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Energy Week #405: 2/11/2021
Thursday, February 4
Will Ferrell in GM ad (Photo courtesy of GM)
¶ “GM Drops Funny, Fearless Electric Vehicle Ad On Superbowl Sunday” • It may seem like half the country got sucked into some crazy fear-based cult, but GM envisions another America. It’s funny, has fun friends, loves a challenge, loves the country to be the greatest. CleanTechnica got a sneak peak at GM’s 60-second EV ad for the Superbowl. [CleanTechnica]
Mining machine (Albert Hyseni, Unsplash)
¶ “Renewables Expected To Replace Coal By 2033, Says Morgan Stanley” • Global wealth management company Morgan Stanley projects coal-fired power generation is likely to disappear from the US power grid by 2033. It said renewable energy such as solar and wind power will provide about 39% of US electricity by 2030, and as much as 55% in 2035. [The Hill]
Volkswagen ID.3 and ID.4 (Volkswagen image and color scheme)
¶ “Germany Hits 21.7% Plugin Share In January – Up Over 3× Year-on-Year” • Germany, Europe’s largest auto market, hit a 21.7% plugin electric vehicle share in January, up over 3× from January 2021. Overall auto sales volumes were down 31% in January 2021, with petrol combustion vehicles dropping more than 50% in volume year-on-year. [CleanTechnica]
Friday, February 5
Proposed green energy hub (Vindo Consortium image)
¶ “Denmark Gives Nod To Offshore Energy Hub” • Denmark has reached a landmark agreement on the construction of an energy hub in the North Sea. It will further integrate European grids with more offshore wind that are planned for nearby waters. The energy hub will be an artificially constructed island 80 km off the coast of Jutland. [reNEWS]
Bernie Sanders at Council Bluffs, Iowa (Matt A J, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
¶ “Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, And Blumenauer Unveil Bill Pushing Biden To Declare National Climate Emergency: ‘We Are Out Of Time'” • Three progressive lawmakers introduced legislation that would require President Joe Biden to declare a national climate emergency, arguing that the US is “out of time and excuses” to deal with the climate crisis. [CNN]
Posidonia oceanica (Nachosan, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
¶ “Posidonia, The Mediterranean’s ‘Super Plant'” • The sea grass Posidonia oceanica is incredibly effective at filtering the water and producing oxygen. In fact, 1 square meter of Posidonia produces as much oxygen as 1 hectare (10,000 square meters) of Amazon rainforest. Despite attempts to protect it, Posidonia is in grave threat of disappearing in a few decades. [BBC]
Saturday, February 6
Offshore wind farm (Nicholas Doherty, Unsplash)
¶ “South Korea Unveils $43-Billion Plan For World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm” • South Korea unveiled a 48.5-trillion-won ($43.2-billion) plan to build the world’s largest wind power plant by 2030 as part of the country’s efforts to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. Its 8.2 GW capacity is about the equal of 6 nuclear reactors, officials said. [Rappler]
Offshore wind connection (Illustration by Josh Bauer, NREL)
¶ “US Offshore Wind Potential Relies On Intelligent Grid Integration” • The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is planning for the technologies and strategies needed to integrate the offshore wind installations coming into the grid. It’s success with integration is steering efforts to deliver power efficiently and affordably from offshore plants. [CleanTechnica]
Ford Mustang Mach-E (Bram Van Oost, Unsplash)
¶ “Ford Pumps $29 Billion Into Electric Vehicle Plot After Splashy Mustang Mach-E Success” • Last year, Ford introduced an electric version of its iconic Mustang with great fanfare, and yesterday the company followed up with a new $29 billion plan to electrify and digitize its fleet. And if it wasn’t for that pesky semiconductor shortage … [CleanTechnica]
Sunday, February 7
What we leave behind (Chris LeBoutillier, Unsplash)
¶ “Warning to Energy Investors: Coal Is Dead and Oil Is Next” • Over the past two decades, coal has been shoved aside for natural gas and renewable energy plants that are more cost-effective and less polluting. Transportation markets are likely to be the next in line to be transformed, with electric vehicles offered by nearly every manufacturer in the industry. [Motley Fool]
BrightDrop EV
¶ “GM’s Electric Vehicle Strategy Takes Shape, And It’s All About That Fleet” • Getting one person to buy your new EV is good, but it’s even better when that one person is a fleet manager who can put 12,600 into one order. That seems to be the business model General Motors had in mind for its new BrightDrop electric delivery van venture. [CleanTechnica]
First full-scale floating wind turbine (Lars Christopher, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
¶ “Equinor: Floating Wind Turbines Buoy Hopes Of Expanding Renewable Energy” • Hywind Scotland, the first floating wind farm, was installed in 2017. It is operated by Norwegian oil giant Equinor ASA, which sees a future for floating wind turbines where the ocean is too deep for ordinary masts, such as Japan and the US West Coast. [marketscreener.com]
Monday, February 8
Wind turbine blades (LM Wind Power image)
¶ “GE Awarded DOE Grant To Research 3D Printing Of Wind Turbine Blades” • Three General Electric businesses working in the field of renewable energy, GE Research, GE Renewable Energy, and LM Wind Power, were recently selected by the US DOE to research the design and manufacture of 3D printed wind turbine blades. [Power Engineering International]
Perovskite Solar Cell (NREL image)
¶ “$4 Billion US Oil Company Banks On Perovskite Solar Cell Of The Future” • Hunt Consolidated is part of a $4 billion oil and gas empire and one of the largest privately held firms in the US. Despite its oil industry connections, Hunt has been working on a years-long perovskite solar cell venture. Now it looks like all that hard work may be about to pay off. [CleanTechnica]
Rounds Hall, Plymouth State University (MagicPiano, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
¶ “Plymouth State University Offering Climate Studies Degree” • Plymouth State University started a bachelor’s degree program in climate studies, the first institution in New Hampshire to do so. Students, who are increasingly taking an active role in doing something about climate change and its effects, have few college programs offered to them. [WCAX]
Tuesday, February 9
Farming (Photo courtesy of Scott Goodwill, Unsplash)
¶ “Monoculture Could Worsen Vulnerability To Climate Change” • Roughly two-fifths of the planet’s iceless terrestrial area has turned to farming and forestry, reducing biodiversity. The conversion of biodiverse landscapes to single-species farms alters the water cycle and makes the world more susceptible to ecological instability. [Food Tank]
BrightCloud EV (Brightcloud image)
¶ “Nigerian Startup BrightCloud Automotive Hopes To Start Making Electric SUVs And Pickups In The Near Future” • Legacy automakers fail to see what may become an EV leapfrog event similar Africa’s experience with cell phones and financial tech. African companies, such as BrightCloud, see opportunities for local EV manufacture. [CleanTechnica]
Himalayas (swapnil vithaldas, Unsplash)
¶ “Sensitive Himalayan Glaciers And The Impact Of Their Rapid Shrinking Due To Climate Change” • Melting glaciers increase the risk of runoffs and floods, as we recently saw with the glacier disaster in Uttarakhand that claimed 26 lives and displaced many people. There 197 people still reported missing, and rescue operations are still underway. [The Weather Channel]
Wednesday, February 10
Pollution (Daniel Moqvist, Unsplash)
¶ “Fossil Fuel Air Pollution Causes Almost One In Five Deaths Globally Each Year” • Environmental Research published a study by researchers from Harvard University, in collaboration with three British Universities, that found exposure to particulate matter from fossil fuel emissions accounted for 18% of all worldwide deaths in 2018. [CNN]
Citroën e-C4 (Courtesy of © Citroën)
¶ “£182 Million In London Congestion Charges And Fines In One Year” • Data obtained from Transport for London shows UK motorists were fined £130 million in fines for failing to pay the London Congestion Charge after they went into the city in non-electric cars over a 12 month period, and another £52 million in fees. One takeaway: Get an EV! [CleanTechnica]
Green building (New World Development Company)
¶ “The City Of Sustainable Skyscrapers” • Hong Kong’s 42,000 buildings – including about 8,000 high-rises, of which more than 1,500 are skyscrapers exceeding 100 m (328 ft) in height – consume up to 90% of the city’s electricity and contribute to 60% of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. Now Hong Kong is aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050. [BBC News]
Notes:
Energy Week #405: 2/11/2021
George Harvey, blogger, author, and journalist for Green Energy Times and CleanTechnica, computer engineer
Tom Finnell, electrical engineer, transmission grid expert, world traveler, philanthropist, and philosopher
Energy, renewable energy, wind power, Solar, batteries, Nuclear, coal, oil, gas, Climate Change
Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell 