Anybody know what LNP policy is regarding renewables for Qld home owners? Will subsidies, grants, loans reduce, cease...? How will their policy affect homeowners who want new or additional solar panels, inverters and batteries?
It is scarcely shocking that Swiss Post is getting its electric transition right, but there are always things to be learned from observing competent people at work. For my money, these include:
1. Setting realistic but ambitious goals and targets: “CO2-free in its in-house operations from 2030 and reaching net zero from 2040.”
2. Splitting the problem into two, letters and small parcels delivered by scooters, and larger parcels and bulk mail, delivered by vans, with completely different strategies.
For the scooters, Swiss Post simply replaced the entire fleet of 6,000 gasoline scooters with electric ones (actually trikes: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gereon-Meyer/publication/321295540/figure/fig72/AS:564683137654826@1511642359875/The-Kyburz-DXP-continously-replaces-petrol-scooters-at-the-Swiss-Post-photo-Kyburz.png . This was complete by 2017. All over Switzerland, these must now be a familiar sight. For the vans, Swiss Post took a very centralised modular approach, replacing complete fleets city by city. Zurich and Bern were first in 2023, Geneva and Basel have been added this year. These are the four largest cities, IIRC the only ones with significant metropolitan areas. There is only one more city with a population over 100,000, Lausanne. This decision has great advantages. Starting with the biggest cities gives a large big hit to emissions, and allows early economies of scale. Going modular – as recommended by megaproject guru Bent Flyvbjerg ( https://hbr.org/2021/11/make-megaprojects-more-modular ) - means that learning can be rapid. We can be pretty sure that Basel was much easier to convert than Bern.
My only beef with the plan is that implementation is now running ahead of targets. There are no technological and few organizational obstacles to accelerating the timetable. Falling battery prices are making the economics look better all the time. Electric vehicles are nicer and healthier to drive, and we can assume the workforce is on board. I expect that Swiss Post will be internally at net zero by 2028 – as a postal service. It also runs a large fleet of rural buses, of which only 100 will be electric in 2024, with a pedestrian net zero target of 2040. Buses in mountains do need a lot of power and the Swiss have reason to be picky.
Steve Hanley: “Five years ago, Berkeley introduced the nation’s first ban on methane gas hookups in new construction. […] Praised as an innovative way to cut carbon emissions and reduce air pollution by environmental advocates, Berkeley’s gas ban inspired similar laws in dozens of California cities [..]. But in 2023, the policy was struck down by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [JW: notoriously packed by Trump] following a lawsuit from the California restaurant industry. In January, the same court declined to revisit its decision, dealing a final blow to the city’s effort.[...] Undaunted, Berkeley thinks it has found a new lever to move its agenda forward [….] On November 5, residents of Berkeley will vote on a ballot measure that proposes taxing the owners of buildings of 15,000 square feet or larger based on the amount of natural gas consumed each year.”
The legal strategy is based on longstanding jurisprudence, even from Trump judges, allowing sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco. It’s a pity the proposal excludes houses and small fast food joints: a comprehensive flat tax on methane could be collected directly from the gas company, as with alcohol, but the homeowner lobby is all-powerful. The proceeds of the tax will be earmarked for “retrofitting homes and buildings in the city with electric HVAC and appliances”, doubtless larded with cutting-edge PC spin about disadvantaged and minority communities. If approved, it should be pretty effective – in cutting methane leaks, not virtue signalling on LGBTQ+ rights. Alcohol and tobacco are pleasant and addictive; nobody has strong feelings about gas apart from a few chefs who dislike induction cooktops because Tradition. So shifting incentives ought to work. Berkeley can also turn up the heat with annoying safety inspections.
Decarbonising buildings is straightforward technically, but politically it’s trench warfare. Berkeley’s obstinacy is a salutary model.
I was going to keep you entertained by news of PV research drawing inspiration from the quantum efficiency of giant Pacific clams in harvesting light energy underwater. https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/106 But whether humanity wins or loses in the ongoing energy transition race (megathlon?) depends very little on photosynthetic symbiotic algae and a great deal on postal vans and methane taxes.
It should not really be necessary to point this out, but homo sapiens is not very like the giant clam (genus Tridacna) , except for longevity, weight and laziness. Clams start their sedentary life as pure filter feeders, but as they mature they depend increasingly on symbiotic photosynthetic algae housed in their gills. Clams open up in daylight to catch more sun, but the catchment area is constrained by their hard shells that cannot photosynthesize. The only way evolution could help them to harvest more solar energy has been to increase efficiency, so that’s what it’s done.
In contrast, human hunters of solar energy are not materially constrained by available space. We can very easily get all the energy we are ever likely to need from silicon pv panels at the current 21% efficiency. That will use only a fraction of the available and unloved deserts, car parks, industrial roofs, reservoirs, canals, roads etc. etc. If we really needed to, we could pave over the Barrier Reef and the Red Sea with floating PV and steal the clams’ sunlight. But this vandalism won’t be necessary, and these cute layabouts are safe.
Anybody know what LNP policy is regarding renewables for Qld home owners? Will subsidies, grants, loans reduce, cease...? How will their policy affect homeowners who want new or additional solar panels, inverters and batteries?
Worthwhile Swiss, Californian, giant clam initiatives
A couple of boring headlines.
“Swiss Post makes deliveries with new electric vans” https://mobilityportal.eu/swiss-post-new-electric-vans/
It is scarcely shocking that Swiss Post is getting its electric transition right, but there are always things to be learned from observing competent people at work. For my money, these include:
1. Setting realistic but ambitious goals and targets: “CO2-free in its in-house operations from 2030 and reaching net zero from 2040.”
2. Splitting the problem into two, letters and small parcels delivered by scooters, and larger parcels and bulk mail, delivered by vans, with completely different strategies.
For the scooters, Swiss Post simply replaced the entire fleet of 6,000 gasoline scooters with electric ones (actually trikes: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gereon-Meyer/publication/321295540/figure/fig72/AS:564683137654826@1511642359875/The-Kyburz-DXP-continously-replaces-petrol-scooters-at-the-Swiss-Post-photo-Kyburz.png . This was complete by 2017. All over Switzerland, these must now be a familiar sight. For the vans, Swiss Post took a very centralised modular approach, replacing complete fleets city by city. Zurich and Bern were first in 2023, Geneva and Basel have been added this year. These are the four largest cities, IIRC the only ones with significant metropolitan areas. There is only one more city with a population over 100,000, Lausanne. This decision has great advantages. Starting with the biggest cities gives a large big hit to emissions, and allows early economies of scale. Going modular – as recommended by megaproject guru Bent Flyvbjerg ( https://hbr.org/2021/11/make-megaprojects-more-modular ) - means that learning can be rapid. We can be pretty sure that Basel was much easier to convert than Bern.
My only beef with the plan is that implementation is now running ahead of targets. There are no technological and few organizational obstacles to accelerating the timetable. Falling battery prices are making the economics look better all the time. Electric vehicles are nicer and healthier to drive, and we can assume the workforce is on board. I expect that Swiss Post will be internally at net zero by 2028 – as a postal service. It also runs a large fleet of rural buses, of which only 100 will be electric in 2024, with a pedestrian net zero target of 2040. Buses in mountains do need a lot of power and the Swiss have reason to be picky.
From California, “Berkeley Plans New Strategy To Eliminate Methane” (https://cleantechnica.com/2024/09/05/berkeley-plans-new-strategy-to-eliminate-methane/ )
Steve Hanley: “Five years ago, Berkeley introduced the nation’s first ban on methane gas hookups in new construction. […] Praised as an innovative way to cut carbon emissions and reduce air pollution by environmental advocates, Berkeley’s gas ban inspired similar laws in dozens of California cities [..]. But in 2023, the policy was struck down by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [JW: notoriously packed by Trump] following a lawsuit from the California restaurant industry. In January, the same court declined to revisit its decision, dealing a final blow to the city’s effort.[...] Undaunted, Berkeley thinks it has found a new lever to move its agenda forward [….] On November 5, residents of Berkeley will vote on a ballot measure that proposes taxing the owners of buildings of 15,000 square feet or larger based on the amount of natural gas consumed each year.”
The legal strategy is based on longstanding jurisprudence, even from Trump judges, allowing sin taxes on alcohol and tobacco. It’s a pity the proposal excludes houses and small fast food joints: a comprehensive flat tax on methane could be collected directly from the gas company, as with alcohol, but the homeowner lobby is all-powerful. The proceeds of the tax will be earmarked for “retrofitting homes and buildings in the city with electric HVAC and appliances”, doubtless larded with cutting-edge PC spin about disadvantaged and minority communities. If approved, it should be pretty effective – in cutting methane leaks, not virtue signalling on LGBTQ+ rights. Alcohol and tobacco are pleasant and addictive; nobody has strong feelings about gas apart from a few chefs who dislike induction cooktops because Tradition. So shifting incentives ought to work. Berkeley can also turn up the heat with annoying safety inspections.
Decarbonising buildings is straightforward technically, but politically it’s trench warfare. Berkeley’s obstinacy is a salutary model.
I was going to keep you entertained by news of PV research drawing inspiration from the quantum efficiency of giant Pacific clams in harvesting light energy underwater. https://physics.aps.org/articles/v17/106 But whether humanity wins or loses in the ongoing energy transition race (megathlon?) depends very little on photosynthetic symbiotic algae and a great deal on postal vans and methane taxes.
It should not really be necessary to point this out, but homo sapiens is not very like the giant clam (genus Tridacna) , except for longevity, weight and laziness. Clams start their sedentary life as pure filter feeders, but as they mature they depend increasingly on symbiotic photosynthetic algae housed in their gills. Clams open up in daylight to catch more sun, but the catchment area is constrained by their hard shells that cannot photosynthesize. The only way evolution could help them to harvest more solar energy has been to increase efficiency, so that’s what it’s done.
In contrast, human hunters of solar energy are not materially constrained by available space. We can very easily get all the energy we are ever likely to need from silicon pv panels at the current 21% efficiency. That will use only a fraction of the available and unloved deserts, car parks, industrial roofs, reservoirs, canals, roads etc. etc. If we really needed to, we could pave over the Barrier Reef and the Red Sea with floating PV and steal the clams’ sunlight. But this vandalism won’t be necessary, and these cute layabouts are safe.
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dXPVCyAqksgxEgYzFsqKpD-1000-80.jpg.webp