renewable energy
Pulling Carbon Out Of The Air
The world is increasingly united in the desire to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere. There is much emphasis on reducing and someday eliminating our use of fossil fuels, which is the main culprit in the situation we find ourselves in today. More and more we are embracing the use of renewable energy sources to produce electricity and we are starting to slowly move away from internal combustion engines to power our cars.
Norway And Electric Cars
One of the standard criticisms aimed at electric cars is whether they actually are good for the environment when everything is taken into account. For example, people worry about the amount of energy expended and the environmental impact of actually building the car. Recent studies have shown that this balances out over a relatively short amount of the car’s lifetime.
Powering The Hydrogen Highway
2016 is the first year that hydrogen fuel cell cars are available to the general public. There aren’t very many of them as yet, but Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai all have fuel cell vehicles on the market. All these companies are betting on hydrogen-powered cars as the future of personal transportation.
Right now, California is where almost all the action is for fuel cell cars but even there, there are only a handful of hydrogen fueling stations. The automakers are providing a great incentive to owners of their fuel cell cars: free hydrogen for the first couple of years. But free or not, it has to be available.
There are plans to build many more hydrogen fueling stations in California, but one problem is that it takes quite a while to commission new stations. Every car manufacturer has to perform validation tests that take weeks. As a result, it can take months to bring stations online.
California hopes to bring online a network of more than 50 stations by the end of 2016, mostly in Southern California and in the San Francisco Bay Area. Thanks to a new device developed by Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, this rapid deployment of new stations now looks possible.
It is called the Hydrogen Station Equipment Performance device, or HyStEP, and it acts like a surrogate for vehicles and eliminates the need for each manufacturer to test separately. Testing can be done in less than a week.
Streamlining the process for commissioning hydrogen fueling stations is one important step towards building the hydrogen highway.
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Speeding up the hydrogen highway
Photo, posted June 14, 2014, courtesy of Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.
Pumped Hydro Storage
There is much talk these days about energy storage. As more and more wind and solar power enters the electrical grid, there is an increasing need to be able to store excess energy and have it available when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. Much of the talk centers around battery technology, and having storage batteries distributed throughout the grid is the most versatile and widely applicable way to provide storage.
China And Renewable Energy
When it comes to carbon dioxide, three countries are responsible for half of the world’s emissions into the atmosphere: China, the US, and India. On a per capita basis, we are far worse than China, but its population is so huge that that it produces twice as much CO2 as the United States and nearly one-third of the world’s emissions.
Businesses Going Solar
The fourth annual Solar Means Business Report is out. It identifies major commercial solar projects and ranks America’s top solar users. Just since the first report came out, the amount of solar power installed by America’s top companies has tripled.
Solar Power As A Crop
The historic, relentless drought in California has caused a number of the state’s farmers to start planting photovoltaic panels instead of crops. Because of the drought, Federal water deliveries to farmers in the Central Valley and elsewhere have been dwindling. As a result of the water shortage, more than 500,000 acres will lie fallow this year.
Carbon Capture Update
The global community is increasingly making commitments to reduce the amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere. More and more carbon-free renewable energy sources are being used all the time. But despite the tremendous growth in solar and wind power, fossil fuels still provide about 80% of the world’s energy. Coal still provides about 40% of worldwide electricity. Realistically, these numbers can only go down at a relatively gradual pace.
A Tax On Carbon
A while back we talked about the carbon tax in British Columbia and how it resulted in a dramatic reduction in carbon fuel use without any harm to the local economy. Many economists believe that carbon taxes are one of the best ways to promote lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Ocean Energy Report Card
Most of the world’s activity in renewable energy is focused on solar and wind power. The use of both is expanding rapidly.
Cheap Oil From Algae
We have had all too many scary stories about algae and the threats it is posing to health and safety. This time, for once, we have some good news about algae.
Solar Power At Night
One of the largest solar power plants in the world is the Andasol plant situated on a barren, high-altitude site in the Andalucia region of Spain. The plant provides electricity for up to 500,000 people in the region.
Cities Abandoning Fossil Fuels
Around the world, cities are trying to combat climate change by shifting their energy needs away from coal, oil and natural gas. Some, like Reykjavik and Zurich, use no fossil fuels to produce power at all; others are still planning cutbacks.
Coal Subsidies
Coal is the most important energy source for the Chinese economy and in a number of other places around the world. It is still the largest source of electricity in the US. It is also one of the main reasons that greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase despite worldwide technological progress and the expansion of renewable energy. New coal plants are still planned in many places and such plants will emit carbon dioxide for decades.
New Places For Solar Power
The modern face of solar energy is hundreds of thousands of rooftops covered with arrays of solar panels. It is also amazing expanses of solar panels and mirrors covering acres of desert land. Solar power capacity is expanding rapidly and is expected to at least triple over the next 10 years.
OTEC In Hawaii
The state of Hawaii has a bold energy agenda: it plans to get 100% of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2045. In order to get there, Hawaii is embracing a diversified mix of renewable energy generation sources. Of course, Hawaii’s famous sunshine has allowed the state to have the highest per-capital base of installed solar power in the nation. But it will take more than just solar power for Hawaii to get all of its energy from green sources.
Turning Divesting Into Investing
Colleges and universities are bustling with activity. Among the conversations on campus: the call from students to sell endowment investments in the fossil fuel industry. Stanford has eliminated its coal investments, and a small number of other universities have divested to varying degrees.
The Wind Boom Continues
Wind power continues to increase its contribution to the US power grid. The second quarter of this year saw almost 1.7 GW of new turbines come on line and there are almost 14 GW under construction.
The Environmental Movement Works
