https://www.energyhub.org/electricity-prices/
The Canadian Climate Institute provide this interactive heat pump calculator https://heatpumpcalculator.ca/ to enable you to fine tune some of the assumptions used in their report noted above.
Heat Pump Rebates
If you live in the District of 100 Mile House or further north, it appears you can receive up to $13,000 rebate if you install a dual fuel (electric heat pump with natural gas furnace) system https://www.betterhomesbc.ca/rebates/fortisbc-dual-fuel-heating-system-rebate/ via the Fortis BC rebate program.
The dual fuel and other rebates available – search tool - https://www.betterhomesbc.ca/rebate-search-tool/
We should obtain insight into the Fortis and other rebates from Ari on Tuesday October 8th
Chinese Subsidies For EVs
In last months ETG Newsletter, an article suggested From 2009 to 2022, the [Chinese Government] fronted its EV automakers over $29 billion via subsidies, R&D spending and tax breaks. It spent heavily on inflating domestic demand via consumer-side subsidies and incentives. And that China phased out it’s subsidies in 2022.
Another article indicates a recent report by Scott Kennedy, the senior adviser and trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), approximates that the Chinese government support for EVs totaled $230.8 billion between 2009 and 2023.
https://insideevs.com/news/724133/china-spent-over-230-billion-dollars-on-evs/?utm_source=msn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=msn-feed
https://qz.com/chinese-ev-electric-car-government-funding-tariffs-byd-1851553114?mc_cid=a2aeef18aa&mc_eid=974f9ac839
More Public Money Is Being Wasted On Hydrogen
A statement by the Environmental Defence organization criticizes the Canadian Government issuance of $300 million to the Canada-Germany Hydrogen Alliance.
Hydrogen is an indirect greenhouse gas whose warming impact is both widely overlooked and underestimated.
Hydrogen is a small molecule known to easily leak into the atmosphere.
https://environmentaldefence.ca/2024/07/31/new-hydrogen-handouts/?mc_cid=3900a90da7&mc_eid=974f9ac839
Hydrogen’s Dirty Secret
Hydrogen can contribute to climate warming!
. . . when it leaks into the atmosphere it actually does contribute to global heating. And it leaks a lot.
https://environmentaldefence.ca/2024/07/31/new-hydrogen-handouts/?mc_cid=3900a90da7
When hydrogen escapes into the atmosphere, around 20 to 30% is oxidized, leading to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in both the troposphere and stratosphere.
The production of atomic hydrogen from hydrogen oxidation in the troposphere leads to a series of reactions that ultimately form tropospheric ozone, a greenhouse gas.
The oxidation of hydrogen increases water vapor, which, in turn, increases the infrared radiative capacity of the stratosphere, leading to stratospheric cooling and an overall warming effect on the climate because energy emitted out to space is now from a cooler temperature. Stratospheric cooling can also lead to an increase in stratospheric polar clouds that enable more ozone-destroying reactions to occur.
A growing body of research has affirmed that the warming effects from hydrogen emissions are consequential, . . . . shows that hydrogen's indirect warming potency per unit mass is around 200 times that of carbon dioxide and larger than that of methane
. . . hydrogen leakage across the value chain is a concern regardless of production method and, therefore, applies to all hydrogen – including “green” hydrogen produced from water using renewable energy . . . .
Clearly, an ongoing increase in the production, storage, transportation and use of hydrogen will only result in an increase in the ongoing leakage of hydrogen, thus further contributing to climate warming.
Doug’s reflection: The inefficiency of hydrogen requires 4 times more (or greater) production of electricity as compared to battery electric and direct electric technologies. Thus, using green hydrogen will result in –in additional to the above noted emissions – an additional 4 times more environmental footprint damage and green house gas emissions to perform the same work that can otherwise be performed using battery electric and direct electric technologies.
https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/22/9349/2022/
Hydrogen NOx Emissions
Ann Duong provides this research article regarding the emissions of NOx through the combustion of hydrogen and its interaction with N2 gas in the air: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/ea/d1ea00037c
Two key routes exist to use hydrogen fuel, via electrochemical fuel cells (which produce dc electricity directly) or combustion either in thermal boilers or engines.
The use of hydrogen is not however without side-effects and the widely claimed benefit that only water is released as a by-product is only accurate when it is used in fuel cells. The burning of hydrogen can lead to the thermal formation of nitrogen oxides (NOx – the sum of NO + NO2) via a mechanism that also applies to the combustion of fossil fuels. NO2 is a key air pollutant that is harmful in its own right and is a precursor to other pollutants of concern such as fine particulate matter and ozone.
Several different routes to manufacturing hydrogen exist with differing degrees of environmental impact.
Solar Advancement
Conventional solar cells can convert about 23% of the suns energy to electricity. Solar Cells produced by Oxford PV – which is ramping production right now - can convert 27% of the suns energy to electricity by combining solar panels with a novel material Perovskite. This means the same solar surface can produce 17% more electricity.
https://www.oxfordpv.com/
https://www.oxfordpv.com/perovskite-pv-transform-global-solar-market
https://cleantechnica.com/2024/08/09/sheer-chaos-as-paint-on-perovskite-solar-cells-take-over/?mc_cid=3900a90da7&mc_eid=974f9ac839
I believe it was in the late 1980’s that I read a research paper about painting solar panels onto surfaces using in effect a dot matrix printer (which was still common in those days). I have ever since been waiting for the paint on a vehicle to produce electricity.
It appears Perovskite can be layered over surfaces to make electricity. As a starting point, this company is layering the Perovskite on existing silicon solar panels to increase the solar panels production.
Doug’s reflection: I believe other solar companies have already begun layering solar layers on panels, effectively realizing similar increases in electrical production. While we have seen significant decrease in the cost of installing solar since 1970, the ability to further reduce the price of solar was limited to improving efficiencies of manufacturing. This chart suggests solar cost has reduced from $105 per Watt in 1975 to 20 cents per Watt in 2015 (in 2015 USD).
