This is amazing - wind turbines with a diameter of 2-1/2 football fields! https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/worlds-largest-wind-turbine-operational-china The installation of the world’s largest wind turbine has now been completed off the east coast of China making the 16-megawatt turbine operational, China Three Gorges Corporation (CTGC) said in a press release... The turbine has been installed in an area that experiences level 7 winds. In layman’s terms, these would be considered “near gale” conditions and exceed 32 miles (51 km) an hour speeds on most days of the year. When operated for a year, the wind farm will produce 66GWh of carbon-free electricity, which can power 36,000 households.
The following graphs show the amount of windpower produced in the last few years. Notice that the scale of the China graph is double that of the US. China produced more than twice as much windpower as the US in 2022 and 2023. Europe was almost twice the US in 2023. The most positive takeaway - world production is up year after year.
Good post. We trail EU as well. One of China's successes is superior electricity transport. They can build wind and solar in desert areas and ship it to the coastal metro areas far less expensively than our flagging grid could accomplish. "Ultra-high-voltage electricity transmission (UHV electricity transmission) has been used in China since 2009 to transmit both alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) electricity over long distances separating China's energy resources and consumers." Wiki 2009!
Meanwhile, there's good news. USA Oil Production Sets World Record… Again David Middleton Despite the worst efforts of the White House… The USA “produces more crude oil than any country”… EVAH
In the US, intermittent wind and solar are being quietly set aside as electricity demand rises. Starting To Notice That The Energy Transition Is Not Happening March 20, 2024/ Francis Menton Supposedly, there is a big energy transition going on. Throughout the West, countries have made ambitious pledges to reduce “greenhouse gas” emissions by specific percentages and by specific dates. Many such pledges were notably made in the Paris Climate Agreement of 2016. Some countries — for example, the U.S. and UK — have even gone beyond the Paris Agreement and made still more ambitious pledges in the years since then. But is any of it real? No, none of it is real. The failure to make the progress that would be necessary to achieve the alleged pledges and mandates is obvious and easily tracked. But a code of silence has enveloped the progressive media, commanding that no one is allowed to notice. A small crack in the wall of silence suddenly happened in the New York Times on March 14. READ MORE
Oil will be around for quite a while. Even if the US starts to move more towards EVs, mass transit, bicycles, electric scooters, etc, the airline industry will likely remain on oil. As long as we're consuming this polluting resource, we may as well get it locally.
Claiming there is a wall of silence is absolute nonsense. The problem is that we need infrastructure improvements in two main ways: - we need to unsnarl and improve the connection of clean energy projects to the grid. - we need the grid to be able to transport electricity more cheaply - like China does. This is needed regardless of energy production technology. From your cite: Even though we are expanding clean energy FASTER than demand is increasing, these major hinderances need to be fixed, given prognostications of increased energy needs. Clean energy is still the fastest and cheapest method of producing new energy. The catch is that our regulatory framework and grid technology need serious attention.
When wind turbines and solar panels are hauled away to the junkyard they will be carried by diesel trucks and locomotives.
Perhaps a 5-10 minute replacement of the entire battery assembly. My fellow engineers will easily address any issues.
Most EVs have range of 200-300 miles, depending on the battery option chosen. Trucks would probably be the same,
Mingyang Smart Energy has rolled out the largest offshore wind turbine in the world. This is larger than the unit in the title thread. The rotor diameter is an astounding 260-290 meters. That's almost the length of 3 football fields! This turbine has a capacity of 20 MegaWatts. At capacity production, that would power about 700 US homes - from one turbine!!! It can also withstand typhoon level winds. https://www.offshorewind.biz/2023/12/13/mingyang-rolls-out-worlds-largest-offshore-wind-turbine-in-capacity-and-rotor-diameter/#:~:text=Mingyang already has the world’s largest offshore wind,model which was commissioned in July offshore China. The wind turbine is designed for global deployment in medium-to-high wind speed regions, with specific suitability for typhoon-prone sites. According to Mingyang, the MySE 18.X-20MW model is equipped with active anti-typhoon technology, capable of withstanding Category 17 typhoons (56.1-61.2 m/s).
Good segue for this hot-off-the-press latest development. Talent New Energy just unveiled a solid state battery with unprecedented energy density - 720 WHrs/Kg. That power will provide enough range for 2000 Kilometers (over 1300 miles)!!! More than likely people won't want that much mileage, and will settle for less battery range, at a lesser price. Imagine that - EVs are now going to start to have TOO MUCH RANGE! Put some of these in those trucks, and AWAY WE GO! https://cnevpost.com/2024/04/03/talent-unveils-battery-cell-ultra-high-energy-density/ Talent's all-solid-state battery has twice the energy density of WeLion's semi-solid-state battery, meaning it is expected to give EVs a range of around 2,000 kilometers if it can be mass-produced.
Their new chemistry will be delivered in cars this quarter, they claim. But, it won't be the full solid state version, which exists but I don't believe is being manufactured yet. The v1 version isn't solid state and is 400 Wh/kg. The v3 version is planed to be solid state version, which is measured to be 720 Wh/kg. So for cars, one has to figure how to juggle car cost and range. Is a 1000 mile car really what people are willing to pay for? Or, is it better to cut the battery cost in half and sell cars with 500 mile range? Or, whatever. For trucks, having the full power of these batteries might be a great choice. Maybe you could drive for 1,000 miles or tow something for half that?? This not the battery planned for the Tesla Y upgrade. That battery is thought to give 500 miles and be capable of charging in 11 minutes at a Tesla supercharger or equivalent. But, perhaps more interesting will be the new model planned to be in the price point of a Toyota Camry (or Corolla?)
Stop offshore wind. Save the whales. Time To Save the Right Whales From the Green Left? ECONOMICS AND POLICY APRIL 5, 2024
China has the same problem of not enough room for solar and wind near coastal megacities. They have chosen to build superior grids for shipping electricity at lower cost over long distance. Thus, they are building energy clean energy projects in the Gobi desert. There are solutions. We don't have to live with old technology.
