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Energy Week #512 – 3/2/2023
Minute 0: Introduction
Thursday, February 23
Solar panels (Courtesy of CP Foods)
Minute 2
¶ “CP Foods Installing Solar Panels At 180 Facilities In Renewable Energy Push” • Agro-industrial and food conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company has announced that it plans to increase its usage of green energy through the installation of solar panels at 180 animal farms, feed mills, and processing plants across Thailand. [SeafoodSource]
Snow (Les Anderson, Unsplash)
Minute 5
¶ “North America Hit By Blizzards And Heat Wave” • Record snow falls are expected in Minnesota. Los Angeles is under a blizzard warning. Low temperatures of -9°F are forcast for Montana. At the same time, high temperatures may be above 90°F in Florida, and record highs could be set in other parts of the South. Extreme weather is hitting the US. [BBC]
Solar panels (Holly Ireland, Pixy.org, CC0)
Minute 8
¶ “More Than Half Of New US Electricity Generating Capacity In 2023 Will Be Solar” • Developers plan to add 54.5 GW of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity to the US power grid in 2023, according the EIA’s Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. More than half of the new capacity will be solar (54%), followed by battery storage (17%). [CleanTechnica]
Friday, February 24
Heart Aerospace’s ES-19 (Courtesy of United Airlines)
Minute 10
¶ “New Design For Lithium-Air Battery Could Offer Much Longer Driving Range” • Scientists at the US DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and Illinois Institute of Technology have a lithium-air battery that could make a thousand mile EV range real. Such batteries could even power domestic airplanes and long-haul trucks one day. [CleanTechnica]
Cherry blossoms (Kristina Paukshtite, Pexels)
Minute 13
¶ “It’s Never Been This Warm In February. Here’s Why That’s Not Good” • More than 130 cities from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes could set new records for daily and monthly high temperatures this week. Highs will climb up to 80 degrees as far north as Ohio and West Virginia – certainly unusual, but getting less so in the warming climate. [CNN]
Offshore wind farm (Pixy.org, CC0)
Minute 16
¶ “Interior Department Proposes First-Ever Offshore Wind Sale In Gulf Of Mexico” • The Biden-Harris administration took a step to grow America’s clean energy economy, as the Interior Department proposed the first offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. This is part of the Administration’s actions to expand offshore wind opportunities. [CleanTechnica]
Saturday, February 25
Wind turbines (Pixy.org, CC0)
Minute 19
¶ “How Much Land Would It Require To Get Most Of Our Electricity From Wind And Solar?” • Critics of wind and solar often raise concerns about how much land would be required to decarbonize the US power sector. An NREL study shows that it would take an area comparable to or even smaller than the fossil fuel industry’s current footprint. [CleanTechnica]
Solar PV system (Sunrun image)
Minute 22
¶ “Sunrun Installed Almost A Gigawatt Of Solar In 2022!” • Sunrun, the leading provider of residential solar, storage and energy services in America, announced financial results for 2022. Sunrun says it added new installed solar energy capacity in 2022 by 25.2% YOY to 991 MW, modestly exceeding guidance. That’s almost 1 GW in one year! [CleanTechnica]
Drought (Markus Spiske, Unsplash, cropped)
Minute 24
¶ “Dry Canals, Low Rivers And Shrunken Lakes: Europe Braces For Severe Drought Amid Winter Heatwave” • A winter heatwave, record low levels of rain and a startling lack of snow in Europe are pushing rivers, canals, and lakes across the continent to alarmingly low levels, with experts warning there could be repeat of last year’s severe droughts. [CNN]
Sunday, February 26
Old steel mill in Wierton (Carol M Highsmith, Library of Congress)
Minute 27
¶ “West Virginia Gov Justice Greenlights Funding For Renewable Energy Battery Plant” • West Virginia’s governor signed a bill that gives $105 million in state funding for a Form Energy battery plant in Weirton, a former steel town. The 55-acre plant will produce iron-air batteries and is anticipated to create at least 750 jobs in a $760 million investment. [Voonze]
Royal DSM executive Mark van Nieuwland (Royal DSM image)
Minute 30
¶ “How Feed Additives Could Cut Methane Emissions From Livestock By 90%” • Scientists appear to have solved one of the biggest environmental challenges facing the meat industry: how to reduce methane emissions from cow burps. Dutch company Royal DSM says it has a product that can reduce cows’ methane emissions by up to 92%. [ABC]
Teslas charging (Tesla image)
Minute 32
¶ “US Electric Car Sales Increased 65% In 2022” • Tesla continues to dominate the US electric car sales market, which can make it seem like not much is changing. However, the biggest story is probably that the US electric car market as a whole continues to grow strongly. In 2022, our analysis shows that battery EV sales are up 65% compared to 2021. [CleanTechnica]
Monday, February 27
Wind farm (Freida Mcmurtrie, Pixy.org, CC0)
Minute 35
¶ “Red States Leading The US In Solar And Wind Production, New Report Shows” • A report by Climate Central shows how the US capacity to generate renewable energy shot up last year, and surprisingly, red states lead the nation in solar and wind power production. National wind and solar capacity grew 16% compared to 2021. [The Guardian]
Sand to Green plantation (Sand to Green image)
Minute 38
¶ “Sand To Green In Africa” • French-Moroccan startup Sand to Green aims to turn the desert from threat to food producer. The startup is using drip irrigation with desalinated sea or brackish water. Sand to Green has been field testing its techniques for the past three years in Morocco. The farming systems have proven themselves resilient. [CleanTechnica]
Coal power plant in China (Hanno Böck, CC0)
Minute 40
¶ “China Approved Most Coal Power Plants Since 2015 Last Year, Making Environmental Goals Harder” • China embarked on a massive expansion of its coal-fired power capacity in response to last summer’s historic power crisis, approving the equivalent of two large coal power plants per week, according to the findings of new research. [South China Morning Post]
Tuesday, February 28
Solar panels (Melany Klapper, Pixy.org, CC0)
Minute 43
¶ “Solar Installation Growth Expected To Reach 700 GW By 2025” • Solar polysilicon prices dropped immensely in recent years, then bounced up as supply couldn’t keep up with demand. Now, they seem to be dropping again as production capacity is increased. Rethink Energy expects that China will produce 432 to 540 GW of solar panels in 2023. [CleanTechnica]
Wind turbines in rural India (Yahoo! Blog, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Minute 46
¶ “ESG Investments Are Suddenly Appealing To Some Red State Leaders” • The federal endorsement of sustainable investments is prompting some red state legislators to embrace Environmental, Social, and Governance positions. What was once a red state onslaught against ESG investments is now a lot more like a pink puff of occasional air. [CleanTechnica]
Spiral-welding system (Courtesy of Keystone Tower Systems)
Minute 48
¶ “Army Of Spiral-Welding Wind Turbine Tower Trucks Sets Forth From…Texas?” • Elected officials in Texas may rant against renewable energy, but the state is a clean power pace-setter. The latest example is a forthcoming fleet of trucks bearing new spiral-welding technology that can lower the cost of wind turbine towers and raise the height. [CleanTechnica]
Wednesday, March 1
Central heat pump water heater (Courtesy of Ecotope)
Minute 51
¶ “Central Heat Pump Water Heaters Can Act As Massive Water Batteries, Seattle Pilot Project Shows” • Central heat pump water heaters present a tremendous opportunity to reduce the energy used in water heating and can act as giant thermal batteries. This was made clear in the first of its kind Bayview Tower pilot project in Seattle. [CleanTechnica]
Cheap alternative to an airplane (david henrichs, Unsplash)
Minute 54
¶ “Agriculture Is A Massive Climate Problem, And Ag Drones Are A Key Wedge” • How many benefits can one technology have? When it comes to agricultural drones, quite a few. Agribusinesses buy them because they save a lot of money and increase crop yield. The green benefits are a fringe benefit the rest of us will appreciate more and more. [CleanTechnica]
Rooftop solar panels (Pixy.org, CC0)
Minute 56
¶ “Nearly One In Three Homes In Australia Covered In Solar Panels” • Australia has been the global leader in penetration of rooftop PVs for a decade or so. Now, data from SunWiz shows that nearly one in three Australian homes has rooftop solar PVs. Rooftop solar power is about to become #1 in the country in terms of generating capacity. [CleanTechnica]
Minute 59: Finis
Notes: Energy Week #512 – 3/2/2023
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 