Talking Climate Tech 037
🇨🇳 Big Blades | 🌞 Solar v Big Oil | 💰 Drax | 💰 CCS | 🍊Trump Watch | ⚠️ Climate |⚡ Pylon of the Month
Post the summer break, we can't catch up on all that's been happening in the world of Climate, Technology and Trumptown, but here is a selection of stories that caught my eye during the period. 👀
Next week, we will have some 🚀 Startup News back in the mix as well.
You might be wondering what that weird banner image is? It's a rendered depiction of what the oil and gas wells in the North Sea look like, overlayed on the city of Bergen. 🤯
Out of sight, out of mind. Thanks to Ketan Joshi for that. You should follow him on LinkedIn or read some of his blog, a great investigative journalist.
🗞️ News Roundup
I Like Big Blades and I Cannot Lie 🇨🇳
It always feels like it's China with achievements of incredible scale and innovation in the energy transition. Mainly because it is. This time, big blades, very big... 🤯
a rotor diameter of 310 metres and blades that measure 153 metres in length. It stands nearly 200 metres tall with a rotor sweep of 77,000 square metres.
Donfang have a 26MW turbine on test, plus they have a 17MW floating turbine in development as well. For perspective, Hornsea 2 has max-sized 15MW turbines.
China's scale in all aspects of the energy transition, from Solar, to Hydro and Wind is just staggering. Offshore Wind reports here.
Charting the Story 📍
Sometimes a good chart tells the story, and what it is, or isn't.
1️⃣ A lot of noise in the media and social channels on North Sea Oil & Gas reserves after Kemi Badenoch [Cons.] decided to try and jump on the populist bandwagon and squeeze every drop of juice out. See Carbon Brief chart - it's a non-starter, reserves are depleted, majors are withdrawing - it's economically unviable. ❌
2️⃣ Big Oil, well, not so big anymore. Have we reached peak oil for energy? Some might say. Look at the 22-year useful energy output of solar versus oil major energy output of developed reserves. See Bloomberg NEF chart. ✅
3️⃣ Finally, someone in a role of responsibility has cottoned onto the Drax biomass scam, the largest emitter of CO2 in the UK, the emissions calculations all conveniently allocated back to North America due to the origin of the source material. Which is the issue in hand - big subsidies, dodgy forestry supply chains [DeSmog analysis], now the FCA are having a look. ❌
Frank Mayo from Ember:
It’s right that the UK’s largest emitter faces additional scrutiny. Power from Drax is more expensive than from gas, it’s more polluting than coal, and more dependent on imports than oil.
1️⃣ / 2️⃣ / 3️⃣
🔎 Deeper Dive
The CCS Fossil Fuel Hold-up 🦹♂️
You might have seen the CCS plan mooted by Gov. in recent months, lots of noise about industrial growth, Teeside and Humber etc.
You don't hear quite as much about the lobbying and vested fossil fuel interests, and the big handout the taxpayer will be granting these polluting behemoths, that are already rolling in cash and subsidies.
The £264 billion Price Tag of the UK’s Carbon Capture Strategy
Great dive here from Bylinetimes, a must-read. This is the biggest FF scam we will see in the UK possibly ever, it's extraordinary in scale, and based on a technology delivery evidence base that is, well, lacking evidence.
CCS / CCUS doesn't really work; all projects globally have woefully missed their targets, the volumes are minuscule, and they ignore the fact that a huge % of emissions occur in the FF supply chain.
Equinor have been running Sleipner/Solvit for 20 years, and has not only failed to get anywhere near their targets, but has hit major technical issues with the actual storage part, and 'misreported' some numbers. More here as a reminder of that shambles, plus some other case studies such as Gorgon in Australia, see video below.
There are no guarantees on long-term geological sequestration, and in fact, instead of the Gov. putting the FF companies on the hook for it, they are letting taxpayers carry that risk as well. A literal economic and climate ticking time bomb. 💣
Linking to US Big Oil HQ and our friends at DeSmog again, it's hiding in plain sight, documented:
...internal documents, BP, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute all identified carbon capture as a way to extend society’s use of fossil fuels.
Always a good time to revisit this classi from the excellent Juice Media 🤣
UK Data Centres ℹ️
More on the way, in fact quite a lot, about another 20% says Barbour ABI / BBC. The AI revolution indeed. How many will be built before the AI bubble bursts? Who can say? 🤔
Challenges with clean power, challenges with water for cooling. Opportunities for waste heat reuse - is this going to be mandated, maybe?
Notice anything about the map - not too many where we have excess generation. The M4 corridor isn't know as a large renewable generation hub. We still have plenty of curtailment in the UK; surely we can get some alignment here.
Hope you are enjoying today's newsletter! Konfab is free to subscribers and is reader-supported to keep you focused and free from ads. If you enjoyed it and want to help, well that would be just swell 😄 ⬇️
💥 Trump Watch
Endangerment Danger 🚨
EPA rollbacks, guess what - less protection equals more harm. Environmental Defence Fund analysis here.
The 'Endangerment Finding' is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s longstanding determination that greenhouse gases — which are released when we burn fossil fuels — endanger public health and welfare.
That finding means the EPA has the obligation under the Clean Air Act to limit how much greenhouse gas pollution is dumped into the air, just as the agency does for other harmful pollutants.
It's been a bipartisan protection regulation for health and climate for decades. Trump + Lee Zeldin at the EPA are now trying to jettison this, health and climate be damned, all to accelerate the fossil fuel grift and Trumps own pockets. EDF response here. Legal commentary here.
Boldly, they may go for science denial. Very risky, because, as you know, it's science - although that hasn't stopped them so far. But more likely on legal technicalities. Expect eventual SCOTUS action, which Trump controls obviously.
Hold the line. ✋
Endangerment Not Strangers, Danger 🚨
Who else is beyond reversing the EPA Endangerment Finding? The Usual Suspects, and we can rely on DeSmog to lift the lid, more here.
What a filthy line-up:
- American Petroleum Institute
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce
- Project 2025
- Trump’s Climate Working Group
- Heartland Institute
- Koch Network
I can smell the vested interests from here, I'm not going to link to them. But if you haven't, you should research Project 2025 / Heritage Foundation and their live movie show of the playbook unfolding in the 🇺🇸 US - that's coming to Europe soon, the wheels are well in motion. I feel dirty just typing it out. 😫
State Capture Roundup 🧨
We can't leave Trumptown without some nod to Dear Leader. Impossible to catchup with the 'flood the zone' tactics, but a couple of gems here.
There is of course the ongoing Epstein 'Democratic Hoax' - looks like the walls are closing in on that one; survivors in the Whitehouse yesterday interviewing with bipartisan representatives. Your time might be up Don.
The military takeover is in LA and Washington now, soon to be Chicago, on the premise these are 'horrible cities' and ';murder capitals of the world'. They are also Democrat citities, and the murder rate in in Republican cities is higher, but no troops as yet. 🤔 More here.
Eight of the top 10 cities with the highest murder rates and populations of at least 100,000 were in red states — Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee, Ohio and Louisiana
Feels like a lifetime ago already, a couple of weeks back there was the red carpet roll out, and the roll over and tummy tickle from Putin in Alaska. If that shambles wasn't enough, someone in the team left the confidential Gov papers on the hotel printer. 😆
All this pandering to Vlad over recenbt years in Trump 1.0 and 2.0 hasn't gotten him too far, either in Ukraine peace talks, or on the world stage. Trump was seething to have missed out on an invite to the dictators ball in China. And the parade was much bigger than Don's tepid affair back in Washington recently.
The Democrtas, well specifically Gavin Newsome, have worked out the best way to deal with the bully - push back and dose him the same. Newsome's social media has been 🔥 and Fox State News is melting down, as is DJT.
He can't handle it back at him, and the redistricting of the Texas voting map, to try and ensure he picks up 5 more seats to avoid future defeat, has been met with a redraw in California to equalise. 👏
Wrapping up, all these wars Trump has stopped means he must surely be in line for a Nobel Peace Prize right? Well not so much; no one has actually seen the same reality of these wars actually being stopped. Desperate times. ☎️
Donald Trump cold-called Norway’s finance minister [Jens Stoltenberg, the former Nato secretary general] to ask him about a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
If you have to cold-call and ask....🤷♂️
Golf Watch ⛳
55 days / 229 days in office = 24%, taxpayer cost $77m
Golf dropping off a little, as there were rumours last week he weas dead. More.
🏡 Konfab News
Not much obviously...you know holidays etc. 😎
But we never stand still at Konfab HQ, even on holiday! Our next Climate Tech Impact_South event is happening on 18th September - we made it to event 02!
Bringing together stakeholders and changemakers from across the South; from innovators and scale-ups, to local goverment, universities and service providers.
This one is themed Decarbonising Heat - two speakers, first is revealed as James Macnaghten from Caldera. Who also happens to be the guest for EP06 podcast - the next one to be edited!
If you have any connections within a reasonable commute of Southampton, please let them know!
Tickets via eventbrite below, or drop me an email. ▶️
😃 Good Stuff
Swimmable Cities 🏊
I didn't know this was a thing, until I saw it was a thing the other week. We know Paris pulled out all the stops, and found a few billion € to clean ther Seine, ready for Olympic triathlon and open swimming.
The campaign continues around Europe and is gaining momentum.
The first Swimmable Cities Summit took place in Rotterdam’s Rijnhaven, a dock connected to the Maas River. It brought together 153 organisations from 83 cities across 30 countries
Can we Make Swimming Great Again in the UK? The Thames might need some work, and with our Water industry almost bankrupt and pumping 💩 into rivers and beaches daily, we have some major challenges.
It goes beyond quality, to right of access, policy, infrastructure, economic redevelopment, culture, health and beyond.
London is on the path and signed up to make this happen, the £5bn Super Sewer is in place which is a good start. Mete Coban MBE, Deputy Mayor of London for Environment and Energy, engaged and replied with positive updates to a LinkedIn post I tagged him on recently. The power of social media huh. 🤷♂️ 👏
🌍 Climate Watch
State of Climate - it's in a State ⚠️
Not much improvement here while I've been away. 🙄
The annual "State of the Climate" report, collated from thousands of scientists and data points, tells us the key problems:
Atmospheric concentrations of the major planet-warming gases — CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide — hit new highs. CO2 is now 52% above preindustrial levels.
2024 was the hottest year in records dating back to the mid-1800s, beating out 2023, and "[t]he last 10 years (2015–24) are now the warmest 10 in the instrumental record.
Read it and weep here. World Meteorological Society.
Tipping Points and Derailment ⚖️
Something to watch & listen? Check out the excellent Laurie Laybourn of the Strategic Climate Risks Initiative and Chatham House on this podcast.
Tipping points, good & bad, plus the climate problem of not being able to turn off the overflowing bath tap while you are mopping the metaphorical flooding bathroom floor.
Climate derailment is something we will be hearing more about in the coming years. 😱
Nik Gowing
⚡Pylon of the Month
Sanctuary once more, and a special for you this week - no Tower of Power from Pylon HQ, they are likely still on holiday as well, but some towering substitutes instead. Fine bastions of onshore wind from my run while I was in the hills of County Durham.
A fine piece of English countryside, and always great to see wind turbines spinning away delivering that juicy clean power we need. Certainly didn't spoil my view.
Thanks as always, let's keep pushing forward - remember, the momentum is unstoppable despite everything you might see and hear! 🌍
Kane
