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Energy Week #535 – 8/10/2023
Minute 0: Introduction
Thursday, August 3
Turbines off Block Island (Alex DeCiccio, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 2
¶ “How Offshore Wind Can Supply 25% Of US Electricity By 2050” • Currently, six turbines off the coast of Rhode Island account for the lion’s share of the US’s offshore wind energy production. But researchers believe massive offshore turbines could be producing more than 10,000 times as much energy in less than three decades. [Time]
EHang & GZDG Vertiport (Courtesy of EHang)
Minute 5
¶ “Electric VTOL Aircraft – China’s New Technology Lead” • FutureFlight‘s Jennifer Meszaros says, “The Bao’an district of the vast city of Shenzhen in China’s Guangdong province is set to become a hub for advanced air mobility services, with its district government now having signed partnership agreements with three eVTOL aircraft developers.” [CleanTechnica]
Wind turbines in Texas (USDA NRCS Texas, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Minute 8
¶ “Texas Power Use Hits Record High For Seventh Day This Summer” • Power demand in Texas has hit a record high for the second day in a row and the seventh day this summer, as ongoing heat waves have kept air conditioning systems on. ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, said it has enough resources to meet soaring demand. [Power Technology]
Friday, August 4
Fire in British Columbia (BC Wildfire Service image)
Minute 10
¶ “Devastating Wildfires Spur New Detection Systems” • Almost 900 forest fires were active in Canada during the week of July 17, burning a total of 10 million hectares. OroraTech, a German company, has eight satellites with special infrared sensors that monitor temperatures in grids of four-by-four meters. They can detect fires and issue warnings. [BBC]
Ocean (Joseph Barrientos, Unsplash)
Minute 13
¶ “Ocean Heat Record Broken, With Grim Implications For The Planet” • The oceans hit their hottest temperature ever recorded as they soak up warmth from climate change. The implications for our planet’s health are dire. The average global sea surface temperature of 20.96°C, beating a 2016 record, according to the EU’s climate change service Copernicus. [BBC]
Ford F-150 Lightning (WMrapids, public domain)
Minute 16
¶ “Electric Vehicles And The US Economy: A Win-Win Situation” • We know that electrifying vehicles will help the environment. What we haven’t heard much about is the positive influence that EVs will have on the US economy. New research indicates that EVs are going to be really, really good for the US economy, and for a variety of reasons. [CleanTechnica]
Saturday, August 5
Return to base (Arnold Price, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Minute 19
¶ “Offshore Wind Resources Could Meet 25% Of US Demand” • The US has one of the best offshore wind resources in the world, a new report from UC Berkeley, Energy Innovation, and Grid Lab finds. With good near-term policy actions, those resources could account for up to a quarter of US electricity generation in less than 30 years. [CleanTechnica]
Amazon rainforest (Ivars Utināns, Unsplash)
Minute 22
¶ “Amazon Deforestation At Six-Year Low In Brazil After 66% Plunge In July” • Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 66% last month compared to July 2022 and is now at its lowest rate in six years, according to preliminary data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. Surveillance has increased and perpetrators are being fined. [CNN]
Mountains in Chile (Rodrigo Flores, Unsplash)
Minute 24
¶ “Parts Of South America Are Sweltering Under A ‘Fierce’ Heatwave – And It’s The Middle Of Winter” • Southern Cone countries including Chile and Argentina are having summer-like conditions as a heat wave pushed temperatures higher than 38°C (100°F) in places. This is winter. One climatologist said the event is “rewriting all climatic books.” [CNN]
Sunday, August 6
Jack-up ship (Dogger Bank Wind Farm image)
Minute 27
¶ “Installation Of Turbine Twice The Height Of London Eye Begins At World’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm” • Wind turbines, each of 13 MW, are being installed 80 miles off the Yorkshire coast at the Dogger Bank Wind Farm. The work is being done by the largest jack-up turbine installation vessel, a Jan de Nul’s ship with a lifting capacity of 3,200 tonnes. [Marine Insight]
Pump jacks in storage (Larry D Moore, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 30
¶ “Pension Wealth In Peril!” • A recent Carbon Tracker report alerts us to the possibility that Pension wealth appears to be in Peril. The report, Loading the Dice against Pension Funds, says that the global financial system is in danger of having to support the stranded assets of fossil fuel companies as national economies go green. [CleanTechnica]
Andes (Alexander Schimmeck, Unsplash)
Minute 32
¶ “Winter Heatwave In Andes Is A Sign Of Things To Come, Scientists Warn” • The record-breaking winter heatwave in the Andean mountains of South America has surged to 37°C (98.6°F), prompting local scientists to warn the worst may be yet to come as human-caused climate disruption and El Niño cause havoc across the region. [The Guardian]
Monday, August 7
Solar array (Sungrow EMEA, Unsplash)
Minute 35
¶ “Solar Power: Expected To Eclipse Oil In 2023” • Renewable energy has become an increasingly important topic in recent years as we work towards a more environmentally-friendly and sustainable future. A recent Forbes article highlights an exciting trend toward solar power investment, which is set to eclipse oil this year. [Digital Journal]
MV Sea Change, a zero-emissions ferry (All American Marine)
Minute 38
¶ “Full Clean Ahead: Can Shipping Finally Steer Away From Fossil Fuels?” • Nearly half (43%) of all voyages made along the longest shipping corridor between China and the US could be powered by hydrogen without adding any fuel capacity or extra port calls, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation. [The Guardian]
Mendenhall Glacier and Nugget Falls, Juneau (Enrico Blasutto, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Minute 40
¶ “Glacier Basin Flooding Destroys Two Structures In Alaskan Capital Of Juneau And Prompts Local Emergency Declaration” • Record-breaking river flooding destroyed at least two structures in Juneau and prompted local evacuations. This was the result of a sudden outburst from a glacier-dammed lake that inundated the region, officials say. [CNN]
Tuesday, August 8
VoloCity (Volocopter image)
Minute 43
¶ “Will Electric Flying Taxis Live Up To Their Promise?” • If all goes to plan, Volocopter’s two-seater electric aircraft, VoloCity, will be carrying passengers around Paris in time for the 2024 Olympics. It will be the first service in Europe to use an electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) aircraft, but the company needs to show it has a market. [BBC]
Erupting volcano (Yosh Ginsu, Unsplash)
Minute 46
¶ “Humans Emitting Carbon Dioxide 200 Times Faster Than Supervolcanic Eruptions That Caused Earth’s Most Severe Mass Extinctions” • Lead researcher Dr Qiang Jiang, a Curtin PhD graduate from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said the findings were vital to understanding how to prevent future climate disasters. [CleanTechnica]
Smoke from a wildfire (Steve Brown, NOAA)
Minute 48
¶ “Fanning The Flames: Wildfires Emit Potent Climate-Warming Organic Particles” • A study published in Nature Geoscience, found that wildfires are causing a much greater warming effect than had been accounted for by climate scientists. The study highlights an urgent need to revise climate models and update approaches for the changing environment. [CleanTechnica]
Wednesday, August 9
Sign at project (Retrieved from Twitter)
Minute 51
¶ “Red States, Do You Know That You’ve Benefited More From Climate Funding Than Blue States?” • Four-fifths of all the clean energy investments under the Inflation Reduction Act have gone to districts held by House Republicans, but every one of them voted last spring to repeal the incentives that encouraged those investments. [CleanTechnica]
Protesting insufficient action (Mika Baumeister, Unsplash)
Minute 54
¶ “July Hit A Crucial Warming Threshold That Scientists Have Warned The World Should Stay Under” • The world got its first preview last month of what summer will be like at 1.5 degrees of global warming – a threshold that scientists warn the planet should stay under, yet one that it has flown increasingly close to in recent years. [CNN]
Deforested area of Brazil (Ibama, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
Minute 56
¶ “Amazon Nations Fall Short Of Agreement On A Goal To End Deforestation” • The eight countries that share the Amazon basin have fallen short of an agreed goal to end deforestation. At their first summit in fourteen years, they issued a joint declaration that created an alliance to combat deforestation, but it left the details of actions up to individual countries. [BBC]
Minute 59: Finis
Notes: Energy Week #535 – 8/10/2023
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 