Tag: hydroelectric

This century-old technology could be the key to unlocking America’s renewable energy future.

Popular Science: This century-old technology could be the key to unlocking America’s renewable energy future. Pumped storage hydro once propped up coal and nuclear power. Now it’s essential for a clean, growing grid.

Like other parts of the US rushing to transition away from fossil fuels, the Pacific Northwest’s grid is increasingly reliant on wind farms like this one, in addition to solar arrays. That’s great when the wind blows and the sun shines, but as anyone who has walked the drizzly streets of Seattle can attest, you can’t always count on that. To guarantee a smooth, carbon-free supply of electricity despite this variability, the grid requires enormous amounts of energy storage, and projections indicate that the region needs up to 10,000 megawatts of backup reserves to meet 100-percent renewable power goals.

Ocean energy about to ride a wave

DW: Ocean energy about to ride a wave. Tidal and wave energy is a greatly underutilized renewable power source that could be the missing link to a carbon-free future.

Though the Orkney archipelago off the northern Scottish coast is only home to about 22,000 people, it has become a global hub for harnessing a boundless renewable energy source: the ocean.

For two decades, Orkney’s fast-flowing tidal inlets and coastlines battered by ocean swells have been test sites for fledgling wave and tidal stream energy prototypes. More are being expanded and plugged into the UK grid.

One Scottish ocean energy company, Orbital Marine Power, has been testing tidal stream technologies that are ready to go large-scale, including a giant turbine capable of powering over 1,700 homes. With the first “O2” turbine due to be deployed this year at Orkney’s European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), and another to follow in 2023, it is one of several commercial marine energy farms that could contribute up to a fifth of the UK’s power needs.

The Plan to Build a Global Network of Floating Power Stations

Wired: The Plan to Build a Global Network of Floating Power Stations. A lot of thermal energy is trapped in the ocean. An ex-NASA researcher has figured out how it might generate unlimited clean power for aquatic robots.

EARLY LAST YEAR, just a few weeks before the pandemic brought life in the United States to a standstill, Yi Chao and a small team of researchers dropped a slender metal tube into the Pacific Ocean off the Hawaiian coast. After nearly two decades as an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Chao had left the space agency to commercialize a seafaring generator that can harness the limitless thermal energy trapped in the world’s oceans. His company, Seatrec, is based just down the road from his old NASA stomping grounds in Pasadena, but Chao regularly travels to Hawaii to test hardware in the tranquil, cerulean waters around the Big Island. On this trip, Chao and his team planned to push their invention deeper than it had ever gone before.

 

Report: Scientists warn of the social and environmental risks tied to energy transition

RCINet discusses Scientists warn of the social and environmental risks tied to energy transition. [No study links provided.]

As the world gears up to transition its energy sources from fossil fuels to renewable energy to curb greenhouse gas emissions, new research by Canadian and European scientists warns that the “decarbonization of the economy is by no means inherently environmentally innocuous or socially inclusive.”

A recently published research paper authored by scientists at McGill University in Montreal and the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) says green energy mega projects are often as socially and environmentally disruptive as large scale extractive industry projects.

The research, which has analyzed protests over 649 energy projects, cautions that while renewable energy projects are often portrayed as being environmentally sustainable, they often disproportionately impact vulnerable groups such as rural communities and Indigenous peoples.

Amongst the so-called low carbon energy projects, hydropower was found to have the highest number of conflicts with concerns over social and environmental damages, according to the paper published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

Report: Alternative Energy

Lazard issues 2020 report on the cost of wind and solar compared to new and existing fossil and nuclear. The report is titled: Levelized Cost of Energy and Levelized Cost of Storage – 2020.

Rethinkx discusses the cheapest way to transition to clean energy – build 4x as much generation as you need. Their analysis can be found here and their report can be found here.

The most powerful renewable energy

BBC discusses the most powerful renewable energy. Can we harness the extraordinary power of rivers in a way that replenishes ecosystems, rather than harming wildlife?

The world’s most relied-upon renewable energy source isn’t wind or sunlight, but water. Last year, the world’s hydropower capacity reached a record 1,308 gigawatts (to put this number in perspective, just one gigawatt is equivalent to the power produced by 1.3 million race horses or 2,000 speeding Corvettes). Utilities throughout the globe rely upon hydropower to generate electricity because it is cheap, easily stored and dispatched, and produced with no fuel combustion, meaning it won’t release carbon dioxide or pollutants the way power plants burning fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas do.

Study: Scientists show how much less snow we’re getting due to climate change

CBC discusses how scientists have shown how much less snow we’re getting due to climate change. Peak snow mass has fallen 46 billion tonnes per decade in non-alpine regions of North America.

You may have noticed that we’re getting less snow in winter as the climate warms. But how much? The latest estimate is that the maximum amount of snow that collects on the ground each year in non-alpine areas of North America has been decreasing by 46 billion tonnes per decade since 1980, a new study reports. But interestingly, Eurasia’s annual snow has held steady.

The total amount of snow that falls, or the “snow mass” is important for all kinds of planning because it’s the amount of water released in the spring when the snow melts, says Chris Derksen, a research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada who co-authored the study published Wednesday in Nature.

“So this is the water that’s available for hydropower generation, for human consumption,” he said. “It’s also the snow melt that can provide a hazard through spring floods.”

Report: America’s renewable energy sources have produced more electricity that coal every day for 40 days straight

Newsweek discusses how America’s renewable energy sources have produced more electricity that coal every day for 40 days straight.

enewable sources including solar, wind and hydropower generated more electricity than coal-based plants every single day in April, a new report says.

Analysis shared by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEFA), based on data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), said the finding marks a major “milestone” in an energy transition that is now underway.

The move away from coal for electricity generation in the U.S. accelerated in 2020 due to lower gas prices, warmer weather and a “significant amount” of new renewable capacity being connected to the grid late last year, the report suggested.

It acknowledged that lower power demands resulting from economic slowdown sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic has also played a role in coal’s decline.

After snowpack hits near-historic low, Yukon Energy looks to diversify hydro-heavy grid

The Narwhal discusses how, after snowpack hits near-historic low, Yukon Energy looks to diversify hydro-heavy grid.

The territory says unpredictable weather is prompting efforts to not only increase efficiency but to also modernize the grid with wind, solar, biomass and potentially even geothermal energy sources.

Some discomforts of the Yukon winter don’t last long — a car that just won’t start, a parka that’s frozen stiff. Others, however, carry over to following years.

The 2018-19 winter in Yukon was dry and frigid. Snowpack hit a near-historic low as a result, leading to low water levels in the reservoirs that drive the territory’s hydro electricity plants.

Because the territory’s grid is heavily reliant on hydro, Yukon Energy has been forced to use more diesel fuel this year.

Now, with climate change expected to make weather patterns even more volatile, the utility said it’s making moves to diversify the grid.

Norway and the A-ha moment that made electric cars the answer

The Guardian discusses Norway and the A-ha moment that made electric cars the answer. A country fuelled by hydropower has become the world’s electric vehicle leader.

In 1995, the lead singer of the 1980s band A-ha and the head of the Norwegian environmental group Bellona climbed improbably into a converted electric Fiat Panda they had imported from Switzerland and set off on a road trip.

They drove around Oslo refusing to pay the city’s sky-high road tolls, parking illegally wherever they could, and ignoring every penalty notice they were given. Eventually, the authorities impounded their car and auctioned it off to cover the fines.

But the stunt attracted massive media attention, and the point was made. Soon after, electric vehicles were exempted from road tolls, one of a large raft of incentives that have, over the years, helped make Norway the country with the world’s highest per capita electric vehicle ownership.

Last month, in an economy hit by the coronavirus crisis, fully electric cars accounted for just under 60% of Norway’s new car market, and plug-in hybrids just over 15% – meaning three in four of all new cars sold were either wholly or partly electric.