Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Kees van der Leun  Profile picture
Kees van der Leun 
@Sustainable2050
Building Common Futures, a new energy transition consultancy. @Sustainable2050 at https://t.co/mhHG13IoUq and in the blue sky. Also on LinkedIn. #20JanuaryTwexit
5 subscribers
Jun 8 • 43 tweets • 9 min read
Nasty climate tipping point in sight, especially for NW-Europe! "Nothing drastic will happen at the moment we cross it - which might be soon - but after that the collapse of the current will be unstoppable." And could lead to rapid regional cooling, not so far away from us. This is a simplified map of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), bringing heat from the South Atlantic, via the Caribbean to the European side of the North Atlantic. On cooling there, the water sinks to 2-3 km depth and takes the cold to the South. Image
May 16 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
Agreement between right-far-right Dutch coalition parties published now. Thread with some points on climate and energy. These are the plans, but execution will of course be key. Wilders and his PVV are in full climate denial, like much of the EU's far right.
1/ - Stick to existing agreements, no higher ambitions than EU policy
- No rules for improving energy efficiency of owner-occupied homes. Obligation (from 2026) to install heat pump on replacing gas-fired heating boiler canceled.
- End of EV subsidies in 2025.
2/
Mar 16 • 69 tweets • 25 min read
Starting a week-long business & pleasure trip to Spain, by train!
Hope to be in Barcelona this evening :)
I'll keep you posted in this🧵 Image The plan for today: Utrecht - Rotterdam - Paris - Barcelona. The tricky part is changing trains in Paris. Theoretically 2 hours should be more than enough to get from Paris-Nord to Gare de Lyon (the rail planner irresponsibly proposed 1 hour), but @Eurostar is often delayed (2/n) Image
Jan 28 • 16 tweets • 5 min read
Reading the Dutch "Action agenda congestion low-voltage grids".
The accelating energy transition already brings grid issues here. In the low-voltage distribution grid, the growing number of solar panels (PV), electric cars (EV) and (hybrid) heat pumps ((h)WP) is the challenge. Image Without measures, a large and growing number of households would experience periods with too high or too low voltage (over- resp. onderspanning) or risk of grid failure. Image
Nov 14, 2023 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
"Transition doesn't make energy cheaper, but to the contrary, significantly more expensive"
Headline in Dutch @Volkskrant yesterday, 9 days before the elections here. "Consumers and companies will pay 92% more for electricity and natural gas by 2030".
Hmm, let's look into that. Image Firstly, as others have already pointed out too, it's a comparison between 2020 and 2030. In 2020, energy was cheap: Covid reduced demand, and Russia hadn't started its energy war and attack on Ukraine yet.
Compared with 2023, not a lot would remain of the "+92%". Image
Oct 7, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Today it's Scotland.
#ClimatechangeisWaterchange Install bigger pumps. Oh, and reduce emissions to zero, asap.
Sep 24, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
A problem for French nuclear power producer EDF: its total production cost (in the old power plants) is 60 €/MWh, according to the regulator, but govt forces it to sell a big chunk at 42 €/MWh. 60 €/MWh is not a bad cost in the current European electricity market, but it's also a reality check for those here who think nuclear power is practically for free after the investment in the power plant is done.
May 23, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Tomorrow, @KornelisBlok's 40+ years of wide-ranging, thorough, and groundbreaking work on the energy transition will come together in his "Need for Speed" lecture. Recommended!
Time: 15:00 CEST
Link: lnkd.in/e6hbsKQc
#energytransition #tudelft Time to tune in! Image
May 23, 2023 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
China is installing 12 GW of solar PV capacity per *month* now, up from last year's average of 7 GW/month! That's around 1 million solar panels of 400 Watt each per day, weekends included.
May 21, 2023 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Another climate variable breaking way out of its normal range. This is the average sea surface temperature of the entire North Atlantic!
Taking away the sulfur sun shield of pollution by ships may have played a role (see thread). Needless to say that this can have major consequences, on storms, precipitation, etc. Too early to call, but very risky.
Apr 30, 2023 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
Last month, I wrote a blog post on the need for more dispatchable power in the Dutch electricity system, for security of supply, complementing a large share of wind and solar power.
commonfutures.com/blogdispatchab…
Last week, govt published its additional climate plans for 2030. A check. First: Dutch govt announces its new goal: fully CO2-free electricity production by 2035. That's an acceleration. Next to wind and solar (new: 3 GW offshore solar by 2030), this means that all dispatchable power will need to be zero-emission by 2035.
Apr 29, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
Like with climate change, biodiversity loss is a creeping process. Riding my bicycle south of Utrecht (NL) today, it's a silent spring. Hardly any lapwings (kievit), no godwits (grutto), no redshanks (tureluur), no skylarks, few swallows. All still there, just a few decades ago. Just 10 or 15 years ago, four or five pairs of Lapwings would breed on the field next to our village. Their arrival and noisy flight displays, even at night, would mark the start of spring.
Haven't seen one on the field for years now.
Photo: @ElwinvanderKolk Image
Apr 29, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
6 pages in @nrc today on how Dutch governments led by Balkenende and current @MinPres Rutte fostered fossil fuel ties with Putin's Russia. Opening up the Netherlands to espionage, despite many warnings from the intelligence agencies.
By @tomjanmeeus Image Detail: both Balkenende (in 2010) and Rutte (in 2012) were awarded the Rusprix, by the Russian embassy, for their "exceptional personal contribution to the development of the relations between Russia and the Netherlands".
Apr 27, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
38.7°C in Córdoba, Spain, today!
Highest April temperature ever recorded in Spain's main meteorological network.
[For US: that's 101.7F] Image Hottest April day on record in Morocco too!
41.3°C in Marrakech; that's 106.3F.
Dec 28, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Denmark wind turbines producing 103% of national electricity demand right now! See the power flows in realtime: en.energinet.dk/energisystem_f… Wind/demand at 122% now!
Dec 26, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Musk admiring his new Twitter friend, deputy chairman of Russia's security council, close ally of Putin. Just now. Image Or rather: not-so-new Twitter friend.
Nov 13, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
In 3 decades of monitoring average global sea level rise, @WMO sees a clear acceleration:
+2.1 mm/year in 1993-2002
+2.9 mm/year in 2003-2012
+4.4 mm/year in 2013-2022
public.wmo.int/en/our-mandate… Aside from the cumulative effect, the *rate* of sea level rise has an impact too. A faster rise means natural systems can't keep up. The Dutch Wadden Sea is thought to be able to handle 6-10 mm/year. Above that, it can't drag in enough sand, and its tidal flats will disappear.
Sep 28, 2022 • 27 tweets • 11 min read
Live from the launch event of the Biomethane Industrial Partnership!
#EUSEW2022 EC EVP @TimmermansEU: "The brutal war of Russia against Ukraine has made increasing EU renewable energy production all the more urgent!" #BIPEurope
Sep 28, 2022 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
Good morning! On my way to Brussels for today's launch of the Biomethane Industrial Partnership, by EC's @KadriSimson and @TimmermansEU, @NGFNatureEnergy's @OleHvelplund and @European_Biogas' Harmen Dekker. Great that the EC, national governments, and dozens of companies from the biomethane value chain will be working together to scale up production and use of domestic sustainable biomethane from its current 3-4 to a very substantial 35 billion m³/year by 2030!
Sep 27, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Strange things going on around the Russia-to-EU gas pipelines Nordstream 2 and ... .. the older Nord Stream 1.
Aug 21, 2022 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Slippery slope we're seeing in various places:
1. Vested interests get government to do things that are good for them, but not for the people (e.g. not taxing them, and cutting back on public spending). 2. People get angry.