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Energy Week #456: 2/3/2022
Minute 0: Introduction
Thursday, January 27
Tesla interior (Bram Van Oost, Unsplash)
Minute 2
¶ “Tesla expects 50% growth despite supply chain woes” • Tesla sales will grow by more than 50% in 2022 compared with last year despite supply chain problems, chief executive Elon Musk has said. The electric carmaker reported a record $5.5 billion profit last year. Sales at the firm rocketed 71% to $53.8 billion in 2021, as it delivered over 936,000 vehicles. [BBC]
Seafood (Douglas Lopez, Unsplash)
Minute 5
¶ “Is Your Seafood Climate Friendly? Scientists Outline The Benefits Of Marine Aquaculture” • Writing in BioScience, Alice Jones of the University of Adelaide, and an international team of scientists from the University and The Nature Conservancy, discuss the potential of marine aquaculture to feed a growing human population sustainably. [Newswise]
Lightning ahead (NOAA image, Unsplash)
Minute 8
¶ “Climate Change: How Much Will It Cost? McKinsey Has The Answer” • McKinsey is one of the world’s largest consulting firms, identifying risks and advising clients how to deal with them. It has issued a report that attempts to put real numbers on the true cost of climate change. There is good news in the report, but to realize it, we have to act. [CleanTechnica]
Friday, January 28
Oil drilling platform (Gary Leavens, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Minute 11
¶ “Federal Judge Cites Climate Crisis In Decision To Cancel Oil And Gas Leases In Gulf Of Mexico” • A federal judge invalidated a massive oil and gas lease sale for 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico after a coalition of environmental groups sued the Biden admnistration to stop it. The ruling cancels 1.7 million acres of oil and gas leases from that sale. [CNN]
Great Barrier Reef (Marek Okon, Unsplash)
Minute 13
¶ “Australia Pledges $700 Million To Protect Great Barrier Reef Amid Climate Change Threat” • With a February 1 deadline to give UNESCO a report on the state of conservation of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia’s government pledged A$1 billion ($700 million) to protect it. The Australian Climate Council called the pledge “a band-aid on a broken leg.” [CNN]
Gas burner (Brett Jordan, Unsplash)
Minute 16
¶ “Gas Stoves Are A Threat To Health And Have Larger Climate Impact Than Previously Known, Study Shows” • The gas emitted from household stoves and ovens is not only dangerous to public health but also has much more significant impacts on the climate crisis than previously thought, research by scientists at Stanford University shows. [CNN]
Saturday, January 29
Gathering storm, Jan 29, 2021 (NOAA image)
Minute 19
¶ “Dangerous Heavy Snow And Winds Approaching Hurricane Intensity Could Knock Out Power, Flood Coastal Areas As Weekend Nor’easter Revs Up” • A weekend nor’easter that’s forming off the coast of the Carolinas Friday night will likely quickly strengthen as it begins making its way up the East Coast overnight into Saturday. [CNN]
School bus (Photo courtesy of UES)
Minute 22
¶ “NYC’s First Electric School Buses Are Diesel-To-Electric Repowers, And That’s A Big Deal” • New York City has committed to having only electric school buses by 2035. The first of them are hitting the city’s streets now. In a pioneering move, instead of buying buses, Logan Bus Company is having 5 older diesel buses converted to electric. [CleanTechnica]
Aptera, 250 mile range with a small battery (ApteraMotorsMedia, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 24
¶ “Six Solutions To Battery Mineral Challenges” • A flood of recent articles, whether spontaneous or coordinated, seeks to discredit renewable energy, EVs, and other elements energy transition to save the climate. One claim is that it’s immensely destructive if not impossible to find enough minerals to make all the batteries. There are solutions. [CleanTechnica]
Sunday, January 30
Kilimanjaro with nearly no snow (Stephan Bechert, Unsplash)
Minute 27
¶ “Natural Landmarks Already Damaged Or Destroyed By Climate Change” • Most people who never travel to exotic places will nonetheless recognize images of Mount Kilimanjaro with its legendary snows, or the Great Barrier Reef and its rich marine life. But these and many other iconic natural wonders are losing their struggle with climate change. [24/7 Wall St]
Solar racer (Images courtesy of Northern Territory Government)
Minute 30
¶ “The Northern Territory EV Transition” • Australia’s Northern Territory has long been associated with the biennial World Solar Car Challenge. A recent survey showed 78% of Territorians would consider purchasing an EV if they were on price parity with petrol or diesel cars. The government of the territory is working on making that happen. [CleanTechnica]
Astronaut Thomas Pesquet (ESA/NASA image)
Minute 32
¶ “What An Astronaut Could See From Space That Changed Him For Good” • European Space Agency said the effects of climate change on Earth were increasingly visible from space and showed a marked difference since his last visit to the space station in 2016: retreating glaciers, pollution, and extreme weather events. [CNN]
Monday, January 31
Japanese Red Pine (David J. Stang, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 35
¶ “Nuclear Disaster In Japan Did Something Strange To Trees” • Trees outside Fukushima Daiichi are definitely acting weird, according to a study published recently in the journal Plants. Conifers in the area near the nuclear plant are showing unusual growth patterns, with the degree of irregularity in proportion to the distance from the plant. [Futurism]
Tokamak reactor during maintenance (Rswilcox, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 38
¶ “Can Nuclear Fusion Power The Race To Net Zero?” • The IPCC’s landmark report in 2018 concluded that the world needs to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to have a good chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. Estimates for when fusion might come into use range from 2030 to 2050, and beyond. That’s not soon enough. [Energy Monitor]
BYD S7 (Mohammad Fathollahi, Unsplash)
Minute 40
¶ “Tesla #1 In World EV Sales In 2021” • After a walk in the park in 2019 and 2020, Tesla had another comfortable win of its 4th consecutive Best Seller title in 2021. However, with its market share eroding (12% in 2018, 17% in 2019, 16% in 2020, and 14% in 2021), a competitor might challenge Tesla in 2022, and that would most likely be BYD. [CleanTechnica]
Tuesday, February 1
Wind farm (Andrea Junqueira, Unsplash)
Minute 43
¶ “Record 31.1 GW Of PPAs Signed In 2021” • Corporations bought over 31 GW of renewable electricity through power purchase agreements in 2021, BloombergNEF research shows. The figure set a new record, up nearly 24% on the previous year’s 25.1 GW. Almost two thirds (65%) or 20.3 GW of the PPAs were struck in the Americas. [reNews]
Solar farm (Gunnar Ridderström, Unsplash)
Minute 46
¶ “Farmers Profiting From The Solar Power Boom” • Some 75% of the UK’s land is farmland. This typically flat, open land is also best suited to renewables. In 2019, around 40% of farmers were already generating, and profiting from, low-carbon energy, says the UK National Farmers’ Union. They produced around 10% of the UK’s electricity. [Energy Monitor]
Coal-burning plant in New York (Ale Alvarez, Unsplash)
Minute 48
¶ “EPA To Bring Back Mercury Pollution Rules That Were Nixed Under Trump Administration” • The EPA announced it intends to reaffirm its authority to regulate toxic mercury from power plant smokestacks, undoing a Trump rollback. The EPA proposes to bring back the 2012 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rules implemented under President Obama. [CNN]
Wednesday, February 2
Battery system (Acciona image)
Minute 51
¶ “Zinc-Bromide Batteries To Store Solar Power At Acciona’s Testing Field In Spain” • Spanish renewable energy firm Acciona Energía will test the zinc bromide battery technology developed by Anglo-Australian manufacturer Gelion at its PV testing plant in Navarra. The project is part of an innovation program started by Acciona Energy. [PV Magazine]
Satellite imagery of the lightning strike (NOAA image)
Minute 54
¶ “Almost 500-Mile-Long Lightning Bolt Crossed Three US States” • A lightning bolt almost 500 miles long that lit up the sky across three US states has set a new world record for longest flash, scientists have confirmed. The bolt in 2020, extended a total of 477.2 miles (768 km) and spread across Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. [BBC]
Cherry blossoms (Marijana Vasic, Unsplash)
Minute 56
¶ “UK Plants Are Flowering A Whole Month Earlier Than They Used To, Study Shows” • Climate change is making plants across the British Isles flower, on average, a month earlier than they used to, a new study shows. And that might set off a chain of events that could disrupt ecosystems and potentially cause entire species to collapse. [CNN]
Minute 59: Finis
Notes: Energy Week #456: 2/3/2022
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
Minute 5
Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell 