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Energy Week #434: 9/2/2021
Minute 0: Introduction
Thursday, August 26
Microplastic particles in tooth paste (Dantor, CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Minute 2
¶ “How To Fight Microplastic Pollution With Magnets” • Fionn Ferreira, a chemistry student at Groningen University in the Netherlands, found a way to use magnets to extract microplastics from water. He mixed vegetable oil with iron oxide powder to create a magnetic liquid, which attached to the particles. He was 87% successful in trapping them. [BBC]
Energy Vault EVx storage tower (Energy Vault image)
Minute 5
¶ “Funding For Gravity-Based Renewable Energy Storage Tower For Grid-Scale Operations” • Energy Vault, maker of the EVx gravitational energy storage tower, has secured $100 million in series C funding. The investment was led by Prime Movers Lab, with additional participation from SoftBank, Saudi Aramco, Helena, and Idealab X. [PV Magazine]
Heatwave (Lucian Dachman, Unsplash)
Minute 8
¶ “Europe’s 2020 Heat Reached ‘Troubling’ Level” • Last year was the warmest on record across Europe, breaking the previous high mark by a considerable amount, say scientists. Temperatures in the region were more than 1.9°C above the long-term average of 1981 through 2010. Also, Arctic Temperatures were the highest since records began in 1900. [BBC]
Friday, August 27
Quinoa growing in the Dubai desert (ICBA image)
Minute 11
¶ “This Center In Dubai Is Growing ‘Future-Proof’ Food In The Desert” • In the Dubai desert, farmers must contend with intense heat, limited freshwater and sandy soil. Here, the International Center of Biosaline Agriculture is transplanting and growing salt-loving superfoods in an effort to expand food diversity in the region. [CNN]
Solar array (Neoen image)
Minute 13
¶ “Australia’s Largest Planned Renewables Zone ‘Swamped’ With 34 GW Of Capacity” • Australia’s newest planned renewable energy zone has been “swamped” by investors, according to the New South Wales government. It revealed that 34 GW of new solar, wind, and energy storage projects have been proposed for the 8-GW site. [PV Magazine]
Tesla Model 3 (Vlad Tchompalov, Unsplash)
Minute 16
¶ “Tesla Is Slowly Cutting Into Pharmaceutical And Health Insurance Costs” • Tesla doesn’t make medicines or cure diseases, but it is having a growing effect on the pharmaceutical industry and the health insurance industry here in America. Asthma, Covid-19, and dementia have all been shown to be made worse by air pollution. [CleanTechnica]
Saturday, August 28
Yara Birkeland (Yara International image)
Minute 19
¶ “World’s First Crewless, Zero Emissions Cargo Ship Will Set Sail In Norway” • Yara International, a Norwegian company, has created what it calls the world’s first zero-emission, autonomous cargo ship. The ship is to make a journey between two towns in Norway, with a reduced crew on board to test the autonomous systems, before the end of the year. [CNN]
Queen Elizabeth II speaking to open parliament (Parliament TV)
Minute 22
¶ “Queen Elizabeth II Will Attend UN Climate Change Talks In Glasgow” • Queen Elizabeth II will attend a pivotal UN climate change conference in Glasgow this fall, giving a royal boost to the event, according to a tweet from organizers. The UK is hosting global leaders for the nearly two weeks of talks in the Scottish city from October 31 to November 12. [CNN]
Rivian pickup truck (Rivian image)
Minute 24
¶ “Rivian Aims For $80 Billion Valuation In IPO” • At long last, Rivian is on the verge of going public. It hasn’t yet delivered a single customer car (or truck), but it is aiming to start its public market life with a whopping $80 billion valuation when it has an IPO later this year. That might seem like a lot, but Amazon and Ford are already big investors. [CleanTechnica]
Sunday, August 29
Tesla Model Y cars (Tesla image)
Minute 27
¶ “The Waiting List To Own A Tesla Is Growing” • Tesla’s waiting lists are back. For most models, if you order today, you may be lucky to see your new Tesla this year. Tesla is predicting a wait of up to six weeks for the Performance Model 3 and Performance Model X. For some models, estimated delivery times can be as far out as April 2022. [CleanTechnica]
Solar Everywhere: NREL Pioneers the Future of Photovoltaics (NREL)
Minute 30
¶ “Space Mission Tests NREL Perovskite Solar Cells” • NREL Researchers are testing ways to bring costs down for terrestrial applications and transforming how PV technologies could work in space. Now, a test will evaluate the potential use of perovskite solar cells in space and assess the durability of materials used in those cells. [CleanTechnica]
Projected path of Hurricane Ida (NOAA image)
Minute 32
¶ “Louisiana Hasn’t Yet Recovered From Two Major Hurricanes In 2020. Now Another Is Taking Aim” • Five named storms struck Louisiana in 2020. Two of them were major hurricanes, doing a total of $18.75 billion in damages. As the state still reels from the destruction, another major hurricane is now barreling toward the coast. [CNN]
Monday, August 30
Hurricane Ida, August 29, 7:00 AM (NASA image, public domain)
Minute 35
¶ “Hurricane Ida Forces Mississippi River To Reverse Flow” • Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 mph. Its storm surge and strong winds actually caused the flow of the Mississippi River near New Orleans to reverse, something the US Geological Survey says is “extremely uncommon.” [CNN]
Minute 38
First floating wind turbine being towed to sea (Lars Christopher, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
¶ “Floating Wind Turbines Could Open Up Vast Ocean Tracts For Renewable Power” • In the stormy waters of the North Sea, 15 miles off the coast of Aberdeenshire, in Scotland, five floating offshore wind turbines stretch 574 feet (175 metres) above the water. The world’s first floating windfarm, it has already broken UK records for energy output. [The Guardian]
Wind turbines (Tom Swinnen, Pexels)
Minute 40
¶ “Non-Hydro Renewables To Have 72% Of Power Capacity Growth By 2030, Fitch Says” • Non-hydropower renewables – which refers largely to wind and solar power – will account for 72% of global capacity growth between 2020 and 2030, amid efforts to rapidly decarbonize the global power systems, Fitch Solutions projected. [The National]
Tuesday, August 31
Charging an EV (Mike, Pexels)
Minute 43
¶ “Keep Fuel Dollars Local By Switching To EVs” • A study shows that in the US Southeast, consumers spend about $94 billion on fossil fuels annually. Of this money, about $64 billion leaks out of the region’s economy every year. A switch to EVs powered by local renewable energy would retain this within the region, a boon to its economy. [CleanTechnica]
Rainfall potential of storm (NOAA image)
Minute 46
¶ “Climate Change Is Making Hurricanes Stronger, Slower And Wetter. Ida Checked All The Boxes” • Human-caused climate change is making hurricanes more dangerous. They are produce rainfall, move slower once they make landfallm and generate larger storm surges along the coast. Hurricane Ida was a prime example of those changes. [CNN]
Storm (Hunt on Photos Studio, Pexels)
Minute 48
¶ “Hurricane Ida: One Million People In Louisiana Without Power” • Louisiana residents may be in the dark for weeks as officials take stock of the damage from Hurricane Ida. Ida made landfall on Sunday with 150 mph (240 km/h) winds, the fifth strongest to ever hit the US mainland. About one million locals remain without power. [BBC]
Wednesday, September 1
Jiangsu Nantong power station (Kristoferb, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 51
¶ “China Curbs Coal-Fired Power Expansion, Giving Way To Renewables” • In the first half of this year, the government of China has chopped newly-approved coal-fired units by 78.8% to 5.2 GW as compared with the same period last year, the non-government environment organisation Greenpeace said in its latest research report. [Upstream Online]
Thermal energy storage (Patrick Davenport and Al Hicks, NREL)
Minute 54
¶ “Using Hot Sand To Store Energy” • Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are in the late stages of prototype testing a thermal energy storage technology that uses silica sand as a storage medium. The system is a reliable, cost-effective, and scalable solution that can be sited anywhere. The sand is heated to 1,200°C (2,192°F) for energy storage. [CleanTechnica]
Notre Dame gargoyle over the city streets (Pedro Lastra, Unsplash)
Minute 56
¶ “Paris Slams On The Brakes And Sets 30 kph Speed Limit To Reduce Pollution” • Authorities in Paris are forcing drivers to slow down, setting a speed limit on almost all the city’s roads to reduce pollution and improve safety. But there are questions about whether the rule, which limits drivers to 30 kph (19 mph), will actually reduce pollution. [CNN]
Minute 59: Finis
Notes:
Energy Week #434: 9/2/2021
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 