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Energy Week #502 – 12/15/2022
Minute 0: Introduction
Thursday, December 8
Fishlake National Forest (Robert Merrill, Unsplash, cropped)
Minute 2
¶ “BLM Announces Geothermal Lease Sale In Southwestern Utah” • The Bureau of Land Management proposes to offer two geothermal lease sale parcels in Millard County, Utah, totaling about 3,045 acres. The land is in the Fishlake National Forest, where the BLM Fillmore Field Office manages the subsurface minerals. [Renewable Energy Magazine]
Solar farm (Gunnar Ridderström, Unsplash)
Minute 5
¶ “Renewables Providers To Be Paid To Ensure Stable Electricity Supply” • In Australia, the Federal and state-level governments have unanimously signed on to developing an energy “capacity mechanism” to pay renewable energy providers to be available to increase electricity supply at a moment’s notice, providing dispatchable renewable power. [ABC]
Calwood fire (Malachi Brooks, Unsplash)
Minute 8
¶ “More Americans Are Moving Into Harm’s Way As Climate Disasters Increase” • A study by researchers from the University of Vermont found that Americans have moved out of some areas prone to scorching summer heat waves and hurricanes in the last ten years. Yet many are migrating into regions hit by extreme wildfires, heat, and worsening drought. [CNN]
Friday, December 9
University of Sydney (Image by the University of Sydney)
Minute 19
¶ “Low Cost Sodium Sulfur Battery Shows Promise” • At the University of Sydney, researchers are touting breakthroughs in the lab that they say may lead to new, low cost sodium sulfur batteries with four times the energy storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries. Their research has been published recently in the journal Advanced Materials. [CleanTechnica]
Farm (Timothy Eberly, Unsplash)
Minute 13
¶ “Climate Change Is Driving Up Food Prices” • There is a strong link between climate change and the increasing food costs. A sixth of agricultural production is traded internationally, which means that what happens in highly climate-vulnerable countries will impact what Americans eat or drink. Damage from climate change is already happening. [WhoWhatWhy]
Byron Kominek, Jack’s Solar Garden (Werner Slocum, NREL)
Minute 16
¶ “Solar Power And Farming: US DOE Providing $8 Million For Agrivoltaics” • The US DOE announced $8 million for six solar energy research projects that will provide opportunities for farmers, rural communities, and the solar industry. The funding is to support agrivoltaics, the co-location of agriculture and solar energy on the same land. [CleanTechnica]
Saturday, December 10
Rhinoceros (Rachel Hannah Photo, Unsplash)
Minute 19
¶ “What is a mass extinction and are we causing one?” • No credible scientist disputes that we are in a crisis regarding the speed at which nature is being destroyed. Some are saying we could be entering a sixth mass extinction. Opening the COP15 conference in Montréal, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said a million species now “teeter on the brink.” [BBC]
Rachel Huang at work (Jian-Cheng Lai, Stanford University)
Minute 22
¶ “Flameproofing Lithium-Ion Batteries With Salt” • Rachel Z Huang and others at Stanford University and the DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory developed a non-flammable electrolyte for lithium-ion batteries. Their work showed that batteries containing this electrolyte continue to function at high temperatures without igniting. [CleanTechnica]
Refinery (Robin Sommer, Unsplash)
Minute 24
¶ “Big Oil Has Engaged In A Long Climate Disinformation Campaign While Raking In Record Profits, Lawmakers Find” • Big Oil companies engaged in a “long-running greenwashing campaign” while raking in “record profits at the expense of American consumers,” the House Oversight Committee has found after a year-long investigation. [CNN]
Sunday, December 11
Wind turbine (Corio Generation image)
Minute 27
¶ “NSW Declares First Renewable Energy Zone With Offshore Wind In Plan To Replace Coal” • New South Wales has declared its fourth renewable energy zone as it races to install new wind, solar, and storage infrastructure to replace the country’s biggest fleet of coal generators. It is the first zone that includes access to offshore windpower. [Renew Economy]
Interior of a Tesla Semi (Photo courtesy of Tesla)
Minute 30
¶ “How Pepsi’s Tesla Semis Will Change Hauling” • The Tesla Semi represents major changes to come in the hauling industry. It could help prove to consumers and commercial customers that batteries can support heavy-cargo vehicles over long distances. And that is an important shift to help reduce global supply chain emissions. [CleanTechnica]
Rescued pieces of coral (Reef Restoration Foundation)
Minute 32
¶ “Great Barrier Reef ‘Coral Nurseries’ Show Early Signs Of Success” • A UN report recommended that the reef be added to the World Heritage “in danger” list. Now, pieces of broken coral are being rescued and rehabilitated so they can be transplanted back onto the Great Barrier Reef. But marine scientists say it’s no substitute for action on climate change. [ABC]
Monday, December 12
Solar cells (MIT image)
Minute 35
¶ “Ultra Thin Printed Solar Cells From MIT” • Researchers at MIT developed ultra thin, flexible solar cells that can be printed using semiconductor inks and scalable fabrication techniques. They are much thinner than a human hair, weigh 1% as much as a conventional solar panels, and generate 18 times more power per kilogram, an MIT blog post says. [CleanTechnica]
Australia (Joeyy Lee, Unsplash)
Minute 38
¶ “Australia Already At ‘Worst Case’ Climate Scenarios For 2030” • Australia already appears to be experiencing the worst-case climate scenarios that were projected to occur eight years from now. The finding was revealed by world-renowned climatologist David Karoly’s analysis of how closely projections published in 2015 align to current conditions. [Cosmos Magazine]
Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (Rachel Gordon via Facebook)
I don’t know of a conspiracy theory that explains this. Science does.
Minute 40
¶ “Rare Wave Clouds Amaze Sky-Watchers In Wyoming” • A stunned sky-watcher in Wyoming snapped photos of a rare cloud formation that looked a lot like ocean surf. “This was special and I immediately knew I needed to capture it,” Rachel Gordon said. Kelvin-Helmholtz instability should remind us of how amazing nature can be. [BBC]
Tuesday, December 13
Battery installation (Courtesy of Corsica Sole)
Minute 43
¶ “Forty Tesla Megapacks Replace 70-Year-Old Generating Plant In Belgium” • The Tesla Megapack is bringing changes to the utility grid in the Belgian city of Lessines, which has depended on a gas-fired turbine for its electricity for 70 years. The plant was built in six months. It provides frequency regulation on the Belgian electricity network. [CleanTechnica]
Hyperloop (Image courtesy of TransPod)
Minute 46
¶ “Denmark’s Potential Role In Nordic Hyperloop Solutions” • Hyperloop serves relatively small autonomous vehicles (called pods) that move in an almost airless tube on a magnetic track at high speed – up to 1,000 km/h (620 mph). Without air or track friction, it is very efficient. A hyperloop is being proposed for Denmark. [CleanTechnica]
Ford F-150 Lightning (Courtesy of Ford)
Minute 48
¶ “US Forest Service Aims For Fleet Of 17,000 Battery-Electric Vehicles And Is Piloting Ford F-150 Lightning” • The US Forest Service is testing the Ford F-150 Lightning pickup as it begins to transition its 17,000 vehicles (fossil powered at the moment) to a rugged, sometimes off-road fleet of over 17,000 battery-electric vehicles. [CleanTechnica]
Wednesday, December 14
Deer in Wyoming (nacho_c via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)
Minute 51
¶ “Counterintuitive: Large Wild Herbivores May Help Slow Climate Change” • In the battle to combat climate change, large herbivores like elephants – ambling about, stripping branches, chomping on tree seedlings or even uprooting full-grown trees – appear to be the enemy. But a paper published in the journal Current Biology begs to differ. [Mongabay]
Tesla (Makara Heng, Pexels)
Minute 54
¶ “Tesla Sold Over 100,000 Shanghai-Built EVs In November” • The Chinese auto market slumped in November, with an overall drop in sales across the market. Nevertheless, Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai posted record numbers during the same month. Some say the news shows Tesla’s electric vehicle dominance in the world’s largest auto market. [CleanTechnica]
Wind turbine (Siemens Gamesa image)
Minute 56
¶ “Taiwan Awards 8.7 GW Of Capacity In Round 3” • Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has awarded tenders to more than 8700 MW of offshore wind farms in the country. Among those who entered bids, total of six developers and ten projects have qualified for the first round selection for the Phase III Zonal Development auction. [reNews]
Minute 59: Finis
Notes: Energy Week #502 – 12/15/2022
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
Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell 