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Category: Renewable energy

Rare earth mining may be key to our renewable energy future. But at what cost?

Rare earth mining may be key to our renewable energy future. But at what cost?

Carolyn Gramling writes: In spring 1949, three prospectors armed with Geiger counters set out to hunt for treasure in the arid mountains of southern Nevada and southeastern California. In the previous century, those mountains yielded gold, silver, copper and cobalt. But the men were looking for a different kind of treasure: uranium. The world was emerging from World War II and careening into the Cold War. The United States needed uranium to build its nuclear weapons arsenal. Mining homegrown sources…

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80% of new cars sold in Norway are now electric vehicles

80% of new cars sold in Norway are now electric vehicles

CBS News reports: Electric vehicles accounted for almost four out of every five new car registrations in Norway last year, setting a new record, according to figures released Monday. Led by U.S. carmaker Tesla, which topped the list with a 12.2% market share, 138,265 new electric cars were sold in the Scandinavian country last year, representing 79.3% of total passenger car sales, the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) said in a statement. In doing so, Norway, which is both a major…

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Will space-based solar power be the next big thing for clean energy?

Will space-based solar power be the next big thing for clean energy?

Scientific American reports: When inventor Charles Fritts created the first crude solar photovoltaic cells in the 1880s, one might have thought the achievement would rapidly revolutionize global electricity production. There is, after all, no power source cheaper, cleaner and more ubiquitous than sunlight. Yet despite enormous (and ongoing) technical advances making solar power ever more capable and affordable, some 140 years on it still supplies less than 5 percent of the world’s electricity. For all its benefits, solar power does…

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Europe should shape the clean fuel market now

Europe should shape the clean fuel market now

By Benjamin Görlach and Michael Jakob, Knowable magazine, November 11, 2022 The war on Ukraine — a major exporter of natural gas — has wreaked havoc on energy markets in Europe. Faced with imminent energy shortages, governments have ramped up coal use and expanded import of liquified natural gas from other nations. The International Energy Agency estimates that coal use in Europe could increase by 7 percent in 2022, after a 14 percent jump in 2021. This is a problem….

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Manchin won’t hold renomination hearing for FERC’s Glick

Manchin won’t hold renomination hearing for FERC’s Glick

Bloomberg reports: Sen. Joe Manchin has decided against scheduling a confirmation hearing for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Richard Glick with only weeks left before the end of the current Congress. “The chairman was not comfortable holding a hearing,” Sam Runyon, spokeswoman for Manchin’s office, said Thursday. Runyon declined to elaborate beyond the statement. The decision comes days after Manchin criticized President Joe Biden’s remarks on shutting down coal plants and replacing them with renewable energy, saying “his words matter…

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War in Ukraine likely to speed, not slow, shift to renewable and nuclear power, IEA says

War in Ukraine likely to speed, not slow, shift to renewable and nuclear power, IEA says

The New York Times reports: The energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is likely to speed up rather than slow down the global transition away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner technologies like wind, solar and electric vehicles, the world’s leading energy agency said Thursday. While some countries have been burning more fossil fuels such as coal this year in response to natural gas shortages caused by the war in Ukraine, that effect is expected to be short-lived,…

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Why some countries are leading the shift to green energy

Why some countries are leading the shift to green energy

Berkeley News reports: Oil and gas prices skyrocketed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in spring 2022, creating a global energy crisis similar to the oil crisis of the 1970s. While some countries used the price shock to accelerate the transition to cleaner sources of energy, such as wind, solar and geothermal, others have responded by expanding the production of fossil fuels. A new study appearing today in the journal Science identifies the political factors that allow some countries to…

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What does sustainable living look like? Maybe like Uruguay

What does sustainable living look like? Maybe like Uruguay

Noah Gallagher Shannon writes: Let’s say you live in the typical American household. It doesn’t exist, not in any sense except in a data set, but it’s easy enough to imagine. Maybe it’s your aunt’s, or your neighbor’s, or a bit like your own. Since more than half of us live outside big cities, it’s probably in a middle-class suburb, like Fox Lake, north of Chicago. You picked it because it’s affordable and not a terrible commute to your job….

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Burning forests for energy isn’t ‘renewable’ — now the EU must admit it

Burning forests for energy isn’t ‘renewable’ — now the EU must admit it

Greta Thunberg et al write: Next week the future of many of the world’s forests will be decided when members of the European parliament vote on a revised EU renewable energy directive. If the parliament fails to change the EU’s discredited and harmful renewables policy, European citizens’ tax money will continue to pay for forests around the globe to literally go up in smoke every day. Europe’s directly elected representatives now have to choose: they can either save the EU’s…

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California’s gas car ban will change how everyone drives

California’s gas car ban will change how everyone drives

Vox reports: California, the state that buys the most cars and trucks in the United States, will ban the sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2035. This represents the largest government move against gasoline and diesel to date, with the potential to ripple throughout the country and the global auto industry. The California Air Resources Board, which regulates pollution in the state, voted unanimously on Thursday to approve a proposal that will require 100 percent of all cars sold in…

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Red America should love green energy spending

Red America should love green energy spending

Liam Denning and Jeff Davies write: The standard political color code for renewable energy holds that green mixes with blue but clashes with red. A detailed look at local realities says otherwise. Enersection, a new company based in Houston specializing in data-driven insights on the US energy system, has presented them in compelling charts and other graphics (you can access its site here). Bloomberg Opinion partnered with co-founder Jeff Davies to take a deep dive into the energy and emissions…

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Surprise climate bill will meet ambitious goal of 40% cut in U.S. emissions, energy models predict

Surprise climate bill will meet ambitious goal of 40% cut in U.S. emissions, energy models predict

Science reports: For climate advocates in the United States, the past month felt like a roller coaster. In early July, negotiations in Congress on clean energy legislation of historic proportions collapsed, and the effort seemed doomed. But backroom talks continued and last week key senators suddenly announced an agreement on a $369 billion bill that would provide the most climate funding ever seen in the United States. “It was the best kept secret, potentially, in Washington history,” says Leah Stokes,…

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Geothermal heating and cooling: Renewable energy’s hidden gem

Geothermal heating and cooling: Renewable energy’s hidden gem

Yale Climate Connections reports: Often described as a giant tower of Jenga blocks, Boston University’s Center for Computing and Data Sciences shows no outward signs of leading the race to sustainable energy design. No rooftop wind turbines grace its heights; no solar panels are mounted on the multiple roof decks jutting out from the building’s core. What makes this building unique lies deep underground, where water circulating through 31 geothermal boreholes will supply 90 percent of its heating and cooling…

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Biden EPA to tackle coal industry carbon with rules on other pollutants

Biden EPA to tackle coal industry carbon with rules on other pollutants

Reuters reports: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to use new limits on traditional pollutants like ozone and coal ash to help encourage the retirement of the nation’s remaining coal-fired power plants, after the Supreme Court limited the agency’s ability to impose sweeping climate regulations, according to EPA chief Michael Regan. The approach reflects how the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden intends to forge ahead with goals to decarbonize the power sector despite the recent ruling from the court….

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Vatican calls for immediate end to fossil fuels, bold action from world leaders ahead of COP27

Vatican calls for immediate end to fossil fuels, bold action from world leaders ahead of COP27

The Planetary Press reports: The Vatican is calling for an immediate phase-out of fossil fuels. A top Vatican official has signaled support for an agreement to cease fossil fuel expansion and phase-out existing production. During a press conference centered around Pope Francis’ World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, Cardinal Michael Czerny, Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, an initiative that aims to spur global support for a binding…

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‘Putin rubbing hands with glee’ after EU votes to class natural gas and nuclear as ‘green’

‘Putin rubbing hands with glee’ after EU votes to class natural gas and nuclear as ‘green’

The Guardian reports: The European parliament has backed plans to label gas and nuclear energy as “green”, rejecting appeals from prominent Ukrainians and climate activists that the proposals are a gift to Vladimir Putin. One senior MEP said the vote was a “dark day for the climate”, while experts said the EU had set a dangerous precedent for countries to follow. The row began late last year with the leak of long-awaited details on the EU’s green investment guidebook, intended…

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