GEOLOGY WITH JEFF SIMPSON
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Can We Cling to Hope of Avoiding 1.5°C Heating?

4/16/2021

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Australia’s leading scientists made a significant global-scale declaration about the fight to deal with the climate crisis this week – but you could be forgiven if you missed it.  In what it described as a landmark report, the Australian Academy of Science painted a picture of what could happen to the country under 3C of global heating, including ecosystems made unrecognisable, food production being compromised and people’s ability to exist and survive in hotter and longer heatwaves regularly tested.  The central message? There is no time to wait.  But lying within the report was another substantial claim – that limiting global heating to 1.5° C was now “virtually impossible”. - Guardian
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Navajo Nation - A Ton of Power & Thousands of Homes Without Electricity

3/22/2021

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In a year characterized by extreme weather, avid handwashing, and increasingly remote interactions, access to electricity is more important than ever. But 12 months into the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic, it’s a basic right on which thousands of Navajo Nation members are still waiting.  “What it’s like to be without electricity? I don’t know how to describe it because we never had it before,” said Navajo elder and Black Mesa, Arizona, resident Percy Deal. “It’s always been this way, so we’re used to it. Until last year when this pandemic came in; that’s when we began to realize that these utilities are very important.”  Electricity has long been a contentious issue for Navajo Nation residents. Of the roughly 55,000 Indigenous households located on Navajo lands, which stretch across large parts of Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, ~15,000 do not have electricity. And yet the reservation is an energy-exporting hotspot, having until recently been home to the Navajo Generating Station, the largest coal-fired power plant in the western U.S, as well as many coal, uranium, oil, and fracking operations. - Grist
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WHAT ROLE CAN GEOTHERMAL ENERGY PLAY IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION?

3/16/2021

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Transitioning away from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewable energy is essential to staving off the worst effects of the climate crisis. Wind and solar are currently leading the charge – but they may only get us so far. There is a less-talked-about, under-explored renewable out there that can generate clean, base load energy around the clock. “Geothermal electricity is always on,” said Jefferson Tester, a professor of sustainable energy systems at Cornell University and a leading expert on geothermal energy. “It can provide fully dispatchable power or heat and is scalable in the same way other renewables are.” - Climate Reality



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How Rooftop Solar Could Save Americans $473 Billion

3/6/2021

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Critics have long dismissed rooftop solar as a niche product for wealthy homeowners who want to feel good about going green or are looking for security against blackouts. And it is conventional wisdom among utilities and regulators that large solar farms have an inherent cost advantage over the rooftop alternative because they benefit from economies of scale.  Chris Clack sees things differently.  In a fascinating report released last month, Clack and his coauthors estimated that eliminating nearly all planet-warming pollution from electricity generation would be $473 billion cheaper with dramatic growth in rooftop solar and batteries.

That calculation is based on Clack’s exhaustively detailed model of the U.S. electric grid, which he says includes 10,000 times more data points than traditional models and allows for a better accounting of rooftop solar’s costs and benefits to the grid. The model is such a complex beast that Clack built his own computers to help run the simulations, which can take five days to complete.

Researchers...looked out to 2050 and projected how electricity costs would change under a national policy requiring emissions to fall by 95%. When they mimicked traditional models that favor large solar and wind farms, they found that consumers would collectively pay $385 billion more for power over the next 30 years. Not an unreasonable price tag for taking a huge bite out of climate change, but still not the preferred direction if we can help it.

When they optimized for smaller-scale solutions...they found the cheapest way to reduce emissions actually involves building 247 gigawatts of rooftop and local solar power (equal to about one-fifth of the country’s entire generating capacity today). In this scenario, consumers would save $473 billion, relative to what electricity would otherwise cost.

The results come down to simple dollars and cents. - LA Times
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Plan to Strip AZ Regulators of Power to make Clean-Energy Rules Moves Closer to Governor's Desk

3/5/2021

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Lawmakers moved Wednesday to strip the Arizona Corporation Commission of its power to make rules about clean energy in the state, following regulators' move to require electric companies to get all of their energy from carbon-free sources by 2050.  The House voted 31-28 on House Bill 2248 on Wednesday, with one member not voting. The bill prohibits the Corporation Commission from enacting any new energy rules after June 2020. Last fall, after years of workshops and hearings on the issue, the Corporation Commission voted 4-1 to require electric companies like Arizona Public Service Co. and Tucson Electric Power Co., to get all of their energy from carbon-free sources by 2050, with intermediate targets before that date. Carbon emissions would need to be halved by 2032. - AZ Central

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Oil Giant Total Targets 100 GW of Wind, Solar Capacity by 2030

3/4/2021

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French energy company Total aims to have 100 gigawatts (GW) of gross wind and solar energy generation capacity by 2030, making it a frontrunner among oil giants shifting into renewables.  In comparison, Shell hasn’t set a target, as it says it’s focusing on green power sales, and BP’s target is 50 GW by 2030. Italy-based Enel leads, as it has a 145 GW target and says it wants to be a “renewables supermajor.” Total’s CEO Patrick Pouyanne said today that “in 2030, [Total] will have invested in 100 gigawatts of gross capacities; this is the objective and it will be spread in … 30 countries around the world.” - Electrek

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Texas Blackouts Fuel False Claims About Renewable Energy

2/17/2021

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With millions of Texas residents still without power amid frigid temperatures, conservative commentators have falsely claimed that wind turbines and solar energy were primarily to blame.  “We should never build another wind turbine in Texas,” read a Tuesday Facebook ost from Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. “The experiment failed big time.”  “This is a perfect example of the need for reliable energy sources like natural gas & coal,” tweeted U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican from Montana, on Tuesday. In reality, failures in natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems were responsible for nearly twice as many outages as frozen wind turbines and solar panels, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, said in a press conference Tuesday.  Still a variety of misleading claims spread on social media around renewable energy, with wind turbines and the Green New Deal getting much of the attention.  A viral photo of a helicopter de-icing a wind turbine was shared with claims it showed a “chemical” solution being applied to one of the massive wind generators in Texas. The only problem? The photo was taken in Sweden years ago, not in the U.S. in 2021. The helicopter sprayed hot water onto the wind turbine, not chemicals. - ABC News

"Most of the generation lost has been from coal and gas, according to ERCOT, with only 13% attributable to wind. 'By some estimates,' The Texas Tribune reported Tuesday, 'nearly half of the state's natural gas production has screeched to a halt. Gathering lines freeze, and the wells get so cold that they can't produce,' Parker Fawcett, a natural gas analyst at S&P Global Platts, told the Tribune. 'And, pumps use electricity, so they're not even able to lift that gas and liquid, because there's no power to produce.'"

While ice has forced some turbines to shut down just as a brutal cold wave drives record electrify demand, that's been the least significant factor in the blackouts, according to Dan Woodfin, a senior director for ERCOT which operates the Texas grid.  The main factors?  Frozen instruments at natural gas, coal and even nuclear facilities as well as limited supplies of natural gas, he said.  "Natural gas pressure" in particular is one reason power is coming back slower than expected Tuesday, added Woodfin. 
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Cement Production to Use Old Wind Turbine Blades

1/29/2021

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GE Renewable Energy and Veolia North America (VNA) have signed a “multi-year agreement” to recycle blades removed from onshore wind turbines in the United States.   The blades will be shredded at a VNA site in Missouri before being “used as a replacement for coal, sand and clay at cement manufacturing facilities across the U.S.” The issue of what to do with wind turbine blades when they’re no longer needed has proven to be a headache for the industry. This is because the blades are made from composite materials which are difficult to recycle, which means that many end up as landfill when their service life ends. - CNBC
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EIA Forecasts Less Power Generation from Natural Gas - Result of Rising Fuel Costs

1/28/2021

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The EIA forecasts that generation from natural gas-fired power plants in the U.S. electric power sector will decline by about 8% in 2021. This decline would be the first annual decline in natural gas-fired generation since 2017. Forecast generation from coal-fired power plants will increase by 14% in 2021, after declining by 20% in 2020. EIA forecasts that generation from nonhydropower renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, will grow by 18% in 2021—the fastest annual growth rate since 2010. The shift from coal to natural gas marked a significant change in the energy sources used to generate electricity in the United States in the past decade. This shift was driven primarily by the sustained low natural gas price. In 2020, natural gas prices were the lowest in decades  the nominal price of natural gas delivered to electric generators averaged $2.37 per million British thermal units (Btu). For 2021, EIA forecasts the average nominal price of natural gas for power generation will rise by 41% to an average of $3.35 per million Btu, about where it was in 2017. In contrast, EIA expects nominal coal prices will rise just 6% in 2021. - EIA
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Net Zero America

1/11/2021

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​With a massive, nationwide effort the United States could reach net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 using existing technology and at costs aligned with historical spending on energy, according to a study led by Princeton University researchers.  The new “Net-Zero America” research outlines five distinct technological pathways for the United States to decarbonize its entire economy. The research is the first study to quantify and map with this degree of specificity, the infrastructure that needs to be built and the investment required to run the country without emitting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than are removed from it each year. It’s also the first to pinpoint how jobs and health will be affected in each state at a highly granular level, sometimes down to the county. - Princeton University
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    Geo News

    I started a CGCC Facebook page in May of '20 to share geo-environmental news but had concerns about FB's issues with accuracy.  This page, GeoNews, is a response and partial solution, sharing a few items from reliable sources each week.  

    Click the
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    To respond thoughtfully or ask questions, click "Comments". 

    To complete the extra credit option, use this Google Doc.

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