Re: Energy & the Environment News and Discussions
Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:18 am
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https://www.futuretimeline.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=17
Oh, that was a nice post. I am sorry you decided to pull it.Post removed - unnecessary.
(Blue Book Services) Countering the trend for more packaging is the desire for more sustainable measures, especially as climate change becomes of greater concern to consumers.
A 2020 survey by the IBM Institute for Business Value in association with the National Retail Federation found that 57 percent of consumers are willing to change their purchasing habits to reduce negative environmental impacts.
Further, products marketed as sustainable have expanded more than seven times faster than other items, according to a 2020 report from the New York University Stern Center for Sustainable Business.
Some of the steps being taken include printing recycling instructions on packaging, as well as ensuring the packaging actually is recyclable; using post-consumer recycled plastics to make new packaging; using sustainable packaging materials as an alternative to plastic; and foregoing packaging entirely, if possible.
“There is so much work to do in this space still, and so much area for innovation,” says Laura Himes, senior produce merchandising director at Walmart...Bentonville, AR.
https://environmentamerica.org/sites/en ... _20_22.pdfAmerica’s big box stores have almost 7.2 billion square feet of available rooftop space, and could host enough solar photovoltaic capacity to generate more than 84.4 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity each year.26 That’s enough to power almost 8 million average U.S. homes, or more than 30,400 average Walmart stores. The solar energy generation potential of big box stores is equivalent to almost 65% of all the electricity generated by solar in the U.S. in 2020.
(Science Alert) There's a major catch to the world's need for solar panels, a new analysis suggests. The booming solar panel market – which is critical for a clean energy future – could demand close to half the world's aluminum by 2050. Thankfully, there are ways we can mitigate this.
Unlike more precious metals, such as the lithium and cobalt used in rechargeable batteries, the scarcity of aluminum is not the issue; in fact, it is the most abundant metal on Earth. But the production of pure aluminum which is used in solar panel frames comes with a huge energy cost that could translate to bulk emissions.
According to the International Energy Agency, solar panels are predicted to provide roughly a third of the world's total electricity demand by 2050. In 2019, just over 2 percent of global electricity came from solar – but solar is producing the cheapest electricity in history and renewable energy is being installed at a record rate.
"This represents an enormous manufacturing task that will create a demand for a variety of minerals," a team of photovoltaics researchers, led by Alison Lennon from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia, explains in their paper.
As the researchers outline, some solar roadmaps predict the world will need 85 times more solar energy than we currently produce to limit global warming to safe levels, although predictions vary and some projections might underestimate how much solar – and aluminum – we actually need.
(Penn State via EurekAlert) The energy systems that power our lives also produce wasted heat — like heat that radiates off hot water pipes in buildings and exhaust pipes on vehicles. A new flexible thermoelectric generator can wrap around pipes and other hot surfaces and convert wasted heat into electricity more efficiently than previously possible, according to scientists at Penn State and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
“A large amount of heat from the energy we consume is essentially being thrown away, often dispersed right into the atmosphere,” said Shashank Priya, associate vice president for research and professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State. “We haven’t had cost-effective ways with conformal shapes to trap and convert that heat to useable energy. This research opens that door.”
Penn State researchers have been working to improve the performance of thermoelectric generators — devices that can convert differences in temperature to electricity. When the devices are placed near a heat source, electrons moving from the hot side to the cold side produce an electric current, the scientists said.
In prior work, the team created rigid devices that were more efficient than commercial units in high-temperature applications. Now the team has developed a new manufacturing process to produce flexible devices that offer higher power output and efficiency, the scientists said.
“These results provide a promising pathway toward widespread utilization of thermoelectric technology into waste heat recovery application,” said Wenjie Li, assistant research professor at Penn State. “This could have a significant impact on the development of practical thermal to electrical generators.”
caltrek's comment: So, an analyst writing for a government friendly news organization in a country that in the past has been heavily dependent upon oil exports can see the importance of achieving the Net Zero goal. Yet Republicans and a couple of Democrats in the U.S. don't seem to be able to grasp that concept. Go figure.(The National) Public-sector financing alone is not enough to tackle the global energy transition and the private sector will have to drive the change if the world is to meet its 2050 climate pledge, the chief financial officer of Siemens Energy has said.
Meeting net-zero targets will rely on breakthrough technology such as energy efficiency solutions, carbon capture and hydrogen-based fuels, Maria Ferraro told the fourth edition of the Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Forum on Wednesday.
A huge amount of funding is needed to scale up this technology to a commercial level, and governments need to set up incentive programme for investors to help accelerate its development, she said.
“The climate crisis can’t be solved by public capital alone,” said Ms Ferraro, who is on the executive board of Germany’s clean energy technology company.
“A successful and sustainable transition also requires the mobilisation of private capital, and while the global financial community is rising to this challenge, an investment gap remains due to the supply and demand side finance issues.”
The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider reining in federal regulation of private property under the nation’s main anti-water pollution law, the Clean Water Act. The justices agreed to hear a business-backed appeal from Chantell and Michael Sackett, who have wanted to build a home close to Priest Lake in Idaho for 15 years and won an earlier round in their legal fight at the Supreme Court. The Environmental Protection Agency ordered work on the Sackett’s property halted in 2007, determining that part of it was a wetlands that could not be disturbed without a permit.
The new court case, to be argued in the fall, tests the reach of the Clean Water Act beyond rivers, lakes and streams. Under an opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy in 2006, regulators can block development on properties far from waterways as long as they prove a significant connection to the waterways. Kennedy said the wetlands must “significantly affect the chemical, physical and biological integrity” of nearby navigable waters to come under the Clean Water Act. No other justice joined Kennedy’s writing, and four conservatives wrote that they would allow regulation only if there was a continuous surface connection from the wetlands to the lake, river or stream. There is no such connection on the Sackett’s property. Among the four were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. They now have three colleagues on the right, Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, who took Kennedy’s seat when he retired in 2018.
Jon Devine, director of federal water policy at the National Resources Defense Council, said the court had agreed to hear a case that could “gut our ability to protect wetlands and other waters. It’s a threat to the clean water our communities depend on for drinking, swimming, fishing and other uses.”