Lithuanian Gas Pipeline Hit By Large Explosion
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the sub heading.
A large blast has hit a gas pipeline in the Pasvalys region of northern Lithuania, near the Latvian border.
This Google Map shows the location of the explosion.
Note.
- Country borders are marked as white lines.
- The site of the explosion at Pasvalis Vienkiemii, is marked with a red arrow.
- Pasvalis Vienkiemii is about a hundred miles from Vilnius.
- About a hundred miles to the East of Pasvalis Vienkiemii, is the point, where Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania meet.
- Russian territory is about a hundred miles further to the East.
I have experience of the quality of borders in that area.
South-West of Lithuania and lying between that country and Poland, there is the small Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
These pictures show the border between Poland and the Kaliningrad enclave of Russia.
If the borders between Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania are as secure as this, they are almost an open invitation to saboteurs to enter and do damage.
Cars In Central London Surged 60% After Khan Stopped Evening Congestion Charge
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the Standard.
These are the first two paragraphs.
Transport for London’s own data shows the dramatic impact of the Mayor’s decision to shorten the £15-a-day C-charge’s operating hours, ending it at 6pm rather than 10pm.
Last February, an average of 12,968 vehicles entered the zone between 6pm-10pm. But by October this had increased to 20,654 — a rise of 59 per cent.
To a Control Engineer like me, it is obvious that if you reduce the cost of the London Congestion Charge in the evenings between 18:00 and 22:00, you’re going to get more traffic.
Was that what was intended?
Or was the Mayor given bad advice?
I would have thought, the best course of action would have been to keep the charges as they were and use some the money to improve public transport in the central area.
First Offtake Deal Signed For 500MW/4,000MWh Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage Project In California
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on Energy Storage News.
These three paragraphs explain the deal.
Advanced compressed air energy storage (A-CAES) company Hydrostor has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for one of its flagship large-scale projects in California.
Central Coast Community Energy, one of California’s several dozen Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) non-profit energy suppliers, has signed a 200MW/1,600MWh energy storage PPA with a 25-year term with Toronto-headquartered Hydrostor for its Willow Rock Energy Storage Center.
That’s just under half of the output and capacity of the planned 8-hour, long-duration energy storage (LDES) facility, which is designed to be 500MW/4,000MWh. This is its first offtake deal, but the company is in discussion for others to take the rest of the plant’s available resource.
The article says that Hydrostor aim to have the plant online by 2028.
This segment describes their current projects.
It is currently working on large-scale projects with around 9GWh storage capacity in total across two sites in California as well as another in Australia.
Together with Willow Rock in Kern County, Hydrostor is developing the 400MW/3,200MWh Pechos Energy Storage Center in San Luis Obispo County, California, and the 200MW/1,500MWh Silver City Energy Storage Center in Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia.
On its UK Projects page, Highview talks about a 200MW/2.5GWh facility in Yorkshire, which puts the two companies in similar markets, with Hydrostor appearing to have slightly larger systems under development.
Conclusion
It will be interesting to see how this technology progresses and which company does best in what is a very large energy storage market.
Zero-Carbon Lighting Of Large Spaces
In Cockfosters Train Depot – 12th January 2023, I took a series of pictures of Cockfosters Train Depot, of which these are a selection.
Note, the lamp clusters on top of tall poles to light the area.
You see lots of these lights to illuminate play areas, car parks, rail sidings and truck depots.
Could a SeaTwirl or another vertical wind turbine be placed as high as possible up the pole, that supports the lights?
- A battery would be needed for when the wind doesn’t blow.
- A control system would be used to use the lights, when they are needed.
- The poles would be able to be laid down, like many lights can be, for servicing from the ground.
Cockfosters would be an excellent location for a test, as the wind is always blowing and the site has an altitude of nearly a hundred metres.
The Anonymous Widower 