Plus: Denmark to ban gas cars; Green light for LNG in Canada; Saudi’s backtrack on solar
Hi Everyone,
Happy Thanksgiving to all in Canada…and a timely post on food waste, ahem…
A mixed bag of stories I came across in my reading this week. The tiny cars in China is a fascinating development – watch the 3 min video from Wall Street Journal for shocking insights.
If you’re thankful for this free weekly email (with no advertising, by the way), consider forward this on to anyone else who may be interested. As always, comments or questions welcome.
Thanks,
Peter
Massive Canada LNG Project gets green light as Asia demand for fuel booms
Rendering of the proposed LNG Canada project in northern B.C.
Excerpt: LNG from the project will reach Asia in about half the time it takes from the U.S. Gulf Coast, LNG Canada said. Global LNG demand is expected to double by 2035, with much of that growth coming from Asia where gas is displacing coal, it said.
At the same time, output from older projects is set to decline in coming years, just as soaring demand from China, India and Southeast Asia is devouring a supply glut previously expected to last for years, fanning fears that an LNG shortage may be looming. REUTERS
Reducing food waste could dramatically cut GHG emissions
Excerpt: If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter in the world, accounting for 8 percent of global emissions. Much of this impact comes from food ending up in landfills, where the zero–oxygen environment turns organic matter into methane, a gas that traps about 30 times more heat than carbon dioxide over the course of a century. Green Biz
California’s great electric vehicle charging build-out
Excerpt: On Wednesday afternoon, Volkswagen subsidiary Electrify America released the details of its plans to spend $200 million more deploying electric vehicle charging stations and educating the public around EV options.
California now has around 450,000 EVs. One in 10 vehicles sold in California has a plug, said Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst Colin Mckerracher recently. That’s compared to one in 40 vehicles in the rest of the United States. California has a plan to reach 1.5 million zero emissions vehicles by 2025 and 5 million by 2030. Utility Dive
Virginia 10-year energy plan includes 5 GW of renewables, EVs, grid modernization
Comment: In terms of ambition to move to renewables, Virginia’s 5GW target is comparable to Alberta’s plan to replace 30 of coal-fired power with renewables by 2030. Alberta’s plan also included some changes to the grid with a move to a partial capacity market. Missing from Alberta’s plan: policies supporting EV adoption and energy storage.
Excerpt: Virginia’s energy plan is a shopping list of grid transformation technologies, from electric vehicles to offshore wind. Renewables advocates celebrated the plan yesterday, while the state’s largest utility said it was still reviewing the document. Utility Dive
OK, this is not really ‘news’…but some are interested: Policies for Better Buildings
Comment: It may not grab headlines or votes, but investing in ways to reduce our energy use in buildings is something policy makers need to get after. An example: more efficient motors for commercial heating and air conditioning systems.
Excerpt: Cities consume over two-thirds of the world’s energy and account for more than 70 percent of global CO2 emissions. Overwhelmingly, cities have seen that the energy consumption of existing buildings accounts for the greatest source of their carbon emissions—constituting 64 to 73 percent of citywide carbon emissions in the three most populous cities in the United States. Most existing buildings are decades old, suffer from substantial deferred maintenance issues, and have significant potential for cost-effective energy retrofits.
Reducing energy use in existing buildings is critical to driving down citywide carbon emissions and achieving a city’s emissions goals. Many cities have already implemented policies and programs that target existing building energy reductions, and are making real progress toward their carbon goals. However, many of these policies address only technology-specific measures, as opposed to more holistic deep retrofit packages that bundle measures to enable greater energy and cost savings over time. A holistic approach to building and citywide energy reductions is necessary to drive cities all the way to their carbon-reduction goals swiftly and cost-effectively. Rocky Mountain Institute
China’s Giant Market for Really Tiny Cars
Small, slow and super cheap: China’s low-speed electric vehicles, or LSEVs, are bringing the thrill of driving to the masses—and hampering the government’s efforts to develop an upscale EV industry. Image: Crystal Tai
Excerpt: The taste for tiny EVs has become a quirky subplot in China’s push to become a world leader in electric cars. Roughly 1.75 million micro-EVs were sold in China last year, more than twice the sales of regular EVs, of around 777,000, industry executives estimate. Wall Street Journal
Denmark to Ban Sale of Fossil Fuel Cars in 2030
Excerpt: Denmark will ban the sale of new fossil-fueled cars in 2030 and aims to have more than 1 million electric or hybrid vehicles on its roads by then, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told parliament on Tuesday. Denmark is the latest Nordic country to make this kind of announcement as governments seek to honor their commitments in the global fight against climate change. Bloomberg
Origin says solar cheaper than coal, moving on from base-load
Excerpt: Asked if Origin Energy had moved beyond the idea – promoted by the federal government and many in mainstream media – that reliability depended on 24/7 base-load power, Jarvis said:
“Oh, a Long time ago. The idea of base-load power stations is well and truly gone.” RenewEconomy
Saudi Arabia puts $200B solar project on hold
Excerpt: The news signals the struggles and challenges the Saudis face in implementing ambitious plans to diversify their crude-reliant economy. Saudi officials are instead “working up a broader, more practical strategy to boost renewable energy,” per WSJ. Axios
Tesla big battery defies skeptics, sends industry bananas over performance
Excerpt: Share listing documents from its owner, the French renewable energy developer Neoen, reveal the construction price ($A90 million), the government contract ($A4 million a year, paid in monthly instalments, for system security), and total revenue of $A14 million in the first six months of 2018. RenewEconomy