🔗 Articles: Wed 06.Mar.2024

“News that belongs to you.” — CBC

NYT: Trump’s Victory Speech After Super Tuesday Conjures a Dark Vision

As he dominated the Super Tuesday battlefield, former President Donald Trump warned of dark days ahead if President Biden were to win a second term. “We’re a third-world country,” he said repeatedly.

CleanTechnica: EVs At 24.8% Share In UK — Tesla Back On Top

February saw plugin EVs at 24.8% share of the UK auto market, up from 22.9% year on year. Full electric volume increased by 1.21× YoY, with plugin hybrids up by 1.29×. Overall auto volume was 84,886 units, up 13% YoY and the highest February in 20 years. Tesla was the UK’s leading BEV brand.

February’s results saw combined plugin EVs at 24.8% share, with full electrics (BEVs) taking 17.7% and plugin hybrids (PHEVs) taking 7.2%. These compare with shares of 22.9% combined, 16.5% BEV and 6.3% PHEV, year on year.

Electrek: The best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in Feb 2024

Here at Electrek, we’ve spent countless hours doing detailed hands-on testing of hundreds of electric bikes. Through thousands of miles of riding, we’ve learned these e-bikes inside and out, top to bottom and front to back. That dedication to real-world e-bike testing has helped us find the best electric bicycles on the market for just about any budget.

Last Updated: 06.Mar.2024 17:07 EST

Tuesday’s articles

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🔗📻 Mineable Hydrogen?

CBC: Quirks & Quarks: Could buried hydrogen help save the world, and more…

Geologic Hydrogen could be clean, green and plentiful

More than a century ago we discovered that there were rich deposits of energy buried deep in Earth, and so oil and gas became the foundation of our industrial civilization. Now history might be repeating itself as scientists think there could be massive amounts of clean, green hydrogen hiding underground as well. Quirks producer Jim Lebans spoke with Geochemist Barbara Sherwood Lollar from the University of Toronto, and geologist Geoffrey Ellis from the United States Geological Survey to understand where this hydrogen has come from, how much there is, and what its potential could be as an energy resource.

📰 Electrek: Hyundai and Kia surge past Ford, GM for second in US EV sales

Tesla remained on top (by far) with 55% of the share. …price cuts helped bounce back from an all-time low in Q3.

[It] captured 4.2% of the total US market with over 650,000 deliveries, topping Volkswagen, Subaru, and BMW for the first time. …

Hyundai capped off a record year with nearly 47,000 IONIQ 5 and IONIQ 6 EVs sold, while Kia sold almost 19,000 EV6 electric crossovers. It also began delivering its first three-row electric SUV, the EV9, with 1,113 sold in December.

📰 pv magazine: Renewables covered almost 60% of German electricity demand in 2023

New statistics from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) show that PV systems in Germany generated around 59.9 TWh of solar power in 2023, with 6.4 TWh used for home consumption.

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Installed battery capacity almost doubled from 4.4 GW in 2022 to 7.6 GW last year. Storage capacity increased from 6.5 GWh to 11.2 GWh. Output of German pumped storage plants reached 6 GW.

Two Interesting Battery & Inventions Videos 🔗⚡️🔋

I watched a couple of interesting videos this evening. They are both about near term and present day helpful technologies.

The first is from Matt Ferrell at Undecided, a good source of videos on current and emerging renewable energy technologies.

Undecided with Matt Ferrell (YouTube): Why This Ultra Dense Battery Breakthrough Matters

It might surprise you to learn that the basic chemistry of the lithium ion battery at the heart of a brand new Tesla or iPhone hasn’t changed all that much in the last 30 years. So, when several of you left comments pointing me in the direction of a new company that’s replacing a key part of the battery with silicon and some nanowires, my curiosity was piqued. To add to that, one of my science advisory team members brought them up, too, which only added fuel to the curiosity fire. Now, we’ve covered a lot of batteries on this channel, so what makes the company Amprius, and other similar companies going after silicon, stand out for the future of battery tech?

Faster charging and higher energy storage density from replacing the lithium & carbon anode with silicon whiskers. Quite possibly approaching commercial production within the next year.

The second is from a channel I’m unfamiliar with, FD Engineering (by Quintus Media GmbH). There are a number of short documentary pieces on recent inventions. I watched the first couple of segments (about 8 minutes and 7 minutes in length) and they’re good enough for me to plan on watching the rest tomorrow.

FD Engineering (YouTube): Genius Inventions: Technical Marvels That Will Shape Tomorrow

Step into a world of innovation and brilliance with Genius Inventions. Showcasing the most brilliant inventions from around the world, this series takes viewers on an inspiring journey through a variety of groundbreaking creations, ranging from revolutionary technological gadgets to eco-friendly solutions. Prepare to be awestruck as we delve into the heart of human ingenuity and witness the future, one groundbreaking idea at a time.

00:00:00 Turbines and fans inspired by whales; Showers that help saving water; Rotor blades for onshore and offshore energy production

The leading edge of the pectoral fins of humpback whales have bumps on them, and they can make surfaces with lower drag, and more lift!

📰🔗 Home insurers cut natural disasters from policies over climate risk

WashPo: Home insurers cut natural disasters from policies over climate risk

In the aftermath of extreme weather events, major insurers are increasingly no longer offering coverage that homeowners in areas vulnerable to those disasters need most.

At least five large U.S. property insurers — including Allstate, American Family, Nationwide, Erie Insurance Group and Berkshire Hathaway — have told regulators that extreme weather patterns caused by climate change have led them to stop writing coverages in some regions, exclude protections from various weather events and raise monthly premiums and deductibles.

Major insurers say they will cut out damage caused by hurricanes, wind and hail from policies underwriting property along coastlines and in wildfire country, according to a voluntary survey conducted by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, a group of state officials who regulate rates and policy forms.

People are going to expect the government to be the insurer of last resort, but I can’t see how they can afford that. And of course, some will expect lower taxes too.

link: EVs Take 55% Of The German Auto Market In December!

CleanTechnica: EVs Take 55% Of The German Auto Market In December!

The tide has turned in the electrification of the German auto market, with plugin electric vehicles taking the majority of sales for the first time in December. Plugins took 55.4% of the month’s passenger auto sales, with full electrics taking a third (33.2%), and plugin hybrids taking over a fifth (22.2%). Plugless hybrids took 12.8%, leaving less than a third of sales for combustion-only autos (31.8%).

All-perovskite two-terminal tandem solar cell tech with 32.3% efficiency [link]

pv magazine: All-perovskite two-terminal tandem solar cell tech with 32.3% efficiency

Indian scientists have designed a new all-perovskite tandem solar cell configuration that can reportedly achieve higher efficiencies than similar devices built with the same materials. The top perovskite cell has a wide bandgap of 1.75 eV and the bottom perovskite cell has a bandgap of 1.25 eV.

Scientists from the Central University of Jharkhand in India have simulated a new all-perovskite two-terminal tandem solar cell. It reportedly has a 13% higher efficiency than similar devices with the same materials at the research level.

Perovskite has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of panels but to date they have suffered from lower efficiency and poor durability. Tandem cells (perovskite over silicon), though, have achieved better efficiencies than silicon alone.

Latest interesting podcast episode

Grey Matter: Bill McKibben - Renown Environmentalist - Reclaiming the Climate

October 4, 2022

Bill McKibben is a life-long environmentalist, activist, journalist, and author who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. In our conversation we review the significance of recent climate legislation, the technological alternatives to fossil fuels, and the ways and means currently at work to reclaim the climate – with special focus given to what the Baby Boomers can do.

Is 63 years enough warning?

The Tyee: The Petro Elite Were Warned of Climate Calamity in 1959

Among them was Sun Oil head Robert Dunlop, who proceeded to exploit the tarsands of Alberta. Excerpted from ‘The Petroleum Papers.’

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However, Dunlop hinted cryptically at challenges to come: “There are aspects of the future which are clouded by the penetration of non-economic forces into the functioning of an industry which has always performed best in an atmosphere of economic freedom.”

Dunlop didn’t say what storm clouds specifically threatened the expansion of oil and gas. But the next “Energy and Man” speaker did. That speaker vividly described a new and unexpected threat to the industry: its vast and growing emissions of a greenhouse gas called carbon dioxide.

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Depictions of global warming’s impact on human society were also starting to enter popular culture. Several years before Teller attempted to alert his New York audience, an article in Time magazine warned that CO2 building up in the atmosphere could by the early 2000s “have a violent effect on the Earth’s climate.”

One wonders: how much warning do the Liberals think the oil & gas industry needs?