https://www.thestar.com/business/
It is worrisome that by 2050, humanity might still be relying on fossil fuels for about 70 per cent of its energy consumption, down hardly at all from 80 per cent today.
Renewables, including hydropower, solar, wind and biofuels, will account for just 27 per cent of energy consumption by 2050, according to projections by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Ian Urquhart is executive director of Alberta Wilderness Association and Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta.
Albertans have been waiting more than a month for the province’s Coal Policy Committee to release the results of its public consultations, along with recommendations for the future of coal mining in Alberta.
There shouldn’t be any doubt about what the public thinks. The chair of the committee signalled last fall that the public’s message was clear. Albertans, he said, are “strongly opposed” to coal.
The Biden administration recently canceled a proposed mine. While environmentalists celebrated, it shows how hard it is to build a domestic supply of the minerals needed to switch to a green economy.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST:
The transition to a low-carbon future will require a lot of metals like copper, nickel and lithium to build everything from solar panels to electric car batteries. The Biden administration’s recent decision to block a proposed mine in Minnesota shows just how tough it could be to develop a domestic supply for those metals. Dan Kraker of Minnesota Public Radio reports.
https://www.northernminer.com/
The continued industrialization and urbanization of the global economy have thrust energy security back to the fore. According to uranium industry doyen Dev Randhawa, it creates a perfect storm to bring nuclear energy back into its critical role as the baseline power supply in a world increasingly reliant on unreliable renewable power sources such as solar and wind.
“If you simply take the math of how much electricity we need, how fast China and India are growing, and we want to electrify everything we can, it [uranium] has to be part of it,” Randhawa said in an interview.
The gospel on climate change has been that, first and foremost, fossil fuels must go. Coal, oil, gas (liquefied or otherwise)… out, out out. Close the oilsands, cancel the pipelines, end the fracking, get rid of the nuclear plants while you’re at it.
The imperative is all about ridding the world of supply, getting us off our existing addictions, whether or not there was an alternative available to take its place.
Balancing energy, the environment and the economy is critical. Yet current climate policies and plans – including Canada’s – are designed to phase out fossil fuel production entirely as rapidly as possible, largely ignoring the several decades-long transition required to develop reliable alternative energy systems.
To be effective, climate plans need to broaden their focus from primarily just energy sources/mix to including a focus on energy availability/reliability and energy affordability. Otherwise, they will not secure ongoing public, investor and political support.
“It’s still a question mark as to whether these economic opportunities will be realized,” said one expert.
OTTAWA — Business is business, but it’s not Jamie Deith’s dream to sell his precious graphite to China.
The crystalline carbon mineral is among those required for electric vehicle batteries, a 21st-century technology that is sparking what some call a “global arms race” for supplies, refining capacity and manufacturing. But Canada, despite the federal government’s grand vision to get a piece of the action, is still standing on the sidelines of this exploding global industry.
The copper market has cooled since touching record levels above $10,000 a tonne in May, but longer-term fundamentals for the bellwether metal remain bullish thanks to a global effort to electrify transport and shift to renewable power generation.
While there is consensus on demand growth, the supply side outlook is murky. Some 40% of the world’s copper production is controlled by just two countries – Chile and Peru – and political developments in South America are turning the tide against copper miners, Freeport-McMoRan CEO Rich Adkerson told investors in a conference call on Wednesday.
(Bloomberg) — Coal will play a vital role in helping to keep the lights on in Europe this winter even as prices are jumping and lawmakers are doing their best to kill off one of the dirtiest power-plant fuels.
Northwest European coal for February rose more than 3% to trade at its highest in three months on Tuesday. The latest example of the fuel’s importance came on Monday as U.K.’s usage peaked at its highest level since March to help plug a gap in supplies early in the evening.
It’s one of the grand ironies in the whole energy transition narrative: The same class of left-leaning activists who promote wind and solar and electric vehicles (EVs) as the solution also oppose the mining of the lithium and other critical minerals necessary to make them work.
EVs cannot displace internal combustion engine autos without lithium. The EV industry has irrevocably tied itself to lithium-ion technology for its batteries: Without plentiful and affordable supplies of lithium, the industry will fail.
There’s a major catch to the world’s need for solar panels, a new analysis suggests. The booming solar panel market – which is critical for a clean energy future – could demand close to half the world’s aluminum by 2050. Thankfully, there are ways we can mitigate this.
Unlike more precious metals, such as the lithium and cobalt used in rechargeable batteries, the scarcity of aluminum is not the issue; in fact, it is the most abundant metal on Earth. But the production of pure aluminum which is used in solar panel frames comes with a huge energy cost that could translate to bulk emissions.
(Bloomberg) The last few months have been a rollercoaster for energy markets in Europe. Even before winter began, traders were freaking out that the continent might run out of natural gas before spring. Some even bought the fuel at 10 times the average price in 2020.
In the middle of all that, Germany moved ahead with a plan to shut off nearly 50% of its nuclear power plants, with the rest scheduled to close by the end of 2022.
The United States and its allies, such as Canada, the UK, the European Union, Australia, Japan and South Korea, face a dilemma when it comes to the global electrification of the transportation system and the switch from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of energy.
On the one hand, we want everything to be clean, green and non-polluting, with COP26-inspired goals of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050; and several countries aiming to close the chapter on fossil-fuel-powered vehicles, including the United States which is seeking to make half of the country’s auto fleet electric by 2030.
The Glasgow COP26 meeting, and the global energy crisis should have been a wakeup call for the climate debate. Regrettably, that did not happen. As Walter Russell Mead wrote in the Wall Street Journal “The intellectual and political disarray on display in Glasgow was terrifying” as leaders committed their countries to “carefully crafted, unenforceable pledges.”
Proof yet again that global gatherings of “preaching to the choir” climate activists are not the place for balanced discussion or practical solutions. Hypocrisy on the energy/climate debate is running rampant. Climate change advocates have badly miscalculated the complexity and the pace in which the world can realistically move from 80 per cent reliance on fossil fuels to net zero.
Global coal-fired power generation is expected to rise 9% and hit an all-time high by the end of 2021, despite efforts to slash carbon emissions, the International Energy Agency said Friday.
Overall coal demand — including its use in steelmaking, cement and other industrial activities — is expected to grow by 6% in 2021 to 8.11 billion tonnes, the Paris-based group said in its annual report.
