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The slippery slopes of the ski industry

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According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, snowfall is declining globally as temperatures warm because of human-caused climate change.  Less snow threatens to reinforce global warming, and to disrupt food, water, and livelihoods for billions of people.   

According to new modeling by researchers from Protect Our Winters Australia and The Australian National University, the ski industry in Australia is at risk of major disruptions and shorter seasons if climate change continues unabated.  The researchers found the average ski season across all resorts in Australia will be 44 days shorter by 2050 under a mid-greenhouse gas emissions scenario, and 55 days shorter under a high-emissions scenario.

But the research team also revealed that the Australian ski industry would fare significantly better if decisive action is taken to reduce climate pollution.  In fact, under a low-emissions scenario, the ski season would be 28 days shorter by 2050, before starting to improve by 2080 if emissions are kept down.

However, if decisive climate action isn’t taken, the researchers warn some ski resorts in Australia may be forced to close for good.  But this threat isn’t unique to Australia. 

In fact, according to a study recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, 13% of ski areas around the world are predicted to lose all natural snow cover under the high-emissions scenario by 2071-2100 – relative to their historic baselines. 

The future losses of ski areas around the world will be significant if global emissions continue unchecked.

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Climate crisis puts Australia’s ski industry on slippery slope, but not all hope is lost

“Our Changing Snowscapes” Report Released

The future is likely less skiable, thanks to climate change

Photo, posted June 6, 2018, courtesy of Clement Tang via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Potential for floating solar

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As installations of utility-scale solar power continue to expand around the world, there is the issue of where to put them.  They do take up considerable amounts of space and, in many places, available land is at a premium.

An alternative to taking up available land with solar panels is to deploy them on the surfaces of lakes and reservoirs.  A study by researchers at Bangor and Lancaster Universities in the UK calculated the potential electrical output for floating photovoltaic installation on nearly 68,000 lakes and reservoirs around the world.  The lakes and reservoirs selected were no more than 6 miles from a population center, were not in a protected area, and didn’t dry up and didn’t freeze for more than six months each year.  The calculations were based on covering just 10% of the surface area of the bodies of water.

The calculations were evaluated country-by-country.  Five countries could meet their entire electricity needs by floating installations including Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.  Many countries, mostly in Africa, South America, and Central Asia, could get between 40% and 70% of their electricity this way.  Most European countries could only meet a few percent of their electricity needs from floating solar, but even that could be significant. 

There are other benefits to floating solar apart from freeing up land.  The panels stay cooler, making them more efficient, and reservoirs lose less water through evaporation and the growth of algal blooms is reduced because there is less light reaching the water.

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Some countries could meet their total electricity needs from floating solar panels, research shows

Photo, posted November 25, 2015, courtesy of Smabs Sputzer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Thawing permafrost:  Is it a ticking timebomb?

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Permafrost covers about a quarter of the landmass in the Northern Hemisphere.  It stores vast quantities of organic carbon in the form of dead plant matter.  As long as it stays frozen, it is no threat to the climate.  But as it thaws, microorganisms start breaking down that plant matter and large amounts of carbon are released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and methane.

This process has often been described as a ticking timebomb for the climate.  The theory is that once global warming reaches a certain level, the process will become self-amplifying setting off a catastrophic amount of warming.  If that level was reached, it would be a tipping point in the changing climate.

An international research team from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany has extensively researched this hypothesis.  Their conclusion is that within the permafrost, there are multiple geological, hydrological, and physical processes that are self-amplifying and, in some cases, irreversible.  However, these processes act only locally or regionally.  There is no evidence that some particular threshold in global warming could affect all permafrost and accelerate its thawing on a global level.

This research does not mean that Arctic permafrost is nothing to worry about.  In fact, there are ways in which it is more worrisome.  Because the permafrost is very heterogenous – meaning it is very different in different places – there will be numerous small, local tipping points that will be exceeded at different times and at different levels of warming.  All of this will proceed in step with global warming, contributing to the overall worsening situation.  There is no warming level below which permafrost thawing is not a problem.

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Thawing permafrost: Not a climate tipping element, but nevertheless far-reaching impacts

Photo, posted January 24, 2014, courtesy of Brandt Meixell / USGS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Biofuel refineries and toxic pollution

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There have been decades of government support for renewable, crop-based fuels – primarily corn ethanol.  In fact, it is a required component of gasoline sold in this country.  The biofuels industry has long claimed ethanol to be a clean, greener alternative to petroleum. 

There have been arguments all along that the environmental benefits of corn ethanol are dubious at best because of the energy required to produce the stuff.  There are also issues related to burning a food crop instead of feeding it to people and that the conversion of grasslands and forests to produce it releases massive amounts of carbon.

Recently, another serious concern has emerged.  A new review of industry data has found that the country’s biofuel refineries, mostly located in the Midwest, produce large amounts of toxic air pollutants, in some cases ever more than from their petroleum counterparts.

Emissions data from the country’s 275 ethanol, biodiesel, and renewable diesel plants revealed that they release carcinogenic formaldehyde as well as other potentially dangerous substances including acetaldehyde, hexane, and acrolein.  In 2022, biofuel refineries released 12.9 million pounds of hazardous air pollutants, compared to 14.9 million pounds emitted by oil refineries, and the biofuel plants actually emitted more of the four chemicals just mentioned than petroleum refineries did.

The broad use of crop ethanol is the result of intensive industry lobbying.  Ethanol plants are even exempt from some air pollution permitting requirements.  Perhaps the time has come to revisit its pervasive and mandated use.

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Biofuel Refineries Are Releasing Toxic Air Pollutants in Farm Communities Across the US

Photo, posted February 27, 2021, courtesy of Sue Thompson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Species and climate change

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Temperature extremes on Earth currently range from a low of -129°F to a high of 134°F.  But these climatic limits have changed throughout history.  In fact, during the last interglacial period 130,000 years ago, temperatures were warmer, resembling what we are projected to experience at the end of this century.

Species that evolved during such periods may possess pre-adaptations that could help them tolerate upcoming changes to the climate.  This factor is often overlooked by traditional statistical models predicting species’ responses to climate change.

But a new model, developed by researchers from Ifremer in France and Lausanne University in Switzerland, has taken this oversight into account, and reassessed the proportion of terrestrial and marine species threatened with extinction by climate change. 

In the study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, the research team applied its model to nearly 25,000 terrestrial and marine species from around the world.  The researchers discovered that 49% of these species live in climate niches near the current climatic limits, and 86% could potentially extend beyond these limits. 

The most surprising result concerns tropical regions. While forecasts from traditional models estimate that the diversity of terrestrial species in tropical areas could decrease by 54% between now and 2041-2060, the new model predicts a more moderate decline of 39%.

The findings confirm the importance of taking urgent measures to mitigate climate change and its impact on biodiversity.

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Some species may better tolerate climate change than expected

Photo, posted October 23, 2015, courtesy of Anita Ritenour via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A brief bout of bad air in Scotland

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Scotland, and the UK in general, used to suffer from sulfur dioxide pollution.  Industrial and domestic emissions, especially from burning coal, contributed heavily to urban air leading to the London smog of the 1950s and the acid rain of the 1980s.  But national air pollution agreements and various international measures have been highly successful in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions.  Desulfurization of coal-fired powerplants and the introduction of ultralow sulfur fuels among other measures have decreased sulfur dioxide emission by 98% since 1970. 

As a result, it came as quite a surprise on May 31st when Edinburgh saw sulfur dioxide levels higher than had been observed in over 30 years.  The levels greatly exceeded air quality objectives for 10 hours with concentrations even creeping towards workplace exposure limits.

What happened?  For once, it was nothing that people did.  Two days earlier, a volcanic fissure eruption took place in the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, some 850 miles from Edinburgh.  Because of an unusual meteorological configuration, the prevailing winds sent the plume of volcanic gases southward towards Scotland.  Had the eruption taken place 60 miles further north or happened a few hours later, the plume of gases would have missed the UK entirely and would have traveled north to the Arctic region.

Icelandic volcanic eruptions have impacted air travel in Europe on a number of occasions.  This non-explosive eruption had little impact outside of its local region, but it turned out to briefly wreak havoc in Scotland.  Fortunately, this pollution event was short-lived.

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Atmospheric sulphur dioxide levels reach historic high in Scotland following Icelandic volcano eruption

Photo, posted November 17, 2021, courtesy of Catherine Poh Huay Tan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Industrial heat and solar power

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Many industrial processes require extremely high temperatures, typically more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.  This heat is generally produced by burning fossil fuels – either coal or natural gas – which emits large amounts of greenhouse gases. This level of heat cannot be economically produced using renewable electricity.  As a consequence, decarbonizing these industrial processes is very difficult.

Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have recently demonstrated a new method of obtaining high-temperature heat based on solar radiation.  They have engineered a device called a thermal trap.  It consists of a quartz rod coupled to a ceramic absorber that can efficiently absorb sunlight and convert it to heat.

In laboratory-scale experiments, they exposed a foot-long quartz rod to artificial light 135 times more intensive than sunlight and were able to produce temperatures as high as 1,900 degrees.  The artificial light source was needed to mimic the effects of concentrated solar energy plants that typically make use of large numbers of mirrors to direct intense solar energy onto a small area.

There are already concentrated solar power plants that operate at temperatures as high as 1,100 degrees and use the heat to operate turbines to generate electricity.  These plants lose efficiency at higher temperatures because of radiative heat losses.  The Zurich thermal trap minimizes these losses and permits higher temperature operation.

The hope is that at a large scale, the new approach may make it possible to use solar energy to decarbonize energy-intensive industrial processes.

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Using solar energy to generate heat at high temperatures

Photo courtesy of ETH Zurich / Emiliano Casati.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Benefits of electric school buses

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There are about half a million school buses in use in the U.S.  A large number of them are older, highly polluting diesel buses.  There are well-established health and climate benefits of switching from diesel vehicles to electric vehicles but making the switch is expensive.  Diesel buses generally cost between $65,000 to $120,000, depending on the type and configuration.  Electric buses cost about $250,000 each.

The substantial cost makes it a difficult decision for local, state, and federal officials, particularly since the actual magnitude of the benefits is not well known.

A new study by researchers at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health has quantified these benefits.  According to the study, replacing each bus may yield up to $247,600 in climate and health benefits. These benefits derive from fewer greenhouse gas emissions and from reduced rates of adult mortality and childhood asthma. 

The study compared the amounts of carbon dioxide emitted from diesel bus tailpipes to the emissions associated with generating electricity for the buses and producing their batteries.  It also compared how these respective emissions contribute to fine particulate air pollution, which is linked to adult mortality and the onset of childhood asthma.  The study concluded that particularly in dense urban settings, the savings incurred from electrifying older school buses easily outweigh the costs of replacing them.

An important question not tackled in the study is how electric school buses impact children’s exposure to in-cabin air pollution while riding the bus.  This issue could further inform policy decisions.

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Electric school buses may yield significant health and climate benefits, cost savings

Photo, posted May 9, 2008, courtesy of Christine H. via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Minerals from seawater

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There are about 18,000 desalination plants around the world that take in 23 trillion gallons of water each year.  The plants produce more than 37 billion gallons of brine – enough to fill 50,000 Olympic-size swimming pools – every day.  Disposing of this brine is an ongoing challenge.  Dumping it into the ocean can damage marine ecosystems.  Inland desalination plants either bury this waste or inject it into wells, adding further cost and complexity to the already expensive process of desalination.

According to researchers at Oregon State University, this waste brine contains large amounts of copper, zinc, magnesium, lithium, and other valuable metals.  A company in Oakland, California called Magrathea Metals has started producing modest amounts of magnesium from waste brine in its pilot projects.  With support from the U.S. Defense Department, it is building a larger-scale facility to produce hundreds of tons of the metal over two to four years. 

Most of the world’s magnesium supply comes from China, where producing it requires burning lots of coal and utilizing lots of labor.  Magrathea’s brine mining makes use of off-peak wind and solar energy and is much less labor intensive.

No large-scale brine mining operations currently exist and when there are some, they might end up having negative environmental impacts.  But in principle, the process should produce valuable metals without the massive land disturbance, acid-mine drainage, and other pollution associated with traditional mining.  Brine mining could turn a growing waste problem into a valuable resource.

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In Seawater, Researchers See an Untapped Bounty of Critical Metals

Photo, posted February 18, 2017, courtesy of Jacob Vanderheyden via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Record carbon dioxide levels

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Despite the increasing concern about the warming climate, the period between March of last year and March of this year has set a new record for the largest 12-month gain in atmospheric CO2 concentration ever observed.  The new level, measured at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory was nearly 5 parts per million higher than last year’s level reaching more than 426 parts per million.

CO2 levels averaged 280 ppm for the past 800,000 years until the Industrial Revolution began and people started burning fossil fuels.  Levels started being measured at Mauna Loa in 1958, when they were 315 ppm.  Between 1958 and 2005, the CO2 level rose to 380 ppm.  Over the past 19 years, the amount of CO2 has continued to rise rapidly and with it, global temperatures.

The record increase in carbon dioxide over this past year is probably associated with the end of an El Niño event.  The previous record increase in 2015-2016 was also associated with El Niño.

But the overall trend is clear and discouraging.  Over the past 66 years, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 35%.  This increase is a result of the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, as well as the effects of deforestation and livestock agriculture.

Carbon dioxide absorbs heat radiating from the Earth’s surface and re-releases it in all directions, including back toward Earth’s surface.  Without this greenhouse effect, the Earth would actually be frozen.  But people are supercharging the natural greenhouse effect and causing the global temperature to rise.  Global energy demand continues to grow and if we continue to meet that demand mostly with fossil fuels, temperatures will continue to rise.

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Scripps Institution of Oceanography: CO2 levels have largest 12-month gain

Photo, posted March 3, 2014, courtesy of Jon Roig via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Recycling cement

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Concrete is the second-most-used material on the planet.  Only water is used more.  Producing concrete is responsible for 7.5% of human-produced carbon dioxide emissions.  So, finding a cost-effective way to reduce these emissions is a major challenge in the face of ever-growing global demand for concrete.

Researchers at Cambridge University have found that used cement is an effective substitute for lime flux, which is an essential material used in steel recycling that results in a waste product called slag.  When lime is replaced with used cement, the end product instead is recycled cement that can be used to make new concrete.

The process does not add any significant costs to concrete or steel production and significantly reduces the emissions associated with both.

Concrete is made from sand, gravel, water, and cement.  Cement is made by a process called clinkering, in which limestone and other materials are heated to 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit.  The process converts the materials into cement but releases large amounts of CO2 as limestone decarbonates into lime. 

Cambridge researchers found that using cement clinker and iron oxide instead of lime works well in steel recycling.  Crushing old concrete and taking out the sand and stone results in a cement that is reactivated by the recycling furnace to produce a material with excellent properties. 

Recent tests by the Materials Processing Institute showed that recycled cement can be produced at scale in an electric arc furnace.  Ultimately, this method could produce zero emission cement if the electricity for the furnace comes from renewable sources.

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Cement recycling method could help solve one of the world’s biggest climate challenges

Photo, posted July 18, 2011, courtesy of Kenta Mabuchi via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Beware of the blob

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For the past 10 years, there have been several occurrences of a vast expanse of ocean stretching from Alaska to California in which water temperatures are as much as 7 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal.  Known jocularly as “the Blob,” the phenomenon can last for several years and decimates fish stocks, starves seabirds, creates blooms of toxic algae, prevents salmon from returning to rivers, and displaces sea lions and whales.

Until recently, there was no accepted explanation for this abrupt ocean heating.  Climate change, even combined with natural cycles like El Niños, is not enough to account for it.

In depth analysis by an international team of researchers has found that the extraordinary heating is the result of a dramatic cleanup of Chinese air pollution.  The decline of smog particles, which to some extent shield the planet from the sun’s rays, has accelerated warming and set off a chain of atmospheric events across the Pacific, essentially cooking the ocean.

This is an example of what can be called the pollution paradox in which global warming is actually increased when air pollution is reduced.  Reduced air pollution on the US West Coast has even been identified as a factor contributing to increased wildfires.  However, air pollution causes more than 4 million premature deaths from cancers and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases each year. 

Nobody thinks that we should stop cleaning up the air to slow down global warming.  The only viable solution is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as rapidly as possible.

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Pollution Paradox: How Cleaning Up Smog Drives Ocean Warming

Photo, posted December 18, 2017, courtesy of SGUP via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Cloud brightening

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Solar geoengineering is a type of climate intervention:  deliberate actions designed to affect the climate.  There are several ways to try to reduce the amount of sunlight reaching the surface of the earth and all of them are controversial.  Perhaps the least controversial approach is cloud brightening.

The idea is based on something called the Twomey effect, which is that large numbers of small droplets in the atmosphere reflect more sunlight than small numbers of large droplets.  Spraying vast quantities of minuscule aerosols into the sky, thereby forming many small droplets, could change the reflective properties of clouds.  If clouds are more reflective, then less sunlight reaches the surface, and the temperature goes down.

This form of geoengineering is thought to be less risky because it can be performed on a localized basis and can use relatively benign materials such as sea salt. 

In early April, scientists from the University of Washington started testing a device that sprays tiny sea-salt particles into the air from the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier in Alameda, California.  The test was simply to see whether the machine propelled a mist of suitable size.

Within two weeks, Alameda officials ordered a stop to the experiment, citing potential health and environmental risks.  After a month-long investigation, Alameda ruled that the experiment does not generate a measurable risk to health, wildlife, or the environment.

But before more ambitious experiments take place, there are potential side effects of cloud brightening that need to be studied.  It may turn out to be a useful tool in fighting global warming, but in any case, such technology should not be viewed as a substitute for moving away from fossil fuels.

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A Test of Cloud-Brightening Machines Poses No Health Risk, Officials Say

Photo, posted September 8, 2011, courtesy of Justin Ladia via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Around-the-clock clean energy

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Using solar and wind power can go a long way toward replacing fossil fuel-generated electricity, particularly with the addition of battery energy storage.  But because of the intermittent nature of both sun and wind, other sources are still needed.  There is also the need for ways to produce high temperature for industrial processes.  Complete decarbonization will require a host of complementary technologies.

A spinout company from MIT called 247Solar is building high-temperature concentrated solar power systems that make use of overnight thermal energy storage to provide electric power around the clock as well as industrial-grade heat.

The system uses a field of sun-tracking mirrors to reflect sunlight to the top of a central tower.  A proprietary solar receiver heats air to over 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.  The heated air drives turbines that generate 400 kilowatts of electricity and produces 600 kilowatts of heat.  Some of the hot air is routed through a long-duration thermal energy storage system and the stored heat is then used to drive the turbines when the sun isn’t shining.  The unique part of the technology is not the concentrated solar power; it is the solar receiver.

The modular systems can be used as standalone microgrids for communities, or to provide power in remote places.  They can also be used in conjunction with conventional wind and solar farms to enable around-the-clock renewable power.

The first deployment will be with a large utility in India.  If it is successful, 247Solar hopes to scale up rapidly with other utilities, companies, and communities around the globe.

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Offering clean energy around the clock

Photo credit: 247Solar.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

California renewable energy

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California has aggressively pursued the use of renewable energy, particularly solar and wind power.  Last year, renewables supplied 54% of the state’s electricity needs.  This year, California has been achieving some remarkable milestones with its renewable energy.

As of May 26th, California had produced more than 100% of its electricity demand with wind, solar, and hydropower for parts of 51 straight days and 75 out of 81 days.  On May 25th, California’s grid ran entirely on renewable energy for 10.1 straight hours and renewables provided 83% of the state’s electricity for the entire 24-hour period.  California uses more electricity than any other state apart than Texas, which uses more than half its energy for operating refineries and petrochemical plants.

Excess power in California is either exported to other states or is used to charge up the state’s growing arrays of energy storage batteries.  California has the largest grid-connected battery storage facility in the world, located in Kern County.  The facility can store nearly 3,300 megawatt-hours of energy.

The ability to produce more power than the state needs occurs during the day when the sun is shining, and when many people are not at home.  At night, demand goes up and solar power is not available.  But as the quantity of energy storage available continues to grow along with additional solar installations, California will ultimately be able to wean off of the gas-fueled power plants it predominantly uses at night.

According to some experts, California may operate entirely on renewables and battery storage as soon as 2035. 

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California exceeds 100% of energy demand with renewables over a record 30 days

Photo, posted January 11, 2016, courtesy of Jared Eberhardt via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The largest carbon removal plant

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Direct air capture (DAC) is process that removes carbon dioxide out of the air and stores it away where it can no longer trap heat in the atmosphere.  It is intended to be a way of getting rid of the greenhouse gases that have built up in the atmosphere.  In principle, it’s a great idea.  In practice, it is a huge challenge.

In 2017, a company called Climeworks became the first company to take carbon dioxide out of the air and sell it as a product for use in carbonated drinks and in greenhouses.  In 2021, the company opened a DAC plant called Orca in Iceland that captures CO2 and permanently stores it underground.  Clients like Microsoft pay Climeworks for doing this as a way of offsetting their own emissions.

Recently, Climeworks has started operating a new plant called Mammoth – also in Iceland – that will be able to capture about 10 times more carbon dioxide than Orca.  Iceland is a prime location for DAC technology because its abundant geothermal energy makes powering it cheap and environmentally friendly.

Mammoth, when fully operational, will remove about 36,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year, the largest DAC system in the world.  But there is a long, long way to go.  Microsoft alone emits nearly 13 million tons of carbon dioxide a year.

There are multiple DAC projects in development including several in the United States being funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.  The four DAC hubs being developed under the program are each supposed to have the capacity to capture at least a million metric tons of CO2 a year.

Whether DAC can make a real difference remains to be seen.

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The world’s largest carbon removal plant is here, and bigger ones are on the way

Photo credit: Climeworks

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

EV growth and oil demand

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There has been lots of talk recently about the transition to electric vehicles sputtering out.  Several automakers have delayed their EV programs citing reduced demand for the vehicles and lack of profitability.  In the bigger picture, the auto industry as a whole is in a rough patch as rising interest rates and other factors have reduced car buying.

Despite all this doom and gloom talk, sales of electric vehicles will hit an all-time high this year.  Adoption of EVs is accelerating more quickly than many people expected and government policies in China, the United States, and Europe have had a significant impact on vehicle sales.  In China, 37% of new cars sold last year were electric.  The country hit its 2025 target three years early and this year the figure could hit 45%.

But even as electric car sales rapidly increase, oil demand has continued to climb, reaching 100 million barrels a day, slightly more than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic.  The International Energy Agency expects that oil demand will peak before the end of this decade, but oil consumption could remain strong for decades unless there is further policy action encouraging the transition away from it.

Some experts say that the IEA’s models don’t take into account how quickly the world is changing.  New emission rules are expected to speed the adoption of EVs and plug-in hybrids.  In addition, falling battery costs are making the economics of electric vehicles increasingly attractive.  If EV adoption accelerates more rapidly than these models predict, then oil consumption could drop much more quickly.

However, the oil industry is deeply embedded in modern life and is not likely to fade away without a fight.

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EV Sales Are Taking Off. Why Is Oil Demand Still Climbing?

Photo, posted September 9, 2020, courtesy of Chris Yarzab via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Gravity storage on the grid

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For the past several years, the Swiss-based company Energy Vault has been developing an energy storage system based on the principle of using mechanical devices to lift heavy concrete blocks into stacks using power generated by wind turbines or other renewable sources.  When energy is needed, the blocks are lowered back to the ground, spinning generators in the process.

The principle of storing energy in the form of gravitational potential energy is the most widely used form of energy storage in existence but usually works by pumping water into a reservoir at higher elevation and then letting the water come back down when energy is needed.

Energy Vault has built a grid-scale 100 MWh gravity storage system in Rudong China.  It has now been successfully tested with charging and discharging and has been commissioned. Pending final provincial and state approvals, it will be the world’ first commercial, utility-scale non-pumped hydro gravity energy storage system.

The Rudong project teamed Energy Vault with environmental management company CTNY and Atlas Renewable.  Energy Vault has extended its license agreement with Atlas Renewable to 15 years.  CTNY has announced plans for eight additional deployments of the Energy Vault gravity storage system across China, representing more than 3.7 GWh of energy storage.

Energy Vault’s technology has attracted a fair amount of skepticism from parts of the energy community based on the environmental burdens of concrete as well as durability issues.  It appears the technology will have significant real-world testing in China, which should provide unambiguous answers to everyone’s questions.

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Energy Vault Announces Successful Testing and Commissioning of First EVx 100 MWh Gravity Energy Storage System by China Tianying, Extension of Atlas Renewable Licensing Agreement to 15 Years

Photo, posted December 21, 2018, courtesy of Nancy Winfrey via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Giant batteries and the grid

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All across the country, electric utility companies are starting to use giant batteries to counteract the biggest weakness of renewable energy; namely, that the sun doesn’t always shine, and the wind doesn’t always blow.  Solar panels and wind turbines can keep generating energy when people don’t need it and batteries can store up that energy for when they do.

Over the past three years, battery storage capacity on US grids has grown by a factor of ten adding up to 16 gigawatts.  This year, it is expected to double again, led by massive growth in Texas, California, and Arizona.

California generates more electricity from solar power than any other state.  But it has a timing problem:  solar power is plentiful during the day, but it disappears in the evening when people get home from work and start using lots of electricity.  The previous solution was to burn lots of fossil fuel to produce it.

This has been changing thanks to battery storage.  Since 2020, California has installed more giant batteries than anywhere else in the world other than China.  Batteries are gradually replacing fossil fuels for California’s evening power needs.  On the evening of April 30th, for example, batteries supplied more than 20% of California’s electricity.  This is equivalent to the output of seven large nuclear reactors.

Batteries have multiple uses in the grid.  They handle big swings in generation from renewable sources, they reduce congestion on transmission lines, and they help to prevent blackouts during heat waves.  Batteries are starting to eat into the market for fossil fuels and will play an ever-growing role in the electricity grid.  As the role of renewables grows, so will the role of batteries.

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Giant Batteries Are Transforming the Way the U.S. Uses Electricity

Photo, posted December 5, 2022, courtesy of Jonathan Cutrer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A setback for New York offshore wind

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Three major offshore wind projects in New York have been cancelled because of the unavailability of technology critical to the projects.  The projects were part of NYSERDA‘s third offshore wind solicitation and were provisionally awarded last October.  The projects, which totaled more than 4 GW of clean energy, were supposed to begin commercial operation in 2030.

The projects were Attentive Energy One, intended to benefit historically marginalized communities in New York City; Community Offshore Wind, a farm located 64 miles offshore that would power 500,000 homes; and Excelsior Wind, which would have powered 700,000 homes.

What happened is GE Vernova – a GE spinoff energy equipment company – decided to no longer develop its new 18 MW Haliade-X wind turbines and instead concentrate on its lower-powered models which already have ample demand.  The material changes to the three projects using the turbines made them no longer viable and the developers and their partners could no longer come to terms.  As a result, NYSERDA decided to not go forward with the awards.

While this represents a significant blow to the offshore wind industry and to New York’s renewable energy goals, NYSERDA said that it remains committed to advancing New York’s offshore wind industry and expects to announce new plans and additional projects in the near future.

In the bigger picture, 2023 was a record year for wind power; the world installed 117 gigawatts of new wind capacity.  This year has seen the first major offshore wind farms come online in the US.

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Massive New York projects nixed as NYSERDA concludes third offshore wind solicitation

Photo, posted August 7, 2013, courtesy of Department of Energy and Climate Change via Flickr.

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