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It's not just about efficiency with a bus. It's about duty cycle and sensitivity to weight. Buses don't care about added weight much, and they're going to cycle that flywheel WAY WAY WAY more than a privately owned compact car HEV/BEV with regen braking.
Gen 2 low-cost flywheel-based Torotrak KERS for buses en route to production in mid-2016
Torotrak Group and Wrightbus have completed the in-service trial of a Wrightbus StreetLite midi bus fitted with Torotrak’s Flybrid mechanical kinetic energy recovery system (KERS). The trial was made possible by and conducted with Arriva, one of the largest bus operators in the UK. The trial, co...
B20 is a 4% increase in NOx for soy biodiesel.
How is that worth even mentioning?
Researchers in Japan explore pathway to produce renewable diesel from rapeseed oil
A team at Kyoto University in Japan has investigated the production of renewable diesel hydrocarbons from rapeseed oil using hydrothermal hydrogenation and subsequent decarboxylation in a batch-type reaction vessel. By blending the obtained hydrocarbons from rapeseed oil with an adequate amount ...
Wow, battle of the strawmen.
Simple cycle natural gas costs $0.25 per watt when you convert an old coal plant, $0.60 new. A blended 50/50 cost of $0.43 per watt.
So 234 gigawatts costs $100 billion vs. $1400 billion for nuclear.*
Fuel cost would be in the big picture negligible (say 5 cents per kilowatt-hour in the UK fuel price at $7 per mmBTU), as you're running these 4% of the year ($150 million in fuel costs). Run it on biotmethane or just methane with a $100 per tonne carbon price if you wish - won't make much of a dent in the total price difference.
So let's repurpose some Engineer-Poet vitriol:
You have a clear concept of the size of the effort you're proposing, Engineer-Poet. You can even calculate the numbers - but you don't.
Do you wonder why I think some "nuclear" advocates are despicable? It's because digging even slightly into their claims shows that they are are advocating something they *know* is financially deluded. If you're not getting paid to write this, you're despicable; if you are, you're even more despicable.
@Engineer-Poet Henrik can't do math - that's his excuse. What's yours? How does it feel to be more despicable than what you contempt for?
*There's also a time cost of money. At 7%, saving $1300 billion up front over 60 years is a real savings of *64 times that number*.
Sandy solution for renewable energy storage; Thermal Energy Storage System
by Andrew Spence Sand is emerging as a key ingredient in the race to develop a viable electricity storage system for renewable energies. Australia-based Latent Heat Storage has developed a low cost thermal energy storage system based on the latent heat properties of silicon derived from sand....
Simple cycle gas turbines are $600/kW but batteries can provide or accept a load, so are effectively 2:1 vs turbines.
So the capital investment is the same price. Gas turbines take time to warm up, and have a fuel cost tied to natural gas prices. Batteries have a "fuel" cost of cycle wear plus cost of arbitraged power, which is likely to be topped off during cheap or even negative wholesale rates...and are available just about instantaneously.
STEAG investing €100M in a total of 90 MW of grid energy storage systems with LG Chem Li-ion batteries
German utility STEAG is investing around €100 million in grid energy storage systems (ESS) totalling 90 MW, equipped with Li-ion cells from LG Chem. Six 15 MW systems—each containing five 3 MW units—will be put into service at six STEAG German power plant sites in Herne, Lünen and Duisburg-Walsu...
@ai vin
Germany's industry still pays the old, lower rate. So your conclusion doesn't follow.
Daimler and partners deploying world’s largest 2nd-life EV battery storage unit for grid support
The world’s largest 2nd-life battery storage unit will soon go into operation in the Westphalian town of Lünen. A joint venture between Daimler AG, The Mobility House AG and GETEC, it will be operated from the beginning of next year at the site of REMONDIS SE and marketed in the German electrici...
60% of oil is used by light vehicles.
Once light vehicle miles driven are 10% electric, a 20% sales growth rate destroys ALL oil demand growth plus some additional.
Making oil very cheap basically forever.
This inflection point will significantly stall electric uptake - the only thing that can break through it for electric is a carbon tax.
Update on JCESR’s progress toward 5-5-5 battery for EV and grid applications; convergent and divergent research strategies
In 2012, the US Department of Energy (DOE) awarded $120 million over five years to establish a new Batteries and Energy Storage Hub known as the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR). (Earlier post.) JCESR combines the R&D capabilities of five DOE national laboratories, five universit...
China's feed in tariff for nuclear is 84% higher than coal.
These plants are being built by companies with a junk bond rating from Moody's - which doesn't matter because of the implicit central government guarantee of state owned enterprises.
Free money and a tidy subsidy will do that. Wind and solar are on track to drop all feed in tariff support by 2020, which will kill nuclear in China 5 years later.
Westinghouse proposes joint small modular reactor (SMR) development with UK
Westinghouse Electric Company has presented the United Kingdom government a proposal to partner in the deployment of small modular reactor (SMR) technology, a move that would advance the UK from being a buyer to a global provider of the latest nuclear energy technology. The proposal is intended...
Yangjiang was announced at that price in 2008.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN_Official_start_to_the_Yangjiang_nuclear_power_plant_1712081.html
With 20% of Chinese inflation since then.
http://fxtop.com/en/inflation-calculator.php
And at least 4 of the 6 are Gen II+ reactors, not Gen III+. Of the last two there is no word whether they will be Gen II+ or Gen III. Considering the Hualong One was finalized after construction started, most likely Gen II+.
And those are construction costs which are quite a bit less than overnight capital, or even total project price.
So the IEA-NEA numbers are closer to correct, not James Conca's cribbing of a number off of Wikipedia that is 7 years old.
If anybody is interested in the overnight capital or total costs of power plants (vs. a simple 7 year old "construction cost" claim) see the PDF link below at page 35.
http://csis.org/files/attachments/111129_EPIC_OvernightCost_Report.pdf
The example has a construction cost of $2,479 per kilowatt and $3,925 overnight capital cost in 2008, and $6579 after 7 years of construction (finishing 2015) counting financing and 2.5% inflation.
Engineer-Poet's $2,000 per kilowatt number is just a "construction cost" which isn't remotely the whole story.
Westinghouse proposes joint small modular reactor (SMR) development with UK
Westinghouse Electric Company has presented the United Kingdom government a proposal to partner in the deployment of small modular reactor (SMR) technology, a move that would advance the UK from being a buyer to a global provider of the latest nuclear energy technology. The proposal is intended...
@Engineer-Poet
Chinese overnight capital cost is $3500 per kilowatt. PDF link here - page 26 . You can't just quote years old announced "construction costs" (usually announced a couple of years before the plant is even started on). "Construction costs" are NOT "overnight capital costs". Even overnight capital costs don't include owner and financing costs.
As for your shrill double containment comment - even China's Hualong One has double containment.
I think it's clear to any reader here who's full of it.
Westinghouse proposes joint small modular reactor (SMR) development with UK
Westinghouse Electric Company has presented the United Kingdom government a proposal to partner in the deployment of small modular reactor (SMR) technology, a move that would advance the UK from being a buyer to a global provider of the latest nuclear energy technology. The proposal is intended...
If 2 cent per kilowatt-hour electricity means you get $11.20 per million btu, then that is about an implied $160 per tonne carbon dioxide equivalent price based on $2.50 USA natural gas, half that based on UK prices. This is just the energy cost - it doesn't include capital costs...and of course wholesale electricity prices aren't actually that low (yet) but lets assume they will be.
In addition if it comes to the point where there are big stretches of low/negative energy costs, batteries will outcompete electricity to hydrogen conversion anyway.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_economy#Costs
Keep in mind biomethane is about $6 per mmbtu not including capital costs, so power to hydrogen is just a total nonstarter.
California Hydrogen Business Council says a robust P2G RD&D program should be a priority for the state
The case for using Power-to-Gas solutions to store renewable energy is compelling for a number of important use cases, according to a new white paper released by the California Hydrogen Business Council (CHBC). The paper, —“Power-To-Gas: The Case For Hydrogen”—outlines the feasibility and econo...
@Henrik
"Estes now operates only new trucks in California."
They did change their behavior.
First federal enforcement of California’s Truck and Bus Regulation
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Thursday that Virginia-based Estes Express Lines will pay a $100,000 penalty for violations of the California Truck and Bus Regulation, for failing to install particulate filters on 73 of its heavy-duty diesel trucks (15% of its Californi...
@Engineer-Poet
What you're describing doesn't apply to Keyes, CA - which is in the Turlock sub-basin.
The subsidence issues are a problem further south, near Merced.
Further aquifer depletion is only a problem with mispriced water , not something inherently a problem with farming in semi-arid regions.
Corn uses about an acre-foot of water for an acre of corn. Sorghum is about 2/3 of that. GM sorghum even less.
Brazil was grossing $1237.50 per hectare (so $501 per acre), and their sorghum breed was 3 feet shorter (9-12 feet) vs 12-15 feet - and took 110 days vs. 90 for this.
Basically by the Brazil numbers it is 22.5 tons for 0.66 acre-feet of water.
Compare that to 1 ton of alfalfa for 0.8 acre feet of water - sells for $200 per ton.
It's really simple - you price pumped water in California at some nominal price of like $200 per acre-foot (you can even make it revenue neutral - all water fees are returned to farmers as a generic subsidy).
So alfalfa's water alone would now cost 80% of the gross sale price, making it uneconomic in California.
GM sorghum? That gross amount of $501 per acre would incur a water cost of $133 based on non-GM sorghum, 26.5% of the gross sale price. California was making 25-33% more per acre (based on height) and using less water, so in actuality less than that 26.5%.
GM biomass sorghum is a great fit for San Joaquin valley, all that is needed is for some sensible water costing discipline to be enacted.
Aemetis harvests demo crop of optimized biomass sorghum in California for advanced biofuels; ~90 days from planting to harvest
Aemetis, Inc., an advanced renewable fuels and biochemicals company, has harvested 12- to 15-foot tall biomass sorghum grown in Central California that was produced using proprietary seed genetics from Nexsteppe, a provider of optimized sorghum feedstock solutions. Biomass Sorghum is a feedstoc...
Whoops, 5.9 cents per kilowatt-hour
Aemetis harvests demo crop of optimized biomass sorghum in California for advanced biofuels; ~90 days from planting to harvest
Aemetis, Inc., an advanced renewable fuels and biochemicals company, has harvested 12- to 15-foot tall biomass sorghum grown in Central California that was produced using proprietary seed genetics from Nexsteppe, a provider of optimized sorghum feedstock solutions. Biomass Sorghum is a feedstoc...
@Engineer-Poet
You could have spent a couple minutes actually reading closely and using a search engine to get the missing data you were complaining about. Instead you chose to be lazy.
The water used was too briny/salty for regular agriculture, so using it in a drought is not "the height of foolishness" but rather quite the opposite.
Current yield in Brazil (over 10,000 hectares under cultivation, presumably numbers are per year) is 220-25 dry tons per hectare and 12-30 MWh per hectare biomass power(depending on conversion efficiency) that was then sold for $50-60 per dry ton. That's 1.16 cents per kilowatt-hour for a fuel using the midpoint numbers of the above. Not bad at all, considering genetically modified sorghum can grow on crap land with crap water. And if you don't there's other advantages "rotating soybeans with sorghum can increase soybean yields by 15% relative to leaving the land fallow between plantings."
Link here
Aemetis harvests demo crop of optimized biomass sorghum in California for advanced biofuels; ~90 days from planting to harvest
Aemetis, Inc., an advanced renewable fuels and biochemicals company, has harvested 12- to 15-foot tall biomass sorghum grown in Central California that was produced using proprietary seed genetics from Nexsteppe, a provider of optimized sorghum feedstock solutions. Biomass Sorghum is a feedstoc...
There are GM versions that can grow using water too salty for conventional crops
Aemetis harvesting biomass sorghum in California
"The water supply for the biomass sorghum crop was lower-quality pump water containing salts that typically damage crops. The project was located in the western San Joaquin Valley which has received a low water allocation from state and federal sources for the past several years."
University of Nebraska-Lincoln leading $13.5M effort to improve sorghum for biofuel
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln will lead a $13.5-million, multi-institutional research effort to improve sorghum as a sustainable source for biofuel production. Funded by the US Department of Energy, this five-year grant takes a comprehensive approach to better understand how plants and m...
@JMartin
I have a 100 mile EV (Fiat 500e) and I'm able to charge at work (my wife can too at her work); it is a significant upside for its viability for me. I live and work in Silicon Valley, however - it will be a while before other parts of the USA catch up to being as EV-friendly.
INL analysis of 5 large-scale PEV and charging projects finds public charging infrastructure not needed everywhere to enable PEV adoption
Idaho National Laboratory has released the voluminous findings from its analysis of five large-scale PEV and charging infrastructure projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Collectively, these projects represent the largest-ever deployment, data collection and analysis, an...
@electric-car-insider.com
When electrification reaches about 5% of light vehicle miles driven, and is growing about 20% per year, the price of oil will be permanently suppressed to such a point that the market will keep ICEs, because oil will be very cheap (like $28 per barrel cheap). There will be an equilibrium of electrification market share that then won't increase robustly.
The only way to reach the scenario you're describing is a fuel tax (or unrealistically large carbon tax) to keep fuel costs higher.
INL analysis of 5 large-scale PEV and charging projects finds public charging infrastructure not needed everywhere to enable PEV adoption
Idaho National Laboratory has released the voluminous findings from its analysis of five large-scale PEV and charging infrastructure projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Collectively, these projects represent the largest-ever deployment, data collection and analysis, an...
@Bob Wallace
TDIs are supposed to replace the timing belt at about 110,000 miles; that labor is synergistic with an engine rebuilt/refurbished for lower emissions (timing belt is about half the cost of an engine swap). I wouldn't be surprised if we see rebuilt engines as being part of a recall, at least for higher mileage TDIs.
Volkswagen AG to refit diesel vehicles with EA 189 EU5 engines; solution to be presented by end of October
Volkswagen AG announced that it will retrofit the some 11 million vehicles equipped with the 2.0-liter EA 189 Euro 5 diesel tainted by the software emissions defeat device. (Earlier post.) New vehicles with EU6 engines currently available are not affected by the cheat, Volkswagen said. The sc...
Ah, I see. I didn't realize so few models had urea injection.
Yeah, I don't see a clear way forward with VW in that case for USA emissions.
They'll need to retrofit in an SCR solution to pass. That or put an entirely new engine in. I don't see software tweaks cutting it.
Perhaps regulators may let them spend a handful of billions on fixed power plant NOx reduction upgrades if that turns out to be significantly cheaper than fixing the cars.
Volkswagen AG to refit diesel vehicles with EA 189 EU5 engines; solution to be presented by end of October
Volkswagen AG announced that it will retrofit the some 11 million vehicles equipped with the 2.0-liter EA 189 Euro 5 diesel tainted by the software emissions defeat device. (Earlier post.) New vehicles with EU6 engines currently available are not affected by the cheat, Volkswagen said. The sc...
My guess is they'll triple the AdBlue (Urea solution for reducing NOx) consumption from what they're using now. So it will be 1 liter for 333km instead of 1000km.
At $3 per liter that goes from 0.3 cents per mile to 0.9 cents per mile, a $72 per year hit for a 12,000 mile per year driver, paid for by Volkswagen.
I'm not sure if if extensive boost/EGR changes will be needed in that scenario.
Volkswagen AG to refit diesel vehicles with EA 189 EU5 engines; solution to be presented by end of October
Volkswagen AG announced that it will retrofit the some 11 million vehicles equipped with the 2.0-liter EA 189 Euro 5 diesel tainted by the software emissions defeat device. (Earlier post.) New vehicles with EU6 engines currently available are not affected by the cheat, Volkswagen said. The sc...
Elemental lithium content in batteries
http://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/B/584.PDF
For the two highest volume:
308 grams per kWh for NCA with graphite.
142 grams per kWh for Lithium Manganese Oxided with graphite.
UT Austin team identifies promising new cathode material for sodium-ion batteries: eldfellite
Professor John Goodenough, the inventor of the lithium-ion battery, and his team at the University of Texas at Austin have identified a new cathode material made of the nontoxic and inexpensive mineral eldfellite (NaFe(SO4)2), presenting a significant advancement in the quest for a commercially...
Algenol has never created a product yet, no.
So their claims of 8000 gallons per acre at this point are pure supposition.
Algenol signs MOU with ZYNE to produce renewable fuels in China using industrial CO2 emissions
US-based algal fuels company based Algenol will partner with South China’s Fujian Zhongyuan New Energy Company, Ltd. (ZYNE) to develop projects throughout Southern China, utilizing carbon emissions to create renewable fuels. The goal is to provide solutions for China’s three biggest challenges: ...
This cathode about matches the NCA ones used in e-vehicles (680-760 Wh/kg), so if this is easier to manufacture, has a better cycle life, faster charge/discharge etc. it is still an upgrade.
New class of high-capacity cation-disordered oxides for Li-ion battery cathodes; up to 250 mAh/g
Researchers from MIT, Argonne National Laboratory and UC Berkeley led by Dr. Gerbrand Ceder (now at UC Berkeley/Lawrence Berkeley Lab as of 1 July, formerly at MIT) have developed a new class of high capacity cation-disordered oxides—lithium-excess nickel titanium molybdenum oxides (Li-Ni-Ti-Mo,...
No tritium based reactor like this one is feasible at those power densities.
The neutron loading in the center is way too high for this to ever consequently be affordable.
Never ever going to happen. Period.
MIT team proposes ARC fusion reactor: affordable, robust, compact
Advances in magnet technology have enabled researchers at MIT to propose a new design for a practical compact tokamak fusion reactor that might be realized in as little as a decade: the ARC (affordable, robust, compact) reactor. The stronger magnetic field makes it possible to produce the requi...
@kalendjay
Your data is extremely out in the weeds incorrect.
The largest power market in the work is PJM
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/103285-pjm-auction-likely-to-boost-regions-natgas-fired-capacity
They pay extra for capacity availability. They expect capacity payments to run $185 per MW-day.
So even if a nameplate watt of wind that only generated at 30% capacity factor was forced to pay for the full and entire cost of a capacity payment to another generator for an ENTIRE watt (a ludicrous strawman scenario) it would cost them 2.6 cents per kilowatt-hour in capacity charges.
So even in that extreme straw-man scenario it still means wind is competitive if PPAs are coming in at 2.35 cents per kilowatt hour (NOT $0.235/kWh like you posted - you're off by 10x), even with a ludicrous strawman payment of 2.6 cents per kilowatt-hour for capacity backup.
Levelized cost of wind being about $0.16/kWh is not remotely correct, nor is nuclear at "about one quarter that". The last nuclear PPA price was Austin Energy's bid for a pair of AP1000s at 13.2 cents per kilowatt-hour. Wind at 2.35 cents even in strawman scenarios crushes that.
Lifetime of power generating assets out to 55 years becomes increasingly irrelevant due to the nature of net present values.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_present_value
DOE: US wind power capacity grew 8% in 2014 to ~66 GW, 2nd in world; meets 4.9% of end use demand; lowest prices to date
According to the 2014 Wind Technologies Market Report released today by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and its Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, total installed wind power capacity in the United States grew at a rate of 8% in 2014 and now stands at nearly 66 gigawatts (GW)—ranking secon...
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