NUKE NEWZ

Bruce output hits new peak

15 October 2021

Bruce Power yesterday announced the achievement of a new site generation peak and set a goal of achieving a site peak of 7000 MW by 2030 as it implements its Made in Ontario post-pandemic economic recovery plan. Production of medical isotopes is also part of the plan, and the company said it plans to carry out a harvest of the medical isotope cobalt-60 before the end of the year.

The Bruce site (Image: Bruce Power)

"We are moving forward with our five-point economic recovery plan and today's milestones demonstrate we're advancing this at a time when our province and our planet need it most," the company's President and CEO Mike Rencheck said. "By achieving a new site peak output and building towards a goal of 7000 MW by 2030, we're supporting Ontario's recovery while also meeting climate change targets and providing the medical isotopes the world needs."

The site generation peak of 6550 MW - up from 6300 MW in 2016 - has been achieved through investments and innovations in the facility, the company said. The previous peak output was achieved at a time when all eight Candu units at the site, on the shores of Lake Huron, were operating. One unit - Bruce 6 - was taken offline in January to undergo major refurbishment under the ongoing Major Component Replacement Project, which will extend the operational life of the power plant until 2064.

The company said it is aiming for a site peak of 7000 MW by 2030 in support of climate change targets and future clean energy needs. To this end, it has launched Project 2030 which will focus on continued asset optimisation, innovations, and leveraging new technology, which could include integration with storage and other forms of energy to increase the site peak. A feasibility review of opportunities to reach this goal is being carried out, and individual initiatives will be announced as they are approved, the company said.

Cobalt harvest

Production of radioisotopes including Co-60, which is widely used for the sterilisation of medical equipment and also in some medical applications, is also a feature of the economic recovery plan. Four of Bruce's eight Candu units produce the isotope, made by irradiating special rods containing cobalt-59 inside a reactor.

The company yesterday said a Co-60 harvest will be completed at Bruce later this year and will be processed and distributed by Ottawa-based Nordion. This harvest will produce sufficient isotopes to sterilise 10 billion pairs of surgical gloves and COVID swabs, as well as producing isotopes for use in the treatment of breast cancer and brain tumours, it added.

Nuclear helps tackle high energy prices, Foratom says

15 October 2021

A European Commission (EC) communication that includes a "toolbox" that the EU and its Member States can use to address the immediate impact of high energy prices fails to mention nuclear energy's contribution, Foratom said. By including nuclear, the EU would have a unique opportunity of limiting its dependence on carbon intensive natural gas imports, thereby reducing its exposure to wholesale price fluctuations and its carbon footprint, the European nuclear trade body added.

(Image: Pixabay)

On 13 October, the EC adopted a Communication aimed at tackling the exceptional rise in global energy prices, which is projected to last through the winter. The communication includes a toolbox that can be used to address the current price increases and further strengthen resilience against future shocks.

"The current price spike requires a rapid and coordinated response. The existing legal framework enables the EU and its Member States to take action to address the immediate impacts on consumers and businesses," the EC noted. "Priority should be given to targeted measures that can rapidly mitigate the impact of price rises for vulnerable consumers and small businesses. These measures should be easily adjustable in the Spring, when the situation is expected to stabilise. Our long-term transition and investments in cleaner energy sources should not be disrupted."

Short-term national measures include emergency income support to households, state aid for companies and targeted tax reductions. The Commission said it will also support investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency; examine possible measures on energy storage and purchasing of gas reserves; and assess the current electricity market design.

It added, "The clean energy transition is the best insurance against price shocks in the future, and needs to be accelerated."

"The Commission is helping Member States to take immediate measures to reduce the impact on households and businesses this winter," said Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson. "At the same time, we identify other medium-term measures to ensure that our energy system is more resilient and more flexible to withstand any future volatility throughout the transition."

Simson presented the communication and toolbox to Members of the European Parliament yesterday and will present it to energy ministers on 26 October. European leaders are then due to discuss energy prices at the upcoming European Council on 21-22 October.

Nuclear's contribution

Foratom said the EC communication failed to "pay closer attention to the role which low-carbon and dispatchable nuclear can play in mitigating the current energy crisis."

The organisation's Director General Yves Desbazeille said: "As highlighted in the communication, the current price increases are being driven by higher natural gas prices on the global market. Therefore, as the EU moves to increase its share of variable renewables, it is essential that EU policy supports other low-carbon European sources to ensure reduced dependency on imports."

Foratom also noted the communication highlights the effects which lower availability of renewables has had on the market, leading to supply constraints. "Because nuclear can provide both baseload and dispatchable electricity, it acts as a perfect counterbalance at times when renewables are unavailable," it said. "As noted in the communication, nuclear currently accounts for around 25% of the electricity mix in the EU."

"It would be a mistake to treat this as a short-term issue. It is clear that demand for electricity is expected to increase dramatically in the push to decarbonise Europe's economy," Desbazeille added. "Therefore, the EU needs to already be putting solutions in place today to ensure that it is able to generate enough low-carbon electricity in Europe to meet growing demand. This means supporting the development of nuclear energy."

Germans asked to keep reactors in operation

15 October 2021

Germany's phase-out of nuclear energy will only lead to the country missing its 2030 carbon emissions target, 25 leading foreign and German environmentalists, journalists and academics have written in an open letter to the German public. They call on German politicians to be "brave enough" to change legislation to at least postpone the shutdown of the country's reactors.

The Grohnde plant, which is due to shut down at the end of 2021 (Image: PreussenElektra)

The letter - titled Dear Germany, please leave the nuclear power plants on the grid and published on 13 October in Welt - notes a recent draft government report that predicts that, based on the policies in place in August 2020, Germany will largely miss its target of a 65% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 compared with 1990 levels. "It is very difficult to imagine that the measures adopted since then will completely close this gap," it says.

The authors add: "However, Germany is not exhausting all the options available to the country. The elephant in the room is that Germany is increasing the carbon emissions of its energy system by stepping out of nuclear power. And this at a time when the decarbonisation of the electricity industry is the main strategy for effectively achieving an energy system with net-zero emissions."

Following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan in March 2011, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel decided it would phase out its use of nuclear power by the end of 2022 at the latest. Prior to the accident, Germany was obtaining around one-quarter of its electricity from nuclear power.

In August 2011, the 13th amendment of the Nuclear Power Act came into effect, which underlined the political will to phase out nuclear power in Germany. As a result, eight units were closed down immediately: Biblis A and B, Brunsbüttel, Isar 1, Krümmel, Neckarwestheim 1, Phillipsburg 1 and Unterweser.

By the end of this year, Brokdorf, Grohnde and Gundremmingen C are scheduled to shut down, with the country's final three units - Emsland, Isar 2 and Neckarwestheim 2 - set to close at the end of 2022.

"This loss of low-carbon electricity generation with an installed capacity of 8 GW, which currently accounts for 12% of Germany's annual electricity production, will inevitably lead to around 60 million tonnes of additional carbon emissions per year because more fossil fuels have to be burned in order to provide the necessary replacement service," the letter states. "This will increase national emissions by 5% compared to the reference year 1990."

The authors say Germany cannot afford such an "unnecessary setback" at a time when its emissions are already rising sharply again after the COVID-19 pandemic. They note in 2021 emissions are expected to be "only" 37% below the level of 1990. This is still outside the 2020 target of 40% below 1990 levels, which has already been missed. The expansion of renewable energies and the construction of north-south transmission lines are also currently being delayed, they say, while the recent steep rise in natural gas prices is favouring the burning of coal.

"You could still achieve your climate target for 2030. You could still change course and change your priorities so that the coal phase-out comes before the nuclear phase-out. All that is needed is a climate emergency ordinance with an amendment to the Nuclear Power Act, which puts the extension of the life cycle for the power plants from 2030 to 2036 back into force.

"Are your politicians brave enough to make this specific change, which would clearly have a positive impact on emissions, on your behalf at a critical time in the climate crisis? This contingency measure - a simple postponement of the nuclear phase-out - would rightly deserve the respect of the younger generation and future generations."

Among the signatories of the letter are: physicist Wade Allison from the University of Oxford; energy analyst Malcolm Grimston of Imperial College London; climate researcher James Hansen of Columbia University; Rainer Klute, chairman of German pro-nuclear group Nuklearia; British environmentalists and writers Mark Lynas and George Monbiot; Rauli Partanen, founder of Finland's Think Atom; US documentary filmmaker Robert Stone; Geraldine Thomas, molecular biologist and director of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank, Imperial College London; and Myrto Tripathi, founder of France's Voix du Nucléaire.

British nuclear transport ship fully recycled

12 October 2021

The Oceanic Pintail purpose-built nuclear transport ship, which was decommissioned in November 2020 after 33 years of service, has now been fully recycled, Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS) announced today. Its contractor - Dales Marine Services - had been set the target that 98% of the vessel be recycled.

Dismantling of the Oceanic Pintail's hull nearing completion (Image: NTS)

The Japanese-built 3865-tonne vessel was certified to the International Maritime Organisation's highest level, INF3, allowing it to carry used nuclear fuel, high-level waste and plutonium with no limit on the maximum aggregate radioactivity of the materials carried. Launched in 1987, the Oceanic Pintail has served customers from across the world with bespoke solutions to all specialist nuclear transport challenges and was the first vessel to ship mixed-oxide fuel from Europe to Japan in 1999.

Dales Marine was informed in October 2020 that it had won the bidding process to dismantle the ship. The following month, Oceanic Pintail made its final journey from Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria, England, to Dales Marine's dry dock facilities in Leith, Scotland.

"Applying a number of innovative techniques, the Scottish firm exceeded expectations, and recycled every part of the NDA-owned Oceanic Pintail," said NTS, part of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA).

Dales Marine achieved this by: separating different oils from water, and using the oil as furnace fuel; converting insulation into electrical energy; and crushing concrete and tiles to create material used in the construction industry.

Reusing 100% of a nuclear vessel is a UK first, and supports both the NDA group and government's carbon net-zero ambitions, NTS noted.

"NTS takes its environmental responsibilities seriously, so we're delighted that 100% of Oceanic Pintail has been recycled," said NTS Shipping Director Peter Buchan. "We set our contractors, Dales Marine, an incredibly ambitious recycling target. They took that challenge and set the standard for others to follow when it comes to decommissioning vessels."

He added: "It's a fantastic achievement, especially considering the work was completed in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, so a lot of thanks must go to everyone who has played a role in ensuring this project has been a huge success. Oceanic Pintail served the UK with distinction and this is a fitting end to its life."

NDA CEO David Peattie said: "The NDA group is committed to supporting government goals to be carbon net-zero by 2050. This fantastic achievement in recycling 100% of Oceanic Pintail supports our ambitions to reduce our carbon impact."

NTS operates a fleet of over 100 rail locomotives, three specialist nuclear vessels - the Pacific Grebe, Pacific Egret and Pacific Heron - and a 700-strong workforce.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

BECAUSE OF COURSE IT DID

Blackrock rejects call for Australia's CBA to stop fossil fuel funding

Reuters
Paulina Duran
Publishing date: Oct 14, 2021 

SYDNEY — BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest money manager, voted against a resolution calling for Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to stop financing new fossil fuel projects, it said late on Wednesday.

CBA’s largest shareholder said it opposed the resolution, which also asked the bank to publish targets to cut its fossil fuel exposures consistent with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, because it was overly prescriptive.

“(It) risks unduly constraining management’s ability to make business decisions,” BlackRock said in a statement on its website.

“Further, the company has demonstrated its commitment to integrating climate risks into its long-term strategy, including Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)-aligned reporting since 2018 and a stated goal of net zero emissions by 2050.”

The lack of support for the resolution was a perfect example of an asset manager failing to live up to its own net zero commitments, said Jack Bertolus of activist group Market Forces, which helped investors organize the resolution.

BlackRock accounts for a large part of the $32 trillion of total assets supporting groups that have declared commitments to limit greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, including the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change in Europe and the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment.

The resolution, backed by just 14% of voting shareholders of Australia’s biggest lender at an annual meeting on Wednesday, comes ahead of the United Nations’ COP26 climate talks in Glasgow later this month, when Australia will be under pressure to reduce its carbon emissions. (Reporting by Paulina Duran in Sydney Editing by Mark Potter

)

Agreena, a regenerative farming carbon market, raises $4.7M seed from Giant Ventures

Mike Butcher@mikebutcher / October 14, 2021

Image Credits: Agreena


Farming accounts for 24% of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions, and this is largely due to the intensive, “industrial” farming methods employed in the last few decades, together with the rise in the consumption of meat. However, a new approach has been taking the farming world by storm. “Regenerative farming” practices hand unproductive land back to nature, boosts wildlife and stores planet-killing CO2, literally using soil as a carbon sink.

By creating woodlands and restoring peatlands, carbon can be captured while simultaneously arresting the decline in natural diversity, essential for things like bee pollination. Plus, regenerative farming plays into the drift away from older government subsidy regimes, which are switching to focusing on the environment and CO2 emission, and away from industrial farming.

Agreena is a Dutch startup that mints, verifies and sells carbon credits generated by farmers who transition to more regenerative forms of farming.
Sponsored Conten



Launched only this summer, the company has now raised a $4.7 million seed funding round led by Giant Ventures, along with the Danish government’s Danish Green Future Fund. A number of European farmers also participated.

Agreena says its platform provides farmers with an economic incentive to switch from traditional arable farming to regenerative agricultural methods by issuing them a “CO2e-certificate” which can be sold between farmers and potential buyers.

So how does it work? Farmers register their fields and get advice on transitioning to regenerative practices. The changes are then monitored by Agreena via satellite imagery and soil verification. The farmers can then sell the CO2e-certificates independently or via Agreena’s marketplace to companies that want to buy the carbon offsets from the farmers. Buyers then track their sponsored CO2 reductions at a field level via Agreena’s platform.

Simon Haldrup, Agreena CEO, said: “Our team consists of 30 professionals including carbon scientists, software developers, and commercial growth hackers. Agriculture has deep roots in Denmark, a historically proud farming nation, which is why the company was born here, but we are scaling across Europe and intend to expand globally.” Agreena was founded by Haldrup, Julie Koch Fahler and Ida Boesen.

Agreena claims to have contracted more than 50,000 hectares in its first year, pre-selling more than 20% of their minted carbon offset certificates.

The startup has some competition in the space. The voluntary carbon market for agriculture includes U.S. scale-up Indigo (U.S. unicorn), Nori (U.S. & blockchain-focused) and U.K./France-based Soil Capital. But Agreena says its key differentiator is its vertically integrated carbon platform.

Cameron McLain, co-founder and managing partner of Giant Ventures, commented: “We’re excited by Agreena’s vertically integrated approach towards agricultural carbon offsets, which is empathetic to the nuances of the industry and the incentives of farmers. We also believe Agreena can become the dominant internet marketplace for facilitating online B2B commerce within farming, a nut which no one has yet cracked.”

TechCrunch

It's Official. China's Solar Power Can Finally Compete With Coal

The technical potential could rise to 'nearly 150 PW-hr by 2060'.

By Brad Bergan

Oct 14, 2021

A solar panel array under the setting sun.Nuno Marques / Unsplash

The best way to incentivize sustainable energy is to make it affordable.

And the sharp drop in the price of photovoltaic systems has made solar capable of rivaling coal power in China, according to an analysis from researchers published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

However, as solar power comes to encompass a greater slice of a national economy's power grid, it becomes harder to achieve a sustainable balance against the fact that solar can only generate power intermittently, potentially exacerbating energy management challenges.
China's solar resources and its people lie on opposite sides of the nation

Once this happens, other issues besides the price become relevant in deciding how much a country should rely on solar energy. These issues aren't identical across all countries, which means building a comprehensive grasp of how solar will affect each nation, which is why the case of China, a rapidly-growing community, is especially enlightening. The recent report found that solar, when combined with storage equipment, could support nearly half of the country's energy needs by roughly 2050.

Similar to other countries, China has noticed the dropping price of solar in the last decade, where, between 2011 and 2018, the cost fell 63%. In reaction to his plummeting price, solar installation has risen to unprecedented levels. As of writing, one-third of the entire world's new solar capacity is being commissioned in China, where installation surpasses the Unites States' solar capacity in 2013, and then Germany in 2015. Now China has 250 GW active, far more than double what it had previously projected by this point. And since China has ambitions to reach net-zero emissions by 2060, it probably won't stop here.

However, most of China's population resides in its southeastern region, on the opposite side of the nation's best solar resources lie, in the northwestern regions where cloudless sunny days are abundant. There aren't a lot of people living there, and this geographic mismatch between supply and demand has created unique solar constraints, since China faces an engineering nightmare of building a reliable grid that transmits the lion's share of its power across vast distances, to the other side of the country. Solar plants stationed in the northwest have frequently gone bust, since the capacity to send this power where it's needed is lacking.

Less reliance by China on coal could save lives

This is why the researchers constructed a model that investigates most of the factors affecting solar performance, according to a report from Ars Technica. The model takes account of economics, changing technology, solar resources, and the projected state of China's power grid from 2020 to 2060. Six years of satellite weather data assisted in an estimation of typical productivity levels throughout the country, in addition to data on existing land use that might mess with present-day solar farm sites.

This model generates what the researchers dubbed the "technical potential", which is the amount of solar energy that might be produced if all accessible sites were put to work to produce it. In 2020, China's technical potential was just under 100 petawatt-hours, or roughly 13 times the entire country's electricity demand. And as technology continues to advance, the researchers think that technical potential could surge to nearly 150 PW-hr by 2060, which would coincide with China's aim to achieve net-zero emissions. It will be interesting to see how China manages its different resources as coal becomes less incentivized than solar, especially because most of the world's materials for renewable power, including wind turbines, batteries, and solar panels, come from China. As a close third, it might also be cool that the reduced pollution from less reliance on coal power will save lives.

Canada is aiming for carbon neutrality and that will mean big changes to how we produce and consume energy

A coal mine in Alberta. Canada has adopted a carbon neutral target for 2050. It represents a major change Canada’s approach to reducing GHG emissions. (Shutterstock)

October 14, 2021

Canada recently adopted a target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and increased its greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2030. It is now committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

The new goal is significant. Also, aiming for carbon neutrality fundamentally changes the approach Canada must adopt to meet its targets.

This is shown in the Canadian Energy Outlook 2021, a report we wrote in collaboration with Olivier Bahn of the Pôle e3c at HEC Montreal and with ESMIA Consultants. It presents the results from modelling different scenarios for the decarbonization of Canadian society.

This second edition of the Canadian Energy Outlook presents scenarios with projections about the evolution of energy production and consumption, as well as all greenhouse gas emissions related to human activity. It compares transformation scenarios over the next 40 years using the most detailed hypotheses available about how technology will evolve.

Will emissions from oil refineries in Alberta’s oil sands soon to be a thing of the past? (Shutterstock)

5 scenarios

Analyses have long shown that in order to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, Canada must transform its energy system, which is responsible for more than 80 per cent of emissions. Regional diversity, the economic weight of this sector (it accounts for 10.2 per cent of GDP) and the high level of per capita energy consumption (it is second only to Iceland in the OECD) add to the challenges Canada faces in making this necessary transformation.

To better understand these challenges, the Canadian Energy Outlook 2021 models and analyzes the evolution of Canada’s energy system through 2060 according to five scenarios. These are a reference scenario, which includes all the measures that are presently in place (REF), a scenario that adds the announced increase of the carbon price to $170 per tonne by 2030 (CP30), and three scenarios for reaching carbon neutrality by 2060, 2050 and 2045 (NZ60, NZ50 and NZ45).

The scenario of carbon neutrality by 2050, which requires a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2005, corresponds to the new Canadian targets. The model uses the optimal trajectories that would allow these objectives to be met while minimizing the investments required.
Transforming the Canadian economy

Strictly speaking, these trajectories are not predictions — actual investments are rarely made in an optimal way because of short-term calculations, technological biases, preference for the easy way out, political pressures, etc. However, the trajectories have the merit of identifying some of the important keys to developing the kind of effective decarbonization strategies that will be required to fundamentally transform Canada’s economy in less than three decades.

The findings from this exercise are too numerous to detail here, so we will limit ourselves to a few

.

Projecting Canadian GHG emissions to 2060. REF is the reference case, which includes measures in place today and growth projected by Canada’s Energy Board. CP30 adds a carbon price that reaches $170/tonne in 2030. NZ60, NZ50 and NZ45 are scenarios that require a linear reduction in GHG emissions to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060, 2050 and 2045, respectively. To achieve carbon neutrality, it will be necessary to capture and sequester up to 125 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. Canadian Energy Outlook 2021 — Horizon 2060

The goal of net-zero changes everything. When we approached this new Canadian Energy Outlook, we expected that the more ambitious federal targets would be a tweak of the 80 per cent reduction scenarios we had reviewed in 2018.

This was not the case. The carbon neutrality target qualitatively changes the nature of the challenge. It is no longer a case of settling for solutions that partially reduce emissions here and there, hoping that the sum of the reductions will bring us to the target. Carbon neutrality requires that, wherever technically possible, the chosen solution should be zero emissions or remove greenhouse gases. The challenge of greenhouse gas capture and sequestration is such that it should only be used as a last resort.

This suggests that much fewer efforts should be spent on making fossil fuel-based technologies more efficient, and more should be spent on those that operate on green energy. It rejects the concept of transitional energy sources, such as natural gas, which is incompatible with carbon neutrality.

Electricity will play a pivotal role in the transformation. This is not entirely new. All modelling and analysis of recent years shows that renewable electricity will make a key contribution to achieving the reduction targets. To achieve carbon neutrality, models project that electricity production will have to increase by a factor of 2.3 (1.4 in Québec). The growth of renewable energy will be dominated across Canada by wind power, while remaining coal and natural gas generation will be almost completely eliminated.

Wind generators at Cap Chat, Gaspé. Electricity production will have to increase by a factor of 2.3, with growth dominated by wind power across Canada, while almost completely eliminating the remaining coal and natural gas generation. 

(Shutterstock)

What’s new in this finding is that the models project a relatively small amount of electricity from biomass associated with carbon capture (BECSC). Although electricity from biomass is more expensive to produce than wind energy, it can be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in sectors that are difficult to decarbonize, such as agriculture, industry and transport.

Not all sectors are equal. The availability of low-emission solutions are not the same in all economic sectors, which also operate differently. For example, although transportation is responsible for 30 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, this sector is particularly slow and difficult to decarbonize due to the lack of well-established solutions. This means that other sectors will have to step up their efforts in order to compensate for this.

In the short term, this will be the case for the oil and gas sector, which will have to reduce its emissions by more than 60 per cent by 2030 to meet this first milestone, and for the industrial sector. The latter can respond quickly with the help of governments. In the medium term, the building sector will have to do the same. Low-GHG heating technologies exist and are available. The challenge here is to transform millions of buildings. That takes time and a clear vision.
A cost-effective transformation

The economic implications of the energy transition in projections for the next 30 years are uncertain. However, estimates of the net cost of massive electrification of Canada’s energy mix suggest that Canadians could save more than $60 billion annually from 2050 on by switching from oil and natural gas to renewable electricity.

Evolution of the marginal cost of the equivalent tonne of CO2 avoided, the cost associated with reducing the last tonne. The costs mentioned for the 2021 Outlook are the costs expected in the NZ50 scenario. The 2018 Outlook scenario projected an 80 per cent reduction in energy-related emissions. (Canadian Energy Outlook 2021 — Horizon 2060)

The remarkable drop in the price of low-carbon technologies across all sectors is also reflected in the evolution of the marginal abatement cost curve between 2018 and 2021. The marginal abatement cost curve shows the highest cost per tonne of carbon dioxide to achieve a certain overall level of greenhouse gas reduction. The marginal cost of reducing Canadian emissions by 65 per cent presented here is roughly a third of what it was in the 2018 projections.

While uncertainties remain, it’s clear that with massive global investment in technologies with low greenhouse gas emissions, prices will continue to fall and the transition will be even less costly than what is currently projected.

However, we still have a long way to go, as the large-scale integration of these technologies requires a clear plan, upstream investments and consistent policies. Despite recent efforts by the federal and several provincial governments, the measures in place are still largely insufficient to achieve the 2030 and 2050 targets.

Our modelling shows that these are technically and economically feasible. What is still missing is a solid, credible, effective strategy and, above all, citizens, thinkers, business leaders and politicians who are convinced of the need and opportunity to act.

This article was originally published in French

Authors

Normand Mousseau
Directeur de l’Institut de l’énergie Trottier, Polytechnique Montréal et Professeur de physique, Université de Montréal

Louis Beaumier
Directeur exécutif, Institut de l'énergie Trottier, Polytechnique Montréal

Simon Langlois-Bertrand
Chercheur associé, Institut de l'énergie Trottier, Polytechnique Montréal
Disclosure statement

The production of the Canadian Energy Outlook 2021 – Horizon 2060 was supported, in part, by the Trottier Institute of Energy, the Pole e3 of HEC Montréal, the Trottier Family Foundation and Natural Resources Canada. No rights of review of the analyses and conclusions have been granted to the organizations that funded this report. The authors are solely responsible for them.

The Trottier Institute of Energy of Polytechnique Montréal was created thanks to a generous donation from the Trottier Family Foundation. Its mission covers research, training and the dissemination of information related to the issues of decarbonization of energy systems.

Simon Langlois-Bertrand does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Partners

Arctic nations discuss mitigating impact of climate change

Oct 14, 2021

Arctic nations met in Reykjavik ahead of the United Nations' COP26 climate summit to discuss their unique perspective on climate change and who to mitigate its effects.  

Plant-eating lizards on the cusp of tooth evolution

by University of Helsinki

3D reconstruction of the skull of an Amazon racerunner (Ameiva ameiva) captured through

 an X-ray micro-CT scan. Complex teeth with multiple tips ("cusps") are visible on the jaws

. This feature—also seen in the dentition of early mammals—evolved many times in 

independent lizard groups. Credit: Fabien Lafuma, University of Helsinki

Researchers at the Universities of Helsinki and Lyon and the Geological Survey of Finland found that complex teeth, a hallmark of mammals, also evolved several times in reptiles, prompting the evolutionary success of plant-eating lizards. However, contrary to mammals their tooth evolution was not unidirectional.

The study, published in Nature Communications, reveals that several lizard groups evolved teeth with multiple tips ("cusps") that allowed new plant-based diets and higher speciation rates—that is, how fast new species appear. Surprisingly, tooth evolution was more flexible in lizards and snakes than mammals, revealing a more nuanced view of tooth and dietary evolutionary adaptations in vertebrates.

Tooth shape is closely linked with diet

Scientists have richly documented the connection of tooth shape and diet in mammals, showing very diverse teeth fuelled their evolutionary success. But what about other toothed animals? The authors chose to study squamates, the group including lizards and snakes. "The teeth of squamates have received limited attention, even though they twice outnumber mammals in species numbers, and span many habitats and geographic ranges," remarks Nicolas Di-Poï, Associate Professor at the Institute of Biotechnology, University of Helsinki.

The researchers performed comparative analyses on tooth shape and diet data for more than 500 living and fossil species. They found the ancestor to all snakes and lizards had simple peg-like teeth and fed on insects. Later, complex teeth bearing multiple cusps—similar to those of early mammals—evolved multiple times independently in different lizard lineages. The appearance of multiple-cusped teeth allowed some lizard groups to evolve more plant-rich diets, sometimes leading to even more complex teeth.

Lizards' teeth evolution took two directions

The team also found that complex teeth and plant consumption provided an evolutionary advantage, as both traits favored the appearance of new species. However, many lizard lineages also lost complex teeth to re-evolve the ancestral simple tooth morphology. "This came as a complete surprise," says Ph.D. candidate Fabien Lafuma from the University of Helsinki, "as complex teeth appear as a critical innovation for both squamates and mammals."

The study suggests that all land-living vertebrates experience the same selective pressures for more cusps to increase plant consumption. Nevertheless, fundamental differences make squamates stand out. Contrary to mammals, tooth evolution was not unidirectional, and numerous lineages reduced complexity over time. This difference could stem from variations in tooth development, showing that minor molecular changes may produce widely different outcomes over evolutionary time scales. Lafuma concludes, "This work gives us a more nuanced understanding of how the same critical adaptation evolved in different vertebrate groups."A 95-million-year-old reptile's solution to the problem of tooth wear

More information: Fabien Lafuma et al, Multiple evolutionary origins and losses of tooth complexity in squamates, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26285-w

Journal information: Nature Communications 

Provided by University of Helsinki 

CLASS WAR USA

John Deere tried replacing union workers with scabs — and immediately had tractor crash in their plant: report

Matthew Chapman
October 15, 2021


On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that agricultural equipment maker John Deere, facing a massive labor strike by the United Auto Workers union over a contract dispute, has brought in nonunion workers to keep their plants running — but according to a new report Friday, they almost immediately suffered a workplace accident in one of their plants

"The strike includes more than 10,000 workers at 14 Deere plants, including seven in Iowa, four in Illinois and one each in Kansas, Colorado and Georgia," reported the Washington Post's Aaron Gregg. "The company has activated a continuity plan that will bring in nonunion employees to keep operations running. "Our immediate concern is meeting the needs of our customers, who work in time-sensitive and critical industries such as agriculture and construction," Hartmann said.

But on Friday, Jonah Furman of Labor Notes flagged an incident report on a plant floor, in which a non-union salaried employee crashed a tractor into a utility post and severely damaged an electrical box.



As the Post noted, the UAW strike action is one of many around the country, as workers return from the pandemic: "Thousands have gone on strike at food plants operated by Kellogg's, Nabisco and Frito-Lay over work hours, pay and benefits. On Monday more than 24,000 Kaiser Permanente workers authorized a strike over a new two-tiered pay and benefits system opposed by the union. And Hollywood production workers announced plans to strike Monday in pursuit of improved pay and working conditions."

‘It’s not going to fade’: Historian says nationwide labor strikes are going to permanently change America

Bob Brigham
October 15, 2021


Screengrab.

Historian Michael Beschloss explained on Friday why he believes labor unrest in America will permanently alter the relationship between workers and employers in America.

"Labor strikes erupting nationwide, a potentially seismic pandemic era shift," MSNBC anchor Ari Melber reported. "This isn't business as usual: Over 100,000 workers going on strike."

The host mentioned a New York Times column by Paul Krugman.

"What seems to be happening instead is that the pandemic led many U.S. workers to rethink their lives and ask whether it was worth staying in the lousy jobs too many of them had," Krugman wrote.

"For America is a rich country that treats many of its workers remarkably badly. Wages are often low; adjusted for inflation, the typical male worker earned virtually no more in 2019 than his counterpart did 40 years earlier. Hours are long: America is a 'no-vacation nation,' offering far less time off than other advanced countries. Work is also unstable, with many low-wage workers — and nonwhite workers in particular — subject to unpredictable fluctuations in working hours that can wreak havoc on family life," he explained.

Melber asked Beschloss whether he agreed with Krugman's take.

"Well, working people — I define that broadly — are renegotiating their relationship with corporations and management and ownership and the very powerful financial sector in this country," Beschloss replied.

"And I would begin by saying, American organized labor did build the American middle class. There is no question of that," he explained.

Melber asked if momentum would "fade when the pandemic fades or is it more complicated than that?"

"No, I think it's not going to fade. I think it's a very good thing because, you know, with the pandemic, all of us have changed, I think, our attitudes about work and how much time you spend with your family, how much time you spend at home, how much you put up with work, if you have a job that you do not like or you hate," he explained.

"You know, we always hear about disruption, this pandemic lockdown has been one of the biggest disruptions in American history and a lot of people — I'm sure you would say that about the people you know just as I would — have very different ideas of those things from the ones they did just two years ago," he explained.

Watch:

‘It’s a sweat factory’: Instacart workers ready to strike for pay and conditions

Gig workers report falling wages, unmanageable orders and lack of concern from the company

Instacart shopper Willy Solis: ‘I’m participating in the Instacart walkout because I feel like there is no other option.’ Photograph: Supplied

Gloria Oladipo
@gaoladipo
Fri 15 Oct 2021 

For Instacart workers across the country, the popular grocery delivery app promised flexibility and a solid wage, perks that enticed thousands to join the app during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But amid worsening working conditions including plummeting pay, safety concerns, and a punitive rating system, Instacart employees, known as shoppers, will be staging a walkout on 16 October and will continue striking until the company meets their demands for better treatment.

Workers, uniting as the Gig Workers Collective, have been organizing against Instacart for years, citing what they say is a trend of unresponsiveness from the company in the face of their concerns. The collective’s asks are mostly for a restoration of features the company has dropped: reinstating Instacart’s commission pay model, paying its shoppers per order rather than bundling them, a 10% default tip instead of the current 5%, transparency about how orders are assigned, and a rating system that doesn’t hurt shoppers forproblems outside their control.

Shoppers have also asked for occupational death benefits, noting the increasing dangers shoppers face on the job.

Ahead of the walk-off, the Guardian spoke to three Instacart shoppers on their journey to joining Instacart, problems they have encountered since joining the app, and why they’re participating in the 16 October protest.

Willy Solis. Photograph: Supplied
Willy Solis, 43, Instacart shopper in Texas since October 2019, lead organizer with the Gig Workers Collective

For Willy Solis, Instacart started as a way to make ends meet during a transitional employment period. After running a business since 2008 and while trying to move out of state, he joined Instacart because it offered a low bar of entry and the flexibility Willy needed.

“I thought it was a pretty good deal as far as the pay compared to what I was actually doing, the time frame I was allowed to do it in, and all that stuff,” said Solis.
Advertisement

But soon, Solis noticed dips in his pay – small at first, but ever-growing. When Instacart decided to bundle individual orders together (“batches” as shoppers call them), batches began to double and triple in size – with 60 or 70 items in a batch for multiple orders at different addresses – while the pay remained the same. Tips, which make up the bulk of pay for shoppers, also dropped when Instacart’s default tip was set at a paltry 5%.

In some cases, he was making up to 50% less than average on orders. Soon, Solis was experiencing huge cuts in his pay from when he started. While he once brought home $1,000 a week, now Solis often struggles to break $500 for a week’s work after sitting on the app for hours in search of profitable orders, even while working across multiple apps besides Instacart.

“It’s getting to the point where it’s just not enough and I’m not making what I need to make,” said Solis.

Instacart’s changing pay structure is the source of at least two class-action lawsuits, but safety is also something Solis has struggled with. As an immunocompromised person, trying to stay safe during the pandemic while having to work to pay bills was a challenge that Instacart offered little support with.

While the company did send out personal protective equipment (PPE) to shoppers after facing public outrage and mounting collective action, Solis says the PPE was of poor quality and he was never compensated for the equipment he bought himself. When Solis did get Covid, he didn’t qualify for Instacart’s pay assistance program, and had to rely on family during the two months he was unable to work.
Advertisement

“It was a very tough period of time financially,” said Solis. “I had to work my tail off to try and get back on track.”

Changes to Instacart’s support service, now automated, has also left Solis feeling unsafe on the job. During threatening situations Solis has experienced, having live Instacart support was important for de-escalation; now, he says, that human resource is gone.

Instacart’s newly tenured CEO, Fidji Simo, has offered little response to workers’ concerns, and Solis says he’s ready to strike.

“I’m participating in the Instacart walkout because I feel like there is no other option. We don’t have another choice but to get so loud and so vocal that we bring that kind of attention to the issues,” said Solis.

Jen. Photograph: Supplied
Jen, shopper advocate, 54, based in Massachusetts, shopping with Instacart since April 2020

During the pandemic, the clothes business side hustle that Jen had established came to sudden halt. Looking for a different income source, Jen noticed long wait times on Instacart’s app while trying to get her own groceries delivered. She was intrigued and decided to sign up for herself. (Jen asked to be identified with her first name only for safety reasons.)

“I thought, ‘Well, let me help during the pandemic. Let me make money and let me also help with this shortage of shoppers.’”

Shopping on Instacart was enjoyable at first; using the app was convenient and demand was still high. But with Instacart’s dropping pay and losing profitable orders with bots, hackers using stolen Instacart shopper accounts to shop on the app, Jen struggled to find competitive orders.

“I haven’t shopped in more than four weeks now because there’s not one batch that comes on my screen that would put me making over minimum wage,” said Jen.

Jen also struggled with Instacart’s rating system, often described as “punishing” by shoppers. While Instacart maintains the system is fair and allows for the lowest rating of 100 deliveries to be dropped, shoppers remarked that a rating slightly below 5 stars could significantly affect their earning potential.

Jen found herself frequently penalized for false accusations of not delivering items from customers. On one occasion, after delivering bulk bags of Halloween candy to one shopper, Jen was penalized for not fulfilling the order – even though she had pictures of the completed delivery and she saw the customer bring the order inside.
Advertisement


“At the end of the day, nothing happened. The customer got the candy for free and I was punished.”

Jen, who runs a YouTube channel about her experiences with Instacart and aggregated concerns she hears from others, noted Instacart’s indifferent response to shoppers’ concerns, including failing to address the impact that customer fraud has on shoppers.

“Instacart doesn’t care. It’s a revolving door. It’s like a sweat factory. They’ll put 100 in, fire 10, and put 100 more back in. They are soulless when it comes to their frontline workers,” she said. “It’s just not OK. We’re human beings and we deserve to be treated like such.”

Robin Pape. Photograph: Supplied
Robin Pape, 42, based in upstate New York, Instacart shopper since 2018

In 2018, after receiving an Instacart referral link from a friend who needed the extra sign-up bonus, Robin Pape decided to try the app out. But soon, with Instacart’s new pay structure, Pape saw her pay fall by more than a third.

Most of the Pape spends on the app she is waiting for worthwhile delivery orders, as batches grow increasingly scarce given the more than 200% increase in active Instacart workers in Pape’s area since the time she started.

“They were so proud [of] the hundreds of thousands of shoppers they were hiring [during the pandemic] while still not sending out PPE or appropriate hazard pay,” said Pape.

Like other shoppers, Pape has had run-ins with Instacart’s harsh rating system. She has seen her ratings drop even when customers don’t add a rating at all. Pape noted additional challenges: changing store layouts, a national supply shortage and other conditions that remain out of her control.

“There are certainly people who feel like [an Instacart shopper] is not a skilled position. But there certainly are a lot of skills in navigating the stores and shopping for three different customers and communicating with them and keeping it all straight and doing it efficiently enough to be competitive in this gig,” said Pape.

As one of Gig Worker Collective’s founding members, Pape believes the upcoming walkout is an opportunity to speak out against Instacart and treatment that has “only gotten worse and worse and worse”.

“I’m supporting the Instacart walkout because if a company can’t afford to pay their contractors a living wage, they don’t need to be in business,” said Pape.

Instacart shopper activists are going on strike

They want better wages and transparent communication with the company

Amanda Silberling@asilbwrites•October 15, 2021

               

 Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

On Saturday, some Instacart shoppers will go on strike, protesting the company’s low pay and lack of communication with its laborers. The action is led by the Gig Workers Collective, formed in early 2020, though Instacart shoppers have organized several walk-offs since 2016. At the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns in the U.S., for instance, the collective rallied for better safety precautions amid the outbreak.

The Gig Workers Collective — representing a body of about 13,000 of Instacart’s 500,000 shoppers — launched a campaign last month urging customers to delete the Instacart app as a show of solidarity with shoppers’ demands. But Instacart didn’t address the collective’s demands, which include being paid by individual order, not by a batch of orders; to re-introduce item-based commissions; to ensure the rating system doesn’t punish shoppers for issues beyond their control; to provide occupational death benefits; and to make the default tip at least 10%, up from the current 5% default. Now, the shopper activists will go on strike until these demands are met.

Some shoppers are frustrated that despite Instacart’s $39 billion valuation, they feel it’s becoming harder to make a reasonable hourly rate on the platform. In the past, Instacart had a $10 minimum on earnings for each batch a shopper completed (batches can contain between one and three individual customers’ orders). But after founder and former CEO Apoorva Mehta publicly apologized in February 2019 for subsidizing this $10 minimum with shoppers’ tips, the minimum batch pay changed to $7 for full-service shoppers, who both pick the groceries and deliver them. Instacart framed this as “a higher guaranteed floor” — the previous minimum batch payment was $3, though shoppers always got at least $10 because of the established minimum (which was paid for in part with shoppers’ own tips, unbeknownst to them at the time). But with that policy removed, some shoppers are making even less money than they were before the policy change.

Now, a shopper might fill three customers’ individual orders for a minimum total of $7 base pay, before tips. Instacart told TechCrunch that it considers items, mileage, weight and other factors when determining payment for a batch. But Willy Solis, a lead organizer for the Gig Workers Collective and Instacart shopper, told TechCrunch that there’s “no rhyme or reason” to the way orders are combined into batches.

“You would think that they would be in the same geographic location that you’re delivering to, but they’re not,” he said. “It can be totally different parts of the city, so you have to drive east for one and west for the other.”

Instacart told TechCrunch that batching orders makes it possible for shoppers to earn three individual tips off of one trip to the grocery store. But this means that shoppers can only earn decent compensation if their customers tip appropriately. When customers go to check out, the default tip option is 5%. One of the collective’s goals of the strike is to raise the default to 10%, which was standard on the platform in 2016. If a customer tips higher than 5%, that percentage will auto-populate as the default for their next order, but shoppers are still finding that they aren’t making adequate hourly wages.

The Gig Workers Collective told TechCrunch that workers have seen a significant slash to their earnings over the last three months. A shopper in Canada, Daniel Feuer, recently wrote an open letter to Instacart CEO Fidji Simo, who took the helm of the company in July. He created a graph that shows his hourly wage over the last year.

“It’s not gone unnoticed that, in the company’s pre-IPO drive to profitability, batch earnings pay has been drastically cut,” he wrote. “See how it starts dropping in May this year?”

Image Credits: Daniel Feuer

Other shoppers have also observed that their pay has gone down over time. Shoppers pay for their own gas, car insurance and car expenses, so their take-home pay stretches less than it might seem.

“My pay has gone down probably 70% since I started four years ago,” said Sharon Goen, a 58-year-old Instacart shopper based in Las Vegas, Nevada. “It used to be that anything over 24 items, you get a bump in pay. Now, it’s $7 a batch. I saw one the other day that had 77 unique items, 100 units, for $7. You can’t go through the store and get 77 items in 15 minutes. You’re there for an hour and a half.”

Anni McClung, a shopper based in Houston, Texas, started shopping on Instacart four months ago. But she’s already confused by how pay is calculated.

“I would like someone to explain to me why for one batch I get $7, for two batches I get $7 and for three batches I get $7. Seems like they have to pay me $21,” McClung told TechCrunch. “Why is it $7 for half a mile, and also $7 for 6.8 miles?”

McClung, who will participate in the strike, said that she tried to contact Instacart’s customer service line for shoppers to learn how mileage is calculated into base pay for a batch. She said that she was routed to three different representatives without receiving an answer.

TechCrunch asked Instacart to clarify how base pay is impacted by the distance a shopper has to drive. The company said that mileage is incorporated into a shopper’s base pay at a rate of $0.60 per mile from store to customer delivery, except in California, where the rate is $0.30 per mile. But shoppers aren’t seeing that value reflected in their batches. Instacart declined to tell TechCrunch whether or not the $7 minimum is inclusive of the $0.60 per mile driven. If that is the case, then that would explain why shoppers might see a batch that’s five miles away for less than $8 — if the mileage were added to the minimum labor fee, then a five-mile drive would give the shopper an extra $3 to their $7 base.

Image Credits: Screenshot from Instacart Chicago Shoppers group on Facebook, obtained by TechCrunch

Instacart contracted 300,000 more shoppers during the coronavirus pandemic since the demand for grocery delivery was higher than ever. Instacart told TechCrunch that its shopper population has remained steady at around 500,000 shoppers since then, and that customer demand is four times higher than it was at the start of 2020. Since March 2020, Instacart said shoppers have earned more than $5.5 billion on the platform.

But as customers adapt to the conditions of the pandemic, shoppers observe that fewer customers are using the service, making it harder to get work on the app. Instacart said that there are waitlists to become a shopper in many regions. Shoppers that spoke to TechCrunch from Nevada, Texas and New York all reported that their markets are oversaturated with shoppers’ demand for batches to fill.

“In the beginning of the pandemic, it was great. I was making anywhere from $1,200 to $1,500 a week only working about 30 hours or so,” said JoJo Spatafora, a shopper in Staten Island, New York who has been with Instacart for three years. “But it seems as if things have changed and they over-hired. Instacart has been aware of this and has not done anything about it. They only care about customers, not their shoppers.”

In the past, shoppers would set the hours they wanted to work, and during that time, they would be individually assigned batches — they had four minutes to look it over and decide if they wanted to accept before it would be assigned to someone else. Since 2019, Instacart has used an on-demand system, where shoppers can choose to work at a moment’s notice. Because of that, many shoppers will be offered a batch at once, which shows the base pay, tip, distance to drive, and a preview of the items in the order — whoever swipes on the batch first gets the job. Goen told TechCrunch that her area is so oversaturated with shoppers that when a batch pops up, she needs to accept it without taking much time to look over the details.

“I’m 58 years old, and if I see something that’s got a decent pay, I don’t have the time to see how many cases of water are going to a third-floor apartment,” Goen said. “I just can’t physically do those kinds of orders anymore, and if I were to accept that and then cancel it, that would go against my acceptance rate.” If a shopper has canceled around 15% of their last 100 orders, they will start to receive notices from Instacart before their account is suspended.

Shoppers going on strike hope that this action will get the attention of CEO Fidji Simo. Instacart told TechCrunch that Simo has been regularly conversing with shoppers about their experiences on the job, but Simo hasn’t responded to the Gig Workers Collective’s open letters.

“As far as the strike, I don’t participate in such nonsense because it does not make a difference,” Spatafora told TechCrunch. “Once when shoppers went on strike, Instacart decided to punish us by removing the three-dollar bonus every time a customer gives us a five-star rating.”

Spatafora is referring to a past Instacart policy that would give shoppers an extra $3 for each order they completed with a five-star rating. Workers were tipped off that the bonus would last through January 2020. But when shoppers went on strike in November 2019 to demand that the default tip be raised from 5% back to 10%, the company removed the bonus soon after. Instacart said that it always planned to end the bonus in November 2019, but the Gig Workers Collective claimed that this was an act of retaliation.

“Are we really going to impact business? Probably not,” said Goen. Instacart affirmed to TechCrunch that they don’t expect to see a change in their revenue. “But this will be my sixth walk-off I think. I’m going to keep doing it ’til we make progress. And we have made progress every now and then.”