Global electricity demand growth was met entirely by renewable power in the first half of 2022, halting the rise in fossil fuels.
Renewables met all global electricity demand growth
The world is in the middle of an energy crisis. With all the headlines, it might have been expected that coal and gas use would have increased in 2022. But that is not what happened, at least in the electricity sector. In fact, in the first half of 2022, renewables met all the growth in global electricity demand, halting the rise in fossil fuels.
Renewables met all growth in global electricity demand
Global electricity demand rose 3% in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year; this was in line with the historic average. Wind and solar met 77% of this demand growth, and hydro more than met the remainder. In China, the rise in wind and solar generation met 92% of its electricity demand rise; in the US it was 81%, while in India it was 23%.
Coal and gas generation remained almost unchanged
Because renewables growth met all the demand growth, fossil generation was almost unchanged. Coal declined by 1% and gas declined by 0.05%; these were offset by a slight rise in oil. Consequently, global CO2 power sector emissions were unchanged, despite the rise in electricity demand. Coal in the EU rose 15% only to cover a temporary shortfall in nuclear and hydro generation. Coal in India rose 10% because of a sharp rebound in electricity demand from the lows early last year when the Covid-19 pandemic struck hardest. These rises were offset against falls of 3% in China and 7% in the US.
Wind and solar growth delivered tangible cost and climate benefits
The growth in wind and solar in the first half of 2022 prevented a 4% increase in fossil generation. This avoided $40 billion USD in fuel costs and 230 Mt CO2 in emissions. In China, the growth in wind and solar enabled fossil fuel power to fall 3%, rather than rise by 1%. In India, it slowed down the rise in fossil fuel power from 12% to 9%. In the US, it slowed down the rise in fossil fuel power from 7% to 1%. In the EU, it prevented a major rise in fossil fuel power – without wind and solar, fossil generation would have risen by 16% instead of 6%.
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A United Nations organization on Friday committed to sharply cut carbon emissions from air travel by 2050 in response to growing pressure for airlines to reduce their pollution.
Several major environmental groups praised the move, saying it could encourage the production of more sustainable aviation fuel. But they cautioned that it will be difficult to push countries to follow up with policies that actually reduce emissions.
Aviation is a relatively small contributor to overall climate-changing emissions, but its share is expected to grow. More people are expected to travel on planes in the coming years, and aviation lacks cleaner alternatives such as electric power that are rapidly becoming widely available for cars and trucks.
On Friday in Montreal, representatives of nearly 200 nations in the U.N.’s International Civil Aviation Organization adopted what the agency called an “aspirational goal” of reaching “net zero” emissions by 2050.
The decision capped nearly a decade of negotiations and occurred as aviation comes under more pressure to fall in line with conditions of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate, which aims to cap the rise in global temperature. Crucially, the U.N. agency's resolution does not set targets for individual countries or airlines.
Mark Brownstein, a senior official at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the resolution raised hope that travel will be more sustainable. “But the work isn’t over,” he said. “Now is the time for countries to act by establishing policies that support achievement of a 2050 net-zero goal for aviation with measurable progress in the interim.”
Dan Rutherford, who tracks the issue for the International Council on Clean Transportation, said that to hit the net-zero target, aviation emissions will need to peak and start decreasing as soon as 2025, “with richer countries taking the lead.”
Airlines and governments expect to greatly reduce emissions by gradually switching from kerosene-based jet fuel to fuels made from fats, grease, plants or renewables. The European Union has proposed higher taxes on fossil fuels including jet fuel. But reaching net zero could require tougher measures including limits on flights – at least until large electric- or hydrogen-powered planes are feasible decades from now.
Airlines for America said it applauded the U.N. group's resolution, which could avoid a patchwork of policies by individual countries. The industry trade group called the 2050 milestone “ambitious,” but said airlines are already working with the U.S. government to make 3 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel available by 2030.
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A new report suggests that the Inflation Reduction Act could be even bigger than Congress thinks.
Late last month, analysts at the investment bank Credit Suisse published a research note about America’s new climate law that went nearly unnoticed. The Inflation Reduction Act, the bank argued, is even more important than has been recognized so far: The IRA will “will have a profound effect across industries in the next decade and beyond” and could ultimately shape the direction of the American economy, the bank said. The report shows how even after the bonanza of climate-bill coverage earlier this year, we’re still only beginning to understand how the law works and what it might mean for the economy.
The report made a few broad points in particular that are worth attending to: First, the IRA might spend twice as much as Congress thinks. Many of the IRA’s most important provisions, such as its incentives for electric vehicles and zero-carbon electricity, are “uncapped” tax credits. That means that as long as you meet their terms, the government will award them: There’s no budget or limit written into the law that restricts how much the government can spend. The widely cited figure for how much the IRA will spend to fight climate change—$374 billion—is in large part determined by the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of how much those tax credits will get used.
But that estimate is wrong, the bank claims. In fact, so many people and businesses will use those tax credits that the IRA’s total spending is likely to be more than $800 billion, double what the CBO projects. And because federal spending tends to catalyze private investment, that could send total climate spending across the economy to roughly $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years. That’s significantly more money flowing into green-energy industries than the CBO projected, though it’s unclear if that additional money will lead to more carbon reductions than earlier analyses have projected.
Second, the U.S. is “poised to become the world’s leading energy provider,” according to the bank. America is already the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. The IRA could further enhance its advantage in all forms of energy production, giving it a “competitive advantage in low-cost clean electricity and hydrogen production, infrastructure, geologic storage, and human capital,” the report states. By 2029, U.S. solar and wind could be the cheapest in the world at less than $5 per megawatt-hour, the bank projects; it will also become competitive in hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and wind turbines. (The law will help America’s battery industry, but the bank doesn’t see the U.S. becoming the world’s biggest battery producer, given that China already has such a dominant advantage.)
Perhaps rosiest of all was the bank’s view of major risks to the IRA. The bill passed with not even a single Republican vote, but the bank concludes that the GOP is relatively unlikely to repeal the law, even if they take the White House in 2024. That’s because it would hurt their own voters most: “Republican-leaning states are likely to see the most investment, job, and economic benefits from the IRA,” the report claims. Instead, the IRA is most likely to stumble because America still struggles with building out its energy infrastructure: The country might not be able to get government approval to permit enough power lines, green infrastructure, and carbon-injection wells for the law to matter, the bank said. This risk is all the more heightened now that Senator Joe Manchin’s permitting-reform bill—which, for all its flaws, would have clearly allowed for more renewable transmission construction—has failed. Powerful business groups are also lobbying to revise the most transmission-friendly sections from that bill if Congress revisits it.
The Credit Suisse report is truly remarkable. What stuck with me most was this declaration: For big corporations, the IRA “definitively changes the narrative from risk mitigation to opportunity capture.” In other words, companies should no longer worry that they might be unprepared for future climate regulation, such as a carbon tax. They should be scared of missing out on the economic growth that the energy transition (and the IRA) will bring about.
If the bill’s passage wasn’t signal enough, the report shows that climate change as a political issue—and frankly environmental protection more broadly—has arrived to a wholly new place. For decades, the country’s biggest climate advocates have tried to reduce the harm that the economy causes to the environment. Now they find themselves tasked with the biggest story in the economy itself.
Perhaps most strange, even if the United States slips into recession in the next year, the IRA will only become more important. Historically, economists and businesses have treated helping the environment as a product of prosperity—if the economy is good, then companies can afford to do the right thing. But the IRA’s programs and incentives will keep flowing no matter the macro environment, which makes betting on clean energy one of the most certain economic trends of the next few years. Clean energy is now the safe, smart, government-backed bet for conservative investors. It’s really a shocking reversal of the past 40 years. It is such a change that it hasn’t yet been metabolized by the world of people involved in the issue.
So inspired by the vigor of Credit Suisse’s forecast, let me venture a few predictions of my own. The number of Americans working in a climate-relevant industry is going to explode. It is going to undergo what you might call a techification. I was a nerd and a dreamer in high school in the late aughts, which meant I paid attention to the start-ups of that era—such as Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr—in their early years. I remember that fateful moment around 2010 when the valence of the industry switched—it was right around when The Social Network came out—and working in tech went from being a career choice for dorky optimists to the default career track for many ambitious college students. A similar switch is coming for companies working on climate change: The opportunity will be too large, the money too persuasive, the problems too intriguing.
Finally, those of us who have long worked in climate change—and here I include myself, who started covering this topic in 2015—should have some excitement and even humility about this deluge of new talent. Even setting its arduous politics aside, managing climate change is a legitimately difficult technical and cultural problem—it’s going to require as many attentive and enthusiastic brains as possible, and the path to decarbonizing always required an infusion of new workers, investment, and good will. If you don’t yet work in the industry, but have always cared about climate change as an issue, well, this is your moment to get involved. These companies are going to need engineers, yes, but also programmers, accountants, marketers, HR staff, general counsels—there is space for everyone now.
The fight against climate change is going to change more in the next four years than it has in the past 40. The great story of our lives is just beginning. Welcome aboard.
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The United States generated three times as much renewable electricity from the sun and wind last year in comparison to 2012, a new analysis has found.
Seven states alone now produce enough electricity from these sources, as well as geothermal energy, to cover half of their consumption, according to an online energy dashboard made public on Thursday.
Just five years earlier, none of these states — South Dakota, Iowa, North Dakota, Kansas, Wyoming, Oklahoma and New Mexico — had achieved this level of renewable energy progress, the Renewables on the Rise 2022 dashboard showed.
“As clean energy sources produce more and more of our power, they set the stage for other technologies — like electric cars and heat pumps powered by renewable energy — to replace dirty and outdated ones,” said Johanna Neumann, a senior director at the Environment America Research and Policy Center, which released the dashboard with the Frontier Group.
“With renewables on the rise, we’re on our way to building a cleaner, healthier future,” Neumann added in her statement.
The newly released dashboard details progress over the past decade in six areas that the authors deemed essential to a clean energy transition: wind, solar, electric vehicles (EVs), charging infrastructure for EVs and battery storage.
Among the dashboard’s key findings was evidence that the U.S. produced enough wind energy to power 35 million typical homes in 2021 — or 2.7 times as much wind energy as in 2012.
The U.S. also generated enough solar energy that year to power 15 million homes — or 15 times as much solar energy as in 2012, according to the dashboard.
As far as EVs are concerned, Americans purchased nearly 647,000 plug-in electric cars in 2021 – a nearly 13-fold increase from 2012.
The number of chargers to accompany those vehicles surpassed 120,000 nationwide — a nearly 20-fold increase from 2012.
Looking into the country’s total battery storage, the dashboard found that the country now has nearly 4.7 gigawatts of storage, or 32 times as much as in 2012. This surge in capacity, the authors explained, helps support the use of more renewable energy and keep the lights on during extreme weather events.
Meanwhile, energy efficiency improvements installed in 2020 will save the country 368 terawatt-hours of power over their lifetimes — or enough to power 34 million homes each year, according to the dashboard.
California, Texas and Florida exhibited the most growth in solar power and battery storage from 2012 to 2021, while Texas, Oklahoma and Iowa ranked highest for wind power growth, the dashboard showed.
Michigan, Illinois and Massachusetts showed the most improvement in savings from electric energy efficiency programs from 2013 to 2020, the analysis found.
California, Florida and New York achieved the top ranks for both EV sales in 2021 and the growth of public charging ports since 2012.
“When states prioritize building clean energy, their residents see lower energy bills, a more resilient electric grid, and healthier communities, which inspires neighbors — and our whole nation — to pick up the pace,” Sonia Aggarwal, special assistant to the president for climate policy and innovation, said in a statement.
The report’s authors credited the Biden administration’s recently approved Inflation Reduction Act with the ability “to turbocharge clean energy’s growth,” in a press release accompanying the dashboard.
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The leaders of California, Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia have signed an agreement to expand the region’s climate partnership — with hopes of accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy.
“We don’t have all the answers. And so we seek to share best practices, we seek to compete,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said at a Thursday press conference in San Francisco.
“That competition has brought us to where we are today,” the governor continued. “We’re in the how business.”
Newsom gathered with his colleagues Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D), Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) and British Columbia Premier John Horgan to sign the Pacific Coast Collaborative Statement of Cooperation — an updated agreement that recommits the region to climate action.
The renewed partnership will promote investments in climate infrastructure, such as electric vehicle charging stations and a clean electric grid, according to the agreement.
Participating officials also pledged to protect their residents from climate impacts like drought and wildfire, while ensuring that all communities are included in the clean energy transition.
“This is not about electric power,” Newsom said. “This is about economic power. This is about dominating the next big global industry.”
The Pacific Coast leaders signed the agreement at the Presidio Tunnel Tops in San Francisco, where they were hosted by the city’s mayor, London Breed (D).
The Tunnel Tops — a 14-acre national park built on top of a highway tunnel — are what Newsom’s office described as “a model for building climate resiliency in urban areas and providing equitable access to green spaces.”
The Pacific Coast Collaborative Statement of Cooperation signed on Thursday builds on the ongoing work of the Pacific Coast Collaborative, a regional partnership launched in 2016.
The states of California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, as well as the cities of Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles, are all members of the collaborative.
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- Satellite power grid would beam energy around the globe just like data
New Zealand company Emrod says it's got the technology to enable efficient wireless energy transfer from orbit. It's proposing a global wireless energy matrix, which would instantly beam renewable energy via satellite between any two points on Earth.
Emrod has just demonstrated its wireless power beaming technology to Airbus and the European Space Agency (ESA) as part of the ESA's new push toward 24-hours-a-day space-based solar power. The idea of space-based solar is not new. The problem has always been size; you'd need transmitters and receivers about 2 km (1.2 miles) in diameter to shift a couple of gigawatts of energy down to Earth from a geostationary orbit some 36,000 km (22,370 miles) away. Building an array that size on Earth would be a huge challenge. Building one in space? Yikes.
Emrod says its near-field energy beams could get the job done much more efficiently than competing technologies. But Emrod founder Greg Kushnir also thinks there's a much cheaper and easier way to satisfy European – and indeed global – renewable energy needs: by setting up a global wireless energy matrix capable of beaming power instantaneously around the planet, using lower-orbiting satellites that could be significantly smaller. Why go to all the trouble of building solar in space, when you can build it on the ground for a fraction of the price, and still send the energy where it's needed? https://newatlas.com/energy/emrod-sp...reless-energy/
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- Honda to create $700M EV hub in Ohio
Honda said on Tuesday it is spending $700 million to retool three of its Ohio plants to build electric vehicles as it aims to phase out gas engines by 2040.
Batteries for the electric vehicles from Honda and its Acura division will be supplied by a joint venture with LG Energy Solutions. The automaker confirmed that the $4.4 billion battery plant will be located near Honda’s operations in Fayette County, Ohio, pending regulatory approval.
The “new EV hub” will leverage Honda’s manufacturing and purchasing network in Central Ohio, emblematic of an industrywide scramble to bring battery production onshore to control supply and access to new battery technologies.
So far, automakers and suppliers have announced more than $38 billion in investment through 2026 to boost battery production in the U.S., according to AlixPartners. That figure is likely to rise as the industry takes advantage of the $40 billion in tax credits included in the Inflation Reduction Act aimed at accelerating EV production.
Last month, Ford broke ground at its $5.6 billion BlueOval City complex in Tennessee, where it plans to begin building advanced batteries for future Ford and Lincoln EVs, including the F-150 Lightning and a second battery-electric pickup, in 2025.
Toyota plans to spend $3.8 billion to build a battery plant near Greensboro, North Carolina, for hybrid and battery-electric vehicles mid-decade. Panasonic, which supplies Tesla and other automakers, has committed to creating a $4 billion battery plant in Kansas — the state’s largest-ever economic development project — and is in talks for another $4 billion factory in Oklahoma.
Honda and LG Energy aim to begin construction early next year and produce the advanced lithium-ion battery cells by the end of 2025. The joint venture has committed to investing an initial $3.5 billion, with total investment projected to reach $4.4 billion.
Honda plans to ramp up production to sell millions of EVs in North America, a far cry from the 100,000 EVs and hybrids it sold in the U.S. last year, led by hybrid versions of its Accord sedan and CR-V crossover. The company, which expects to launch its first battery-electric SUV, the Prologue, in 2024, is currently co-developing models using General Motors’ Ultium platform but will begin producing vehicles based on its new Honda e:Architecture in 2026.
The $700 million Honda has earmarked for re-tooling its existing Ohio factory footprint will help transition its Anna Engine Plant to build battery cases, Marysville Auto Plant to assemble battery modules and East Liberty Auto Plant to make EVs.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/10/11/ho...io-investment/
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- Toyota LandCruiser EV confirmed
Trusty 70 Series to be converted to electric power under new deal
An electric Toyota LandCruiser is on the way, but maybe not the one you’re thinking of.
International sustainable energy company Vivopower has done a five-year deal with Toyota Australia to develop an all-electric version of the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series using conversion kits from its subsidiary Tembo.
This deal has nothing to do with plans for an electrified version of the next-gen Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series, which has just broken cover with an all-new twin-turbo diesel V6 engine for Australia, but is eventually expected to become available with hybrid and full-electric powertrains – the latter likely to be a hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle.
A prototype battery-electric Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series has been on trial at a BHP nickel mine in Western Australia since early 2021. The converted vehicle is deployed underground and requires no diesel fuel to run.
Until now Vivopower had not been officially named as part of the project, with Toyota Australia attributing development work to its own product planning and development department in Port Melbourne.
But Vivopower has now signed a letter of intent with Toyota Australia, which it says will serve as the basis for the Master Services Agreement that will govern their co-operation.
“Final terms of the MSA are under negotiation, but upon completion, it is intended that VivoPower would become Toyota Australia’s exclusive partner for Landcruiser 70 electrification for a period of five years, with a further two-year option (seven years in total),” the Vivopower statement read.
No mention of build numbers or sales plans were outlined in the media release.
Issued overnight by a UK PR firm, the Vivopower statement appeared to take Toyota Australia somewhat by surprise, with no announcement of its own issued concurrently.
Vivopower says it has expertise in electric vehicles, solar systems, critical power supply and battery technology. It has divisions based in the USA, Europe and Australia.
It was initially founded in Australia in 2014 as a rooftop solar company but moved its headquarters to the UK in 2016 and floated on NASDAQ later the same year. It acquired Tembo e-LV and became involved in electric vehicles in October 2020.
This is not the first time Vivopower has done a deal to electrify Toyotas involved in mining duties. Only days ago it announced a deal with a Canadian industrial equipment distributor to electrify more than 1600 HiLux and LandCruiser vehicles by 2026 using Tembo’s e-LV conversion kit.
At this stage there's no word on whether the 70 Series EV will become available outside the mining industry.
https://www.carsales.com.au/editoria...firmed-130624/
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- Electric Chevrolet Equinox EV revealed with $30,000 starting price
Chevrolet is putting the E in Equinox.
The first all-electric Equinox EV has been revealed a year before it goes on sale next fall.
The compact SUV is entirely different from the internal combustion engine-powered Equinox it will be sold alongside. It rides on GM's Ultium platform that will underpin all the automaker's new electric vehicles, including the Cadillac Lyriq and upcoming Chevrolet Blazer EV.
The Equinox EV will eventually be offered in an entry-level model with a starting price around $30,000 before any tax credits are factored in, which is thousands less than many of the electric vehicles currently on sale that it will compete against.
It is set to be built at GM's Ramos Aripe, Mexico, factory, which will qualify it for a $3,750 federal tax credit, at least. It could double that under the new rules set down in the Inflation Reduction Act, depending on where the materials for its battery pack end up being sourced from.
The base Equinox EV LT will come with a 210 horsepower front-wheel-drive powertrain and a range of 250 miles per charge. A version with a battery good for 300 miles of range will be optional along with a 290 horsepower all-wheel-drive model rated for 280 miles.
https://www.foxnews.com/auto/electri...ed-30000-price