WattCarbon’s Post

Great to be invited to speak at the launch of a new study across the West of England Combined Authority area into the potential for gathering heat from mines for domestic and commercial heating via heat networks. Vattenfall aren't directly involved but are of course providing any guidance required on business models, infrastructure, and stakeholder engagement. My key takeaways: - The whole area is dotted with former mine heads many of which will provide an excellent opportunity to harvest heat, and many of these sit under the areas in which Vattenfall will be developing heat networks as part of Bristol City Leap - An interesting opportunity is the possibility of using these mines as inter-seasonal thermal storage. As we plan the expansion of the heat network across Bristol and into South Gloucestershire, we are finding more and more potential sources of waste heat from large office buildings, data centres and other industrial processes. These are of course most useful in the winter but most abundant in the summer so the possibility of dumping heat into mines could really move the needle on heat availability and our ability to expand - Sources of waste heat and demand don’t always line up but in places such as Radstock, there is certainly potential. Pathfinder projects such as Gateshead and Swaffham Prior have shown that the mine heat technology is viable and that heat networks can serve smaller communities (respectively) but this comes with huge challenges and there's a major role to be played by regulation - Aggregating demand to give surety to network operators is a challenge in big cities, let alone small towns. Heat Network Zoning will compel larger buildings in zones to connect to heat networks on the basis that it might not be the best solution for every building but it will be the only solution for many buildings. But, there are no plans to draw zones for smaller towns or to require smaller buildings or individual homes to connect. - Funding is another major challenge. Drilling is a high risk activity from a commercial perspective and current grant funding available for capital investment in heat networks is largely being snapped up by larger, more obviously viable projects at the demand and supply end - For networks supplying existing communities to be successful, support will be needed for individual home connection along the lines of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme which provides £7,500 for air source heat pump installations - Finally, community involvement is key from an early stage; in defining solutions, bringing residents along for the ride but also potentially owning heat generation assets to return benefits to the locality. All things we are exploring in Bristol. It was an excellent event and there is clearly a challenging potential for bringing the formerly polluting coal mines into the 21st century by playing a major part in reducing our carbon emissions. Plus, I’d advise everybody to visit the Radstock Museum!

Watt’s up with Texas? The Lone Star state recently published its first-ever greenhouse gas inventory, so naturally we had to dig into the data. → If Texas were a country, it would rank #11 globally for GHG emissions according to data available on Climate TRACE. At the same time, Texas leads the nation in renewables, recently dethroning California’s longtime reign for most installed utility-scale solar capacity. Read about the US’ highest emitting state’s power sector paradox in our latest blog: https://lnkd.in/gxx3pEWc #Texas #Emissions #ERCOT

https://lnkd.in/dfpAC4Ku The last GB coal-fired power station closes today... hopefully biomethane will be one of the main energy source replacement : green and dispachable, #biomethaneforall

I am sure this is true, however, the problem is that the reliable generation is being deemed redundant by the truly redundant wind and solar. If you take wind and solar out of the equation it would be coal is 60% of the power sectors CO2 emissions and only provided 60% of the nation's power. If natural gas fully replaces coal, we will have the same ratios but less CO2.

A new article by Canada's National Observer sheds light on the ongoing logging and burning of B.C.’s precious old-growth giants for electricity production “despite claims to the contrary by the provincial government and a U.K.-based corporation.” This is timely considering this week’s episode of #TheClearCut delves into the shocking carbon implications of using B.C.’s forests as a tool in the renewable energy transition. More at: https://lnkd.in/dC_jjKT5

✂️The debate about the #powerprice zone split is getting louder. 📰 For instance FAZ: https://lnkd.in/eKCmKyEq 💬 In our opinion, a division of the German #powerpricezone is a step away from the European community concept, because it leads further and further into small-scale... You can read here in Christoph Gardlo 's blog article (➡️ https://lnkd.in/eewRpq6U) why we do not consider the price zone split to be the solution to the problem, but instead rely on a large-scale #energystorage and #flexibilisation offensive, flanked by the rapid expansion of the #powergrid, in order to integrate #renewables when they are available and to avoid fossil generation when there is a lack of wind and #solargeneration.

In 2022, coal was responsible for 60% of the U.S. power-sector’s carbon emissions, yet only provided 20% of our nation’s power. By replacing coal with clean, affordable, and reliable #NaturalGas, we can cut emissions in half! Learn more about how embracing the partnership between natural gas and renewables can lead us on a pathway to reducing our global emissions faster: https://lnkd.in/eu8V7JAj

🌱 Renewable Revolution: Gone are the days of solely relying on fossil fuels. Today, we're tapping into renewable sources like solar, wind, and hydropower. But there's one source that often goes unnoticed – waste.

Martin Harbech’s outstanding post about the Inventor’s Dilemma ( https://lnkd.in/gENTa2cG ), as demonstrated by Kodak is spot on the money. It is also the same challenge that Australia is facing in the renewable transition. We have the world's best solar and wind resource, plenty of available land for renewables and a skilled workforce able to implement a new energy system. But three of our four biggest exports are fossil fuel, or fossil fuel related: Coal, LNG, and Iron Ore. Climbing down from our fossil fuelled economic mountain so we can climb an even better renewable mountain is an extreme political challenge.  An easy visual of this is in the graph below (sorry it is out of date - the fundamentals have not changed). The big black line exiting the top of the graph is the challenge. #energytransition #renewablesready https://lnkd.in/gENTa2cG

As of tomorrow, 1st October, the UK's power sector will be officially coal free ✨ Coal power shrunk from 40% of UK generation in 2012, to just 2% in 2019, and now zero. In the same time period, renewables have grown from 6% to 34% of UK generation. We can repeat this success with gas, enabling more renewables with long-duration storage, but changes are needed to allow us to get there. Let's hope the UK government can apply the same rules of success (supportive policy frameworks, carbon pricing, clear targets) to the next challenge. (Credit to Ember for the research and data: https://lnkd.in/emDWQ255) #decarbonisation #energystorage #coalfreepower #netzero