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Street Pharmacist · 07-10-2021, 11:07 PM

I'd like to have a thread dedicated to all things involved in the transition underway including renewable electricity generation, but also industrial and commercial changes in sustainability (materials, agriculture,etc). However, I recognize this is a Calgary based forum and many people work in the Oil and Gas field. It's not my intent to anger people or have the tired old discussions about whether or not Climate Change is real or whether there is anything we can do about it (see what happens in the Electric Vehicle thread). If someone else wants to discuss those things, there's a whole other thread dedicated to it. The people who work in Oil and Gas are people just like those that work anywhere else and are not inherently bad or evil. Obviously any massive disruption in energy production will involve people's way of life and for good reasons discussing this leads to heated debate and I want to keep this thread clear of that if possible.

In that vein, here's a rule I propose to keep it on topic:

1) Any discussion here assumes climate change is a significant and urgent threat and is caused by human activity largely by greenhouse gas emissions. If we don't start with this as a fact it'll turn into a climate change argument and things will go sideways.

For reasons I'm not completely clear on, I have become fascinated by all the technology advancements in this space. It started with a fascination of electric vehicles and soon I was reading everything I could find on solar power and it went on from there. I now listen to quite a few podcasts (The Interchange, The Energy Gang, EV News Daily, The Energy Transition Show, Cleantech Talk, MITei, the Big Switch, Redefining Energy), read a few websites semi frequently (cleantechnica, InsideEVs, energytransition.org), and I've watched a few TedTalks. I've found from reading/listening to so many diverse people is just how far behind North America is. Not necessarily in the technology side (though we are), but in the public perception of where we are at in this transition as a global community. Here some completely facts that I don't think many in North America have paid attention to that show how far things have come:

-Investment in clean energy hit $500B USD globally in 2020 and will grow much faster with both Europe and the US strengthening their 2030 GHG targets

-The newest Offshore wind turbines can power 18,000 homes EACH. Just 30 years ago the first wind turbines ones were only about 30kW

-Solar panels are less than 10% the price they were just 10 years ago and still falling. Grid installation of solar is the cheapest electricity generation method and still falling

-In 2010, an EV battery cost $1150 per kWh. It's currently between $120-$130 and will be below $100 with 2-3 years

-Almost one third of all new solar capacity in the last 5 years has been in China

-There's a global arms race to build lithium battery factories and China is absolutely destroying everyone else. There are right now 88 factories producing at least 1 GWh of batteries per year, and that's expected to be 181 by end of 2021/beginning of 2022 for a total of about 500GWh per year. There's already an additional 2.5 TWh in the pipeline by 2030 with more likely to be added.

-China accounts for over 2/3 of production and up to 80% of the supply chain

Anyone else find this stuff interesting?

07-10-2021, 11:07 PM	#1
Street Pharmacist Franchise Player Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Salmon with Arms Exp:	The Energy Transition and technologies I'd like to have a thread dedicated to all things involved in the transition underway including renewable electricity generation, but also industrial and commercial changes in sustainability (materials, agriculture,etc). However, I recognize this is a Calgary based forum and many people work in the Oil and Gas field. It's not my intent to anger people or have the tired old discussions about whether or not Climate Change is real or whether there is anything we can do about it (see what happens in the Electric Vehicle thread). If someone else wants to discuss those things, there's a whole other thread dedicated to it. The people who work in Oil and Gas are people just like those that work anywhere else and are not inherently bad or evil. Obviously any massive disruption in energy production will involve people's way of life and for good reasons discussing this leads to heated debate and I want to keep this thread clear of that if possible. In that vein, here's a rule I propose to keep it on topic: 1) Any discussion here assumes climate change is a significant and urgent threat and is caused by human activity largely by greenhouse gas emissions. If we don't start with this as a fact it'll turn into a climate change argument and things will go sideways. For reasons I'm not completely clear on, I have become fascinated by all the technology advancements in this space. It started with a fascination of electric vehicles and soon I was reading everything I could find on solar power and it went on from there. I now listen to quite a few podcasts (The Interchange, The Energy Gang, EV News Daily, The Energy Transition Show, Cleantech Talk, MITei, the Big Switch, Redefining Energy), read a few websites semi frequently (cleantechnica, InsideEVs, energytransition.org), and I've watched a few TedTalks. I've found from reading/listening to so many diverse people is just how far behind North America is. Not necessarily in the technology side (though we are), but in the public perception of where we are at in this transition as a global community. Here some completely facts that I don't think many in North America have paid attention to that show how far things have come: -Investment in clean energy hit $500B USD globally in 2020 and will grow much faster with both Europe and the US strengthening their 2030 GHG targets -The newest Offshore wind turbines can power 18,000 homes EACH. Just 30 years ago the first wind turbines ones were only about 30kW -Solar panels are less than 10% the price they were just 10 years ago and still falling. Grid installation of solar is the cheapest electricity generation method and still falling -In 2010, an EV battery cost $1150 per kWh. It's currently between $120-$130 and will be below $100 with 2-3 years -Almost one third of all new solar capacity in the last 5 years has been in China -There's a global arms race to build lithium battery factories and China is absolutely destroying everyone else. There are right now 88 factories producing at least 1 GWh of batteries per year, and that's expected to be 181 by end of 2021/beginning of 2022 for a total of about 500GWh per year. There's already an additional 2.5 TWh in the pipeline by 2030 with more likely to be added. -China accounts for over 2/3 of production and up to 80% of the supply chain Anyone else find this stuff interesting?