 percent in the last five years as a result of energy-efficiency investments

"If utilities purchase power in the most efficient way they could, there would be no benefit to leaving the system beyond choosing your own energy," Ortega said. "We just think that, with our partners, we can be more efficient at it."

[ggies]

Not sure if you guys have seen in the news yet about the pipeline leak, but this is a prime example of the benefits of not only sustainable transportation (EVs), but as well as a renewable grid. No pipeline is ever built in a "safe" way.

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I saw one state went up $.27 and another $.18. Like I said in a previous post, you don't have price fluctuation like this with wind, solar, and battery storage.

There's no reason to continue this path of pipelines, oil, and natural gas and have all this risk associated with it. We need to move at a quicker pace of the transition to sustainable transportation and production.

[ggies]

Just watched this great documentary called Time to Choose. It shows the pitfalls of dirty energy, how we are destroying the Earth, but at the same time showing how we are making progress towards clean energy. It has three parts:

I. Coal and Electricity
II. Oil and Gas
III. Land and Food

Here is the trailer. You can rent it on iTunes for $4.99 HD. Everyone should see this.

[ggies]

Nice article:

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Renewable power investment held steady at around $290bn in 2015, the IEA says, yet cost reductions mean more capacity could be bought for the money. Solar investment was lower than 2011 in dollar terms, but 60% more capacity was added.

New renewables commissioned in 2015 have the capacity to generate 350 terawatt hours (TWh), against an increase in demand of less than 250TWh. This means all other capacity brought online in 2015 was effectively surplus to requirements.

And then this one:

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The latest record is an incredibly low bid of 2.42 cents / kwh solar electricity in Abu Dhabi. That is an unsubsidized price. Let me put that in perspective. The cost of electricity from a new natural gas powerplant in the US is now estimated at 5.6 cents / kwh. (pdf link) That is with historically low natural gas prices in the US, which are far lower than the price of natural gas in the rest of the world. This new bid in Abu Dhabi is less than half the price of electricity from a new natural gas plant. What’s more, it’s less than the cost of the fuel burned in a natural gas plant to make electricity – without even considering the cost of building the plant in the first place. The solar bid in Abu Dhabi is not just the cheapest solar power contract ever signed – it’s the cheapest contract for electricity ever signed, anywhere on planet earth, using any technology.

[ggies]

If you believe in math, like I do, and think 2+2 = 4, then this article sums it up quite nicely. It's simple math. Another great article by Bill McKibben.

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Scientists say that to have even a two-thirds chance of staying below a global increase of two degrees Celsius, we can release 800 gigatons more CO2 into the atmosphere. But the Rystad data shows coal mines and oil and gas wells currently in operation worldwide contain 942 gigatons worth of CO2. So the math problem is simple, and it goes like this: 942 > 800

“What we found is that if you burn up all the carbon that’s in the currently operating fields and mines, you’re already above two degrees,” says Stephen Kretzmann, OCI’s executive director. It’s not that if we keep eating like this for a few more decades we’ll be morbidly obese. It’s that if we eat what’s already in the refrigerator we’ll be morbidly obese.

So last year, when the world’s leaders met in Paris, they set a new number: Every effort, they said, would be made to keep the global temperature rise to less than 1.5 degrees. And to have even a 50–50 chance of meeting that goal, we can only release about 353 gigatons more CO2. So let’s do the math again: 942 > 353

But the problem is, it is that simple. We have to “turn away.” We have to “keep it in the ground.” The numbers are the numbers. We literally cannot keep doing what we’re doing if we want to have a planet.

[That's it, Sir.]

Great thread. Thank you!

[ggies]

Originally Posted by That's it, Sir. Great thread. Thank you!

Thanks! and you are welcome. Glad it's working

[ggies]

Three articles today.

Any coffee lovers out there? Imagine your daily routine with a lot less to no coffee.....


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Coffee plants thrive in stable environments where a precise combination of temperature and precipitation allows beans to prosper while keeping their taste profile. The report shows that countries once offering the proper mix of climate factors in the “bean belt,” including Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Ethiopia and Vietnam, have become less hospitable because of shifts in weather patterns scientists say can be attributed to climate change.

And this one:

I definitely think this needs to happen. As the article states - our science and technology is improving and expanding quicker each year, while our policy decisions are becoming stuck in the past.

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Evidence is the surest basis for fair, just and effective public policy.

Human-caused climate change is supported by such an enormous weight of evidence from so many independent lines of experimental observation that it should be regarded as settled fact. Arguing with that is putting your head in the sand. It’s gutless, and candidates should be held to account.

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The vote, which is not yet binding, would require shutting down the five coal power plants currently operating in the Netherlands, three of which just came online in 2015.

The Netherlands’ Liberal and Labour parties led the 77 to 72 vote on September 22, in favor of the 2030 emissions reduction goal.

[ggies]

This is great to see, another storage project which means the grid becoming more renewable.

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In a press release today, AMS describes the new project as “the largest network of energy storage systems at a public water agency in the United States”

This new energy storage system should help reduce peak demand for the water treatment facilities and stabilize its energy consumption.