Climate Change and Renewable Energy News and Discussion

tacoburger said:

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Iron-chromium flow batteries are very very niche. This is probably the only commercial iron-chromium battery in operation and the largest by 2 orders of magnitude. I wonder how they compare to other flow batteries or the other more tradition types of battery energy storage. I wonder if this will catch on vs the dozens of different energy storage chemistries and solutions fighting for market share right now

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China is investing in everything


Researchers in China have successfully prepared cobalt oxide-modified graphite felt as an electrode material for an iron-chromium flow battery. The electrode performance significantly improved due to the effects of cobalt, which in turn boosted the energy efficiency and overall performance of the battery.

so i tweeted this out to. just based on which uses WoodMac report for 2022.

Basically LCOE (which factors in purchase cost, installation cost and such) for Chinese renewables is so much lower than other APAC countries. Offshore wind has already reached price parity with coal and will get even cheaper. It's 1/3 of the cost of Japanese offshore wind.

Chinese ESS is also 1/2 the cost of overall APAC ESS.

I think as a whole this just shows how much more efficient the Chinese system is from having cheaper wind turbines/solar to lower infrastructure cost in moving them to the installation site and then actually installing them.

Again, there are vast empty desert lands in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Qinghai that can be used for wind/solar power. They are very barren and are just being wasted right now. Same with all the ocean water and such. Also, you can put solar panels on all the new buildings and tidal solar next to all the coast area that don't have a lot of commercial traffic.

A lab in China has developed one of the most efficient PEM electrolyzer out there

该产品在额定功率下电流密度 2.5 A / cm2、直流电耗 4.3 kWh / Nm3，1 A/cm2 工况下直流电耗 3.87 kWh / Nm3，具有高安全性、低成本等特点，处于行业领先水平，并且设备材料国产化率超过 90%。

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3.87kWh/Nm3 at 1A/cm2 is really impressive and same with the 90% domestic components
This has already received funding from 鹭岛氢能（厦门）科技有限公司 to be commercialized

嘉庚创新实验室表示，PEM 制氢装备所面临的最大技术挑战是核心设备-电解槽，其依赖稀缺的贵金属材料-铱、铂等。而此次发布的产品在国内以低铱载量成功实现颠覆性高性能指标，

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says the biggest challenge is the electrolyzer itself which uses Iridium and platnium

Remember all those articles about Chinese electrolysis machine being cheap, but are not efficient? Well, they now have the most efficient alkaline and PEM electrolyzers. Aside from Cummins, I don't know which other Western players have a lot of funding. Do they really think they can out develop Chinese elctrolyzers when many of these projects are supported by deep pocket and a lot of experienced engineers?

I have a question. Finding a good site for nuclear is time consuming but a very important part of the construction process. A good site is usually located near a major water source, cannot be too near a population centre and has to be in an area without frequent natural disasters. There's a limited amount of this sites, and experts say that China will be running out of good coastal sites within a decade at current construction rates and will have to build inland nuclear plants.

But why can't you just continue building reactors at already chosen sites? Most nuclear plants in China have around 6 reactors, why can't you build 10+ reactors at the same site? They don't take up a lot of space, there's already an existing grid connection, if they're at the coast they have an unlimited supply of water anyway. If one site can build a dozen reactors, that's basically doubling the number of nuclear power in China without having to find a single new inland site.

Look like Longi started new plant with 46GW of solar wafer, 30 GW of batteries and 5GW of solar panel a year. Huge new solar production base.

Aside from that, from China/Brazil agreements

三十、双方重申愿共同努力在可再生能源、能源转型和能效领域，特别是生物能源、氢能源、可持续航空燃料等方面开展合作，促进双方开展能源转型领域的相互投资和研发、创新合作。
二十九、双方强调以公平公正方式在本国和国际上进行能源转型和减排的重要性，这需要考虑到各国国情特点、能源需求的增加和保障能源安全的必要性。双方同意在有关领域进一步开展双边对话，深化各自公共政策信息交流，以更好推动清洁能源使用，促进实现各自能源矩阵脱碳的技术研发。

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so looks like quite a bit of cooperation agreed to in renewables, including hydrogen energy and biofuel and sustainable aviation fuel

This is interesting

此辆镁基固态储运氢车长13.3米，最大储氢量可达1吨，车内装载了12个储氢容器，每个容器里面都装填了镁基固态储氢材料，将氢气存储在镁合金材料里，从运输气体变成运输固体，可实现氢气的长距离、常温常压安全储运，并具备大容量、高密度、可长期循环储放氢的能力。

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中国工程院院士 丁文江：如果是传统高压气态长管拖车的话，最多储氢300公斤都不到，大概是储氢250公斤，那现在相当于它的4倍，运氢的成本大概是长管车的三分之一。

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氢合金材料里面有一个镁，此外，水蒸气在一定的状态下可以变成雾，也可以变成霜，也可以变成雨，我国都把镁蒸气变成了“雪”和“冰”，并进行重熔。

全世界九成的金属镁都是中国生产

中国到目前为止生产的镁占了全世界90%，都是镁蒸气变的。因此丁文江表示产生了一个想法，就是能不能让镁变成“霜”。

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Transporting hydrogen will be pretty important and they have found a new solution to transport it in Magnesium alloy. Store at most 1t, which is more than your normal high pressure tubes, that can support 250kg.
Also interesting this makes use of magnesium, which China has 90% market share. So this is a great way to build up their transportation technology for hydrogen.

This is tabulation for Q1 wind power data from China. You can see that the price war is quite brutal. In the past year alone, turbine cost have come down 1/3 for onshore ones. That's really killing some of the less efficient wind turbine makers like Goldwind

This will simply lead to more competitive energy cost and exports longer term. Especially for onshore projects in global south, Chinese companies should have major advantage in cost over Western competition

tphuang said:

Energy mix by capacity at end of 2022. Of course, this is not the actual electricity generation

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1625060133947555841

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Based on these numbers.
Coal/Gas = 69.77%
Hydro = 14.33%
Nuclear = 4.98%
Wind = 8.19%
Solar = 2.73%
So despite all the installations, the solar power generation is still quite low (although I wonder if that's just because they have yet to be connected to the grid or not fully accounted for). A lot of the solar power generated is probably wasted at the moment. But anyhow, it's good to see thermal shrinking below 70% in generation.

Even between gas and coal, it's good to see gas capacity is increasing. Looks like this is up from 5% to 6.6%

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At end of 2022

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2564 GW in total
413.5 GW hydro
1332 GW coal/natural gas
55.5 GW nuclear
365 GW wind
392 GW solar

As for 2023,

Hydro adds 7 GW
wind adds 65 GW
solar adds 98 GW
nuclear adds 3 GW

Overall, China's emissions dropped 1.5% in 2022 compared to 2021 based on data from carbon monitor. Much of that is probably due to lockdowns.

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Q1 data is out. Huge drop in Thermal % to below 65% based on my calculations. Huge jump in wind and solar. I think wind & solar utilization are really negatively effected by the rapid growth and not having enough ESS. So a lot of the solar is currently being wasted. It's utilization really should be higher than 1/6 of nuclear. I think 1/5 is possible, since we see plenty of solar panels advertising 22 to 26% efficiency. Similarly, wind utilization should go up more as more ESS is installed as more offshore wind is installed. Thermal utilization continues to come down since they play the role of backup power in more cases.

In terms of emissions, I would be surprised if CO2 emissions from electricity generation has gone up, since thermal Twh is almost flat YoY and coal power generation likely to have higher % of less polluting supercritical coal power generators.

Overall, it's hard to say, since China has been importing more oils, but a lot of that is just re-exported.

But I think we are getting close to the point where we can say China's carbon emissions have completely peaked

Sany after winning almost 1/4 of the Jilin green H2 project with 8 electrolyzers have now signed partnership agreement to work with Huaneng, one of the largest energy companies in China, on hydrogen projects including electrolyzers, fuel station & fuel cell technology.