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Energy Week #450: 12/23/2021
Minute 0: Introduction
Thursday, December 16
Recovering waste building materials (Rotor image)
Minute 2
¶ “The Buildings Made From Rubbish” • Roughly half of the raw materials we extract go into the built environment. Construction creates an estimated third of the world’s overall waste, and at least 40% of the world’s CO₂ emissions. “Why don’t we re-use what we’ve already extracted, rather than gouging the planet for ever more raw materials?” [BBC]
Anjali Sharma (Supplied image)
Minute 5
¶ “The Teenagers And The Nun Trying To Stop An Australian Coal Mine” • Eight teenagers and an elderly nun in Australia won a climate case in a historic judgement. Their case has now been appealed by the country’s government. If the final verdict swings in their favour, it will have ramifications not just for Australian law but for climate cases world-wide. [BBC]
Solar array in Israel (EDF Renewables Israel)
Minute 8
¶ “‘Gas Can Wait,’ Says Energy Minister, Rejecting Panel’s Call For Further Exploration” • Israeli Energy minister Karine Elharrar announced that “gas can wait” and that she will not accept the recommendations of Ehud Adiri, the former ministry director-general, to continue exploring for natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea. [The Times of Israel]
Friday, December 17
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol (IEA image)
Minute 11
¶ “IEA Warns Coal Rebound Threatens Net Zero” • The amount of electricity generated worldwide from coal is surging towards a new annual record in 2021, threatening net-zero goals, according to the International Energy Agency. After falling in 2019 and 2020, global power generation from coal is expected to jump by 9% in 2021 to an all-time high. [reNews]
Renault Zoe (Vauxford, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 13
¶ “34% Plugin Vehicle Share In German Auto Market!” • The overall German car market is tanking (-32% year over year) and the perennial leader, the Volkswagen Golf, falling off a cliff (-70% YOY!). Amazingly, the two leading cars are both EVs, and both made outside Germany. And plugin sales are growing so fast that they have 34% of the market. [CleanTechnica]
Rooftop solar (Jeroen van de Water, Unsplash)
Minute 16
¶ “Green Energy Becomes Critical For Manufacturing” • Access to renewable energy is becoming a more important factor in manufacturing plant construction and expansion. It is a trend economic development experts say has legs. Traditional metrics of production costs still drive site selection, but access to clean power is moving up the list. [IndustryWeek]
Saturday, December 18
Offshore wind turbines (Pontificalibus, CC0, public domain)
Minute 19
¶ “Massachusetts Picks Both Bidders for Next Round of Offshore Wind” • Baker administration officials have announced awards for offshore wind development to Vineyard Wind I, a 1,200-MW proposal from Vineyard Wind, and a 400-MW proposal from Mayflower Wind. They were selected to jointly form the third wave of offshore wind power. [NBC Boston]
Jimmy Carter after graduation from Annapolis (Public domain)
Minute 22
¶ “Fact Check: Did Jimmy Carter Stop A Nuclear Reactor From Destroying Ottawa?” • Some social media users and accounts have been reminiscing about the time that a young Jimmy Carter purportedly helped avoid a major nuclear disaster after heading a clean up operation at a nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ontario, Canada. Spoiler: It’s true. [Newsweek]
GameChange Solar tracking (GameChange Solar image)
Minute 24
¶ “Koch Industries Invests $150 Million Into Tracking Company GameChange Solar, Pair To Explore Strategic Partnerships” • Koch Strategic Platforms, a subsidiary of Koch Investments Group, has made a $150 million investment in racking and tracking company GameChange Solar to support its strategic development goals. [PV Tech]
Sunday, December 19
Looking for water (Cynthia Mendoza, USDA, public domain)
Minute 27
¶ “The Warning Shot The US Is Ignoring: Climate Change Impacts On California Central Valley” • California’s Central Valley is expected to suffer many effects of climate change. This will affect the whole country, because what happens in the valley doesn’t stay in the valley. The Union of Concerned Scientists is devoting a blog series to the region. [CleanTechnica]
Nuclear plant (Nicolas Hippert, Unsplash)
Minute 30
¶ “Nuclear Energy Scares People. The Climate Crisis Is Giving It Another Chance” • Nuclear plants are notoriously expensive to build. Construction tends to run over budget and time, and wind and solar energy has typically come out cheaper. How to safely store the radioactive waste it produces is another headache. But some people demonstrate in favor of it. [CNN]
Proterra electric bus plant (Proterra image)
Minute 32
¶ “$5 Billion For Electric School Buses In US Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act” • The Infrastructure Investment And Jobs Act, aka Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, includes $5 billion for EV charging, but – much less discussed – it also includes $5 billion for cleaner school buses, especially electric school buses! This is tranformative. [CleanTechnica]
Monday, December 20
School bus (Courtesy of SEA Electric)
Minute 35
¶ “SEA To Convert 10,000 US School Buses To Electricity” • SEA Electric, a provider of electric commercial vehicles originally from Australia and now based in Los Angeles, has stuck a deal with Midwest Transit Equipment to convert 10,000 existing school buses to electric vehicles over the next five years. Midwest will provide the buses. [CleanTechnica]
Solar array (Total image)
Minute 38
¶ “TotalEnergies To Develop 160 MW Of New Caledonia PV” • TotalEnergies is to develop solar farms in New Caledonia totaling 160 MW and 340 MWh of energy storage to supply electricity under a 25-year renewable power purchase agreement for the industrial operations of mining and metallurgy consortium Prony Resources New Caledonia. [reNews]
Arctic Ocean (NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio)
Minute 40
¶ “The Arctic Should Never Feel Like The Mediterranean” • A warming Arctic should alarm all of us. The BBC has reported that it’s been seeing Mediterranean-like temperatures in the summer. The UN’s World Meteorological Organization recently verified the record that was set on June 20, 2020, in the Siberian town of Verkhoyansk. [CleanTechnica]
Tuesday, December 21
Joe Manchin (MDGovpics, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Minute 43
¶ “Democrats Scramble To Salvage Climate Provisions After Manchin Sinks Build Back Better” • With Senator Joe Manchin confirming he’s a “no” on President Joe Biden’s social spending package, the fate of the bill’s $550 bill worth of climate and energy provisions – and the President’s climate agenda – are now on the line. [CNN]
Electric vehicle charging (Mike, Pexels)
Minute 46
¶ “Thirteen New Electric Vehicle Battery Factories Planned In USA Within Next Five Years” • In addition to EV battery plants now operating in the US, thirteen have been announced that are expected to be operational within five years. Of the thirteen planned plants, eight are joint ventures between automakers and battery manufacturers. [CleanTechnica]
Traffic in New York City (Gautam Krishnan, Unsplash)
Minute 48
¶ “Biden Raises Fuel-Economy Standards To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions” • The EPA will issue a final rule to raise mileage standards starting in the 2023 model year, reaching a projected industry-wide target of 40 mpg by 2026. This is 25% higher than a rule finalized by the Trump administration last year and 5% higher than an EPA proposal in August. [WKYC]
Wednesday, December 22
Sago Mine entrance (MSHA, public doman)
Minute 51
¶ “Coal Miners Want Joe Manchin To Reverse Opposition To Build Back Better” • Senator Joe Manchin is facing calls from a powerful group close to his heart to reconsider his opposition to the Build Back Better Act: Coal miners. America’s largest coal mining union praised the legislation’s provisions and pushed Manchin to take a do-over. [CNN]
Heliostats (Courtesy of NREL and the Heliostat Consortium)
Minute 54
¶ “High-Tech Mirrors Used In Solar Power Plants Get New International Consortium” • The US DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, joined by Sandia National Laboratories and the Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute, announced the launch of the Heliostat Consortium, an international effort to drive down the cost of heliostats. [CleanTechnica]
Tree and Spanish moss (Dawn McDonald, Unsplash)
Minute 56
¶ “Plants Responding To More CO₂ In Atmosphere With More Photosynthesis – But Not Matching CO₂ Increase” • Research from Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley shows more photosynthesis by plants in response to increased atmospheric CO₂, SciTechDaily reported. That’s great, but it isn’t close to removing the amount of CO₂ that needs to be drawn down. [CleanTechnica]
Minute 59: Finis
Notes: Energy Week #450: 12/23/2021
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 