Visitors Please Note: This blog is maintained to assist in developing a TV show, Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell. The post is put up in incomplete form, and is updated with news until it is completed, usually on Wednesday. The source is geoharvey.com.
Within a few days of the last update, the show may be seen, along with older shows, at this link on the BCTV website: Energy Week Series.
Energy Week #375: 6/11/2020
Thursday, June 4
Proterra electric bus (Courtesy of Proterra)
¶ “Halifax Aims To Add 210 Electric Buses In Next 8 Years” • The Halifax Regional Municipality in Canada is getting more serious about climate action and stopping air pollution. Halifax has plans to put $780 million into getting the 210 electric buses onto the road and 3 new ferry routes into service by 2028, according to The ChronicleHerald. [CleanTechnica]
Siemens Gamesa offshore wind turbine
¶ “Germany Raises Offshore Wind Power Goal To 40 GW In 20 Years” • The German Cabinet has passed a bill that would set a goal of 40 GW of offshore wind power capacity installation by 2040, marking a surge of almost five-fold. It would increase capacity to 15 GW by 2030. The German offshore wind capacity is currently 7.5 GW. [Saurenergy]
Stripping away environmental safeguards (NRDC via Twitter)
¶ “Trump’s EPA Takes Away State & Tribal Rights To Protect Their Own Water” • The US EPA has issued a rule that limits states’ and Indigenous tribes’ authority to protect the water within their own borders from federally authorized destructive projects such as oil and gas pipelines, hydropower dams, and wetland fills. [CleanTechnica]
Friday, June 5
Model of ammonia molecule, NH₃ (Ben Mills, Wikimedia Commons)
¶ “Charting A Course Towards The Ammonia Economy” • Most people have heard of the hydrogen economy, where renewable electricity creates hydrogen fuel from water – but an ammonia economy is emerging as a viable possibility. In the ammonia economy, ships, trucks, buses, power generators and even jets would run on ammonia. [Monash Lens]
Somewhat tippy oil platform
¶ “Energy Transition Could Wipe $25 Trillion Off The Value Of Fossil-Fuel Reserves” • Two thirds of the value of the world’s oil and gas reserves – totalling $25 trillion – could be wiped out as the energy transition disrupts the entire fossil-fuel system, with profound ramifications for financial markets and geopolitics, a Carbon Tracker report says. [Recharge]
Boring Company pod (Boring Company image)
¶ “Tesla Working On 12 Person Vans For The Boring Company” • With the Boring Company reportedly approved to build an airport loop for the Ontario International Airport, Tesla is said to be working with The Boring Company to produce 12-person electric vans for such routes. Presumably, they will be operating autonomously. [CleanTechnica]
Saturday, June 6
Amsterdam in May (Robin Utrecht | AFP | AFP | Getty Images)
¶ “Last Month Was The Hottest May On Record, As The World Creeps Closer To A Dangerous Threshold” • Last month was the hottest May on record worldwide, a Copernicus Climate Change Service report said. Globally, May was 0.63°C above the average for 1981 to 2010, setting a record for the month. Siberia was 10°C (18°F) above normal. [CNN] (Thanks to Tad Montgomery)
Challenging cleanup (AFP image)
¶ “Arctic Circle Oil Spill: Russian Prosecutors Order Checks At Permafrost Sites” • Russian prosecutors have ordered checks at “particularly dangerous installations” built on permafrost. After 20,000 tonnes of diesel oil leaked into a river in the Arctic, initial inquiries suggest the tank collapsed because the permafrost that it was built on melted. [BBC]
Wetlands (Getty Images)
¶ “Call On Science To Protect Wetlands Policy In A Changing Climate” • The Trump administration’s dogged retreat from the use of science to inform sound public policy will reach another milestone on June 22 when the final regulations reducing the number of water bodies and wetlands protected by the Clean Water Act take effect. [The Hill]
Sunday, June 7
Solar power (Supplied: Latrobe Valley Microgrid)
¶ “More Jobs In Renewable-Led Covid-19 Economic Recovery, EY Report Finds” • In Australia, a renewables-led economic recovery will create almost three times as many jobs as a fossil-fuel-led recovery, a report by Ernst and Young says. The federal government has been favoring a gas-fired approach to Covid-19 recovery. [ABC News]
Colorado Green, the state’s first wind farm (Photo: Allen Best)
¶ “Windy Enough In Dust Bowl Land” • Windpower developers have tried to build wind farms in southeastern Colorado in the past. They were unable to get the transmission lines they need to tie to the grid. Now they are trying again. Baca County, one of the least populated counties in the state, has a potential for 15 GW ov capacity. [Mountain Town News]
Solar array in New Hampshire (SayCheeeeeese, Wikimedia Commons)
¶ “Net-Metered Renewable Power Costs Less” • The New Hampshire House of Representatives is about to get back to work. One bill is House Bill 1218, which would spur investment in low-cost renewable power by net-metering electric ratepayers. It will save money because the “fuel” is free and “delivery” requires only local distribution wires. [The Keene Sentinel]
Monday, June 8
Barge powered by ZES system (Wärtsilä via Twitter)
¶ “Wärtsilä, Engie, And ING Bank Develop Emissions-Free Barge Business With Interchangeable Energy Containers” • Wärtsilä was joined by a number of partners to form Zero Emission Services BV, to make inland waterway shipping more sustainable by providing interchangeable energy storage containers for barges powered by batteries. [CleanTechnica]
Battery energy storage system (Fluence image)
¶ “Fluence Proposes 500-MW BESS Case Scenario To VNI West RIT-T” • Submissions are in on the Victoria-New South Wales Interconnector West. One proposal by Fluence is to replace the traditional infrastructure with mega-scale battery energy storage systems as virtual transmission. Fluence says the system can be deployed very quickly. [pv magazine Australia]
Offshore windpower (Naval Energies image)
Offshore windpower (Naval Energies image)
¶ “Naval Energies Joins Offshore Wind California Group” • The French company Naval Energies and trade association Offshore Wind California joined to pursue deployment of floating wind technology. California has excellent wind resources, with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimating the state’s technical capacity at 112 GW. [reNEWS]
Tuesday, June 9
Home of President James Buchanan near Lancaster, PA (Allie_Caulfield, Wikimedia Commons)
¶ “World’s Largest Renewable Hydrogen Plant (Part 2)” • The city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania has a hydrogen project that IS rocket science. One thing is easy to understand about it: The science makes it possible to produce hydrogen from waste paper, on cost parity with the fossil-fuel-based grey hydrogen, with a negative carbon impact. [CleanTechnica]
Offshore wind turbines (Ørsted image)
¶ “Offshore Wind Offers 1.4 TW Potential By 2050” • Up to 1,400 GW of offshore wind capacity could be built around the world by the year 2050, according to the Ocean Renewable Energy Action Coalition. It said 1,400 GW is achievable considering the resource potential, technology innovation, and government appetite to focus on offshore windpower. [reNEWS]
¶ “Melting Permafrost Claims Its First Major Victim, Russia’s Oil & Gas Network” • This past week, there was an oil spill in Siberia because of melting permafrost. Almost all of Russia’s oil and gas fields are under permafrost and much of the pipeline system goes over permafrost. Russia’s planned pipelines to China are especially at risk. [CleanTechnica]
Wednesday, June 10
Solar technician at work (Photo: Duke Energy)
¶ “90% Clean Grid by 2035 Is Not Just Feasible, But Cheaper, Study Says” • It will be feasible to power the US on 90% clean electricity by 2035 thanks to stunning renewables cost declines, a study finds. Researchers from UC Berkeley and GridLab found that by 2035, renewables could power 90% of a reliable grid with just 10% from natural gas. [Greentech Media]
Wind farm
¶ “Renewable Energy Market Being Boosted By Blockchain Technology” • Blockchain technology promises to help boost the greater use of renewable energy sources due to its ability to trace the production of green sustainable energy. This will prove to be vital for peer-to-peer electricity trading and to track examine carbon neutrality. [Irish Tech News]
Boott hydroelectric dam, Lowell, MA (AntiCompositeNumber, Wikimedia Commons)
¶ “EIA: Growth In Renewable Power Expected To Continue” • Renewable sources are expected to provide 21% of US electricity in 2020 and 23% in 2021, up from 17% in 2019, data in the Energy Information Administration’s latest Short-Term Energy Outlook shows. Natural gas is expected to provide 41% of US electricity this year, but only 36% 2021. [Biomass Magazine]
Energy Week #375: 6/11/2020
Energy, renewable energy, wind power, Solar, batteries, Nuclear, coal, oil, gas, Climate Change
Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell 