COVID 19 Lockdown: The Death Knell Of Coal?

Given that the percentage of coal in the British energy mix fell to zero percent during the two month lockdown, does the COVID 19 pandemic spell the death knell for coal fired power plants?

By: Ringo Bones

As of April 10, 2020, the share of coal in Britain’s electrical mix fell to 0-percent according to data from Drax, an electrical power generation company, after the island’s coal fired power plants were shut down in response to lower demand for electricity. It was once thought that people staying at home and using more electricity would mean an overall demand across the country, but it didn’t turn out that way. It seems that commercial and industrial customers use electricity magnitudes more that folks staying at home plugged in on the internet.And Britain is now off coal for two months and counting. 

Power generating companies say that the cost of setting up wind turbines and solar are now at a tipping point that they are now making a better fiscal sense than good old coal. In Australia, an aging coal fired power plant was demolished – Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria - because wind and solar are now more cost effective. And private investments going into coal fired power plants are only growing in Mainland China and India. Could the COVID 19 lockdown be the best thing that ever happened to our environment?

Sulfur Hexafluoride: Clean Power Generation’s Dirty Little Secret?

Often used in science shows to lower the pitch of the human voice, is sulfur hexafluoride the clean power industry’s “dirty little secret” because it is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide?

By: Ringo Bones

Ever seen those science shows on TV – now mostly on You Tube – where the presenter uses a gas called sulfur hexafluoride to lower the pitch of their voices like the opposite of what helium does? Well, unfortunately, sulfur hexafluoride unbeknown to many of us, is a very dangerous greenhouse gas – as in it possesses 23,500 times the atmospheric warming power of carbon dioxide and could exacerbate the effects of global warming. Atmospheric scientists had found out that concentrations of sulfur hexafluoride in our atmosphere had been increasing during the past five years. But given it is a very potent greenhouse gas, why is sulfur hexafluoride relatively widely available that science show presenters can casually use it in a demonstration to lower the pitch of their voices?

Due to the recent rush to wean our reliance on fossil fuels in industrial electrical power generation – namely wind turbines, sulfur hexafluoride is a necessity when it comes as fire suppressant in large-scale electrical distribution systems – i.e. high capacity circuit breakers and relays. Given that the alternatives are more damaging to the ozone layer – like the chlorofluorocarbon based Halon –or prohibitively expensive when use in the scale we currently use – i.e. the inert gas argon, it seems that the electrical power industry must now find ways to minimize the leaking of large amounts of sulfur hexafluoride into the atmosphere. Worst still, like most petrochemical derived plastics, sulfur hexafluoride doesn’t break down easily in nature.

Given that the electrical power industry now has notice on the potential problems posed by unnecessary leaking into the atmosphere of sulfur hexafluoride, the due diligence doesn’t solely fall on them. Back in the 1990s, sulfur hexafluoride was used to fill the cushioning bubbles of running shoes and who knows what other consumer products, making a renewed regulation of sulfur hexafluoride throughout the various industries somewhat of an uphill battle. Maybe science show presenters must now find other more earth-friendly alternative gas to be used in demonstrations to lower the pitch of their voices. Maybe the argon gas production industry could pitch in?

Converting Gasoline Powered Classic Cars Into Electric Cars: The “Greenest” Move Ever?

It reduces carbon dioxide generation and minimizes the environmental impact of end-of-life disposal, does converting your classic car to an electric car the “greenest” upgrade you can make ever?

By: Ringo Bones

Back when Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was still doing its run in the movie theaters, critics of the so-called electric car were very busy stating the fact that even though they don’t emit carbon dioxide during their commute, they do have the same carbon footprint as a gasoline or diesel powered car during their initial production. But what about converting a much-loved gasoline or petrol powered classic car to one that runs on electricity? Would it be the most environmentally move one can make ever? I mean it avoids the eventual disposal of a classic car to some scrap heap and also turns it into a driving machine that produces virtually zero carbon dioxide during its commute.

Matthew Quitter of London Electric Cars recently got press attention after one of the classic cars that he successfully converted to run on rechargeable batteries - a 1953 Morris Minor Series 2 – was admired not only for its beauty, but also of its true-blue “green credentials”. In his Vauxhall based company, Matthew Quitter had managed to convert various quintessentially British classic car models to run on rechargeable batteries, from classic Minis to Land Rovers.  

On average, it takes 3-months of shop work to convert the average petrol-powered car to one that runs on rechargeable batteries. And even the modifications made by Quitter’s London Electric Cars can easily reverted back to petrol I bet nobody would ever go back given the advantages one gains in the conversion. Zero carbon dioxide emissions aside, a classic car converted to run on rechargeable batteries and dedicated electric motor produces on average three times as much torque than its original petrol-powered engine version. And when it comes to running costs, such modified cars are currently exempt from London’s congestion tax, making them the ideal city car. Given such benefits, I wonder if Quitter’s London Electric Cars already has clients who want their Lancia Stratos, Alfa Romeo Carabo and other classic supercars converted to run on rechargeable batteries.

World’s Longest Electric Car Trip: Coming of Age For The Electric Car?

With an adventurous Dutchman’s 60,000-mile journey recent completion in Sydney, Australia, has the coming of age for the electric car finally arrived?

By: Ringo Bones

Dutchman Wiebe Wakker’s amazing feat of traveling 60,000 miles (95,000-kilometers) via electric car reminds me of those automotive pioneers during the early part of the 20^th Century who drove early production models of the Model T and similar early gasoline powered vehicles in trips that stretched thousands of miles to prove that the automobile is a reliable form of transportation. With the advent of climate change and “peak oil”, Wiebe Wakker doing his part in a bid to prove the viability of electric vehicles in tackling climate change, his name will undoubtedly be now associated with the early automobile pioneers.

The tree-year trip was done on a modified Volkswagen Golf that Wakker nicknamed “The Blue Bandit” across 33 countries in what he said was the longest-ever journey by electric car. But Wakker’s three-year electric car “odyssey” is also, so-far, the longest documented electric car trip. The three-year trip from the Netherlands to Australia was funded by public donations from around the world, including the electricity needed to charge the Blue Bandit as well as food and a place to sleep. Wakker drove across a variety of countries and climatic conditions that included Turkey, Iran, India, Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia with the route determined by the prior offers he received on his website before the trip began.

Wiebe Wakker’s choice to opt for a modified Volkswagen Golf makes a lot of engineering sense because even in its original gasoline-powered form, the VW Golf is known for its excellent power-to-weight ratio and in its unmodified form was often known to beat 1970s and 1980s era Corvette supercars in a quarter-mile drag race when driven by a driver of sufficient drag-racing skills. According to Wakker, if the VW Golf remained unmodified, it would have consumed 6,785 liters or 1,800 US gallons of gasoline to complete the epic three-year journey.

Wakker’s modified VW Golf can travel 200 kilometers on a single charge, with Wakker saying that he spent just 300 US dollars on electricity, much of it in the remote desert Outback of Australia. Wakker’s raison d’être of his epic trip was to change people’s opinions and inspire people to start driving electric by showing the advantages of sustainable mobility. Wakker also said that “if one man can drive to the other side of the world in an electric car, then EVs (electric vehicles) should definitely be viable for daily use.”

The Tesla 100 Megawatt Lithium Ion Battery: The Future of Carbon Neutral Power Generation?

Completed in less than 100 days, does Elon Musk’s 100-megawatt Tesla Lithium ion battery the future of dispatchable renewable energy power generation?

By:  Ringo Bones

The Tesla 100-megawatt lithium ion battery located in Jamestown, South Australia is the world’s largest so far – m9ore than 3 times larger than the previous record holder in Mira Loma, California. Constructed in partnership with the French renewable energy firm Neoen, the Tesla 100-megaawatt capacity Lithium ion battery stores the energy generated from the neighboring Hornsdale Wind Farm which is owned by French renewable energy company Neoen.

Tesla’s Elon Musk promised to build the 100-megawatt Lithium Ion Battery within 100 days of the contracts being signed at the end of September 2017 or the company would hand it over to the South Australia state government for free. Completed way ahead of schedule, it went online at the end of November 2017 running at 70-megawatt capacity.  Given that the state of South Australia has been plagued by power cuts in recent years, South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill says “South Australia is now leading the world in dispatchable renewable energy, delivered to homes and businesses 24/7.”

With the relatively high initial cost and the initial carbon footprint in its manufacture the only glaring disadvantages, large-scale lithium ion battery energy storage systems seems to be the way forward in current carbon neutral energy generation as a solution to where to store the unused energy generated by a typical wind farm. With its all-electric truck being rolled off a month before, it looks like Elon Musk’s Tesla has established itself as the leading player in the global clean energy production and transport.

Coal and Crude Oil On the Way Out?

Given the revelations at the annual UN’s COP22 meeting in Marrakech, are coal and crude oil on the way out to be replaced by renewable energy sources?

By: Ringo Bones 

Maybe the American president-elect Donald J. Trump should pay close attention to the “revelations” of this year’s COP22 climate conference held in Marrakech which shows that renewable are increasingly getting more economically viable and coal is on the way out because more and more developing countries are rejecting its use due to the harm it can do to the environment offsets any profit gained. Maybe president-elect Trump should offer America’s coal industry alternative jobs instead. 

International Energy Agency representatives and industry analysts during this year’s COP22 Conference in Marrakech have shown figures that, if current trends continue, in the subsequent decades, renewable could become more economically viable than coal and crude oil due to China and scores of African states choosing to adopt renewable energy infrastructures for power generation. The only fossil fuel that could remain economically viable in the subsequent decades is natural gas – that is if the environmental downsides of fracking are solved. 

Ever since China has adopted renewable energy sources big time since 2005 and the country’s increased impetus to adopt renewable energy sources in the wake of the air pollution threatening to spoil the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the current economies of scale has driven coal and crude oil less economically viable in comparison to large-scale wind turbine and solar power installations. Look like environmentalists around the world could get the most of what they want and, sadly, America’s coal industry could die an ignominious death from an environmentalists’ perspective.

Coal Seam Gas: Not Environmentally Friendly?

Despite its scientifically proven low-carbon credentials, is coal seam gas extraction far from environmentally friendly due to its tendency to cause groundwater contamination? 

By: Ringo Bones 

The energy firm Santos in New South Wales, Australia was picketed back in January 28, 2016 by local farmers due to its coal seam gas extraction schemes contaminating the local farmland’s groundwater source, but the energy firm’s “environmental impact” was already a concern almost two years ago. Back in March 24, 2014, leaks of water containing high levels of radioactive uranium from coal seam gas wastewater pond operated by energy firm Santos in New South Wales put the spotlight yet again on an industry already wracked by controversy. Most concerns over coal seam gas have to date focused on “fracking” – fracturing deep rock strata to get gas in coal seams – but as the incident shows, waste produced by coal seam gas wells and brought to the surface is another major environmental issue. 

According to the New South Wales Environmental Protection Authority, the March 2014 incident resulted in the contamination of the groundwater aquifer downstream of the leak that tested 20 times the acceptable levels of uranium for drinking water. This is concerning given the long timescales and effort involved in groundwater clean-up and the fact that the region affected is an area of recharge for the Great Artesian Basin. 

The type of wastewater that resulted in groundwater contamination in this incident – called “produced” or “co-produced” water – is generated in large quantities by all coal seam gas wells and it is usually of poor quality, containing potentially harmful levels of salts, radionuclides, metals and other contaminants. It appears that in this case such water was inappropriately stored in a leaky dam, allowing it to infiltrate and migrate into the underlying aquifer. 

The only viable way to rectify this is to use reverse osmosis to remove the contaminants and release the treated water into local streams but the method can be potentially cost prohibitive in some situations. Some contaminants – such as boron – are harder to remove and are retained in the treated coal seam gas extraction produced water. In some cases, methane can also remain in the water after it leaves the treatment plant, adding concerns of “fugitive emissions” given that methane is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.  And this methane in the water has resulted in scores of sensational videos uploaded to You Tube where homeowners’ tap water catching fire after a lit match is brought close to a turned on faucet highlighting the environmental concerns of fracking.