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The Importance Of Wildlife Crossings | Earth Wise

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Highway accidents involving animals are a big problem for both people and animals.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, motorists in the United States kill one to two million large animals every year.  About 200 people are killed annually in the U.S. as a result of those collisions with animals.   

These crashes are expensive, too.  Deer-vehicle collisions cost an average of more than $8,000 each; elk-vehicle collisions cost about $25,000; and moose-vehicle collisions cost more than $44,000.

One solution that has been quite effective around the world in reducing car-animal collisions is wildlife overpasses and underpasses.  They are designed to help animals move in search of food and to escape predators and wildfires.  These traffic-spanning bridges and tunnels have been popular in Europe since the 1950s.  They look much like regular overpasses for cars but are decked out with native flora.  The underpasses, which assist shyer and smaller animals, are typically invisible to drivers.

According to a new economic analysis by researchers at Washington State University, wildlife crossings in Washington State save roughly $235,000 to $443,000 every year per structure. 

Wildlife crossing structures range in cost from $500,000 for a tunnel-like underpass to more than $6 million for a broad bridge.  There may soon be many more wildlife crossing structures across the country since $350 million was allotted in the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law in 2021.

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Wildlife crossings potentially save millions annually in Washington state

How wildlife bridges over highways make animals—and people—safer

Photo, posted March 24, 2017, courtesy of Jeffrey Beall via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Plant-Based Foods And CO2 Emissions | Earth Wise

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We often hear how eating locally-sourced food is a way to minimize the carbon footprint of our diet.  But from a climate impact perspective, this only has a significant impact if transportation is responsible for a large portion of a food’s final carbon footprint.  In many cases, the greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation make up only a small portion of the total emissions from food, and what we eat is far more important.

In general, beef and lamb have the biggest climate footprint per gram of protein.  Plant-based foods tend to have the smallest impact. Pork and chicken are somewhere in the middle. 

According to new research, U.S. food production could reduce its agricultural carbon footprint between 2.5% and 13.5% by embracing plant-based alternatives to beef.  The study, from researchers at Cornell University, Johns Hopkins University, and international partners, found that most of the reduction would be achieved by decreasing the number of cows needed for beef production by two to twelve million animals.  The research was recently published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health.

However, the researchers also found that acting to reduce climate change in this manner could have unintended consequences.  For example, economic models from the research team show that the growth in popularity of plant-based beef could disrupt the agricultural workforce, threatening more than 1.5 million jobs. 

But in the big picture, doing nothing will cost much more than doing something to slow climate change.  Shifting diets away from meat and other animal products and towards more plant-based foods will help shrink carbon footprints and mitigate climate change.  It’s a win-win for the planet and for human health. 

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Plant-based ‘beef’ reduces CO2 but threatens ag jobs

Photo, posted November 27, 2018, courtesy of Sarah Stierch via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Solar-Powered Desalination | Earth Wise

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About two-thirds of humanity is affected by water shortages.  In the developing world, many areas with water shortages also lack dependable sources of electricity.  Given this situation, there is widespread research on using solar heat to desalinate seawater.  To date, many approaches to this face problems with fouling of equipment with salt buildup.  Tackling this issue has proven to add complexity and expense to solar desalination techniques.

A team of researchers from MIT and China has recently developed a solution to the problem of salt accumulation that is more efficient than previous methods and is less expensive as well.

Previous attempts at solar desalination have relied on some sort of wick to draw saline water through the device.  These wicks are vulnerable to salt accumulation and are difficult to clean.  The MIT-Chinese team has developed a wick-free system instead.  It is a layered system with dark material at the top to absorb the sun’s heat, and then a thin layer of water that sits above a perforated layer of plastic material.  That layer sits atop a deep reservoir of salty water such as a tank or pond.  The researchers determined the optimal size for the holes in the perforated plastic.

The 2.5 millimeter holes are large enough to allow for convective circulation between the warmer upper layer of water above the perforated layer and the colder reservoir below.  That circulation naturally draws the salt from the thin layer above down into the much larger body of water below.

The system utilizes low-cost, easy to use materials.  The next step is to scale up the devices into a size that has practical applications.  According to the team, just a one-square-meter system could provide a family’s daily needs for drinking water.

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Solar-powered system offers a route to inexpensive desalination

Photo, posted February 13, 2017, courtesy of Jacob Vanderheyden via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Solar Windows | Earth Wise

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Solar windows are an attractive idea.  It is very appealing to have the vertical surfaces on the outside of almost any building generate electricity.  The challenge is to have a transparent window be able to function as an efficient-enough solar panel.

Most conventional solar panels use silicon solar cell technology, which is not based on a transparent material.  Transparent solar cells use dye-sensitized technology, which has been the subject of research for decades but has yet to achieve widespread use.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have recently published work on a new process to manufacture solar windows that can be large (over six feet in each dimension) and efficient at electricity production.

The windows make use of dye-sensitized cells which are connected to lines of metal so small that they are invisible to the naked eye.  The individual cells are fairly small but the connection technology allows the construction of large windows.

The solar window has an efficiency of 7%, meaning 7% of incoming sunlight energy is converted to electricity.  The researchers believe that 10% efficiency should be attainable with their technology.  Conventional solar panels have efficiencies of 15% or more.

However, the goal is not necessarily to compete with silicon solar panels.  The real opportunity is to be able to generate electricity when rooftop solar is not practical or to produce additional electricity even when there is already a solar roof.

Going forward, the goals of solar window development are to increase efficiency and to reduce costs to where installing the windows is economically attractive.  Estimates are that the windows currently would cost about twice as much as a conventional window but would pay for the difference in two to six years depending on such things as the level of sun exposure.

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Inside Clean Energy: What’s Hotter than Solar Panels? Solar Windows.

Photo, posted April 17, 2017, courtesy of Shelby Bell via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Trouble For The Outer Banks | Earth Wise

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The Outer Banks are a series of barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina that separate the Atlantic Ocean from the mainland.  They are a very popular tourist destination featuring open-sea beaches, state parks, shipwreck diving sites, and historic locations such as Roanoke Island, the site of England’s first settlement in the New World. There is also Kitty Hawk, the site of the Wright Brothers’ first flights.

The ribbon of islands is nearly 200 miles long.  Some of them are low and narrow and are only a few feet above sea level.  Many are especially vulnerable to Nor’easters in the winter and hurricanes in the summer.  The collision of warm Gulf Stream waters and the colder Labrador current helps to create dangerous shoals and some of the largest waves on the East Coast.

Over the years, developers have added billions of dollars’ worth of real estate to the Outer Banks.  Rising sea levels and increasingly frequent storms threaten the barrier islands of the Outer Banks.  Beach-front cottages have tumbled into the ocean for as long as people have built them in the Outer Banks but now they are falling at a greater rate and more and more are in danger.

The Department of Transportation has spent nearly $100 million dollars to keep NC12, the highway connecting the string of islands, open to traffic.  Three new bridges built to traverse inlets opened by storms and bypassing rapidly eroding shorelines raised the cost by another half a billion dollars.

There are many other measures such as pumping sand into eroded areas going on in the Outer Banks, but ultimately, all of the measures may not be enough to deal with rising sea levels and more powerful storms.

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Shifting Sands: Carolina’s Outer Banks Face a Precarious Future

Photo, posted August 31, 2011, courtesy of NCDOT Communications 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.

Capturing Carbon Dioxide With Plastic | Earth Wise

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The world is awash in both waste plastic and in carbon dioxide emissions.   Researchers at Rice University have discovered a chemical technique for making waste plastic into an effective carbon dioxide absorbent for industry.

Chemists at Rice reported in the journal ACS Nano that heating plastic waste in the presence of potassium acetate produces particles with nanometer-scale pores that trap carbon dioxide molecules.   According to the researchers, these particles could be used to remove CO2 from the flue gas streams of power plants.

Significant sources of CO2 emissions like power plant exhaust stacks could be fitted with this waste-plastic-derived material to absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide that would otherwise enter the atmosphere. 

The Rice University process is an enhancement to the current process of pyrolyzing waste plastic – that is, breaking it down in the presence of heat.  By pyrolyzing plastic in the presence of potassium acetate, porous particles are formed that can hold up to 18% of their own weight in carbon dioxide.

According to the researchers, the cost of capturing carbon from a power plant would be $21 a ton, which is far less expensive than existing energy-intensive processes used to pull carbon dioxide from natural gas feeds.

The sorbent material can be reused.  Heating it to about 167 degrees Fahrenheit releases trapped carbon dioxide from the pores and regenerates about 90% of the material’s binding sites.

The Rice process may represent a much better way to capture carbon dioxide from power plant exhaust stacks.  It could be a way to make use of one environmental problem – waste plastic – to deal with another one.

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Treated plastic waste good at grabbing carbon dioxide

Photo, posted April 19, 2021, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Turning Pollution Into Cash | Earth Wise     

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Power plants and other industrial facilities are a major source of carbon emissions.  There are a variety of techniques under development to prevent those emissions by capturing them rather than releasing them into the atmosphere.  All of them add costs to the functioning of the facility.  A good way to offset those costs is to convert the emissions into useful products, ideally making it profitable to capture emissions.

Engineers at the University of Cincinnati have developed an electrochemical system that converts carbon dioxide into ethylene, which is a chemical used in a wide range of manufacturing.  Ethylene has sometimes been called “the world’s most important chemical”.  It is used in many kinds of plastics, textiles, and the rubber found in tires and insulation. It is also used in heavy industry such as steel and cement plants as well as in the oil and gas industry.

The Cincinnati process is a two-stage cascade reaction that converts carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide and then into ethylene.  It is based on the underlying principle of the plug-flow reactor that is used for variety of production applications.  The study, published in the journal Nature Catalysis, demonstrates that the process has high ethylene selectivity – meaning that it effectively isolates the desired compound – as well as high productivity – meaning that it makes a lot of it.  The system will take more time to become truly economical, but the researchers are continuing to make progress on that front with improved catalysts.

The researchers believe that this technique can reduce carbon emissions and make a profit doing it.  Power plants and other facilities emit a lot of carbon dioxide.  With this process, it may be possible to capture it and produce a valuable chemical.

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Conversion process turns pollution into cash

Photo, posted February 27, 2018, courtesy of Cyprien Hauser via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Avoiding Blackouts With Renewable Energy | Earth Wise

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There are some people who worry that an electric grid heavily dependent upon intermittent sources like solar and wind power may be more susceptible to blackouts.  According to a new study by Stanford University, these fears are misplaced.

The study, published in the journal Renewable Energy, found that an energy system running on wind, water, and solar, when combined with energy storage, avoids blackouts, and lowers energy requirements and consumer costs.  In addition, implementing such a system would create millions of jobs, improve people’s health, and reduce land requirements.

The study focused on the stability in all U.S. grid regions as well as individual states based on the requirement that all electricity is provided by clean and renewable sources. No fossil fuel use, bioenergy, blue hydrogen, or even nuclear power were included in the modeling.  Critics of such a shift in the energy system point to grid blackouts during extreme weather events in California in 2020 and Texas in 2021 as evidence that renewable sources can’t be trusted.  But in both cases, renewable energy was not found to be any more vulnerable than other sources.

The study looked at the costs of the transition – which would be substantial – but found that it would pay for itself fairly quickly based on energy cost savings alone.

A significant finding of the study was that long-duration batteries were neither necessary nor helpful for grid stability.  That stability could be obtained by linking together currently available short-duration batteries.  Interconnecting larger and larger geographic regions would make the power system smoother and more reliable.  Overall, intelligent management of the electric grid can result in a reliable and clean power system.

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Stanford researchers point the way to avoiding blackouts with clean, renewable energy

Photo, posted October 17, 2016, courtesy of B Sarangi via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Climate-Related Disasters | Earth Wise

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In early December, a series of tornadoes struck multiple states, killing nearly 100 people and producing widespread damage in whole communities.  These storms were at least the 19th weather or climate disaster that caused more than $1 billion in damage during 2021.  The year suffered from droughts, wildfires, severe cold snaps, hurricanes, and other severe weather incidents.

The Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania has been studying how communities can prepare for and bounce back from such disasters.

A key issue is that the location and timing of disasters continues to shift.  Homeowners along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts know that they need to prepare for and deal with hurricanes.  People who live in places like Oklahoma and Kansas are aware that tornadoes are a frequent threat.  But in recent years, strong storms are happening in areas where historically they haven’t.

Places need to start implementing changes to their infrastructure now in order to have an impact on risk reduction.

Presidential disaster declarations are just one part of recovery from disasters.  Other issues to grapple with are the role of government support and how it isn’t just the financial costs of disaster recovery but all the impact on human and other resources that are often not covered by governmental funds.  There is also the issue that low- and moderate-income households are disproportionately harmed and locked out of financial resources for recovery.

The Wharton study points out that innovative approaches will be needed to effectively prepare communities and individuals for disasters to come. 

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Preparing, and paying for, climate change-induced disasters

Photo, posted December 12, 2021, courtesy of State Farm via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Smart Roof | Earth Wise

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Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory have developed an all-season smart roof coating that can keep homes warm during the winter and cool during the summer, and the coating does not consume any gas or electricity.

Existing cool roof systems consist of reflective coatings, membranes, shingles, or tile that lower house temperatures by reflecting sunlight as well as emitting some of the absorbed solar heat away from the roof as infrared radiation.  The problem with such systems is that they continue to radiate heat during the winter, which actually drives up heating costs.

The new material is called a temperature-adaptive radiative coating or TARC.  It enables energy savings by automatically turning off the radiative cooling in the winter.  TARC reflects about 75% of sunlight year-round, but its thermal emittance is high when the temperature is warm – promoting heat loss to the sky – but decreases in cooler weather, helping to retain the heat in a building.

The researchers produced thin-film TARC material that looks like Scotch tape that could be affixed to a surface like a rooftop.  They applied the material to a balcony alongside a sample of commercial dark roof material and a sample of commercial white roof material.

In experiments simulating 15 different climate zones across the US, they found that the TARC material outperforms existing roof coatings for energy savings in 12 out of the 15 zones, particularly in regions with wide temperature variations between day and night, such as in the San Francisco Bay Area, or between winter and summer, such as New York City.

The researchers believe that installing TARC coatings on roofs would save the average U.S. household about 10% in utility costs.

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New Smart-Roof Coating Enables Year-Round Energy Savings

Photo, posted May 18, 2017, courtesy of Damian Gadal via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Capturing Methane To Feed Fish | Earth Wise

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Methane in the atmosphere is an extremely potent greenhouse gas.  Its warming potential is about 85 times that of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.  It also worsens air quality by increasing atmospheric ozone.  Many human activities add methane to the atmosphere, notably emissions from landfills and oil and gas facilities.

Capturing methane from these sources for subsequent use is currently uneconomical but new research from Stanford University analyzes the market for using the methane to feed bacteria to produce fishmeal.

Methane-consuming bacteria called methanotrophs can be grown in chilled, water-filled bioreactors containing pressurized methane, oxygen, and nutrients.  The bacteria produce a protein-rich biomass that can be used as fishmeal in aquaculture.  This could offset demand for fishmeal made from small fish or plant-based feeds that require land, water, and fertilizer.

Some companies already do this using natural gas provided by utility pipelines, but it would be far better for the environment to use methane emitted at large landfills, wastewater treatment plants, and oil and gas facilities.

Consumption of seafood has more than quadrupled since 1960, depleting wild fish stocks.  Farmed fish now provide half of all the animal-sourced seafood we eat.

The Stanford research analyzed the cost of methanotrophic fishmeal production under various scenarios and found it to be very competitive with and in some cases considerably cheaper than current market prices for fishmeal. 

According to the study, this process could profitably supply total global demand for fishmeal with methane captured in the U.S. alone.

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Stanford researchers reveal how to turn a global warming liability into a profitable food security solution

Photo, posted April 30, 2017, courtesy of Artur Rydzewski via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Giant Wind Turbines | Earth Wise

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Wind turbines keep getting bigger and bigger.  The reason is that the power a wind turbine can theoretically generate is proportional to the disk-shaped area swept out by its blades.  So, the bigger the blades, the more power can be produced by a single turbine.

That being said, real-world turbines don’t achieve their theoretical power output because they have limitations on efficiency.  Things like rotor blade friction and drag, gearbox losses, and generator losses limit the actual power output of a turbine. 

Despite all of these things, the latest and greatest wind turbines are absolutely enormous and produce almost unbelievable amounts of power.  Chinese manufacturer MingYang Smart Energy has recently unveiled an 866-foot tall, 16-megawatt capacity offshore wind turbine.  This narrowly exceeds both the Vestas V236 Turbine announced earlier this year and GE’s Haliade-X Turbine, rated at 15 megawatts and 14 megawatts respectively.

The rotor diameter of the giant Chinese turbine is nearly 800 feet, set by its 387-foot blades that sweep out an area of nearly 50,000 square feet.  A single one of these turbines can generate 80,000 MWh of electricity in a year, enough to power more than 20,000 households.  (It boggles the mind to consider that just one rotation of the blades of such a turbine can power a couple of homes for an entire day).

Offshore wind farms choose the largest wind turbines in part because of the high cost of installing turbines and transporting the electricity.  It is preferable to build fewer turbines because fewer towers, cables, and ground anchoring systems need to be constructed, making the project less complicated.

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This 264-meter tall offshore wind turbine is now the largest of its kind

Photo, posted November 19, 2015, courtesy of Scott Flaherty / USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Wind Power Update | Earth Wise

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The Department of Energy recently released three reports showing record growth in land-based wind energy, a growing number of offshore wind projects, and the continuing reduction in the cost of wind power.

The U.S. installed a record amount of land-based wind energy in 2020.  In total, 16,836 MW of new utility-scale land-based wind power capacity was added during the year, representing $24.6 billion in new wind power projects.  This was more added than from any other energy source and represented 42% of new U.S. energy capacity.

For the year, wind energy provided more than 10% of in-state electricity generation in 16 states.  Notably, wind provided 57% of Iowa’s electricity and more than 30% in Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and North Dakota.

As wind turbines continue to grow in size and power, they are producing more energy at lower cost.  Turbine prices have gone from $1,800/kW in 2008 to $770-850/kW now.

The pipeline for U.S. offshore wind energy projects has grown to 35,324 MW, a 24% increase over the previous year.   The Bureau of Ocean Management created five new wind energy areas in the New York Bight with a total of 9,800 MW of capacity. 

Distributed wind power, which are systems connected on the customer’s side of the power meter as opposed to those on the utility side, also saw increased growth last year. 

Wind power is a key element in the adminstration’s goal of having a decarbonized electricity sector by 2035.

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DOE Releases New Reports Highlighting Record Growth & Declining Costs Of Wind Power

Photo, posted March 24, 2016, courtesy of Adam Dingley via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Lower Power Sector Emissions | Earth Wise

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A combination of factors led to emissions from the U.S. power sector dropping 10% between 2019 and 2020, which was the largest one-year drop measured since annual reports first began being published in 1997.

The coronavirus pandemic was certainly a contributing factor, but the drop in emissions is part of a long-term trend being driven by increasing reliance on renewable energy sources, diminishing use of coal, and improving energy efficiency.

Between 2000 and 2020, power generation from solar, wind, and geothermal generation more than doubled.  Coupled with the declining use of coal power, power sector emissions during that period dropped by 37% even though the U.S. gross domestic product grew by 40% over the same years.   Overall, at this point zero-carbon electricity sources – which include wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, and nuclear power – provide about 38% of U.S. electricity.

The Biden Administration has set a target of 100% zero-carbon power by the year 2035.  Given that the costs of wind and solar power continue to fall, there are power companies pushing for setting an intermediate goal of 80% clean power by 2030.

According to recent research, the increasingly attractive cost of renewable power along with the job creation associated with it means that reaching at least 90% clean power by the year 2035 could be achieved at no extra cost to consumers.  Being able to separate economic growth from emissions makes it far more likely that the goals of decarbonization can be met without encountering economic resistance. 

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U.S. Power Sector Sees Biggest One-Year Drop in Emissions in More Than Two Decades

Photo, posted June 30, 2019, courtesy of Stephen Strowes via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Cutting The Cost Of Energy Storage | Earth Wise

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The cost of both solar and wind power continues to drop making the two renewable energy sources the cheapest way to make electricity in more and more places.  Given the virtually inexhaustible supply of both wind and sun power, these clean electricity sources can in principle meet all our energy needs.  The hang up is that both of them are intermittent sources – the wind doesn’t blow all the time and the sun doesn’t shine all the time.

The solution to the intermittency problem is energy storage.  If energy produced by wind and sun can be stored so it can be made available for use at any time, then the goal of having 100% clean energy can be realized.

Energy storage technology has continued to improve over time and to get cheaper.  The Department of Energy recently announced a new initiative aimed at accelerating both of these trends.

The new program – called Long Duration Storage Shot –  has the goal of reducing the cost of grid-scale, long-duration energy storage by 90% within this decade.

Long-duration energy storage is defined as systems that can store energy for more than ten hours at a time.  Such systems can support a low-cost, reliable, carbon-free electric grid that can supply power even when energy generation is unavailable or lower than demand.  With long-duration storage, solar-generated power can be used at night.

The program will consider multiple types of storage technologies – electrochemical (that is: batteries), mechanical, thermal, chemical carriers, and various combinations thereof.  Any technology that has the potential to meet the necessary duration and cost targets for long-term grid storage are fair game for the program.

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DOE announces goal to cut costs of long-duration energy storage by 90%

Photo, posted October 16, 2017, courtesy of UC Davis College of Engineering via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Better Ways To Make Bioplastics | Earth Wise

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The world produces over 300 million tons of plastics each year, mostly produced from petroleum.  The environmental consequences are substantial and there is a critical need to replace as much of that plastic production with biodegradable plastics as possible.  Thus, there is global research aimed at making bioplastics more economical and as environmentally friendly as possible.

Researchers at Texas A&M University have developed an improved approach for making bioplastics from corn stubble, grasses, and mesquite agricultural production.  Apart from the obvious environmental benefits of having biodegradable plastics, producing bioplastics from common agricultural waste would create new revenue streams for farmers as well as the people who transport harvested feedstock and byproduct crops to refinery operations.

The key to bioplastic production is the efficient extraction and use of lignin, the organic polymer that is the primary structural support material in most plants.  The new research takes five conventional pretreatment technologies for plant materials and modifies them to produce both biofuel and plastics together at a lower cost.  The new method is called “plug-in preconditioning processes of lignin” and it can be directly and economically added into current biorefineries.  The process is designed to integrate dissolving, conditioning, and fermenting lignin, extracting energy from it and making it easily adaptable to biorefinery designs.

The so-called bioeconomy currently supports some 286,000 jobs.  Innovation is the key to achieving more widespread use of biodegradable plastic.  With improved economics of so-called lignocellulosic biorefineries, there can be new avenues to use agricultural waste to produce biodegradable plastics.

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‘Plugging in’ to produce environmentally friendly bioplastics

Photo, posted November 5, 2015, courtesy of Kathryn Faith via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Insanely Cheap Energy | Earth Wise

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The International Energy Agency, founded in 1974, keeps track of the world’s energy systems and anticipates how they are likely to change over time.  Policymakers around the world look to the agency’s annual World Energy Outlook publication for guidance.

In 2000, the agency made the prediction that by the year 2020, there would be a total of 18 gigawatts of photovoltaic solar power installed.  Within seven years, that number was already too small.

The IEA was not the only source to miss the mark on solar power.  The head of solar analysis at BloombergNEF in 2005 expected solar to eventually supply 1% of the world’s electricity.  It is already 3% and Bloomberg now predicts that it will be 23% by 2050 and expects that to be an underestimate. 

What has happened is that the world has unexpectedly gotten to the point where solar is the cheapest source of energy in most places.  Over the past decade, every time solar production capacity has doubled, its cost has dropped by 28%.

Historically, a combination of groundbreaking research in Australia and intense Chinese industrial development led to the creation of a massive new industry.  When Germany passed laws encouraging the use of solar power, suddenly there was massive global demand and a struggle to keep up with supply.

The industry had its fits and starts, and many players fell by the wayside.    But at this point, solar technology continues to get better and cheaper.  Market forces are pretty hard to beat and when solar technology can supply insanely cheap energy, it is going to be used in more and more places.

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‘Insanely cheap energy’: how solar power continues to shock the world

Photo, posted January 10, 2020, courtesy of Tony Webster via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Better Solar Evaporator | Earth Wise

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Water security is a serious global problem.  Nearly 1.5 billion people – including almost half a billion children – live in areas of high or extremely high water vulnerability.  Less than 3% of the world’s water is fresh and demand for it is rising with increasing population growth, urbanization, and growing water needs from a range of sectors.

Researchers at the University of South Australia have developed a promising new technique that could help reduce or eliminate water stress for millions of people.  The technique uses highly efficient solar evaporation to obtain fresh water from seawater, brackish water, or even contaminated water.   According to the researchers, their technique can deliver enough daily fresh drinking water for a family of four from just one square meter of source water.

Solar evaporation has been the focus of a great deal of effort in recent years, but it has generally been found to be too inefficient to be practically useful.  The new technique overcomes those inefficiencies and can deliver fresh water at a fraction of the cost of existing technologies like reverse osmosis.

The system utilizes a highly efficient photothermal structure that sits on the surface of a water source and converts sunlight to heat, focusing energy precisely on the surface to rapidly evaporate the uppermost portion of the liquid.  The technique prevents any loss of solar energy and even draws additional energy from the bulk water and surrounding environment.

The system is built entirely from simple, everyday materials that are low cost, sustainable, and easily obtainable.

The technology has the potential to provide a long-term clean water solution to people who can’t afford other systems, and these are the places where such solutions are most needed.

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Sunlight to solve the world’s clean water crisis

Photo, posted November 13, 2016, courtesy of Steve Austin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Ever Cheaper Solar Power | Earth Wise

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The price of electricity from solar panels has been dropping dramatically over the last decade.  The average cost of utility-scale solar power has gone down more than 80% since 1980, making it the least expensive power source in many places.  The plunging price of solar power is one of the driving forces behind the transition to clean energy. 

The 2020 average cost of solar power was 4.6 cents per kilowatt-hour.  The Department of Energy has recently set a target of reducing the cost of solar power by more than half again by 2030, to an unsubsidized average of 2 cents per kilowatt-hour.  The 2-cent goal is not just the ordinary cost of electricity; it is the levelized cost of energy which is based on a formula that includes the cost of construction and operation of a power plant.

If the least expensive power source becomes that much cheaper, it will really shake the foundation of many energy debates.  One of these debates is how to meet the need for more interstate power lines to transport renewable energy from rural areas to population centers.   If large amounts of additional renewable energy sources are added, policymakers will need to work harder to reform the regulatory system to make sure that new interstate power lines get built.

If the average cost of solar power reaches 2 cents a kilowatt-hour, the actual price will be lower in sunnier regions and higher in those that get less sun.  However, the continuing decrease in solar electricity costs will actually have the greatest impact in the northern, less sunny regions, because solar power may not currently be the least expensive option there but it will become the cheapest alternative over time.

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Inside Clean Energy: What Happens When Solar Power Gets Much, Much Cheaper?

Photo, posted May 14, 2020, courtesy of Courtney Celley/USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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