Boo.

just a few leftovers, with a few more on da way... ft first an Ingo for logicalloony, and lastly a terawatt for potoobrig

Excerpt from this story from the Wall Street Journal:

TeraWatt Infrastructure Inc. plans to announce Tuesday that it has raised more than $1 billion to build electric-vehicle charging stations for commercial fleets of cars, delivery vans or trucks.

The company has sites in 18 states where it will use the funds to build charging stations and expects to have some operating within a year, Neha Palmer, TeraWatt Infrastructure co-founder and chief executive, said in an interview.

While much focus has centered on the build-out of a national network of charging stations for passenger cars, TeraWatt is working on charging locations that would provide massive jolts of electricity to commercial fleets of vehicles that are making the switch to electricity and away from gasoline and diesel.

Charging-station build-out is complex due to the large electric load and amount of infrastructure needed. The industry also faces supply-chain backlogs and a potentially long process to connect to the grid. Building banks of chargers for companies that operate large fleets of cars and trucks presents an even bigger planning challenge because they require far more power than equipment serving a handful of passenger cars, analysts say.

Ms. Palmer said that providing the huge amounts of power commercial fleets need requires navigating a complicated permitting and technical landscape.

“It’s the utilities, it’s permitting that location, it’s really complex infrastructure-building that most fleet managers just don’t have the experience with,” said Ms. Palmer, the former head of energy strategy at Google.

Really love junk planet!

Terawatt belongs to @potoobrigham

so I played through All 4 One again-

Some alarming climate news as of June 2023

Antarctica, which is in the dead of winter, has unexpectedly failed to reform its winter sea ice. This is an exceptional deviation from the norm that has left scientists dumbfounded.

The entire NE Atlantic Ocean is experiencing its most significant marine heatwave ever…by far. That area had never been a full 1°C above the 1951-1980 average. It has suddenly jumped to 1.7°C above that average.

A powerful heatwave has overtaken southern North America for weeks on end, with places like Texas and northern Mexico breaking daily record high temperatures.

In the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, sea surface temperatures are extremely high. Water temperatures are in the *90s* by the Florida coast, Miami keeps breaking daily record heat index values, and a major coral bleaching event will soon be underway.

The Canadian 2023 Wildfire Season will not let up, with nearly all annual records falling before we even reach the midpoint of the season. No Canadian wildfire season had ever produced 12 terawatts (TW) of fire radiative power. 2023 has produced 18TW.

Dramatic flood events have begun striking various countries around the world simultaneously this week.

El Niño has rapidly developed in recent months as sea surface temperatures across the equatorial east Pacific skyrocket. As of yet, El Niño has not impacted global weather conditions. That will change in a few months.

All of these events have culminated in June 2023, easily being the hottest June in Earth’s recorded history. Likely the hottest June in 115k-120k years when Earth was last this hot.

The flotsam and jetsam of our digital queries and transactions, the flurry of electrons flitting about, warm the medium of air. Heat is the waste product of computation, and if left unchecked, it becomes a foil to the workings of digital civilization. Heat must therefore be relentlessly abated to keep the engine of the digital thrumming in a constant state, 24 hours a day, every day. To quell this thermodynamic threat, data centers overwhelmingly rely on air conditioning, a mechanical process that refrigerates the gaseous medium of air, so that it can displace or lift perilous heat away from computers. Today, power-hungry computer room air conditioners (CRACs) or computer room air handlers (CRAHs) are staples of even the most advanced data centers. In North America, most data centers draw power from “dirty” electricity grids, especially in Virginia’s “data center alley,” the site of 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic in 2019. To cool, the Cloud burns carbon, what Jeffrey Moro calls an “elemental irony.” In most data centers today, cooling accounts for greater than 40 percent of electricity usage.

[...]

The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry. A single data center can consume the equivalent electricity of 50,000 homes. At 200 terawatt hours (TWh) annually, data centers collectively devour more energy than some nation-states. Today, the electricity utilized by data centers accounts for 0.3 percent of overall carbon emissions, and if we extend our accounting to include networked devices like laptops, smartphones, and tablets, the total shifts to 2 percent of global carbon emissions. Why so much energy? Beyond cooling, the energy requirements of data centers are vast. To meet the pledge to customers that their data and cloud services will be available anytime, anywhere, data centers are designed to be hyper-redundant: If one system fails, another is ready to take its place at a moment’s notice, to prevent a disruption in user experiences. Like Tom’s air conditioners idling in a low-power state, ready to rev up when things get too hot, the data center is a Russian doll of redundancies: redundant power systems like diesel generators, redundant servers ready to take over computational processes should others become unexpectedly unavailable, and so forth. In some cases, only 6 to 12 percent of energy consumed is devoted to active computational processes. The remainder is allocated to cooling and maintaining chains upon chains of redundant fail-safes to prevent costly downtime.

looking at the crypto energy consumption chart and be like damn thats insane and abt to scroll past it but then see "TWh"

"The amount of electricity generated by the UK’s gas and coal power plants fell by 20% last year, with consumption of fossil fuels at its lowest level since 1957.

Not since Harold Macmillan was the UK prime minister and the Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time has the UK used less coal and gas.

The UK’s gas power plants last year generated 31% of the UK’s electricity, or 98 terawatt hours (TWh), according to a report by the industry journal Carbon Brief, while the UK’s last remaining coal plant produced enough electricity to meet just 1% of the UK’s power demand or 4TWh.

Fossil fuels were squeezed out of the electricity system by a surge in renewable energy generation combined with higher electricity imports from France and Norway and a long-term trend of falling demand.

Higher power imports last year were driven by an increase in nuclear power from France and hydropower from Norway in 2023. This marked a reversal from 2022 when a string of nuclear outages in France helped make the UK a net exporter of electricity for the first time.

Carbon Brief found that gas and coal power plants made up just over a third of the UK’s electricity supplies in 2023, while renewable energy provided the single largest source of power to the grid at a record 42%.

It was the third year this decade that renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, hydro and biomass power, outperformed fossil fuels [in the UK], according to the analysis. Renewables and Britain’s nuclear reactors, which generated 13% of electricity supplies last year, helped low-carbon electricity make up 55% of the UK’s electricity in 2023.

[Note: "Third year this decade" refers to the UK specifically, not global; there are several countries that already run on 100% renewable energy, and more above 90% renewable. Also, though, there have only been four years this decade so far! So three out of four is pretty good!]

Dan McGrail, the chief executive of RenewableUK, said the data shows “the central role that wind, solar and other clean power sources are consistently playing in Britain’s energy transition”.

“We’re working closely with the government to accelerate the pace at which we build new projects and new supply chains in the face of intense global competition, as everyone is trying to replicate our success,” McGrail said.

Electricity from fossil fuels was two-thirds lower in 2023 compared with its peak in 2008, according to Carbon Brief. It found that coal has dropped by 97% and gas by 43% in the last 15 years.

Coal power is expected to fall further in 2024 after the planned shutdown of Britain’s last remaining coal plant in September. The Ratcliffe on Soar coal plant, owned by the German utility Uniper, is scheduled to shut before next winter after generating power for over 55 years.

Renewable energy has increased sixfold since 2008 as the UK has constructed more wind and solar farms, and the large Drax coal plant has converted some of its generating units to burn biomass pellets.

Electricity demand has tumbled by 22% since its peak in 2005, according to the data, as part of a long-term trend driven by more energy efficient homes and appliances as well as a decline in the UK’s manufacturing sector.

Demand for electricity is expected to double as the UK aims to cut emissions to net zero by 2050 because the plan relies heavily on replacing fossil fuel transport and heating with electric alternatives.

In recent weeks [aka at the end of 2023], offshore wind developers have given the green light to another four large windfarms in UK waters, including the world’s largest offshore windfarm at Hornsea 3, which will be built off the North Yorkshire coast by Denmark’s Ørsted."

-via The Guardian, January 2, 2024

Vast arrays of solar panels floating on calm seas near the Equator could provide effectively unlimited solar energy to densely populated countries in Southeast Asia and West Africa. Our new research shows offshore solar in Indonesia alone could generate about 35,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) of solar energy a year, which is similar to current global electricity production (30,000TWh per year). And while most of the world's oceans experience storms, some regions at the Equator are relatively still and peaceful. So relatively inexpensive engineering structures could suffice to protect offshore floating solar panels. Our high-resolution global heat maps show the Indonesian archipelago and equatorial West Africa near Nigeria have the greatest potential for offshore floating solar arrays.

Continue Reading

Literally our civilization's going to collapse because a bunch of dumbshit conservatives have been convinced that atmospheric physics is "woke"

The Power of Error!

Titan! What a name for a moon, the jewel of Saturn, boundless scientific value, the works!

Bureaucracy! The most horrifying eldritch abomination Humanity has ever birthed. It is all pervasive, unavoidable, unfathomable, unkillable. A singular stroke on a piece of parchment (it's all digital these days, but hush now, dramatic words) can decide the fate of all.

Captain Knoslark, the head of the Warp Gate project and general overseer of the Dyson Ring construction efforts, was not enthused with paperwork. Unless it was a character sheet or notes for his drama plays. Get in, get out, minimal effort so he can go back to running four hundred million terawatts between two closely located quantum entangled particles. Why not, maybe he can turn string theory into string fact!

One day, after yet another report about the construction efforts, the captain was visited by Vice Admiral Krastina, one of the primary officers in charge of patrolling the inner Sol system and also managing the assistance with any nearby construction efforts.

"Captain Knoslark, a word."

He didn't like to have "words" with people like her. That always meant something bothersome, like responsibility.

"These are the materials requisition forms you signed off on, yes?"

He didn't know. Probably? Whenever someone asks a question like that, they already know the answer, and that means it's bad news. Could she just not do that? We can skip this.

"We will not be skipping this, Captain."

Witchcraft!

Well okay, the captain was notoriously bad at any social deduction games as he could not lie or pretend to save his life, except when he's explicitly roleplaying. If he weren't an actual captain, he could pull this off, but he is, so he can't.

"Care to comment on what happened to Titan?"

As a matter of fact, Captain Knoslark didn't care to answer that, mainly because he didn't know, but the Vice Admiral seemed to want something, so he brainstormed and came up with a brilliant plan.

"Right, can we instead do a thing where I say "Smokebomb!" and I leave and this conversation ends? Because I do not have an answer to that and this is incredibly awkward. I think we can pull this off. Okay, ready?

Smokebomb!"

The Vice Admiral maintained a steely gaze on him, narrowing her eyes just a tad with each passing second as Knoslark slowly crouch-walked backwards for the door, also maintaining perfect eye contact with her.

With an unchanging expression of expectation throughout, the good captain leaves the room after a solid minute.

Krastina shakes her head, she also doesn't want to deal with explaining to the government and even less so to the populace why Titan was unceremoniously broken apart and used up to further the construction of the Dyson Ring. To be fair, it has sped up the process tremendously.

Still. Damn. How did he misspell Thyone so badly? Nobody cares about that random moon. Of Jupiter, no less.

__________________

This whole thing exists because I wanted to use the joke of smokebombing out of a conversation by just saying the word. Heard it on a podcast a few years back and just suddenly recalled it. Titan in this verse is gone now all because of something dumb like that. I will not apologize.

why is using ai image generators suddenly cool and fun are we just ignoring the whole automated plagiarism and churning through terawatts of elecrticity and hundreds of gallons of water thing now

By Olivia Rosane

Common Dreams

Nov. 22, 2023

Recommendations include tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030, phasing out fossil fuels by 2050, and providing the Global South with the means to fund its energy transition.

As world leaders prepare to gather at the COP28 global climate talks next week in Dubai, 350.org published a report Wednesday detailing how negotiators can draft a just and effective global transition to renewable energy.

One of the main agenda items at COP28 will be a worldwide target for renewable energy. Yet this target must be accompanied by a 2050 phaseout of fossil fuels and funds to speed the transition in the Global South, 350.org concluded.

"A renewable energy target at COP28 will only constitute a meaningful step towards climate justice if it is accompanied by a clear roadmap for implementation that includes equitable mechanisms and commitments in the financial and policy realms, as well as an urgent and equitable phaseout of fossil fuels," Andreas Sieber, 350.org associate director of global policy, said in a statement. "Without these, any agreement would represent a hollow, 'easy win' for the COP28 President Al Jaber, and risk allowing polluting countries to hide behind a renewables goal while continuing to emit fossil fuels."

"To achieve the proposed global renewable energy target by 2030, massive growth in financial investment into renewable energy is required in the Global South outside China, from both private and public sources."

The report, fully titled Power Up for Climate Justice: Financing and Implementing a 1.5°C-Aligned Global Renewables Target, also details how the target itself can be meaningful.

"For the global renewable energy target at COP28 to address global energy needs and redress fossil fuel dependency, it must include commitments to triple fair, safe, and clean renewable energy capacity by 2030 and deploy 1.5 terawatts per year thereafter, double energy efficiency by 2030, and completely phaseout of fossil fuels by 2050," said 350.org executive director May Boeve.

The report further argues that the target should be based on demonstrably effective technologies like wind and solar power.

"There is no room for dangerous distractions and unproven technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage, nuclear energy, ammonia co-firing, which do not address the root causes of the climate crisis, and often cannot be implemented at scale," the report authors wrote.

They also emphasized the importance of providing poorer nations with the funds to scale up their renewable energy buildouts.

"To achieve the proposed global renewable energy target by 2030, massive growth in financial investment into renewable energy is required in the Global South outside China, from both private and public sources," Sieber said. "Barriers such as debt and the inequitable cost of capital in the Global South, significantly hinder investment in renewable energy."

Only $260 billion was invested in the Global South in 2022, the report notes, even though the International Energy Agency has said that $1.9 trillion is needed per year by 2030 in order to limit global heating to 1.5°C while providing energy to around 5 billion people—an amount of finance seven times 2022 levels.

The report offers several suggestions for how that funding can be realized, including canceling debt; sending the Global South $100 billion a year in concessional finance, providing it with $200 billion a year in grants; and channeling money away from fossil fuels by taxing profits, shifting subsidies and investments from fossil fuel projects to renewables, taxing wealth, issuing more Special Drawing Rights from the IMF, and using existing infrastructure funds.

The report comes at a crucial time for climate action. This year, 2023, is likely to be the hottest year in 125,000 years, and the U.N. concluded this week that current pledges put the world on course for 2.9°C of warming beyond preindustrial levels. But 350.org argues it's not too late to limit warming with ambitious action.

"The Paris Agreement is the landmark multilateral framework to stop climate change, and COP28—which includes the Global Stocktake of whether the world is on track to meet this target—is a pivotal moment to achieve its intended goal: limiting global heating to no more than 1.5°C," the report authors said.

And all this for a stinking cartoon...

Terawatt belongs to @potoobrigham

Alright fuck it so, I just saw this post: https://www.tumblr.com/probablyasocialecologist/741151493448712192/electricity-consumption-at-us-data-centers-alone (go reblog it)

And it sparked rage and anger in me. Fuck generative AI.

As it should. The I remembered Palworld. The creator of the game, or the lead of the team or whomever (please correct me on the exact like, title of the guy) is pro generative AI. That is enough of a reason to boycott the game.