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Solar power in Europe

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In June, solar power was the largest source of electricity in the European Union for the first time.  Solar supplied a record 22% of the power for the 27-country bloc.  At least 13 of the countries produced new monthly highs for solar power in June.  The Netherlands got more than 40% of its electricity from solar power and Greece 35%.  Other countries with record solar generation included France, Germany, and Sweden.

These solar records are for the most part a result of continuing installations of solar power in recent years as well as long stretches of hot and sunny weather.

Across the EU, nuclear power was the second largest source of electricity, followed by wind, natural gas, and hydropower.  Coal generated only 6% of the EU’s electricity, a new monthly low.  In fact, 15 countries in the EU don’t use any coal to generate electricity at all, including Austria, Belgium, and Ireland, which shut down its last coal plant in June.  All fossil fuels combined generated less than 24% of EU electricity in June, just a little more than the record low of 22.9% set in May, 2024.  Natural gas generation was somewhat higher than last year because of lower levels of hydro and wind generation.

Europe has been grappling with brutal heatwaves with triple-digit temperatures in multiple countries.  The heatwaves were, of course, accompanied by plentiful sunshine, which at least provided abundant solar power at midday, when there was the greatest demand for air conditioning.  This helped to take some of the pressure off the grid and helped to prevent blackouts.

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In a First, Solar Was Europe’s Biggest Source of Power Last Month

Photo, posted May 28, 2025, courtesy of Mike Popp via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

More efficient cooling for data centers

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Increasing reliance on digital technologies in general and artificial intelligence in particular are dramatically increasing the energy consumption of data centers.  Data centers consume far more energy per square foot than other commercial buildings.  By the year 2030, data center energy consumption in the US is projected to reach 9% of the country’s electricity generation. 

Computing hardware consumes large amounts of energy and generates large amounts of heat in the process.  Currently, cooling the equipment so it doesn’t burn out accounts for as much as 40% of a data center’s total energy use. 

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a new cooling technology that could significantly improve the energy efficiency of data centers.  The technology makes use of a specially engineered fiber membrane that passively removes heat through evaporation.

The membrane has a network of tiny, interconnected pores that draw cooling liquid across the membrane surface using capillary action.  As the liquid evaporates, it removes heat from the electronics underneath.  No extra energy is required.

Tests of the membrane demonstrated record-breaking performance in removing heat from electronics and being able to withstand very high levels of heat flux.

The researchers say that the technology is still operating well below its theoretical limit, and with additional work, can lead to optimized performance.  The membranes will be integrated into cold plates, which are components that attach to power-hungry computing components to dissipate heat.  The team is also launching a startup company to commercialize the new cooling technology.

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New Cooling Tech Could Curb Data Centers’ Rising Energy Demands

Photo, posted January 23, 2023, courtesy of Jefferson Lab via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A solar peaker plant

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Peaker plants are power plants that the grid makes use of during times of particularly high electricity demand.  The power they supply is typically high in cost and usually high in greenhouse gas emissions.  When operating the electricity grid, power sources are generally called upon in order of marginal cost.  Only when demand is very high do grid operators make use of the highest-cost assets that tend to be fossil-fueled power plants that can start and ramp up quickly. 

For years, there has been the idea that solar-powered peaker plants could eventually replace the polluting fossil-fueled ones.  Recently, the renewable energy developer, owner, and operator Arevon Energy began commercial operations of the Vikings Solar-plus-Storage Project in Imperial County, California.  It is the first utility-scale solar peaker plant in the United States.

The plant utilizes a 157-megawatt solar array combined with 150 MW and 600 MWh of battery energy storage.  It can shift low-cost daytime solar energy to higher-cost peak demand periods.  The result is a lowered cost of electricity for nearly one million customers of San Diego Community Power.

The project contradicts the often-held notion that renewable energy is inherently unreliable.  It can provide carbon-free electricity at specific times of critical need.  Typical hybrid solar + storage plants provide electricity during daylight hours and store only excess generation in their battery systems.  The Vikings project is specifically designed to shift the entirety of its generation from solar hours to the peak demand period.

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Arevon fires up the first solar + storage peaker plant in the U.S.

Photo, posted October 15, 2024, courtesy of Jay Inslee via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Giant batteries in the Earth

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The wind and the sun are inexhaustible sources of energy, and we are tapping into them to produce electricity at a growing rate around the world.  But neither of them is always available when we need them.  When the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, they don’t work.

An opposite problem also exists.  When our energy needs are low, but it is sunny or windy, solar and wind power are all dressed up with nowhere to go.  Energy storage is the answer to both of these problems.   When there is excess generation, store the energy for later use.  When there is need for energy and not enough is being generated, tap into the energy that is stored.

Giant banks of lithium-ion batteries are the rapidly growing form of energy storage, and they are increasingly providing resilience in the electric grid.  But battery storage is short-term energy storage.  Even the largest battery banks can only provide a few hours of electricity. 

So, there is a real need for “long-duration energy storage” – systems that provide at least 10 hours of backup power and sometimes much more – for the grid to be fully reliable.

Pumped hydro storage, which uses water from elevated reservoirs to drive turbines, has been around for a long time.  Historically, this is the largest form of energy storage in the world.  Other methods include pumping compressed air into underground caverns or lifting massive blocks into elevated positions.  All of these techniques use excess electricity to place things like water, air, or cement into a position where they can be used to drive electrical generators.

The grid of tomorrow will store energy in giant battery banks, but also in the ground, in reservoirs, and in large structures.

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How giant ‘batteries’ in the Earth could slash your electricity bills

Photo, posted March 21, 2024, courtesy of Sandra Uecker/USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Solar grazing

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Agrivoltaics is the combination of solar power generation with agriculture.  Generally, this has involved growing crops under and around solar panels harvesting both food and electricity.  More recently, there has been increasing interest in grazing animals to manage lands used for solar power.

Enel North America, a large operator of solar farms and utility-scale battery storage facilities in Texas, has announced a partnership with Texas Solar Sheep Company to deploy more than 6,000 sheep to chow down on the greenery on eight large Texas solar sites.  This is the largest known solar grazing agreement executed in the United States

Texas Solar Sheep’s flocks will graze on more than 10,000 acres of land being used for solar generation, an area roughly ¾ the size of Manhattan.  Most of these sites are situated in areas with high rainfall and long growing seasons. 

The American Solar Grazing Association, an organization with 950 members across 45 states, facilitates research, provides education, and develops best practices in support of a unique population of shepherds and solar developers.  Their recent survey estimates that 100,000 acres of U.S. solar sites are currently being chewed on by sheep.  Texas has the most installed utility-scale solar power in the country.

According to Enel, its existing solar grazing program has demonstrated substantial improvements in soil health by the additional of organic matter to the soil.  Managing vegetation with sheep is also better for pollinators because sheep don’t cut down all plants the way mowing does.

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No more sheepless nights: Enel inks largest solar grazing contract

Photo, posted April 7, 2020, courtesy of Sean Nealon / Oregon State University via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

More wind power than coal power

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The U.S. used to get more of its electricity from burning coal than by any other means.  It wasn’t all that long ago; coal produced 51% of our electricity in 2001. But as of 2022, it was less than 20%.

In March and April, the U.S. generated more electricity from wind power than from coal.  This was the first time that wind outstripped coal for two consecutive months.

This crossover between wind and coal power is just another milestone in the energy transition to renewable energy sources.  Renewables collectively produce more electricity than coal and their share is steadily growing.  The explosive growth in renewable energy is primarily the result of three factors:  federal tax credits, state energy mandates away from fossil fuels, and, most importantly, shifts in the economics of energy.  Breakthroughs in technology and economies of scale have lowered the cost of building new wind turbines, solar panels, and battery storage. 

Coal plants have retired at a rapid pace over the past 25 years.  During that time, natural gas capacity has nearly tripled.   Gas began to replace coal starting around 2005 when the fracking boom led to the availability of large quantities of cheap natural gas. Because of this, fossil fuels are still the largest source of electricity generation in the U.S., but that is not likely to be the case for very long.

Analysts expect that wind energy will grow to provide about 35% of the country’s electricity by 2050.  The Department of Energy predicts that solar power will produce 45% of U.S. electricity by that year.

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Wind Beat Coal Two Months in a Row for U.S. Electricity Generation

Photo, posted August 5, 2024, courtesy of Samir Luther 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

Lithium in Arkansas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A surprising drop in renewable power

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Renewable power – which includes wind farms, solar farms, and hydroelectric dams – constitutes over 21% of the country’s utility-scale electricity generation, behind only natural gas power plants at 43%.  Nuclear power provides nearly 19% of our electricity and coal, which is gradually diminishing, is at 16%.

Both solar and wind power capacity have been growing rapidly in recent years and will be providing an increasing percentage of our electricity.  That being said, it turns out that utility-scale renewable electricity generation actually decreased slightly in 2023 as a result of weather-related issues.

Utility-scale renewables generated about 894,000 gigawatt hours of energy last year, which was 0.8% less than the record amount generated in 2022.

The reasons?  The biggest factor was slower wind speeds in the Midwest during the warmer weather months.  In 2023, there were fewer warm fronts and cold fronts passing through the region.  The passage of fronts is often associated with wind and precipitation. 

The other factor affecting renewable generation was a 5.9% drop in hydropower in 2023.  The main reason for the decrease was a drop in water levels at many hydroelectric dams in areas experiencing drought.

Experts explain that there is no reason to overreact to a one-year blip in renewables generation.  All three major sources of power – sun, wind, and hydroelectric – are tied to natural forces and all of them fluctuate over time.  Putting aside minor variations year-over-year, renewable electricity is on pace to more than double by the end of this decade.

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Federal Data Reveals a Surprising Drop in Renewable Power in 2023, as Slow Winds and Drought Took a Toll

Photo, posted July 5, 2014, courtesy of Patrick Finnegan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A giant underground battery

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

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

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

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

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

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A Huge Underground Battery Is Coming to a Tiny Utah Town

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Cleaning the grid can create messes

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

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

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

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

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

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

More renewable energy for New York

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In late October, New York announced its largest state investment in renewable energy to date that includes three offshore wind projects, and 22 land-based clean energy projects totaling more than 6 GW of power generation.

The portfolio of projects is expected to create approximately 8,300 jobs and spur $20 billion in economic investments statewide.

The projects support the state’s goal to have 70% of its electricity come from renewable sources by 2030 and to have 9 GW of offshore wind operating by 2035.  The announcement represents the first set of actions taken by the State as part of New York’s 10-Point Action Plan.

The three offshore wind projects include Attentive Energy One, a 1.4 GW project that seeks to retire fossil fuel power generation in New York City.  Community Offshore Wind, a 1.3 GW project will make use of a new grid interconnection in downtown Brooklyn.  Excelsior Wind, another 1.3 GW project, will provide robust energy deliverability to Long Island. 

Apart from the offshore wind projects, there will be 14 new solar projects, six wind upgrading projects, one new wind project, and one return-to-service hydroelectric project.

The average bill impact for customers over the life of the land-based projects is estimated to be approximately 0.31%, or about 32 cents a month for the average customer.  The bill impact for customers utilizing the offshore wind projects is estimated to be about 2.7%, or $2.93 per month.

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NY to invest in 3 offshore wind farms, 22 land-based renewable projects

Photo, posted October 21, 2016, courtesy of B Sarangi via Flickr.

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Grid-Scale Gravity Energy Storage | Earth Wise

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As wind and solar energy play a growing part in our energy system, the need for grid-scale energy storage is growing as well.  An historic form of energy storage and still the largest in installed capacity is pumped hydro storage, which makes use of the potential energy contained in having water sitting at a higher elevation where it can be released downward to operate turbine generators.  This is an effective system but is limited to places where geography cooperates.

For the past five years, a company called Energy Vault has been developing a system that uses the same principle to generate electricity but instead of pumping water to a higher elevation, it uses mechanical devices to lift heavy objects such as concrete blocks to an appropriate height.  Lowering the blocks back to the ground drives generators.

To date, Energy Vault has only built demonstration systems with a fraction of the storage capacity needed for grid-scale operation. Their EV1 Tower in Switzerland was successfully grid interconnected in 2020 and demonstrated round-trip efficiency (the fraction of the energy stored that was produced by the generators) above 75%.  Their improved EVx system is expected to do better than 80%.

This year the company, along with partners Atlas Renewable and China TIanying, is now in the first phases of commissioning a grid-scale system located outside of Shanghai, China.  The 25-MW system is built adjacent to a wind farm and a national grid interconnection site

This is the first grid-scale gravity energy storage system and is expected to be fully online in the fourth quarter of this year.  A second, similar system is now under contract to be built elsewhere in China.

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First grid-scale gravity energy storage system undergoes commencement in China

Photo courtesy of Energy Vault.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Offshore Wind In Maine | Earth Wise

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There are currently only two small offshore wind farms operating in the United States, but there are now several more under construction or in the permitting process.  Substantial wind farms are expected to come online over the next five years off the coasts of Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts. North Carolina, Delaware, Rhode Island, and New York.   There has been a recent auction for offshore wind sites off the California coast as well.

In April, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued its Gulf of Maine Call for Information and Nominations, inviting public comment and assessing the interest in areas offshore of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.  This is the first official step in the lengthy process that leads to offshore wind development in new areas.  Last year, the Department of the Interior defined an area of about 13.7 million acres in the Gulf of Maine that could end up providing energy leases for windfarm development.

The Biden administration has set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind electricity generation by 2030, which is enough to power more than 10 million homes. It would also create thousands of jobs across manufacturing, shipbuilding, port operations, construction, and other industrial sectors.  Existing offshore wind projects have been structured to develop American-based supply chains for the offshore wind industry.

The European Union currently has over 15 gigawatts of installed offshore wind, has a target of 60 gigawatts by 2030, and 300 gigawatts by 2050.  The EU has five substantial sea basins which have tremendous potential for wind energy generation.  As a result, offshore wind is the centerpiece of the ambitious European Green Deal.

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U.S. moves to develop offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine

Photo, posted August 31, 2022, courtesy of Nina Ali via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Better Zinc Batteries | Earth Wise

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The rapid growth of wind and solar power continues to drive a global quest for new battery technologies that can be used to store the energy generated by these sources when the sun isn’t shining, and the wind isn’t blowing.

For the most part, current battery energy storage systems use lithium-ion batteries – the same sort of batteries found in cellphones and electric vehicles.  There are many other battery chemistries, but they mostly have shortcomings in performance, economy, or longevity. 

Batteries store electricity in the form of chemical energy and chemical reactions convert that energy into electrical energy. Every battery has two electrodes:  the anode, from which electrons flow into external circuits, and the cathode, which receives electrons from the external circuit.  The electrolyte is the chemical medium through which the electrons flow.

One technology that has great potential is zinc-based batteries.  Zinc itself is a metal that is safe and abundant.  Batteries based on it are energy dense. However, zinc batteries have faced the challenge of having a short cycle life.  The batteries end up plating zinc on their anodes and battery performance degrades. 

A team of researchers at Oregon State University and three other universities have recently developed a new electrolyte for zinc batteries that raises the efficiency of the zinc metal anode to nearly 100% – actually slightly better than lithium-ion batteries.

Zinc batteries have a number of potential advantages over lithium-ion.  The new hybrid electrolyte developed by the researchers is non-flammable, cost-effective, and has low environmental impact.  Lithium-ion batteries rely on the supplies of relatively rare metals that are often difficult and environmentally harmful to obtain. 

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Researchers develop electrolyte enabling high efficiency of safe, sustainable zinc batteries

Photo, posted May 13, 2017, courtesy of Jeanne Menjoulet via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Community Solar On The Rise | Earth Wise

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Community solar is a way for people who can’t put solar on their own roofs to still take advantage of its benefits.  Whether they can’t afford to install their own panels, have too much shade on their roof, or don’t even own a home, community solar is another way to participate in green energy.

Community solar – also called “shared solar” or “solar gardens” – is a kind of development in which consumers can subscribe to a large solar installation in their area and receive credits on their monthly utility bills for their share of the solar electricity produced.

The large majority of community solar installations are in six states:  Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York.  After substantial growth in community solar in 2022, New York now is the national leader, thanks to initiatives by the state government and the nonprofit sector.  Some programs focus on giving low-income households access to solar.  As of last fall, New York had over 728 community solar projects online.

One should understand that electrons are indistinguishable.  The power generated by a community solar installation is not piped directly to subscribers’ homes.  It just goes into the grid.  Subscribers get credit for their share of the power, but that is essentially a matter of bookkeeping, not physics.

The federal government now has $7 billion that can be used for community solar as part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund within the Inflation Reduction Act enacted last August.  The EPA plans to award up to 60 grants to assist projects deploying residential and community solar.  Research firm Wood Mackenzie forecasts the community solar market will double by 2027.

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Community Solar Is About to Get a Surge in Federal Funding. So What Is Community Solar?

Photo, posted November 18, 2008, courtesy of the Oregon Department of Transportation via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Renewables’ Growing Share | Earth Wise

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Not long ago, many states across the country were setting goals to obtain 20% of their electricity from renewable sources. For a few states, like New York and Washington, ample amounts of hydropower made 20% an easy target.  But for many others, 20% seemed like a very ambitious objective.

Things have certainly changed.  According to the latest monthly Short Term Energy Outlook, a report from the federal government, the combination of wind, solar, and other renewable sources will exceed one-quarter of the country’s generation by 2024.

Renewables are already at 24% of U.S. electricity generation and are expected to rise to 26% by next year.  Coal, which used to be the largest source of electricity, will continue to drop from its current 18% to 17% by next year.  Overall, renewables passed coal for the first full year in 2020.  Coal staged a bit of a comeback in 2021, but has once again resumed its decline.  Many coal-fired power plants continue to close, and there are not new ones being built because of diminishing economic benefits as well as concerns about emissions.

The largest source of electricity generation continues to be natural gas at 38%, but that number is also expected to slowly decrease over time. The growth in renewable energy is coming from wind and solar power.  Two-thirds of that growth is from solar and one-third is from wind. 

Together, wind and solar power will add up to 18% of the country’s electricity supply.  The government still tracks them lumped together as renewables, but both are so large and growing so quickly that the Energy Information Agency is likely to soon start tracking them as separate categories.

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Renewables Projected to Soon Be One-Fourth of US Electricity Generation. Really Soon

Photo, posted April 18, 2011, courtesy of Allan Der via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Energy From Rice Straw | Earth Wise

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Rice straw is produced as a byproduct of rice production.  Globally, as much as a billion tons of rice straw is produced each year, three-quarters of it in Asia.  Straw incorporation in soil for fertilization is not practical in most places because with multiple crops per year, there is not enough time for the material to decompose and become good fertilizer.  As a result, open-field straw burning is increasingly the standard practice.

Scientists at Aston University in Birmingham in the UK are embarking on a project to convert rice straw in Indonesia into low-cost energy on a commercial scale.

Indonesia produces 100 million tons of rice waste each year, of which 60% is burned in open fields, causing air pollution. 

The Aston researchers are developing a biomass conversion process based on pyrolysis.  This involves heating the rice straw to high temperatures over 900 degrees Fahrenheit to break it down, producing vapor and solid products.  Both of these things can be used to generate electricity.

A new combustion engine designed by a company called Carnot Limited is capable of converting 70% of the thermal energy extracted from the rice straw into electricity.

Energy extracted in this way could help low and middle-income countries to create their own locally generated energy, thereby reducing emissions, creating jobs, and improving human health.   The biomass electricity is predicted to be cheaper than solar, geothermal, wind, coal, or even subsidized gas-generated power.

The Aston University project will help develop a business model that could support companies and communities to produce local, cheap energy in Indonesia and other countries with biomass capacity. 

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Aston University to help power Indonesia with affordable energy made from rice straw

Photo, posted September 11, 2006, courtesy of Kristen McQuillin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Carbon Footprint Of Electric Vehicles | Earth Wise

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Electric vehicles are widely known to be the environmentally friendly alternative to internal combustion-based cars.   But there are skeptics who argue that EVs actually have a larger carbon footprint than nonelectric vehicles.  The argument is that the manufacturing and disposal of vehicle batteries is very carbon intensive.  They also point to the reliance on coal to produce the electricity that powers the cars.

These claims have led to multiple studies in the form of life-cycle analyses comparing the amount of greenhouse gases created by the production, use, and disposal of a battery electric vehicle to that associated with a gasoline-powered car of a similar size.

In short, the studies have found that while it is true that the production of a battery electric vehicle results in more emissions than a gasoline-powered one, this difference disappears as the vehicle is driven. 

According to a study conducted by the University of Michigan and financed by the Ford Motor Company, the emissions equation evens out in 1.4-1.5 years for sedans, 1.6-1.9 years for S.U.V.s, and about 1.6 years for pickup trucks.

Emissions from driving come from burning gas in the nonelectric vehicles and from the generation of electricity used by the battery-powered cars.  In the current average power mix across the U.S., driving an EV results in a 35% reduction in emissions.  However, it varies tremendously by location.  There are some places with very dirty power and some with very clean power.  But of the more than 3,000 counties in the U.S., only 78 end up with higher emissions from electric cars.  Of course, as the electric grid gets greener, the advantages of electric cars only become greater.

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E.V.s Start With a Bigger Carbon Footprint. But That Doesn’t Last.

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Agrivoltaics | Earth Wise

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According to a study last year at Oregon State University, co-developing land for both solar photovoltaic power and agriculture could provide 20% of total electricity generation in the United States with an investment of less than 1% of the annual U.S. budget.  Widespread installation of agrivoltaic systems could reduce carbon emissions by 330,000 tons annually and create more than 100,000 jobs in rural communities.

Agrivoltaics could provide the synergistic combination of more food, more energy, lower water demand, lower carbon emissions, and improved local prosperity.  The problem with agrivoltaics to date is that the existing implementations have used solar arrays designed strictly for electricity generation rather than to be used in combination with agriculture.  They are not that well suited to co-exist with growing crops or grazing animals.

A new project is underway at Oregon State that will help researchers to optimize agrivoltaic systems.  The five-acre Solar Harvest Project is being built at the university’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center in Aurora, Oregon in partnership with the Oregon Clean Power Cooperative. 

The solar array for the project is designed specifically for agrivoltaics research and uses panels that are more spread out and able to rotate to a near vertical position to allow farm equipment to pass through.  The project will allow researchers to study the impact of solar panels on soil health, water use, and plant physiology and yields.

Electricity generated from the 326-kW solar system will be available for purchase by Oregon State and community members. 

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Construction starts on Oregon State agrivoltaics farm that will merge agriculture and solar energy

Photo, posted April 5, 2020, courtesy of Sean Nealon / Oregon State University via Flickr.

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