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Inflation Reduction Act Actually Causing Inflation

“Greenflation” will be the word of the year by late 2023.

In 2022, the US Congress passed the biggest climate bill in history — under the name the “Inflation Reduction Act.” It calls for a 10-year torrent of money to be spent on installing heat pumps, solar panels and other clean energy equipment in American households and businesses.

Starting today, the Act will offer households thousands of dollars to transition over from fossil-fuel burning heaters, stoves and cars to cleaner versions. Middle-class families will be able to access tax credits for solar, electric stoves, cars, and other kinds of renewable energy equipment. By mid-2023, lower-income households will  get discounts without having to wait to file their taxes to get the cash back. This online tool shows what you might be eligible for, depending on your Zip code and income.

  According to Washington Post journalist    the new US Inflation Reduction Act provides multiple ways to green the economy and save money. But the money saved per household will be depend on future energy prices, and the effect on carbon emissions will be relatively slight, unless the growth in clean energy is accompanied by a sharp overall reduction in energy consumption.

Up to a billion separate items of home and office equipment will need to be swapped out – from fridges and heaters to aircon units and cars. Who will manufacture all these wonderful new products?   And who will install and maintain them?   There is already a shortage of both labor and materials.

Economists say the IRA may not reduce inflation very much, but they don’t say it could spur inflation in the sectors affected by the  new law.   As millions of households across America switch to cleaner energy sources with the help of government money (meaning our money), there will be shortages of both skilled labor and of equipment, driving up prices.

There are currently only about 13,000 solar installation companies across the USA, growing at an average of 2.5% per year.  And the number of workers employed as solar or wind energy installers is projected to grow by less than 10,500 between now and 2029, according to US government figures.

The growth rate of all occupations in the U.S. is predicted to be 3.7% from 2019 to 2029. Wind turbine service technicians and solar photovoltaic installers, on the other hand, are predicted to grow at a rate of 60.7% and 50.5%, respectively, , from a very low base.

If this prediction is correct, together, these two occupations will add only 10,400 new jobs to the U.S. economy by 2029.

Quick Facts: Solar Photovoltaic Installers
2021 Median Pay $47,670 per year
$22.92 per hour
Typical Entry-Level Education High school diploma or equivalent
Work Experience in a Related Occupation None
On-the-job Training Moderate-term on-the-job training
Number of Jobs, 2021 17,100
Job Outlook, 2021-31 27% (Much faster than average)
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US energy grid buckles – but who is to blame?

 

Tennessee 205,982
North Carolina 184,920
Virginia 140,331
Maine 104,068
Pennsylvania 98,101

 

Over 1.5 million Americans were without power today as storms and sub-zero weather gripped the country.  The ageing electrical grid is expected to come under further pressure by nightfall, leading to questions about how companies like National Grid, PG&E and ConEdison are policed, and fined, when foreseeable events lead to major outages.

The energy companies will be lining up their excuses, but as a vital part of national infrastructure, their obligation is to predict and prepare for weather events.

Check out our short video history of the US Grid for the full background

 

 

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1950s ad for Textron electric blanket
Community

USB blanket for low-cost warmth

What could be nicer than climbing into a warm bed on a cold, damp night?

Normally that means heating the room, but you could perfectly well heat the bed for a couple of hours just before sleep, for only a few cents.

The humble Electric blanket
(click here for UK version), was a staple of middle-class homes in the 1950s and 1960s, but has since fallen out of favour as central heating was installed, and after a string of fatalities.

Modern Electric blankets
(UK version)
must pass stringent safety rules, and there is a wide range to choose from. This one in UK is only £11.50.

A battery like this onein USA and this one
in the UK, will power the blanket for up to 6 hours via the USB. The battery can be recharged the next day – this can be with a 200-watt solar panel
for the USA version – or here
in the UK.

Or plug into the mains – if you can find a live socket at a friend’s house!

Street lights can also be used as a power supply (but only when connected by a qualified electrician). And you could pay for charging at a local garage or anywhere you can find with a power supply.

Sweet Dreams – and remember to switch off the blanket before sleep, although you can switch it back on again if you wake up cold.

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Community

Is Fusion Energy the Net Zero equivalent of the Covid Vaccine?

Washington DC – US department of energy has trailed an announcement later today (Tuesday), from energy secretary Jennifer Granholm and under-secretary for nuclear security Jill Hruby to announce “a major scientific breakthrough” at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Physicists have since the 1950s sought to harness the fusion reaction that powers the sun, but this is the first time they had been able to produce more energy from the reaction than it consumes. The figures to be released later today reach a milestone known as net energy gain or target gain, which would “derisk” investment in fusion to achieve a reliable, abundant net-zero alternative to fossil fuels and conventional nuclear energy.

Boosters of nuclear fusion are already claiming that this announcement puts commercial fusion production less than 10 years away. There are fears it will provide an excuse for governments and industry to put current Net-zero plans on hold. Even on the most optimistic assumptions about climate change that would be too late to stop catastrophic warming.

Physicist Daniel Jassaby, who worked at the Princeton plasma lab, said a fusion reactor would be “far from perfect and in some ways close to the opposite”.

Writing in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists he said the process of nuclear fusion has the potential to produce radiation damage and radioactive waste – contrary to claims it is clean and safe.

He also says the “parasitic drain” of power needed to fuel fusion reactors renders means that they could “consume a good chunk of the very power that they produce”.

Fusion reactors have to be supplied with fuel made from fission reactors which he said implies a “perpetual dependence” on them.

And there is the potential for nuclear weapons proliferation through the “clandestine” production of plutonium-239.

In total there have been 21 commercial start-ups in fusion energy over the last five years, with a cascade of private funding over recent months following successes by the Livermore lab in 2021.

The Fusion Industry Association in Washington says there are currently five private companies pursuing inertial fusion of different forms, including the UK’s First Light, Focused Energy and Xcimer Energy in the US, and Marvel Fusion and XB11 in Germany.

“The advances being made point to market viability much sooner than expected, within the next 10 years,” said Todd Ditmire, co-founder of Focused Energy.

The $3.5bn National Ignition Facility at Livermore was primarily designed to test nuclear weapons by simulating explosions but has since been used to advance fusion energy research.

Achieving ignition involved collaborators at DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Nevada National Security Site; General Atomics; academic institutions, including the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley, and Princeton University; international partners, including the United Kingdom’s Atomic Weapons Establishment and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission.

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US & Europe Microgrid survey results – 2022

There are currently nearly 700 significant microgrids in the USA and only about 13 in Western Europe, according to a new report. There are four microgrids under construction in the UK. A microgrid is a local electrical grid with defined electrical boundaries, acting as a single and controllable entity. It is able to operate in grid-connected and in island mode. A ‘Stand-alone microgrid’ or ‘isolated microgrid’ only operates off-the-grid and cannot be connected to a wider electric power system.

There is a signficant potential market for mircogrids, and the current size is vanishingly small, but it is proof of concept. Globally the buildout of microgrids is growing at only 7% per year, and this could change dramatically if a recent Off-Grid.net forecast of potential demand is correct.
The highest number of microgrids are employed by the Commercial and Industrial (C&I) sector globally (e.g. Walmart, Inc., eBay, Panasonic/Xcel, Castello Di Amorosa Winery, etc.) and are primarily aimed at serving the needs of these businesses and corporations.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), there are at least 676 microgrids in the US, providing a total of 4,132MW of reliable electricity. – DOE lists over 620 grid-connected microgrids and over 56 off-grid microgrids in the US
The new report from Triton Research estimates there are currently 13 existing microgrids across Western Europe. In the United Kingdom, there are currently 4 microgrid constructions underway.
Transitioning to a microgrid is driven by reduced electricity purchase costs of distributed energy resources, favorable government initiatives, reduced carbon emissions to achieve a low carbon economy, and increased resilience and insulation from external events. Demand along all these categories is likely to increase.
Market growth is currently restricted by the regulatory framework and high maintenance and installation costs.

KEY INDUSTRY PLAYERS

Hitachi Ltd
Schneider Electric
Duke Energy Corporation
8.4. Exelon Corporation
Siemens AG
Fairbanks Morse
National Grid plc
. S&C Electric Company
Bloom Energy,
Cummins Inc,
Fuelcell Energy Inc,
General Electric Company.
Power Engineers Incorporated,
Nrg Energy Inc,
Eaton Corporation plc

The global microgrid market includes North America, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa regions.
The Asia-Pacific is deemed to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period. The large population base in the region has increased the demand for power grids due to the lack of electricity. Due to low electrification rates, several microgrid innovators are expanding operations in the region and are backed by government funding.
Additionally, with several nations facing extreme weather conditions, microgrids have emerged as an ideal solution to improve grid efficiency. During the forecast period, collaborations between governments, international development agencies, and energy companies are expected to rise, boosting the market’s growth.

The report can be found at: https://www.tritonmarketresearch.com/reports/microgrid-market

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Europe faces winter of rolling blackouts and energy squabbles

European countries facing energy shortages will be bidding against each other for scarce energy supplies at times of peak demand this winter.

Leadership failure by the EU Directorate means there is no system to “share the pain” between countries when the Ukraine-led energy shortage bites. Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo has warned Europe could face up to 10 difficult winters as a result of the standoff.

The UK government is considering a “revenue cap” on electricity generators in line with a similar move by the European Union. The UK budget announcement this week will contain a tax of 40 per cent on the “excess returns” produced by the sector above a certain price per megawatt hour, according to people close to the discussions. That threshold has not yet been decided. Energy prices for a typical UK family will have tripled between 2021 and 2023

The head of France’s electricity grid warned yesterday that his country is at risk of electricity shortages this winter, as problems with its nuclear power stations mount. Xavier Piechaczyk, president of the Reseau Transport d’Electricite (RTE), said it is in a state of “state of particular vigilance”,  in a warning that also raises questions for Britain’s power supplies this winter.

National Grid in the UK is hoping to be able to import power at times of peak demand if gas shortages mean not enough electricity is being generated domestically but it will be competing with every other energy provider on the continent to do so.

France typically exports electricity to other countries but is less able to do so given half of its nuclear power stations, which are owned and run by EDF, are currently offline, either for maintenance or as a result of corrosion problems. The widespread shutdowns add to the strain on the energy system caused by gas shortages, creating the risk that Britain and Germany will struggle to meet needs at peak times this winter. National Grid has warned there could be blackouts in the UK.

RTE is publishing a forecast of electricity supplies up to four days in advance, known as Ecowatt, to try and help manage the system. If supplies are looking tight, it will launch a “red alert” calling on users to cut consumption.

Early last week, French power prices for January surged above €1,000 per megawatt hour after EDF cut its electricity output for the fourth time this year. Prices have since fallen back, though remain far higher than in neighbouring countries.

Mr Piechaczyk said he was taking a “cautious” approach to nuclear plant availability in RTE’s forecasts, Bloomberg reported, given the risk of maintenance taking longer than planned.

France is one of several countries that trades electricity with Britain, helping balance out supplies on both sides. In its winter outlook published in October, Britain’s National Grid warned it may have to impose rolling power cuts

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Community

I’m back!!!

It’s been a while, a long while since I’ve been here, many things have happened over the years, and some things have remained the same.

I’m still living 100% off-grid, PB and I have been here since Dec 2007. For those who aren’t familiar with us, we moved from the DFW area of Texas to far west Texas. We purchased a piece of property in a small community, just under 6 acres on a mountainside. Yes, Texas has mountains, but don’t tell anyone, it will be our little secret. We are just outside of Fort Davis, the highest town in Texas coming in at 5050 feet above sea level. Our piece of property is higher than that, but being outside of Fort Davis proper, it’s not counted.

 

We started out small…

We started out very small, very primitive, building a 16×16 box on stilts (we live on the second floor of the structure). There was no heat, no running water, no plumbing, we did have electricity, barely. Our electricity came from a few odd solar panels, a charge controller, inverter and some extension cords to distribute the electricity around the cabin.

We quickly built another room as a bedroom, as time went by, we added on and improved, installing a wood stove, plumbing, all the things you need to make a home. PB liked medieval things, castles, knights and the such so he began to turn the cabin into a castle, a true castle since it’s defensible. Today it boasts 2 drawbridges, a fourth floor observation tower. PB said he wanted to build 4 stories tall, I thought he was nuts, but he did it!

The SkyCastle of today…

Our place is still a work in progress, I suppose it always will be, I’m used to it though. I’ve never lived in a truly finished structure, my dad knew how to build and the houses where I grew up were always in a state of construction, not quite ever being finished.

I have many updates to tell you about. I’m hoping to see some of my old friends here, and hoping to make some new friends. Pop in and say “Hi!”.

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Community

Off-Grid in the UK? No help from govt in energy crisis

As costs of energy double and redouble in the UK, and the government prepares to announce details of a bailout for householders, 100,000 off-grid households face winter out in the cold.

The bailout is likely to be based on previous utility bills, and as off-grid homes do not buy from utility companies they are being left out of the calculations. Van-dwellers, liveaboard boaters and permanent dwellings that are energy independent mostly rely on oil, butane or wood for heating and cooking. All of these will be in short supply this winter.

A document from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy published on 29 July, states: “Evidence suggests up to 400,000 would not receive EBSS support due to these circumstances compared with approximately 29 million that will.”

Gypsies and Travellers fear missing out on energy bills support and the National Bargee Travellers Association says thousands of “liveaboard” boaters could be locked out of the support payments.

Dan Hooper, an environmental activist nicknamed Swampy, who achieved prominence for his tunnel protest activities, lives off-grid in Tipi Valley, a 200-acre former farm in Wales.

He and others in the community generate sustainable electricity from solar panels supplemented by bottled gas and wood burners for heating in the cold winter months. Bottled gas prices have risen by 40% in the past 12 months.

Dan Hooper, AKA Swampy, said: ‘Government should not allow the energy companies to charge these extortionate prices.’
“Government should not allow the energy companies to charge these extortionate prices and make so many people miserable while they are making record-breaking profits. It’s all about human greed. We need to consume less,” he said.

He added that while he has some protection because his home is extremely well insulated, “Everyone should get these payments, which could be used to help people get their energy in more sustainable ways such as from solar panels.”

For Terry Green, a Traveller living with members of his family in a caravan park in East Sussex, the energy price hike has come as a “big shock”. He lives in a caravan with his wife. His three children and his grandchildren live in other caravans on the site.

“We’ve lived on this site for four years. It’s one of the best sites I’ve been on and I wake up every morning and thank God when I see my children and grandchildren around me. But when we add up the increased cost of paying our electricity key meter and bottles of gas I don’t know if we can afford it.

“A lot of Travellers will have to go back to the old ways of cooking outside on an open fire. Why should we be forced to do that? We should have equal rights with everyone else. Greed has crept in. It’s ruining the world.”

Friends, Families and Travellers, which supports Gypsy and Traveller communities, has written to …

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Community

UK housebuilders look at going off-grid in energy shortage

With an energy crunch looming and up to ten years wait to get a grid connection for new housing developments in some parts of the country, UK housebuilders are looking into off-grid solutions.

“Housing developers could invest some of the money that they would otherwise spend on securing network capacity on solar panels, batteries and energy asset control systems,” said Jojo Hubbard, boss of City of London energy company Electron. “This would enable new developments to connect faster, use the grid while it was available and contribute flexibility services (or even excess renewable energy) back to it at times of shortages. Payments for these services need to allow them to recoup the additional spend on clean, flexible energy assets.

“Building these local markets for network capacity will be essential for places like west London. We are then in a position where developers of new, fully electrified homes can give back to the grid rather than experiencing it as a block for construction in certain areas. This approach not only saves costs on network reinforcement costs for all energy bill payers, it also gets us to net zero faster,” said Myers.

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HArd hats watch tower construction
Community

Gridlock for UK Renewable Electricity

New renewable energy projects in Britain are facing a 10-YEAR wait to get their power onto the country’s national grid.

Incompetence at the top levels of National grid PLC and OFGEM, the state regulator, has led tot he bottleneck. As a result promises made by Britain at COP26 cannot be met and net zero targets are at risk due to delays “caused by poor planning and investment in infrastructure,” according to Bloomberg.

The UK recently set out ambitious new goals to more than double existing renewable generation capacity, adding 50 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, 70GW of solar by 2035 and 24GW of nuclear by 2050.

But developers say they are being told that they will have to wait six to 10 years to connect to the regional distribution networks because of constraints on National Grid’s network.

“The majority of large developers are now seeing construction-ready projects being delayed as a result of long queues and excessive charges to get access to the transmission system,” said Catherine Cleary, specialist engineer at consultancy Roadnight Taylor, which advises companies including British Gas owner Centrica and solar developer Lightsource BP on their grid connections.

“Although there are proposals for new infrastructure, the lengthy timelines for this threaten to derail the net zero targets.”

The issue of who pays for improvements to the electricity distribution network is crucial given that it is privatised, with the FTSE 100 listed National Grid providing the bulk of the central transmission network across Great Britain and supplying the six regional monopolies whose pylons, poles, wires and cables carry electricity to end users.

The monopolies’ investments and how much they charge consumers are regulated via price controls set by watchdog Ofgem, which has been under pressure to get tough after being accused of allowing the companies to make excess profits. The regional distributors earn their revenues from a surcharge on customer bills, with up to a fifth of the typical household energy bill — or roughly £371 a year — going towards the cost of the distribution network.

National Grid says it has historically had 40-50 applications for connections a year but that this has risen to about 400 as renewables suppliers have proliferated. This is in addition to significant volumes of applications coming via the six regional distributors.

Roisin Quinn, director of customer connections at National Grid, said it was working with Ofgem and the industry to address the long queues, including by changing processes so that developers can no longer take network capacity before they have planning permission or have even started construction.

The company is proposing to upgrade the network on a project-by-project basis, building bigger substations and more overhead lines. “We are taking action at pace, along with the wider industry, to speed up the process for customers based in areas with longer waiting times,” she said.

However, the industry is concerned over the …

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Community

New model emerging for energy management

Gridbeyond is one of a new breed of companies, a grid aggregator offering to save money and energy for companies and communities, by selling the surplus energy they are generating or storing, back on to the grid.

Its all about resilience. In the same way that you would futureproof your apartment if you were going to put it on AirBnb, Gridbeyond futureproofs your energy system, so it is fit for purpose in the wider world of smart energy provision, as well as guaranteeing the energy provision to your own home or office.

Although this does currently require a grid connection, in the future off-grid communities could make use of the same technologies to balance the loads between them and share resources.

Part of the service is the way it stores cheap grid electricity when prices are low and then releases it (possibly the same day) when prices rises, with batteries paid for and housed by their clients.

In old fashioned terms the deal they are offering is arbitrage – taking advantage of market volatility to take a cut.

But its more sophisticated than that.

The Gridbeyond version of the service treats energy as a “Flexible asset” in order to “monetise the flexibility,” CEO Padraig Curran told me. Gridbeyond takes the flexibility clients have (whether in generation, storage or demand), and uses it to obtain the best prices both for buying and selling power on a minute by minute basis with the grid operator and energy market.
“You have huge amounts of flexibility in homes – the trick is to harness it in a cost effective way –we are all becoming more interconnected – this will be the gateway.”

Gridbeyond focuses on industrial processes – water, paper, cement – with larger power generation resource and patchy demand – long intervals of low or no demand, followed by a need for large amounts of power at short notice. Again – the same principles apply in any situation where there is a worthwhile amount of surplus power generated at certain points of the day.

The profits from the Flexibility are used to” fund battery deployments behind the meter,” said Curran

Resilience

“We are permanently monitoring the system – the generation, storage, and any demand or other constraint on supply” he said.

This where the designers can build in resilience so they are never caught out by peaks in prices – they do this by monitoring and controlling –their software allows them to go into any site – “any asset “ as Padraig Curran calls it – meaning any machine, generator or motor –using electronic sensors which communicate back to the key software.

One day the whole grid will work like this – only it wont be a grid any more – it will be a non-hierarchical set of autonomous systems that communicate via the internet and permanently allow energy trading between any two …

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