Invinity to deploy vanadium flow battery at solar-plus-storage project in Alberta, Canada

ByAndy Colthorpe
February 3, 2022

Invinity grid-scale flow battery units at a site in England, UK. 

Image: Invinity Energy Systems.

Invinity Energy Systems will supply vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) technology to a solar-plus-storage project in Alberta, Canada.

The project, Chappice Lake Solar + Storage, will combine a 21MWp solar array with a 2.8MW/8.4MWh battery storage system, Anglo-American flow battery company Invinity said today, together with the project’s developer, owner and operator, Elemental Energy.

Alberta is largely synonymous with fossil fuels; it hosts crude oil production from sites including its northern tar sands, produces a large portion of Canada’s natural gas and is largely reliant on the country’s largest coal fleet for electricity.

One of the province’s key climate and pollution pledges is now the phasing out emissions equivalent to 50% of that coal fleet by 2030.

The Chappice Lake project was one of a number of ‘shovel-ready’ projects awarded funding late last year through the provincial government’s Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) scheme.

In that round of funding, reported by Energy-Storage.news in November 2021, a 400MW closed-loop pumped hydro project called Canyon Creek was picked out for support too. Also benefiting were a number of projects seeking to reduce the emissions and increase the efficiency of some of the region’s fossil fuel extraction and refining activities.

At the time, ERA said it would administer the award of CA$10 million (US$7.89 million) of the total expected cost of Chappice Lake, just over CA$40 million.

Invinity’s flow battery will be directly DC-coupled with the solar array, improving the project’s efficiency, operational flexibility and costs. Charging from the solar PV modules, it will store and send out low-carbon, low-cost energy.

Being able to deliver power on demand will also help alleviate constraints to deploying more renewable energy on the grid, eliminating bottlenecks in power flow, Invinity said.

The project is expected to go into service later this year.

Developer Elemental Energy is also partnering with local indigenous group Cold Lake First Nations, which will hold an equity interest in the Chappice Lake project and the community will also benefit from the new electricity capacity addition as well as employment opportunities the clean energy industry can bring to the area, Elemental claimed.

“Alberta has a long history of leadership in energy; the fact that this shovel- ready project will expand that leadership in new directions while creating great new jobs is a testament to how Alberta can innovate and build,” Invinity Energy Systems’ chief commercial officer Matt Harper said.

“Clean energy on demand is becoming an increasingly valuable commodity; in delivering solar and storage together at Chappice Lake, we will prove that solar generation plus Invinity’s utility-grade vanadium flow batteries can make Alberta a powerhouse for the North American grid.”

Vanadium flow batteries have been touted as a long-duration, long-life energy infrastructure asset. Capable of being scaled up in energy capacity by increasing the size of their electrolyte tanks, the systems are expected to last decades in services without degradation or fading of battery capacity.

In December, Lockheed Martin announced that the first megawatt-scale pilot for its own flow battery technology — for which the aerospace and defence giant has not revealed the battery chemistry publicly — will also be in Alberta.

Lockheed Martin claimed that a 6.5MW/52MWh unit of its GridStar Flow battery energy storage system (BESS) technology will be paired with a 102.5MW solar farm in development by infrastructure company TC Energy. Lockheed will invest about US$9 million into the Saddlebrook Solar + Storage Project, with an expectation that funding will also come from ERA.

On a broader note, Energy-Storage.news has reported on a number of other Alberta-based energy storage projects in the past couple of years. The province’s first grid-scale battery storage system, a 10MW/20MWh Tesla lithium-ion BESS called WindCharger, went online in late 2020, paired with a local wind farm.

TransAlta, the Canadian company behind that project, has just applied to Alberta regulators for approval for WaterCharger, a 180MW BESS paired with hydroelectric generation facilities.

Alberta’s grid operator AESO is also piloting the use of energy storage resources for fast frequency regulation.

Chess: Carlsen a class apart as world No 1 dominates at ‘chess Wimbledon’


The world champion won Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee for a record eighth time and felt ‘really good’ about his play

3801 White to move and win. This Yuri Averbakh puzzle, solved by a very brief but hard to spot sequence, is a birthday tribute to the world’s oldest grandmaster, who turns 100 on Tuesday. Averbakh was 1954 USSR champion, has written several fine endgame books, and is alongside Boris Spassky as the last two survivors of the golden Soviets. At 99, he overcame a hospital stay with Covid.


Leonard Barden
Thu 3 Feb 2022 

Magnus Carlsen was a class apart from his rivals last week at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, the “chess Wimbledon”. The No 1 capped a dominant performance with a virtuoso final game against an old rival, an unbeaten 9.5/13 total, and a record eighth victory. He has finished first at Wijk on more than half his appearances there, and the organisers have promised a gold-plated trophy if he makes it to 10 victories at the small Dutch North Sea resort.

Norway’s world champion, 31, said that he felt “really good about my play. To some extent I took the obvious chances and left the more difficult ones on the table, which suggests there’s still quite a bit of room for improvement, but overall I’m very happy.”

Carlsen reckoned to have had nine winning positions, but converted only five of them. He gained just three rating points, reaching 2868 in his stated quest for an all-time record 2900 rating, which he previously got within sight of in 2014 and 2019, when his peaks were 2889 and 2882.


Chess: Carlsen edges towards minimalist victory as Covid strikes at Wijk

Carlsen’s penultimate round endgame win against Fabiano Caruana, his opponent in the 2018 world title match, was a vintage demonstration of how active pieces, here the black bishops, can defeat a more powerful but passive army, here the white rooks.

However, it was his earlier game against Shak Mamedyarov, second on tie-break at Wijk, which attracted most praise, not least from the loser, who called it “an absolutely fantastic game… In 27 moves he played 25 engine first lines… I don’t know when I last lost like this without any chance.”

Carlsen said: “I think that was certainly my best game… I just made some very, very good decisions, and the way chess has become now, you judge yourself on whether the engines like your play, and whenever you feel like you’ve played a good game it’s nice to get that confirmed.”

The chess circuit moves to Berlin on Friday for the opening round of the Fide Grand Prix. This is a series of three elite tournaments, two in the German capital and one in Belgrade, which will decide the final two places in this summer’s eight-player Candidates in Madrid.

Those qualified so far are Alireza Firouzja (France) and Fabiano Caruana (US) from the Fide Grand Swiss, Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) and Sergey Karjakin (Russia) from the World Cup, Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) as loser of the 2021 title match, and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) as Fide nominee.

Berlin began with a shock even before the first pawn was pushed. China’s world No 3, Ding Liren, the favourite in the eyes of many to win both the Grand Prix and the Candidates, withdrew due to visa problems so cannot now qualify as a Candidate. Ding has been very unlucky. His preparation for the 2020 Candidates was disrupted by a requirement to quarantine in Moscow before the tournament, while his results in the 2021 online Champions Tour were handicapped by poor internet connections and by playing hours which favoured his European and US rivals.

In Ding’s absence, the US has a strong hand in the Grand Prix, with Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Hikaru Nakamura all having chances, while Mamedyarov is in fine form after his success in Wijk. Several others, including Russia’s Alexander Grischuk and France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, should also be in the frame. Rounds start at 2pm daily from Friday.

Two weeks from now, Carlsen begins the defence of his title in the online Meltwater Champions Tour, which opens on 19 February with the Airthings Masters. The format has been streamlined since last year. Won games now count for three points instead of two, while the quarter-finals and semi-finals are sped up from two days to one.

The field of 16 includes Ding, Nepomniachtchi, five teenagers led by the world rapid champion, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 17, and the women’s world rapid champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Carlsen is taking on a sizeable commitment in 2022 with his ambitious 2900 target while simultaneously playing the online tour with its different rhythms, challenges and time limits. Will it all prove too much, even for this exceptional world champion? Time will tell.

The men’s team won the £100,000 Battle of the Sexes match which finished on Thursday in Gibraltar, scoring a clear 53-47 margin. Teams were 10-a-side, while average ages and Fide ratings were closely matched. The women’s team had a strong start and were 13-7 ahead after two rounds, but their missed chances in good positions proved costly.

Olga Girya, the only Russian on the women’s team, surprised Joe Gallagher in the King’s Indian, an opening about which the former British champion has written several books. After the unusual 6 Be3!? e5 7 Qc2!? Qe7? 8 Nd5! White was already on top, and the blunder 19…Be8? only hastened defeat.

Have you ever heard Emanuel Lasker or José Capablanca speak, or Vassily Smyslov sing? Many keen chess fans could easily recognise the voices of most or all of the world champions from Boris Spassky to Carlsen, but audiotapes by earlier greats are rare.


First female chess grandmaster sues Netflix over false claim in Queen’s Gambit

Edward Winter’s online Chess Notes has just published a recording of Lasker, who held the world crown a record 27 years, interviewed during the 1935 Alexander Alekhine v Max Euwe title match.

One startling claim by Lasker is that Alekhine did not lose a game playing Black in the Ruy Lopez 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 for around 30 years. The reality, still impressive, is that the unbeaten sequence was 16 years, from a 1921 game up to 1937, when Alekhine lost to Paul Keres at Margate in a famous 23-mover.

Capablanca, who beat Lasker in 1921 then lost to Alekhine in 1927, is heard talking in English when congratulated on his 50th birthday at Avro 1938.

Later that day the Cuban lost to Alekhine and had a poor finish to Avro, usually blamed on a mini-stroke during the tournament. However, Capablanca himself gave a different explanation in the course of a long and interesting interview at Buenos Aires 1939.

Smyslov, world champion 1957-58, once auditioned for the Bolshoi, and sometimes sang at the end of tournaments, accompanied by the concert pianist Mark Taimanov. Here he is on YouTube.

3801 1 Qc6+! Kb8 (if Ka7 2 Nb5+ wins) 2 Kc2! Black is in zugzwang (compulsion to make a losing move) becau

 

Ottawa files court brief supporting Enbridge Inc. in Line 5 dispute with Michigan

Pipeline dispute in court

The Canadian Press - Feb 4, 2022 / 12:56 pm | Story: 359075

Photo: The Canadian Press

Fresh nuts, bolts and fittings are ready to be added to the east leg of the pipeline near St. Ignace as Enbridge prepares to test the east and west sides of the Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac in Mackinaw City, Mich., on June 8, 2017. The federal government has officially weighed in on the latest legal fray over the cross-border Line 5 pipeline. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Detroit News - Dale G Young

The federal government is once again urging a Michigan judge to keep Line 5 operating while it works with the United States on negotiating an end to the impasse over the controversial cross-border pipeline.

Gordon Giffin, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada who is serving as Ottawa's counsel of record, filed a fresh amicus brief this week spelling out the stakes for both countries if the pipeline, owned and operated by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., is shut down.

The newest brief is significantly more compact than the version Canada filed in an identical case last year, but reiterates the original argument, with one significant difference: the first brief was filed in May, before the two countries sat down in hopes of ending the standoff.

Since then, officials from both Canada and the U.S. have met once already, sitting down in mid-December under the terms of a 1977 treaty designed to prevent interruptions to the cross-border flow of oil and gas, and will gather again some time in "early 2022," the documents note.

The treaty requires both countries "not to shut down or otherwise impede the operations of international hydrocarbon transit pipelines that transport hydrocarbon products from somewhere in Canada to somewhere else in Canada via the United States, or vice versa," they argue.

That clause "applies to Line 5, which has transported hydrocarbons since 1953 from Western Canada to Central Canada via Wisconsin and Michigan," the brief continues, and applies "to any measures instituted by a 'public authority in the territory of either party' — which includes the state of Michigan and its officials."

Until those talks reach an agreement or head to arbitration, it's vital that the court not grant Michigan's request that the line — which crosses the Great Lakes beneath the environmentally sensitive Straits of Mackinac — be unilaterally shut down, the brief argues.

Unless a solution were to emerge through other means, the documents note, "giving full effect to the 1977 treaty would entail ensuring that no compelled shutdown occurs" before the treaty talks have a chance to end the dispute.

"In the context of this case, that would mean entering injunctive relief prohibiting Michigan from proceeding to shut down Line 5 while the … process is ongoing. Canada respectfully submits that that would be an appropriate order in this case."

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat and close ally of President Joe Biden whose political fortunes depend on the support of environmental groups in the state, ordered the shutdown of Line 5 back in November 2020, fearing an ecological disaster in the straits.

Enbridge pushed back hard, arguing that Whitmer and state Attorney General Dana Nessel had overstepped their jurisdiction and that the case needed to be heard in federal court. Late last year, District Court Judge Janet Neff agreed with Enbridge on the issue of jurisdiction.

That's when Whitmer and Nessel abruptly withdrew their complaint, opting instead to concentrate on a separate but similar circuit court case dormant since 2019. Enbridge is now making the same arguments in that case that they did throughout last year — that it needs to be heard by a federal judge.

Nessel is hoping to head off that argument on a technicality: under federal law, cases can only be removed to federal jurisdiction within 30 days of a complaint being filed.

The Line 5 pipeline ferries upwards of 540,000 barrels per day of crude oil and natural gas liquids across the Canada-U.S. border and the Great Lakes by way of a twin line that runs along the lake bed beneath the straits linking Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Critics want the line shut down, arguing it's only a matter of time before an anchor strike or technical failure triggers a catastrophe in one of the area's most important watersheds.

Proponents call Line 5 a vital and indispensable source of energy, especially propane, for several Midwestern states, including Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It is also a key source of feedstock for critical refineries on the northern side of the border, including those that supply jet fuel to some of Canada's busiest airports.

In a separate amicus brief also filed this week, lawyers for several prominent international unions and labour groups, including the United Steelworkers and the North American Building Trades Unions, spelled out the potential economic impact of a Line 5 closure.

"Enbridge estimates that if Line 5 ceases operation, the refineries in Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, Quebec and Pennsylvania will lose 40 per cent of their crude supply and, with that reduction in product, will either close completely or become significantly less competitive," the brief says.

"In either case, the impact on workers who depend on Line 5 for their employment would be dramatic."

A third brief filed by an array of state and national energy associations further makes the point that allowing Michigan to shut down Line 5 would create a striking precedent.

"It would not only terminate operation of a vital interstate pipeline, but also significantly undermine the exclusive federal regulatory authority over interstate pipeline safety," they argue.

"Such a novel ruling would open the door to a spate of similar claims from other states for other interstate pipelines that could create the patchwork of varying and potentially conflicting pipeline safety regulations and closures that Congress expressly precluded."

Process removes biofuel contaminants from wastewater and generates hydrogen to fuel its own operation

by Karyn Hede, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

A new patent-pending flow cell bioreactor developed at Pacific Northwest National 

Laboratory can purify wastewater (seen here) and generate hydrogen to help fuel the 

process. Credit: Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The holy grail of bio-fuel researchers is to develop a self-sustaining process that converts waste from sewage, food crops, algae and other renewable carbon sources into fuels, while keeping waste carbon out of our atmosphere and water. Much progress has been made in converting such waste to useful fuel but completing the cycle using clean energy has proved a tough nut to crack.

Now, a research team at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has developed a system that does just that. PNNL's electrocatalytic oxidation fuel recovery system simultaneously turns what has been considered unrecoverable, diluted "waste" carbon into valuable chemicals, while simultaneously generating useful hydrogen. Being powered by renewables makes the process carbon-neutral or even potentially carbon-negative.

The key to making it all work is an elegantly designed catalyst that combines billions of infinitesimally small metal particles and an electric current to speed up the energy conversion at room temperature and pressure.

"The currently used methods of treating biocrude requires high-pressure hydrogen, which is usually generated from natural gas," said Juan A. Lopez-Ruiz, a PNNL chemical engineer and project lead. "Our system can generate that hydrogen itself while simultaneously treating the wastewater at near atmospheric conditions using excess renewable electricity, making it inexpensive to operate and potentially carbon neutral."

A hungry system

In laboratory experiments, the research team has tested the system using a sample of wastewater from an industrial-scale biomass conversion process for almost 200 hours of continuous operation without losing any efficiency in the process. The only limitation was that the research team ran out of their wastewater sample.

"It's a hungry system," Lopez-Ruiz said. "The reaction rate of the process is proportional to how much waste carbon you are trying to convert. It could run indefinitely if you had wastewater to keep cycling through it."

The patent-pending system solves several problems that have plagued efforts to make biomass an economically viable source of renewable energy, according to Lopez-Ruiz.

"We know how to turn biomass into fuel," Lopez-Ruiz said. "But we still struggle to make the process energy efficient, economical and environmentally sustainable—especially for small, distributed scales. This system runs on electricity, which can come from renewable sources. And it generates its own heat and fuel to keep it running. It has the potential to complete the energy recovery cycle."

"As the electric grid starts to shift its energy sources toward integrating more renewables," he added, "it makes more and more sense to rely on electricity for our energy needs. We developed a process that uses electricity to power conversion of carbon compounds in wastewater into useful products, while removing impurities like nitrogen and sulfur compounds."

Closing the energy gap

One very effective process for conversion of wet waste carbon to fuel is called hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). This process, in essence, compresses the natural, fossil fuel-production time, converting wet biomass into an energy-dense biocrude oil in hours instead of millennia. But the process is incomplete in the sense that the wastewater that is produced as part of the process needs further treatment to obtain added value from what would otherwise be a liability.

"We realized that same (electro)chemical reaction that removed the organic molecules from wastewater could be also used to directly upgrade the biocrude at room temperature and atmospheric pressure as well," Lopez-Ruiz said.

This is where the new PNNL process comes into play. Unrefined biocrude and wastewater can be fed into the system directly from an HTL output stream or other wet waste. The PNNL process consists of what's called a flow cell where the wastewater and biocrude flows through the cell and encounters a charged environment created by an electric current. The cell itself is divided in half by a membrane.

Waste carbon from farms, sewage and other sources can be processed into high-grade bio-based fuels more easily with a new PNNL-developed flow cell. In this animation, the flow cell receives biocrude and wastewater from a hydrothermal liquefaction process. It then removes carbon from wastewater, allowing the clean water to be reused. The system even generates hydrogen, a valuable fuel that can be captured, reducing the cost of the whole operation. Credit: Animation by Sara Levine | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The positively charged half, called an anode, contains a thin titanium foil coated with nanoparticles of ruthenium oxide. Here, the waste stream undergoes a catalytic conversion, with biocrude being converted to useful oils and paraffin. Simultaneously, water soluble contaminants, such as oxygen and nitrogen-containing compounds, undergo a chemical conversion that turns them into nitrogen and oxygen gasses—normal components of the atmosphere. The wastewater that emerges from the system, with contaminants removed, can then be fed back into the HTL process.

On the negatively charged half of the flow cell, called a cathode, a different reaction takes place that can either hydrogenate organic molecules (such as the ones in treated biocrude) or generate hydrogen gas—an emerging energy source that the flow cell developers see as a potential source of fuel.

"We see the hydrogen byproduct generated by the process as a net plus. When collected and fed into the system as a fuel, it could keep the system running with fewer energy inputs, potentially making it more economical and carbon-neutral than current biomass conversion operations," said Lopez-Ruiz.

The speed of chemical conversion provides an added benefit to the system.

"We did a comparison of rates—that is how fast we can remove oxygen from organic molecules with our system as opposed to the energy-intensive thermal removal," Lopez-Ruiz said. "We obtained more than 100 times higher conversion rates with the electrochemical system at atmospheric conditions than with the thermal system at intermediate hydrogen pressures and temperatures." These findings were published in the Journal of Applied Catalysis B: Environmental in November 2020.

Reducing rare Earth metal use

One major drawback of many commercial technologies is their reliance of rare Earth metals, often the co-called platinum group metals. The global supply chain for these elements relies heavily on dated extraction processes that are energy intensive, consume a lot of water and create toxic waste. Imports account for 100 percent of the United States' supply for 14 of 35 critical materials and more than half of 17 others, according to the Department of Energy, which has made domestic supply a top priority.

The system addresses this problem by incorporating a unique method of depositing nanoparticles of the metals responsible for the chemical conversion. These particles have a large surface area, which require less metal to do its work. "We found that using metal nanoparticles as opposed metal thin films and foils reduced the metal content and improved the electrochemical performance" said Lopez-Ruiz. These findings were recently published in the Journal of Applied Catalysis B: Environmental. The novel catalyst requires 1,000 times less precious metal, in this case ruthenium, than is commonly needed for similar processes. Specifically, the laboratory-scale flow reactor uses an electrode with about 5 to 15 milligrams of ruthenium, compared with about 10 grams of platinum for a comparable reactor.

About those useless carbon compounds

The research team has also shown that the PNNL process can handle processing of small water-soluble carbon compounds—byproducts found in the water waste stream of current HTL processes—as well as many other industrial processes. There are about a dozen of these devilishly difficult to process small, carbon compounds in the wastewater streams at low concentrations. Until now, there has been no cost-effective technology to handle them. These short-chain carbon compounds, like propanoic acid and butanoic acid, undergo transformation to fuels, such as ethane, propane, hexane and hydrogen, during the newly developed process.

A preliminary cost analysis showed the electricity cost required to run the system can be fully offset by running the operation at low voltage, using the propane or butane to generate heat and selling the excess hydrogen generated. These findings were published in the July 2020 issue of the Journal of Applied Electrochemistry.

Battelle, which manages and operates PNNL for the federal government, has applied for a United States patent for the electrochemical process. CogniTek Management Systems (CogniTek), a global company that brings energy products and technology solutions to market, has licensed the technology from PNNL. CogniTek will be integrating the PNNL wastewater treatment technology into patented biomass processing systems that CogniTek and its strategic partners are developing and commercializing. Their goal is the production of biofuels, such as biodiesel and bio jet fuels. In addition to the commercialization agreement, PNNL and CogniTek will collaborate to scale up the wastewater treatment reactor from laboratory scale to demonstration scale.

"We at CogniTek are excited by the opportunity to extend the PNNL technology, in combination with our core patents and patent pending decarbonization technology," said CogniTek Chief Executive Officer Michael Gurin.

The technology, dubbed Clean Sustainable Electrochemical Treatment—or CleanSET, is available for license by other companies or municipalities interested in developing it for industry-specific uses in municipal wastewater treatment plants, dairy farms, breweries, chemical manufacturers and food and beverage producers. To learn more about how this technology works, visit PNNL's Available Technologies site.Growing algae outside of wastewater

More information: Yang Qiu et al, Electrocatalytic decarboxylation of carboxylic acids over RuO2 and Pt nanoparticles, Applied Catalysis B: Environmental (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2021.121060\Journal information: Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 

Provided by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory 

U of T apologizes after giving ‘hell money’ to students for Lunar New Year

Instead of cash, students at the University of Toronto were shocked to find joss paper or ‘hell money’ inside red envelopes that were distributed on campus.

By Ivy Mak Toronto Star
Alessia Passafiume Staff Reporter

Fri., Feb. 4, 2022

The University of Toronto has apologized after handing out “hell money” or joss paper in red envelopes to students and residents for Lunar New Year.

“Members of the University of Toronto Graduate House Team prepared a display to celebrate the Lunar New Year,” reads a statement emailed to the Star from a University of Toronto spokesperson. “Unfortunately, incorrect bank notes were unintentionally placed into the red envelopes.”

By the time they caught the error, all the envelopes had been taken, they said.

“The University of Toronto deeply regrets this error.”

Traditionally, bright red envelopes are filled with money and doled out as symbols of good luck and prosperity for the recipient in the coming year. However, instead of currency, some U of T students received red envelopes filled with joss paper, so-called death money meant to be burnt in offering to deities and deceased ancestors in the afterlife. One of the images of the paper money shared with the Star clearly reads “HELL BANK NOTE” on the top.

The practice of burning joss paper dates as far back as the Song Dynasty in China and is traditionally practiced in Taoism and Buddhism. The burning of paper offerings to the dead is an expression of filial piety, to give one’s ancestors some of the luxuries that may have eluded them in the world they once lived in. Some people also burn joss paper in offering to deities in order to gain favour.

The statement from the university also says they are “deeply committed to the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion,” and will “continue our important educational efforts to better understand our diverse communities.”

U of T has a large population of Asian international students, with over 15,000 students from China alone, according to data posted to their website.

Symbols and talk of death and of dying is often times taboo and extremely bad luck in the beliefs of Chinese culture. It’s why the Chinese are so averse to the number four, because when spoken aloud, it sounds similar to the word for death.

This is why handing out something like joss paper or “hell money” to a living person is alarming and culturally offensive.

Students living in the Graduate House sent an email on Wednesday to representatives of the residence and other relevant figures at the university and in the broader community to bring attention to the “hell money” students received in the envelopes and how it was offensive.

The university issued an apology, written in Mandarin, on its WeChat page, a Chinese instant messaging and social media app, primarily followed by Chinese students.

A translation of the post in English says they apologize for the error and immediately removed the red envelopes after learning about the incident.

The post also says the university will continue its effort to educate the school community to learn and embrace the cultural diversity among them and to deepen the sense of inclusivity and belonging across their three campuses.

On Friday, a group of Asian U of T undergraduate and postgraduate students, along with an alumnus, met with the Star to discuss the incident and the university’s initial reaction to it.

One student noted how difficult it is to find joss paper in Toronto and questioned the motives behind sourcing it and including it in the envelopes, but they’re hoping it was an honest mistake.

Many said the university’s decision to release an apology in Mandarin to its WeChat page minimized the episode, and said it should have been posted on channels in English that are followed more, for more people to read and understand.

The Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice (CCNC-SJ) also criticized the university’s initial apology, and said “this incident must be understood in light of the significance of the Lunar New Year and its traditions, as well as the ever-present anti-Asian racism in Canadian society.”

Ryan Chan, a project lead with CCNC-SJ, noted the bills have “Hell Bank Note” written at the top of the paper and this is hard to miss.

“It is despicable that large institutions try to capitalize on their so-called diversity and can’t be bothered to make the minimal effort to check their facts,” said Susan Eng, the vice-president of CCNC-SJ, in a statement.

Lin Hou, a student at U of T who was part of the meeting with the Star, said they are educated on Christian holidays, such as Christmas, and are taught what is and what isn’t respectful.

It’s important for people to be educated on Chinese culture and traditions in the same way to avoid a situation like this in the future, she said.


If U of T’s apology was widely distributed and more specific about the inclusion of joss paper in the envelopes and mentioned the importance of Lunar New Year and its customs, it could have been used as a teaching moment for other students and faculty at the university, Hou said.

“If we don’t promote that, then people will never know,” Hou said.

The students also released a petition calling for an end to anti-Asian racism on campus and an official apology to all students and an investigation into the incident, mental health support for students affected, and a detailed course of action to all students and staff to prevent any further incidents of cultural insensitivity.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought along with it a rise in anti-Asian rhetoric, with attacks on Asian-Canadian seniors, violence against Asians, and vandalism of Asian-Canadian businesses.

Last month, both The Guardian and the BBC ran a food recipe for Lunar New Year and the accompanying photo showed pan-fried dumplings arranged alongside joss paper.

The image has since been removed from The Guardian’s site.

“The image accompanying the recipe for pork and crab dumplings was amended on 17 January 2022 to remove joss paper shown next to the plate in the original picture. Such paper is burned for the dead at funerals and in other rituals in China and other parts of Asia. We apologize for this cultural error,” reads a caption at the bottom of the recipe.

Ivy Mak is a team editor on the Star’s breaking news desk, based in Toronto. Reach her via email: ivymak@thestar.ca

Alessia Passafiume is a GTA-based staff reporter for the Star. Reach Alessia via email: apassafiume@torstar.ca

NASA PLANS TO RETIRE THE ISS AND HURTLE IT INTO THE OCEAN

by Meaghan Kirby

Feb 4 2022 • 

Forget the moon crashing into Earth. NASA plans to send the International Space Station into the ocean in 2031. This week, NASA announced its plans for the space station, which will sign off after 30 years in low-Earth orbit (via Gizmodo). This news comes about a month after the Biden-Harris administration extended the station’s operations through 2030. (They were previously set to expire in 2024.) But NASA’s making it clear that this is—officially—the end for the ISS.

This news comes just after NASA sent a detailed report on the station and its future to congress. In the 24-page document, the agency laid out the station’s goals and objectives for the next several years. It also stated plans for the International Space Station’s retirement. Notably, the report cites the private sector for its ability to take over low-Earth orbit (LEO) enterprises. It’ll do so with NASA’s help, of course. And save the agency a lot of money—an estimated $1.3 billion in 2031 and up to $1.8 billion by 2033. NASA can then redirect those funds to other programs. 

NASA

“The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space,” Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters, said in a press release. “The report we have delivered to Congress describes, in detail, our comprehensive plan for ensuring a smooth transition to commercial destinations after retirement of the International Space Station in 2030.”

The ISS has served the space community—and people on Earth at large—very well during its activity. But in early 2031, the ISS will re-enter Earth’s orbit to eternally rest with decommissioned spacecrafts, stations, and orbiters: South Pacific Oceanic Uninhabited Area (SPOUA). The area just to the East of New Zealand even has the nickname the “Spacecraft Cemetery.” It’s a perfect dwelling for future Earthly inhabitants to discover with their surely-superior deep sea technology.

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Now, as Gizmodo points out, the ISS exists in partnership with a handful 0f other international space agencies. And nowhere in the notice does it mention that other agencies are on board with keeping the ISS in low-Earth orbit until 2030—most notably the Russian agency, Roscosmos. That’s all to say that this all potentially could end sooner. Until then, we hope the crews aboard continue to regale us with stories of space tacos and games.

Uyghur Cauldron lighter part of "lovely concept" at Beijing 2022 Opening Ceremony, claims IOC

• By Geoff Berkeley at the Beijing National Stadium
 
•  Saturday, 5 February 2022

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A decision to use a Uyghur athlete to light the Olympic Cauldron at the end of the Opening Ceremony for Beijing 2022 at the National Stadium last night has been defended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who claimed it was a "lovely concept".

Cross-country skier Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a Uyghur from the Xinjiang region, joined Nordic combined athlete Zhao Jiawen in lighting a small flame that was placed inside a large snowflake at the National Stadium.

The decision has been viewed as a propaganda attempt by the Chinese Government, accused of genocide against the Uyghurs.

Bennett Freeman, member of the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region Steering Committee, was among those to hit out at the by the move, which was approved by the IOC, according to Beijing 2022.

"It's a brazen, cynical ploy that the world should see through and understand the truth of the crimes against humanity that the Chinese Government has perpetrated against Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in western China," said Freeman.

Dinigeer qualified for Beijing 2022 having become the first Chinese cross-country skiing medallist in an International Ski Federation-level event, finishing second in the opening women's leg of a three-leg sprint series in Beijing in March 2019.

The 20-year is set to compete in today’s women’s skiathlon event at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre.

Dinigeer Yilamujiang and Zhao Jiawen lit the Olympic Cauldron at the National Stadium ©Getty Images

Dinigeer is among five athletes from the Xinjiang region competing at Beijing 2022, with Tian Ruining, Bayani Jialin, Alemasi Kahanbai and Hanahati Muhamaiti the others.

In response to criticism over Dinigeer's selection, Mark Adams, spokesperson for the IOC, said: "She is an Olympian competing here and as you will know from the Olympic Charter we do not discriminate against people on where they are from and what their background is.

"She is absolutely perfectly entitled to take part in the Torch Relay and I think the concept of having all the generations there was an excellent one."

IOC President Thomas Bach has repeatedly reiterated his stance that the Games are "beyond politics", insisting it remains "political neutrality".

The appearance of Dinigeer will be seen as sending a political message to those Governments who decided to shun the Games.

When asked whether the IOC were part of the decision to select Dinigeer, Adams added: "The Opening Ceremony is something that the Organising Committee put together and there is creative input.

"We are involved to a certain extent.

"This is an athlete who is competing here, she has every right wherever she comes from, whatever background she comes from to compete and she has every right whatever her background and wherever she comes from to take part in the Opening Ceremony.

"I think it was a lovely concept."

Dinigeer Yilamujiang is one of athletes representing China at Beijing 2022 who is from Xinjiang region, an area it is alleged Uyghurs are being persecuted by the Government ©Getty Images

China has faced accusations of using forced Uyghur labour, operating a mass surveillance programme, detaining thousands in internment camps, carrying out forced sterilisations and intentionally destroying Uyghur heritage in the Xinjiang region.

The Chinese Government has repeatedly hit out at the allegations, claiming camps are training centres for stamping out Islamist extremism and separatism.

Seven Chinese athletes from six different decades from the 1950s to the 2000s were chosen as the final Olympic Torch Relay runners at the Bird's Nest.

Speed skaters Zhao Weichang and Li Yan, double Olympic short track speed skating champion Yang Yang and sprinter Su Bingtian carried the Torch before handing over to Dinigeer and Zhao.

Chang Yu, director general for the department of Opening and Closing Ceremonies at Beijing 2022, claimed the selection of torchbearers from different generations was an "important part of the Chinese tradition".

"We want to selected athletes that were born in the 1950, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and aftrer 2000," said Chang.

"We selected the candidates according to that principal but before the final approval of the IOC we cannot tell the torchbearers who are the candidates.

"We felt the effect was very good."

Winter Olympics: China stirs controversy with Uighur torchbearer

International Olympic Committee said Xinjiang native Dinigeer Yilamujiang had every right to participate.

Chinese torchbearer athletes Dinigeer Yilamujian, left, and Zhao Jiawen hold the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, at the National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest, in Beijing, on February 4, 2022 [Ben Stansall/AFP]

Published On 5 Feb 2022

China’s move to thrust a young Uighur athlete into the spotlight at the climax of the Beijing Winter Olympics opening ceremony has placed her at the centre of longtime controversy over rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Dinigeer Yilamujiang, a 20-year-old cross-country skier, trained for years to fulfil every child’s dream to star at the Olympics.

But her prominent, smiling appearance as the final Olympic torchbearer on Friday along with 21-year-old biathlete Zhao Jiawen at the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium in front of thousands of spectators and TV cameras had clear political overtones.

She is from the Uighur minority from the region of Xinjiang, where China’s ruling Communist Party is accused of widespread human rights abuses.

Following Yilamujiang’s appearance on television across the world, Chinese diplomats shared videos on Twitter of her family clapping as they watched the ceremony on screen, some dabbing tears from their eyes.

China has repeatedly exhorted its critics to stop “politicising” the Olympic Games, overshadowed by issues including human rights violations, COVID, and fears of what will happen to athletes if they speak out at the games.

Asked by journalists if Yilamujiang’s inclusion met the standard of political neutrality, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said she had “every right” to participate.

“Obviously the opening ceremony is something that the organising committee put together and there’s creative input,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. “We are involved to a certain extent.”

“As you’ll know from the Olympic Charter, we don’t discriminate against people on where they’re from, what their background is,” he continued.

“This is an athlete who is competing here, she is competing this morning. She has every right, wherever she comes from, whatever her background, to compete … and to take part in any ceremony.”

Dinigeer Yilamujian, left, was the first Chinese cross-country skiing medallist in an International Ski Federation-level event [Ben Stansall/AFP]

Games organisers said the final handful of torchbearers who entered the stadium with the flame had been picked based on their birth dates with each having been born in a different decade, starting from the 1950s through to the 2000s.

The fate of China’s Uighurs has been at the centre of international alarm.

At least one million people from the mostly Muslim minority have been imprisoned in “re-education camps” in Xinjiang, campaigners say, and Chinese authorities have been accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour in the area.

The United States has accused China of genocide, a charge denied by Beijing.

Although world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, were present at the ceremony on Friday, the US, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada were among key countries that did not send diplomatic representatives over rights concerns, especially in relation to the Uighurs.

Ma Haiyun, an expert on Xinjiang and associate professor at Frostburg State University in Maryland, said Yilamujiang’s selection was intended to send a message.

“By selecting a Uighur athlete to light the torch, China is trying to address criticism by the West about genocide or persecution of the Uyghurs, and about sinicisation of ethnic minorities,” he told Reuters news agency.

“But I don’t think this can have much effect on the West, which tends to think most of what China puts up is a show anyway,” Ma added.

China rejects accusations of abuse, describing the camps as vocational centres designed to combat “extremism”, and in late 2019 said all people in the camps had “graduated”.

‘Breakthrough’ athlete

Yilamujiang started ski training aged 12, according to China Sports Daily, under the guidance of her father – also a cross-country skier who competed nationally.

She joined China’s cross-country skiing team in 2017.

Altay, the part of Xinjiang she is from, has been touted by Chinese state media as the “birthplace of skiing” and a growing winter sports destination.

In 2019, she became the first Chinese cross-country skiing medallist in an International Ski Federation event, with media reports lauding her as having achieved a “breakthrough” for the country in the sport.

Yilamujiang took part in last year’s World Championships, ranking 13th in team sprint and 41st in the 10km competition.

Her first event at Beijing 2022 was a skiathlon on Saturday.

The games run until February 20 and are taking place inside a “closed loop” bubble due to the coronavirus pandemic.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

Alberta, Saskatchewan take lead signalling end to COVID-19 restrictions

Laura Osman
The Canadian Press
 Friday, February 4, 2022 

OTTAWA -- Canada's chief public health officer says provinces are going to have to find a balance between containing the virus with public health measures and returning to a sense of normalcy as the Omicron wave continues to crest.

Several provinces have signalled their intention to do away with some, if not all, remaining COVID-19 health restrictions.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says his government will announce next week a date to end Alberta's COVID-19 vaccine passport, as well as a phased approach to ending almost all COVID-19 health restrictions by the end of the month, provided the pressure on hospitals continues to decline.

Meanwhile Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says he's committed to ending all COVID-19 restrictions soon, even while COVID-19-related hospitalizations are at their highest level since the pandemic began.

While health experts say vaccines greatly prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death, chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said two doses offer little protection against infection from Omicron, and boosters work against transmission only for a period of time.

Two doses of an mRNA vaccine are 75 to 80 per cent effective against severe illness from Omicron, according to Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization. A third dose is at least 90 per cent effective at preventing hospitalization, including for the variant, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has reported.

Tam said vaccine mandates should be re-evaluated over time, but they must be weighed against the potential effect on fragile health systems and how many serious cases they can handle.

"I do think that prior to vaccinations, prior to getting some more treatments, and of course some immunity afforded by Omicron, that balance was very, very difficult to achieve," Tam said at a virtual briefing Friday.

"I am optimistic that it will become easier to achieve better balance."

Even though the number of new infections is trending down, there are still a daily average of about 10,000 new reported cases across Canada, Tam said.It is difficult to get a full picture of how many cases there are in Canada, as many jurisdictions have limited access to molecular tests for essential and at-risk people only.

More than 10,000 people are also being treated in hospital for COVID-19 each day as of Wednesday, she said.

Even as measures are dropped, provinces need to find ways to optimize vaccination levels, she said.

More than 88 per cent of Canadians over the age of five have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the latest data from the Public Health Agency of Canada shows.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization issued new guidance Friday about how long people who have been infected with the virus should wait to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

The advice varies based on how old the person is, whether or not they are immunocompromised and how many vaccine doses they received before they were infected.

For example, an adult aged 30 to 55 who is not immunocompromised and had two vaccine doses before contracting COVID-19 should wait three months after symptom onset or a positive test to get their third dose, provided it has been at least six months since their second dose.

There is no Health Canada-approved COVID-19 vaccine for young children under five years old.

Moe said in a video posted to social media that COVID-19 is not going away, but people are done with having to follow public health orders, so "normalizing" the virus and learning to live with it is the achievable option.

The Saskatchewan Medical Association, however, is warning that loosening health measures would strain the province's health-care system.

In Alberta, Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi urged the provincial government to "reconsider lifting restrictions too soon and too fast."

"We must look out for our most vulnerable. We must protect our children under the age of five who still don't have the opportunity to get vaccinated," Sohi wrote in a statement Thursday.

Sohi, a former federal Liberal cabinet minister, asked city administration to look into what options Edmonton has to institute its own restrictions if the provincial measures are lifted.

Ontario and Quebec, which have seen a slight decline in COVID-19-related hospitalizations this week, have both eased some restrictions. However, scientists and health officials in the two provinces have warned that cases will likely rise again as partial reopenings progress.

Newfoundland and Labrador is set loosen restrictions on businesses and group sizes on Monday, though Premier Andrew Furey, who is also an orthopedic surgeon, said that any changes must be done with caution.

Vaccine mandates are not meant to be a punishment, federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said Friday at the briefing. Rather they are meant to protect people and incentivize them to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The federal government has imposed mandates at international borders, on planes, passengers trains, cruise ships and within the public service. Duclos said discussions about vaccine mandates would be ongoing at the federal level.

As for the borders, any changes to the testing and vaccine requirements for international travel would depend on the epidemiological situation as well health-care capacity, Tam said.

"At the domestic level, cases have been beginning to come down and hospitalizations (are) still going up in many areas," said Tam.

It's quite difficult to reduce public health measures when health-care systems have limited ability to cope with higher caseloads, she said.

"At the same time, we need to begin to plan forwards for when this particular wave recedes and be ready."

High-level discussions about health mandates are happening against the backdrop of several anti-mandate protests cropping up across Canada, including a demonstration in Ottawa that local politicians have taken to calling an "occupation."

Protesters who have blocked streets and blared loud noises in the capital for more than a week have refused to leave until the prime minister agrees to put an end to all public health restrictions. Many of those restrictions fall under the jurisdiction of provinces, not the federal government.

Tam's deputy, Dr. Howard Njoo, said in French that it's not a good idea to do away with health measures too quickly and that Canada should be cautious in its approach.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 4, 2022.

Alberta, Saskatchewan take lead in signalling

moves to end COVID restrictions

Tam: rethink mandates

The Canadian Press - Feb 4, 2022 / 9:13 am | Story: 359039

Photo: The Canadian Press

An ambulance is parked at the emergency department at the Lakeridge Health hospital in Bowmanville, Ont.

Canada's chief public health officer says provinces are going to have to find a balance between containing public health measures and returning to a sense of normalcy as the Omicron wave crests.

Several provinces have signalled their intention do away with some, if not all, remaining COVID-19 health restrictions.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says his government will announce next week a date to end Alberta's COVID-19 vaccine passport, as well as a phased approach to ending almost all COVID-19 health restrictions by the end of the month, provided the pressure on hospitals continues to decline.

Meanwhile Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe says he's committed to ending all COVID-19 restrictions soon, even while COVID-19 related hospitalizations are at their highest level since the pandemic began.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says even a complete series of two COVID-19 vaccines offers little in the way of protection against infection from the Omicron variant, and boosters work against transmission only for a period of time.

She says vaccine mandates should be re-evaluated, but governments still need to find ways to optimize vaccination levels.

More than 91 per cent of adult Canadians over the age of 18 have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the latest data from the Public Health Agency of Canada shows.

Vaccines offer strong protection against severe illness and hospitalization, even from Omicron. Two doses of an mRNA vaccine are 75 to 80 per cent effective against severe illness from the variant, according to Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization. A third dose is at least 90 per cent effective at preventing hospitalization, including for Omicron, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has reported.

Even though the number of new infections is trending down, there are still a daily average of about 10,000 new cases daily across Canada, Tam said.

More than 10,000 people are also being treated in hospital for COVID-19 each day as of Wednesday, she said.

Moe said in a video posted to social media that COVID-19 is not going away, but people are done with having to follow public health orders, so "normalizing" the virus and learning to live with it is the achievable option.

The Saskatchewan Medical Association, however, is warning that loosening health measures would strain the province's health-care system.

Ontario and Quebec, which have seen a slight decline in COVID-19-related hospitalizations this week, have both eased some restrictions, however, scientists and health officials in the two provinces have warned that cases will likely rise again as partial reopenings progress.

Newfoundland and Labrador is set loosen restrictions on businesses and group sizes on Monday, though Premier Andrew Furey, who is also an orthopedic surgeon, said Thursday that any changes must be done with caution.