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California renewable energy

June 12, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

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

Iceland power

March 15, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Iceland burns very little fossil fuel to power its economy and heat its homes. About 85% of its energy comes from geothermal power and hydropower. Its unique geology provides it with the highest percentage of renewable energy in the world. The fossil fuel that Iceland does burn is primarily used to power cars and trucks as well as boats in its fishing fleet. And Iceland is rapidly embracing the use of electric vehicles.

Iceland can make far more electricity than its 373,000 people can use. The majority of its electricity is essentially exported as bars of aluminum. Iceland is one of the world’s largest refiners of aluminum. The aluminum ore comes from other countries but gets shipped to Iceland where electricity is cheap. Refining aluminum is so energy-intensive that some say that aluminum is basically just pure electricity in solid metal form.

Electricity-rich Iceland is finding other ways to make use of its resources. There is a proposed project called Icelink, which is an electricity interconnector between Iceland and Great Britain. The high-voltage direct current link would run between 620 and 750 miles and would be the longest sub-sea power interconnector in the world. It is controversial in Iceland and it may or may not happen.

Another technology that is establishing an early foothold in Iceland is carbon capture. An Icelandic company called Carbix is doing leading work on taking captured carbon dioxide and sequestering it underground. Capturing and storing carbon dioxide is energy-intensive and the promise of cheap, clean geothermal power makes Iceland an attractive place to do it.

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Iceland Is Living in our Future

Photo, posted July 2, 2012, courtesy of Emily Qualey / PopTech via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Beavers As Climate Change Fighters | Earth Wise

October 25, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

California is fighting the effects of climate change on multiple fronts. The state has been grappling with relentless drought, record heat waves, and persistent wildfires. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is enlisting the help of beavers in its battle against climate change.

The state has created a beaver restoration unit charged with developing methods for nature-based restoration solutions involving beavers as well as artificial beaver dams. The agency plans to spend at least $3 million over the next two years to oversee a restoration program for the North American beaver.

A 2020 study showed that beaver-dammed corridors were relatively unharmed by wildfires compared with other areas that lacked beaver damming. The study highlighted the differences between two adjacent corridors – one without a beaver population with a landscape scarred by a recent wildfire and another with beavers that remained a lush wetland after a fire. The differences in burn severity, air temperature, humidity, and soil moisture between the beaver complex and the adjacent landscape were huge.

From the 1920s through the 1950s, California actively exported beavers to other parts of the state and country so they could build dams in eroded areas where beaver dams could help evenly distribute water. Now, the state wants to reintroduce beavers into watersheds where they once flourished.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife’s proposal to the California Legislature called beavers an important keystone species that can be used to combat climate change. The state has spent enormous amounts of money on wildfire measures with minimal results. Now they are going to see if beavers can make a difference.

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California says the beaver can be superhero in fighting climate change

Photo, posted September 19, 2021, courtesy of Larry Lamsa via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Problem Of Gas Flaring | Earth Wise

January 9, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Gas flaring is the burning off of flammable gas released by pressure relief values during over-pressuring of plant equipment at petroleum refineries, chemical plants, natural gas processing plants, and a variety of oil and gas production plants. Flaring is also used during plant startups and shutdowns.

A new study by Rice University concludes that reducing gas flaring would benefit both the environment and the economy. Flaring and venting of gas in West Texas’s Permian Basin and certain other parts of the U.S. have reached levels that the intended result of burning gas to allow oil extraction now looks more like wasting one resource to produce another.

At current rates, enough gas is flared in the Permian Basin to yield nearly 5 million metric tons of exportable liquid natural gas if it was captured and liquified. At these rates, the wasted gas could fill the largest sized LNG carrier every ten days. If that liquified natural gas was exported to China and used in a power plant, it would displace 440,000 metric tons of coal burned to generate electricity.

Burning natural gas to heat homes, power industrial processes, or generate electricity all emit carbon dioxide, but at least these things also perform valuable functions. Flaring gas produces CO2 as well as other combustion products but doesn’t even do anything useful. The venting of unburned gas, which also takes place with some frequency, is even worse since it is dumping methane directly into the atmosphere.

Across the U.S., some 14.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas was flared in 2018, equivalent to nearly 9 million metric tons per year of LNG. In energy terms, that is equivalent to more than one-third of the total LNG volume U.S. firms actually exported that year.

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Reducing gas flaring will benefit economy and environment, says Baker Institute expert

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Squeaking By

March 14, 2017 By EarthWise

Amphibians are one of the most threatened groups of animals on the planet. Since the late 1980s, scientists have measured dramatic population declines from locations all over the world. The plummeting amphibian populations are perceived to be one of the most critical threats to global biodiversity. According to the IUCN, about 1 of every 3 amphibian species is facing extinction. Some of the greatest threats facing amphibians include climate change, disease, and habitat destruction.

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