opportunity

Solar Windows | Earth Wise

September 1, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Safely Storing Carbon | Earth Wise

February 28, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

As carbon dioxide levels continue to increase in the atmosphere and emissions reductions aren’t happening as fast as needed, there is growing interest in carbon capture and storage technologies.

The idea is to capture the CO2 emitted from industrial processes or from the burning of fossil fuels in power generation, and then permanently store it out of harm’s way. There are several different types of sites where the CO2 might be stored. Deep saline aquifers are particularly desirable for the purpose, but depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs are commonplace and relatively simple to use. These are oil and gas wells that have been drained of their resources.

In many cases, CO2 has already been injected into these depleted wells as a means of enhanced oil recovery. Therefore, such wells provide a unique opportunity to study what happens to carbon dioxide when it’s stored in these places.

Researchers from Oxford University recently published a paper in the journal Nature that compared the state of depleted wells with injected carbon dioxide to that of wells without the injected gas. They found that nearly 3/4 of the CO2 was dissolved in the groundwater. Unexpectedly, they also found that 13-19% of the carbon dioxide was converted into methane by methanogenic bacteria. Methane is less soluble, less compressible, and less reactive than carbon dioxide.

Producing methane in these wells is therefore undesirable. Deeper sites that have temperatures too high for the bacteria to thrive are much more suitable. This research is important for identifying future carbon capture and storage sites and for designing long-term monitoring programs that are essential for low-risk, long-term carbon storage.

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Safer carbon capture and storage

Photo, posted November 6, 2015, courtesy of CL Baker via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Emissions And The Pandemic | Earth Wise

January 3, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic saw drastic reductions in travel and other economic sectors across the globe that greatly decreased air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. These dramatic changes occurred quite suddenly. This abrupt set of changes gave scientists the unprecedented opportunity to observe the results of changes that would ordinarily have taken years if they came about through regulations and gradual behavior shifts.

A comprehensive study by Caltech on the effects of the pandemic on the atmosphere has revealed some surprising results.

The biggest surprise is that even though carbon dioxide emissions fell by 5.4% in 2020, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere continued to grow at about the same rate as in previous years. According to the researchers, the reasons are that the growth in atmospheric concentrations was within the normal range of year-to-year variations caused by natural processes and, in addition, the ocean did not absorb as much CO2 because of the reduced pressure of CO2 in the air at the ocean’s surface.

A second result involved the reduction in nitrogen oxides, which led to a reduction in a short-lived molecule called the hydroxyl radical, which is important in breaking down gases including methane in the atmosphere. Reducing nitrogen oxides is advantageous with respect to air pollution, but they are important for the atmosphere’s ability to cleanse itself of methane. In fact, the drop in nitrogen oxide emissions actually resulted in a small increase of methane in the atmosphere because it was staying there longer.

The main lesson learned is that reducing activity in industrial and residential sectors is not a practical solution for cutting emissions. The transition to low-carbon-emitting technology will be necessary.

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Emission Reductions From Pandemic Had Unexpected Effects on Atmosphere

Photo, posted March 22, 2020, courtesy of Greg via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Batteries On Wheels | Earth Wise

December 24, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Transportation accounts for nearly a quarter of the direct carbon dioxide emissions coming from burning fuel. As a result, electrification of transport is one of the major ways we can reduce emissions. Increasing the number of electric vehicles over time is essential for meeting emissions targets.

But electric vehicles have the potential to do more than deliver emissions reduction; they can also provide other energy services.

More and more electric cars provide over 200 miles of driving range, but most cars are actually driven no more than 30 miles a day. As a result, the fleet of electric cars represents a huge bank of energy stored in battery packs and mostly sitting around unused. This presents an opportunity to leverage this resource.

Car battery packs could be used to absorb excess renewable energy generated in the middle of the day (for example from solar installations) or at night (from wind farms) and potentially then to export stored energy to power homes and support the grid. This energy system is known as V2G, or vehicle-to-grid technology.

The University of Queensland in Australia has launched a unique international trial to see if the spare battery capacity in vehicles could be used for these purposes. The university has partnered with Teslascope, which is an online analytics platform used by Tesla owners to track the performance of their cars. Tesla owners wishing to be part of the study authorize the collection of their data and, in turn, receive a free 12-month subscription to the Teslascope service. The study will collect data from Tesla owners in Australia, the US, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Germany, and the UK.

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Can EV spare battery capacity support the grid?

Photo, posted February 8, 2009, courtesy of City of St Pete via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Electrifying The Federal Fleet | Earth Wise

October 7, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The federal government owns and operates about 645,000 vehicles. Among them are about 200,000 passenger vehicles, 78,000 heavy-duty trucks, 47,000 vans, 847 ambulances, and three limousines. About 225,000 vehicles are operated by the Postal Service.

Each year, these vehicles are driven about 4.5 billion miles and use about 400 million gallons of gasoline, producing 3.5 million tons of greenhouse gases.

President Biden signed an executive order in January directing federal officials to devise a plan for converting the entire fleet to clean and zero-emission vehicles. So far, the work has been slow.

According to a new report from Atlas Public Policy, accelerating the push for electric vehicles in the federal fleet could save taxpayers billions of dollars.

Electric vehicles have lower fueling and maintenance costs as well as a smaller environmental impact. According to the report, the government could replace 40% of its light-duty vehicles and buses not owned by the Postal Service with cheaper plug-in alternatives by 2025. By 2030, it could replace 97% of such vehicles with EVs for a lifetime savings of more than $1 billion. Furthermore, by 2025, it would be possible to replace nearly all mail trucks with EVs for a savings of $2.9 billion.

The federal fleet represents an opportunity to encourage transportation electrification to happen much more quickly. Apart from the economic and environmental benefits, having an electrified federal fleet would increase public awareness of the practicality and benefits of electric vehicles.

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Push to Electrify Federal Fleet Could Yield Billions in Savings by 2030

Photo, posted May 14, 2015, courtesy of Tony Webster via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Solar On Commercial Buildings | Earth Wise

September 17, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The United States installed 3.6 gigawatts of photovoltaic solar capacity in the first quarter of this year to reach a total installed capacity of 81.4 GW. That is enough to power about 16 million American homes. More than 2/3 of that capacity has been installed during the past five years.

There has been a boom in solar installations in recent years and, until the Covid-19 pandemic stuck, 2020 was expected to be the biggest year yet. Now the unprecedented health, social, and economic conditions in our country creates great uncertainty in such forecasts.

Nevertheless, the opportunities for growth in solar power continue to be substantial. A new report from the energy research firm Wood Mackenzie looked at the prospects for using the roof space of commercial buildings for solar power.

Currently, just 3.5% of commercial buildings in the U.S. have solar panels on their roofs. Another 1% of those buildings are attached to solar projects located off-site. The report looked at how many buildings are potential targets for solar projects.

After accounting for buildings that are too small or that use too little electricity to make solar power a worthwhile investment, the report estimated that 70% of commercial buildings in the U.S. – amounting to some 600,000 sites – are candidates for solar installations. Doing this would provide 145 GW of new solar capacity, which is nearly twice as much as currently exists in this country.

Commercial solar installations have their own unique logistical and financial challenges. While utility solar can scale to lower costs and residential solar has financing opportunities, commercial solar has neither. But ultimately, it represents an important opportunity for our future energy system.

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U.S. Commercial Rooftops Hold 145 Gigawatts of Untapped Solar Potential

Photo, posted June 25, 2014, courtesy of Rob Baxter via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Earth Itself Is Quieter | Earth Wise

May 15, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Our stories often discuss how human activities change the natural environment. With most of us confined to our homes, the lack of human activities is having profound effects on the environment. We are talking about some of these this week.

With about a third of the world’s population sheltering in place, our planet is much quieter these days. It isn’t just our machines, vehicles, and factories that are making less noise. The earth itself is quieter. There has been a reduction in the earth’s seismic vibrations.

According to the journal Nature, various human-powered movements contribute to the persistent vibration of the earth’s crust. Things like engines firing up in factories, trains pulling into stations, and trucks barreling down highways all make contributions to seismic activity. Taken individually, such things are insignificant, but taken together, they produce a background of seismic noise that makes it difficult for seismologists to detect natural signals such as volcanic activity and earthquake aftershocks.

With much human activity on pause during the coronavirus outbreak, seismologists across the globe are seeing significant reductions in background seismic noise levels.

This respite in seismic noise, for as long as it lasts, represents an opportunity for scientists to better study the natural activity in the earth’s crust. Researchers studying the impact of ocean waves to predict volcanic activity and those who triangulate the location of earthquake epicenters may be able to make more sensitive measurements than under normal conditions.

There are very few positive things one can say about the coronavirus crisis, but it is providing opportunities to study and observe aspects of the natural world that are ordinarily drowned out by the bustle of humanity.

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Coronavirus lockdowns across the globe are actually causing the Earth to move less

Photo, posted March 9, 2020, courtesy of Jeremy Segrottvia Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Refugee Corals

August 30, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

As climate change warms the ocean, subtropical environments are becoming more favorable for corals than the equatorial waters where they traditionally thrived. As a result, drifting coral larvae are settling and growing in new regions.

According to new research in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series, the number of young corals on tropical reefs has declined by 85% over the past 40 years. At the same time, the numbers on subtropical reefs has doubled.

Only certain types of coral can reach these new subtropical locations. That depends on how far the microscopic larvae can swim and drift on currents before they exhaust their limited fat stores. Thus, the reef ecosystems that develop have new blends of species that have previously never coexisted. It is not clear how long it will take for the new systems to reach equilibrium.

Coral reefs are complicated systems that depend on the interplay between species to enable their healthy functioning. Apart from the corals themselves, there are the coraline algae that symbiotically coexist with them. How all of this will play out in these evolving ecosystems is unknown.

In the meantime, the research has found that these refugee corals are settling at latitudes up to 35 degrees both north and south of the equator. It is no longer so clear what constitute native species in the reefs. It remains to be seen whether new reefs in subtropical oceans can support the incredible biodiversity seen in tropical reefs. But ultimately, these changing ecosystems could potentially bring new resources and opportunities, such as fishing and tourism, to places where they never existed before.

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Coral Reefs Shifting Away from Equatorial Waters

Photo, posted March 22, 2011, courtesy of Simone Lovati via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Battle For The Automobile Fuel Business

August 20, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Energy giant BP predicts that electric vehicle sales will increase by an incredible 8,800 percent between now and 2040. That creates a major business opportunity for oil companies as well as a real problem because demand for gasoline and diesel is destined to slow.

Learning From Fire

December 28, 2017 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Tubbs Fire was the huge wildfire that burned parts of Napa, Sonoma and Lake counties in Northern California in October. Between that fire and several smaller ones going on at the same time, at least 43 people died and over 8,400 homes and buildings were destroyed. The Tubbs Fire alone burned over 36,000 acres. The even larger December wildfires in Southern California scorched hundreds of thousands of acres in multiple counties.

[Read more…] about Learning From Fire