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Energy Week #524 – 5/25/2023
Minute 0: Introduction
Thursday, May 18
El Niño in January 2016 (NOAA image)
Minute 2
¶ “‘Sounding The Alarm’: World On Track To Breach A Critical Warming Threshold In The Next Five Years” • The world is now likely to breach a key climate threshold for the first time in the next five years due to a combination of greenhouse gas pollution and a looming El Niño, according to the annual climate update of the World Meteorological Organization. [CNN]
Tesla Model Y (Charlie Deets, Unsplash)
Minute 5
¶ “Tesla Model Y To Be Best Selling Car In World In 2023?” • 2023 is not half over, but the Model Y is likely to win the annual sales title. According to Tesla, it was the best-selling passenger vehicle on Earth in the first quarter of the year. With production and sales expected to grow throughout the year, it’ll be tough for any other car to catch the Y. [CleanTechnica]
Traffic in New York City (Raidarmax, CC-BY-SA 3.0)
Minute 8
¶ “First US Congestion Pricing Plan Gets Closer To Reality In New York City” • New York City traffic is bad. At peak hours of the day, traffic is at a virtual standstill in many areas, and air quality and traffic noise can be terrible. New York City could soon be the first city in the US to implement its own traffic tolling system to address the problem. [CleanTechnica]
Friday, May 19
Great Salt Lake (Brent Pace, Unsplash)
Minute 10
¶ “The World’s Largest Lakes Are Shrinking Dramatically, And Scientists Say They Have Figured Out Why” • More than half of the world’s largest lakes and reservoirs have lost significant amounts of water over the last three decades, according to a new study, which pins the blame largely on climate change and excessive water use. [CNN]
Ford electric van (Courtesy of Ford)
Minute 13
¶ “Electric Work Vans Are ‘Almost Free’” • Electric work trucks may not be sexy like a Mercedes EQS or an Audi Q6 e-tron, but with super-low operating costs they can pay for themselves, or nearly so, which is what anyone in business wants to hear. And they have other advantages, such as having electric power for operating power tools. [CleanTechnica]
Vermont State House (Courtesy of University of Vermont)
Minute 16
¶ “Vermont Legislature Pushes For End To Polluting Heating Equipment” • Vermont’s boilers, furnaces, kerosene heaters, and wood stoves produce 36% of the state’s total emissions, according to recent findings by the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources. The Vermont legislature has passed the Affordable Heat Act (S.5) bill to reduce those emissions. [CleanTechnica]
Saturday, May 20
Monhegan Island (Pixy.org, CC0)
Minute 19
¶ “The Future Of Wind Energy In The US Is Floating Turbines As Tall As 30 Rockefeller Plaza” • The first, full-sized floating offshore wind turbine in the US will tower 850 feet above the waves in the Gulf of Maine. The 15-MW turbine will be 20 miles south of Maine’s tiny Monhegan Island by the end of the decade, the first of ten turbines in an array. [CNN]
Oil well (Pixabay, Pexels, cropped)
Minute 22
¶ “Capping Oil & Gas Wells In Texas Could Create Tens Of Thousands Of Jobs” • A study from the University of Texas finds that regulating methane pollution from oil and gas sites in Texas could create up to 35,000 jobs. Texas is the top state for methane pollution, and its Permian Basin is one of the largest oil and gas producing regions in the world. [CleanTechnica]
F-150 Lightning (Courtesy of Ford, Colorado)
Minute 24
¶ “Clean Cars Could Yield $95 Billion In Benefits In Colorado” • A report finds that the total benefits for Colorado would be as much as $95 billion in 2050 from public health and climate improvements, savings to drivers of zero emissions vehicles, and utility customer savings, under a Colorado Clean Cars program, if adopted through 2035. [CleanTechnica]
Sunday, May 21
Basaltic outcrop (Daniel Mayer, CC-BY-SA 3.0, cropped)
Minute 27
¶ “Can ‘Enhanced Rock Weathering’ Help Combat Climate Change?” • UN scientists are now clear that reducing greenhouse gas emissions alone won’t be enough to stop dangerous levels of warming. They say there will need to be some CO₂ removal, actively drawing it down from the atmosphere. ‘Enhanced rock weathering’ could help cool the planet. [BBC]
Pollution (Daniel Moqvist, Unsplash)
Minute 30
¶ “Time To Pay The Piper – The Cost Of Cleaning Up After Fossil Fuel Companies” • Marco Grasso and Richard Heede authored a report published by One Earth that quantifies how much each of the 21 top fossil fuel companies in the world should pay to clean up the environmental mess they have made. The total comes to $209 billion a year. [CleanTechnica]
Port of Cotonou in Benin (Fawaz.tairou, CC-BY-SA 4.0, cropped)
Minute 32
¶ “As The West Surges Toward Electric Cars, Here’s Where The Unwanted Gas Guzzlers Go” • As wealthy countries set aggressive goals to move consumers towards EVs to cut carbon emissions, gas-powered cars won’t necessarily go away. A stream of used cars is heading to West African ports, and it is only expected to increase with the West’s shift to EVs. [CNN]
Monday, May 22
Valle Solar Power Station (Arvydas Cetyrkovskis, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 35
¶ “Spain’s Renewable Energy Powered The Entire Country For A 9-Hour Work Day” • Spain is among a handful of countries that lead the world in the push toward renewable energy. Last week it reached a new milestone. Energy generated from wind, sun, and water met the needs of mainland Spain from 10 am to 7 pm on Tuesday, El Pais reported. [Yahoo Sport UK]
Solar array (TotalEnergies image)
Minute 38
¶ “TotalEnergies’ Spanish PV Projects Pass EIA Test” • The Spanish Ministry of Energy Transition and Autonomous Communities gave TotalEnergies a favourable Environmental Impact Assessment for an estimated 3 GW of installed solar PV capacity. The first projects are expected to be coming on stream in early 2024. [reNews]
Island of Palms, Hawaii (Courtesy of Lendlease Communities)
Minute 40
¶ “Solar-Panel “Clustering” Coming To Scores Of Army Homes On Hawaii” • Lendlease Communities operates nearly 8,000 homes on Oahu, providing housing for military families through a partnership with the US Army. They are addressing local electric rates of 44¢/kWh with solar arrays that serve clusters of four to six homes. [CleanTechnica]
Tuesday, May 23
Transmission lines (Matthew Henry, Unsplash)
Minute 43
¶ “The Great Electricity Transmission Debate – How Much Is Enough?” • Jigar Shah’s estimate is that the US needs 950 GW of clean energy and 225 GW of storage to clean up its electricity sector. Over 1,200 GW of clean energy and 650 GW of storage have already been proposed. The problem is how to connect the generating capacity to the grid. [CleanTechnica]
Striped Tiger Butterfly (Sonika Agarwal,Unsplash)
Minute 46
¶ “Global Loss Of Wildlife Is ‘Significantly More Alarming’ Than Previously Thought, A Study Shows” • The global loss of wildlife is “significantly more alarming” than previously thought, a study shows. Researchers at School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast found 48% the 70,000 species studied are seeing rapid population declines. [CNN]
Data collection buoy (Image courtesy of NOAA)
Minute 48
¶ “Economic Damage From Next El Niño To Total $3 Trillion” • Two researchers at Dartmouth College have published a report in the journal Science which predicts that the economic impact of the next El Niño weather event (expected to occur this year) will be $3 trillion through 2029, compared to what the same period would be without such an event. [CleanTechnica]
Wednesday, May 24
Power outage (Claudio Schwarz, Unsplash)
Minute 51
¶ “South Africa Load-Shedding: The Roots Of Eskom’s Power Problem” • South Africa is heading into winter with the prospect of power cuts lasting up to sixteen hours a day. The roots of the problem lie in poor management, corruption, sabotage, and gangs willing to kill anyone who threatened to clean up the coal industry or move towards renewable energy. [BBC]
Tamil Nadu in the morning (Remi Clinton, Unsplash)
Minute 54
¶ “Global Temperature Rise Could See Billions Live In Places Where Human Life Doesn’t Flourish, Study Says” • If the current pace of global warming goes unchecked, it will push billions of people outside the “climate niche,” the temperatures where humans can flourish, according to a study published in the journal Nature Sustainability. [CNN]
Prieto battery (Prieto image)
Minute 56
¶ “Prieto Introduces Battery That Charges In Three Minutes” • Prieto, a startup based in Fort Collins, Colorado, has unveiled a prototype of a battery it says works in a range from -30°F to above 100°F. What is even more exciting about Prieto is that its 3D batteries can be fully charged from 0 to 100% in just three minutes and are nonflammable. [CleanTechnica]
Minute 59: Finis
Notes: Energy Week #524 – 5/25/2023
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 