May 14, 2012
Yet another paper indicating that climate and solar behaviour are related – at least over the Tibetan plateau and at least over the last 1000 years.
Tree ring based precipitation reconstruction in the south slope of the middle Qilian Mountains, northeastern Tibetan Plateau, over the last millennium
by Junyan Sun and Yu Liu, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, China
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 117, D08108, 11 PP., 2012
doi:10.1029/2011JD017290
Reconstruction of precipitation amounts for the edge of the Tibet Plateau. The bars on the chart depict prominent weak phases of solar activity, which correspond to Om = Oort Minimum; Wm = Wolf Minimum; Sm = Spörer Minimum; Mm = Maunder Minimum; Dm = Dalton Minimum). Figure from: Sun & Liu (2012).
Geologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning and chemist Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt have written a summary of this paper (in German), and this translation is from P Gosselin at NoTricksZone
New Study of the Tibet Plateau: Whenever Solar Activity is Weak, the Rains Disappear
By Sebastian Lüning and Fritz Vahrenholt
The Tibet Plateau is at 3000 to 5000 meters elevation and is the highest and (most) expansive high plateau on Earth. Therefore it reacts sensitively to climate changes. Junyan Sun and Yu Liu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences studied tree rings in the northwest plateau edge from two living 1000 year old trees. Tree growth in the area of study is particularly sensitive to the amount of precipitation. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Dalton minimum, grand solar minima, Maunder Minimum, solar effects on climate, Solar variation, Spörer Minimum, Tibetan Plateau
Posted in Climate, Solar science | Comments Off on Droughts on the Tibetan plateau coincide with grand solar minima
May 14, 2012
As distorting subsidy regimes are reduced or withdrawn and even with the collapse of prices for solar pv modules, solar power shows that it is still a long way from being commercially viable. This report is on the unhealthy and distorted situation in New Jersey where even more “artificial” legislation is planned to keep this non-viable industry alive. It would be far healthier to allow solar power plants to find their natural – unsubsidised – commercial niches. And there are commercially viable niches in industry and in domestic use for solar power – albeit only as an auxiliary energy source (pv) or in support of domestic heating or of conventional thermal power plants (solar thermal).
Press of Atlantic City
The prices that power companies pay for solar power have all but collapsed, curtailing future development and leaving those who installed systems struggling to repay their loans. A glut of power has meant that prices have fallen by more than 80 percent in the span of a year.
In response, solar power advocates are pushing for state legislation that would limit the amount of solar power that can be produced by large companies, while mandating that power companies buy more solar power. …..
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: New Jersey, price collapse, Solar power, subsidies
Posted in Energy, Politics, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on “Boom and bust” for solar power in New Jersey
May 13, 2012
The Renewable Energy Law was introduced 12 years ago in Germany. It prioritises the use of “green energy”. What was thought to be a way of helping the introduction of new technology and fulfilling a political agenda has backfired and has led to a severe weakness of the electricity grid and the second-highest electricty price in Europe.
The Law leads to large conventional coal and gas plants leaving the grid far too early and these are the only plants which can guarantee a stable supply of power. This in turn has led to many of these plants being decommissioned prematurely since they were being forced to operate at uneconomic levels of loading. They are then no longer available to compensate when the wind does not blow or at night or on cloudy days as wind and solar power generation fluctuate wildly.
The hidden costs of renewable power are now being revealed and an entirely new market for “balancing power” has appeared. The “balancing power” – nearly always gas-fired – is just to compensate for the inherent unreliability of wind and solar. For every 100 MW of renewable capacity added around 70 MW of (mainly) gas-based balancing capacity has to be added to ensure a stable and steady supply of power. With subsidies and “balancing” costs added to the direct cost of building wind or solar plants, the actual costs of renewable power have been exorbitant and have contributed significantly to the increase of electricity prices to the consumer. Germany now has the second highest consumer electricity price in Europe (second only to Denmark with its profligate use of subsidised wind turbines)
The German Federal Network Agency has issued a report warning of the dangers during the coming winter. Daniel Wetzel of Die Welt writes (translation from GWPF – Philip Mueller):
Last winter, on several occasions, Germany escaped only just large-scale power outages. Next winter the risk of large blackouts is even greater. The culprit for the looming crisis is the single most important instrument of German energy policy: the “Renewable Energy Law.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: balancing power, Federal Network Agency, Germany, Renewable energy, Renewable Energy Law, Sustainable energy
Posted in Energy, Gas, Germany, Renewable Energy | Comments Off on Renewable Energy Law has weakened the German electricity grid
May 12, 2012
It has been just over two years since I started this blog – my first – and I now feel sufficiently comfortable to move away from the general and to try and focus just on the topics that interest me most. I have changed the sub-heading to reflect this.
My opinions on aspects of energy and power generation and climate and environment will now take centre stage on this blog. I shall have to try to address my interests in technology and materials and behaviour and management and anthropology and politics elsewhere. It has been the advent of accessible electric power which has been the single most liberating force for the human condition – ever. For the foreseeable future humanity will continue to use – and need to use – electric power. And virtually all our sources for electric power – except perhaps some nuclear fuels – derive from the Sun.
Sol Invictus.
The blog image is of sunrise on a very cold day in February last year.
Tags: climate, Electric Power, Energy, environment
Posted in Climate, Energy, Environment | Comments Off on A slight shift of focus
May 11, 2012
It would seem that the wind lobby is more influential with the US Government than the wildlife lobby. Of course there is a lot more money involved in extracting subsidies for wind and solar energy than there is in wildlife.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has been investigating the increased incidence of wildlife deaths (large birds, foxes and tortoises among others) at solar and wind energy project sites. The USFWS now proposes – presumably because these deaths will continue for a long time at such projects – that they be given a licence to kill for 30 years! But this support for solar and wind projects is a tacit acknowledgement by the US Fish and Wildlife Service that renewable projects are rather more dangerous to large birds and other wildlife than the enthusiasts would like us to believe.
Euphemistically, the USFWS obscures these licences to kill under the innocuous sounding “programmatic permits to authorize eagle take“.
The Foundry has this :
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Bald Eagle, Bird kills by wind turbines, licence to kill, Renewable energy, United States, United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Posted in Behaviour, Business, Energy, Politics, Renewable Energy, US, Wildlife | 4 Comments »
May 10, 2012
A Sukhoi Superjet SSJ100 crashed into mountains in Indonesia while on a sales tour of Asia. All 45 people on board were killed and it is thought that the entire Sukhoi sales team perished in the crash. The SSJ 100 development was plagued by delays and the first commercial aircraft was delivered in February 2011.
Voice of Russia:
Fitch Ratings agency expects that the recent Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ-100) crash in Indonesia during its demonstration flight will negatively affect the popularity of this jet brand in the short-term but won’t undermine the overall rating of its manufacturer, the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft.
The SSJ-100 with 40 people on board slammed into a Salak Mount slope in Indonesia on May 9.
Indonesian rescuers have found no survivors at the site of Russia’s Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash on Java’s Salak Island, a rescue official reports. According to him, the bodies will be evacuated from the site by helicopters as it is located 1,500 meters above sea level.
The jet with 45 passengers went off radar during its demonstration flight in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on May 9. Eight Russians and citizens of five countries were on board
A rescue helicopter found the jet’s fragments on the Salak peak, 65 km of Jakarta.
Russian police are investigating.
Related: Huge blow to Russia’s aviation industry
Tags: Indonesia, Salak Mount, Sales tour crash, SSJ100, Sukhoi, Sukhoi Superjet 100
Posted in Aviation, Russia | Comments Off on Entire Sukhoi sales team killed in superjet crash
May 9, 2012
And another paper showing that the Little Ice Age was a global event.It is highly probable that the LIA was related to the solar effects which gave a dearth of sunspots during the Maunder Minimum.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 39, L09710, 7 PP., 2012, doi:10.1029/2012GL051260
Little Ice Age cold interval in West Antarctica: Evidence from borehole temperature at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide
by
Anais J. Orsi , Bruce D. Cornuelle, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus – Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Antarctica, Little Ice Age, Maunder Minimum, solar effects on climate, WAIS Divide, West Antarctic Ice Sheet
Posted in Climate, Solar science, Southern Hemisphere | Comments Off on Solar effects on climate – evidence mounts that the Little Ice Age was a global event
May 9, 2012
Finally, David Cameron actually voiced what all politicians in Europe know but will not voice publicly. And they will not voice it publicly because a single European Government – in the current state of European politics – would be a many-headed monster – of bureaucracy, of over-represented fanatic fringes, of minority oppression, of waste, of scams and inefficiency.
Reuters:
A successful euro zone requires a single government if it is to work properly, British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a newspaper interview on Wednesday.
“There’s nowhere in the world that has a single currency without having more of a single government,” Cameron told Britain’s Daily Mail.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: David Cameron, Euro, European Union, Eurozone, Single currency, Single European government
Posted in Behaviour, European Union, Politics | Comments Off on “Single currency needs a single government” and a single European government would be a monster
May 8, 2012
It does seem that plagiarism is not considered a very serious matter at Universities in Pakistan.
Karachi University has found a novel way to drop plagiarism charges against 4 academics against whom plagiarism charges were established by an independent committee. They charged the academics with misconduct, took up the matter formally at a Syndicate meeting and then dismissed their own charges since misconduct does not apparently include plagiarism under the University Act!
Karachi University was founded in 1951 and is considered one of the top 3 universities in Pakistan.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: academic misconduct, Higher Education Commission of Pakistan, Karachi University, Plagiarism
Posted in Academic misconduct, Pakistan | Comments Off on Karachi University decides that plagiarism is not misconduct – drops charges
May 7, 2012
Oh dear!
It sounds like a calculation a 10 year old could have made – given a few assumptions.
And this is what passes for peer-reviewed science ……… and for science reporting.
BBC Nature:
Giant dinosaurs could have warmed the planet with their flatulence, say researchers.
British scientists have calculated the methane output of sauropods, including the species known as Brontosaurus.
By scaling up the digestive wind of cows, they estimate that the population of dinosaurs – as a whole – produced 520 million tonnes of gas annually.
They suggest the gas could have been a key factor in the warm climate 150 million years ago.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Dinosaur, Dinosaur flatulence, methane
Posted in Trivia | 1 Comment »
The k2p blog 