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AI and energy

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MIT recently hosted a symposium on the subject of artificial intelligence being both a problem and a solution for the clean energy transition.

AI-powered computing centers are expanding rapidly, creating an unprecedented surge in electricity demand.  Electricity demand in the US had been relatively flat for decades but now these computing centers consume about 4% of the nation’s electricity.  Some projections say that this demand could rise to 12-15% in the next five years. 

The power required for sustaining some of the AI large-language models is doubling every three months.  The amount of electricity used by a single ChatGPT conversation is as much as it takes to charge a phone and consumes the equivalent of a bottle of water for cooling. 

The MIT symposium focused on the challenges of meeting these growing energy needs but also on the potential for AI to dramatically improve power systems and reduce carbon emissions. 

Research shows regional variations in the cost of powering computing centers with clean electricity.  The central United States offers lower costs due to complementary solar and wind resources but would require massive battery deployments to provide uninterrupted power.

Because of data center demand, there is renewed interest in nuclear power, often in the form of small modular reactors, as well as efforts in long-duration storage technologies, geothermal power, or hybrid approaches.

Artificial intelligence offers both great promise and great peril.  It will take real intelligence to steer it in the right direction.

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Confronting the AI/energy conundrum

Photo, posted August 31, 2024, courtesy of Jefferson Lab via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Reliability of renewable energy

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Naysayers about renewable energy often claim that it is unreliable.  It is true that the sun sets every night and sometimes the wind doesn’t blow.  But with the growing use of battery banks to store excess power generated by renewables, the lack of reliability of renewable energy is turning out to be a myth.

A new study published in the journal Renewable Energy looked at the deployment of renewable energy in California last year.  From late winter to early summer, renewable sources supplied 100% of the state’s electricity demands for up to 10 hours on 98 out of 116 days.  There were no blackouts during that time thanks in part to the presence of battery backup power.  During peak generation periods, the renewables provided as much as 162% of the grid’s needs. 

The main finding of the study is that the electricity grid can be kept stable even as it adds more and more renewables.  Beyond that, every major renewable energy source – geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, and especially solar – is on average lower in cost than fossil fuels.

Despite the low cost of renewable energy, Californians pay the second highest rates for electricity in the country.  Part of the reason is that electrical equipment from utilities has set off wildfires, notably the 2018 Camp Fire that devastated the town of Paradise and killed 85 people.  California’s utilities are now passing the costs that come from lawsuits and from burying transmission lines to their customers.  Overhead power lines are especially prone to falling in high winds and igniting fires.

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California just debunked a big myth about renewable energy

Photo, posted December 16, 2024, courtesy of EDF Renewables / Bureau of Land Management California via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A big year for battery storage

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A decade ago, the ability of utilities to store large amounts of electricity in batteries was basically nonexistent.  In the past several years, growth in battery storage systems has exploded.  As of the end of November, the US had about 24 gigawatt-hours of storage capacity in place.  This is 71% more than just a year ago.  Nearly half of the battery storage in the US is located in California.  Texas, Arizona, and Nevada are also leaders in deploying battery storage.

Battery storage allows solar and wind generating plants to keep operating when there is reduced demand for their output and have the electricity that they produce be available later when demand rises.  Storing this excess electricity essentially extends the hours of the day when clean energy can be used.

Equally important, the existence of battery storage reduces the need for peaker plants, the fossil-fueled power plants that only turn on at times of peak demand, such as during hot afternoons.

There are 1,000 peaker plants in the US and they are generally heavily polluting, inefficient, and expensive to operate.  Some 63 million people live within a three-mile radius of one of them and are exposed to harmful pollutants like nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide.  Peaker plants also release more greenhouse gases than other power plants do for every unit of electricity they generate.

Many battery storage facilities are co-located with, or otherwise support, solar energy plants.  The amount of solar energy in the US is growing rapidly and surpassed the 100-gigawatt mark in 2024.  As solar power continues to expand, so will battery energy storage.

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Battery projects soared again in 2024

Photo, posted August 3, 2024, courtesy of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Energy storage with iron-air batteries

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The Cambridge Energy Storage Project in Cambridge, Minnesota will be the first commercial deployment of iron-air battery technology.  Developed by startup company Form Energy, the battery system will provide 1.5 MW and 150 MWh of multi-day energy storage.

Iron-air batteries are based on the principle of reversible rusting.  When discharging, the battery releases energy by breathing in oxygen from the air and converting iron metal to rust.  When charging, the battery takes up electrical current that converts rust back into iron and breathes out oxygen.

An individual iron-air battery module is about the size of a washer/dryer set and contains about 50 individual cells filled with a water-based, non-flammable electrolyte.  For a utility-scale system like that being built in Cambridge, modules are grouped together in enclosures and hundreds of enclosures grouped together in megawatt-scale power blocks.  A one-megawatt low-density system would take up about half an acre of land.  High-density systems would be capable of producing more than 3 MW per acre. 

The technology has lower costs compared to lithium-ion battery technology but may be best suited as complementary with it since lithium-ion is primarily used for short-duration energy storage while air-iron can store energy for several days.

The system is expected to be operational by late 2025.  Great River Energy, the operator of the system, plans to conduct a multi-year study to evaluate the system’s performance and potential for broader development. 

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Minnesota co-op breaks ground on multi-day energy storage project

Photo courtesy of Form Energy.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A giant solar plus storage facility

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One of the country’s largest co-located solar and battery energy storage projects is now fully operational.  The Gemini Solar+Storage project is located in Clark County, Nevada, about 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas.

The project’s 1.8 million solar panels can generate up to 690 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to supply about 10% of Nevada’s peak demand.  The facility is co-located with 380 megawatts of 4-hour battery storage, which is enough to supply Nevadans with 1,400 MWh of power after sundown.

The project makes use of a unique storage configuration that allows the storage system to be charged directly from the solar panels, resulting in increased efficiency and maximizing the capture and storage of solar energy.

The project has minimized the environmental impacts to the nearly 5,000-acre site.  Primergy, the project developer, took measures to leave vegetation in place, installed solar panels to follow the ground’s natural contours, and reduced the overall footprint by more than 20% through careful design.  The project created 1,300 union and prevailing wage jobs and contributed $483 million to Nevada’s economy.

Solar facilities are increasingly co-located with battery storage plants.  There is a huge project in Kern County California that includes 1.9 million solar panels capable of generating 875 megawatts of solar power and storing 3,287 megawatt-hours of energy.  The deserts of the southwest are prime locations for such facilities.

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The house always wins: Massive Gemini solar + storage outside of Las Vegas reaches commercial operations

Photo courtesy of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Wireless car charging

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It’s increasingly common to see cars hooked up to charging cables in shopping centers, rest stops, and dedicated charging stations.  Charging electric cars is easy to do, just like charging phones and laptop computers.  These days, it is pretty common to charge phones without using any charging cable at all because of the availability of wireless charging technology.  The same thing may well happen with electric cars.

A team of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has successfully demonstrated wireless charging of electric cars with high efficiency and fairly fast charging speed.

The patented system was used to charge up a Hyundai Kona EV using electromagnetic fields, which is essentially how phone chargers work.  The technology makes use of a polyphase electromagnetic coupling coil, which is lightweight and small.  Rotating magnetic fields generated in the coil’s windings boost the power available.  The system provided 100-kW of power with 96% efficiency.  That isn’t as powerful as the fastest high-speed charging stations, but it is considerably more than any home charging solution can provide.  For many vehicles, such a charger could provide 50% battery capacity in less than 20 minutes.

Battery technology continues to improve leading to larger capacity, faster charging, longer battery life, and lower cost.  At some point, charging up an electric car will take no more time than pumping gas.

The Oak Ridge researchers consider this development to be a breakthrough achievement that could open the door to fast and efficient wireless charging for electric passenger vehicles.  One could imagine having the ability to drive up to a charging spot and charging up the battery without even getting out of the car. 

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Charging up the commute

Photo, posted July 12, 2021, courtesy of Chris Yarzab via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Lithium in Arkansas

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There are more and more electric cars on the road and utilities are installing record amounts of battery storage to back up solar and wind power generation.  Both of these things currently use lithium-ion batteries so the need for them keeps growing.

There is actually plenty of lithium in the world.  Sources of more than 100 million tons have been identified, which is enough to meet the projected needs for decades.  But lithium is not easy, cheap, or environmentally friendly to extract.  It is either blasted out of rocks that are then roasted at 2000-degree temperatures, or it is extracted from brine in places like the high Andes where it leaves behind toxic residues.  Ramping up lithium production could greatly diminish the environmental benefits derived from green technologies.

A technique called direct lithium extraction, or DLE, may be a possible solution.  The lithium is pulled out of brine while leaving other dissolved compounds behind.  It is being tested in many places around the world and appears to offer the lowest negative impacts of available extraction technologies.

The Salton Sea area in California has rich deposits of lithium and is a good candidate for DLE.  But conditions may be even better in Arkansas whose Smackover Formation is a brine-rich expanse of limestone. 

The area was a productive oil field a hundred years ago and then undertook brine-processing in the 1950s to extract bromine.  So, the area already has industrial infrastructure and no new land would need to be cleared.

The former oil fields of Arkansas may become an important domestic source of lithium.

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In Rush for Lithium, Miners Turn to the Oil Fields of Arkansas

Photo, posted February 26, 2021, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A giant underground battery

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Two up-and-coming energy technologies are coming together near a tiny town in central Utah.  Outside of the town of Delta, population 3,600, two caverns, each as deep as the Empire State Building, are being created from an underground salt formation to be used to store hydrogen gas.  The gas will be used as a fuel in a new electricity generation plant.

The plant will replace an aging local coal-fired power plant.  The new plant will burn a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen – green hydrogen produced without emitting greenhouse gases. To produce the hydrogen, the facility will operate 40 giant electrolyzers that will use excess solar and wind power generated at times of low demand to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

The caverns were created by a process called solution mining in which high-pressure water is pumped down into salt deposits that are dissolved. The resulting caverns are 200 feet in diameter and 1,200 deep and lie 3,000 to 4,000 feet below the surface.  Hydrogen cannot escape through the thick salt layers.

The amount of energy that can be stored in the form of hydrogen fuel in these caverns is massive – far more than all the battery storage installed in the U.S. to date.  Chevron has a majority stake in one of the projects and will supply the natural gas.  The facility is expected to go online in 2025.

While this will produce far fewer emissions than existing coal plants, it is not carbon-free.  Currently, turbine technology cannot operate with pure hydrogen fuel.  The Delta plant will run on only 30% hydrogen.  The hope is that turbine technology will improve in the future and permit operation on pure hydrogen.

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A Huge Underground Battery Is Coming to a Tiny Utah Town

Photo, posted September 9, 2013, courtesy of Scott via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

EV battery costs continue to drop

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Electric vehicles have historically been more expensive than their gas-powered counterparts primarily because of the cost of the batteries that power them.  Today’s EV battery packs range in size from about 40 kWh to as much as 200 kWh, where kWh measure the amount of energy stored in pack.

The batteries in EVs are lithium-ion batteries, the same technology used to power cell phones, tablets, and computers.  A decade ago, the batteries averaged $668 per kilowatt-hour and packs as large as those in some of today’s vehicles were simply unthinkable from a price standpoint. 

Over the years, government subsidies, increased competition, higher volume, improvements in battery technology, and reductions in the cost of raw materials such as lithium have combined to drive continuous and dramatic reductions in battery costs.  By March 2022, the average price for lithium-ion batteries was $146 per kWh.  This past August, battery costs broke the $100 per kilowatt-hour barrier.

Industry analysts have long maintained that once the $100 barrier has been reached, EVs could achieve price parity with their fossil-fuel counterparts.  Electric cars would no longer be more expensive to buy than equivalent gas cars.

Projections are that battery prices will continue to fall by something like 10% a year for the rest of this decade.  All else being equal, EVs should be cheaper to buy than gas cars.  Of course, they have already been cheaper to operate for a long time. 

None of this means that car prices will go down in general.  That will depend on trends in inflation and those are pretty hard to predict.

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EVs Set to Match Gas Guzzlers in Price as Battery Costs Plummet

Photo, posted May 9, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Cleaning the grid can create messes

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The electric grid is increasingly embracing renewable energy sources like solar and wind power as well as the energy storage systems that support them.  These generation sources differ from traditional sources in that they produce direct current electricity rather than alternating current electricity.  Our power grid runs on alternating current.  Traditional generators produce alternating current that synchronizes with the grid.  Wind and solar power connect to the grid using electronic power converters called inverters that produce the required alternating current. 

All of this technical detail is something we don’t pay much attention to, except that the current state of inverter technology can lead to some problems that don’t exist with a fully synchronous power system. 

The electric grid frequently experiences disruptive events like trees falling on powerlines, squirrels shorting out substation equipment, and so on.  These things normally don’t cause widespread trouble, although there have been notable exceptions such as the massive Northeast blackout of 2003 triggered by an overloaded transmission line drooping onto foliage.

The issue with inverters is that they can shut down in the presence of certain disturbances to the grid.  This has happened on a number of occasions and has exposed vulnerabilities that need to be addressed by the industry.  Inverter-based resources currently constitute only a relatively small fraction of the grid, but that fraction is growing steadily and can have an increasingly widespread impact.  The grid was built predominantly for synchronous generation, and it must be adapted and improved to assure the reliability that is required and expected.  It is an issue that can’t be ignored.

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Renewables are cleaning the grid. They’re also messing it up

Photo, posted July 5, 2017, courtesy of Sue Thompson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Electric Cars Getting Cheaper | Earth Wise

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A sticking point for buying electric cars has always been that they are typically more expensive than equivalent gasoline-powered cars.  But increasing competition, government incentives, and falling prices for lithium and other battery materials is changing the equation.  In fact, the tipping point when electric cars are as cheap or even cheaper than internal combustion cars is likely to happen this year for many cars and, in fact, has already happened for some.

Battery production is ramping up for Tesla, General Motors, Ford, and others, creating cost savings from mass production. Companies manufacturing batteries in the United States are receiving government subsidies as part of a drive to establish a domestic supply chain and reduce dependence on China.  Before anyone cries foul, it should be noted that globally, oil companies received a trillion dollars in subsidies last year.  The Inflation Reduction Act is making it cheaper for automakers to build electric cars (provided they do it in the United States using US materials) and cheaper for consumers to buy them because of tax credits.

Multiple companies have lowered the price of their electric vehicles in recent months, including both the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y, which are the best-selling electric cars in the United States. GM’s electric Equinox crossover will start at about $30,000, which is still about $3,400 more than the gas-powered version.  But once the electric vehicle tax credit is figured in, it will actually be cheaper.

Electric cars are already cheaper to own and operate because of the much lower cost of powering with electricity instead of gas as well as the greatly reduced maintenance costs for the vehicles.  Once the purchase price of these cars is less than that of gas-powered cars, the economics becomes a no-brainer.

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Electric Vehicles Could Match Gasoline Cars on Price This Year

Photo, posted May 11, 2021, courtesy of Chris Yarzab via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

An Iron-Air Battery Plant | Earth Wise

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Lithium-ion batteries are the standard energy source for electric vehicles, and they are also the dominant technology for storing energy in the electric grid.  However, they are not the only game in town.  There are other battery technologies that have various potential advantages over lithium-ion and some of them are getting the chance to show what they can do.

One is the iron-air battery.  Unlike lithium-ion batteries that require expensive and strategically challenging materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite, iron-air batteries make use of one of the most common elements in the earth’s crust.

Iron-air batteries operate on a principle known as “reversible rusting”.  When discharging, the battery takes in oxygen from the air and converts iron into rust.  While charging, electrical current converts rust back into iron and the battery releases oxygen.  Batteries consist of a slab of iron, a water-based electrolyte, and a membrane that feeds a controlled stream of air into the battery. 

A Massachusetts-based company called Form Energy is building a $760 million iron-air battery storage facility in the city of Weirton in West Virginia.  Investment financing along with a $290 million government incentive package is paying for the facility. 

The facility is designed to address the need for long-duration energy storage and will be capable of storing electricity for 100 hours at competitive prices.  The battery modules will be about the size of a side-by-side washer/dryer and will contain a stack of 50 3-foot-tall cells.  Such batteries are too big and heavy for use in cars but will be cheaper and higher-capacity than equivalent lithium-ion battery systems.

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Form Energy selects West Virginia for its first iron-air battery plant

Photo credit: Form Energy

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Race For EV Batteries | Earth Wise

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Lithium-ion batteries have been the power source for electric vehicles since 2008, when the Tesla Roadster was introduced.  They took over for nickel-metal hydride batteries that powered most hybrid electric cars such as the Prius.  Lithium-ion batteries store much more energy for a battery of a given weight, which leads to greater driving range.

But lithium-ion is not an ideal solution.  The batteries depend on critical materials that are obtained by hacking into mountains, utilizing scarce desert groundwater, and in some cases, making use of child labor. Many materials depend on countries with whom economic ties have complicated geopolitical consequences.

State and federal mandates and incentives are pushing auto companies to prioritize electric vehicles in their future plans.  The Inflation Reduction Act in particular provides credits and other incentives for both consumers and manufacturers to electrify. So, sources for EV batteries are a key issue.

The Department of Energy is funding 20 different companies with $2.8 billion to bolster the production and processing of critical minerals in the U.S.  The goal is to bring the electric vehicle supply chain onshore to the greatest extent possible.  Some of the work involves redesigning lithium-ion batteries to reduce or eliminate problematic materials such as cobalt.  Other efforts seek to find domestic sources of critical materials such as lithium without causing serious environmental problems.

Given all this, it is no surprise that academic and industrial researchers are also exploring a wide variety of alternative battery technologies. 

The future of transportation is electrification and the race for EV batteries is on.

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For U.S. Companies, the Race for the New EV Battery Is On

Photo, posted August 27, 2021, courtesy of Ron Frazier via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Electric Cars And The Remote Road Test | Earth Wise

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One reason many people are hesitant about switching to an electric car is range anxiety, the fear that their car’s battery will die on them in the middle of a trip.  It is pretty much the same thing as running out of gas, but somehow it seems like more of a danger.

Perhaps this was true when charging stations were few and far between and electric cars couldn’t go very far on a charge, but these days, the average electric car can drive about 200 miles on a charge and there are charging stations all over the place.

A big difference between gas cars and electric cars is that many people can charge their cars at home and start every day with the equivalent of a full tank.  With an electric car, there is little reason to use up all nearly all the charge before filling up the tank again.

The truth is that most people don’t drive all that much on the average day anyway.  In the US, the average driver goes about 39 miles a day.  In Europe, is it considerably less.  Yes, there are some people who drive 200 miles a day, but they are few and far between.

Remote and regional Australia is a place where distances between essential services can be very large.  But a new study from the Australian National University found that even under those trying conditions, the vast majority of residents, about 93%, can go about their business even with the lower-range electric vehicles available on the market without having to recharge en route.

Electric cars may not be practical for some drivers, but for most, they are already a great choice.

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Electric vehicles pass the remote road test

Electric car range and 5 reasons why your range anxiety is unwarranted

Photo, posted May 21, 2022, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Race For American Lithium Mining | Earth Wise

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The auto industry is making a massive transition from gas-powered cars to electric cars.  The exploding electric vehicle market has set off what some call a global battery arms race.  Battery manufacturers are urgently trying to source the raw materials needed to make batteries, which presently include cobalt, nickel, graphite, and lithium.  There is encouraging progress in reducing and even eliminating cobalt and nickel from electric car batteries, but so far lithium seems to be essential.

The International Energy Agency has named lithium as the mineral for which there is the fastest growing demand in the world.  Estimates are that if the world is to meet the global climate targets set by the Paris Agreement, at least 40 times more lithium will be needed in 2040 compared with today.

According to the US Geological Survey, the US has about 9 million tons of lithium, which puts it in the top 5 most lithium-rich countries in the world.  Despite this, our country mines and processes only 1% of global lithium output.  Most of the rest comes from China, Chile, and Australia.  Being dependent upon these foreign sources is a serious concern for national security.

There is only one operational lithium mine in the US at present.  Multiple companies are pressing to get more mining projects in operation, including sites in North Carolina and Nevada.  But there are serious environmental problems associated with lithium mining and there is considerable local opposition to establishing the mines.

The US wants to be a leader in the global race to build the batteries that will power the green transition but it is a complicated situation that combines both undeniably important benefits as well as very real dangers.

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Powering electric cars: the race to mine lithium in America’s backyard

Photo, posted January 18, 2022, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Boom In Auto Battery Manufacturing | Earth Wise

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Nearly all automobile manufacturers are in a global race to build electric cars and trucks.  There is a rapidly growing need for the battery packs that power those vehicles and therefore manufacturers are in a race to build battery factories to address that need.

The latest battery plant announcement comes from Stellantis – the new company created in 2021 through the merger of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot.  Stellantis aims to sell five million electric cars by 2030, which means they will need a lot of batteries.  They will be spending $2.5 billion in partnership with Samsung to build a battery factory in Kokomo, Indiana.  The facility is expected to create 1,400 jobs.  Stellantis already had announced that it would build a battery factory in Windsor, Ontario in partnership with LG Energy Solutions. 

They are not alone in their aggressive efforts on electric vehicle battery development.  Ford Motor is building two battery plants in Kentucky and a third one in Tennessee.   Ford has recently started production of its F-150 electric pickup truck which has attracted large numbers of pre-orders.  The gas-powered Ford F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in America for years.

General Motors is opening a new battery production plant in Ohio this summer and has two others under construction in Tennessee and Michigan.   Hyundai plans to spend $5.5 billion on an electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facility near Savannah, Georgia that is expected to begin operations in 2025.

The auto industry has been struggling in recent times, but there is clearly a massive boom underway as the industry makes the transition from internal combustion engines to battery electric power.

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Stellantis and Samsung to spend $2.5 billion on an electric vehicle battery plant in Indiana

Photo, posted July 29, 2017, courtesy of Steve Jurvetson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Electricity From Bacteria | Earth Wise

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Microbiologists at Radboud University in the Netherlands have demonstrated in the laboratory that methane-consuming bacteria can generate electrical power.  Their study was recently published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

The bacteria studied is called Candidatus Methanoperedens and in the natural environment it consumes methane in water sources that are contaminated with nitrogen including places like water-filled ditches and some lakes. The bacteria in the study make use of the nitrates in the water to break down and digest the methane. Methanogens, which are bacteria that reduce carbon dioxide to form methane, are the source of the methane in these places. 

The researchers exploited these complex interactions of bacteria to create a source of electrical power that is essentially a kind of battery with two terminals.  One of the terminals is a chemical terminal and one is a biological terminal.  They grew the bacteria on one of the electrodes where the bacteria donate electrons that result from its conversion of methane.  (Other microbiologists at the same institution had previously demonstrated electrical generation from a similar battery containing anammox bacteria that use ammonium rather than methane in their metabolic processing).

In the study, the Radboud scientists managed to convert 31% of the methane in the water into electricity but they are aiming at higher efficiencies. 

This approach represents a potential alternative to conventional biogas electricity generation.  In those installations, methane is produced by microorganisms digesting plant materials and the methane is subsequently burned to drive a turbine to generate power.  Those systems in fact have an efficiency of less than 50%.  The researchers want to determine whether microorganisms can do a better job of generating electricity from biological sources than combustion and turbines can do.

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Bacteria generate electricity from methane

Photo, posted December 3, 2008, courtesy of Martin Sutherland via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Primary Ways To Mitigate Climate Change | Earth Wise

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The most recent report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that the world must halt the increase in greenhouse gases within three years, reduce emissions by 43% in the next seven years, and eliminate them entirely by 2050.  Otherwise, there will likely be catastrophic and irreversible impacts on the climate.

With respect to achieving these reductions, the report emphasizes decarbonizing the energy sector through electrification by replacing fossil fuels anywhere and everywhere possible.  Where that isn’t yet practical – such as in shipping and aviation – the use of biofuels and hydrogen can provide a stopgap until battery technology becomes a viable alternative.

The economics of this approach continue to improve.  Since 2010, the cost of wind, solar, and batteries has declined by as much as 85%.  In many cases, costs have fallen below those of fossil fuels.  Nonetheless, the report stresses that continuing to provide national, state, and local incentives for using renewable energy is a key factor in achieving the necessary reductions.

However, reducing emissions will no longer be enough.  This is the first major IPCC report that states that man-made carbon dioxide removal strategies will be necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.  So-called natural carbon storage options, like planting trees and using farming methods that sequester carbon in soil, are also important parts of the strategy.

It is up to governments, policymakers, and investors to implement the necessary changes to mitigate climate change.  There is lots of talk about it, but it will take concerted action to avoid increasingly dire consequences.

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Report highlights affordable, available ways to mitigate climate change now

Photo, posted September 8, 2007, courtesy of Kevin Dooley via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Electric Pickup Trucks | Earth Wise

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There are more and more electric cars on the market as auto manufacturers move toward fleet-wide electrification.  In the United States, pickup trucks are massively popular.  The top three selling vehicles in the country are all trucks, led by the Ford F-Series.  Thus, it is no surprise that automakers are now turning their attention to electric pickup trucks.

Some of the trucks are from established manufacturers like Ford and Chevy and others from new companies like Rivian.  The Ford F-150 Lightning is bound to be a big seller.  There are hundreds of thousands of pre-orders for Tesla’s exotic Cybertruck, now expected to enter the market next year.

A recent study looked at the environmental impact of pickup truck electrification.  The central question is what does the transition to electric trucks mean for the overall decarbonization of the transportation industry?

Researchers from the University of Michigan and the Ford Motor Company conducted a cradle-to-grave assessment of the life cycle of pickup trucks and compared the implications of truck electrification to those of sedans and SUVs.

The study found that replacing an internal combustion-powered vehicle with a battery-powered vehicle results in greater total greenhouse gas emission reductions as the size of the vehicle increases, which is no real surprise considering how much more gas larger vehicles use.

The study also found that manufacturing electric vehicles produces more emissions than gas-powered vehicles, but the impact is offset by savings in their operation.  Breakeven time is little more than a year.

Basically, the results are that replacing gas-powered trucks with electric trucks is even a bigger win for the planet than replacing gas cars with electric cars.  Let’s hope we see plenty of electric trucks on the roads in the near future.

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Study: Greater greenhouse gas reductions for pickup truck electrification than for other light-duty vehicles

Photo, posted September 22, 2020, courtesy of Steve Jurvetson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A New “Wonder Material” | Earth Wise

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Graphene is a form of carbon made of single-atom-thick layers. It has many remarkable properties and researchers around the world continue to investigate its use in multiple applications.

In 2019, a new material composed of single-atom-thick layers was produced for the first time.  It is phosphorene nanoribbons or PNRs, which are ribbon-like strands of two-dimensional phosphorous.  These materials are tiny ribbons that can be a single atomic layer thick and less than 100 atoms wide but millions of atoms long.  They are comparable in aspect ratio to the cables that span the Golden Gate Bridge.   Theoretical studies have predicted how PNR properties could benefit all sorts of devices, including batteries, biomedical sensors, thermoelectric devices, nanoelectronics, and quantum computers. 

As an example, nanoribbons have great potential to create faster-charging batteries because they can hold more ions than can be stored in conventional battery materials.

Recently, for the first time, a team of researchers led by Imperial College London and University College London researchers has used PNRs to significantly improve the efficiency of a device.  The device is a new kind of solar cell, and it represents the first demonstration that this new wonder material might actually live up to its hype.

The researchers incorporated PNRs into solar cells made from perovskites.  The resultant devices had an efficiency above 21%, which is comparable to traditional silicon solar cells.  Apart from the measured results, the team was able to experimentally verify the mechanism by which the PNRs enhanced the improved efficiency.

Further studies using PNRs in devices will allow researchers to discover more mechanisms for how they can improve performance.

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‘Wonder material’ phosphorene nanoribbons live up to hype in first demonstration

Photo, posted October 6, 2010, courtesy of Alexander AlUS / CORE-Materials via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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