Food prices up 20% since January 2016

Notes:

• prices about same as Jan 2015
• up 20% since Jan 2016
• prices about same as 1961 (inflation adjusted)

Food prices up 10% YOY

Notes:

• prices up almost 10% year-on-year
• up 2.2% from last month
• still marginally less in real terms than 1961
• link: FAO

FAO: food prices down 3 months in a row

Notes:

• data for April 2017
• still 10% higher than a year ago
• FAO: link

Best EVs for range

Notes:

• best range EV model for each make

FAO: food prices down 2.8%

Notes:

• data for March 2017
• index down 2.8% from previous month
• up 13.4% from year earlier
• about same as 2015

Sea level rise accelerating

Notes:

• sea level rise (5 year trend) in range 2.5 mm to 3.6 mm per year from 1997 to 2012
• in 2013 it breaks out the box, reaching 5.6 mm in 2015
• data derived from Aviso's viewing tool (link).

Wind & Solar estimates for 2017

Wind Cumulative Installations   Wind Net New Installations   Solar Cumulative Installations   Solar Net New Installations

Notes:

• new solar estimates (67 GW) almost match wind (68 GW) for 2017
• Source: FI Powerweb

EU Renewable Energy Share

click on image to enlarge

Notes:

• EU 16.7% renewable energy in 2015
• note this is all energy, not just electricity
• seems to be on track for 20% by 2020
• this is as of 2015; why does this data take almost 15 months to be published?
• UK is a laggard; their 2020 target is 15% not EU's 20%. And that was before Brexit!
• Source: CleanTechnica

China's coal usage in decline

Notes:

• total energy consumed up 1.4% while GDP grew 6.7%
• total coal consumed down 4.0%
• coal still at 62% of electricity
• “Energy demand has decoupled from economic activity and ... China continues to diversify away from coal faster than anyone expected,” said Tim Buckley (IEEFA)
• source CleanTechnica

Miscanthus v. Solar PV energy per hectare

Miscanthus:

• 96 kWh/ha/day
• 300,000 MJ per hectare (link) [US number, probably less in UK]
• 42% combustion efficiency (Drax)

PV:

• 2,974 kWh/ha/day
• Birmingham (UK) insolation levels, 70% of global average
• row spacing at 36.5%
• PV panels at 17% efficiency 

Toshiba's nuclear investments

Notes:

• Source: Bloomberg
• Toshiba bought Westinghouse. What were they thinking?

Robotic density

Notes:

• source: PeakOil.com article: Can China Lead The World Economy?
• China is ramping up robots fast
• UK is global average at 66 robots per 10k workers
• more numbers at:  International Federation of Robotics

Oil picture: UK v China

UK:

China:

Notes:

• C+C+NGL = crude + condensate + natural gas liquids
• Source: Energy Matters

UK Oil projection to 2035

Notes:

• Source: UK Oil and Gas Authority (unconfirmed)
• graph by AlexS, peakoilbarrel.com commenter
• units (y-axis) presumably Mbpd, oil and natural gas liquids

Peak Oil 2017?

Notes:

• same chart as a couple of days ago (link), but with 2017 estimated demand added
• IEA forecasts demand for 2017, but not supply

UK Oil and Gas 2016

Gas:

Oil:

Notes:

• production (and consumption) of nat gas and oil both up in 2016
• imports correspondingly lower
• data from BP Statistical Review 2016
• graphs by mazamascience.com

34 cm sea level rise per century?

Change in global sea level, 1992 to 2016

Notes:

• 3.4 mm/yr = 34 mm/decade = 340 mm/100 yrs = 34 cm per 100 yrs
• University of Colorado's Sea Level Research Group: link

Another record year for utility-scale solar

Notes:

• utility-scale is 4 MW or over 
• cumulative utility-scale is 96 GW
• all-solar cumulative for 2016 is forecast to be 310 GW (subject to confirmation)
• Renew Economy article: link
• original wiki-solar.org PDF: link
• for context, solar generated 1.2% of global electricity in 2015. Should be 50% higher in 2016.

FAO: food prices up 17% from a year ago

Notes

• index now higher than 2016 high
• still down 24% from 2011 average of 230
• mainly due to sugar? (see below)

US Wind & Solar cheaper than gas, coal and nuclear

Notes:

• from Lazard's LCOE (levellized cost of energy) report, December 2016
• costs are for new build
• wind and solar shown unsubsidized (subsidized costs are even lower)
• Lazard report link
• CleanTechnica article: link

US Wind subsidies are being phased out

Notes:

• PTC = production tax credit
• Unsubsidized wind is already cheaper than new build nat gas, coal or nuclear

Peak Oil? Not yet...

 Notes:

• mbpd = million barrels per day
• if production (supply) > consumption (demand) then surplus goes into storage
• if production (supply) < consumption (demand) then deficit removed from storage
• demand was 96.6 mbpd in 2016, supply was 97.0, so 0.4 mbpd went into storage
• IEA's PDF: link

EVs with 100 mile plus EPA range

Notes:

• Tesla dominates the 200+ mile range and is the only contestant in the 300+mile range
• Renault Zoe number pro-rated from Nissan Leaf EPA:NEDC range
• Other manufacturers with EVs with less than 100 mile range: Fiat, GM, Mercedes, Mitsubishi (Peugeot/Citroen), Renault, VW, BMW, Nissan, Ford
• Manufacturers with zero EVs: Toyota, Honda (Fit EV discontinued), Audi, Porsche, Seat, Skoda, Suzuki, Kia, Jaguar, Land Rover