WUHAN - TIDAL-STREAM TURBINE

By William Mathis (Bloomberg)

A tidal-stream turbine with a diameter bigger than the length of a tractor trailer was installed in China for a project involving Simec Atlantis Energy Ltd., China Shipbuilding Industry Company Ltd. and China Three Gorges Corp.

The 18-meter (59 feet) turbine was manufactured in Wuhan and put last week in the waters between two islands in the Zhoushan archipelago, south of Shanghai. 

While turbines that harness the tides to generate electricity have struggled to compete on cost with solar and wind farms, a move by China to industrialize production could significantly reduce the technology’s price tag.

The 500-kilowatt turbine is only a pilot project, but could be the first step toward larger-scale production - Link

2050 - H2 HOME HEATING

Up to a third of the UK’s greenhouse emissions come from central heating - a switch from natural gas to hydrogen, one of three proposals for greener energy, has experts divided.

On 27 June 2019, the energy and clean growth minister Chris Skidmore signed papers that committed the UK to reduce carbon emissions to effectively nothing by 2050. If we are to stand any chance of meeting this target, known as “net zero”, there is one enormous challenge that we will have to tackle: home heating.

Warming our homes is responsible for between a quarter and a third of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. That’s more than 10 times the amount of CO2created by the aviation industry.

Around 85% of homes now use gas-fired central heating, and a large proportion of gas cooking still takes place. Greening this system is a huge challenge by any measure. But if recent reports are to be believed, there could be a simple and efficient way to do it: change from using natural gas to hydrogen gas.

Hydrogen is abundant in the natural world and according to its advocates could power the next generation of gas appliances cleanly and efficiently - Link

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

My family has embarked upon an art competition to see who can create a work of art that best replicates the original. 

Due to the time taken, effort and attention to detail you may think I have cheated and just posted an original - I haven't; this is not an actual Vermeer.

FACEPACK

THIS MORNING

COVID CROP UPDATE - 005

COVID CROP UPDATE - 004

BBC NEWS

How annoyed was I when watching the news this morning there was a period of almost four minutes when there was no mention of Coronavirus?

FOALS - IN DEGREES

COVID CROP UPDATE - 003

HAPPY FRIDAY

HUIZHOU GANGKOU PHASE 1

MingYang Smart Energy has secured a contract to deliver wind turbines for the Huizhou Gangkou Phase 1 and 2 offshore wind project.

The Chinese turbine manufacturer won the contract from General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN).

MingYang will deploy 64 MySE6.25-180 wind turbines for the 400MW project.

The first delivery of turbines will begin October 2020 and is expected to complete by August 2021, the company said in a statement.

The Huizhou Gangkou project is located 25km off the coast of Huidong County of Guangdong Province.

CGN plans to connect the Huizhou Gangkou wind farm to the grid in late June 2022 - link

KAPTIS - KENYA

Tembo Power, the developer of the Kaptis hydropower project, has selected Ninety One SA (Pty) of Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) and FinnFund to finance its project in Kenya. The Kaptis plant will have a capacity of 15 MW and will be operational in 2022.

The financial partners of the Kaptis hydropower project are now known. They are FinnFund, a Finnish company specialising in development finance. It will invest in the project alongside Ninety One SA (formerly Investec Asset Management) of Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), a fund owned by Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG).

FinnFund and EAIF/Ninety One SA will provide the loan liquidity for the construction of the Kaptis hydropower plant in Western Kenya. “I am pleased to welcome EAIF/Ninety One and FinnFund into our consortium for the actual construction of Kaptis. Both lenders are major players in the African infrastructure sector with specific knowledge. They have successfully demonstrated their skills in financing small hydropower projects in sub-Saharan Africa”, says Raphael Khalifa, the founder of Tembo Power, a company based in Ebene, Mauritius, and the project sponsor.

The commissioning of the hydropower plant is scheduled for 2022.

GREAT GUY, GREAT CAUSE

Delighted to have added to Captain Tom's stunning fundraising - link

BIFFA BUGGERS UP

A HUGE pile-up of waste has prompted complaints slamming one waste management company for not collecting rubbish from a series of shops on Wokingham Road.

Refuse collection firm Biffa has not picked up rubbish from the grocery shops since Friday, according to one shop owner, despite repeated calls to the company, which calls itself ‘number one for business waste’.

The shops affected, on the stretch of the road near Palmer Park, include Big Bazaar and Rahim Stores - Link - more like this - link

POOR LENO - ROYKSOPP

US HITS 100GW WIND CAPACITY

The US now has more than 100GW of wind installed after it connected some 9.1GW of new projects to the grid last year.

Total US capacity now stands at 105GW, with 2019 additions representing 39 percent of all utility scale power additions to the grid nationally.

The figures, published in an annual report by US wind association AWEA, show wind is the largest provider of renewable energy in the country, supplying over seven percent of the nation’s electricity last year.

“Years of hard work culminated with wind power becoming America’s largest renewable energy provider in 2019, with a 50-state footprint of job creation and economic development,” said AWEA chief executive Tom Kiernan.

Last year, wind capacity grew by 9.6 percent nationally, spurred on by strong additions in the states of Texas and Iowa.

In total, developers delivered 55 wind projects in 19 states during 2019.

Research shows the US wind industry now supports a record 120,000 American jobs, 530 domestic factories and rakes in $1.6 billion a year for local states and communities, AWEA said - link

ANNOYING COLLEAGUE TRAITS - NO. 1

DEER BUDDHA

MEYGEN TIDAL

THE MeyGen tidal energy project off the north Caithness coast is continuing to operate despite the difficulties created by the coronavirus pandemic.

Simec Atlantis Energy, the company behind the pioneering initiative, outlined the impact the Covid-19 crisis is having on its various business interests, which include the MeyGen scheme in the Pentland Firth.

A spokesman for Simec said: "While the situation across our portfolio of projects requires constant monitoring and reassessment, at present we have seen minimal disruption to the tidal business with MeyGen continuing to export power reliably to the grid. In addition, it remains our expectation that we will be able to maintain our current contractual commitments to deliver equipment and services to our clients in Japan and Scotland this year." link

COVID CROP UPDATE - 002

more like this - link

THE 2020 COVID CROP - 001

more like this- link

GOOD LIFE - INNER CITY

GIGASTACK

Orsted and ITM Power have revealed a concept for an electrolyser installed in the tower of an offshore wind turbine, to potentially reduce the cost of producing hydrogen.

As a result of their collaboration on the BEIS-funded Gigastack feasibility study ‘Hydrogen supply competition’, the partners have proposed “an electrolyser placed in an offshore wind turbine tower, or very near it, which provides a direct electrical connection to the direct current (DC) link in turbine, with appropriate power flow control and water supplied to it”.

The companies said such an approach could represent a “better design concept” for bulk hydrogen production, as opposed to installing electrolysers at a terminal or platform, remotely from the wind turbine. Advantages of doing so include reduced costs and energy losses.

Where the electrolyser is installed in, or close to, the wind turbine tower, the hydrogen gas would be transported to shore by an underwater or underground pipe network - Link

EARLY MORNING WALK

INVINITY LOOKING TO CHINA

Vanadium flow battery giant to go 'head-to-head' with Li-ion kings.

Invinity Energy Systems – formed from redT and Avalon – eyeing markets in UK, Canada, US, South Africa and China.

Next-generation energy storage technology companies redT and Avalon have merged to form Invinity Energy Systems, to further develop vanadium flow technology as a competitor to the lithium-ion (Li-ion) designs that have come to dominate the market as the global renewables build-out gathers pace.

Invinity believes its battery design, based around a non-flammable, liquid electrolyte held in tanks within a self-contained module, which has a 20-25 year operating life and does not degrade as fast as conventional batteries, will be “well suited to heavy-duty, daily use” storing solar and wind power production - Link

VOTE TO SACK SHEILA OATES - LINK

Sheila Oakes is the councillor for Heanor, she made a vile comment towards the current Prime Minister, in saying that he deserves everything he gets.

Nobody should wish this on any other person, she has shown total disrespect for him, his family and everyone that has contracted this horrible life threatening virus, she has also abused her position as a councillor, in as much as being an influential person within the community and is spreading hate speech towards a fellow human being.

She is not fit for the office position that she holds and must be removed immediately as no apology is acceptable - LINK

NEW KIA SOUL

Almost everyone who bought the last Kia Soul got the one with an actual engine. Until, that is, the last year it was on sale. 

In 2018 Kia sold more Soul EVs in Europe than it did petrol and diesel ones combined. So while elsewhere in the world the Soul is still available with a normal petrol engine, in Europe it’s electric only.

Under the, erm, polarising body lives the same powertrain you get in the Kia e-Niro and Hyundai Kona Electric. And like those two cars, the Soul EV seems like good value given it costs the same as a top-spec Mini Electric – around £34,000 post £3,000 Government grant – yet claims a massive 280 miles of range and better efficiency than “Europe’s current best-selling electric vehicle” (otherwise known as the Nissan Leaf). 

If you want to go much further on a single charge, you’ll need a vastly more expensive Tesla Model 3 Long Range - Link

SHEILA OAKES - LABOUR PARTY - HEANOR

Replying to a message calling for people to say a prayer for the Prime Minister, Sheila Oakes wrote: “Sorry, he completely deserves this and he is one of the worst PMs we’ve ever had.”

Sheila Oakes, who is mayor of Heanor in Derbyshire and a Labour district councillor, posted the comment on Facebook on Monday night - link

MISSING COLLEAGUES

PERTH H2 REFUELLING FACILITY

ATCO and resources giant Fortescue Metals Group will partner in a new trial of hydrogen vehicles as part of the company’s operations.

The two companies say they will cooperate in the establishment of a combined hydrogen production and refuelling station at an ATCO facility in the Perth semi-industrial suburb of Jandakot.

The hydrogen refuelling facility will allow Fortescue to undertake a trial of hydrogen fuelled vehicles, including Totoya’s Mirai fuel-cell passenger vehicle.

The refuelling facility will initially operate from the Perth location, but project partners will look for opportunities to deploy the technologies into other parts of Western Australia.

The project hopes to receive funding under the Western Australian government’s Renewable Hydrogen Fund and is awaiting the final decision on funding - Link - more like this (Fortescue) - link

ROME DOES LOCK DOWN

LOCK DOWN SUNDAY

ANDREW MARR - TWAT

Andrew Marr is a twat

LUCKY SO FAR

As the number of people across the world with COVID-19 increases, fortunately I still do not know anyone who knows anyone who has or has had the virus - I realise I am very lucky. 

SOCIAL DISTANCING

COVID 19 MEETS 20 LUCKY STRIKE

The world’s second-biggest cigarette maker claims to have made a “significant breakthrough” in the race to find a vaccine for the coronavirus and would be ready to start mass production within three months.

British American Tobacco (BAT), the FTSE 100 company behind Lucky Strike and Dunhill, said it could be producing up to 3m million doses of a vaccine a week by June - far faster than rivals, which are expecting to take at least a year.

BAT intends to start trialling its vaccine in humans as soon as possible. It is running pre-clinical tests and holding urgent talks with US drug authorities to fast-track permissions - link

WOODY THOUGHT IT MEANT ACTUALLY WORKING

A DOG EAT DOG WORLD (APART FROM CHINA)

Talk about over-reacting – the city of Shenzhen has become the first Chinese city to ban the sale and consumption of cats and dogs.

Typical, you always get one person or place going that little bit too far, banning something just because a few think its bad taste.

I bet any money some sad do-gooder is going to try and ban keeping bears held captive in small cages so they can have their bile drained next! -link

CLEANAWAY BUY ELECTRIC

(17/05/2019)

The first of two fully electric Cleanaway waste collections vehicles have begun kerbside collections in Victoria as part of a three-month trial.

The first vehicle began servicing household collections in Hobsons Bay. City of Greater Geelong and Moonee Valley will also host the vehicle to ensure it is tested across a variety of terrain and in different municipal settings.

Cleanaway CEO Vik Bansal said the vehicles are among the first in Australia to service kerbside collections, and will be under pressure to carry full loads and complete scheduled runs every day.

“With almost 5000 vehicles on the road each day, servicing homes and businesses all over Australia, we are looking for ways to do that more sustainably while continuing to deliver consistent service,” Mr Bansal said.

“Sustainability is about more than removing emissions at all costs. If service levels drop or waste collection costs increase significantly for ratepayers – that isn’t sustainable.”

Cleanaway Head of Fleet Paul Young said the company is optimistic about proving the reliability of the technology - link

VESTAS REOPENS SPANISH PLANT

Vestas on Sunday restarted operations at its Daimiel blade factory in Spain after talks with workers’ groups and an inspection by health officials that approved coronavirus measures in place at the plant.

Daimiel spent much of last week with production suspended following a high-profile statement of concern by unions representing workers there over what they claimed were inadequate arrangements - Link