The Daily Climate discusses: Carbon-neutral flight; building emissions; China, coal, and Australia; Solar project in NW Arctic; fastest growing food source; Canada’s hydrogen strategy; Study – forests and heat and dryness; Australian farms and drought.
Category: Coal and Coal Ash
The residue of a failing past, highly toxic to people, animals, and plants, and costly to safely dispose of.
Report: Dominion Energy’s costly coal-fired Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center
Appalachian Voices discusses the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis released a report shedding light on Dominion Energy’s costly coal-fired Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center in Wise Co, Va., and its likely early closure. The report, entitled Virginia Coal Plant’s Future Isn’t Bright: Preparation for Transition Should Commence Now, finds that the plant operates significantly below its full capacity at a hefty cost to ratepayers, and that its closure will have significant economic impacts on the surrounding communities in Southwest Virginia. The power plant currently provides approximately $8.5 million in tax revenue to Wise County, and employs approximately 153 people.
‘Dog kennel’ satellite returns first ocean observations
BBC discusses ‘Dog kennel’ satellite returns first ocean observations.
The new satellite that will become the primary orbital tool for tracking sea-level rise is in excellent shape.
Sentinel-6 “Michael Freilich” was only launched three weeks ago, but already it is mapping ocean features in exquisite detail.
The dog kennel-shaped spacecraft is a joint endeavour between Europe and the US.
It is the latest iteration in a series of missions that have been measuring sea-surface height going back to 1992.
These earlier satellites have shown unequivocally that the oceans globally are rising at a rate in excess of 3mm per year over the 28-year period, with an acceleration apparent in the last decade.
Study: The Era of Fossil Fuel Power Plants Is Rapidly Receding. Here Is Their Life Expectancy
Inside Climate News discusses Inside Clean Energy: The Era of Fossil Fuel Power Plants Is Rapidly Receding. Here Is Their Life Expectancy. New research shows that most fossil fuel plants will have reached the end of their expected lives by 2035, making it easier to envision Joe Biden’s climate plan.
What if President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to get to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035 turns out to involve not radical disruption but a smooth transition?
A new paper in the journal Science shows that most of the country’s existing coal, natural gas and oil power plants would be past the end of their expected lives by 2035, leaving only a small share that would need to close early under the Biden policy.
Considering this, implementing the Biden plan “is probably easier than people expected,” said the author, Emily Grubert, an environmental engineering professor at Georgia Tech.
A Power Company’s Quiet Land-Buying Spree Could Shield It From Coal Ash Cleanup Costs
ProPublica discusses how A Power Company’s Quiet Land-Buying Spree Could Shield It From Coal Ash Cleanup Costs. Georgia Power paid top dollar to buy land from residents living near waste sites at its power plants. Environmentalists fear it’s a tactic to forestall the cleanup bill from new regulations for coal ash.
Over the past several years, utility giant Georgia Power has embarked on an unusual buying spree, paying top dollar for people’s property in places where cheap land was easy to find.
In 2016, it bought a veterinarian’s 5-acre lot in the rolling hills of northwest Georgia for roughly double the appraised value. The following year, it acquired 28 acres of flood-prone land in southwest Georgia’s pecan belt for nearly four times what the local tax assessor said it was worth. By the year after that, it had paid millions of dollars above the appraised value for hundreds of acres near a winding gravel road in a central Georgia town with no water lines and spotty cellphone service.
As South Africa Clings to Coal, A Struggle for the Right to Breathe
Yale Environment 360 discusses As South Africa Clings to Coal, A Struggle for the Right to Breathe. Close ties between the ruling elite and the coal industry have helped perpetuate South Africa’s dependence on the dirtiest fossil fuel for electricity. But now residents of the nation’s most coal-intensive region are suing to force the government to clean up choking air pollution.
Thomas Mnguni often woke to find the windows and floors of his home covered in a layer of black dust. Living between two coal mines and a landfill in Middelburg, South Africa, he and his family breathed some of the country’s most polluted air.
When Mnguni’s son developed symptoms of asthma, a doctor recommended that the family move to a different part of town. Now living about six miles from the mines, the 14-year-old is doing better. But others in the area aren’t so fortunate. Residents of Middelburg and other communities in an industrialized swath of the Highveld, a plateau in central South Africa, are well acquainted with air pollution and its toll on health. The area — located east of Johannesburg and with a population of 4.7 million — is riddled with coal mines, coal-fired power plants, petrochemical facilities, metal smelters, chemical producers, and other industrial complexes. Mnguni, in his work as a community campaigner for the environmental group groundWork, has met many others dealing with the health consequences of the poor air quality, ranging from asthma to lung cancer.
Report: Almost half of thermal coal firms set to defy climate pledge
The Guardian discusses a report showing that Almost half of thermal coal firms set to defy climate pledge. Report identifies 935 firms finance industry needs to blacklist to meet Paris goals,
Almost half the companies involved in the thermal coal industry are expected to defy global climate commitments by deepening their coal interests in the coming years, according to a report.
The study, by the green campaign group Urgewald, revealed that almost 1,000 companies should be blacklisted by investors because they remain tied to the thermal coal value chain almost four years after the Paris climate agreement came into effect.
Almost 440 of these companies plan to build coal plants, mines or other infrastructure in the years ahead, according to Urgewald’s global coal exit list, which it produced alongside 30 NGO partners. Meanwhile, only 25 companies on the list have set a date to phase out their coal use.
Heffa Schücking, the director of Urgewald, said the findings should provide a wake-up call to investors who planned to continue to back companies linked to the coal industry as global governments signal a shift to cleaner energy sources.
Va. Coalfield Economic Development Authority establishes $1M Renewable Energy Fund
Virginia Business discusses Va. Coalfield Economic Development Authority establishes $1M Renewable Energy Fund. Funding to assist renewable energy projects, component manufacturing.
The Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) announced Thursday it has established a $1 million Renewable Energy Fund from coal tax credit funds.
“With the establishment of the Renewable Energy Fund, VCEDA is poised to readily assist in the development of renewable energy projects, which will add new jobs and investment to the region and help prepare the workforce for those new jobs,” Jonathan Belcher, VCEDA executive director and general counsel, said in a statement.
The funding will go toward new energy production facilities and energy component manufacturing, Belcher said.
“We believe that the Renewable Energy Fund will be a tremendous step towards the diversification of existing businesses and it will help promote the growth of innovative solutions in our region for the energization industry,” Appalachian Council for Innovation President Donald Purdie said in a statement.
Report: How Coal Country Can Adapt to the Energy Transition
Environmental and Energy Institute (EESI) discusses How Coal Country Can Adapt to the Energy Transition.
From international bodies to town halls, focus has been increasingly directed toward deploying clean energy and decarbonizing the economy following reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that countries must drastically cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions within the next decade to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5°C (2.7°F). While widespread, rapid decarbonization is essential, communities that have developed with the coal industry as their backbone are already feeling the burden of the energy and economic transition. Policymakers at all levels of government are interested in mitigating harm to coal-dependent communities. This issue brief characterizes broad issues for communities in transition and surveys federal and regional policies, programs, and proposals intended to provide workforce development opportunities, diversify local economies, and alleviate economic hardship.
Report: Renewable Power Grows Strongly, Despite the Pandemic
The New York Times discusses how Renewable Power Grows Strongly, Despite the Pandemic. Sources of renewable energy are expected together to be the main generators of electricity by 2025, eclipsing coal, the International Energy Agency said.
The energy industry has experienced its worst year in decades because of the pandemic, but clean sources for generating electricity have still managed to grow, the International Energy Agency said Tuesday.
Consumption of electricity generated by wind, solar and hydroelectric sources will grow nearly 7 percent in 2020, a remarkable jump because overall energy demand will slump by 5 percent, the steepest drop since World War II, the Paris-based forecasting group said in a new report.