this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2024
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As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world. About 1C of total warming. Second chart: about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability. Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases. About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

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New report: Biomass CO2 emissions 4X higher than Coal | Just Have A Think (www.youtube.com)
submitted 3 months ago by ProdigalFrog to c/climate
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[–] solo 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

Even tho Drax uses only biomass and its CO~2~ emissions are 4 times higher than Ractcliffe's which uses coal, I think it is also important to mention that Drax can produce twice as much electricity in comparison to Ratcliffe. Still terrible news from the 2023 report, just saying.

Drax Power Station

Its generating capacity of 3,906 megawatts (MW),

Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station

the station has a capacity of 2,000 MW

[–] MrMakabar 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Actually that is capacity and not the electricity the actually produce. In 2021 Drax produced 4.2TWh of electricity. In 2021 Ratcliff produced 0.8TWh

So we are talking 5times more electricity from Drax. Hence 4x emissions is not as bad as it seems. I can not find 2023 numbers and I could imagine that they are even starker.

EDIT: Fix because I can not read properly apparently.

[–] solo 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

From the link you provided, it looks like in 2021 it was 4.2 not 7.5. Apart from that, this approach sounds too speculative to me, since the production comes from 2021 and the CO~2~ emissions quota from 2023. In the Drax chart it shows a decline in TWh produced from 2017 to 2021 (btw 2021 is also the year they retired coal). Still, assuming from this trend that their production few years latter continues to decline is something I would consider too risky to do.

  • 2017 -> 14.9
  • 2018 -> 11.7
  • 2019 -> 10.2
  • 2020 -> 7.5
  • 2021 -> 4.2

The Ratcliffe chart has so many fluctuations till 2021 that I couldn't dare guess what their 2023 production was.

  • 2017 -> 2.6
  • 2018 -> 3.2
  • 2019 -> 0.7
  • 2020 -> 0.1
  • 2021 -> 0.8

If I find the 2023 numbers, I'll add a comment or edit this one.

[–] MrMakabar 2 points 3 months ago

Thanks. Fixed the original comment.