(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Renewable Tuesday 10/3 Living Even Further in the Future [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-03 Floating wind! Long-haul trucking! Electric tugboats! Drinking water from brine, cheaper than tap water! Utilities for net metering! (Well, some of them.) Renewable jobs! Grid batteries! Many millions of heat pumps! Battery backup on induction cookers! [Update: Carbon-negative eco-concrete!] I do love living in the future, on these and so many other fronts, including getting rid of poverty, dread diseases, oppression, and stupid wars. California takes big first step toward floating offshore wind The Golden State’s zero-carbon future depends in part on offshore wind. A new bill would let the state kick-start the sector by serving as an anchor customer. Rendering of floating wind turbines. More than 4.5 gigawatts in floating offshore wind turbine capacity are coming to the California coast Damen Developing Fully Electric Service Operations Vessel for Offshore Wind Damen Group’s innovative all-electric tug Sparky nominated for the Ship of the Year Award Damen Electric Tugboat Grid batteries have never been more abundant — or more useful This summer, batteries bolstered the heat-battered grids of Texas and California, underscoring the tech’s value as a low-carbon way to keep the lights on. Battery developers built more new grid-storage capacity in the second quarter of 2023 than in any previous quarter, according to newly tabulated data from the American Clean Power industry group and research partner Wood Mackenzie. That constituted a return to form for the industry after two quarters of declining installations hindered by lingering Covid-related supply-chain constraints. No less than The Wall Street Journal lauded the technology’s role in avoiding blackouts in Texas, a state that set 10 different records for electricity demand this summer. Texas grid battery capacity surged from 275 megawatts in 2020 to 3,500 megawatts as of this summer, per a Texas Tribune article — meaning the fleet grew 13 times larger in just three years. Yes, the WSJ reporters are firm believers in Real MoneyTM, unlike the editorial board. That’s because the readers demand reality on actual money they themselves might make or lose. Profit-seeking battery owners have every reason to charge up when surplus solar generation drives prices down, and then sell power back to the grid in the expensive, largely fossil-fueled hours of peak electricity demand. In terms of the transition to clean energy, this means that batteries are taking on more of the role served by fossil-gas peaker plants, which don’t run all the time but fire up for several hours at a time in response to high demand. Lithium-ion batteries today can only keep up their full-strength discharge for a few hours; that’s why numerous startups and the Department of Energy are pushing to commercialize long-duration storage technologies. Damen Developing Fully Electric Service Operations Vessel for Offshore Wind Damen Group’s innovative all-electric tug Sparky nominated for the Ship of the Year Award Damen Electric Tugboat Ingenious solar distiller makes fresh water from seawater for less than 1¢ a gallon Gravity feeds water up into the device, where heat from sunlight makes salt-free water vapor that we collect. We use a teeny-scale version of the oceanic phenomenon of “thermohaline convection” to keep salt from fouling our system. Fully sun-powered, no electricity except for pumping water in and out. These units can be stacked ten deep, with heat from condensing water in the ones higher up helping to evaporate water from the ones below them. New plan aims to quadruple heat-pump adoption in 25 states The pledge, which covers 55 % of the population, calls for accelerating home decarbonization by deploying 20 million heat pumps by 2030 . It will turn out to be more than that. Planners are not allowed to have real imagination. Heat pumps sold so fast in Maine, the state just upped its target The chilly New England state blew past its goal to install 100 , 000 heat pumps by 2025 . Now it’s pledging to install 175 , 000 more by 2027 . You see what I mean? Electric big rigs are going father and charging faster There’s only one way to know if electric trucks can really replace diesel-fueled trucks: load them up with cargo, put them on the road and collect the data to see how far they can go. The data comes from trucks participating in Run on Less – Electric Depot, a three-week-long test-drive event organized by the North American Council for Freight Efficiency, a nonprofit research group. Back in 2021, NACFE did its first electric truck test, and the findings showed that the vehicles available then were capable of handling the shorter-haul routes of about 100 miles or less that make up roughly half of all daily freight movement in the U.S. Charging is the big bottleneck on the long-haul front. Public fast-charging locations are few and far between — and most are designed for electric cars, not big rigs. Even the fastest 350-kilowatt EV chargers on highways and rest stops take around 90 minutes minimum to fully charge an electric truck’s battery. Fleet depots, on the other hand, can shuffle depleted and charged-up trucks into and out of dedicated charging spots at a pace and scale to match their daily needs, Roeth said. They can also save time by partially charging a depleted truck to send it out on a second shift, he added. These options are what make return-to-base routes much easier to electrify than interstate trucking. That means that truck stops are the next target market for fast truck chargers. But we knew that. Decent food, clean bathrooms and showers, and now Powah! Not like Terry Pratchett’s “soss, 2 egg, and a fried slice” and hay for the oxen at Discworld Truckers’ Cafs. Even states without mandates or incentives could tap into the benefits of electric trucks, he said. The Inflation Reduction Act passed by the U.S. Congress last year created tax credits that can return up to 30 percent of the cost of commercial electric vehicles and charging equipment to buyers. We need enough First Movers to get us down the learning curve to where everybody is doing it. Pepsico explains how it uses Tesla Semi electric trucks in glimpse of the future of trucking Tesla has only delivered a limited number of its electric semitrucks, and most of them are believed to be in operation in Pepsico’s fleet – primarily in its Sacramento facility, which has been completely electrified and is solar-powered. x Vimeo Video Two Tesla Semi trucks have gone 384 miles on a single charge, and one truck was able to travel just over 800 miles in a 24-hour period after being recharged by Tesla’s 750-kilowatt Megacharger, one of the fastest chargers in operation today. That’s what I’m talking about! Now I reveal my True Powaz!!! Various characters in Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. And there is more to come! 25 utilities united on one front: 89% less carbon emissions by 2030 A new cohort is forcefully pushing back on the doubters who don’t think rapid utility-sector decarbonization is feasible: the utilities themselves. When it comes to Real MoneyTM, you can even talk to former Denialists. Utilities in New Hampshire unexpectedly back solar net metering In a sharp turnaround from their previous stance, Eversource, Unitil and Liberty Utilities testified in support of keeping the state’s net-metering incentive intact. But not to all of them. The fight over California community solar: ​‘It’s everyone vs. utilities’ Α broad and unlikely coalition has united behind a proposal that would finally let community solar flourish in California. Utilities are trying to stop it. New California rules would crush rooftop solar for renters A proposal to drastically cut solar’s value for apartments, schools and farms could undermine California’s climate and energy equity pledges, opponents say. The policy changes set forth in this month’s proposed decision from the California Public Utilities Commission would essentially eliminate financial incentives for property owners to install rooftop solar in shared settings, such as schools, farms or multifamily dwellings. The new rules would put solar power out of reach for California’s nearly 17 million renters, who have been largely locked out of the state’s residential rooftop solar boom, these groups say. It would also break a pledge from the CPUC to protect low-income communities from the major changes to the state’s solar net-metering rules the agency imposed last year, they warn. CPUC’s proposed decision would adopt a plan from the state’s three big investor-owned utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, to pay only the far lower export rate for the entirety of the shared solar being generated. A blow to energy equity, affordable housing and the laws of physics The pushback from everybody but those three utilities is nearly universal in California. This startup is adding a battery to induction stoves That means their stoves don’t require high-power outlets, unlike resistance-heater stoves, and also that the stove will have power during an outage. And of course they cut out the health hazards of gas, and the climate pollution. Even if you don’t have whole-house battery reserves, this means that you can get by in a blackout on LED flashlights, cell phones, and a transistor radio for a day or two, and still be able to cook. So how about a battery-backed microwave oven, then? And a fridge? Career experts answer 6 top questions from climate jobseekers Learn the business, network, and apply in the normal manner for tech and corporate jobs. Do not use ChatGPT to write your application letters. You can talk, talk, talk, talk, bicker, bicker, bicker, you can talk all you wanna but it’s different than it was! No, it ain’t, no, it ain’t, but you gotta know the territory! The Music Man We need a lot more electricians if we’re going to electrify everything The U.S. has a shortage of electricians to install clean equipment like EV chargers, heat pumps and induction stoves. Those who get into the field can earn big. UPDATE: Eco-Concrete Eco-concrete is Cementing Itself as a Climate Solution A race is on to change how concrete is made and reduce the huge carbon footprint of the world’s most ubiquitous building material. Electron microscope image of biochar The crucial ingredient was an additive known as “biochar,” a carbon-rich form of biomass that resembles burnt wood chips. Often derived from plants, the biochar that Drabkin and her team ultimately turned to came from the treated “bio-solids” in wastewater plants. “It’s basically poop,” Drabkin said. An assessment by environmental contractor James Salazar, who is now Sustainability Director at WAP Sustainability, showed that the Remy-Mead concrete is carbon-negative, trapping more CO2 than is emitted during its production. Other Daily Kos Climate Resources Meteor Blades: Weekly spotlight on DK climate and eco-diaries (10/1/23): kids sue over climate; solar desalinator gmoke: Energy (and Other) Events Monthly - October 2023 ClimateDenierRoundup: Catching Up On Two Weeks Of Climate Disinfo [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/3/2196799/-Renewable-Tuesday-10-3-Living-Even-Further-in-the-Future Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/