It’s been difficult to miss news sites, and social media feeds: the planet is in trouble, and we are in need of solutions for our warming world. The latest climate report from the UN’s independent scientific body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), makes clear that we are on track to careen far past the climate goals set in the Paris Accords and drastic cuts in greenhouse emissions are necessary. Many of the tools needed to make these cuts have already been developed and continue to get cheaper, yet the pledges to lower emissions made by member nations have not been and will not be enough. So what measures must we take, and what potential clean energy sources are on the horizon?
Geothermal plants like this one in Iceland require specialized labor to map and drill into the ground and infrastructure to extract. Existing abandoned oil wells, however, could be transitioned into ready-and-waiting sources. (Credit: Gretar Ívarsson, geologist at Nesjavellir)
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has recently introduced an intriguing pilot program using an often-overlooked solution: geothermal energy. The Earth’s core is hot, and it could be possible to tap into that near-unlimited heat source to generate energy without generating as many greenhouse gas emissions as we do burning fossil fuels. Drilling isn’t cheap—it is nearly half the cost of most geothermal energy projects—but the DOE has awarded $8.4 million for a project to access geothermal potential from abandoned oil and gas wells, digging up untapped power from out-of-use oil infrastructure. Projects are set to begin at sites in Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma, though there remain stumbling blocks in the form of the legislature and transitioning the workforce from oil extraction jobs, among others. Should the project succeed, however, it could mean new potential from the millions of abandoned oil wells left behind from the US gas boom alone.
Despite advances, the development of green energy production is not always smooth and not always so clean. Modern technologies for renewable energy rely on rare earth elements. The global capital for these metals is Baotou, a city in Inner Mongolia, northern China, which is also home to more than two million people. There, a lake west of the city has become choked with the sludge of toxic and radioactive materials, by-products of rare earth processing. Reports from citizens say that the water is unsafe for humans or animals, and in Dalahai village, not far from the city, large percentages of the population have been diagnosed with cancer.
Lake west of Baotou, China which serves as a tailings pond, or dumping ground, for rare earth element processing, has filled with toxic material. (Credit: Sky News)
In Iceland, where the Orca carbon removal machine outside Reykjavik attempts to remove 4000 tons of CO2 per year, cold weather causes setbacks, forcing modifications as components begin to malfunction. Worldwide, unrest throws the supply chain into question and causes more slowdowns and rising costs. The latest fuel poverty crisis has even caused executives of the UK’s largest suppliers to call for the energy price cap to be abolished and for a new deficit fund system to unburden the most vulnerable households ahead of next winter, as prices could prove crippling. Some fear that up to 40% of UK households could face fuel poverty beginning in October when energy use begins to rise.
In the search for new power sources to replace Russian gas, Solar Energy UK says that building new solar farms could make up for the loss and cut bills faster than any other type of energy. The trade association, which represents over 276 member companies in the UK sector and beyond, says there are 7GW of solar energy installations ready to connect to the energy grid and that they would provide more energy than the Hinkley Point C nuclear reactor. Despite the claim that the installations have planning permission and authorization, however, there is pushback from the rural communities near where the vast farms would be installed. Still, Solar Energy UK thinks they could get 7GW of solar up and running within years—building on the 14GW of capacity already installed in the UK.
Advances in solar energy make it more and more viable, though some rural residents are hesitant about the land required to build and the industrialization of rural landscapes. (Credit: Zbynek Burival on Unsplash)
And the capacity of solar energy worldwide is only set to increase. A Stanford engineer team has developed a solar cell that can generate some electricity even at night—a feat previously unheard of. Citing the coldness of outer space as an extremely important renewable energy resource, the Stanford team modified commercially available solar panels to generate small amounts of electricity at night. The modifications exploit a process known as radiative cooling, which relies on the frigid vacuum of space. Though the amount generated is much smaller than the energy produced by a modern panel during the day, it could still be useful, especially as energy demands drop at night.
Researchers working on the DOE’s geothermal power initiative claim that to move forward into a decarbonized future, a shift is required in how we think about our energy sources. Rather than a single power source as a one-size-fits-all solution, our energy needs must rely on interconnected systems, allowing multiple sources to fill needs where they can.
Have a story tip? Message me at: http://twitter.com/Cabe_Atwell