BREAKING: President Joe Biden's campaign chair acknowledges support "slippage" but says he's "absolutely" staying in the race and can beat Donald Trump. https://t.co/UL0OazQwWf
Reportedly, every Democratic Senator but one wants Biden to step down. Similarly with the House leadership (and Pelosi). And polls show two thirds of Democratic voters think it time for him to call time.
I suspect today's announcements are last gasp efforts from a Biden team reluctant to let go. Let's see what Biden decides over the weekend.
His position is increasingly untenable. Yes, there is no mechanism to force him to leave but the party is now spilling over to pretty much open revolt at this stage.
To be honest this is now damaging the chances of the party whether he stays or goes.
I think people like Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries have tried to be discreet but if this goes on I actually think they will go over the top and openly tell him to go.
His position is increasingly untenable. Yes, there is no mechanism to force him to leave but the party is now spilling over to pretty much open revolt at this stage.
To be honest this is now damaging the chances of the party whether he stays or goes.
I think people like Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries have tried to be discreet but if this goes on I actually think they will go over the top and openly tell him to go.
Oddly enough I think Biden would probably have got the message if he was 10 years younger, but sometimes people who didn't use to be particularly stubborn can become more so when they reach a certain age. Bit of a stereotype I know.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
I know Tester has support but I think he's definitely testing it by suggesting Biden AND Harris need to go. I think he'll probably lose Montana now.
My money is on Harris getting the nod. The Tester idea seems very much a niche view.
But hedging your bets is sensible in such a febrile market.
There must be a slight possibility that Harris actually turns down the nomination or stays on the ticket as VP and there is a contested convention or more likely the establishment coalesces around an alternative candidate. But it does seem very unlikely that, being essentially gifted the nomination on a plate (something she’ll never get again), Harris would step aside.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
Additionally, apparently Whitmer and Newson have 'let it be known' that they're not interested in the VP slot.
Liars.
Are they ? In Newsom's case it's probably a recognition that he's not going to be anyone's pick for VP, and his best chance is to try for the presidency - either now, or in four years if the Democrats do lose in November.
We've had the easy gains (greater efficiency on boilers, LED lighhting, closing down our heavy industry and letting china make the money instead).
The latter isn't actually a gain, just a sleight of hand that will cost us dearly in years to come.
The recent drops are covid/lockdown distorted too.
That said, there are some pretty huge savings to come from the move to heat pumps and away from air conditioning/traditional central heating.
Yes, if it ever happens. UK Roll out isn't going exactly to plan.
if you have a nice big garden to install ground source (and the money to do that and rip up your floor to install underfloor heating) then happy days.
If you live in a terrace in a small yard and want to install a reverse airconditioning unit on the wall next to your neighbours bedroom window that absolutely eats electricity in cold weather, not so much.
His position is increasingly untenable. Yes, there is no mechanism to force him to leave but the party is now spilling over to pretty much open revolt at this stage.
To be honest this is now damaging the chances of the party whether he stays or goes.
I think people like Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries have tried to be discreet but if this goes on I actually think they will go over the top and openly tell him to go.
Oddly enough I think Biden would probably have got the message if he was 10 years younger, but sometimes people who didn't use to be particularly stubborn can become more so when they reach a certain age. Bit of a stereotype I know.
There's a parallel in drunk driving. You go from ok to drive, to not ok to drive and aware you are not, to very much not ok to drive and blind to the fact.
I know Tester has support but I think he's definitely testing it by suggesting Biden AND Harris need to go. I think he'll probably lose Montana now.
My money is on Harris getting the nod. The Tester idea seems very much a niche view.
But hedging your bets is sensible in such a febrile market.
There must be a slight possibility that Harris actually turns down the nomination or stays on the ticket as VP and there is a contested convention or more likely the establishment coalesces around an alternative candidate. But it does seem very unlikely that, being essentially gifted the nomination on a plate (something she’ll never get again), Harris would step aside.
Well, much like Biden is doing so much damage to the Dems, a decline of the nomination by Harris would be equally as damaging. Who knows if she wants it, but if there's any sense in the world she's going to get it.
As I've said previously I think she can win and win easily. I would love to read her thoughts on all this though, and her winning rather delays that.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
And are only going to get cheaper. Either steadily, or very quickly*.
His position is increasingly untenable. Yes, there is no mechanism to force him to leave but the party is now spilling over to pretty much open revolt at this stage.
To be honest this is now damaging the chances of the party whether he stays or goes.
I think people like Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries have tried to be discreet but if this goes on I actually think they will go over the top and openly tell him to go.
Oddly enough I think Biden would probably have got the message if he was 10 years younger, but sometimes people who didn't use to be particularly stubborn can become more so when they reach a certain age. Bit of a stereotype I know.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
We've had the easy gains (greater efficiency on boilers, LED lighhting, closing down our heavy industry and letting china make the money instead).
The latter isn't actually a gain, just a sleight of hand that will cost us dearly in years to come.
The recent drops are covid/lockdown distorted too.
That said, there are some pretty huge savings to come from the move to heat pumps and away from air conditioning/traditional central heating.
But that's still going to need an increase in electricity generated.
We're now into one of those bizarre PB 'arguing about different things' loops. The original challenge was whether the total UK energy requirement was going to come down, regardless of the mix of provision.
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
I know Tester has support but I think he's definitely testing it by suggesting Biden AND Harris need to go. I think he'll probably lose Montana now.
My money is on Harris getting the nod. The Tester idea seems very much a niche view.
But hedging your bets is sensible in such a febrile market.
There must be a slight possibility that Harris actually turns down the nomination or stays on the ticket as VP and there is a contested convention or more likely the establishment coalesces around an alternative candidate. But it does seem very unlikely that, being essentially gifted the nomination on a plate (something she’ll never get again), Harris would step aside.
Well, much like Biden is doing so much damage to the Dems, a decline of the nomination by Harris would be equally as damaging. Who knows if she wants it, but if there's any sense in the world she's going to get it.
As I've said previously I think she can win and win easily. I would love to read her thoughts on all this though, and her winning rather delays that.
It would be a calamity surely, an admission that for 4 years the USA was one elderly heartbeat away from a president who in her own view was not up to the job.
His position is increasingly untenable. Yes, there is no mechanism to force him to leave but the party is now spilling over to pretty much open revolt at this stage.
To be honest this is now damaging the chances of the party whether he stays or goes.
I think people like Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries have tried to be discreet but if this goes on I actually think they will go over the top and openly tell him to go.
If they do it, they need to do it next week. If it runs into August, then they'll simply run out of time for many logistical and legal reasons.
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
Cobalt is becoming almost irrelevant to future bulk battery production. There's no shortage of lithium.
And various solid state technologies are well beyond 'lab concept'.
His position is increasingly untenable. Yes, there is no mechanism to force him to leave but the party is now spilling over to pretty much open revolt at this stage.
To be honest this is now damaging the chances of the party whether he stays or goes.
I think people like Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries have tried to be discreet but if this goes on I actually think they will go over the top and openly tell him to go.
He can't be the candidate when it's clear his party (inc their voters) don't want him. He has to cave.
I know Tester has support but I think he's definitely testing it by suggesting Biden AND Harris need to go. I think he'll probably lose Montana now.
My money is on Harris getting the nod. The Tester idea seems very much a niche view.
But hedging your bets is sensible in such a febrile market.
There must be a slight possibility that Harris actually turns down the nomination or stays on the ticket as VP and there is a contested convention or more likely the establishment coalesces around an alternative candidate. But it does seem very unlikely that, being essentially gifted the nomination on a plate (something she’ll never get again), Harris would step aside.
Well, much like Biden is doing so much damage to the Dems, a decline of the nomination by Harris would be equally as damaging. Who knows if she wants it, but if there's any sense in the world she's going to get it.
As I've said previously I think she can win and win easily. I would love to read her thoughts on all this though, and her winning rather delays that.
It would be a calamity surely, an admission that for 4 years the USA was one elderly heartbeat away from a president who in her own view was not up to the job.
His position is increasingly untenable. Yes, there is no mechanism to force him to leave but the party is now spilling over to pretty much open revolt at this stage.
To be honest this is now damaging the chances of the party whether he stays or goes.
I think people like Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries have tried to be discreet but if this goes on I actually think they will go over the top and openly tell him to go.
Oddly enough I think Biden would probably have got the message if he was 10 years younger, but sometimes people who didn't use to be particularly stubborn can become more so when they reach a certain age. Bit of a stereotype I know.
I think he has always been a stubborn character and that will not have improved with age. Nor will the fact of him being counted out and coming back before have helped (though this time is clearly different to us as outside observers).
There is also the fact that he is exceptionally close with his family, perhaps a bit uncomfortably so. I have not really engaged with the rumours about Jill Biden keeping him in the race because she hates Kamala Harris and wants to stay as First Lady, because to me when I first read it it smacked of the classic Lady MacBeth it’s-got-to-be-the-manipulative-woman lazy misogyny (even more so because it includes -gasp- salacious rumours about two women not getting on!). But it does seem there is an indication that he relies very strongly on his family circle, perhaps to a fault, and if they are telling him they’re backing him it might be making it harder for him to read the room.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
His position is increasingly untenable. Yes, there is no mechanism to force him to leave but the party is now spilling over to pretty much open revolt at this stage.
To be honest this is now damaging the chances of the party whether he stays or goes.
I think people like Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries have tried to be discreet but if this goes on I actually think they will go over the top and openly tell him to go.
Oddly enough I think Biden would probably have got the message if he was 10 years younger, but sometimes people who didn't use to be particularly stubborn can become more so when they reach a certain age. Bit of a stereotype I know.
I think he has always been a stubborn character and that will not have improved with age. Nor will the fact of him being counted out and coming back before have helped (though this time is clearly different to us as outside observers).
There is also the fact that he is exceptionally close with his family, perhaps a bit uncomfortably so. I have not really engaged with the rumours about Jill Biden keeping him in the race because she hates Kamala Harris and wants to stay as First Lady, because to me when I first read it it smacked of the classic Lady MacBeth it’s-got-to-be-the-manipulative-woman lazy misogyny (even more so because it includes -gasp- salacious rumours about two women not getting on!). But it does seem there is an indication that he relies very strongly on his family circle, perhaps to a fault, and if they are telling him they’re backing him it might be making it harder for him to read the room.
I do also wonder about access to Biden, and who actually gets to speak with him. If the Biden family are gatekeeping and controlling him to a degree, maybe he's not fully aware of a lot of stuff (which is highly worrying in itself). How much of the media does he engage with?
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
And there's a huge amount of known, unexploited lithium reserves. As an example, the US probably one of the world's largest known extractable deposit, and they haven't yet even started mining it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thacker_Pass_Lithium_Mine
Interestingly, ARPA-E, the US energy technology equivalent of DARPA is funding a few projects for innovative mining technology, in the hope of reviving US mining which has been undercut in recent years by low cost producers like China.
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
I’d be interested to know too, as a cyclist. That seems odd to say the least.
Looking around, Scotland have only just started doing sentencing guidelines a la England, so I wonder if it is judicial discretion, or under a law which has not followed Westmnster yet.
We've had the easy gains (greater efficiency on boilers, LED lighhting, closing down our heavy industry and letting china make the money instead).
The latter isn't actually a gain, just a sleight of hand that will cost us dearly in years to come.
The recent drops are covid/lockdown distorted too.
That said, there are some pretty huge savings to come from the move to heat pumps and away from air conditioning/traditional central heating.
But that's still going to need an increase in electricity generated.
We're now into one of those bizarre PB 'arguing about different things' loops. The original challenge was whether the total UK energy requirement was going to come down, regardless of the mix of provision.
I wasn't arguing, FWIW. Just pointing out that we will need a significantly larger electric grid than we have now.
Biden is playing this cleverly. Dems who want a more electable Democrat nominee than Biden are focusing on rustbelt governors like Shapiro, Whitmer and Evers.
However if they replace Biden with one of those 3 governors that means shafting Harris and her black supporters who want her to be nominee instead. So basically Biden can play the 2 wings off against each other up to and through the convention. Say he keeps Harris as VP if his nomination confirmed at the convention while also retaining some of the rustbelt appeal he had in 2020 Harris lacks but rustbelt governors do have
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
Ah there you are. Some time ago you said that a particular earbud (Nothing?) was exceptional - do you happen to remember the model?
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
Ah there you are. Some time ago you said that a particular earbud (Nothing?) was exceptional - do you happen to remember the model?
His position is increasingly untenable. Yes, there is no mechanism to force him to leave but the party is now spilling over to pretty much open revolt at this stage.
To be honest this is now damaging the chances of the party whether he stays or goes.
I think people like Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries have tried to be discreet but if this goes on I actually think they will go over the top and openly tell him to go.
Oddly enough I think Biden would probably have got the message if he was 10 years younger, but sometimes people who didn't use to be particularly stubborn can become more so when they reach a certain age. Bit of a stereotype I know.
I think he has always been a stubborn character and that will not have improved with age. Nor will the fact of him being counted out and coming back before have helped (though this time is clearly different to us as outside observers).
There is also the fact that he is exceptionally close with his family, perhaps a bit uncomfortably so. I have not really engaged with the rumours about Jill Biden keeping him in the race because she hates Kamala Harris and wants to stay as First Lady, because to me when I first read it it smacked of the classic Lady MacBeth it’s-got-to-be-the-manipulative-woman lazy misogyny (even more so because it includes -gasp- salacious rumours about two women not getting on!). But it does seem there is an indication that he relies very strongly on his family circle, perhaps to a fault, and if they are telling him they’re backing him it might be making it harder for him to read the room.
I do also wonder about access to Biden, and who actually gets to speak with him. If the Biden family are gatekeeping and controlling him to a degree, maybe he's not fully aware of a lot of stuff (which is highly worrying in itself). How much of the media does he engage with?
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
Ah there you are. Some time ago you said that a particular earbud (Nothing?) was exceptional - do you happen to remember the model?
Just wondering if it came to it, could a nuclear option be the 25th Amendment?
Biden can contest it. If he does, and Harris and the cabinet insist, it gets decided by Congress. Which would give the Republicans an interesting choice.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
And there's a huge amount of known, unexploited lithium reserves. As an example, the US probably one of the world's largest known extractable deposit, and they haven't yet even started mining it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thacker_Pass_Lithium_Mine
Interestingly, ARPA-E, the US energy technology equivalent of DARPA is funding a few projects for innovative mining technology, in the hope of reviving US mining which has been undercut in recent years by low cost producers like China.
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
I’d be interested to know too, as a cyclist. That seems odd to say the least.
Looking around, Scotland have only just started doing sentencing guidelines a la England, so I wonder if it is judicial discretion, or under a law which has not followed Westmnster yet.
Eh? Been doing it for years as far as I know (as much whined about on PB by those who can't bear to see different parts of the UK doing things differently). The SSC was founded in 2015. Are you thinking of offence-specific guidelines?
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
Ah there you are. Some time ago you said that a particular earbud (Nothing?) was exceptional - do you happen to remember the model?
tia
Yes, the Nothing (a) earbuds
They are superb
I don't know if you saw the post, but the other day I raved about Shokz Openswim Pro bone-conduction headphones. They're blooming brilliant for swimming and running.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
And there's a huge amount of known, unexploited lithium reserves. As an example, the US probably one of the world's largest known extractable deposit, and they haven't yet even started mining it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thacker_Pass_Lithium_Mine
Interestingly, ARPA-E, the US energy technology equivalent of DARPA is funding a few projects for innovative mining technology, in the hope of reviving US mining which has been undercut in recent years by low cost producers like China.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
I’ve been working for a few months on a project for a government who have huge stockpiles of a commodity that’s very useful, actually quite essential. All the parties have been working on the basis of the gov putting x amount of the commodity aside as we are leveraging it and using the value in a different way for them.
They have informed us last week that they are now happy to triple the allocation for what we are doing as it’s worked its way through to their minds that they have lots of it, they have lots still to just sell even after tripling our allocation, and by diverting a bigger slice to us it reduces the amount on the market so effectively maintains or increases the value of the commodity.
I enjoyed reading the book, and would put it in the top half of Hillerman detective stories.)
Yes, but does he have a love-hate relationship with a vaguely Jewish-coded bartender and an unrequited crush on a vaguely lesbian-coded freedom fighter he met during the Cardassian occupation?
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
Of course in England and Wales we also need those causing death or serious injury by careless cycling or indeed dangerous cycling laws the UK government has promised to bring in so cyclists can be prosecuted on the same terms as drivers can if they injure or kill a pedestrian. I believe Scotland's government has now done so
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
Of course in England and Scotland we also need those causing death or serious injury by careless cycling or indeed dangerous cycling laws the government has promised to bring in so cyclists can be prosecuted on the same terms as drivers can if they injure or kill a pedestrian
Helpful hint: consider suggesting that the Conservative Party demands laws to see hedgehogs taken to court for obstructing respectable Tory-voting drivers.
'This week the Scottish Midge Forecast predicted high numbers of the biting insects, reaching peaks of four and five on a scale of one to five.
Tourist hotspots such as Ullapool, Fort William and Lochcarron have been some of the worst-affected areas, with an early surge in May due to Scotland’s wetter than average spring.
Jay Hutchison, an entomology project director at Dundee-based APS Biocontrol, which researches midges in Scotland and produces an insect repellant, said: “They came about two weeks early this year in May. They usually appear in May but there were much larger numbers than expected. Scotland had a particularly wet spring and they thrive in damp conditions.”'
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
Of course in England and Scotland we also need those causing death or serious injury by careless cycling or indeed dangerous cycling laws the government has promised to bring in so cyclists can be prosecuted on the same terms as drivers can if they injure or kill a pedestrian
Helpful hint: consider suggesting that the Conservative Party demands laws to see hedgehogs taken to court for obstructing respectable Tory-voting drivers.
Sod hedgehogs, it’s the bastards who drive Honda Jazz who need locking up for the disruption to the roads. I think the moment someone buys one a signal should go at the DVLA and the driver is ordered in to retake their test.
We've had the easy gains (greater efficiency on boilers, LED lighhting, closing down our heavy industry and letting china make the money instead).
The latter isn't actually a gain, just a sleight of hand that will cost us dearly in years to come.
The recent drops are covid/lockdown distorted too.
That said, there are some pretty huge savings to come from the move to heat pumps and away from air conditioning/traditional central heating.
But that's still going to need an increase in electricity generated.
We're now into one of those bizarre PB 'arguing about different things' loops. The original challenge was whether the total UK energy requirement was going to come down, regardless of the mix of provision.
I wasn't arguing, FWIW. Just pointing out that we will need a significantly larger electric grid than we have now.
That's a good point (if not actually what you said )
'This week the Scottish Midge Forecast predicted high numbers of the biting insects, reaching peaks of four and five on a scale of one to five.
Tourist hotspots such as Ullapool, Fort William and Lochcarron have been some of the worst-affected areas, with an early surge in May due to Scotland’s wetter than average spring.
Jay Hutchison, an entomology project director at Dundee-based APS Biocontrol, which researches midges in Scotland and produces an insect repellant, said: “They came about two weeks early this year in May. They usually appear in May but there were much larger numbers than expected. Scotland had a particularly wet spring and they thrive in damp conditions.”'
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
Of course in England and Scotland we also need those causing death or serious injury by careless cycling or indeed dangerous cycling laws the government has promised to bring in so cyclists can be prosecuted on the same terms as drivers can if they injure or kill a pedestrian
Helpful hint: consider suggesting that the Conservative Party demands laws to see hedgehogs taken to court for obstructing respectable Tory-voting drivers.
Sod hedgehogs, it’s the bastards who drive Honda Jazz who need locking up for the disruption to the roads. I think the moment someone buys one a signal should go at the DVLA and the driver is ordered in to retake their test.
Black Range Rovers. I volunteered at the Stour Music Festival last month and got put on car park duty. Two of the fuckers drove at me without stopping, hi viz and everything. Maybe they were really really keen not to miss any Early Music but even so…
(My mother drives a Honda Jazz. Can’t say I disagree with the above post)
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
As does recycling.
True, that.
In the 1970s the impetus for renewable energy was the fear that oil would run out. Now it's the fear that oil won't run out. Same solution, diametrically opposite problem.
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
Of course in England and Scotland we also need those causing death or serious injury by careless cycling or indeed dangerous cycling laws the government has promised to bring in so cyclists can be prosecuted on the same terms as drivers can if they injure or kill a pedestrian
Helpful hint: consider suggesting that the Conservative Party demands laws to see hedgehogs taken to court for obstructing respectable Tory-voting drivers.
Sod hedgehogs, it’s the bastards who drive Honda Jazz who need locking up for the disruption to the roads. I think the moment someone buys one a signal should go at the DVLA and the driver is ordered in to retake their test.
Black Range Rovers. I volunteered at the Stour Music Festival last month and got put on car park duty. Two of the fuckers drove at me without stopping, hi viz and everything. Maybe they were really really keen not to miss any Early Music but even so…
(My mother drives a Honda Jazz. Can’t say I disagree with the above post)
I would rather live in a world with Range Rover drivers than Honda Jazz drivers. I keep making the fatal error of being nice and letting them out at junctions then cursing them as they proceed to drive massively under the limit until they get to a really low speed limit zone and they drive at the same speed as before which is now over the limit so they can’t even use the caution and safety excuse.
"Supply exceeds demand 64% of the time, so, lacking any suitable storage technology, we'd be throwing out 120 TWh of power, worth well over £10 billion, every year. That's perhaps £500 per household chucked down the drain."
How can power produced in excess of what can be used have a value? It is, by definition, worth nothing. Also the assumption that we'd have no suitable storage technology is a bit of a biggie, especially given the possibility of using car batteries for storage.
Edit: The obvious way to go is to improve connectivity with other countries. After all, the wind is always blowing somewhere.
Unless I've got the wrong end of the stick, through payments to windfarms when the power is not required:
"This means that the government is having to pay huge sums in curtailment fees to wind farm owners to switch off turbines when they are generating more power than is needed. Some £210m ($267m) of curtailment payments were made to renewable energy generators to curtail output in 2022, said the report With the UK planning to grow its offshore wind capacity from 14GW today to 50GW by 2030, the report says that curtailment costs are expected to rise to £3.5bn annually by the end of the decade."
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years. But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
Battery prices have dropped 55% since the beginning of last year.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
They won't stay low in the long term unless someone finds an awful lot more copper etc that can be mined cheaply. Raw materials of copper cobalt, lithium etc are a big elephant in the room
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
More fortunes have been lost betting on commodities not being found than any other way.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
And there's a huge amount of known, unexploited lithium reserves. As an example, the US probably one of the world's largest known extractable deposit, and they haven't yet even started mining it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thacker_Pass_Lithium_Mine
Interestingly, ARPA-E, the US energy technology equivalent of DARPA is funding a few projects for innovative mining technology, in the hope of reviving US mining which has been undercut in recent years by low cost producers like China.
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
Compared with the Glasgow Bin Lorry driver he was harshly treated.
This sort of thing makes me wonder who is in what lodge.
I think there's fairly well attested evidence around "let a colleague or former colleague off", and there are certain forces which are regarded as lackadaisical (Police Scotland often being thought of as one, plus several down in England).
Comments
And polls show two thirds of Democratic voters think it time for him to call time.
I suspect today's announcements are last gasp efforts from a Biden team reluctant to let go. Let's see what Biden decides over the weekend.
Place your bets.
The Tester idea seems very much a niche view.
But hedging your bets is sensible in such a febrile market.
I do feel that a couple of quid on Buttigieg and Obama are not the hail Mary's they might have been a month ago.
https://x.com/frances_coppola/status/1814302779231318239?s=61&t=LYVEHh2mqFy1oUJAdCfe-Q
Shapiro; Cooper: Beshear.
Mark Kelly a little longer.
The latter isn't actually a gain, just a sleight of hand that will cost us dearly in years to come.
The recent drops are covid/lockdown distorted too.
To be honest this is now damaging the chances of the party whether he stays or goes.
I think people like Pelosi, Schumer and Jeffries have tried to be discreet but if this goes on I actually think they will go over the top and openly tell him to go.
The wind farms have guaranteed prices for the power they produce from contracts signed with the government, but they still participate in the spot market.
During periods of overproduction, instantaneous prices go negative (ie the grid offers to pay producers to reduce production and/or customers to use power). If their guaranteed strike price is higher than the negative market price, it still pays the wind farm to carry on producing; a negative price which exceeds what they earn pays them to stun off production.
Similarly with solar (though not all solar connections are 'throttleable' in the same manner.)
With the rapid increase in renewables production, total hours with negative pricing will also grown over then next few years.
But the very strong market incentive is going to see the storage market grow in response.
The game changer is the drop in battery prices over the last year. They're now just about at the point it pays to deploy grid scale storage - it just needs the factories to build them.
If either of those existed then the problem goes away and everyone goes for renewables because it is an economic no brainer.
Lots of things that weren't economic are now economic.
In Newsom's case it's probably a recognition that he's not going to be anyone's pick for VP, and his best chance is to try for the presidency - either now, or in four years if the Democrats do lose in November.
Might be something similar going on with Whitmer.
Certainly they both want the top slot.
The ones who think IDF indiscriminate killing is okay, but Hamas not okay.
Hardly a shock this https://x.com/frances_coppola/status/1814307732968690027?s=61
if you have a nice big garden to install ground source (and the money to do that and rip up your floor to install underfloor heating) then happy days.
If you live in a terrace in a small yard and want to install a reverse airconditioning unit on the wall next to your neighbours bedroom window that absolutely eats electricity in cold weather, not so much.
As I've said previously I think she can win and win easily. I would love to read her thoughts on all this though, and her winning rather delays that.
Either steadily, or very quickly*.
*See, for example, the anode free sodium battery, which would be really cheap.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-024-01569-9
New "battery" techology is needed. Keep seeing breakthrough announcements but few make it to production as the announcements are normally about a lab concept to try and attract (high risk) investment money to turn that into something sellable.
Brains Trust
Do any of us know about Scottish Sentencing Guidelines for Causing Serious Injury by Careless Driving?
I've just read an account of an "Expert Driver" (stunts for C4) who drove straight across a mini roundabout and mowed a cyclist down breaking his shoulder blade (Hi Viz, LED beacon on the cycle), with a witness, and then did the traditional "the cyclist raced out and fell over in front of me" lie to Court, despite different behaviour at the scene. And a "moment of distraction" mitigation.
He was also warned that he could be in contempt of court, when he interrupted the judge.
He was given a £300 fine and a 12 month ban.
I'm interested that that does not even reach the bottom of the scale in England, which for that offence starts at a Community Order and a 12 month ban.
How does this work in Scotland? @Eabhal ?
Report here, Aberdeen Courier:
https://archive.ph/8MoPT
This sort of thing makes me wonder who is in what lodge.
There's no shortage of lithium.
And various solid state technologies are well beyond 'lab concept'.
There is also the fact that he is exceptionally close with his family, perhaps a bit uncomfortably so. I have not really engaged with the rumours about Jill Biden keeping him in the race because she hates Kamala Harris and wants to stay as First Lady, because to me when I first read it it smacked of the classic Lady MacBeth it’s-got-to-be-the-manipulative-woman lazy misogyny (even more so because it includes -gasp- salacious rumours about two women not getting on!). But it does seem there is an indication that he relies very strongly on his family circle, perhaps to a fault, and if they are telling him they’re backing him it might be making it harder for him to read the room.
As prices rise, more deposits become economic.
As an example, the US probably one of the world's largest known extractable deposit, and they haven't yet even started mining it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thacker_Pass_Lithium_Mine
Interestingly, ARPA-E, the US energy technology equivalent of DARPA is funding a few projects for innovative mining technology, in the hope of reviving US mining which has been undercut in recent years by low cost producers like China.
Just pointing out that we will need a significantly larger electric grid than we have now.
However if they replace Biden with one of those 3 governors that means shafting Harris and her black supporters who want her to be nominee instead. So basically Biden can play the 2 wings off against each other up to and through the convention. Say he keeps Harris as VP if his nomination confirmed at the convention while also retaining some of the rustbelt appeal he had in 2020 Harris lacks but rustbelt governors do have
tia
They are superb
https://www.scottishsentencingcouncil.org.uk/media/ytuhsy0m/statutory-offences-of-causing-death-by-driving-sentencing-guideline.pdf
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-46032207
* they could well be right. Kamala really is horrible in Finnish
https://uk.shokz.com/products/openswim-pro
(edit: got the incorrect product page...)
(Those looking for a modern fictional description of a "shapeshifter" can find one here: https://www.amazon.com/Shape-Shifter-Tony-Hillerman/dp/0060563478
I enjoyed reading the book, and would put it in the top half of Hillerman detective stories.)
They have informed us last week that they are now happy to triple the allocation for what we are doing as it’s worked its way through to their minds that they have lots of it, they have lots still to just sell even after tripling our allocation, and by diverting a bigger slice to us it reduces the amount on the market so effectively maintains or increases the value of the commodity.
Trebles all round.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/19/midges-thriving-wet-scottish-summer-worse-to-come
'This week the Scottish Midge Forecast predicted high numbers of the biting insects, reaching peaks of four and five on a scale of one to five.
Tourist hotspots such as Ullapool, Fort William and Lochcarron have been some of the worst-affected areas, with an early surge in May due to Scotland’s wetter than average spring.
Jay Hutchison, an entomology project director at Dundee-based APS Biocontrol, which researches midges in Scotland and produces an insect repellant, said: “They came about two weeks early this year in May. They usually appear in May but there were much larger numbers than expected. Scotland had a particularly wet spring and they thrive in damp conditions.”'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgxqzp2zdw4o
Two weeks and Labour's already bankrupted the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMLona9oelM
(My mother drives a Honda Jazz. Can’t say I disagree with the above post)
For example in the previous release it hit a high of 99.8% but this month has hit a new high of... 99.5%
Matt Gaetz is a Star Trek alien, but I'm not sure which one. Any ideas?
I reckon those eyebrows are late 1970s Vulcan.
Eat crow, Vincent
I dad to add the piccie through the other interface !