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Rhodium Group estimates US GHG fell 2.1% in 2019, driven by coal decline

Green Car Congress

This decline was due almost entirely to a drop in coal consumption. Coal-fired power generation fell by a record 18% year-on-year to its lowest level since 1975. An increase in natural gas generation offset some of the climate gains from this coal decline, but overall power sector emissions still decreased by almost 10%.

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Bloomberg NEF forecasts falling battery prices enabling surge in wind and solar to 50% of global generation by 2050

Green Car Congress

The arrival of cheap battery storage will mean that it becomes increasingly possible to finesse the delivery of electricity from wind and solar, so that these technologies can help meet demand even when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. Coal emerges as the biggest loser in the long run.

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Mad Power thoughts

EV Info

Coal – the cheapest option and the only energy source with low-cost storage in the shape of a big heap of the stuff – was ruled out as too carbon-rich, even though countries such as China are currently building scores of new coal-fired plants. Gas is the only answer. So that leaves gas with the task of keeping the lights on.

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Ninth annual Green Innovation Index finds California light-duty vehicle emissions spike; major challenge to 2030 climate goals

Green Car Congress

Cheap gas prices and a strong economy are creating increased goods movement and prompting Californians to drive more. In the first quarter of 2017, ZEVs accounted for nearly 5% of the state’s auto sales. The state needs to increase renewable generation by 24% between 2017 to 2020. below their 2006 levels. from 2014 to 2015.

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UK power crisis – entirely the fault of regulators and ministers

EV Info

We have closed most of the coal plants and several the aging nuclear plants are moving offline as they close for repair of reach end of life. Why, simple the US embraced Fracking to produce bountifully supplies of cheap gas. Centrica closed the vast Rough storage facility in 2017 prompting concerns about gas pricing. Biomass 5%.

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Naysayer Alert – the hydrogen red herring

My Electric Car

The energy stored within hydrogen has been imparted from electrical energy through the electrolytic hydrogen production process or more likely in the refinement of fossil fuels such as coal seam (methane) gas – both are energy intensive processes in themselves. . The reasons are numerous. . Fletcher, S., Hill and Wang.

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IEA World Energy Outlook view on the transport sector to 2035; passenger car fleet doubling to almost 1.7B units, driving oil demand up to 99 mb/d; reconfirming the end of cheap oil

Green Car Congress

Oil and the Transport Sector: Reconfirming the End of Cheap Oil. The use of coal—which met almost half of the increase in global energy demand over the last decade—rises 65% by 2035. Prospects for coal are especially sensitive to energy policies – notably in China, which today accounts for almost half of global demand.

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