Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Soybean expansion in South America doubled over past 20 years
https://phys.org/news/2021-07-soybean-e ... years.html
by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in the U.S., Brazil and Argentina has found that land dedicated to growing soybeans in South America has doubled over the past 20 years. In their paper published in the journal Nature Sustainability, the group describes their approach to measuring soy growing areas in South America and what they learned about its impact on land use on the continent.

Soybean plants are a species of legume native to East Asia, but they are now grown as crops around the world. The beans are used for a variety of purposes, from animal feed to oil and tofu. In recent years, demand for the beans has grown steadily, as beef cattle production has increased dramatically in Asian markets. The increased demand has led to the need for land on which to grow the crops. South American farmers have taken advantage of that need by dedicating more land to growing the crop. This growth has worried climate scientists because prior research has suggested much of that new land comes from tearing down or burning rainforest. In this new effort, the researchers wondered just how much land has been dedicated to growing soy in South America as demand has grown. To find out, they conducted two kinds of studies.

[weatheriscool]

Chemists develop novel electrolyser for hydrogen production

by University of Amsterdam
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-07-che ... ction.html

In a recent Nature Communications paper, a group of researchers led by Dr. Ning Yan of the Van 't Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences at the University of Amsterdam showcases a practical membrane-free approach to water electrolysis using earth-abundant catalysts. Their new electrolyser concept, developed together with researchers from Wuhan University and Wuhan University of Technology, offers significant advantages over electrolysers that are currently being developed for large-scale hydrogen production.

The transition to a hydrogen economy is a must for advancing sustainable energy practices as well as for tackling climate change. Hydrogen that is produced through water electrolysis using renewable electricity can be used both as a clean energy carrier and as a reagent for making bulk chemicals from CO2. Large-scale water electrolysis is an essential technology for realizing these goals. However, while electrolysers have been known for over 200 years, the technology is still facing major challenges. For instance, the conventional alkaline electrolysis is more suitable to operate at low current density and low pressure, while the emerging proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser requires the use of scarce noble metal catalysts and extensive water purification.

[caltrek]

Greenland Scraps All Future Oil Exploration
by Morten Buttler
July 16, 2021

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-greenland ... ation.html

Introduction:

(Phys.Org) Greenland dropped all plans for future oil exploration on environmental grounds, saying the price of extraction was "too high."

The island's socialist-led government, in office since April, has made climate concerns central to its legislative program. While the decision to scrap planned exploration is a win for environmental groups, it cuts off potential investments that could have aided efforts to gain economic independence from Denmark.

The government "has decided to cease issuing new licenses for oil and gas exploration," it said in a statement. "This step has been taken for the sake of our nature, for the sake of our fisheries, for the sake of our tourism industry, and to focus our business on sustainable potentials."

Ten years ago, Greenland had become a hotspot for drillers as a commodity-price boom attracted not only oil explorers but miners of diamonds, iron, rare earths and other metals. But crude's subsequent crash made extraction uneconomic offshore—where drilling would be hampered by large floating icebergs—and the official ban now puts an end to dreams of energy riches.

[Yuli Ban]

In 2020, U.S. Coal Production Fell To Its Lowest Level Since 1965

U.S. coal production totaled 535 million short tons (MMst) in 2020, a 24% decrease from the 706 MMst mined in 2019 and the lowest level of coal production in the United States in any year since 1965.

The decline of U.S. coal production in 2020 was largely the result of less demand for coal internationally and less U.S. electric power sector demand for coal. Lower natural gas prices made coal less competitive for power generation. U.S. coal-fired generation fell 20% from 2019. Natural gas prices started 2020 relatively low because mild winter weather led to less natural gas demand for space heating, and prices remained low as the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic reduced both natural gas production and consumption.

U.S. coal exports were 26% lower in 2020 than they were in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed global demand for coal, and some U.S. coal mines were idled for extended periods to slow the spread of the virus among workers. Coal exports decreased significantly in April 2020 as the United States and countries around the world responded to the pandemic.

The Clean Air Act of 1970 restricted sulfur emissions from new coal-fired power plants. One way for coal plants to meet the emissions regulations was to use subbituminous coal, which has a lower sulfur content than other coal types. This change, along with the oil shortages and the resulting high oil prices of the 1970s that made coal more economical, contributed to the expansion of mining and the development of large, open-pit coal mines in the Powder River Basin (located in Northeast Wyoming and Southeast Montana), where the majority of subbituminous coal in the United States is found. One of the largest U.S. coal-producing mines by volume, Black Thunder, opened in Wyoming in 1977. Today, the Powder River Basin accounts for approximately 43% of all coal produced in the United States.

The restriction of sulfur-heavy coal burning ironically probably sped up global warming. Sulfur dioxide is an atmospheric coolant.

[caltrek]

OPEC and Its Allies Raise Limits for Five Countries to End Oil Dispute
by Jon Gambrel
July 18, 2021

https://www.thenationalnews.com/busines ... in-august/

Introduction:

(The National) Opec+, the group of oil-exporting countries behind recent historic production cuts, will bring 400,000 barrels per day back to the markets in August and will revise baselines used to calculate quotas from May 2022, following requests by countries including the UAE (United Arab Emirates).

Under the latest agreement, the UAE's new production baseline will increase to 3.5 million barrels per day, from 3.168 million bpd previously. Other producers including Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Russia will also see their baselines rise.

The UAE "is committed to this group and will always work within this group to do our best to achieve the market balance and help everyone", Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Suhail Al Mazrouei, said at a ministerial meeting held online on Sunday. "The UAE will remain a committed member in the Opec alliance."

Opec+, which is headed by Saudi Arabia and Russia, extended its agreement until the end of December 2022. The group reached a consensus over the phasing out of 5.8 million bpd of withheld supply following weeks of deadlock and will review the pact at the end of the year.

"We're dealing with uncertainty. And if you are dealing with uncertainty, the first thing you need to do is to acquiesce to the concept that you cannot predict uncertainty," Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's energy minister told reporters after the meeting.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/nationa ... e/3160585/

(NBC) (The OPEC agreement ends) an earlier dispute sparked by the United Arab Emirates that roiled global energy prices.

The disagreement, sparked by a demand by the UAE to increase its own production, temporarily upended an earlier meeting of the cartel. In a statement Sunday, the cartel announced that Iraq, Kuwait, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE would see their limits rise.

“What bonds us together is way much beyond what you may imagine,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said. “We differ here and there but we bond.”

Prince Abdulaziz declined to elaborate on how they came to that consensus, saying it would see the cartel “lose our advantage of being mysterious and clever.” But he clearly bristled at earlier reports on the dispute between Saudi Arabia, long the heavyweight of the Vienna-based cartel, and the UAE.

Prince Abdulaziz deferred at the beginning of a news conference afterward to al-Mazrouei in a sign of respect.

[weatheriscool]

Making clean hydrogen is hard, but researchers just solved a major hurdle
https://phys.org/news/2021-07-hydrogen- ... urdle.html
by University of Texas at Austin

For decades, researchers around the world have searched for ways to use solar power to generate the key reaction for producing hydrogen as a clean energy source—splitting water molecules to form hydrogen and oxygen. However, such efforts have mostly failed because doing it well was too costly, and trying to do it at a low cost led to poor performance.

Now, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have found a low-cost way to solve one half of the equation, using sunlight to efficiently split off oxygen molecules from water. The finding, published recently in Nature Communications, represents a step forward toward greater adoption of hydrogen as a key part of our energy infrastructure.

As early as the 1970s, researchers were investigating the possibility of using solar energy to generate hydrogen. But the inability to find materials with the combination of properties needed for a device that can perform the key chemical reactions efficiently has kept it from becoming a mainstream method.

"You need materials that are good at absorbing sunlight and, at the same time, don't degrade while the water-splitting reactions take place," said Edward Yu, a professor in the Cockrell School's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "It turns out materials that are good at absorbing sunlight tend to be unstable under the conditions required for the water-splitting reaction, while the materials that are stable tend to be poor absorbers of sunlight. These conflicting requirements drive you toward a seemingly inevitable tradeoff, but by combining multiple materials—one that efficiently absorbs sunlight, such as silicon, and another that provides good stability, such as silicon dioxide—into a single device, this conflict can be resolved."

[weatheriscool]

Half of U.S. tidal marsh areas vulnerable to rising seas
https://phys.org/news/2021-07-tidal-mar ... -seas.html
by Sarah Stanley, American Geophysical Union

Sea level is rising worldwide, thanks in large part to climate change. Rising seas threaten coastal communities and ecosystems, including marshes that lie at the interface between salt water and freshwater. Tidal marsh ecosystems feature distinct plants and play key ecological roles, such as serving as nurseries for fish. It is known that some tidal marshes can avoid destruction by migrating inland or through formation of new soil that raises their elevation, but a better understanding of how they are affected by rising seas could inform efforts to plan for and mitigate the effects.

New research by Holmquist et al. investigates the vulnerability of tidal marshes to sea level rise across the contiguous United States. The findings show, for the first time, that opportunities for resilience differ between more northerly and more southerly marshes across the country.

[weatheriscool]

Solar cells: Layer of three crystals produces a thousand times more power
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-07-sol ... usand.html
by Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg

The photovoltaic effect of ferroelectric crystals can be increased by a factor of 1,000 if three different materials are arranged periodically in a lattice. This has been revealed in a study by researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). They achieved this by creating crystalline layers of barium titanate, strontium titanate and calcium titanate which they alternately placed on top of one another. Their findings, which could significantly increase the efficiency of solar cells, were published in the journal Science Advances.

Most solar cells are currently silicon based; however, their efficiency is limited. This has prompted researchers to examine new materials, such as ferroelectrics like barium titanate, a mixed oxide made of barium and titanium. "Ferroelectric means that the material has spatially separated positive and negative charges," explains physicist Dr Akash Bhatnagar from MLU's Centre for Innovation Competence SiLi-nano. "The charge separation leads to an asymmetric structure that enables electricity to be generated from light." Unlike silicon, ferroelectric crystals do not require a so-called pn junction to create the photovoltaic effect, in other words, no positively and negatively doped layers. This makes it much easier to produce the solar panels.

[wjfox]

Solar cells: Layer of three crystals produces a thousand times more power
https://techxplore.com/news/2021-07-sol ... usand.html
by Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg

The photovoltaic effect of ferroelectric crystals can be increased by a factor of 1,000 if three different materials are arranged periodically in a lattice. This has been revealed in a study by researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). They achieved this by creating crystalline layers of barium titanate, strontium titanate and calcium titanate which they alternately placed on top of one another. Their findings, which could significantly increase the efficiency of solar cells, were published in the journal Science Advances.

Most solar cells are currently silicon based; however, their efficiency is limited. This has prompted researchers to examine new materials, such as ferroelectrics like barium titanate, a mixed oxide made of barium and titanium. "Ferroelectric means that the material has spatially separated positive and negative charges," explains physicist Dr Akash Bhatnagar from MLU's Centre for Innovation Competence SiLi-nano. "The charge separation leads to an asymmetric structure that enables electricity to be generated from light." Unlike silicon, ferroelectric crystals do not require a so-called pn junction to create the photovoltaic effect, in other words, no positively and negatively doped layers. This makes it much easier to produce the solar panels.

This is one of those stories you occasionally hear that sounds too good to be true – e.g. "Cure for cancer". What does it actually mean in terms of efficiency and power output, I wonder? I mean, we aren't going to see 10-megawatt solar roof installations, are we?

[weatheriscool]

China adding finishing touches to world-first thorium nuclear reactor
By Nick Lavars
July 20, 2021

https://newatlas.com/energy/china-world ... r-reactor/

China is moving ahead with development of an experimental reactor that would be the first of its kind in the world, but could prove key to the pursuit of clean and safe nuclear power. According to local news reports, the Chinese government intends to finish building a prototype molten salt nuclear reactor in the desert city of Wuwei in the coming months, with plans to establish a number of larger-scale plants in similar settings thereafter.

With an ability to generate power while producing very minimal carbon emissions, nuclear reactors have a clear upside when it comes to the sustainable generation of energy. But there are very valid reasons the technology hasn't been widely adopted across the world, many of which stem from the reliance on uranium and plutonium for fuel.

[wjfox]

Oh, and staying on the topic of solar roof installations...

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U.S. seeks to speed rooftop solar growth with instant permits

July 16, 20219:41 PM BST

The Biden administration on Thursday will roll out a tool that enables instant local permitting of rooftop solar installations, addressing a major source of industry delays and possibly lowering costs for homeowners, the Energy Department said.

The Solar Automated Permit Processing (SolarAPP+) platform, developed by DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, will be an optional portal for local governments to process permit applications automatically.

Approvals typically take a week or more currently, and permit-related costs can account for about a third of installers' overall costs, DOE said. The software speeds the process up by standardizing requirements, streamlining the application and automating some approvals.

Administration officials said the software will help speed adoption of rooftop solar and achieve President Joe Biden's goal of decarbonizing the U.S. electricity grid by 2035, a key pillar of his plan to address climate change. DOE has said that solar energy will need to be installed at a pace as much as five times faster than it is today to realize that goal.

https://www.reuters.com/business/sustai ... 021-07-15/



Credit: REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

[weatheriscool]

U.S., Germany reach agreement on Russian gas pipeline, ending dispute between allies
Source: Washington Post

The Biden administration reached an agreement with Germany on Wednesday that allows for the completion of a controversial natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, ending a heated dispute between the two allies that overlapped three successive U.S. administrations.

In exchange for an end to U.S. efforts to block the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Germany will invest in Ukraine’s green technology infrastructure and Berlin and Washington will work together on other initiatives to mitigate Russia’s energy dominance in Europe.

The decision drew immediate criticism from Russia hawks in Congress who hoped the United States could find a way to block the nearly-completed multibillion-dollar project they say gives Moscow leverage over U.S. allies in Europe.

The Biden administration viewed the project as a dilemma that forced it to choose between restoring its beleaguered relationship with Berlin and keeping its public promise to oppose the project. U.S. officials doubted that U.S. sanctions could ultimately prevent its completion and argued that a deal with Germany rather than a protracted fight offered the best outcome.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... gO2FR_Hkk8
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[weatheriscool]

PG&E announces plan to bury thousands of miles of lines
Source: Associated Press

CHICO, Calif. (KTXL) — Pacific Gas and Electric announced on Wednesday that it plans to bury 10,000 miles of lines in parts of the state with a higher fire danger.

The utility made the announcement in Butte County, where it says its equipment could be to blame for igniting the 85,000-acre Dixie Fire.

“We want what all of our customers want: a safe and resilient energy system. We have taken a stand that catastrophic wildfires shall stop. We will partner with the best and the brightest to bring that stand to life,” PG&E CEO Patti Poppe said in a news release. “We will demand excellence of ourselves. We will gladly partner with policymakers and state and local leaders to map a path we can all believe in.”

After the 2017 wine country fires and 2018’s Camp Fire, which killed dozens of people and largely destroyed the Butte County town of Paradise, PG&E says it began looking into putting overhead power lines underground.

Read more: https://fox40.com/news/wildfire-watch/p ... -of-lines/

[weatheriscool]

RNA breakthrough creates crops that can grow 50% more potatoes, rice

by University of Chicago
https://phys.org/news/2021-07-rna-break ... -rice.html

Manipulating RNA can allow plants to yield dramatically more crops, as well as increasing drought tolerance, announced a group of scientists from the University of Chicago, Peking University and Guizhou University.

In initial tests, adding a gene encoding for a protein called FTO to both rice and potato plants increased their yield by 50% in field tests. The plants grew significantly larger, produced longer root systems and were better able to tolerate drought stress. Analysis also showed that the plants had increased their rate of photosynthesis.

"The change really is dramatic," said University of Chicago Prof. Chuan He, who together with Prof. Guifang Jia at Peking University, led the research. "What's more, it worked with almost every type of plant we tried it with so far, and it's a very simple modification to make."

[weatheriscool]

Biden administration to curb toxic wastewater from coal plants with new rule
Source: Washington Post

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday it will set stricter requirements for how coal-fired power plants dispose of wastewater full of arsenic, lead and mercury — a major source of toxic water pollution for rivers and streams near electric generators across the country, from Wyoming to Pennsylvania.

In a new rulemaking process kicked off Monday, President Biden’s team is aiming to undo one of the Trump administration’s major regulatory rollbacks. Last year, the Trump EPA watered down rules forcing many coal plants to treat wastewater with modern filtration methods and other technology before it reached waterways that provide drinking water for thousands of Americans.

“What we found is that the Trump administration’s 2020 rule really is lacking,” Radhika Fox, the EPA’s top water official, said in an interview Monday. “We think that we can do better when it comes to reducing water pollution from coal power plants.”

The power plant wastewater rule is just one of dozens of Trump administration rollbacks that the Biden team is seeking to reverse in its effort to tackle climate change and reduce pollution that often overburden the poorest communities in the United States.

-snip-

By Dino Grandoni
Today at 1:32 p.m. EDT

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... -new-rule/

[Yuli Ban]

China to add 55-65 GW of solar power capacity in 2021

China is still expected to add up to 65 GigaWatts (GW) of solar power capacity in 2021, its solar manufacturing association said on Thursday, taking total solar installations beyond 300 GW by the end of the year.

Solar power installation reached only about 13 GW in the first six months, as a supply constraint on photovoltaic raw material and soaring product prices slowed the development of new solar projects. read more

"(The progress of) utility-scale solar projects in the coming months will depend on price movements alongside the solar supply chain," Wang Bohua, honorary president of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA), said at an industrial conference.

The price of polysilicon, a key raw material for making solar cells, was three-and-a-half times higher in June than at the end of last year. read more

Workers walk at a solar power station in Tongchuan, Shaanxi province, China December 11, 2019. REUTERS/Muyu Xu

[Yuli Ban]

Renewables surged in 2020 but world not yet on track for climate goals, BP says

Wind and solar installed capacity increased by a "colossal" 238 gigawatts last year, the review said.

"The increase in installed capacity last year was 50% bigger than at any time seen in history, despite the world (being) in turmoil, despite the largest peace-time recession," Dale said.

The growth in renewables last year came largely at the expense of coal-fired generation, which experienced one of its largest annual declines on record of 4.4%.

[weatheriscool]

Turning diapers into sticky notes: Using chemical recycling to prevent millions of tons of waste
https://phys.org/news/2021-07-diapers-s ... lions.html
by University of Michigan

Every year, 3.5 million metric tons of sodden diapers end up in landfills.

The superabsorbent material inside these diapers is made up of a matrix of polymers that expand once dampness hits them. Polymers are a long chain of repeating units, and in this case, the absorbent material in diapers is based on the polymer polyacrylic acid.

A University of Michigan team has developed a technique to untangle these absorbent polymers and recycle them into materials similar to the gooey adhesives used in sticky notes and bandages. Their results are published in Nature Communications.

Broadly, recycling can be grouped into mechanical recycling and chemical recycling.

"Mechanical recycling is what most people think about: You separate different plastics based on their identities, chop them up into small pieces, melt them and reuse them, which lowers the quality of the product," said U-M chemist Anne McNeil, corresponding author of the paper.

Mechanical recycling leads to lower quality materials because different companies' plastics are constructed differently: The polymers can be different chain lengths or altered with different additives and dyes.

[Yuli Ban]

Renewables overtake nuclear and coal to became the second-most prevalent U.S. electricity source in 2020

In 2020, renewable energy sources (including wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy) generated a record 834 billion kilowatthours (kWh) of electricity, or about 21% of all the electricity generated in the United States. Only natural gas (1,617 billion kWh) produced more electricity than renewables in the United States in 2020. Renewables surpassed both nuclear (790 billion kWh) and coal (774 billion kWh) for the first time on record. This outcome in 2020 was due mostly to significantly less coal use in U.S. electricity generation and steadily increased use of wind and solar.

In 2020, U.S. electricity generation from coal in all sectors declined 20% from 2019, while renewables, including small-scale solar, increased 9%. Wind, currently the most prevalent source of renewable electricity in the United States, grew 14% in 2020 from 2019. Utility-scale solar generation (from projects greater than 1 megawatt) increased 26%, and small-scale solar, such as grid-connected rooftop solar panels, increased 19%.

Coal-fired electricity generation in the United States peaked at 2,016 billion kWh in 2007 and much of that capacity has been replaced by or converted to natural gas-fired generation since then. Coal was the largest source of electricity in the United States until 2016, and 2020 was the first year that more electricity was generated by renewables and by nuclear power than by coal (according to our data series that dates back to 1949). Nuclear electric power declined 2% from 2019 to 2020 because several nuclear power plants retired and other nuclear plants experienced slightly more maintenance-related outages.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Monthly Energy Review
Note: This graph shows electricity net generation in all sectors (electric power, industrial, commercial, and residential) and includes both utility-scale and small-scale (customer-sited, less than 1 megawatt) solar.

[wjfox]

Eggborough Power Station: Four cooling towers demolished

5 hours ago

Four of eight huge cooling towers have been demolished at a former coal-fired power station in North Yorkshire.

The 300ft (90m) high structures in Eggborough, near Selby, were brought down shortly after 08:00 BST as part of a plan to redevelop the site.

It stood for 50 years in an area where all four Yorkshire counties - North, South, East and West - meet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-y ... e-58047126