Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

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Thermal power cell harvests electricity from heat at record efficiency
By Michael Irving
May 27, 2024
https://newatlas.com/energy/heat-batter ... y-storage/

A new heat-to-energy converter has reached a record efficiency of 44% – the average steam turbine manages about 35%, for comparison. This thermophotovoltaic cell is a major step on the way to sustainable, grid-scale renewable energy storage.

With renewable energy prices dropping fast, the barrier now is their intermittency – the first point any renewable energy skeptic will throw at you is “but what happens at night or when the wind isn’t blowing?” A little thing called “batteries” can help there, and there’s no shortage of grid-scale storage systems that can save energy for (literally) rainy days. That includes scaling up classics like lithium-ion batteries, or more experimental designs like iron-air, water-in-salt, flow batteries, or a variety of gravity-based systems.

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Michigan Looks to Join Pennsylvania, Montana and New York in Passing Green Amendments that Have Been Used to fight Environmental Threats
by Brian Allnutt
May 23, 2024

Introduction:

(Ensia) A proposed state constitutional amendment introduced in the Michigan House in April would put the right to clean air, water, soil and a stable climate on par with other fundamental liberties like the freedoms of speech and religion.

The Michigan Green Amendment, introduced by Rep. Rachel Hood (D-Grand Rapids), follows the passage of amendments in Pennsylvania, Montana and New York that have been used to fight environmental threats like PFAS contamination and hydraulic fracking in residential neighborhoods. More than a dozen other states are also considering such amendments.

“The goal is to make sure that our government is making better decisions so that our fundamental rights are protected,” says Maya K. van Rossum, founder of the nonprofit Green Amendments For the Generations. The amendment could offer legal recourse for residents whose right to a healthy environment is infringed upon and protect state laws from federal environmental rollbacks.

Pennsylvania’s green amendment has helped environmental advocates secure important victories in recent years. Although the state’s Environmental Rights Amendment was enacted in 1971, it didn’t have much impact until 2013, when the Pennsylvania Supreme Court cited the amendment in its decision to overturn a requirement that municipalities allow oil and gas developments in all zoning areas.

In 2018, former Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf referred to the amendment in an executive order creating the state’s PFAS action team, which was followed by the state setting limits on two common types of PFAS in drinking water.

Read more here: https://ensia.com/articles/michigan-gr ... climate/

Here is a link to the Green Amendments For the Generations website: https://forthegenerations.org/

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Biden administration expands tax credits beyond wind, solar

Source: Reuters

May 29, 2024 6:12 PM EDT Updated 12 hours ago

WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed expanding tax credits that have for years boosted U.S. solar and wind energy projects to cover a wider range of clean energy technologies including nuclear fission and fusion.

The Treasury Department announced its guidance for Clean Electricity Production Credits and Clean Electricity Investment Credits, created under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, that will be available in 2025 as the previously available wind and solar production and investment tax credits sunset.

"The Inflation Reduction Act’s new technology-neutral Clean Electricity credits, which will come into effect in 2025, are one of the law’s most significant contributions to tackling the climate crisis,” John Podesta, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy, said in a statement.

He said they will help the U.S. meet its goal to achieve a net-zero emission power sector by 2035.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 024-05-29/

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No need for countries to issue new oil, gas or coal licences, study finds

Thu 30 May 2024 19.00 BST

The world has enough fossil fuel projects planned to meet global energy demand forecasts to 2050 and governments should stop issuing new oil, gas and coal licences, according to a large study aimed at political leaders.

If governments deliver the changes promised in order to keep the world from breaching its climate targets no new fossil fuel projects will be needed, researchers at University College London and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) said on Thursday.

The data offered what they said was “a rigorous scientific basis” for global governments to ban new fossil fuel projects and begin a managed decline of the fossil fuel industry, while encouraging investment in clean energy alternatives.

By establishing a “clear and immediate demand” political leaders would be able to set a new norm around the future of fossil fuels, against which the industry could be held “immediately accountable”, the researchers said.

Published in the journal Science, the paper analysed global energy demand forecasts for oil and gas, as well as coal- and gas-fired electricity, using a broad range of scenarios compiled for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that limited global heating to within 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... tudy-finds

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How many?

[Time_Traveller]

River Severn and Wye at risk of being 'dead zones' as Ofwat and Environment Agency are blasted for 'decades asleep at the wheel'

06:00, 2 JUN 2024



The River Severn and the Wye are at risk of becoming “dead zones” because regulators and enforcement agencies have been “asleep at the wheel for 35 years”, according to Gloucestershire civic chiefs. The scathing comments directed at the Environment Agency and Ofwat came as Forest of Dean District councillors backed the creation of an action plan and called for a crackdown on river pollution in the two nationally important rivers.

Populations of salmon have fallen by 75 per cent across the globe with eels and elvers at risk of becoming extinct in the Wye and Severn, according to those calling for action. Councillor Andrew McDermid, (G, Lydney East), who put forward the motion at a meeting in Coleford on May 30, said it is about reversing the progressive destruction of the Severn and the Wye, estuary and the coast.

“We are looking at the endgame of dead zones in these rivers due to the impact on them of various different types of pollution,” he said. “Top of the list is farming run-off, pesticides and fertilisers, that’s 40 per cent, it is reckoned.

“Secondly, untreated sewage is 35 per cent and road run-off is 18 per cent. Plus now we’ve got a more modern form of pollution down to pharmaceuticals and microplastics.”

He said nobody is unaware of the public outcry over the sewage outflows “unchecked by the regulator the Environment Agency”. A recent survey by the Soil Association found that 15 per cent of the public were unaware that farming was the biggest polluter of the country’s rivers, he said.

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/n ... ng-9317237

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[wjfox]

No need for countries to issue new oil, gas or coal licences, study finds

Thu 30 May 2024 19.00 BST

The world has enough fossil fuel projects planned to meet global energy demand forecasts to 2050 and governments should stop issuing new oil, gas and coal licences, according to a large study aimed at political leaders.

If governments deliver the changes promised in order to keep the world from breaching its climate targets no new fossil fuel projects will be needed, researchers at University College London and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) said on Thursday.

The data offered what they said was “a rigorous scientific basis” for global governments to ban new fossil fuel projects and begin a managed decline of the fossil fuel industry, while encouraging investment in clean energy alternatives.

By establishing a “clear and immediate demand” political leaders would be able to set a new norm around the future of fossil fuels, against which the industry could be held “immediately accountable”, the researchers said.

Published in the journal Science, the paper analysed global energy demand forecasts for oil and gas, as well as coal- and gas-fired electricity, using a broad range of scenarios compiled for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that limited global heating to within 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... tudy-finds

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Microplastics found in every human semen sample tested in study

Mon 10 Jun 2024 13.39 BST

Microplastic pollution has been found in all human semen samples tested in a study, and researchers say further research on the potential harm to reproduction is “imperative”.

Sperm counts in men have been falling for decades and 40% of low counts remain unexplained, although chemical pollution has been implicated by many studies.

The 40 semen samples were from healthy men undergoing premarital health assessments in Jinan, China. Another recent study found microplastics in the semen of six out of 10 healthy young men in Italy, and another study in China found the pollutants in half of 25 samples.

Recent studies in mice have reported that microplastics reduced sperm count and caused abnormalities and hormone disruption.

Research on microplastics and human health is moving quickly and scientists appear to be finding the contaminants everywhere. The pollutants were found in all 23 human testicle samples tested in a study published in May.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... nese-study

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[Time_Traveller]

Future impact of proposed fossil fuel projects must be assessed, UK court rules

Thu 20 Jun 2024 12.15 BST



The climate impact of burning coal, oil and gas must be taken into account when deciding whether to approve projects, the supreme court in London has ruled.

The landmark judgment, handed down on Thursday, sets an important precedent on whether the “inevitable” future greenhouse gas emissions of a fossil fuel project should be considered.

Campaigners hailed the ruling as a “huge win in the fight for a livable climate” and said it gave a boost to several other domestic lawsuits challenging fossil fuel extraction.

The case was initiated by the campaigner Sarah Finch, who challenged Surrey county council’s decision to extend planning permission for an oil drilling well at Horse Hill, on the Weald. She argued it should have accounted for greenhouse gas emissions from using the oil when assessing the environmental impacts of the project, not only the drilling site itself. These are known as “scope 3” or downstream emissions. The council argued it had discretion to decide what the full impact of a project would be.

While the lower courts were not sympathetic to Finch’s arguments, the majority of the supreme court said it was “plain” that the combustion emissions of an oil project were part of its overall environmental effects.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... l-projects

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