equipment

Solar Power At Night | Earth Wise

March 16, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The use of solar power has grown tremendously in recent years as it has declined in price and become far more competitive with other forms of electricity generation. Its fundamental drawback, of course, is that it only works when the sun is shining. Solar panels don’t produce any power at night. That is, until now, apparently.

A team of engineers at Stanford University have developed a new kind of solar cell that is capable of generating at least some electricity at night. Published in the journal Applied Physics Letters, the research describes a device that can be a continuous renewable power source for both day and nighttime.

The device incorporates a thermoelectric generator that produces electricity from the small difference in temperature between the ambient air and the solar cell itself. The amount of power produced is far less than the solar cell generates from sunlight, but the device can provide nighttime standby lighting and power in off-grid and mini-grid applications.

Mini-grid applications are independent electricity networks that are used for small populations that may be too isolated to be connected to the main power grid. Nearly 600 million people in Africa currently live without access to electricity, primarily in rural areas. A standalone solar system operating independently of any power grid can meet many electricity needs such as phone charging and lighting, but such systems may not be able to handle large electrical need such as powering machinery and agricultural equipment. Mini-grids are larger installations that can provide power to a small rural community.

With innovations like the new Stanford device, a solar mini-grid may be able to keep running at some level even at night.

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Solar panels that can generate electricity at night have been developed at Stanford

Photo, posted December 15, 2021, courtesy of Pete via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Vaccine For Bees | Earth Wise

February 27, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The US has seen annual reductions in honey bee colonies since 2006. According to the USDA, there are many factors that have contributed to the decline. These include parasites, pests, insecticides, disease, and a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder in which worker bees abandon a hive and leave behind the queen.

One of major threats to bee colonies is American foulbrood disease, which is a bacterial condition that attacks bee larvae. It is highly contagious and has no cure. Until now, the only treatment method required burning the colony of infected bees along with the hives and equipment and treating nearby bee colonies with antibiotics.

Recently, the USDA has approved a conditional license for the world’s first vaccine for honey bees. The vaccine contains inactive bacteria of the type that causes American foulbrood disease.

The vaccine is incorporated into the royal jelly fed by worker bees to the queen bee. The queen ingests the feed and keeps some of vaccine in her ovaries. This gives bee larvae immunity to the disease as they hatch and thereby reduces death from the illness.

According to the California State Beekeepers Association, the new vaccine could be a major breakthrough for protecting bees. Preventing the infection in hives could avoid costly, destructive measures and allow the beekeepers to focus on other important elements of keeping bees healthy.

Bees as pollinators play a critical role in many ecosystems. For humankind, pollinators such as bees, birds, and bats are responsible for about a third of the world’s crop production.

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US approves world’s first vaccine for declining honey bees

Photo, posted June 6, 2022, courtesy of Bernd Thaller via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Cheap Material For Carbon Capture | Earth Wise

September 12, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act includes significant support for carbon capture technologies. Eliminating fossil fuel burning is essential for halting climate change, but in the interim, methods for capturing emissions of carbon dioxide and either storing it or turning it into usable products are increasingly necessary.

There are a variety of techniques being developed for carbon capture but at this point, none of them are commercially viable. The best technique in use today involves piping flue gases through chemicals called liquid amines, which bind CO2. The process requires large amounts of energy to release the bound carbon dioxide so it can be concentrated and stored. As a result, it is complicated and expensive.

Researchers at UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Texas A&M University have developed a carbon capture method using melamine, which is an inexpensive polymer used to make Formica, as well as low-cost dinnerware, industrial coatings, and other plastics. Porous melamine itself adsorbs CO2 to a limited extent. But the researchers discovered that adsorption could be much improved by adding the chemical DETA (diethylenetriamine) to bind the CO2. In addition, adding cyanuric acid increased the melamine pore size and radically improved CO2 capture efficiency even more.

The result is a material that is more efficient even than exotic carbon capture materials like metalorganic frameworks and is much cheaper and easier to make. The researchers aim to design equipment that can used in industrial facilities, attached to buildings and other structures, or even to the tailpipes of gas-powered vehicles.

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A simple, cheap material for carbon capture, perhaps from tailpipes

Photo, posted June 10, 2006, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Animals And Wildfires | Earth Wise

December 8, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

More than a century of fire suppression strategies coupled with climate change has led to wildfires that are much larger and more frequent than those of the past. A question that arises is what happens to the animals in a region when a massive wildfire sweeps through the landscape?

For the most part, we don’t have much information on what animals do when the flames are burning or in the immediate days after the fire has ended. By chance, a group of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Washington had the opportunity to get that kind of information.

The researchers had been studying a group of black-tailed deer where the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire occurred. That megafire torched more than 450,000 acres in Northern California, including the site where the researchers were studying the movements and feeding patterns of the deer.

The researchers had to evacuate the area during the fire, but their cameras, tracking collars, and other equipment continued to function. They learned that of the 18 deer studied, all survived. Deer that had to flee the flames returned home, even though many areas were completely burned and devoid of vegetation to eat. In fact, most of the deer returned within hours of the fire’s end while trees were still smoldering. The researchers continue to monitor the deer to look at the long-term effects of the fire.

The researchers speculate that loyalty to home is a tactic that likely helped the species survive past wildfires. Smaller fires encourage new vegetation growth, a tasty treat for deer. Whether the strategy will pay off as fires get more intense and more frequent remains to be seen.

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After California’s 3rd-largest wildfire, deer returned home while trees were ‘still smoldering’

Photo, posted July 17, 2017, courtesy of C Watts via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Bitcoin And Energy Use | Earth Wise

October 6, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In recent years we’ve heard more and more about cryptocurrencies. They are digital currencies managed by a decentralized network of users. No country, person, or other entity controls the value of a cryptocurrency. Some people think that they will ultimately replace traditional currencies.

The eventual status of cryptocurrencies can be debated endlessly but there is one thing that is certain: in the process of simply existing as they do today, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin consume astonishing amounts of electricity.

Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, uses about half a percent of all the electricity consumed in the world. The process of creating Bitcoin consumes over 90 terawatt-hours of electricity annually, which is more than the entire country of Finland with its 5.5 million people. Where does all the energy go?

The answer is something called Bitcoin mining. It is the process by which new Bitcoins are created. It is something like playing a lottery. Miners effectively have to guess an extremely long number called the “target hash” in order to be awarded Bitcoins. There is no magic formula to finding the answer. It isn’t really advanced math; it is brute force searching among trillions of possibilities. Specialized computer equipment is designed to make as many guesses as possible as quickly as possible. The faster the electronic circuits and the more of them there are, the better the chances are of beating out other miners to win the mining lottery. As a result, the amount of power-hungry computing equipment dedicated across the globe to mining Bitcoins has mushroomed.

Whether it pays to be a Bitcoin miner is increasingly difficult, but those that are doing it are consuming extraordinary amounts of energy in the effort to make a few more digital bucks.

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Bitcoin Uses More Electricity Than Many Countries. How Is That Possible?

Photo, posted February 14, 2018, courtesy of Stock Catalog via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Reduced Air Travel And Weather Forecasts | Earth Wise

December 16, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

There have been countless stories about the major and minor changes in the world caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. A few of those changes, such as reductions in pollution and traffic, have been positive. Most have been decidedly negative.

One of the stranger things that has happened is that the pandemic has affected the quality of weather forecasting by sharply reducing the amount of atmospheric data routinely collected by commercial airliners.

It turns out that atmospheric observations from passenger and cargo flights are among the most important data used in weather forecasting models. These observations are made by instruments aboard thousands of airliners, mostly based in North America and Europe. The observation program has been in place for decades. The data is transmitted in real time to forecasting organizations around the world, including the National Weather Service. About 40 airlines participate in the program, which has equipment aboard about 3,500 aircraft. Here in the US, Delta, United, American, and Southwest Airlines participate, as do UPS and FedEx.

During the first few months of the pandemic, air traffic declined by 75% or more worldwide. As a result, atmospheric observations dropped by the same percentage. A government research study showed that when weather forecasting models receive less data on temperature, wind, and humidity from aircraft, the accuracy of forecasts was reduced.

The amount of data from aircraft has increased in recent months as air travel has picked up to roughly 50% of pre-pandemic levels. So, the observation program is on the mend. Nonetheless, impaired weather forecasting is just another unexpected result of the global pandemic.

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Slump in Air Travel Hindered Weather Forecasting, Study Shows

Photo, posted July 15, 2017, courtesy of Daria Nepriakhina via Flickr. Photo by Photo by Daria / epicantus.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Largest Turbines In The Largest Offshore Wind Farm | Earth Wise

November 11, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The world’s largest planned offshore wind farm is going to make use of the world’s largest installed offshore wind turbines. The Dogger Bank Wind Farm in the North Sea off the Yorkshire coast of England will ultimately generate electricity for more than 4.5 million homes in the United Kingdom.

The 3.6 GW project will cost $10 billion and will be developed in three phases, the first two of which will use 13-MW wind turbines built by General Electric. The turbine’s blades measure 351 feet – longer than a soccer field. The turbines stand more than 850 feet tall, which is five times the size of the Arc de Triomphe. GE claims that a single rotation of one of these huge turbines can supply enough electricity to power the average British household for two days. When the project is completed in 2026, it will generate 5% of the United Kingdom’s electricity.

The previous version of GE’s Haliade-X turbines, rated at 12 MW, were ordered by the energy company Orsted for installation in two forthcoming U.S. windfarm: the Skipjack Farm off the coast of Maryland, and the Ocean Wind farm off the coast of New Jersey. The new version will be the largest turbines to reach operation in a commercial project. Meanwhile, Siemens Gamesa has a 14 MW turbine under development.

The order for 190 of the 13 MW giant turbines for the Dogger Bank farm arrived at GE on the same day that the company announced that it will no longer supply power equipment to new coal plants. Work on the Dogger Bank project started in January in an area of the North Sea that was previously dominated by oil and gas development.

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World’s Biggest Offshore Wind Farm Will Boast World’s Largest Installed Turbines

Photo, posted February 22, 2014, courtesy of Jonny Longrigg via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Bioacoustics

December 5, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Researchers are increasingly placing microphones in forests and other ecosystems to monitor birds, insects, frogs, and other animals. Advances in technology are enabling the wide-spread use of bioacoustics as an important research tool.

Studying animals in their natural habitat Is often a difficult task. For one thing, many animals are difficult to find, and the presence of humans disrupts their behavior or even drives them off. Remote cameras are useful, but cameras can only see what is in front of them and aren’t much use for detecting small animals, hidden animals, or ones high up in trees.

Biologists have long recognized the value of recording sound to identify animals and learn about their havior. Animal sounds can be as definitive a means of identification as visual images and microphones can pick up the sounds from animals located anywhere within their detection range.

The two advances in technology that are turning bioacoustics into a widely used tool are a steep drop in the price of recording equipment and the rapidly expanding capabilities of user-friendly artificial intelligence algorithms.

Autonomous environmental audio recorders tended to cost between $500 and $1000 until quite recently. Now, such equipment can be had for as little as $70.

The other big challenge is analyzing audio data. Finding specific animal sounds among hundreds of hours of recordings is an untenably tedious task. Identifying the characteristic sounds of specific species in crowded environments is a tricky business. But neural network-based artificial intelligence technology is making such big data analysis quite practical and, remarkably, it is becoming quite user-friendly.

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Listening to Nature: The Emerging Field of Bioacoustics

Photo, posted January 28, 2013, courtesy of Felix Uribe via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The U.S. Military And Climate Change

July 9, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to new research by scientists from Durham University and Lancaster University, the United States military is one of the largest climate polluters. The U.S. military consumes more liquid fuels and emits more greenhouse gases than most countries.

The study, published in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, finds that if the U.S. military were a country, it would be the 47^th largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, falling between Peru and Portugal. And this only takes into account the emissions from its liquid fuel consumption. For this study, the U.S. military’s 2015 consumption was compared with the 2014 World Bank country liquid fuel consumption.

In 2017, the U.S. military purchased more than 269,000 barrels of oil a day, emitting more than 25,000 kt- CO2e by burning those fuels. The Air Force accounted for $4.9 billion worth of this fuel, followed by the Navy at $2.8 billion, the Army at $947 million, and the Marines at $36 million.

The Air Force and the Navy are not only the U.S. military’s largest purchasers of fuel, they also use the most polluting types of fuel. The Air Force is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases at more than 13,000 kt CO2e, nearly double that of the Navy’s 7,800 kt CO2e.

Despite this study’s findings and a general uptick in awareness, it’s unlikely that the U.S. military’s dependence on fossil fuels will change. That’s because the military continues to pursue open-ended operations around the globe, and the lifecycle of its existing military equipment insures dependence on hydrocarbons for many years to come.

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U.S. military consumes more hydrocarbons than most countries — massive hidden impact on climate

Photo, posted July 8, 2016, courtesy of Alan Wilson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Better Filter For Saltwater

November 26, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Turning seawater into drinkable water is a highly desirable capability given that fresh water is generally in short supply and seawater is endlessly abundant. Desalination plants typically strain salt out of seawater by pumping it through films made of polyamide. Polyamide filters are riddled with tiny pores that allow water molecules to squeeze through, but not sodium ions.

How Much Cleaner Is Natural Gas?

August 8, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The ascendance of natural gas over coal during the past decade has been driven primarily by fracking technology that has provided large quantities of the stuff at low prices. But beyond that, there are environmental issues as well. Natural gas emits 50 to 60% less carbon dioxide when combusted in a new, efficient natural gas power plant compared with emission from a typical new coal plant. It appears to be a win-win situation.

Bursting The Carbon Bubble

July 25, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

One way or another, the fossil fuel industry seems to be destined to shrink away. A combination of technological advances and climate policies are going to drastically reduce the global demand for fossil fuels over the course of time. New research shows that the demise of the fossil fuel industry will have profound consequences.

A Microgrid in New York’s Capital

July 31, 2017 By EarthWise

New York State has been encouraging its communities to install microgrids for quite a while. Now the state has committed to build a 16-megawatt microgrid to power the Empire State Plaza in downtown Albany. The microgrid will use combined heat and power to supply 90% of the electricity as well as heating and cooling for the 10 buildings where 11,000 state employees work.

Electric Buses And Trucks

May 13, 2016 By WAMC WEB

We hear a great deal about electric cars these days. Will people buy them? Are they worth it? And, of course, there is the tremendous buzz surrounding Tesla’s forthcoming moderately-priced car. But there is also lots of activity in electrifying larger vehicles, including garbage trucks, city buses, and medium-sized trucks used by freight companies like FedEx.