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Resurrecting The Tasmanian Tiger | Earth Wise

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Tasmanian tigers earned their nickname because of the stripes along their back, but they were not felines.  In fact, they were carnivorous marsupials, the type of Australian mammal that raises its young in a pouch.

Tasmanian tigers, also known as thylacines, were once native to the Australian mainland, as well as the islands of Tasmania and New Guinea.  Dog-like in appearance, Tasmanian tigers were extensively hunted after European colonization.  The last known Tasmanian tiger died in captivity in 1936.

Nearly 100 years after its extinction, the Tasmanian tiger may live once again.  Scientists in Australia and the United States have launched an ambitious multimillion dollar de-extinction project to genetically resurrect the Tasmanian tiger.

In order to bring back the animal, researchers will have to take stem cells from a living species with similar DNA – like the fat-tailed dunnart – and use gene editing techniques to turn them into “Tasmanian tiger” cells – or the closest approximation possible.  The team will need new assisted reproductive technologies to use the stem cells to make an embryo, which will then have to be transferred into an artificial womb or a dunnart surrogate to gestate.  The research team is optimistic that there could be a hybrid baby Tasmanian tiger in 10 years. 

The ambitious project is a partnership between scientists at the University of Melbourne and the Texas-based company Colossal Biosciences.  This is the second de-extinction undertaking by Colossal Biosciences, which announced last year it planned to use its technology to recreate the woolly mammoth, and return it to the Arctic tundra.

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Scientists want to resurrect the extinct Tasmanian tiger

Tasmanian tiger: Scientists hope to revive marsupial from extinction

Photo credit: E.J. Keller, from the Smithsonian Institution archives, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Offshore Wind Ramping Up In The Northeast | Earth Wise

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There is a growing number of large offshore wind projects in the pipeline in the Northeast.  The large Vineyard Wind project off the coast of Massachusetts began construction in November.  Contracts for the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind projects in New York were finalized in January.

The first offshore wind project to begin construction in New York broke ground in February.  South Fork Wind, a 132-megawatt project located about 19 miles southeast of Block Island, Rhode Island, is expected to come online in 2023.

New York’s goal is to develop 9 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035 and the state is investing $500 million to set up manufacturing and supply chain infrastructure for offshore wind.  Major facilities will be built in the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal and in the Port of Albany.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts recently announced that the site of the last coal-fired power plant in that state will become the home of its first offshore wind manufacturing facility.

The Brayton Point power plant in Somerset was shut down in 2017 after more than 50 years of operation.  The site, located on Mount Hope Bay near Providence, Rhode Island, will host a $200 million facility for the manufacturing of undersea transmission lines used to connect the grid to offshore wind turbines.  The first of these will be the Vineyard Wind’s Commonwealth Wind project, which will generate 1.2 gigawatts of electricity.

Both New York and Massachusetts are investing in the opportunities afforded by the soon-to-be booming offshore wind industry.  With numerous windfarms planned up and down the Atlantic coast, manufacturing, maintenance, and support infrastructure will be big business for the two states.

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Work starts on New York’s first offshore wind project

Former Coal Power Site in Massachusetts to Become Offshore Wind Plant

Photo, posted May 13, 2011, courtesy of SSE via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Vineyard Wind Prepares For Construction | Earth Wise

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Vineyard Wind 1 will be the first utility-scale offshore wind energy project in the United States.  It will be located 15 miles off the coast of Massachusetts and will consist of an array of 62 wind turbines, spaced one nautical mile apart.  It will generate 800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power over 400,000 homes.

The project has recently closed on $2.3 billion of senior debt financing, which sets the stage for construction to begin.  The joint venture between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure partners is one of the single largest investments in a renewable energy project in the U.S.  The financial close is basically the final milestone for launching the project following years of clearing regulatory and other hurdles.

With the financial closing, Vineyard Wind will be instructing its contractors to begin work.  Onshore work will start this fall and offshore work will begin in 2022.

The project will use Haliade-X wind turbine generators made by GE.  These are some of the largest and most powerful wind turbines currently available, each one capable of generating 13 megawatts of electricity.  The electricity generated by the turbines will be collected by an offshore substation and then transmitted to shore.  Two submarine cables will bring the electricity from the substation to a landing point in Barnstable.  The cables will be buried six feet below the seafloor.  Underground cables will then route the power to an onshore substation in the village of Hyannis where it will be connected to the New England Grid.

Vineyard Wind is the first of many offshore wind farms in the works for the Northeastern United States.

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U.S.’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project prepares for construction

Photo, posted March 24, 2016, courtesy of Andy Dingley via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Giant Wind Turbines | Earth Wise

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Wind turbines keep getting bigger and bigger.  The reason is that the power a wind turbine can theoretically generate is proportional to the disk-shaped area swept out by its blades.  So, the bigger the blades, the more power can be produced by a single turbine.

That being said, real-world turbines don’t achieve their theoretical power output because they have limitations on efficiency.  Things like rotor blade friction and drag, gearbox losses, and generator losses limit the actual power output of a turbine. 

Despite all of these things, the latest and greatest wind turbines are absolutely enormous and produce almost unbelievable amounts of power.  Chinese manufacturer MingYang Smart Energy has recently unveiled an 866-foot tall, 16-megawatt capacity offshore wind turbine.  This narrowly exceeds both the Vestas V236 Turbine announced earlier this year and GE’s Haliade-X Turbine, rated at 15 megawatts and 14 megawatts respectively.

The rotor diameter of the giant Chinese turbine is nearly 800 feet, set by its 387-foot blades that sweep out an area of nearly 50,000 square feet.  A single one of these turbines can generate 80,000 MWh of electricity in a year, enough to power more than 20,000 households.  (It boggles the mind to consider that just one rotation of the blades of such a turbine can power a couple of homes for an entire day).

Offshore wind farms choose the largest wind turbines in part because of the high cost of installing turbines and transporting the electricity.  It is preferable to build fewer turbines because fewer towers, cables, and ground anchoring systems need to be constructed, making the project less complicated.

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This 264-meter tall offshore wind turbine is now the largest of its kind

Photo, posted November 19, 2015, courtesy of Scott Flaherty / USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Floating Solar In New York’s Capital Region | Earth Wise

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We have previously talked about installing solar arrays on the surface of bodies of water.  The idea is especially attractive in places like Japan where land resources are scarce.  There are several floating solar installations in the UK and the idea is starting to catch on elsewhere as well.

It is quite possible that the largest municipally owned floating solar array may get built in the city of Cohoes in New York’s Capital Region if a project under consideration for federal funding moves forward.

The proposal is for an installation of 8,000 solar panels to cover about 2/3 of the 10-acre Cohoes reservoir.  Cohoes has wanted to erect a solar installation to generate power for its buildings but needed to find suitable vacant land.  The 10-acre manmade reservoir could be an excellent location for a floating solar array.

Cohoes would be the first community in the US to build and own a floating array on a manmade reservoir and could serve as a model for municipalities across the nation.  Such a project makes additional use of land that is already municipal property.  According to the city, the 3.2-megawatt array would generate over 4 million kilowatt hours of electricity per year, saving the city $300-350,000 annually.

Cohoes is seeking $4.59 million in federal funding to support the project and has the support of U.S. Representative Paul Tonko for possible inclusion in the 2022 federal budget. 

Apart from generating electricity, putting solar panels on the surface of a reservoir reduces evaporation, lowers algae growth, and actually improves solar panel performance because of the cooling effect of the water.

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Cohoes reservoir could be a floating solar power pioneer

Photo courtesy of Michael Coghlan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Should We Block The Sun? | Earth Wise

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There is growing concern that greenhouse gas emissions are not falling quickly enough to avoid dangerous levels of global warming.  As a result, there is the impetus to examine other options.  Among these are geoengineering, which is one of the most contentious issues in climate policy.  Geoengineering embodies many risks that make even seriously considering it seem risky in itself.

Despite this, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine has issued a report saying that governments urgently need to know whether solar geoengineering could work and what its side effects might be.

Solar geoengineering is also called solar radiation modification, which entails reflecting more of the sun’s energy back into space.  This would likely be accomplished by injecting aerosols into the atmosphere, much like what happens after large volcanic eruptions.

Schemes for solar geoengineering raise numerous issues.  Although solar geoengineering might cool the earth’s surface to a global temperature target, the cooling may not be evenly distributed, affecting many ecosystem functions and biodiversity.   It would likely upset regional weather patterns in potentially devastating ways, for example by changing the behavior of the monsoon in South Asia.  It might dangerously relax public commitments to reduce greenhouse emissions. 

Despite these concerns, or perhaps because of them, the committee that produced the report believes that technology to reflect sunlight deserves substantial funding and should be researched as rapidly and effectively as possible.  Once any geoengineering projects get into the hands of policymakers, they may gather momentum that bypasses the advice of scientists.  So, it important to make progress on the science while geoengineering is still only theoretical.

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Should We Block the Sun? Scientists Say the Time Has Come to Study It.

To intervene or not to intervene? That is the future climate question

Photo, posted August 3, 2018, courtesy of Tomasz Baranowski via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Even The Common House Sparrow Is Declining | Earth Wise

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According to the first-ever comprehensive assessment of net bird populations published in 2019, nearly three billion birds have disappeared in the United States and Canada since 1970.  The study, by researchers from the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, found that North American bird populations have lost 2.9 billion breeding adults during that timespan.  Forests lost one billion birds, and grassland birds declined 53%. 

According to a newer study from Cornell University, it appears that even the common house sparrow is declining.  In parts of its native range in Europe, house sparrow numbers are down nearly 60%.  Researchers from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology sought to clarify the status of the species in the U.S. and Canada by using 21 years of citizen science data collected through its Project Feederwatch program. 

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales. For the study, which was recently published in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology, the research team reviewed recorded observations of house sparrows during their non-breeding season.  These sightings from nearly 12,500 sites were used and cross-referenced with the National Land Cover database to determine whether the U.S. sightings came from rural or urban locations.  

From 1995 to 2016, researchers found that Feederwatch sites reporting house sparrows declined 7.5%, and the mean flock sizes declined 22%.  House sparrow populations declined in urban areas, but actually remained stable in rural areas. 

The researchers say a lack of green space and nesting sites in urban areas are likely factors in the population declines. 

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Study finds even the common house sparrow is declining

Nearly 3 Billion Birds Gone

Photo, posted May 14, 2014, courtesy of Jacob Spinks via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Largest Renewable Energy Project In The World | Earth Wise

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India has broken ground on what is planned to be the largest renewable energy project in the world:  a 30-gigawatt wind and solar power project in the state of Gujarat.

The renewable energy park will have two zones:  a 122,000-acre hybrid park zone that will accommodate 25 gigawatts of wind and solar power plants and a 57,000-acre zone entirely dedicated to wind power.  Multiple developers will be building the power plants in the hybrid zone.  A single company has been allotted the wind power zone.  The selected developers have to develop 50% of the total generation capacity in the next 3 years and finish the project in five years. The project is expected to create jobs for 100,000 people. Total investment in the project will be about $20 billion.

This is not technically a single standalone project but is rather an aggregation of multiple projects in a single general area.  Nonetheless, it represents the largest renewable energy development ever.  By comparison, the entire United States has a total of 50 gigawatts of installed solar power in large plants – which does not include any rooftop solar.  Total wind power capacity in the U.S. is a little over 100 gigawatts.  So, the 30-gigawatt Indian project is huge by any measure.

India already gets over 30% of its electricity from renewable sources, making it one of the largest renewable energy markets in the world.  The country has a goal of 60% renewable energy by 2030, amounting to 450 gigawatts of capacity.  This will require the country to double its already substantial renewable capacity in less than 10 years.  The Gujarat energy park will represent substantial progress towards that goal.

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Largest Renewable Energy Project In World Will Be 30 Gigawatt Solar–Wind Project In India

Photo, posted October 16, 2019, courtesy of Jonathan Cutrer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Restoring Seagrass In Virginia | Earth Wise

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Seagrass is found in shallow waters in many parts of the world.  They are plants with roots, stems, and leaves, and produce flowers and seeds.  They can form dense underwater meadows that constitute some of the most productive ecosystems in the world.  Seagrasses provide shelter and food to a diverse community of animals including tiny invertebrates, fish, crabs, turtles, marine mammals and birds.

In the late 1920s, a pathogen began killing seagrasses off the coast of Virginia.  In 1933, a hurricane finished them off completely.  For nearly 70 years thereafter, the bay bottoms of the Virginia coast were muddy and barren, essentially devoid of fish, shellfish, mollusks and other creatures that inhabit seagrass meadows.  The local scallop industry was no more.

The largest seagrass restoration project ever attempted has changed all that.  During the past 21 years, scientists and volunteers have spread more than 70 million eelgrass seeds within four previously barren seaside lagoons.  This has spurred a natural propagation of meadows that have so for grown to almost 9,000 acres, the largest eelgrass habitat between North Carolina and Long Island Sound.

The long-term research conducted by the team from the University of Virginia shows that the success of the seagrass restoration project is improving water quality, substantially increasing the abundance of fish and shellfish in the bays, and capturing carbon from the water and atmosphere and storing it in the extensive root systems of the grasses and in the sediment below. 

The study shows that marine restorations are possible on scales that contribute directly to human well-being.

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Some Good News: Seagrass Restored to Eastern Shore Bays is Flourishing

Photo, posted May 17, 2019, courtesy of Virginia Sea Grant via Flickr. Photo credit: Aileen Devlin | Virginia Sea Grant.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Essential Oils And Organic Crops | Earth Wise

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Essential oils are concentrated liquids extracted from plants.  They are called “essential” in the sense that they contain the essence of the fragrance that is characteristic of the plant.  Essential does not mean indispensable or usable by the human body.  But despite that fact, essential oils have been used in folk medicine throughout history. 

In recent times, essential oils have frequently been used in aromatherapy.  Generally speaking, medicinal uses of essential oils are controversial, and, in some cases, they have even been demonstrated to be dangerous.

Research has shown that essential oils have potential as natural pesticides.  Recently, the USDA has funded research into the use of essential oils to battle pests and diseases of organic crops.

U.S. organic food sales topped $50 billion in 2018 and fruits, vegetables, and other specialty crops combined make up more than a third of organic sales.  In order to meet consumer demand, farmers need ways to battle pests and diseases that often accompany organic crop growth.

A four-year project at the University of Hawaii at Manoa is entitled “Plant Safety, Horticultural Benefits, and Disease Efficacy of Essential Oils for Use in Organically Grown Fruit Crops:  From the Farm to the Consumer.”   The researchers will work with certified organic producers in Hawaii, Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, and California to evaluate the effectiveness of plant essential oils on major fruit pathogens such as avocado scab, anthracnose fungal disease, and powdery mildew on targeted tropical and temperate fruit crops such as avocado, mango, blueberry, and peach.

The goal is increase orchard productivity of the expanding organic fruit industry.

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Essential oils could keep pests, disease from organic crops

Photo, posted January 6, 2015, courtesy of Abi Porter via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Fitness Trackers For Lobsters | Earth Wise

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The lobster industry is somewhat unique, at least in this country, in that it involves an animal food that is kept alive until it has reached the destination where it will be consumed or used.  As a result, the industry has to deal with a problem they call “shrink”, which is the mortality lobsters experience as they change hands from capture to kitchen.

Maine’s lobster industry has reached out to the University of Maine Lobster Institute along with collaborators at other institutions to help quantify and mitigate stress points in the lobster supply chain that reduce survival and profitability.

A 2-year project was funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to create miniature sensory devices – crustacean heart and activity trackers (called C-HATs).  These are essentially Fitbits for lobsters.  The noninvasive devices strapped on a lobster monitor its heart rate and movement as it passes from trap to on-board live tank to live storage crate to truck to wholesaler to retailer or processor.

A separate sensor-equipped device called the MockLobster travels along with the lobsters to log environmental conditions experienced, including temperature, light and dissolved oxygen levels.

The hope is to be able to get a good handle on the conditions lobsters experience from trap to market and learn where problems are likely to arise.  The researchers are also working to develop economical, standardized protocols to monitor water quality and the heath of lobsters during their movement through the supply chain.

The goal is to produce big improvements in the bottom lines of everyone along the supply chain along with big improvements in the health of the lobsters destined for market.

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Fitness trackers, environmental sensors prototyped to improve survival in the lobster supply chain 

Photo, posted August 29, 2015, courtesy of Adam Grimes via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Upstate Energy Storage | Earth Wise

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In August, the New York Power Authority announced the start of construction on one of the largest battery energy storage projects in the nation.  Located in Franklin County at the very top of New York State, the project will comprise 20 MW of lithium ion battery storage that will help the state meet its peak power needs by absorbing excess generation that can be discharged later when the grid demands it.

The Northern New York region gets more than 80% of its electricity supply from renewable sources, including the St. Lawrence hydropower project and more than 650 MW of wind generation.  Having the ability to store some of this renewable energy for later delivery will help to eliminate transmission constraints that can prevent energy from being delivered to consumers.

The battery storage facility is one of two such large systems in the state.  The other one is a 20 MW battery storage system developed by Key Capture Energy in Stillwater in Saratoga County.  That project, which was funded by NYSERDA under the state’s Bulk Storage incentive program, is connected to the wholesale transmission network and is a revenue source for Key Capture, an independent utility-scale battery storage developer based in Albany.

The new storage project’s location is an ideal opportunity to spotlight the value of energy storage given the proximity of the hydropower project and extensive wind resources.  Being able to store renewable energy will improve transmission of the state’s electric power to downstate markets as well as help meet the state’s goals for reducing its carbon footprint and increasing its reliance upon renewable energy.

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Construction begins on NYPA’s second large-scale storage project

Photo courtesy of ceedub13, CC BY 2.0.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Hacking Photosynthesis | Earth Wise

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A team led by the University of Illinois has been pursuing a project called Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency or RIPE, which has the aim of improving photosynthesis in order to provide farmers with higher-yielding crops in an increasingly challenging climate.  Photosynthesis is the natural, sunlight-powered process that plants use to convert carbon dioxide into sugars that fuel growth, development, and for us, crop yield.

If we think of photosynthesis as a factory line composed of multiple machines, the growth of plants is limited by the slowest machines in the line.  The RIPE project has identified some steps in photosynthesis that are slower than others and are attempting to enable plants to build more machines to speed up those slower steps.

The researchers modeled a total of 170 steps in the process of photosynthesis to identify how plants could manufacture sugars more efficiently.  In the study, the team increased crop growth by 27% by resolving two constraints:  one in the first part of photosynthesis where plants turn light energy into chemical energy and one in the second part when carbon dioxide is turned into sugars.

The researchers effectively hacked photosynthesis by adding a more efficient transport protein from algae to enhance the energy conversion process. 

In the greenhouse, these changes improved crop productivity by 52%, but in field trials, which are a more important test, these photosynthetic hacks boosted crop production by 27%.

Ultimately, the team hopes to translate these discoveries to a series of staple food crops, such as cassava, cowpea, corn, soybean and rice, which are needed to feed the world’s growing population this century.

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Photosynthetic hacks can boost crop yield, conserve water

Photo, posted June 14, 2017, courtesy of Alex Holyoake via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Giant U.S. Offshore Wind Project Begins | Earth Wise

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In recent years, the Bureau of Offshore Energy Management – the agency that oversees energy projects in federal waters – has been granting leases for offshore wind projects in the waters of multiple states on the East Coast.  Up until now, none of these leases have actually resulted in the deployment of any wind turbines because the process of gaining approvals, project plans, surveys, funding and other requirements is a long and tortuous one.

In late May, the first offshore wind turbine in U.S. federal waters was installed 27 miles offshore from Virginia.  The 6-MW Siemens turbine is one of two turbines making up the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project.  The pilot project is expected to be operational later this year.  This project is the first to receive go-ahead approval by the BOEM.

The CVOW project is a development by Dominion Energy, a Virginia-based utility that operates in 20 states.  Dominion’s project will eventually be a 2.64 GW mega-farm that could be the largest offshore wind farm in the world.  Construction of the main project is expected to begin in 2024.  It will be sited in the seabed of a 112,800-acre lease area.  The site is currently being surveyed to determine potential impacts to ocean and sea life.

Dominion Energy has made multiple commitments to emissions reduction and the massive offshore wind farm is an important part of its efforts to meet those commitments.  The CVOW pilot project is only the second offshore wind installation in the U.S.  The first, the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island, is in state waters and did not require BOEM approval.

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A ‘monumental day’ for US offshore wind as first turbine is installed in federal waters

Photo, posted May 13, 2011, courtesy of the Department of Energy and Climate Change via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Largest U.S. Solar Project | Earth Wise

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The largest solar project to date in the U.S. has received final approval from the Department of the Interior.   A $1 billion, 690-megawatt solar array will be built on federal land in the Mojave Desert in Nevada.   The project includes battery energy storage and is expected to produce enough electricity to power more than a quarter million homes.  It will also offset the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to about 83,000 cars a year.

The current largest U.S. installation, the Solar Star Farm in Southern California, completed in 2015, generates 579 megawatts of power.

Construction of the Gemini Solar Array is expected to start sometime this year and be completed by 2022 or 2023.  The first phase of the project will cover 11 square miles of desert land about 30 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Some conservation groups have fought against the project, saying that it will destroy thousands of acres of habitat for endangered desert tortoises as well as other rare plant and animal species.  The groups agree that solar energy is a good thing but are convinced that the location selected is the wrong one. 

Interior Department representatives note that the Gemini Project will provide jobs and economic growth at a time when many Americans in general and Nevada citizens in particular are struggling with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The project is projected to generate $713 million in economic activity and employ about 2,000 people during construction.  However, once it is up and running, it will employ just 19 full-time workers.

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The Largest Solar Project in the U.S. Gets Green Light

Photo, posted January 26, 2014, courtesy of Jannes Glas via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Building The World’s Largest Battery Energy Storage Plant | Earth Wise

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The Monterey County Planning Commission has unanimously approved a joint project between Tesla and Pacific Gas and Electric to turn the Moss Landing Power Plant in California into the world’s largest battery energy storage facility.

The Moss Landing Power Plant is a natural gas-powered electricity generation plant located at the midpoint of California’s Monterey Bay.  At one time, it was the largest power plant in the state of California with a generation capacity of 2560 MW but has been gradually shutting down over time.

The new facility will incorporate 1.2 GWh of storage capacity for energy generated by solar and wind systems.  The stored energy will be available for use during periods of high energy demand and lower output.  This is about ten times larger than Tesla’s Hornsdale energy storage project in Australia, which was three times bigger than any other batter storage facility when it was built a few years ago.  In 2018, the battery system at Hornsdale made back a third of its cost in just one year.  The systems make use of Tesla’s Megapack battery products which come in pre-assembled units that provide 3 MWh of energy storage capacity.

The project will make use of existing power lines to transmit energy around Monterey County and parts of Silicon Valley.  Tesla and PG&E hope to break ground in early spring with completion scheduled for the end of the year.  California has been adding massive amounts of wind and solar power to its electrical grid and incorporating energy storage is an important step towards creating a truly resilient power system.

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Humongous Tesla Battery Plant Approved In California Is 10× Bigger Than World’s Biggest Battery Plant

Photo, posted September 22, 2019, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Removing Microplastics with Magnetism

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A new method for removing microplastics from the oceans has emerged from, of all things, a science fair project.  An Irish 18-year-old named Fionn Ferreira developed his project for the annual Google Science Fair and it won the grand prize of $50,000 in educational funding.

The teenager was walking on the beach in his hometown and ran across a stone with oil and plastic stuck to it and became focused on the problem of microplastics increasingly entering the environment.

His idea was to make use of ferrofluids, which are nontoxic magnetic fluids made of oil and magnetite, which is an iron-based mineral.  In the presence of water, the ferrofluids attract microplastics because both have similar properties.

Ferreira added oil and magnetite to water and mixed in a solution of microplastic particles.  When the microplastics latched onto the ferrofluids, he dipped a magnet into the solution several times and the magnet removed both substances, leaving clear water.  After almost 1000 tests, he demonstrated the method to be 88% effective in removing a variety of microplastics from water; a result even better than his original hypothesis of an 85% removal rate.

Ferreira is planning to further his education at a prestigious chemistry institute in the Netherlands starting in the fall.

According to a recent study, Americans eat, drink and breathe between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastic particles each year and, if they drink bottle water only instead of tap water, an additional 90,000 particles.  So, a science fair project that might provide a way to get rid of most these things is definitely prize-worthy.

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This Irish teenager may have a solution for a plastic-free ocean

Photo, posted April 25, 2016, courtesy of Boe Eide via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Solar-Powered Airport

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The Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport in Tennessee has become the first airport in the United States to run entirely on solar power.  The small airport operates over 60,000 flights a year and has recently completed work on a 12-acre, 2.64-megawatt solar farm that generates enough clean electricity to account for the airport’s total energy needs.

The project was funded largely by the Federal Aviation Administration, cost $10 million, and took nine years to complete.   The facility uses onsite batteries to help power operations at night.  The installation is expected to last 30 to 40 years.

The solar farm is in the southwest corner of the airfield on land that is unusable for aviation purposes.  It is visible from the two runways at the airport.

Officials from nearly 50 airports around the world have visited or contacted the Chattanooga airfield in recent years to learn about its solar operations.  Several major airports, including San Diego and London’s Gatwick, have also installed solar panels that provide a portion of their power needs.  The world’s busiest airport – Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson – is looking into constructing renewable energy microgrids to power part of its operations.  Airports generally have plenty of vacant land that can be used for solar panels that can lower their power bills.

The largest airport solar installation is actually Cochin International in Kerala, India, which became 100% solar powered in 2015.  It is the 7th largest airport in India.   Its solar array has nearly 30 megawatts of capacity.  Airport managers there were fed up with huge electric bills and invested about $9 million to install the solar array.  It is expected to have paid for itself in the next couple of years.

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Chattanooga Becomes First U.S. Airport to Run Entirely On Solar

Photo courtesy of Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Future Of Animals

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Researchers at the University of Southampton have forecast a global shift towards smaller birds and mammals over the next century.   

According to the research team, small, fast-lived, highly fertile, and insect-eating animals, which can thrive in all sorts of habitats, will predominate in the future.  Rodents and songbirds are examples of the so-called ‘winners.’  Less adaptable, slow-lived species, requiring specialist habitats, will be more likely to face extinction.  Among the so-called ‘losers’ are the black rhino and the tawny eagle. 

The researchers focused on more than 15,000 living mammals and birds and considered the following five characteristics: body mass, breadth of habitat, diet, litter or clutch size, and length of time between generations.  Using this data and data from the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, the researchers used modern statistical tools to project and evaluate the loss of biodiversity.  

The study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Communications, predicts that the average body mass of mammals will collectively decline by 25% over just the next 100 years.  Over the past 130,000 years, the average body size of mammals only declined 14%.

This substantial downsizing of animals is forecasted to occur due to the effects of ecological change. But, according to the study’s lead author, the loss of these species, which perform unique functions within the global ecosystem, may ironically wind up being a driver of change as well.       

The researchers hope future studies will further explore the long-term effects of species extinction on habitats and ecosystems. 

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Study predicts shift to smaller animals over next century

Photo, posted April 6, 2013, courtesy of Nic Trott via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Big Success From A Big Battery

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In the fall of 2017, Tesla took on the challenge of installing a 100-megawatt battery storage system in South Australia in under 100 days, promising that the system would be free if it was not built in time.  The project was actually completed in 54 days.

The system is located at the Hornsdale Wind Farm, which consists of 99 wind turbines with a generation capacity of 315 MW.  The Hornsdale Power Reserve installation is the world’s largest lithium-ion battery system and, after a year of operation,has proven to be a smashing success. Estimates are that the project has reduced costs associated with stabilizing the energy grid by about $29 million. The cost of the system was about $87 million, so it is paying for itself quite rapidly. The wind farm and battery systems are owned and operated by a French renewable energy company.

The battery storage system provides a variety of different services to the electric grid.  The primary motivation for it was to achieve system security and reduce the risk of blackouts and load shedding.   Having the battery system in place protects the regional interconnection from tripping,which reduces the risk of separation of South Australia from the National Electricity market.  The system also provides so-called ancillary services such as frequency control and other forms of electricity supply regulation.

The most significant contribution of the Hornsdale Power Reserve is that it has raised the profile of energy storage technology and demonstrated its unique capabilities.  Based on the success of the system, there are now about 2,500 MWh of new storage projects announced by the public and private sectors in Australia.

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Tesla’s Battery Has Already Saved South Australia a Huge Amount of Money

Photo courtesy of Hornsdale Power Reserve. 

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)