80% Renewables

[David B. Benson]

Avista IRP projects 500 MW of utility-scale wind to help meet 80% CO2 reduction
2020 Mar 03
Power Engineering
www.power-eng.com/2020/03/03/avista-irp-projects-500-mw-of-utility-scale-wind-to-help-meet-80-percent-co2-reduction/

Avista Utilities currently has 50% of generation from hydro and a small portion from one wind farm. Oh yes, a token quantity of solar panels are available for selected customers who pay a slight premium.

The rest is from a CCGT and the Colstrip MT coal burner which is scheduled to be turned off. So it appears that Avista is going to replace it with these planned wind farms and a substantial dose of so-called energy efficiency.

I suppose that is about the same as what other utilities in the USA are doing. I just included here because Avista Utilities is my electricity provider and so I know a little about their performance .

[David B. Benson]

The U.S. Energy Grid Can Be Both Cheaper And Cleaner
Alex Kemani
2020 Jun 10
Oilprice.com
oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-US-Energy-Grid-Can-Be-Both-Cheaper-And-Cleaner.html

Optimistically prognosticates 90% so-called renewables.

[David B. Benson]

New system uses wind turbines to defend the national grid from power cuts
2020 Jun 19
Phys.org
techxplore.com/news/2020-06-turbines-defend-national-grid-power.html

I gather that the idea is to partially feather the turbine blades to provide a reserve for the grid. Seems impractical to me except that it is something to do with overbuilt wind farms...

[engineerpoet]

Jun 20, 2020 2:53:20 GMT 9.5 David B. Benson said:

I gather that the idea is to partially feather the turbine blades to provide a reserve for the grid. Seems impractical to me

It's just plain silly and reflects thinking that is not only inside the box, it couldn't punch through a wet paper bag.  If you've got an excess of power available it would make sense to run it to dump loads of low but non-zero value rather than to spill it.  If you've suddenly got a power deficit you turn the local dump loads off, and the opposite in case of surplus.

[David B. Benson]

Power-to-gas proves least expensive path to net-zero
Nicolas Nhende
2020 Jul 06
Power Engineering International
www.powerengineeringint.com/renewables/power-to-gas-proves-least-expensive-path-to-net-zero/

The gas is methane for backup turbine generators.

[David B. Benson]

Getting to Net Zero --- and Net Negative --- is Surprisingly Feasible, and Affordable
Julie Chao
2021 Jan 27
Berkeley Lab News
newscenter.lbl.gov/2021/01/27/getting-to-net-zero-and-even-net-negative-is-surprisingly-feasible-and-affordable/

Naively states that 350 ppm is a suitable goal. No, Dr. James Hansen once stated that 350 ppm might avoid the worse features of global warming. More like 275 is required for return to the Holocene. And even less for a few hundred years to stabilize and regrow the ice sheets.

[David B. Benson]

Renewables = 23% of US Electricity in November 2020
Zachary Shahan
2021 Feb 15
CleanTechnica
cleantechnica.com/?p=231807

Notice that natural gas growth is at least as large as renewables growth in production.

[David B. Benson]

New Study: Renewables Much Cheaper Than Fossils —- Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) Study
Zachary Shahan
2021 Aug 14
CleanTechnica
cleantechnica.com/2021/08/13/new-study-renewables-much-cheaper-than-fossils-levelized-cost-of-electricity-lcoe-study/

Yes, we knew that…