Talking Climate Tech 036
💧Big Hydro | ⚫️ China Coal | 🫙 UK Oil | | ♨️ Geothermal Insights | 🍊Trump v Vlad |⚡ Pylon of the Month
We are sticking with the 3 x 3 format again this week, and of course, your weekly Tower of Power in ⚡️Pylon of the Month.
🗞️ News Roundup // 🔎 Deeper Dive // 💥 Trump Watch
🗞️ News Roundup
Dam, that's big Dam! 🇨🇳
They are officially underway in China, although actually in Tibet, which of course doesn't matter, on the new mega hydroelectric dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River. Current global champion - The Three Gorges on the Yangtze River, pictured above - produces around 95-112 TWh.
This new behemoth will produce 300TWh, cost $137bn, and will provide electricity for approximately 300 million people. Another comparison you may appreciate - the Hoover Dam? A miserly 4.2TWh. 🤯
Slight complications, well, yes, but generally it's other people's problems – it's in Tibert, and it flows into India, so some geopolitical concerns. They've done the assessments and say it will be fine. There are some seismic issues, tectonic plates, steep verticals, etc. but all good, right? 😬
More on the dam here.
Dam, that's a lot of new Coal 🇨🇳
It's nothing if not a transition. And it's full of seemingly contradictory actions across all sectors and geographies, none more so than China.
Last year, China started construction on an estimated 95 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity, enough to power the entire UK twice over.
It's complicated and not as simple as "China is just burning more coal, so why should we bother doing anything anyway" mantra. In 2024, their existing utilisation rate was around 50% just with existing capacity.
Renewables are gradually squeezing it out to a supporting role, and it's predicted to exponentially speed up from 2025 onwards. Excellent deep-dive on the hows and whys of China's coal transition, here from Carbon Brief.
UK Energy Stats 📉
The DUKES data for 2024 is available, but that's for another day. I thought this was an interesting snapshot - we are seeing a huge amount of coverage and commentary in the media and public eye, on UK domestic oil and gas production.
This sums it up well from DESNZ and signals our need and effective action in moving to a clean power economy;
Oil and gas production was 62.9 million tonnes of oil equivalent in 2024, the lowest level since 1976, in line with declining output of the mature North Sea basin.
Oil and gas production began in the 70s, with production increasing before peaking in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Subsequently, production generally decreased until 2015 when new fields opened...In 2024, oil and gas production decreased by 8.8 and 10.3 per cent on 2023, the lowest output since 1976 and 1973 respectively.
🔎 Deeper Dive
Geothermal Insights ♨️
As most of you will know from past newsletters, I am a strong advocate for geothermal, particularly for the challenges of decarbonising heat, something we aren't addressing quickly enough in the UK.
Great to see more insights and tools delivered to widen awareness, inform policy and accelerate commercial traction in geothermal.
A beast of a report from Arup in partnership with DESNZ, which looks at the spectrum of technologies, Levelised Cost of Heat [new] and LCO Electricity [first since 2016], Lithium extraction potential, FOAK/NOAK and hurdle rates, and modelling for district heat networks.
DESNZ plans to use this research to understand the uncertainties and sensitivities across all input parameters. In doing so we can look to where research, innovation and policy interventions can support reductions in costs, increase speed of delivery and productivity to mature the geothermal industry in the UK.
Some key elements it doesn't include, which absolutely should be part of the wider conversation and policy strategy:
The report does not factor in the possible wider benefits of geothermal energy generation. These include increased energy security by reducing reliance on intermittent sources, avoiding grid upgrade costs were providing heating, supporting a just transition through transferring skills from the oil and gas sector and a small land footprint.
More to follow on this in the coming weeks. You can dive in here!
Geothermal Tools ♨️
And in tandem with Arup's release is the new modelling tool from the British Geological Society. It brings together assets from the BGS, Mining Remediation Authority, Environmental Agency, the North Sea Transition Authority and the UK Onshore Geophysical Library.
There is huge potential to develop geothermal in the UK. Whether it's for decarbonising industrial process heat, residential heating and cooling, heat networks, or underground thermal energy storage, this tool will help unlock planning and analysis of opportunities for all types around the UK.
The data also draws cost and technology analysis from the Arup 2025 report noted above.
Old Wells + Pipes Anyone? 🛢️
More news on the legacy of Oil&Gas. We have talked before about orphan wells, their methane leakage, see section Cleaning Up ⚫ in 011.
Excellent post from James Glennie this week on LinkedIn, which, although was comparing the energy generation of a wind turbine to an oil well, after Trump's foray into energy analysis in Scotland the other week 🙄, did pick up further commentary on the process of abandoning wells.
The cost in the US alone of unplugged and abandoned wells is running at approx $150bn and rising - they never get plugged as the ownership model spins down and down to smaller companies from the majors, that eventually go bust as the well dries to a trickle. Or they leave them running as a trickle so they never have to address it. What a scam.
The more fracking they do, which looks like this ⬇️, the bigger the problem gets!
What about pipes, I hear you ask? Yes, there's a problem there as well. 🙄
Here is a snapshot from 2021, which of course is far worse now and just think of the global scale of abandoned pipes in the oceans:
Since the 1960s, over 97 percent of all decommissioned pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico were left on the seafloor. That adds up to 18,000 miles of abandoned oil and gas pipelines, enough to stretch from DC to LA seven times.
Further reading here.
💥 Trump Watch
As ever we will start with some climate impacts Sauron has delivered under his watchful eye, plus the good stuff.
Orsted Rights Issue 💰
The noise and the tantrums on renewables in the US has knock on effects to market and investment confidence. This has meant Orsted is struggling to finance its Sunrise project to completion - the 924MW offshore wind development that will supply clean power to 600,000 New Yorkers.
So it's going it alone, with approximately $6.22bn of the rights issue to fund the capital investment on its own balance sheet. More here.
Solar Not for All ⛅
We new this one was on the cards, it's cancellation is now complete and about to make ordinary US citizens even worse off, after more inflation, tarrif taxes and cuts to support services such as Medicaid.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has cancelled the Solar For All program, a $7 billion initiative that supported nationwide programs to provide solar energy for low and middle-income homeowners
More on the impact here.
Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦
Most of the focus this week is on the pending team-up, sorry meet-up, between Vlad the Impaler and Don Origina in Alsaka. Or Russia as DJT mistakenly called it this week. 😆
Remember the cognitive decline outrage against Biden? He doesn't even know what country he's going to, and can't get the names right of his own team 🙄
Secretary of Homeland Security, Cristie Kerr. Do you know who Cristie Kerr is? A friend of mine. Great golfer. Kristi Noem.
Already redrawing the territory lines, dividing up those mineral rights, expect the 'Art of the Deal' to shine through, right after a bending of the knee and Vlad has what he wants.
Main issue of course is that neither Ukraine or Europe is involved. 🧨
Golf Watch ⛳
51 days / 208 days in office = 24.5%, taxpayer cost $71.4m
⚡Pylon of the Month
Here we go to round out the week, your Tower of Power triplet, hailing from near Seattle, Washington State, USA.
The eagle eyed of you will have noticed the mobile and emergency services atenanna attached to right-hand pylon.
Whats the deal then Pylon HQ? Some background on the region itself please;
Washington generated more electricity from hydropower than any other state and accounted for 25% of the nation's total utility-scale hydroelectric generation in 2024.
By capacity, the Grand Coulee Dam on Washington's Columbia River is the largest power plant in the United States and one of the largest hydroelectric power plants in the world. In 2024, it supplied about 15.4 million megawatt-hours of electricity to 8 western states and Canada.
There you have it, end-to-end with some more hydroelectric to wrap up with. ⚡️
On that bombshell, off we go - see you next week...
Thanks as always, let's keep pushing forward - remember, the momentum is unstoppable despite everything you might see and hear! 🌍
Stay warm, cool, dry, wet and safe wherever you are 🙏
Kane
