• Welcome to the Internet Infidels Discussion Board.

The Remarkable Progress of Renewable Energy

US pays wind developers to quit, back fossil fuel projects • The Register
As the Iran war pushes up energy prices, the Trump administration is paying offshore wind developers to walk away from projects and invest instead in fossil fuel infrastructure.

The US Department of the Interior (DoI) announced on Monday two "historic" agreements under which the firms behind the Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind projects will voluntarily terminate their offshore wind leases.

In return, the DoI will reimburse the companies with taxpayers' cash, to the tune of $765 million in the case of Bluepoint Wind, and $120 million for Golden State Wind.

There is a catch, of course: the leaseholders must first invest a comparable amount in qualifying US conventional energy projects (i.e., oil, gas, or liquefied natural gas infrastructure) before they can recover the money tied to their offshore wind leases.
  • Bluepoint Wind - offshore at New Jersey and New York
  • Golden State Wind - Morro Bay floating wind turbines
What justification?
Washington's justification for these actions is that it is all part of President Trump's "Energy Dominance Agenda" to "leverage the nation's natural resources" to benefit American citizens and help lower everyday energy costs.

"President Trump is focused on providing affordable and reliable energy to American citizens," claimed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a prepared remark.
Then claiming that wind energy and solar energy have to be subsidized.
 
CATL secures world's largest sodium-ion battery order with 60 GWh deal
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) and energy storage integrator HyperStrong have signed a strategic cooperation agreement for sodium-ion batteries, marking a milestone in the industrialisation of this emerging battery technology.

...
According to the company, the collaboration demonstrates that CATL has overcome all challenges in the mass production chain of sodium-ion batteries and possesses large-scale delivery capabilities.

...
Sodium-ion batteries offer several advantages, including wide temperature adaptability, outstanding high-temperature cycle life, lower heat generation during operation, smaller cell expansion stress, and safety stability. In long-duration energy storage applications, they can simplify the overall architecture of storage systems, reduce auxiliary energy consumption, and improve station operating efficiency and overall economics.
It looks like Na-ion batteries are climbing the experience curve that many other new technologies have climbed. Na-ion has an edge over Li-ion from Na being a much more common element than Li.
 
Science’s 2025 Breakthrough of the Year: The unstoppable rise of renewable energy | Science | AAAS
This year, renewables surpassed coal as a source of electricity worldwide, and solar and wind energy grew fast enough to cover the entire increase in global electricity use from January to June, according to energy think tank Ember. In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared at the United Nations that his country will cut its carbon emissions by as much as 10% in a decade, not by using less energy, but by doubling down on wind and solar. And solar panel imports in Africa and South Asia have soared, as people in those regions realized rooftop solar can cheaply power lights, cellphones, and fans. To many, the continued growth of renewables now seems unstoppable—a prospect that has led Science to name the renewable energy surge its 2025 Breakthrough of the Year.

Electrify Europe now: homegrown electricity is the way out of Europe’s energy crisis - WindEurope
The war in Iran is another painful reminder of Europe’s overdependence on fossil fuel imports The EU imports 64% of the energy it consumes – a structural weakness. Electrification with homegrown electricity is Europe’s only future proof energy security plan.

Wind energy is here to deliver. It reduces Europe’s import dependence. It stabilises prices. And it keeps industrial value creation in Europe. Since the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe has produced more homegrown renewable energy and imported fewer energy products.

Solar, wind meet 99 pct of new global demand as batteries help deliver "round-the-clock resource"
Solar – as noted above – was the big star of the year, with new PV generation meeting 75 per cent of the net increase in global power demand, growing by a record 636 TWh in 2025 to reach 2,778 TWh in 2025, a 30 per cent jump on 2024.

...
The increase in global solar capacity was 18 times as large as that of gas (+36 TWh), which was the only fossil power source that grew in 2025, Ember says.

...
In the context of the current Middle East conflict, Ember notes that the solar generation added in 2025 would be sufficient to displace gas-fired electricity equivalent to all LNG exports through the Strait of Hormuz in the same year, estimated at 550 TWh.
 
Solar growth in China and India powers clean energy surge by 2025 | AP News
Clean power generation grew 887 terawatt hours last year, exceeding overall global electricity demand growth of 849 terawatt hours, according to a report by energy think tank Ember, released after midnight Tuesday London time.

Even if climate change is not real, clean energy is a good idea | Climate Invested - I particularly like the self-reliance of having solar panels on one's house's roof. Buy them and that's it.

Solar and wind outpace coal as energy crisis fails to spark fossil fuel revival | Euronews - "Fears of a ‘coal comeback’ triggered by the Iran war energy crisis are not supported by the data."

Trump’s ‘fossil fuelled war’ is the perfect opportunity to end reliance on oil and gas, experts say | Euronews - "During a time of massive geopolitical tension, governments will meet to discuss how to transition away from fossil fuels - the source of the current energy shock - and towards abundant, low-cost, reliable renewable energy."

Who’d have thought a fossil-fuel shill like Trump would be the one to spark a green revolution? | George Monbiot | The Guardian - "The US attack on Iran has made the need for renewable energy inarguable. Environmentalists are now being seen for the pragmatists that they are"
Donald Trump has done more to accelerate the energy transition than anyone else alive. Fossil fuel companies bankrolled his presidential campaign to stop the transition in its tracks. But when you back a volatile narcissist, unable to concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time, you shouldn’t expect to control the outcome.

It’s not that the fossils are suffering yet. As prices have soared since Trump and Netanyahu attacked Iran, oil executives have been selling shares at gobsmacking prices: the CEO of Chevron, for example, has cashed $104m so far this year. Vladimir Putin has also received a massive boost to his Ukraine invasion budget. As promised, Trump has gutted clean energy rules and programmes, green alternatives and environmental science. A fortnight ago, he stated, with the usual quantum of evidence (zero): “The environmentalists, I mean, they are terrorists … I call them environmental terrorists.”

But Trump’s illegal war, waged at terrible cost, is also focusing minds in governments around the world. It’s a demonstration not just that the orange emperor cannot be trusted, but also that fossil fuels cannot be trusted. Concentrated in certain regions, in the hands of either unreliable allies, potential opponents or outright enemies, dependent on long supply lines that can easily be disrupted, subject to price volatility that can trigger regime change in almost any country that relies on them, they now look less like a lifeline than a liability.
 
Europe’s Energy Problem Isn’t the Transition—It’s That Europe Never Finished It | OilPrice.com - "Europe’s energy transition problem is not moving too fast, but stopping halfway—investing in renewables without building enough grids, storage, and system flexibility"

Large solar farms in the UAE may accidentally create rainstorms that could reshape how deserts manage water shortages | TechRadar - "Dark solar panels in a massive desert could influence clouds and rainfall"

How South Korea plans to use the Iran crisis to spur a renewables revolution | South Korea | The Guardian

Some selections from Renewable Energy: safe, clean, sustainable energy for our future

Progress on "green" hydrogen, hydrogen generated from renewable sources, is still slow - Hydrogen Societies for a Green Sustainable Carbon Free Future Now! - but it's continuing. It may take some 🕰️ and 💰 but I think that it can be done.
 
Europe’s Energy Problem Isn’t the Transition—It’s That Europe Never Finished It | OilPrice.com - "Europe’s energy transition problem is not moving too fast, but stopping halfway—investing in renewables without building enough grids, storage, and system flexibility"
I just don't get the storage thing. You need how much storage for night-time? How much redundant storage for night-time? How much more redundant storage for emergencies?

The idea of stuffing enough people into a battery to power a country should be absurd enough on the face of it.
Progress on "green" hydrogen, hydrogen generated from renewable sources, is still slow - Hydrogen Societies for a Green Sustainable Carbon Free Future Now! - but it's continuing. It may take some 🕰️ and 💰 but I think that it can be done.
In Costa Rica where they have a surplus of hydro energy. But the biggest problem with hydrogen is storage and transfer. Hydrogen only works for cars if you can get the hydrogen created at the station. But you really can't facilitate that. So you'd need a central distribution center in a population area.

It makes a ton more sense to go the avenue of green ammonia than green hydrogen. The world needs ammonia and its creation is the largest global creator of greenhouse emissions.
 
Also China is going nuclear.

They have d eloped a standard design which they are beginning to mass produce.

Estimated long term cost about 5% of American start up costs for a nuclear reactor.

China is thinking out a hundred years or more.

Meanwhile Trump is building a new ballroom.
 
Back
Top Bottom