The Death of Coal is moving right along. Next, oil, which has been going sideways since President Biden broke OPEC’s pricing power with increased US production and a beautifully timed release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We need increased oil and gas production as long as we don’t have enough renewables installed to cover increases in demand for electricity. Biden was working on that, too, with major legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act. Now the forces of Wrong-Wingism are determined to roll back all of that progress.
Can they?
Well, they can certainly do some damage with Executive Orders, but they can’t pass laws through the bitterly divided House, and they certainly can’t roll back the power of Real MoneyTM, which has made Texas a leader in renewables and storage, and has made major inroads into others among the Reddest states, especially those with the most wind.
Oil won’t die for lack of supply, but for lack of demand for fuel and petrochemicals, with growth in renewables, energy storage, transmission grids, EVs, heat pumps, green ammonia, recycling, and more.
The Stone Age came to an end, but not for a lack of stones, and the Oil Age will end, but not for a lack of oil.
On the whole, I sometimes wish we had discovered water.
One-time Saudi Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki al-Yamani
It turns out, however, that the Saudis and other oil kingdoms are discovering the sun, and the tech for desalinization, and for exporting solar power.
Let us, then, celebrate Cause and Effect.
By Georgina McCartney
HOUSTON (Reuters) -Oil prices fell around 3% in 2024, slipping for a second straight year, as the post-pandemic demand recovery stalled, China's economy struggled, and the U.S. and other non-OPEC producers pumped more crude into a well-supplied global market.
Brent crude futures on Tuesday, the last trading day of the year, settled up 65 cents, or 0.88%, to $74.64 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled up 73 cents, or 1.03%, to $71.72 a barrel....
Edward Song commented
I believe that green energy such as wind and solar have kept oil prices in check. This is good news for the future economy.
True, even if only part of the story.
McCartney continued
Oil will likely trade around $70 a barrel in 2025 on weak Chinese demand and rising global supplies, offsetting OPEC+-led efforts to shore up the market, a Reuters monthly poll showed on Tuesday.
A weaker demand outlook in China in particular forced both the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the International Energy Agency (IEA) to cut their oil demand growth expectations for 2024 and 2025.
The IEA sees the oil market entering 2025 in surplus, even after OPEC and its allies delayed their plan to start raising output until April 2025 against a backdrop of falling prices.
But let us turn to our regular news sources for other advances.
BlueSky Climate Feeds
The mechanism to get posts into feeds remains broken. We’re working on it.
2025 and 2026 will be full of thrilling new EV debuts. What are you most excited about?
Here Are The Upcoming Electric Cars For 2025, 2026 And Beyond
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— InsideEVs (@insideevs.com) January 1, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Also see the BYD Seagull in the next feed.
$11,500! Not a typo!
Chinese EVs are on a different level—price wise and performance wise.
BYD Seagull at $11.5k, a range of 250 miles, and cruise control would wipe out the American car industry.
American Test Of $11,500 BYD Seagull: 'This Doesn't Come Across Cheap'
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— Joseph Dennis (@jd1515151.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Empty feed, which is ridiculous when we have posts like this elsewhere on BlueSky.
Compared to the same period in 2023, solar output in California is up 31%, wind power is up 8%, and batteries are up a staggering 105%. Batteries supplied up to 12% of nighttime demand by storing and redistributing excess solar energy. 🔌💡
electrek.co/2024/12/31/c...
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— Michael Powers (@terrawatts2010.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Financial close for Egyptian wind farm set to use Chinese wind turbines
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— David McDonald Advocate (@dmcd2324.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 8:08 PM
‘last of 62 foundations for wind turbines now installed…still to install 30 towers & generators, & ~120 blades…extended staging area lease through March…working under a partial suspension order from the BSEE…continues to prohibit power generation…allows for blade installation on case-by-case basis’
Vineyard Wind meets one 2024 deadline, misses another
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— Commercial Solar Guy (@commercialsolarguy.com) January 2, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Empty feed, which is ridiculous when we have posts like this elsewhere on BlueSky.
Heat pumps. Sounds like a niche topic, but gas heating is on the way out over the next few decades and for most people, heat pumps will be the obvious replacement.
Find out more on The Happy Heat Pump Podcast.. on all main podcast platforms.
open.spotify.com/show/3xGCOyx...
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— Evan Davis (@evanhd.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 1:29 AM
⚡ "Texans are taking power into their own hands."
I joined NPR's @Marketplace to discuss how microgrids are helping avoid winter outages.
🎙️ Listen here:
Are microgrids the future of energy resilience?
#TexasEnergy #Microgrids
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— Doug Lewin (@douglewin.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 4:46 PM
NYC going to install e-bike recharges on sidewalks to reduce charging requirements inside apartment blocks
www.nyc.gov/html/dot/htm...
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— Ben Ross (@benakl.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 8:12 PM
UK Electricity carbon intensity was 124g CO2e / kWh in 2024 🤯
A typical E-Bike ridden in UK last year was emitting 0.74g CO2 / km (grid-to-wheel) which is around *400 times* less than the avg UK motor vehicle fleet (tank-to-wheel).
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— Karim Dia Toubajie (@karimtoubajie.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I’ve created a big value add here for sustainable energy folks with a feed dedicated solely to energy job listings!
The feed picks up ONLY the 3 following hashtags:
#⚡️job
#energyjobs
#hiring⚡️
Please save this feed (hit ❤️), pin & reshare this post so we create a Bluesky employment ecosystem.
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— Jonathan (@renewableenergy.bsky.social) December 10, 2024 at 4:49 PM
But no posts with those tags have shown up in the feed.
#NoNewNukes
See Denial below.
Idiotically empty.
Agrivoltaics — where solar energy and food is produced on the same tract of land — have graduated from small-scale pilot projects to mega installations involving an increasingly wide array of crops and livestock.
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— Nick Hedley (@nickhedley.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 9:30 AM
“French agrivoltaics company Sun'Agri launched two pilot programs in the south of France … in 2024 and reported that not only were the grapes able to grow under solar panels but that the experiment also actually increased yields.”
🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐🧐
apple.news/Aq-HhKjcTT1W...
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— Jack S Temple (@jackstemple.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 7:52 PM
🌋 Texas: The Next Geothermal Powerhouse?
🔋 GeoMap unveils untapped geothermal potential across the U.S., with Texas leading the charge.
💡 Enhanced geothermal tech could rival nuclear!
💬 Is geothermal ready to heat up the energy mix?
#GeothermalEnergy #CleanEnergy #TexasPower #EnergyInnovation
Could Texas Become a Geothermal Energy Hub?
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— Erhan Eren (@netzerointel.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 3:17 AM
@daniellesmithab.bsky.social I know you've said Alberta is and will remain a natural gas province, but have you heard about the 8 US States that are allowing gas utilities to start selling geothermal energy? Gas utility Eversource in Massachusetts leading the way.
www.volts.wtf/p/thermal-en...
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— Carbon Conversations (@carbonconvo.bsky.social) January 1, 2025 at 1:31 PM
In Japan, when you finish reading the
Mainichi newspaper you can plant it. It's pages consist of recycled paper, water & the seeds of flowers & herbs. The newspaper is one of the most widely read papers in the country, selling
over 5 million copies a day.
#newspaper #seeds #plant #recycle #japan
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— Marie 🇸🇪 (@smlx4.mastodon.nu.ap.brid.gy) January 1, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Renewables
Storage
Data
EVs and Chargers
Bicycles
Sustainable Agriculture
Green Industry
Countries and Regions
Denial and Obstruction
Utilising electricity from solar and wind in a grid becomes problematical at high levels ✘ for complex but now well-demonstrated reasons ✘. Supply does not correspond with demand.✘
world-nuclear.org/information-...
The solution to this is either nuclear base load or H2 ✘
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— Denis Jenkins (@denislinton.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Lies, damned lies, and paid industry shilling. I count four porkies in that post. Nuclear costs too much, takes too long, is utterly corrupt, and leaves toxic waste. The way to balance the grid with lots of renewables is storage.
Fun fact: we not only know how nuclear power is generated, but nuclear power plants are safer ✘ & ✘ cleaner than just about every other power source currently available, when the full life cycle is taken into consideration.
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— InaneDragon (@inanedragon.bsky.social) January 2, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Again, flat-out lies. Nuclear costs twice as much as wind and solar, which do not suffer meltdowns.
From DK
Meteor Blades
Me
Others
Russian stuff blowing up: Ukraine ends transit of Russian gas supplies
The treaty expired, and Ukraine had no interest in renewing it, while Europe has seen this coming.
