Missouri City Opens Largest Solar Farm in the State

20.11.2017

A city in southwest Missouri has opened the largest solar farm in the state.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that the new Nixa Solar Energy Farm started providing power this month. City officials predict that the array’s 33,000 panels will be able to provide about 9 percent of the city’s power needs.

The city will get 20 percent of its energy from renewable resources once the facility hits its production capacity, said Doug Colvin, the city’s public works director.

“It’s a great start, and we too will probably grow from there at some point in the future,” Colvin said. “Our outcome of this is basically moving toward a stewardship of our environment. This has all been said before today, and we’re very proud to be a part of that.”

City officials believe the solar farm will save the city $2.5 million by producing power it would’ve had to buy from City Utilities and the Southwestern Power Administration.

Gardner Capital is the project’s current developer and will likely be the longtime owner of the project.

There are two major changes in attitude that are contributing to an increase in solar power, said Mark Gardner, the owner of Gardner Capital.

One change is the growing belief that burning the Earth’s finite resources is bad for the environment, he said.

“Coal is dead. It just is,” Gardner said. “It’s gonna take a while. It’s gonna die a bit of a slow death because there has to be a transition.”

A changing culture in the U.S. business community is also contributing to the change, he said.

“Shareholders are demanding that corporations represent the interests of shareholders — not just their financial interests, but the interests they hold on a personal level,” Gardner said. “They are demanding that corporations have a social conscience.”

Source: stltoday.com

Pope Francis: Indifference To The Effects Of Climate Change Is A “Perverse Attitude”

20.11.2017

Indifference to the effects of anthropogenic climate change, and also the outright denial of growing climate warming and instability, are “perverse attitudes,” Pope Francis stated in a message to some of the ministers meeting at the ongoing climate talks in Bonn.

Such attitudes block research and dialogue that would otherwise be aid in the effort to limit the extent of anthropogenic climate change, and thus to protect the future of life on the planet.

“We have to avoid falling into these four perverse attitudes, which certainly do not help honest research and sincere and productive dialogue on building the future of our planet: negation, indifference, resignation, and trust in inadequate solutions,” he stated.

The reference to “trust in inadequate solutions” is perhaps the most interesting, as the reality is that if anthropogenic climate change is to be limited to any serious degree, then effectively all of the world’s agricultural, industrial, and transportation/shipping systems will need to be completely transformed.

It’s not anywhere near enough to to simply slowly transition to renewable energy and electric cars … despite what many people seem to think, or want to think.

Pope Francis went on to refer to climate change as “one of the worst phenomena that our humanity is witnessing.”

Reuters provides more: “He praised the Paris accord, which US President Donald Trump said the United States planned to leave, for indicating what he called a ‘clear path of transition towards a model of economic development with little or no carbon consumption’.”

“The United States is the only country out of 195 signatories to have announced its intention to withdraw from the accord, which aims to cut emissions blamed for the rise in temperatures. Trump announced the decision in June shortly after visiting the pope. At the time, a Vatican official said the move was a ‘slap in the face’ for the pope and the Vatican.”

Syria recently became the last country to sign onto the COP21 Paris climate agreement. The United States is the only country that says it will leave the agreement.

As those reading this may recall, Pope Francis was quoted just a few months ago as saying that the surge of hurricanes that hit North America and the Caribbean this year is a sign of things to come, and that humanity “will go down” if adequate actions aren’t taken to limit climate warming and instability.

Related, from the Global Catholic Climate Movement: In tackling climate change, Pope Francis asks us to leave behind denial, indifference, resignation and trust in inadequate solutions.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Legal & General Complete First UK Offshore Wind Investment

20.11.2017

Legal & General has made its first UK offshore wind investment, today announcing plans to channel £300m into what promises to be the world’s largest offshore wind project.

The project in question, the 660MW Walney Extension, is being built by Danish developers Ørsted – formerly DONG Energy – and will provide enough power for 590,000 homes once it is completed in 2019.

The deal is Legal & General’s second-largest debt infrastructure investment to date, behind its £400m investment in the London Gateway Port refinancing in 2016.

Charles-Henry Lecointe, senior investment manager at LGIM Real Assets, suggested the move could soon be followed by further investments in clean energy.

“We have a strong appetite for future investments into this sector as well as other renewable sectors, recognising the importance the offshore wind industry can have for providing clean energy and stimulating job growth in the UK,” he said in a statement. “Legal & General continues to be committed to investing in key UK infrastructure assets which will have a major impact on stimulating economic growth while ensuring long-term cash flow for pension funds.”

The news follows fresh data earlier this year indicating the growing investment in offshore wind and its attractiveness to institutional investors. Figures from construction industry analysts Barbour ABI indicate offshore wind farms accounted for 42 per cent of total construction value for the utilities and power sector, and a fifth of the country’s entire infrastructure sector, in 2016.

Source: businessgreen.com

Volkswagen Has Pledged to Spend $40 Billion on Electric and Hybrid Cars

19.11.2017

Volkswagen VW I.D. Buzz — Foto: Volkswagen

One more automaker has stepped up to the plate in making their vehicles more environmentally friendly. Volkswagen (VW) has announced that they plan to spend more than 34 billion euros, or $40 billion, between 2018 and 2022 on developing electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and new technology. Most of that money, the company stated after a supervisory meeting, will be spent on updating Volkswagen’s current models into electric or hybrid.

This projection is significantly larger than a different pledge, released two months ago, that VW would invest 20 billion euros through 2030 on electric and self-driving cars.

The German automaker already has four electric models on the road, and has unveiled plans for several more, including an electric crossover with autonomous features and the retro-inspired electric ID BUZZ.

Source: Futurism

The Study from The University of Washington Showed – Petite Poplars are the Future of Biofuels

18.11.2017

In the quest to produce affordable biofuels, poplar trees are one of the Pacific Northwest‘s best bets – the trees are abundant, fast-growing, adaptable to many terrains and their wood can be transformed into substances used in biofuel and high-value chemicals that we rely on in our daily lives.

But even as researchers test poplars’ potential to morph into everything from ethanol to chemicals in cosmetics and detergents, a commercial-scale processing plant for poplars has yet to be achieved. This is mainly because production costs still are not competitive with the current price of oil.

A University of Washington team is trying to make poplar a viable competitor by testing the production of younger poplar trees that could be harvested more frequently – after only two or three years – instead of the usual 10 to 20-year cycle. These trees, essentially juveniles compared with fully grown adults, are planted closer together and cut in such a way that more branches sprout up from the stump after each harvest, using the same root systems for up to 20 years. This method is called “coppicing,” and the trees are known as poplar coppice.

The team is the first to try converting the entire young tree – including leaves, bark, and stems – into bio-oil, a biologically derived oil product, and ethanol using two separate processes. Their results, published this summer in two papers – one in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering and the other in Biotechnology for Biofuels – point to a promising future for using poplar coppice for biofuel.

“Our research proved that poplar coppice can be a good option to meet the cheap, high-volume criteria of biofuel feedstock,” said lead author Chang Dou on both papers, a doctoral student in the UW’s Bioresource Science and Engineering program. “Our findings are significant for the future biofuel industry, and the ultimate goal is to make poplar coppice biofuel a step closer to the pump.”

Poplar woodchips from older trees have been the focus of most research, mainly because wood parts contain the highest concentration of sugar, which is important for making ethanol and chemicals. Earlier studies show that poplar woodchips are a viable biofuel source, but costs still don’t pencil out, especially since trees are cut just once every 10-plus years. Additionally, other tree parts go to waste when only the trunk is used, making the process more inefficient and wasteful.

However, if poplar were planted close together like an agriculture crop, and whole trees were harvested on a much quicker cycle, it could make sense from a cost perspective and offer a short return on investment – and be more attractive for farmers.

Alternative fuels must make economic sense, the researchers stress, for biofuels to make a dent in the petroleum-driven market.

“We have the environmental incentives to produce fuels and chemicals from renewable resources, but right now, they aren’t enough to compete with low oil prices. That’s the problem,” said Renata Bura, a UW associate professor in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences and the senior author.

Bura’s research is part of the Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest project funded by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The project, directed by UW professor Rick Gustafson, is a consortium of universities and industries led by the UW whose goal is to lay the foundation for a Pacific Northwest biofuels and bio-based industry based on poplar feedstock. For this study, trees in Jefferson, Oregon – one of the four study sites – were planted in rows close together in spring of 2012 and harvested less than two years later before the leaves had fallen.

The UW team first tested whether entire young poplar trees could be converted into sugar by a process that uses high temperature, pressure, and enzymes to break down the wood materials into sugar. From there, it is possible to make ethanol, acetic acid, lactic acid and other valuable chemicals by fermenting the sugar.

After processing the trees, the researchers found that leaves are poor performers and lowered the overall sugar output, not just because leaves are naturally low in sugar, but they also contain other chemicals that impede the sugar-releasing process. When scaled up to a commercial operation, leaves should be removed and may be used for other purposes, such as feed for animals.

They also tested whole poplar trees from the same plot in another conversion process that uses much higher heat – upwards of 500 degrees Celsius – to transform the tree materials directly to bio-oil in a process called “pyrolysis“. Research is underway to convert this dark brown oil to a transportation fuel that resembles gasoline or diesel.

In the experiment, the researchers found that including leaves didn’t make a big difference to the quality of the resulting bio-oil. When scaled up, producers could ultimately save time and money by not separating leaves from branches to achieve similar quality oil.

Future poplar production plants could leverage both methods, weighing factors like the current cost of materials or the dollar value of the products being made to determine which method makes more financial sense, Dou explained.

The young poplars used in the study have similar properties to shoots that would sprout from a stump in a true coppicing operation. Using that cutting method, it is possible to harvest trees every two years for up to 20 years without the added effort and cost of pulling up roots, preparing the soil and planting new trees that are required in usual planting regimes.

Ultimately, the researchers say that coppice poplar is likely the best balance of cost and reliability for Pacific Northwest growers to produce biofuel.

“Currently, we are looking at how we can grow poplar for monetized ecosystem services,” Bura said. “In the future, we envision a bio-based industry that will provide multiple environmental benefits, will invigorate rural communities and will serve as a bridge to a fully developed biofuels industry.”

The research was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Source: sciencedaily.com

VESPA: First Electric Scooter is Coming in 2018

18.11.2017

One year to the day from the announcement that Vespa was getting its first electric option, parent company Piaggio has returned to the Milan Motorcycle Show and let loose (almost) all the information about the forthcoming scooter. What’s missing, unfortunately, is the price. There’s also no exact window on when it will ship in 2018. But eager customers from around the world will be able to preorder it in the spring.

The Vespa Elettrica will have a range of 100 kilometers. Like with most electric vehicles, that number will be flexible and will depend on how you ride it. But for comparison, 100 is about three times less than the 280 kilometers range of the 50cc Vespa Primavera, one of the most affordable scooters in the company’s current lineup.

Piaggio says the Elettrica should have “superior performance” to a 50cc scooter, but even if that’s true — which is possible considering the jolting acceleration you typically get with electric motors — it will come at the cost of range. That’s probably why, despite confusingly boisterous claims, like “no vehicle in the world is now as in line with zero-emission propulsion as Vespa,” Piaggio also coyly admits in the Elettrica press release that the scooter is “perfect for city environments”.

Four hours of charging from a “normal wall outlet” will bring the batteries back up to full, according to Piaggio. The company says buyers should expect about 10 years (or about 50,000 and 70,000 km) of use out of the Vespa Elettrica before those batteries bite the proverbial dust, and warns that after 1,000 charge cycles the scooter will only have about 80 percent of its original capacity. There’s no word yet on whether it will be possible to replace the battery. For those who are overly conscious about range or wear, Vespa will also sell a hybrid version with a gas-powered generator called the Elettrica X that can stretch to 200 kilometers.

On the more technological side, the Vespa Elettrica has a 4.3-inch TFT color display between the handlebars that shows information like speed and range and charge level. A Vespa Elettrica app will allow users to connect to the scooter over Bluetooth so that the scooter can serve up messages and incoming phone calls. The app will also be able to relay diagnostic information about the scooter, as well as locate it on a map.

In press images, Piaggio is showing off the same silver scooter from last year, which is lined with an electric blue trim; the company says buyers will be able to customize that trim by choosing from seven different colors. The Elettrica X, meanwhile, comes standard, accented by a yellowish-orange trim.

Source: theverge.com

Oregon and Washington Join 20 Countries to Phase Out Coal By 2030

17.11.2017

Even though the Trump administration used its only public forum at the COP23 climate talks in Bonn to promote coal, it’s clear that many individual U.S. businesses, cities and entire states would rather keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Oregon and Washington state have joined a new global alliance to phase out coal and switch to cleaner power sources to avoid dangerous climate change and to stay below the 2°C target set by the landmark Paris climate agreement two years ago.

The Powering Past Coal Alliance, launched Thursday at the climate talks, involves more than 20 nations including Angola, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, El Salvador, Fiji, Finland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Marshall Islands, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Niue, Portugal and Switzerland, according to Reuters.

Notably, the world’s biggest coal users—China, India, the U.S., Germany and Russia—have not joined the new pact.

Members of the new alliance will take actions that include setting coal phase-out targets and barring further investments in coal-fired electricity in their jurisdictions or abroad.

The U.S. member states have already made efforts to phase out coal. In 2016, Oregon passed the Clean Electricity and Coal Transition Act to transition off the polluting fossil fuel. And in 2014, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee signed an executive order to reduce, and eventually eliminate, the use of electrical power produced by coal.

“Reducing global coal consumption should be a vital and urgent priority for all countries and states. Unabated coal is the dirtiest, most polluting way of generating electricity,” Claire Perry, Britain’s Minister for Climate Change and Industry, said. “The Powering Past Coal Alliance will signal to the world that the time of coal has passed. The UK is committed to completely phasing out unabated coal-fire power generation no later than 2025 and we hope to inspire others to follow suit.”

The plan is to grow the alliance to 50 or more members by the next year’s climate talks in Poland.

“Phasing out coal power is good news for the climate, for our health and for our kids. Coal is literally choking our cities, with close to a million people dying every year from coal pollution. I’m thrilled to see so much global momentum for the transition to clean energy—and this is only the beginning,” Catherine McKenna, Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, said.

Source: ecowatch.com

Statoil Launches “World’s First” Floating Wind Energy Project, Hywind Scotland — Where Will It Lead?

17.11.2017

The Norwegian oil firm Statoil confirmed years ago its final investment decision to develop what is now the “world’s first” floating wind energy project — the Hywind wind farm pilot park offshore Peterhead in Aberdeenshire (Scotland).

The investment is about NOK 2 billion in total — which, according to the company, represents a 60% to 70% comparative cost reduction (per MW capacity) from the demo project in Norway. Masdar, a company CleanTechnica readers must know well, is also an investor in the project.

The 30 megawatt (MW) wind energy project on floating structures around 25 kilometers offshore of Peterhead, at “Buchan Deep,” is now operational. Will it bring floating wind farms into the future in a big way? “The closely watched project is regarded as the tipping point between pilot-scale R&D projects and full commercialization,” Tina Casey wrote here on CleanTechnica last week. But the big question is whether floating wind can scale up and see costs come down like we saw for onshore wind and non-floating offshore wind (which has gotten really cheap, surprisingly cheap, in recent years).

The Hywind project covers an area of ~4 kilometers, at a depth of around 95–120 meters. The average wind speed in this area is around 10 meters per second. Are these the ideal conditions for floating wind? If not, what are?

Scotland’s Deputy First Minister John Swinney commented in 2015: “Hywind is a hugely exciting project — in terms of electricity generation and technology innovation — and it’s a real testament to our energy sector expertise and skilled workforce that Statoil chose Scotland for the world’s largest floating wind farm.

“The momentum is building around the potential for floating offshore wind technology to unlock deeper water sites. The ability to leverage existing infrastructure and supply chain capabilities from the offshore oil and gas industry create the ideal conditions to position Scotland as a world leader in floating wind technology.”

Operation and maintenance for the project will be based out of nearby Peterhead, though also reliant to some degree on Statoil’s office in Aberdeen.

This news is interesting as well because, while offshore wind energy development has been coming along fairly well in the region, such projects are generally restricted to water depths of only 20 to 50 meters. The allure of floating wind energy projects is that, although they are more expensive, they can be located further from shore and in areas with higher potential wind energy resources. Scotland is already a wind energy giant, but it could become a much bigger giant if floating wind energy takes off.

We started covering Hywind in 2009. I imagine we’ll have plenty more updates on the project and this niche segment of the industry in the next 8 years as well.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Canada & UK Form Alliance To Dump Coal

17.11.2017

Grejanje, Ugalj — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

At the COP 23 climate conference in Bonn, Germany this week, Canada and the UK announced that they are spearheading a global alliance to phase out the use of coal completely. The two countries expect 9 other nations to join their alliance shortly and anticipate a total of 50 countries will have signed on to the effort by the time the next climate conference convenes in Katowice, Poland — widely considered one of Europe’s most polluted cities. Coal is responsible for more than 40% of global carbon emissions.

North Carolina coal ash spill.The Powering Past Coal alliance has sent a letter to all the member nations attending the COP 23 conference urging them to join in the effort to get rid of coal entirely. The letter was signed by Britain’s climate change and industry minister Claire Perry, Canadian minister of environment and climate change Catherine McKenna, and the Marshall Islands’ minister for foreign affairs and trade, John Silk.

According to Reuters, which was first to report the news, Mexico, France, Finland, New Zealand, Italy, and one African country are expected to sign on to the alliance shortly, along with 20 other entities including several US states, Canadian provinces, and businesses. “Joining Powering Past Coal is an opportunity to bring these national initiatives together, with sub-national and private sector action,” the letter reads. “We would strongly urge you to sign or endorse the declaration of the global alliance to Power Past Coal.”

Coal remains one of the primary sources of electrical power for much of the world. Germany is struggling to build a coalition government because the Green Party, which is an essential partner, is pushing hard for the closure of 20 lignite-powered generating facilities in exchange for its support of a new government. China and India have hundreds of coal plants in operation, but both countries are champions of renewable energy in order to ameliorate the persistent smog that hangs over each country as a result of the emissions from burning coal.

The Trump administration embarrassed itself and all Americans this week when its delegation attempted to make a presentation touting the benefits of burning coal. Most of the people in the room walked out amid hoots of derision and scorn. The presentation included at least one employee of Peabody Coal, America’s largest coal producer. Such tone deaf policies threaten to turn the US into a pariah nation.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Diesels in London Face Parking Charge Hike

17.11.2017

Drivers of the most polluting diesels already face steep congestion charges to enter London’s city centre, and now they will also have to pay more to park across two central boroughs.

Islington Council announced yesterday it will launch a borough-wide scheme to charge diesel cars an extra £2 an hour to park within its boundaries, with the cost applying to all diesel vehicles regardless of age or pollution level.

The council said its decision was motivated by concern over the impact diesel vehicles are having on air quality in the capital, which is far in breach of legal limits set by the EU.

Westminster Council is already trialling a similar scheme in Marylebone, although the 50 per cent parking surcharge only applies to diesels built before 2015.

In Islington, drivers of diesels already have to pay more for residential parking permits, and the short-stay surcharge is due to come into force in early 2018.

“London is on the brink of an air-quality emergency, with traffic pollutants linked to health problems that are shortening the lifespans of residents,” Claudia Webbe, Islington Council’s executive member for environment and transport, said in a statement.

“Islington straddles several major thoroughfares, with huge amounts of traffic putting out toxic diesel pollutants stopping in the borough every day.

“We hope that this measure will encourage owners of diesel vehicles to switch to cleaner, more sustainable modes of transport and lead to improved air quality in the borough.”

The news came as a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO) found the government’s proposals for addressing air pollution across the country would not bring the UK back into compliance with legal limits until 2026.

It also stressed that the plan, which places much of the onus for addressing air quality on local authorities, comes at a time when local council budgets are under fierce pressure. “Government needs to assure itself that local authorities have sufficient capacity and resource to manage the actions needed,” the report warned.

Source: businessgreen.com

Wisconsin Businessman Creates Fund for Solar Energy

16.11.2017

A Wisconsin businessman has created a fund that awards grants to nonprofits trying to move toward solar energy.

Milwaukee Public Radio reports that Cal Couillard created Solar for Good, which awards the grants with the help of the advocacy group RENEW Wisconsin.

Couillard is president of Componex, an Edgerton-based manufacturer. He’s contributed $125,000 to start the fund and plans to give more over the next few years.

Couillard says the price of going solar has dropped, so it makes financial sense for organizations to turn to solar energy. He says transitioning to renewable energy is also good for the environment.

Ten nonprofits have applied for a grant and the first set of recipients will be announced soon. The next batch of applicants will be considered in the spring.

Source: nbc15.com

Plastic Trash Found in Ocean Animals Living 7 Miles Deep

16.11.2017

Plastic trash can really be found on all corners of the Earth—even in the stomachs of deep-sea organisms, according to a new study from Newcastle University in England.

Led by Dr. Alan Jamieson, the researchers found microfibers in crustaceans from six of the deepest places on the planet, the Mariana, Japan, Izu-Bonin, Peru-Chile, New Hebrides and Kermadec trenches.

After examining 90 individual animals, the team found that ingestion of plastic ranged from 50 percent in the New Hebrides Trench to 100 percent at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

As the Guardian reported from the study, the tiny fibers shed off of larger products such as synthetic textiles, plastic bottles, fishing equipment and packaging.

“We published a study earlier this year showing high levels of organic pollutants in the very deepest seas and lots of people asked us about the presence of plastics, so we decided to have a look,” Jamieson said in a news release from the university.

“The results were both immediate and startling. This type of work requires a great deal of contamination control but there were instances where the fibers could actually be seen in the stomach contents as they were being removed.”

An estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic gets dumped into our oceans annually, simultaneously contaminating our seas and harming marine life.

Jamieson said that finding plastic fibers inside animals from nearly 11 kilometers deep (7 miles) was “worrying” and shows the extent of the world’s plastic pollution problem.

“The number of areas we found this in, and the thousands of kilometer distances involved shows it is not just an isolated case, this is global,” he said.

The study was released Tuesday as part of the Sky Ocean Rescue campaign to raise awareness of how plastics and pollution affect the oceans.

The new research adds to the growing body of science that highlights how plastic pollution isn’t just a problem on the ocean’s surface. As Dr. Marcus Eriksen, the co-founder and research director of the 5 Gyres Institute, wrote back in 2015:

“The idea that there are ‘patches’ of trash in the oceans is a myth created 15 years ago that should be abandoned in favor of ‘plastic smog,’ like massive clouds of microplastics that emanate out of the five subtropical gyres. My recent publication in the journal Plos One, estimates 269,000 tons of plastic from 5.25 trillion particles, but more alarming than that is it’s mostly microplastic ( > 92 percent in our study) and most of the plastic in the ocean is likely not on the sea surface.”

Jamieson explained that deep-sea organisms are dependent on food coming down from the ocean surface.

“The deep sea is not only the ultimate sink for any material that descends from the surface, but it is also inhabited by organisms well adapted to a low food environment and these will often eat just about anything,” he said.

“These observations are the deepest possible record of microplastic occurrence and ingestion, indicating it is highly likely there are no marine ecosystems left that are not impacted by anthropogenic debris.”

Source: ecowatch.com

World Is Set to Warm 3.4°C By 2100

16.11.2017

climate-change- — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

By approaching 2100, a world set for 3.4˚C will, on present trends, probably be the reality confronting our descendants—slightly less warm than looked likely a year ago, analysts think. That’s the good news, you could say.

But the bad news is twofold. First, this improvement in planetary prospects will still leave the global temperature increase more than twice as high as the internationally agreed target of 1.5˚C. And secondly, it depends largely on the efforts of just two countries—China and India.

They have made significant progress in tackling climate change in the last twelve months. In contrast, a report by the analysts, from the Climate Action Tracker (CAT), says that not only U.S. climate policy has been rolled back under President Trump. Most individual governments’ climate commitments are going in the wrong direction.

The CAT report says the world will, on present trends, still reach 2100 a long way above the 1.5˚C target for the Earth’s maximum tolerable temperature rise, which was endorsed in the Paris agreement.

The Climate Action Tracker is an independent science-based assessment that each year tracks countries’ emission commitments and actions. Its members are Climate Analytics, Ecofys and NewClimate Institute.

The CAT’s latest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions projections, based on government policies currently in place, suggest they will lead to a 0.2°C decrease in projected warming, to 3.4˚C by 2100, compared with 3.6˚C in November 2016.

This is the first time since the CAT began tracking action in 2009 that policies at a national level have visibly reduced its end-of-century temperature estimate and also reduced the 2030 emissions gap between current policies and what is needed to meet the 1.5°C temperature limit.

The analysts say China’s emissions growth has slowed dramatically: in the first decade of this century, its emissions grew by 110 percent, but between 2010 and 2015, growth had slowed to only 16 percent. China is set to far overachieve its climate commitment, or Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) as countries’ undertakings are known in the UN.

The CAT’s estimate of emissions from China in 2030 is 13 GtCO2e‚ 0.7 GtCO2e lower than its 2016 estimate. If China continues with its coal abatement, this could drop by another 0.7 GtCO2e.

One Gt is one gigatonne, a billion metric tons; CO2e, carbon dioxide equivalent, expresses the impact of different greenhouse gases in terms of CO2.

Equally, India has increased its climate action, the analysts say. If it fully implemented its Draft Electricity Plan, its emissions in 2030 would be 4.5 GtCO2e—almost 1 GtCO2e lower than the CAT predicted last year.

If India were to strengthen its NDC to match the ambition level of its Draft Electricity Plan, its targeted emissions level would be moving much closer to the range compatible with the Paris target of 1.5˚C.

“It is clear who the leaders are here: in the face of U.S. inaction, China and India are stepping up,” said Bill Hare of Climate Analytics. “However, both need to review—and strengthen—their Paris commitments.”

“Over the last year, governments have made substantial steps in improving climate policies,” said Niklas Höhne of NewClimate Institute. “And this has had a discernible effect on global emissions projections. For example, in the face of increasingly cheaper renewable energy, many are now actively moving away from coal.” But the CAT shows that many governments are not seizing the opportunities renewables offer.

The report is a mosaic, detailing some encouraging trends. For example, the authors now think global emissions under current policies in 2030 will be at least 1.7 GtCO2e per year lower than last year’s projection.

But there are negative conclusions too. Mainly because of the U.S.’s announced withdrawal from the Paris agreement, there has been a significant deterioration in progress to limit expected warming, it finds.

If all governments fully implemented their Paris commitments, the NDCs, the projected global temperature increase in 2100 would be 3.2˚C above pre-industrial levels, up from last year’s 2.8˚C, largely because of the U.S.

The CAT projects that global emissions are set to rise by 9 to 13 percent between 2020 and 2030, because of projected emissions growth in countries such as Turkey, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. In 17 out of 32 countries it analyzed, emissions will increase by more than 20 percent during this period.

The vast majority of NDCs are not in line with a fair contribution to meet the Paris agreement’s long-term warming goal, it says. Only seven governments have implemented 2°C or 1.5°C compatible targets, and of these, four are not backed up by sufficient policy action.

At the same time, in 16 out of the 32 countries analyzed, emissions are projected to exceed their (already insufficient) NDCs. With the U.S., they include Australia, Brazil, Mexico and Canada.

Source: ecowatch.com

Puerto Rico Gov. to Bolster Island’s Electric Grid With Renewables as Lights Go Out Again

16.11.2017

Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello sent out a tweet boasting about the island finally reaching a 50 percent power threshold after Hurricane Maria wiped out the electric grid 56 days ago.

“Then ‘boom’ (a witness reported) the lights went out,” tweeted CBS News reporter David Begnaud, who has been extensively reporting on the U.S. territory’s recovery efforts. “Timing could not be worse.”

The outage was due to a failure of the Cambalache Manatee 230KV line, according to Puerto Rico’s electric power authority (PREPA), the same major transmission line that failed last week and left the grid working at only 18 percent.

Puerto Rico’s power generation has dipped back to 48 percent and is another reminder of the island’s painstaking efforts to rebuild after the Category 4 hurricane struck on Sept. 20.

Now, Gov. Rossello is seeking to transform Puerto Rico’s fragile power system with help from good ol’ renewable energy.

The governor told a Senate panel on Tuesday that the territory should boost its use of wind and solar electricity to provide for as much as 25 percent of the island’s electricity, Bloomberg reported.

“We certainly see a collaboration with the private sector,” Rossello said.

Business leaders and clean energy advocates such as Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson have said that renewables could be a solution to regions wrecked by damaging hurricanes. Branson, who rode out Hurricane Irma on his private island in the Caribbean, is working with global leaders including the International Monetary Fund to help rebuild the Caribbean islands, according to the report.

Last month, Tesla was praised for quietly sending hundreds of its solar-paired battery packs to help Puerto Rico deal with widespread power loss. The company is working on “many solar + storage” projects on the island.

As EcoWatch reported, one of Tesla’s projects was restoring electricity to a children’s hospital with its solar panels and Powerpack commercial energy storage batteries. The beauty of such a set-up is that the hospital can generate power when the sun is shining and reserve it for later use when the sun is not out or, say, to help recover from a destructive natural disaster like a hurricane. It was because of solar power that a 40-acre plant farm in Barranquitas in central Puerto Rico was able to slowly rebuild in Maria’s wake.

Rebuilding the island will not be cheap. Case in point: Rossello has asked Congress for a whopping $94.4 billion to help Puerto Rico “build back better” after Maria.

Puerto Rico, which has suffered from the largest and longest blackout in American history, has long grappled with electricity problems.

As Peter Fox-Penne wrote for the Conversation, “Almost half its generation was from old, very expensive oil-fired plants, resulting in prices about 22 cents per kilowatt hour, among the highest in the U.S. The island has several solar photovoltaic farms but gets about 46 percent of its power from oil and only about 3 percent from solar.”

In recent weeks, PREPA has been mired in controversy over its highly criticized $300 million no-bid contract with Whitefish Energy, a tiny Montana energy firm tasked to restore the island’s power. That contract has since been canceled and is under FBI investigation.

Source: ecowatch.com

The leaders in the development and production of trucks and buses with alternative propulsion systems

16.11.2017

Natural gas, biogas, and electricity accumulated in batteries are just some of the energy sources that the world-famous manufacturer of commercial vehicles uses to replace fossil fuels with increasing success, thus achieving a double effect: reducing exploitation costs, and leaving a far lesser impact on the environment.

As early as the eve of the first energy crisis in the mid-1970s, in Volvo Group they presciently concluded that the cheap crude oil era was coming to an end, that in time there would be less and less of it, and that the “black gold” burning products would increasingly and abundantly pollute the environment. That’s why four decades ago, in the development departments of all members doing business under the Volvo brand, they started conducting extensive experiments with propulsion systems that could replace the “classics” in the foreseeable future – above all, high power diesel engines.

Based on intensive laboratory development and numerous exploitation tests, in Gothenburg, they concluded, much like their competitors, that natural gas (methane) was the most economical, and in terms of the quickest implementation the most apparent replacement for diesel. Apart from the large quantities (according to unconfirmed research, the world reserves are enough for the current consumption for a period longer than 400 years), the fact that it is several times cheaper than other fossil fuels, and that the infrastructure for using it is more and more developed and geographically widespread, one of the most important advantages is that the products of its combustion have little effect on the environment.

With such “features”, natural gas in compressed or liquid state is a very good alternative fuel that Volvo recommends for the operation of city buses, and more recently, for the operation of distribution-utility trucks. For example, in the latest generation of medium-sized FE trucks, primarily designed for regional and local transport, Volvo Trucks, in addition to the most modern diesel engines, also installs a 320 horsepower aggregate that burns compressed natural gas.

The “gas” engine emits such a small amount of solid particles that it does not even need a soot filter. This means that no other exhaust gas cleaning systems are required, nor any other auxiliary agents, such as the AdBlue agent. When using bio-gas, the Volvo FE CNG emits as much as 70 percent less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (CO2) compared to the same truck with a conventional diesel engine. The customers are offered the option of installing eight or six tanks for compressed gas on the “gas” truck chassis, which allows working autonomy of up to 400 km in light distribution of goods, and up to 250 km in the difficult collection of municipal waste. According to the load features and standard equipment, the natural gas truck is practically identical to the “twin” that burns diesel, but with significant advantages – it is more economical and eco-friendly than a typical “oiler”.

According to estimates by Volvo Trucks’ development experts, natural gas has great chance as “supplement” fuel as well, which will make conventional diesel engines more economical, but above all ecologically “more suitable”, which means less polluting. For over ten years, Volvo has been experimenting with systems that inject up to 25 percent liquid methane or biogas in conventional diesel engines. When a specially adapted diesel engine burns liquid methane, carbon dioxide emission is reduced by 10 percent, and when biogas is used as a supplementary energy source, this reduction can be as high as 70 percent.

Volvo Trucks also has high expectations from biogas, which can be obtained not only from biodegradable waste (plant mass-forest residues, fruit and vegetable residues in the food preparation process, manure), but also from byproducts of some industrial plants. For example, to move a single version of a solo truck from its heaviest family, FH, Volvo used biogas produced from black liquor, which was a by-product created in the paper pulp production process. Based on Volvo’s experience, and experience of experts from other companies dealing with similar research, the European Union’s supreme authorities estimate that by 2030, bio-DME (dimethyl ether, C2 H6 O) could replace as much as half of diesel fuel currently used for road freight transport!

And while engines that burn natural gas are offered by the majority of competitors, and many experiment with other alternative fuels, the Volvo truck division is a leader in development, and the bus division is a leader in the production of hybrid, diesel/electric vehicles. In 1995, on the streets of Gothenburg, the “hometown” of Volvo cars and commercial vehicles, the first prototypes of electrical and diesel trucks and buses saw the light of day, and they were original in terms of their shape, and even more unusual in terms of the engine. Over the next 12 years, the hybrid drive technology was so perfected that in 2007, Volvo could already offer trucks and buses manufactured in preproduction with a combined drive group – an electric and diesel engine.

The humble, rational and ecologically very conscious Swedes estimate that the development of hybrid propulsion trucks has not yet reached the level of large-scale application, and in the past ten years in Gothenburg they have diligently improved the hybrid “technique” built into trucks for distribution and communal activities – above all garbage collection and disposal. They continued to bring them onto the production lines at full speed, and at the same time they experimented with a hybrid drive on the heaviest, and in terms of the extent of production and sales the most widespread Volvo trucks for long-distance transport, specifically the FH family.

In May 2016, the first version of a concept truck was presented, and in late February 2017, the second further improved version was presented as well. In addition to improved aerodynamics, reduced rolling resistance and lower mass, the new version also had a hybrid drive – one of the first of its kind built into heavy “road cruisers” for long-distance, international transport.

Based on road trials, Volvo experts estimate that in long-haul transport, a hybrid drive could enable diesel and other internal combustion engines to shutdown up to 30% of the time while driving. This can save 5 to10 percent of the fuel, depending on the type or specification of the vehicle, mass, driving cycle and topography. Advanced solutions on the concept tractor provide the option of driving in a fully electric mode – up to 10 km, when there is practically no pollution, and the whole transport combination (towing + towing vehicle) emits a low noise level.

The hybrid technology built into the concept tractor allows recovery of electricity when driving downhill – on inclines greater than 1% or when braking. The resulting current is sent to the batteries and is used to drive the truck in a fully electric mode – on flat roads or roads with small inclines. The advanced version of the drive system predictable engagement – I-See, which has been developed by Volvo Trucks (and is already being built into the heaviest FH family), is additionally adapted to hybrid drive circuits, and by analyzing the topography of the upcoming terrain, it precisely determines the most economical and efficient engagement of diesel and electric engines, as well as optimum renewed energy exploitation time. Combined with other improvements in conventional versions, the most impressive effect of the still experimental hybrid technology for heavy trucks is a total reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emission by about 30 percent.

Also, these are great energy and ecological results already being achieved by other large-scale vehicles with a Volvo mark – city buses! With nearly 4,300 “electrified” buses sold from production in Europe and from the North American daughter company Nova Bus, Volvo Buses is the absolute world leader in this field! Volvo launched the first serially manufactured buses with a hybrid drive system in 2010. Year after year, the range of vehicles with alternative drive solutions has continually increased and sold, so today Volvo Buses offers comprehensive system solutions for public transport with a combined or fully electric drive – diesel-electric hybrid buses, electric hybrids and fully electric buses. Diesel-electric hybrids are available in a conventional 12-meter configuration, as articulated buses, and also as double-deckers.

And finally, at least partly, let’s demystify one of the currently most promising alternative technologies for driving Volvo’s public transport buses (and also Volvo trucks): the “green” buses in Čačak (as well as on the streets of numerous cities in 22 countries around the world) are driven by a parallel hybrid drive system developed and manufactured by Volvo. They are comprised of an Euro V four-cylinder diesel engine with a Volvo working volume of 4.76 liters with 215 hp and 800 Nm of maximum torque, and a 120 kW electric engine with the same maximum torque of 800 Nm. The rear wheel drive is carried out by the Volvo I-SAM system, which includes an automated I-Shift 12-gear trans-mission. The entire drive group is mounted on the line in the left rear part of the chassis (similar to conventional diesel-powered buses). The lithium-ion battery “pack” is mounted right behind the front left wheel. This drive group is equipped with a Stop-Start system, which, when the batteries are fully charged, turns off all the engines while the vehicle is idle, which further reduces the consumption and emission of exhaust gases. The Volvo hybrid bus starts moving almost silently, given that the starting-off of the vehicle is powered by an electric engine running only on electricity. When the vehicle reaches a speed of 15 to 20 km/h, it turns on and also occasionally turns off a conventional diesel engine, which has the role to recharge lithium-ion batteries that accumulate electricity to drive the electric engine. Electricity is accumulating every time a driver of a Volvo hybrid bus hits the brakes. That is where, among other above “places”, all the Volvo hybrid “magic” lies.

Since early April, Volvo hybrid drive technology has been “ridding” in Serbia: Čačak is the first town in our country, in the Balkans, and also in the wider region where 10 Volvo buses with the most advanced technology are used for local passenger transport with a combined diesel-electric drive. In the first days of exploitation, they already confirmed the factory declared parameters: their consumption is lower by a third compared to the diesel engines, and the emission of harmful gases is smaller in similar proportions. “On one of the busiest lines, the 18-kilometer long Sloboda-Slatina line, which transports between three and five thousand passengers per day, the Volvo 7705 LH Hybrid bus has demonstrated all the advantages of a hybrid drive compared to conventional diesel engine powered vehicles: our drivers have achieved an average fuel consumption of 29 liters per 100 km with them, while the consumption of buses of similar transport features with a conventional diesel engine is about 45 liters per 100 km”, says Marko Živković, the main dispatcher of urban and suburban traffic in Autoprevoz- Čačak. “But for our residents, it is of greater importance that the emission of harmful exhaust gases is reduced in a similar proportion, i.e. by a third. Our hybrid “firstborns” produce far less noise, not just when starting off, but also during a continuous drive,” adds Mr. Živković.

This content was originally published in the eighth issue of the Energy Portal Bulletin, named ECOMOBILITY

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