POLLUTER PAYES

BHP shareholders to vote on fossil fuel production detail at AGM
Reuters | August 11, 2021 | 

Mount Arthur thermal coal mine in Australia. (Image courtesy of BHP.)

BHP Group Ltd said on Wednesday it would allow a vote at its next shareholder meeting on whether the world’s biggest listed miner should disclose details such as capital allocation and life of its fossil fuel assets.


The resolution, proposed by activist investor Market Forces, requests BHP detail how its capital spending in coal, oil and gas assets will align with a scenario in which global energy emissions reach net-zero by 2050.

It also seeks production guidance for the lifetime of those assets and information about expected costs of decommissioning and rehabilitating the sites at the end of their life.

THE RESOLUTION REQUESTS BHP DETAIL HOW ITS CAPITAL SPENDING IN COAL, OIL AND GAS ASSETS WILL ALIGN WITH A SCENARIO IN WHICH GLOBAL ENERGY EMISSIONS REACH NET-ZERO BY 2050

It comes after BHP last week approved $802 million in development spending on oil projects in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

“Be it coal, oil, or gas, BHP remains in expansion mode,” said Market Forces campaigner Will van de Pol.

“While the company’s own analysis shows a rapid low-carbon transition makes good business sense, it is simply failing to align its strategy with this outcome,” he said in a statement. “Instead, BHP is betting billions against the Paris climate goals.”

Market Forces said it had lodged the resolution on behalf of more than 100 shareholders including members of the net zero asset managers initiative who have committed to the goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.

BHP, which will hold AGMs on Oct. 14 in London and Nov. 11 in Perth, said in a filing the proposed resolutions were filed by shareholders representing less than 1% of its holdings.

The global miner last week received a separate resolution to increase oversight of lobby groups it associates with to make sure that policies they advocate are in line with the Paris climate accord.

(By Anushka Trivedi and Melanie Burton; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Tomasz Janowski)

Now Climate Activists Want BHP to Keep Hold of Its Fossil Fuels

James Thornhill
Wed, August 11, 2021, 



(Bloomberg) -- BHP Group, the world’s top miner, should abandon plans for multi-billion dollar sales of fossil fuels assets and instead responsibly close down the operations, according to an environmental campaign group.

A proposal tabled on behalf of about 100 small investors by Market Forces, which coordinates groups of shareholders on climate issues, calls on the company to wind down production in line with international targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and to focus on helping communities to find alternative jobs.

“By providing a leading example of responsibly managing down fossil fuel assets, BHP can preserve and realize the genuine value that exists in these assets, align with global climate goals, and support its workers in the transition to a decarbonized economy,” the group said in a statement. Market Forces and the BHP investors have tabled resolutions to be considered at the company’s annual meeting in Australia later this year.


BHP’s board will set out a response ahead of the meeting, the company said in a statement Wednesday. The investors hold less than 0.01% of BHP’s Australia-listed entity and about 0.006% of the combined group, which includes the miner’s London-traded shares, according to the statement.

BHP is considering an exit from the oil and gas sector and reviewing options including a trade sale, people familiar with the matter said last month. The producer in June agreed to sell its one-third share in a Colombian coal mine and is also progressing plans to offload a thermal coal operation and some metallurgical coal assets in Australia.

Activists who previously had urged the biggest miners and oil majors to rid their portfolios of fossil fuels operations are increasingly changing approach, in recognition that assets are often sold to smaller producers or government-backed firms that operate with far less transparency and typically seek to boost volumes.

While shareholder resolutions seldom win large support, they’re among tools being used by small campaign groups to pressure companies. Lawsuits have been effective too, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc ordered to slash emissions faster than planned in a recent ruling and Australia’s government instructed to consider climate change in mine approvals.

“There’s an increasingly deep and sophisticated understanding of the steps big companies and their investors need to take to play their part in bringing down emissions,” said Will van de Pol, a campaigner at Australia-based Market Forces. “Companies and investors can no longer get away with green-washing and shirking their responsibilities.”

BP Plc is among firms that have faced criticism for pursuing divestment deals that will help the company meet its own net-zero goals, though likely won’t result in lower emissions from the assets that have been sold.

“While divestment addresses stranded asset risk exposure, it fails to manage the reputational risk associated with avoiding responsibility for employee transition support and site rehabilitation,” Market Forces said in its statement.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

 

 

Wave Energy Could Slash Our Use of Fossil Fuels

Aug 11, 2021

VICE News

According to the DOE, the waves along the US coast could cover 64% of our nation's energy needs. So why haven’t we harnessed them? Well, it's annoyingly complicated; but this renewable technology is about to make waves in the new green economy.

AFTER THIRTY YEARS THE BAY OF FUNDY TIDAL TURBINE IS READY TO GO ONLINE

BLOOMBERG GREEN EXPOSE

How to Sell ‘Carbon Neutral’ Fossil Fuel That Doesn’t Exist

Energy companies are starting to pitch the idea that planet-warming natural gas can be erased by paying villagers to protect forests. Experts can’t make the math work.

Volunteers clear vegetation that would otherwise stoke wildfires in forests around their village near Mbire, Zimbabwe. Their work is funded, in part, by the sale of fossil fuel thousands of miles away.
Photographer: Cynthia Matonhodze/Bloomberg

By Stephen Stapczynski, Akshat Rathi, and Godfrey Marawanyika
August 10, 2021, 

The junior traders at TotalEnergies SE were essentially winging it last September by orchestrating the French energy giant’s first shipment of “carbon-neutral” natural gas. It’s the greenest-possible designation for fossil fuel and an important step in making the company’s core product more palatable in a warming world. Nailing down the deal involved googling and guesswork.

Total had proposed the trade after learning a client had already purchased two carbon-neutral cargos from rivals at Royal Dutch Shell Plc, according to people with knowledge of the deal who asked not to be named discussing a private transaction. One of these insiders said that only after getting the go-ahead did the inexperienced team attempt to figure out how to neutralize the emissions contained in a hulking tanker full of liquified natural gas. Their first step was to search the internet for worthy environmental projects that might offset the pollution.

‘This whole bush can be razed to the ground if we don’t do what we’re doing,’ says Kembo Magonyo, one of the volunteers.
Photographer: Cynthia Matonhodze/Bloomberg

Thousands of miles away, a Zimbabwean volunteer named Kembo Magonyo would spend the spring months clearing stubborn jumbles of branches near the thickly forested border with Mozambique. Wildfires tend to leap between the two countries, laying waste to trees before anyone can respond. “This whole bush can be razed to the ground if we don’t do what we’re doing,” Magonyo says, hacking away with his machete. His work is organized by a group partly funded by Total’s carbon-neutral deal.

In the complicated new math of climate solutions, villagers clearing brush in southern Africa can end up redefining networks of global commerce worth billions of dollars. Environmental projects stand as shadow partners to emission-heavy energy trades happening far away.

What Total’s gas cargo puts into the atmosphere, the machete-wielding villagers will remove. That’s the theory.

But to make it work Total’s pioneers of carbon neutrality first needed to find green projects capable of meeting two requirements: generate carbon credits backed by an international organization, without costing too much. After struggling to come up with an answer, the team set up a meeting with South Pole, a project developer based in Zurich that came recommended by rival traders. That’s how $600,000 from a $17 million LNG transaction ended up, in part, paying for forest protection in Zimbabwe.

The resulting trade looks like a win for everyone. Total kept its promise to investors to shrink its carbon footprint. Impoverished communities received financial support. And the buyer, China National Offshore Oil Corp., cited the shipment as one of the steps it’s taking to “provide green, clean energy to the nation.” But climate experts and even a crucial organizer behind the deal say it will do virtually nothing to decrease carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, falling far short of neutral.

“The claim that you can market the sale of fossil fuels as carbon neutral because of a meager few dollars you put into tropical conservation is not a defensible claim,” says Danny Cullenward, a Stanford University lecturer and policy director at CarbonPlan, a nonprofit group that analyzes climate solutions for impact.

At best, Cullenward says, efforts to prevent deforestation by stopping wildfires can only avoid additional heat-trapping gas released when trees burn. Rural villagers can’t do anything to counteract the large-scale pollution from natural gas, other than making energy traders and consumers feel good for supporting green causes in regions where money is scarce.

Total said in a statement that it conducts due diligence on offset projects and confirmed that it split the cost of offsets in the LNG transaction with Cnooc. The French company declined to discuss details, including prices paid for carbon credits, citing a non-disclosure agreement. Cnooc didn’t respond to requests seeking comment. Total also said it doesn’t count carbon credits in its companywide emissions reports or as part of its plan to reach net zero by 2050. “While an important tool,” the company said, “offsetting cannot be considered as a substitute for direct emissions reductions by corporates, but as a complement.”

WATCH: Energy Giants Sell 'Carbon Neutral' Natural Gas That Doesn't Exist

The use of scientifically defined terms like “carbon neutral” and “net zero” in marketing language introduces additional confusion. Both terms mean balancing any emissions added to the atmosphere with an equivalent amount of removal. Most experts agree that avoiding deforestation isn’t the same as removing greenhouse gases. “This paradigm,” warns Cullenward, “is encouraging a fictitious engine that doesn’t help advance our net-zero goals.”

That view isn’t reserved for outside critics. The leader of South Pole, which helped develop the Zimbabwe project and sold its carbon credits to Total, doesn’t believe forest protection can rectify pollution from natural gas. “It’s such obvious nonsense,” says Renat Heuberger, co-founder of South Pole. “Even my 9-year-old daughter will understand that’s not the case. You’re burning fossil fuels and creating CO₂ emissions.”

The Ichthys LNG terminal in Darwin, Australia,  one of the first steps in the long journey made by Total’s supposedly ‘carbon neutral’ natural gas. 

Source: Copernicus Sentinel-2 Satellite Image; Sept. 11, 2020

LONG READ CONTINUE HERE The Fictitious World of ‘Carbon Neutral’ Fossil Fuel - Bloomberg

The green economy in the U.K. is now four times larger than its manufacturing sector

The report comes as the government faces criticism for a lack of policy details regarding net-zero goals

Author of the article: Daniel Johnson
Publishing date: Aug 11, 2021 

Wind turbines stand at Whitelee Windfarm, the U.K.'s largest onshore windfarm, operated by ScottishPower Renewables, a unit of Iberdrola SA, on Eaglesham Moor near Glasgow, U.K., on Monday, Aug. 11, 2014. Scottish independence risks undermining investment in low-carbon energy because the smaller nation wouldn't be able to afford the same level of subsidies as Britain combined, the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change said in April. PHOTO BY PHOTOGRAPHER: SIMON DAWSON/BLOOMBERG
Article content

U.K.’s green economy is now worth about £200 billion ($346.65 billion CAD), four times larger than the country’s manufacturing sector, according to a report, with the green economy expected to continue growing.

Experts say the low carbon sector could help mitigate the climate crisis, the Guardian reported, while creating sustainable jobs and improving the quality of life, by providing benefits like cleaner transportation, better-insulated homes and reduced air pollution. The report found that over 75,000 businesses from green industries like turbine manufacturing and recycling plants employ over 1.2 million people in the country.
“This data, by examining the full extent of the low carbon economy from the grassroots up, shows us just how important it already is for the UK economy and the progress already made,” said Sarah Howard, the report’s author.

The report was created by kMatrix Data Services, which creates yearly assessments of the low carbon economy in the U.K., and is based on 900 data sources from the government, private sector and academia.

The research found that the country’s manufacturing sector is worth about £55.6 billion ($96.37 billion CAD), while the construction sector is worth about £132.9 billion ($230 billion CAD).

The report indicates that wave and tidal, wind and solar power all grew at a rapid pace in recent years. The country’s low carbon industry grew by 7.4 per cent during the 2018-19 fiscal year, but contracted by nine per cent during the 2020-21 fiscal year. However, the industry is expected to bounce back following COVID-19 recovery efforts.

“It also illustrates (that) the chains and networks of supply are present and scalable, enabling the significant growth required in the wider sector,” said Howard regarding the report. “What we need now is a comprehensive policy framework and the required rapid growth can be achieved.”

The report highlights that the green economy has grown, despite insufficient government support.

The U.K. government has also faced criticism for not putting forward a detailed policy that will allow it to meet its own climate targets.

In July, Chris Stark, the chief executive of the Climate Change Committee said the “progress was illusory.”

Ed Miliband, the head of the Labour party’s climate team, said the government’s failure to grasp the challenge and potential opportunities from transitioning to a low carbon economy is hindering communities across the U.K..

“Tackling the climate emergency could transform our society and our economy, creating new jobs wherever people live, growing British industries and making our businesses more competitive,” said Miliband. “To truly transform our economy, we need the government to show leadership and bring forward a green investment plan equal to the scale of the emergency we face and the task of economic transformation.”

Nick Molho, the executive director of Aldersgate Group, said that the U.K. government’s net-zero strategy should include collaborating with local authorities and community groups to help the net-zero transition with local jobs.

Molho said that a country-wide body could help the country support its workforce as the economy transitions to net-zero emissions, aided by local bodies of industry, government, union, and educational representatives.

“[They] could be tasked with carefully planning the changes needed in their areas to support a successful transition to net zero emissions,” Molho said.

The green energy arms race is underway
By: Paddy Ryan   2 days ago

(imaginima/Getty Images)


Energy is woven into the fabric of modern geopolitics. The oligopolistic stranglehold OPEC nations enjoyed over global energy supply was made clear in the 1970s when embargoes almost brought the West to its knees. Today, the United States and its allies continue to indulge Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other OPEC members despite divergences on human rights, democracy and support for extremists. For OPEC+ leader Russia, the transit of gas provides a weapon against neighboring Ukraine, while the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany allows Moscow to divide and conquer Europe.

The geopolitical leverage derived from hydrocarbon exports is motivating the development of alternative energy resources among the world’s heaviest energy consumers. After the first oil embargo, France built a formidable nuclear reactor fleet to maximize its energy autonomy. As wind and solar power each nears cost parity with traditional sources, fuel importers have new opportunities to wean themselves off foreign hydrocarbon dependence.

But the transition to renewables, if poorly managed, may not be as conducive to energy independence as policymakers might hope. Alternative energy resources, as well as technical know-how and industrial inputs, obey the same established geopolitical logic. As the transition gathers pace, beware the advent of green geopolitics.

A recent book, “The Prologue: The Alternative Energy Megatrend in the Age of Great Power Competition,” by Dr. Alexander Mirtchev describes how an alternative energy “megatrend” — a confluence of interconnected trends transforming the global zeitgeist — is revolutionizing international relations.


With climate concerns, economic motives and energy security imperatives fashioning the megatrend, professor Mirtchev details a “green gold rush” as nations race to control renewable resources.


The unequal distribution of solar and wind power — and advances in cross-border power transmission — will entail uneven energy trade. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s pledge to make Britain the “Saudi Arabia of wind” implies significant export potential, while European Union plans to develop North African solar, wind and hydrogen power for European consumption could recreate the patron-client relations currently experienced by weaker fossil fuel suppliers. Other alternative energy resources could precipitate conflict: Ethiopia’s building of a hydroelectric dam risks Egyptian military intervention if downstream water flow is curtailed.

In the United States, a vast and varied geography, combining a sun-drenched Southwest with a wind-swept northeast coast, seems to make energy independence a simpler proposition. Estimates suggest the U.S. could easily meet its total electricity demand through wind and solar alone. Yet harvesting wind and solar energy requires turbines and solar panels built with rare earth elements — a group of metals used to create permanent magnets — which are also needed for portable electronics, electric vehicles and even advanced military hardware.

Sections of pipe lie at a pipe depot for construction of the Eugal gas pipeline on March 26, 2019, near Wrangelsburg, Germany. The pipeline is meant to transport natural gas arriving from Russia through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The metals’ rarity is a misnomer; they are abundant within Earth’s crust. Yet, extracting them is costly and exacts a steep environmental toll. While the U.S. once mined its own rare earths, environmental neglect as well as low and subsidized production costs helped China conquer about 85 percent of the global market for rare earth oxides by 2019. Beijing’s dominance became clear in 2010 when a maritime dispute with Tokyo prompted a rare earths embargo, stifling Japan’s technology-intensive economy.

According to Mirtchev, the Sino-Japanese rare earths dispute presages increasing great power competition over critical green technology components.

Diversification of rare earth supplies has become a priority outside China. The U.S., the EU, Japan, Canada and Australia have drafted critical materials lists, all of which include rare earths. North America and Australia have ample deposits, but capital-intensive extraction may fall victim to Chinese price fixing, whereby markets are flooded with below-cost supply to bankrupt competing miners.

The U.S. Department of Defense has countered by pumping tens of millions of dollars into domestic rare earth production. Meanwhile, the State Department launched an Energy Resource Governance Initiative supporting extraction elsewhere. The Biden administration is reviewing America’s supply chain security, which includes reliable and affordable access to inputs vital to national security.

Solar power shares the same issue. Nearly four-fifths of the panels installed in the U.S. come from Chinese companies. Beijing subsidizes the industry heavily, and costs may be kept low in some cases through forced labor in Xinjiang — little wonder the United States’ own subsidized suppliers, like ill-fated Solyndra, find it difficult to compete.

Today, using a stick rather than former President Barack Obama’s carrot, the Biden administration has sanctioned Chinese firms linked to forced labor, a clear move of green economic statecraft.

A view of the headgear at the rare earth mind Steenkampskraal on July 29, 2019, about 80 kilometers from the Western Cape town of Vanrhynsdorp, South Africa. (Rodger Bosch/AFP via Getty Images)

In this alternative energy race, technology — like natural resources — is part of the game. Innovation is key to making the transition work; for solar and wind to fulfill their energy independence promise, reducing intermittency is crucial.

Advances in battery technology are required for storing excess power generated during periods of intense sun and wind. The country delivering these breakthroughs could control the grid-scale battery market.

As Mirtchev noted, technology is a vital component of green great power competition. In this megatrend, the intersection of geopolitics, economy and innovation creates a world where everything is a security matter.

In this universally securitized world, cooperative policies among democracies are desperately needed. Australia and Canada seek partnership with the U.S. on alternative mineral supply chains, while the U.S. kills the Keystone XL pipeline vital for Canadian oil exports.

In the North Sea, Britain, Norway and Denmark are integrating hydro and offshore wind transmission to create viable alternative power markets. Similarly, Western research should be collaboratively scaled up to compete with China.

Will collaboration prevail? The G-7 summit produced plenty of talk, including of a green rival to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, but relations among Western countries remain strained. The EU and the U.K. are in an uneasy “Sausage War” cease-fire, and American allies doubt if Washington can be trusted again.

Though former President Donald Trump’s “America First” policy has been softened to Biden’s “Buy American” version, in the post-pandemic “green recovery” and energy transition, every nation remains for itself.

As such, as Dr. Mirtchev warned, a fractured West could remain at the mercy of a politically minded energy cartel — only this time from China. We have yet to see how the green energy megatrend will unfold, but the geostrategic pieces are already ominously in motion.


Paddy Ryan is a climate editor at Global Risk Insights and an alumnus of the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center’s Young Global Professionals Program. He has a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics, and has written for The Spectator, the Atlantic Council and Energy Post.

PIE IN THE SKY

 A clean US hydrogen economy is within reach, but needs a game plan, energy researchers say

by Cell Press

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Addressing climate change requires not only a clean electrical grid, but also a clean fuel to reduce emissions from industrial heat, long-haul heavy transportation, and long-duration energy storage. Hydrogen and its derivatives could be that fuel, argues a Commentary publishing August 11 in the journal Joule, but a clean U.S. H2 economy will require a comprehensive strategy and a 10-year plan. The commentary suggests that careful consideration of future H2 infrastructure, including production, transport, storage, use, and economic viability, will be critical to the success of efforts aimed at making clean H2 viable on a societal scale.

"We applaud the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, for launching the ambitious Hydrogen Earthshot program with a technology-agnostic stretch goal of greenhouse gas-free H2 production at $1/kg before the end of this decade," write Arun Majumdar, a Jay Precourt Professor and Co-Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University and lead author of the commentary, and colleagues. "Similar R&D programs with techno-economic stretch goals are needed for H2 storage, use, and transport as well. The Hydrogen Earthshot is necessary to create a hydrogen economy, but it is not sufficient."

About 70 million metric tons of H2 are produced around the world each year, with the U.S. contributing about one-seventh of the global output. Much of this H2 is used to produce fertilizer and petrochemicals, and nearly all of it is considered "gray H2," which costs only about $1 per kilogram to produce but comes with roughly 10 kilograms of CO2 baggage per kilogram H2.

"An H2 economy already exists, but it involves lots of greenhouse gas emissions," says Majumdar. "Almost all of it is based on H2 from methane. A clean H2 economy does not exist today."

Researchers have plenty of colorful visions as to what a clean H2 economy might look like. "Blue H2," for example, involves capturing CO2 and reducing emissions, resulting in H2 with less greenhouse gas output. However, it currently costs about 50% more than gray H2, not including the cost of developing the pipelines and sequestration systems needed to transport and store unwanted CO2.

"To make blue H2 a viable option, research and development is needed to reduce CO2 capture costs and further improve capture completeness," write Majumdar and colleagues.

Another form of clean H2—dubbed "green H2"—has also captured scientists' attention. Green H2 involves the use of electricity and electrolyzers to split water, without any greenhouse gas byproducts. However, it costs $4 to $6 per kilogram, a price that Majumdar and colleagues suggest could be reduced to under $2 per kilogram with a reduction in carbon-free electricity and electrolyzer costs.

"Turquoise H2," which is achieved through methane pyrolysis, when methane is cracked to generate greenhouse gas-free H2, is also creating a buzz in the research world. The solid carbon co-product generated in this process could be sold to help offset costs, although Majumdar and colleagues point out that the quantity of solid carbon produced at the necessary scale would exceed current demand, resulting in a need for R&D efforts to develop new markets for its use

Whether blue, green, or turquoise, greenhouse gas-free (and, in actuality, colorless) H2 or its derivatives could be used in transportation, the chemical reduction of captured CO2, long-duration energy storage in a highly renewable energy-dependent grid, and chemical reductants for steel and metallurgy, and as high-temperature industrial heat for glass and cement production. But for these applications to become a reality, H2 production will have to hit certain cost benchmarks—$1 per kilogram for the production of ammonia and petrochemicals or for use as a transportation fuel or fuel cells.

The researchers also emphasize that the U.S. will need to consider how H2 pipelines will be developed and deployed in order to transport it, as well as how to store H2 cost-effectively at a large scale. "Developing and siting new pipeline infrastructure is generally expensive and involves challenges of social acceptance," write Majumdar and colleagues. "Hence, it is important to explore alternative approaches for a hydrogen economy that does not require a new H2 pipeline infrastructure. Instead, it is worth using existing infrastructure to transport the feedstock for H2—electric grid for transporting electricity for water splitting; natural gas pipelines to transport methane for pyrolysis."

"While there has been some systematic study of geological storage, the United States Geological Survey should be charged with undertaking a national survey to identify the many locations where underground storage of hydrogen is possible while also considering the infrastructure costs needed to use these caverns," the researchers add.

Study offers plan to overcome hurdles for hydrogen energy

More information: Joule, Majumdar et al.: "A framework for a hydrogen economy" www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S2542-4351(21)00345-7 , DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2021.07.00

Journal information: Joule 

Provided by Cell Press 

Solar Power from Space? Caltech’s $100 Million Gambit

Billionaire makes secret donation for electricity from orbit

NED POTTER


A NASA artist's rendering from 1999 of a solar power station in orbit. Like many other space-based solar designs, it required many connected parts, which translates to considerable launch costs.
NASA


In 1941 Isaac Asimov, the science fiction writer, published a short story called "Reason." It was a cautionary tale about robotics and artificial intelligence, but it's also remembered now for its fanciful setting: A space station that gathered solar energy to send to the planets via microwave. Ever since, space-based solar power has been an out-there idea—something with potential to change the world, if we can ever master the technology, and muster the funds, to do it.

Donald Bren has done his share of reading about solar power, and since he is one of America's wealthiest real estate developers, he's in a position to help muster the funds. The California Institute of Technology has just announced that, since 2013, Bren and his wife Brigitte have given the school more than US $100 million to help make photovoltaic power from orbit a reality.

That's a lot of money, and, importantly, the work has been spread out over a decade. A team at Caltech is aiming for the first launch of a test array in late 2022 or 2023.

"This is something that's pretty daring," says Ali Hajimiri, a professor of electrical engineering and a co-director of Caltech's Space Solar Power Project. The long timeline, he says, "allows you take chances, and take risks. Sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don't, but when you do that, in an educated, controlled fashion, you end up with things that you never expected."

Bren, 89, made most of his fortune—estimated between $15.3 billion and $16.1 billion—building offices and homes in Orange County, California. He is majority owner of New York City's iconic MetLife Building. He's also donated land and money for environmental conservation. He gives few interviews (he declined to speak for this story), and while Caltech's Space Solar Power Project has been public, Bren's support of it was a secret until now.

High Earth orbit is a great place for a solar farm—the sun never sets and clouds never form. But to generate a meaningful amount of electricity, most past designs were unrealistically, and unaffordably, massive. Engineers depicted giant truss structures, usually measured in kilometers or miles, to which photovoltaic panels or mirrors were attached, absorbing or concentrating sunlight to convert to direct current, then transmit it to the ground via laser or microwave beams. Hundreds of rocket launches might be needed to build a single installation. It was technology too big to succeed.

"What was really required to make this compelling was to have a paradigm shift in the technology," says Harry Atwater, the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science at Caltech and a leader of the project. "Instead of weighing a kilogram per square meter, we're talking about systems we can make today in the range of 100 to 200 grams per square meter, and we have a roadmap for getting down to the range of 10 to 20 grams per square meter."

How? Through no single step, but perhaps the biggest change in thinking has been to make solar arrays that are modular. Lightweight gallium-arsenide photovoltaic cells would be attached to "tiles"—the fundamental unit of the Caltech design, each of which might be as small as 100 square centimeters, the size of a dessert plate.

Each tile—and this is key—would be its own miniature solar station, complete with photovoltaics, tiny electronic components, and a microwave transmitter. Tiles would be linked together to form larger "modules" of, say, 60 square meters, and thousands of modules would form a hexagonal power station, perhaps 3 km long on a side. But the modules would not even be physically connected. No heavy support beams, no bundled cables, much less mass.

"You can think of this as like a school of fish," says Atwater. "It's a bunch of identical independent elements flying in formation."

Transmission to receivers on the ground would be by phased array—microwave signals from the tiles synchronized so that they can be aimed with no moving parts. Atwater says it would be inherently safe: microwave energy is not ionizing radiation, and the energy density would be "equal to the power density in sunlight."

Space solar power is probably still years away. Analysts at the Aerospace Corporation's Center for Space Policy and Strategy caution that it "will not be a quick, easy, or comprehensive solution." But there is ferment around the world. JAXA, Japan's space agency, is hard at work, as is China's. Launch costs are coming down and new spacecraft are going up, from internet satellites to NASA's moon-to-Mars effort. The Aerospace Corp. analysts say terrestrial power grids may not be the first users of solar power satellites. Instead, they say, think of…other space vehicles, for which a microwave beam from an orbiting solar farm may be more practical than having their own solar panels.

"Is there a need for a lot of additional work? Yes," says Hajimiri. But "some of the ingredients that were major showstoppers before, we are moving in the direction of addressing them."

All of this has the Caltech engineers excited. "It's important for us to be willing to take chances," Hajimiri continues, "and move forward with challenging problems that, if successful, would work toward the betterment of our lives."


Ned Potter  a writer from New York, spent more than 25 years as an ABC News and CBS News correspondent covering science, technology, space, and the environment.

Space Solar Power Project Set To Go Ahead Thanks To $100 Million Donation


TO MAKE THE OLD CENTURY-OLD DREAM OF SOLAR POWER BEAMED FROM SPACE A REALITY, ONE OF THE REQUIREMENTS IS ULTRATHIN, ULTRALIGHT SOLAR CELLS INTEGRATED WITH ANTENNA THAT CAN BEAM THE ENERGY PRODUCED TO RECEPTORS ON EARTH. IMAGE CREDIT: CALTECH


By Stephen Luntz

10 AUG 2021

Solar panels will soon be launched into space, not to power satellites or missions to other planets, but to test the practicality of beaming energy down to Earth. A prototype launch of this old dream is planned for 2023.

No matter how cloudy the weather where you live, there is somewhere 100 kilometers (62 miles) away that gets more sunlight than any desert; low Earth orbit. For decades this observation has inspired the idea to place solar cells in space, turn sunlight into electricity, and beam it down to Earth for use. The idea was proposed in the 1920s, and the first technical paper was published in 1968. At a minimum, there are no clouds to interfere, and if the panels are moved sufficiently far they can avoid the Earth's shadow, allowing them to collect sunlight 24/7, eliminating solar's intermittency problem.

Caltech trustees Donald and Brigitte Bren believe in the idea so strongly they donated more than $100 million dollars for Caltech to explore it, originally anonymously, in what is now called the Space-based Solar Power Project (SSPP). The Brens aren't investing in the idea and have no commercial interest in any development that may come out of it. “It shows the magnitude of the generosity," said Caltech Professor Ali Hajimiri, co-director of the SSPP, in a statement. "They really want to change the world and truly see this as an opportunity to make a lasting difference for the planet, while generating a broad range of novel technologies with impact in many areas such as wireless power, communications, and sensing."

Bren's contribution will literally get the project off the ground, but there remain very big questions about whether the idea will ever be viable compared to using batteries or other storage for electricity produced from ground-based solar. Once the electricity has been produced it needs to be beamed back to Earth, which the SSPP plans to do with radio frequency electrical power. This then needs to be captured and turned back into electricity, inevitably with some losses, before it is ready to use.

The initial prototypes will measure 1.8 meters by 1.8 meters (6 feet by 6 feet) and weigh about 4 kilograms (9 pounds), a tenth of the lightest solar cells previously manufactured. Conversion to radio frequency waves for transfer is integrated into the cells, avoiding the need to concentrate power at a central point.

Many satellites have larger solar arrays, so we know this is possible. However, it's still very expensive. After all, it costs an estimated $250,000 to take a person on a suborbital joyride.

In addition to the technical problems the project must face, it will also attract some other objections. Even people unsympathetic to 5G conspiracy theories or tales of wildfire-causing space lasers, may be worried about the targeting of beams carrying the energy to power a city.

Moreover, ground-based solar power promises to democratize electricity production. Some of the population can afford to put solar panels on their roofs, backed up with a battery system, giving themselves independence from power companies. Space solar power goes the opposite way, almost certainly operating on scales beyond anyone but governments and the world's largest companies.

On the other hand, even if the idea never works as planned, the advances in ultralight solar collection and transmission may have other uses that justify the investment.

Pesâkâstêw Solar Project To Provide Electricity For Thousands

 Category: Local News

 Published: Tuesday, 10 August 2021 

 Written by Denis Conroy

Photo of some of the crew at the Pesâkâstêw Solar Project four kilometres southwest of the City of Weyburn.

 (courtesy of Kathleen Funke from Natural Forces)

Clean energy has become a popular subject in recent times and only a few kilometres from Weyburn a huge solar farm is currently in development to help supply some of that energy to the Saskatchewan electrical grid.

"So far on the project we're having great progress," shared Kathleen Funke, Communications Manager for Natural Forces a clean energy business based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. "We kicked things off in May and things have been going steady. And we're very excited about installing all of the racking and panels very shortly."

A construction worker drilling holes for fence posts. (courtesy of Kathleen Funke from Natural Forces)

The Pesâkâstêw Solar Project is a 10 Megawatt solar farm being created approximately 4 km southwest of the city of Weyburn on land with low environmental sensitivity.

The plan is to have the farm operational by the end of 2021 is it will be able to provide electricity to approximately 3,367 homes and, in doing so, will displace between 15,246-18,150 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually.

"Natural Forces has their own construction company that allows us to hire some small local companies that might have not been able to bid in individually," Funke told. "We don't have crews so we make sure to hire as much locally as possible. The Pesâkâstêw partnership is between Natural Forces, George Gordon Developments of George Gordon First Nation, and Red Dog Holdings a development branch of Star Blanket Cree Nation. We are looking at having Indigenous workers on the site and we have at least a couple every week from the local First Nations. So we'll hire some local engineering, definitely construction, we've got people that were out there digging holes for fencing, electrical, all kinds of stuff. It depends on which stage of the project but all kinds of folks from the Weyburn and local area."

This project will require approximately 93.26 acres of land and will connect directly to the SaskPower substation adjacent to the site later this year.

Weyburn was chosen because of the high solar potential that the city has being located in the southern part of the province.

Electrical work, as well as tracker and module installation, are already underway and the commissioning of the project is expected to be in November 2021.

Recent photo of the project. (captured by Glenn Rogers)

The first public open house for the Pesâkâstêw Solar Project was held on March 6th, 2019 at the Captain's Hall in Weyburn and they hope to hold a second open house sometime this year after having to postpone last year due to the pandemic.

"Not only is this a majority Indigenous-owned project but this is one of the projects that going to get Saskatchewan on to their target to achieve fifty percent renewable energy by 2030," explained Funke. "Projects like this one are owned by the community and the money stays in those communities. They really help with community growth and for all of these Indigenous peoples to have their own independent income. That's on top of adding clean energy to the Saskatchewan electrical grid which is incredibly important these days."

The Pesâkâstêw Solar Limited Partnership came to fruition through the First Nations Power Authority and all three partners agreed that there needed to be more support for the Indigenous peoples in the areas surrounding their projects through employment, electricity, and partnerships.

Regular on-site inspections of the equipment, including solar panels, electrical connections, inverters, and transformers will be done on the Weyburn site, and based on these inspections repairs and maintenance will be carried out as needed.

Land inspections will also be part of the maintenance plan, conducted to monitor site drainage, monitor erosion, and assess the risk of grass fires. Land repairs and maintenance will be driven by the results of land inspections and snow removal will be dependent upon the final design of the farm.

"Our crews and staff that we have flown in are absolutely in love with the Weyburn area," Funke expressed. "They love the people, the culture, and the atmosphere. Everyone has really made our folks at home. These are lifelong partnerships and friendships and we're just really excited to be part of the community."

Sheep are being considered for vegetation control around the project area. There are several methods of controlling the vegetation being considered with all of them involving local Weyburn and area workers.

A better look at the sign and all of the partners involved. (captured by Glenn Rogers)

 

Fukushima struggles on 10 years after devastating earthquake and tsunami

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Tokyo Olympics had been touted as a chance to showcase the recovery efforts in the region

Adrienne Arsenault · CBC News · Posted: Aug 06, 2021 

Inside Fukushima a decade after tsunami, nuclear disaster

8 days ago

8:26

Adrienne Arsenault visits Fukushima, Japan to see what life is like 10 years after the region was struck by an earthquake that set off a tsunami and nuclear disaster killing more than 18,000 people and displacing nearly half a million others. 8:26

When Tokyo bid for the Olympics in 2013, the healing of Fukushima and the country's Tohoku region was part of the pitch. A decade ago, northeastern Japan was rocked by the strongest earthquake in its recorded history. It triggered a tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 people and left more than 2,500 missing.

When the 15-metre tsunami flooded the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, there were explosions and meltdowns. A contaminated cloud blew north and 150,000 people moved out of the way. 

Most haven't come back.

Japanese Olympic officials had wanted to use the Games to show confidence in the region's growth. The fresh flowers given to athletes at the medal ceremonies are from three prefectures affected by the disaster. Fukushima grew some of the food served in the athletes' village. The torch relay began there. The cauldron was lit with clean energy from the region.

It was a neat narrative constructed around a messier reality.

Nobuyoshi Ito has been measuring the radioactive properties in the food and soil in Iitate village for nearly a decade. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

"There has been no recovery. Saying it's under control is a lie," Nobuyoshi Ito said through an interpreter. Ito is a former computer engineer who retired to the village of Iitate, in Fukushima, a year before the disaster.

"Iitate had 6,500 people before the accident, but only 1,400 have returned. Where did the others go? It's only when those people have returned that you can say for the first time that things have recovered."

This sort of anger can feel odd coming from a man sitting in Iitate, given Ito never left. When the earthquake hit there wasn't much damage in Iitate, and it was outside the zone first thought to be at risk from the cloud of radioactive materials. So he stayed.

Then, a few weeks later, the government reevaluated. It declared Iitate was contaminated after all.

Testing vegetables and soil

Ito, who became an apprentice farmer after his career, started collecting soil samples from throughout the village, and growing potatoes in them — not to eat, but to test. He has been measuring the radioactive properties in the food and soil for nearly a decade, trying to determine what is and isn't safe to eat, and where it is and isn't safe to go.

He carries a handheld radiation dosimeter with him, constantly evaluating the atmospheric contamination. And despite the evacuation orders being rescinded in Fukushima, Ito says people — especially children — shouldn't return to his village.

"It will take 300 years to restore the village to its original state, and it will continue to emit radiation for 300 years," he said. "The question is, can we bring our children, our newborn children, to such a village?"

But not everyone feels that way.

Masaru Mizoguchi, a professor of agricultural and life sciences at the University of Tokyo, says produce grown in Fukushima prefecture is safe if done properly. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

Masaru Mizoguchi, a professor of agricultural and life sciences at the University of Tokyo, says he and others have learned to grow produce safely by consistently testing the soil and vegetables.

"I'm always surprised that all people don't believe that this kind of fruit or vegetables aren't safe," he said. "I am a scientist so I understand what occurs in the fields."

Dealing with the soil has been a priority for the Japanese government. When you drive through the region, you see fields of black bags, emerging like cruel crops on the landscape. They contain the contaminated vegetation and topsoil scraped away from areas near homes, public buildings and schools over the course of years.

Black bags containing radioactive soil can be found in many parts of Fukushima prefecture in northeastern Japan. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)

There are millions of cubic metres of it. Unnervingly, some appear next to rice paddies. Japan's government has said that, by 2045, the soil will move to a permanent site outside of Fukushima prefecture. But so far, there's no word on where the toxic waste will go.

Ito continues to have his doubts about just how much the region has recovered.

"It's all lies and deceit, isn't it?" he said.

And if the Olympics were intended to offer the needed boost to reconstruction and confidence for all, it was a chance denied.

The shiny, freshly painted barriers built to guide the throngs of spectators outside the Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium never got their Olympic moment. The people never came.

Those barriers were pulled down last week — the experience over, even before the Olympic cauldron goes out.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adrienne Arsenault

Senior Correspondent

Emmy Award-winning journalist Adrienne Arsenault co-hosts The National. Her investigative work on security has seen her cross Canada and pursue stories across the globe. Since joining CBC in 1991, her postings have included Vancouver, Washington, Jerusalem and London.