tunnels

A giant plane for giant wind turbines

May 22, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Wind turbines have been getting bigger all the time. Larger turbines have real advantages. They can operate at lower speeds so they can be deployed in more places. They capture more wind, so they make more power. Large wind turbines can have blades more than 200 feet long and even larger ones are on the way. An offshore wind farm in China has turbines with 400-foot blades.

Giant wind turbines face a thorny problem: getting the blades to where they are to be installed. The enormous blades can’t be easily shipped across aging roads and bridges. Tunnels are too narrow, bridges are too low, and roads can be too tight to allow turns when transporting these massive turbine parts. Some developers have actually had to build special roads for wind projects.

For nearly a decade, a Boulder Colorado company called Radia has been working on what would be the world’s largest plane. The WindRunner aircraft would have a dozen times the cargo volume of a Boeing 747. The WindRunner will be 356 feet long and 79 feet tall. While its primary purpose would be transporting wind turbine blades, the plane could also be used to aid the military or businesses that are thinking really big. Product developers often don’t even try to invent really big things because there is no way to transport them. Radia expects the WindRunner to be rolled out before the end of the decade.

The wind industry is currently facing strong opposition from the Trump administration, but wind energy is not going away and bigger and better wind turbines will ultimately be built and will have to be transported.

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Building the World’s Biggest Plane to Help Catch the Wind

Photo, October 10, 2013, courtesy of Allan Der via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Green grout for stabilizing buildings

March 31, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

We are all familiar with the grout that is used for tiles in our homes. We are less familiar with grout that is used to stabilize the soil beneath buildings. Grouting is a process of ground improvement by injecting materials that can fill voids and cracks, strengthen and increase the bearing capacity of soil, and reduce permeability.

Traditional grouting methods have environmental downsides. Most often, silica-based chemical grouts are used, and they are produced through energy-intensive processes that contribute substantially to carbon dioxide emissions. As is the case for all materials and practices of the construction industry, developing sustainable, low-emission alternatives to conventional grouting materials has become an important priority.

Researchers from the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Japan have developed an innovative new grout material called Colloidal Silica Recovered from Geothermal Fluids. This grout material enhances soil stabilization and simultaneously reduces the environmental impact of geothermal energy harvesting.

Geothermal energy production generates large amounts of silica-rich waste fluids which creates challenges for its maintenance and disposal. The new grout repurposes this waste material thereby transforming an industrial byproduct into a valuable construction material.

The new grout material is particularly valuable in earthquake-prone regions, where soil stabilization is essential in preventing structural damage during seismic events. In addition, the grout’s superior water-sealing properties makes it ideal for underground construction projects like tunnels, subways, and basements. The new grout in an important step for the construction industry’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality.

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From Waste to Wonder: Revolutionary Green Grout for Sustainable Construction Practices

Photo, posted July 8, 2011, courtesy of MTA Construction & Development Mega Projects via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Cities and rainwater

September 24, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Cities across the country are grappling with the problem that bigger, more frequent rainstorms occurring as a result of climate change are overtaxing the systems put in place to handle stormwater. Cities use a combination of so-called green infrastructure – such as rain gardens and porous pavements – and traditional gray infrastructure, such as pipes, tunnels, and pump stations.

In 2011, Philadelphia drew national attention for its Green City, Clean Waters program that was designed to manage the increasing amount of storm water using mostly green infrastructure. Thirteen years later, the city is experiencing billions of gallons of polluted stormwater overflowing its sewage outfall pipes each year. Green infrastructure is cheaper and faster to build, but it is not coping with increasing rainfall.

About 700 U.S. municipalities, mostly in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes, rely on these combined sewer systems. Based on updated climate projections, many are having to greatly increase gray infrastructure projects that include concrete holding tanks, tunnels, and pipes that can divert and hold onto flows until the rain stops, and water treatment plants can recover. These projects can take decades to implement and cost billions of dollars.

All across the country, cities are going to need to bite the bullet and make large-scale investments in conventional sewage infrastructure and repairs to stop billions of gallons of raw sewage from running into rivers. The increased storms present a daunting challenge for America’s cities.

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Faced With Heavier Rains, Cities Scramble to Control Polluted Runoff

Photo, posted August 29, 2011, courtesy of Reggie via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Pumped Hydro Storage In Switzerland | Earth Wise

September 15, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Pumped hydro energy storage is still by far the largest form of energy storage in the world, representing more than 90% of storage capacity worldwide. The theory behind it is simple. Water is pumped into an upper reservoir (that is, one at a higher elevation), and when electricity is needed, the water is allowed to flow downhill to power turbines and then is collected in a lower reservoir. When there is excess electricity, it is used to pump water back uphill for use later.

Pumped hydro installations can’t be built just anywhere. Geography and hydrology have to be suitable, which means high voltage transmission lines need to be constructed to link electricity sources like wind and solar farms with the storage location. But in those situations where pumped hydro makes sense, it is a great solution to the energy storage problem.

Switzerland has just completed one of the largest pumped hydro facilities in the world. The Nant de Drance installation makes use of the Emosson reservoir, which is an artificial lake built high in the Alps near the French border. Over the past 14 years, 10 miles of tunnels have been dug into the mountains to connect the Emosson reservoir to the Vieux Emosson reservoir to the south.

In between the two reservoirs is a giant underground cavern where six of the largest water-driven turbines in the world are spun from the water rushing down from above. The turbines have a capacity of 900 megawatts, making Nant de Drance one of the most powerful generating plants in Europe. In terms of storage capacity, the installation has a maximum capacity of 20 gigawatt-hours, and can store that energy indefinitely, which is challenging for other storage technologies.

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14 Years In The Making, 20 GWh Pumped Hydro Storage Facility Comes To Switzerland (With Video)

Photo, posted September 7, 2009, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Wildlife Bridges

June 17, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Highway accidents involving animals are a big problem for both people and animals. About 200 people die every year in the U.S. as a result of collisions with animals. In total, one to two million large animals are killed by motorists every year. And these crashes are expensive: deer-car collisions cost an average of more than $8,000 each; elk-vehicle collisions about $25,000; and moose-vehicle collisions over $44,000.

In the United States, there are 21 threatened and endangered species whose very survival is threatened by road mortalities. These include Key deer in Florida, bighorn sheep in California, and red-bellied turtles in Alabama.

One solution that has been quite effective around the world in reducing car-animal collisions is wildlife overpasses and underpasses. Crossings and fencing that guide animals over or under highways reduce collisions by 85-95%.

These traffic-spanning bridges and tunnels have been popular in Europe since the 1950s. The overpasses usually look much like regular overpasses for cars but are decked out with native flora. The underpasses, which assist shyer and smaller animals, are typically invisible to drivers.

Washington State has recently started building wildlife bridges and underpasses on Interstate 90. These passes will allow elk, black bears, mountain lions, pika, and even trout to traverse what was once a near-impenetrable barrier of road.

Some animals that are accustomed to human structures start using the crossings almost immediately. For others, there is learning curve. As in many things, the early adapters are important as they provide paths and model behavior that more reticent animals learn to follow.

Wildlife bridges are a very good thing for wildlife and for people.

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How wildlife bridges over highways make animals—and people—safer

Photo, posted July 22, 2017, courtesy of David Fulmer via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.