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Energy Week #411: 3/25/2021
Thursday, March 18
Building the Great Green Wall (MAKE Waves image)
¶ “A 5,000-Mile Living Wall Could Hold Back The World’s Largest Desert” • Because the Sahara Desert is expanding, the African Union launched an ambitious plan to hold it back and protect the Sahel area in 2007. The Great Green Wall initiative now hopes to restore 100 million hectares of land with a mosaic vegetation types over the next decade. [CNN]
Audi e-tron (Audi courtesy image)
¶ “Audi Gives Up On Combustion Engine Development – This Is Awesome” • Audi is abandoning its development of combustion engines, Electrive reported. The article cited an interview that CEO Markus Duesmann held with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in which he confirmed that Audi is no longer developing internal combustion engines. [CleanTechnica]
NREL laboratory (Dennis Schroeder, NREL)
¶ “From Wet Waste To Flight: Scientists Announce Fast-Track Solution For Net-Zero-Carbon Sustainable Aviation Fuel” • The aircraft sector has been seen as difficult to decarbonize. That task just got a burst of energy with the publication of a new paper on carbon-negative sustainable aviation fuel in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [CleanTechnica]
Friday, March 19
Solar array (Image courtesy of Array Technologies)
¶ “2020 US Power Report Card: Solar And Wind Getting High Scores” • Government data shows that renewable resources surpassed coal in 2020 to become the third-largest source of US electricity. Continuing promising trends from 2019, solar and wind energy made strong gains, and there was a steep reduction in power sector pollution. [CleanTechnica]
Vermont Yankee nuclear plant (NRC, CC-BY-SA 2.0, cropped)
¶ “Report Finds That ‘Advanced’ Nuclear Reactor Designs Are No Better Than Current Reactors – And Some Are Worse” • A report by the Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed the designs of a number of “advanced” nuclear reactors being developed. It says that they are no better, and in some respects significantly worse, than what we have. [Union of Concerned Scientists]
Abandoned Mines
¶ “Two Bills Introduced In Congress To Address Abandoned Mine Lands” • The RECLAIM Act and a bill to reauthorize the Abandoned Mine LandFund were reintroduced in the US House by Rep Matt Cartwright (D-PA). These bills, if passed, would provide an immediate economic boost by employing thousands of people across the country. [CleanTechnica]
Saturday, March 20
Solar array (American Public Power Association, Unsplash)
¶ “Global Renewables Investment Return Seven Times Higher Than Fossil Fuels” • Renewable power investment continues to outperform fossil fuel investment across the globe, the latest research shows. This signals a decline of fossil fuel investment. IRENA has projected achieving Paris targets will require $4.4 trillion a year into low carbon energy. [Forbes]
Byron Kominek, owner of Jack’s Solar Garden (Werner Slocum, NREL)
¶ “New Solar Farm Piles Even More Green Onto Green Energy” • Solar farms have become revenue lifelines for farmers. Now the biggest agrivoltaic research project in the US is taking shape in Boulder County, Colorado. Instead of a bed of gravel under the solar panels, Jack’s Solar Garden will have plants for people, animals, birds, and insects to eat. [CleanTechnica]
Buildings in Singapore (Kelvin Zyteng, Unsplash)
¶ “Amazon Announces First Renewable Energy Project In Singapore” • Amazon has announced its first renewable energy project in Singapore, buying energy from the solar provider Sunseap Group. The installation is noteworthy, as Sunseap will deploy mobile solar systems on temporarily vacant land and redeploy them as needed. [DatacenterDynamics]
Sunday, March 21
Crane Mountain, Adirondacks (Eva Darron, Unsplash)
¶ “Acid Rain Is Leaving The Adirondacks, But Scientists Say Restoration Is Still A Long Way Off” • Scientists say data on acid rain collected at an observatory on the summit of Whiteface Mountain tell a success story stretching over the past fifty years, as acid rain has been reduced. But recovery from the problem will take time. [The Adirondack Daily Enterprise]
Tesla Model 3 (Vlad Tchompalov, Unsplash)
¶ “ARK Invest’s New Tesla Bull Case – $4 Trillion Market Cap, 10 Million Cars Sold In 2025” • ARK Invest was one of the early Tesla Bulls. It turned out they were right, and everyone else dramatically adjusted their expectations. Now, ARK Invest has a new Tesla price target. It is forecasting that Tesla will achieve a $4 trillion market cap. [CleanTechnica]
Greenhouse (Harits Mustya Pratama, Unsplash)
¶ “Semi-Transparent Solar Cells Can Power Greenhouses Without Stunting Plant Growth” • Greenhouses fitted with semi-transparent solar cells can generate electricity without affecting the growth and health of the plants inside, according to a new study. This suggests we could build energy-neutral greenhouses without harming crops. [ScienceAlert]
Monday, March 22
Fracking in the Permian Basin (Rhod08, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
¶ “Have Rosy Forecasts About The Legacy Energy Industry Created A Financial Bubble?” • We’ve heard a lot lately about a “bubble” in Tesla and other EV-related stocks. But a report from the independent think tank RethinkX argues that a far more dangerous bubble exists around conventional coal, gas, nuclear, and hydroelectric energy assets. [CleanTechnica]
Pollution from particulates (Center For Disease Control)
¶ “Big Oil’s Lies About Pollution Health Risks Contributed To Millions Of Deaths” • Thanks to a report by The Guardian, we now know the major oil companies knew all about health risks from fine particulate matter for decades, but instead of doing anything about the problem, they poured their money into disinformation campaigns. [CleanTechnica]
Solar array in Colorado (Science in HD, Unsplash)
¶ “Solar, Wind Power To Drive Renewable Energy Growth This Year” • Renewable energy installations of solar, wind, and storage facilities are set to rise by 40% year on year to another record 190 GW globally this year. This is an acceleration from a 30% on-year expansion in 2020 that happened despite project delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. [The Sun Daily]
Tuesday, March 23
Offshore wind turbines (Insung Yoon, Unsplash)
¶ “Offshore Wind ‘Could Deliver 166% Of Texas Power'” • Texas could have 166% of its electricity needs covered by offshore wind, a report from the Environment Texas Research & Policy Center says. The report also said that 19 of the 29 states with offshore wind potential could produce more electricity from it than they used in 2019. [reNEWS]
Goodrich Farm (Courtesy of Vanguard Renewables)
¶ “Vermont ‘Digester’ Harvests Renewable Gas, Like Cow Manure And Food Waste, For Cooking” • Without any odor or fanfare, the methane wrung from the manure of 900 cows and organic waste from regional cheese, beer, coffee, and ice cream plants will enter the Vermont Gas Systems pipelines by mid-spring, the utility says. [BurlingtonFreePress.com]
Solar field (Rachel McDevitt, StateImpact Pennsylvania)
¶ “Wolf Administration To Buy Half Of State Government’s Electricity From Solar” • Pennsylvania’s Wolf Administration says it is making the largest government commitment to solar energy in the country, by agreeing to buy power from seven new solar projects in the state. A 15-year PPA will cover about half the state government’s electricity. [StateImpact Pennsylvania]
Wednesday, March 24
Disapproving Kingfisher (Vincent van Zalinge, Unsplash)
¶ “Our Survival Depends On Treating Nature With More Respect” • Intersecting and escalating crises – disruption of our climate, the collapse of biodiversity, the declining health of the ocean and the depletion of natural resources – demonstrate clearly that we cannot continue on our current path. We are the authors of our own misfortune. [CNN]
New Territories (Ivan Theodoulou, Unsplash, cropped)
¶ “The Rivers That ‘Breathe’ Greenhouse Gases” • Rivers are a surprisingly large source of greenhouse gases, and pollution makes their emissions many times worse. On the surface, the New Territories appear to be Hong Kong’s green lung, but the reality is rather more disconcerting. It is releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases. [BBC]
Natural gas plant in Massachusetts (Fletcher, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
¶ “FERC Adopts GHG Review in Natural Gas Order” • The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has incorporated a review of climate change impacts in a natural gas certificate decision, sparking a sharp debate among the commissioners over the major policy implications for future infrastructure projects under its purview. [Natural Gas Intelligence]
Energy Week #411: 3/25/2021
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 