Chickens and carbon emissions

By
Dr. Luis Contreras
-
670

“More chickens, more eggs. More eggs, more cash. More cash, more kilowatt-hours,” Arkansas Light and Power, 1935

But more kilowatt-hours create more carbon emissions unless we go off-grid with new energy storage solutions and microgrids. Low-cost, long-life, high-cycle energy storage is the missing link to power your home the natural way. Energy storage is the key to stopping carbon emissions.

Think of the Sun as a safe, massive nuclear reactor working free of charge around the clock. Harnessing sunlight and storing energy at point of use, say your home, is the sustainable, safe, resilient, and affordable energy solution. Electric vehicles provide the best ride without fumes and heat, including passenger cars, buses, trucks, and trains.

Climate emergency

Going off-grid is one of the ways to keep the 1.5°C warming “carbon emissions bucket” from spilling. Please see The Carbon Bucket for 1.5°C, December 13, 2019, on YouTube. The bucket is empty before 1900, then the UK, the US, and other nations created massive carbon emissions. By 2019, only nine percent of the carbon budget is left, around 10 years or less, with feedback loops and the melting of the ice sheets in Antarctica. This is the real global emergency!

Mike Pence is praying for the coronavirus, who knows, it may be gone or not. In countries all over the world, streets in large cities are empty, factories are shut down, but our government is dismissing the crisis to protect the stock market.

Why are we ignoring the climate crisis? JP Morgan sent a letter to its top investors warning about the impact on their investments, reported by BBC on February 21, 2020. “JP Morgan economists warn of catastrophic climate change. Human life as we know it could be threatened by climate change. In a hard-hitting report to clients, the economists said that without action being taken there could be ‘catastrophic outcomes.’”

Burning fossil fuels for more than 100 years has created industrial progress, however, it has generated massive man-made carbon emissions.

James Watt developed a coal fired steam engine in the UK creating the notion of a world powered by steam. In the 1800s, steam engines were used for many industrial applications at mills, breweries, factories, and even a steam powered airship. It is said the steam engine was the machine that powered the world.

Looking back, the guy designing the steam engine invented carbon emissions. The U.S. Congress invented fossil fuel subsidies, while the impostor in the White House peddles incandescent lightbulbs, clean coal, “clean natural gas,” and LNG exports. More than 800 military bases are needed to secure Trump’s exports of carbon emissions.

Have you heard of liquid metal?

Like the steam engine, liquid metal energy storage may be the machine that saved life on Earth, eliminating carbon emissions.

Electricity is the free flow of electrons through a conductor or wire. We put those electrons to work when they power our loads, such as lights and motors. In 1800 Alessandro Volta discovered that if you introduce an external charge to an atom you can “eject” stable electrons out of their orbits and use them in a circuit. His battery, known as a “Voltaic Pile,” stacked together discs of zinc and copper, separated by blotting paper soaked in brine.

Japan’s NEC Corporation is working with an MIT electrochemistry innovation group on commercial, low cost, long life, energy storage solutions. These storage devices known as Liquid Metal batteries have a useful life measured in decades.

Going off-grid

Jerry Landrum, our Eureka Springs solar guru, will head a local team to find low-cost solutions. We will use my home solar system to experiment and showcase the results. I look forward to saying goodbye to my electric co-op and growing trees on the easement not having to worry about their brutal vegetation management.

Get in good trouble

“To each and every one of you, especially you, young people … Go out there, speak up, speak out. Get in the way. Get in good trouble. Necessary trouble and help redeem the soul of America.” – Civil Rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis (GA–D) at this year’s commemorative march in Selma, Alabama.

Dr. Luis Contreras

17 COMMENTS

  1. I worry when people applaud, is this good news?

    The Energy Storage Association (ESA) is applauding Senate consideration of the American Energy Innovation Act (AEIA), which aims to increase the use of renewable energy and energy storage through investments and modernization of domestic energy laws.

    In a statement published by ESA CEO Kelly Speakes-Backman, the association lauded the actions taken by Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Ranking Member Joe Manchin (D-WV), in particular for inclusion of the Better Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Act, which would push energy storage investments in the AEIA.

    https://dailyenergyinsider.com/news/24470-esa-applauds-introduction-of-american-energy-innovation-act/

  2. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy intends to sell off as much as 12 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), drawing from three sites in Texas and Louisiana.

    DOE, affectionally known as the Department of Entropy, sells carbon emissions kept strategically at secret sites, as this March 2020 report says

    Are we running out of carbon emissions?

    https://dailyenergyinsider.com/news/24466-doe-to-sell-up-to-12-million-barrels-of-crude-oil-from-strategic-petroleum-reserve/

  8. A different design using Volta’s original ideas to create electric flow, using low-cost chemistry and liquid metal is the latest energy storage solution. An MIT innovation

    Ambri, the developer of the novel Liquid Metal Battery grid-scale energy storage technology, announced today that it has completed the first testing period of its fully-functioning in-lab “Beta Core” energy storage system, which provides 20 kWh of energy storage with a peak capacity of 6 kW and contains 432 cells.

    https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161215005178/en/Ambri-Achieves-Major-Milestone-Commercializing-Liquid-Metal

    Update: NEC partners with Ambri

    https://renews.biz/55466/nec-partners-on-liquid-metal-battery-storage/

  10. Transmission and Distribution World, recognizes the threat of extreme weather for the Grid.

    They say, “Undergrounding has proven to make the infrastructure better able to withstand severe weather events, but may cost more. to install than overhead infrastructure. Targeted undergrounding can maximize the impact while containing the costs.”

    Overhead transmission lines are built by American Electric Power (AEP) and other utilities, with helicopters used for inspection and maintenance.

    Underground transmission lines are high-cost and prone to “leaks” – same as oil and gas pipelines.

    Who is going to pay the cost of building an underground grid?

    Time to cut the wire, and use microgrids and long life storage devices.

    https://storyscape.tdworld.com/pdi2-stormy-weather-going-underground-as-part-of-a-resiliency-program/

  11. “Arkansas is considering new net metering rate structures” says the Feb 11, 2020 Daily Energy Insider article. It seems as if it was written by Entergy Arkansas, trying to influence APSC to block the Sun.

    It says, “In December, the PSC heard from stakeholders on both sides about net metering rates. Like in many states, electric utilities have argued that high net metering rates are being passed along to non-solar customers.”

    False! My neighboors are not paying for my solar system, they are getting clean, noise free electons during hot afternoons generated by my system, at 10 cents per kWh at the end of the month.

    It also says, “in Arkansas, solar customers are compensated 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, the same amount Entergy charges homeowners for energy consumption. Entergy is requesting the rate be lowered to 3 cents per kilowatt-hour.”

    False! The APSC net energy metering agreement is based on the “number of kWh’s sent to and from the grid” not measured in dollars.

    https://dailyenergyinsider.com/news/24198-arkansas-is-considering-new-net-metering-rate-structures/

  12. Do you know how much your taxes pay for carbon emissions? Here are some recent numbers

    “On the low end of the scale is the latest estimate from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that annual worldwide fossil fuel subsides over of $400 billion in 2018.

    The highest estimates come from a recent paper from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) asserting that subsidies reached $4.7 trillion in 2015 and $5.2 trillion in 2017.

    Bloomberg claims the “externality costs” of fossil fuels should include medical care for air pollution and the defense of hydrocarbon supply chains, not to mention $69 trillion in climate-related damages expected to accrue between now and 2100.

    My own estimate is much higher, measured in the suffering of 7.6 Billion people plus all the life on Earth.

    I am ashamed to be one of the last generation choosing to “protect the booming US economy” as if that was a choice.

    Why not go off-grid?

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/walvanlierop/2019/12/06/yes-fossil-fuel-subsidies-are-real-destructive-and-protected-by-lobbying/#64859f0d417e

  13. Here is a link for the Carbon Bucket for a 1.5°C global warming, equivalent to 450 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere, from man-made carbon emissions. The data is from December 13, 2019

    The bucket was empty before 1900, before the industrial revolution, when the industrial world was powered by steam using coal to heat water. First the UK and EU, then the US and other nations created massive carbon emissions to fight 2 world wars.

    At the same time, loggers increased deforestation using dead trees as timber. Forests and vegetation use carbon dioxide, water and sunlight to grow. Only Nature knows how photosynthesis works!

    Now we are paying a huge price, ignoring clear warnings for over 50 years.

    By 2019, only 9 percent of the carbon budget is left, around 10 years or less, with feedback loops and the melting of the ice sheets in Antarctica.

    The UN Paris Agreement set 1.5°C as the maximum amount of warming – to keep life as we know it.

    https://youtu.be/XcEyJqluMEU

  14. You may think twice and go off-grid to power your home and electric vehicle. We bougth a Chevy Bolt 3 years ago with a 230 mile range, charging in the garage with a standard 120 Volt outlet. With an iPhone App, you can check the batteries and tire pressure.

    Or, you can be a ratepayer for life, hoping the rates don’t get too high, and the poles and wires keep up. Here is a recent report, “Utility companies across the Natural State are working to temporarily power down communities that are impacted or prone to flooding from the Arkansas River.” 2019

    “Entergy Arkansas reported 30 customers were disconnected near Russellville, Danville, Des Arc, and Willow Beach Park. As the river continues to rise so does the expected number of customers to be temporarily disconnected.”

    https://katv.com/news/local/arkansas-electrical-companies-issue-temporary-outages-and-flood-safety-tips

  16. I was surprised at the changing role of the Arkansas Public Service Commission.

    Entergy Arkansas, of course, no longer has a monopoly in Arkansas. “Arkansas has 41 gas and electric utilities: four investor-owned electric utilities, one generation and transmission cooperative utility, and 18 cooperatives that make up the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas. Arkansas also has four companies that sell natural gas. All of these utilities are regulated by the Arkansas Public Service Commission (APSC). Also there are 15 municipal utilities which are not regulated by the APSC.”

    You would think you have a choice, but you would be wrong. In Arkansas you have one utility to choose from, check with your realtor before you sign on the dotted line.

    Or, you could “get in good trouble” and kiss the grid goodbye!

    https://www.adeq.state.ar.us/energy/resources/utilities.aspx

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