Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

North Sea green energy could overtake oil and gas by 2030, says study

Tue 25 May 2021

The UK’s half-century legacy as a leading offshore oil and gas hub will be eclipsed by the North Sea’s fast-growing green energy industry within the next decade, according to new research.

An academic study by the Robert Gordon University, based in the oil industry capital of Aberdeen in Scotland, has found that by 2030 most of the UK’s offshore energy jobs will be in the low carbon energy industry.

The research found that the number of green jobs off the UK’s coastlines is likely to climb from 20% of the country’s offshore energy sector to 65% by the end of the decade in a “significant change for the offshore energy industry”.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... says-study

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

First baby Tasmanian devils born wild in mainland Australia in 3,000 years
By Michael Irving
May 25, 2021
https://newatlas.com/environment/baby-t ... australia/

Last year, more than two dozen Tasmanian devils were released back into the wilds of mainland Australia, a place they haven’t called home in more than 3,000 years. And now, the first new baby devils have been born in this new refuge, cementing hopes for the species.

In 2020, 26 Tasmanian devils were set free in a 1,000-acre (404.6-ha) sanctuary in Barrington Tops, about 200 km (124 miles) north of Sydney. This safe new home is designed to protect them from introduced long-time rivals like cats and foxes, as well as other dangers like fire, cars and disease.

That last point is the most pressing. Devils in their native Tasmania have been devastated in recent years by a deadly form of cancer called Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) which has reduced their numbers so dramatically that they’re now considered endangered.

[weatheriscool]

GE designs massive floating turbine to take wind energy into deep water
By Nick Lavars
May 26, 2021
https://newatlas.com/energy/ge-massive- ... ing-ocean/

While offshore wind farms continue to play a growing part in the renewable energy mix, particularly in the US which recently approved its first major facility off the coast of Massachusetts, there remains a lot of untapped potential in the winds blowing across the world's oceans. GE is looking to unlock this potential through the development of massive wind turbines that can operate in deeper waters, by using advanced floating platforms that keep them steady as the waves crash violently around them.

GE Renewable Energy has been making some big moves in the world of offshore wind energy lately, unveiling its huge 12-MW Haliade-X turbine back in 2018, the world's largest. This 853-ft (260-m) tall behemoth features three of the longest offshore blades ever made, which are claimed to capture around 45 percent more energy than anything else on the market. There's already an even more powerful 14-MW version in the works.

[weatheriscool]

Biden opens California coast to offshore wind turbines
Source: San Jose Mercury News

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced plans to open areas of the Pacific Ocean off California’s coast to offshore wind development for the first time, supporting the construction of hundreds of large wind turbines to expand renewable energy and reduce the impacts of climate change.

The announcement, endorsed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, moves forward the prospect for wind farms in two areas about 20 miles off the coast of Morro Bay and Humboldt County. Turbines roughly 600 to 700 feet tall would be built on floating platforms because the water is too deep to anchor them to the sea floor. Combined, both sites would generate 4,600 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 1.6 million homes.

“California has a world-class offshore wind resource and it can play a major role in helping accelerate California’s and the nation’s transition to clean energy,” said White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy.

Specifically on Tuesday, the Department of Defense agreed to drop its opposition to the Morro Bay site, which had stalled plans for several years. In 2017, during the Trump administration, the Navy issued maps that would have put much of the ocean off the California coast off-limits to offshore wind development, saying the turbines and their undersea cables might conflict with training exercises.

Read more: https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/05/25/ ... -turbines/

[weatheriscool]

US pipelines ordered to increase cyber defenses after hack
Source: AP

By BEN FOX

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. pipeline operators will be required for the first time to conduct a cybersecurity assessment under a Biden administration directive in response to the ransomware hack that disrupted gas supplies in several states this month.

The Transportation Security Administration directive being issued Thursday will also mandate that the owners and operators of the nation’s pipelines report any cyber incidents to the federal government and have a cybersecurity coordinator available at all times to work with authorities in the event of an attack like the one that shut down Colonial Pipeline.

Pipeline companies, which until now operated under voluntary guidelines, could face financial penalties that start at $7,000 per day if they fail to comply with a security directive that reflects an administration focus on cybersecurity that predates the May attack on Colonial, senior Department of Homeland Security officials said.

“The evolution of ransomware attacks in the last 12-18 months has gotten to a point that it poses a national security risk and that we are concerned about the impact on national critical functions,” one of the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the regulation ahead of the formal release.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/hacking-busi ... 69e547a1b4

[weatheriscool]

Zero-carbon energy from seawater now a step closer
https://phys.org/news/2021-05-zero-carb ... loser.html
by McGill University

Researchers at McGill University have demonstrated a technique that could enable the production of robust, high-performance membranes to harness an abundant source of renewable energy.

Blue energy, also known as osmotic energy, capitalizes on the energy naturally released when two solutions of different salinities mix—conditions that occur in countless locations around the world where fresh and salt water meet.

The key to capturing blue energy lies in selectively permeable membranes, which allow only one constituent of a saltwater solution to pass through—either the water molecules or the dissolved salt ions—but not the other.

[wjfox]

Cities like London and Tokyo have their own unique microbiomes

27 May 2021

Each city has its own distinct microbiome, according to a vast survey of microbes in 60 urban areas worldwide that also discovered 11,000 new viruses and bacteria.

Christopher Mason at Cornell University in New York and his team asked colleagues around the world to collect swabs from urban transport systems, such as subways, between 2015 and 2017. In all, 4728 samples were collected from cities including London, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. Some 58 per cent of the cities were in east Asia and Europe.

[...]

“We could probably tell with about 90 per cent accuracy where someone was from, and this data gets better when we do more sampling,” says Mason.

This suggests that the microbiomes could have applications in forensic investigations, perhaps to establish whether an individual visited a particular city in the recent past.

Mason and his team discovered 10,928 new viruses and 748 new bacteria that didn’t exist in any reference databases. “I was surprised at how many there were,” he says. “I think it’s a wonderful affirmation of how much left we have to discover about the world.”

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/22 ... z6w9pd6diw

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

^ Check out his additional posts in that thread, amazing stuff.