Green Energy

Pretty cool

“The global north must take responsibility for reducing its own consumption and building domestic renewable capacity, instead of externalising socio-environmental costs to the global south. We must continue to fight to decolonise and transform the global financial architecture.”

Disclaimer: OP doesn't support CCP or authoritarian communism.

This company is working to produce a machine that produces methane from waste electricity, water, and atmospheric air.

I searched for this company and only found a few references from several years ago.

I'm always skeptical of these bold claims, and my skepticism for something useful is still here with this company.

That said, from all of their public press and their description of their approach and goals, there could be something here. Time will tell.

The most important aspect of their approach is that they make no claim of this being energy efficient. Quite the opposite. They say it takes about 300% more energy input into their process than results from the energy in the methane that comes out.

Why this still looks like a possible viable path, is that they are building this to consume overproduced electricity that cannot otherwise be used or stored. As in, put it at a solar farm where the utility is rejecting more energy at the height of a sunny day (because of overcapacity).

I like how they've broken the technological challenges down into three main parts:

• input CO2 source
• input H2 source
• methane formation step.

Further, they're building out their product to ship on container skids, so deployment (or redeployment) doesn't have the same permanent infrastructure requirements a virgin build might (such as pouring concrete, etc). They also claim to not require any exotic materials for any of their steps.

Lastly, what give me the most confidence is in April 2024 they have already built a working prototype of their tech and produced synthetic methane from it and sold it to a utility company! I fully recognize that have a working prototype doesn't mean that that their approach can scale to anything useful, but I give them credit for recognizing the shortcomings of their approach while still producing a prototype that does what it claims to do: Produce methane from waste electricity, water, and atmospheric air.

Disclaimer: OP doesn't support CCP or authoritarian communism.

TLDR Despite significant advancements and price drops in renewable energy sources, the lack of profitability compared to fossil fuels hinders investment and expansion. Factors like unbundled energy markets, volatility in pricing, and reliance on private investment further complicate the transition. The narrative calls for a reevaluation of energy production systems, advocating for state-led, publicly funded renewable projects to ensure a viable path toward sustainable energy solutions.

This looks like an interesting project:

https://fbrc.dev/

I have no background in evaluating how legit battery tech is. Anyone know anything more about the project or that type of battery?

A deal being offered in my area is:

• they cover the roof with insured PVs, which remain the property of the supplier for 30 years. The supplier installs and maintains them at no cost. They repair any damage. Homeowner pays absolutely nothing.
• no batteries. Homeowner’s consumption is gratis when the sun is hitting. Any unused energy goes back to the grid.
• homeowner gets no credit for what goes back to the grid, but they still benefit from free energy they consume when the sun is out and ultimately a reduced energy bill.
• after 30 years, the panels and everything become the homeowner’s property. (The panels are likely worthless at that age anyway)
• if the roof needs to be renovated in the future, the supplier removes the panels and reinstalls them at no cost, but the homeowner will have some fees for things like scaffolding.

The supplier profits from some kind of green certificates from the gov.

Seems like a no-brainer, on the edge of too good to be true. So I’m trying to decompose this to look for traps and anti-features.

It seems to boil down to homeowners trade roof space for energy in return. 30 year contract.

It complicates any plans to go off-grid. A homeowner can buy the PVs at a price that decreases every 5 years, starting at €850 each in the 1st year. So €8500 for 10 panels. Then they can exit the contract and go off-grid in the first 5 years for that price. That price is where the deal seems a bit sour. A PV should only cost around ~€60, correct? Isn’t €850 an extortionate price for a PV? If someone knows they want to go off-grid in the future, I get the impression they’re better off rejecting this deal and buying their own panels.

They install a few different meters. So I wonder if it’s really just fancy metering. E.g. wouldn’t it make sense to feed all solar power into the grid, then just pause or offset the homeowner’s meter for energy they consume from the grid while feeding the grid?

Archived copy of the article

Fusion technology is likely far from powering a grid — if it ever will. Dozens of fusion startups have launched anyway.

“Adjusting for the differences in capacity factors among solar, nuclear power, and natural gas, the new solar capacity added in 2024 is likely to generate seven times as much electricity as the new nuclear capacity and about five times as much as might be expected from the new natural gas capacity,” SUN DAY explains

The SUN DAY Campaign based its calculations on FERC data, which show that 105 units of solar power went into service in December of 2024 alone, for a total of 4.369 gigawatts. Between wind, solar, and biomass, renewable energy accounted for 86.9% of added capacity in December, with natural gas making up the rest with a relatively small contribution of 717 megawatts.

“Solar’s share of U.S. generating capacity is now 10x greater than a decade ago while wind’s is more than double,” SUN DAY emphasizes, noting that FERC expresses a “high probability” that new additions of solar capacity will total more than 9.1 gigawatts between now and December 2027, with wind coming in second with more than 2.3 gigawatts.