City of Sumas sounds flood siren, Nooksack flowing into Abbotsford


Localized flooding in Huntingdon at approximately 10:30 a.m., Nov. 28. 

Patrick Penner / Mission Record photo.

City warns short amount of time before all roads to Sumas close

PATRICK PENNER
Nov. 28, 2021

The City of Sumas has sounded their flood sirens. The Nooksack River has breached its banks in Everson and is flowing across Main Street and into Abbotsford.

The alarm was sounded at 3:13 p.m., and the city has warned there may be a short amount of time before all roads in and out of Sumas could close.

“After that point, it will be safer to shelter in place. Please make any necessary preparations now,” the city said.

Sumas Mayor John Perry said Main Street has closed, and their fields are full of surface water that have limited capacity.

Mayor Henry Braun said earlier at a press conference this afternoon, that once the water crosses Main Street, there is nothing to stop it from flowing into Abbotsford.

The Canadian Armed Forces have been sandbagging Huntingdon Village along the U.S. border to divert the flow of the water into the eastern side of the Sumas Prairie, which is already flooded.



RELATED: Nooksack River overflow expected to cross into Abbotsford Sunday as more rain forecasted

'I get angrier every time': Abbotsford family fed up with decades of flooding from Nooksack River


David Molko
CTV News Vancouver Senior Reporter
Published Nov. 27, 2021 

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. -

You might call the Dykman family veterans of the floods.

When their dairy farm, the Dykman Cattle Company, flooded nearly two weeks ago, it was the worst Cynthia Dykman had ever seen in her two decades on the western edge Sumas Prairie.

But it was far from the first time.

“It’s happened three times, and the last time was only a year and a half ago,” Dykman tells me.

“I get angrier every time.”

The Dykmans, who together managed to save nearly all of their 800 cattle and 300 calves, have been hit hard before.

In the last few years, they had their entire home physically lifted four feet.

It still wasn’t enough.

The latest surge, widely understood to be overflow from Washington State’s Nooksack River, filled their first floor by nearly two feet.

“If we didn’t have our higher barn, we would have lost all of our cattle,” Cynthia says.

In that new barn, which sits about 13 feet higher than the old one, we meet her two sons, Colby and Tanner.

On the night of the flood, they say, they saw the water coming from the south.

They scrambled in chest-deep water to move cattle up from the old barn to the new one.

All the calves were hauled to safety in a front-end loader, the family says.

“Knowing that they all would have been dead if we didn’t do what we did is really why we do it,” Colby says.

“It’s a pretty good feeling,” Tanner adds.

Daughters Alanna Harvey and Mariah were involved with the rescues, too.

“I said, ‘Mariah bring a boat,’” Alanna recalls. “She said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Bring a boat. We need a boat now.’”

Over the past two weeks, Abbotsford’s mayor, Henry Braun, has repeatedly pointed to overflow from the Nooksack, which is part of the Mount Baker watershed, as the primary cause of catastrophic flooding.

The river normally charts a course toward the northwest.

But in times of high-water, it overruns into creeks, fields, even the Sumas River, and heads north.

The river has been the subject of numerous studies over the years, most notably in a flood mitigation report commissioned by the city and finished in late 2020.

It’s also something the Prime Minister has discussed with the U.S. President.

But Cynthia’s husband Ted Dykman wants more than studies and discussions. He wants action.

“I guess it’s the same feeling I always have,” the father of four says. “Why can’t the Americans do something about this problem?”

When we head out to take a closer look, our first stop is the railroad track that runs east to west between the Dykman farm and the border.

It penned the first floodwaters like a dike that night, Ted points out, but eventually, it broke.

He remembers somewhere between eight and 10 floods hitting the farm over the last 30 years.

“Disappointment. Frustration,” he says, when I ask him to describe what’s going through his head, with potentially more floodwaters on the way Sunday.

“This did not have to happen,” he says.

But this time, it seems, Ted and Cynthia Dykman are hopeful.

They’re hopeful that the scale of this year’s flooding – which turned the eastern end of Sumas Prairie back into the lake it once was and drove thousands from their homes – will prompt tangible changes on the ground, once and for all.

They say it doesn’t matter whether the Americans dredge their river and raise dikes across the line or Canada builds its own, as long as something gets done to prevent a recurring disaster Ted says he believes was entirely preventable.

In the meantime, they’re ready to go.

Before I head out, Cynthia shows me the storm drain steps from their driveway.

“If the water comes up here,” she says, “I know we’re in trouble.”

 

A Fossil of a Bizarre Snake-Like Lizard Has Generated Controversy Beyond Its Identity

The Conversation

By MICHAEL CALDWELL AND TIAGO RODRIGUES SIMOES NOVEMBER 27, 2021

With four tiny legs and an extraordinarily long body, a fossil of the snake-like lizard Tetrapodophis amplectus has created controversy. Credit: Julius Csotonyi

More than 120 million years ago in what is now modern Brazil, an ancient waterway was filled with all manner of strange creatures. These included dinosaurs, pterosaurs, sharks, bony fishes, a dizzying array of insects, strange plants and an oddly long and small lizard: Tetrapodophis amplectus.

In 2015, the journal Science published a paper claiming that this elongate lizard was a snake with four legs. The discovery of such a specimen could tell us a great deal about the pattern and process of snake evolution — if it was indeed a snake.

Lizard, not snake

Extraordinary claims attract extraordinary attention, and this means such claims require reanalysis — and possibly refutation or corroboration. In scientific research, the data must fit the hypothesis, and if it does not, then the hypothesis is rejected.

In late 2015, two members of our research team traveled to Solnhofen, Germany, to study the specimen and conduct firsthand observation of the anatomy of the fossil. After all, the preserved anatomy is the data upon which all subsequent hypotheses are based.

The results of our team’s detailed anatomical restudy of Tetrapodophis refute the hypothesis that it is a snake. We also challenged the claims in the original article that it possessed both a wide gape for eating large prey and the ability to coil its body and constrict its prey.

Using these corrected data, our analyses of evolutionary relationships found Tetrapodophis to be a dolichosaur, not a snake. Dolichosaurs are an extinct group of elongated, limb-reduced lizards related to mosasaurs. Both are thought to be close relatives of snakes. It is therefore not surprising that there are some anatomical similarities between Tetrapodophis and snakes.

It’s all in the bones

Many fossils are found by splitting open a slab of rock using a hammer and chisel. The fossil of Tetrapodophis was found this way and is now on two slabs of rock.

The skull slab includes impressions of the skeleton, while the second slab preserves the natural mold of the skull and most of the remaining skeleton. The preserved skull bones are shattered into tiny bits and the ones that remain intact are from the left side of the skull. Only the front part of the left lower jaw is relatively well-preserved and it is similar to that of a dolichosaur, not a snake.

The fossil’s skull provided the most revealing clues about the creature’s identity. Credit: Michael Caldwell

The bones of the right side of the skull are gone, but their impressions are preserved on the other slab and were not described in the first article detailing the find. The bones behind the eye that form a barrier for the jaw closing muscles are complete in Tetrapodophis. But they are absent in all fossil and living snakes.

The quadrate bone, which suspends the lower jaw from the skull in lizards, is also preserved. In Tetrapodophis it is identical to that of a dolichosaur and other mosasaurians, not as in snakes.

Limb reduction and loss are not unique to snakes. Numerous living lizards — for example, skinks, anguids and pygopodid geckos — are legless or limb-reduced. They all evolved leglessness independent of each other — known as convergent evolution — but retained the skull features of their respective lizard kind. The same is true for snakes.

A bizarre little lizard

Tetrapodophis is an amazing and bizarre little lizard even without being interpreted as a four-legged snake. It is very small, yet the body skeleton, from the back of the skull to the tip of the tail, is exceptionally elongated. Unlike any other lizard with limbs, Tetrapodophis has about 148 vertebrae between the front legs and the hips. Also, its tail is very long and has an additional 112 vertebrae.

Part and Counterpart of Tetrapodophis. Credit: Michael Caldwell

No other lizard with four legs shows this anatomy, and it is not seen or predicted in snakes either. The body is flattened from side to side, which would have helped it swim in the water. The limbs are tiny, with the front legs being almost vestigial, and most of the wrist and ankle elements are not ossified. Clearly, it could not walk on land using its limbs. Nor could it dig or grasp any prey as originally argued.

Fossils and belonging

Scientific research is not independent from social, political, and economic contexts. Scientific specimens — in paleontology, genetics, archeology or any other field — have a provenance and are intimately linked to people, culture, countries and laws.

Scientific specimens are governed by legislation that outlines how they can be collected and used. This includes countries that in the past suffered from “parachute science” where specimens were removed, legally or illegally, and local scientists were excluded from participating in the research. This practice is now widely condemned as scientists collectively work to decolonize science.

Unfortunately, Tetrapodophis is embroiled in such legal and ethical issues. Since 1942, the law in Brazil has been clear: no fossils can be privately owned. And since 1990, international researchers may only collect in Brazil in partnership with local institutions. The type specimen — the specimen used as a reference point — of any new species must also remain in Brazil.

These legal requirements have been ignored and publicly mocked by one of the authors of the 2015 study.

As of November 2021, the specimen of Tetrapodophis remains in Germany in a private collection, on loan to a private museum: the Bürgermeister-Müller Museum Solnhofen. Its passage from Brazil to that private German collection is unknown.

Ethical matters

The scientific study of privately owned fossil specimens also runs afoul of ethics policies, such those of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. If science is based on the ability to test and retest ideas by re-examining data, then the specimens must always be openly available for study. The concern in paleontology is that private owners of specimens can block that freedom of access and thus unethically limit the science.

Tetrapodophis is proof of this problem. Because of damage to the specimen in 2016 by another research team, and contrary to claims that the specimen would be publicly accessible, the owner blocked access to the specimen.

Some scientists have pronounced that this means Tetrapodophis is dead to science.

We disagree with this conclusion. Despite the controversies, the original paper has not been retracted by Science, and there are also thousands of published references to “Tetrapodophis the four-legged snake.”

We completed our re-examination of the specimen in an effort to correct the record and describe this bizarre fossil lizard for what it is. We also hope that by doing so, we will have reignited the discussion around the specimen with the goal of repatriating it to Brazil.

Written by:

• Michael Caldwell, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology, University of Alberta
• Tiago Rodrigues Simoes, Postdoctoral Fellow, Organismic & Evolutionary Biology & Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University

This article was first published in The Conversation.

For more on this research, see Paleontologists Debunk “Snake With Four Legs” Fossil Thought To Be Missing Link.

This Ocean Invaded Its Neighbor Earlier Than Anyone Thought

The saltier Atlantic broke through layers of ice and freshwater, contributing to the Arctic’s warming.

Icebergs in waters near Kulusuk, Greenland, in 2019.Credit...Felipe Dana/Associated Press


By Sabrina Imbler
Nov. 27, 2021

Arctic. Atlantic. Long ago, the two oceans existed in harmony, with warm and salty Atlantic waters gently flowing into the Arctic. The layered nature of the Arctic — sea ice on top, cool freshwater in the middle and warm, salty water at the bottom — helped hold the boundary between the polar ocean and the warmer Atlantic.

But everything changed when the larger ocean began flowing faster than the polar ocean could accommodate, weakening the distinction between the layers and transforming Arctic waters into something closer to the Atlantic. This process, called Atlantification, is part of the reason the Arctic is warming faster than any other ocean.

“It’s not a new invasion of the Arctic,” said Yueng-Djern Lenn, a physical oceanographer at Bangor University in Wales. “What’s new is that the properties of the Arctic are changing.”

Satellites offer some of the clearest measurements of changes in the Arctic Ocean and sea ice. But their records only go back around 40 years, obscuring how the climate of the ocean may have changed in prior decades.

“To go back, we need a sort of time machine,” said Tommaso Tesi, a researcher at the Institute of Polar Sciences-CNR, Italy.

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, Dr. Tesi and colleagues were able to turn back time with yard-long sediment cores taken from the seafloor, which archived 800 years of historical changes in Arctic waters. Their analysis found Atlantification started at the beginning of the 20th century — decades before the process had been documented by satellite imagery. The Arctic has warmed by around 2 degrees Celsius since 1900. But this early Atlantification did not appear in existing historical climate models, a discrepancy that the authors say may reveal gaps in those estimates.

“It’s a bit unsettling because we rely on these models for future climate predictions,” Dr. Tesi said.

Mohamed Ezat, a researcher at the Tromso campus of the Arctic University of Norway, who was not involved with the research, called the findings “remarkable.”

“Information on long-term past changes in Arctic Ocean hydrography are needed, and long overdue,” Dr. Ezat wrote in an email.

In 2017, the researchers extracted a sediment core from the seafloor of Kongsfjorden, a glacial fjord in the east end of the Fram Strait, a gateway between the Norwegian archipelago Svalbard and Greenland, where Arctic and Atlantic waters mingle.

The researchers sliced up the core at regular intervals and dried those layers. Then came the painstaking process of sifting out and identifying the samples’ foraminifera — single-celled organisms that build intricate shells around themselves using minerals in the ocean.

Researchers extracted a sediment core from the seafloor of Kongsfjorden, a fjord at the far eastern end of the Fram Strait between the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and Greenland.Credit...Sara Giansiracusa


When foraminifera die, their shells drift to the seafloor and accumulate in layers of sediment. The creatures are crucial clues in sediment samples; by identifying which foraminifera are present in a sample and analyzing the chemistry of their shells, scientists can glean the properties of past oceans.

The team’s original idea was to reconstruct the oceanographic conditions of a region that contained both Arctic and Atlantic waters, going back 1,000 to 2,000 years. But, in the slices of the core dating back to the early 20th century, the researchers noticed a sudden, massive increase in the concentration of foraminifera that prefer salty environments — a sign of Atlantification, far earlier than anyone had documented.

“It was quite a lot of surprises in one study,” said Francesco Muschitiello, an oceanographer at the University of Cambridge and an author on the paper.

The sheer amount of sediment was so high that the researchers could assemble a chronology of past climate down to five- or 10-year increments. Additionally, a molecular biomarker could pinpoint a specific year, 1916, when coal mining began in Kongsfjorden. Since the foraminiferal shift occurred just before this marker, the researchers estimate Atlantification began around 1907, give or take a decade.

When the researchers compared the data from their paleoclimate model with others to see if they overlapped, they found existing climate models had no sign of this early Atlantification. The researchers suggest a number of possible reasons behind this absence, such as an underestimation of the role of freshwater mixing in the Arctic or the region’s sensitivity to warming.

Dr. Lenn, who was not involved with the research, sees a difference between this early Atlantification and the present, rapid Atlantification, which is largely driven by melting Arctic sea ice. “It’s too soon after the start of the industrial revolution for us to have accumulated excess heat in the planetary system for it to be anthropogenic at that point,” Dr. Lenn said.

The authors are not sure of the precise reasons behind the early Atlantification. If human influences are the cause, then “the whole system is much more sensitive to greenhouse gases than we previously thought,” Dr. Muschitiello said.

In another possibility, earlier natural warming may have made the Arctic Ocean much more sensitive to the accelerated Atlantification of recent decades. “Could it be that we destabilized a system that was already shifting?” Dr. Tesi said.

This is the maddening mystery of any paleoclimate model. “None of us were there,” Dr. Lenn said, laughing.

Although this is true of humans, it is not true of corals in the Fram Strait. The long-lived animals record changes in climate and other parameters, making them excellent sentinels of climate history. Dr. Tesi hopes to study the strait’s cold-living corals next, to see what insight they may offer into the Atlantic’s usurpation of the Arctic.

Study digs up roles bacteria play in global carbon cycle

by Krishna Ramanujan, Cornell University

Bacteria convert plant biomass, such as this corn organic matter, into soil, which adds to

 soil fertility and stores carbon in the ground. Credit: Dan Buckley/Provided

Cornell researchers have developed an innovative technique to track microbes and understand the various ways they process soil carbon, findings that add to our knowledge of how bacteria contribute to the global carbon cycle.

That's important because soil bacteria are notorously difficult to study, though they are a key to the health of our biosphere. They convert plant biomass into soil organic matter, which is the basis for soil fertility and which holds three times more carbon than the atmosphere. In this way, bacteria control how much carbon ends up in the atmosphere or stored in soil and every year soil microbes process about six times more carbon than all anthropogenic emissions combined.

Improving our knowledge of the roles bacteria play in carbon cycling will ultimately help climate modelers develop more accurate predictions.

The paper, "Multi-Substrate DNA Stable Isotope Probing Reveals Guild Structure of Bacteria that Mediate Soil Carbon Cycling," published Nov. 19 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides clues to how soil organic matter is formed and lost by revealing the different strategies microbes use for processing carbon from plants.

"We want to use this information to study the organisms themselves to get a better understanding of what they are doing and why they are doing it," said Daniel Buckley, professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science Soil and Crop Sciences Section in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Samuel Barnett, a doctoral student in Buckley's lab, is the paper's first author.

One of the biggest uncertainties in computer models that predict the carbon cycle and climate change is that so little is understood about how soil bacteria operate and influence carbon in the soil, Buckley said.

"By understanding what the microbes are doing, we hope to make better predictions about what's going to happen in the carbon cycle in the future and then make better decisions about how to manage our soil," he said.

Soil microbes are tiny and are very hard to observe in the ground, so scientists don't know enough about their needs to grow them in the lab, which in turn makes them almost impossible to study.

In the paper, Buckley and colleagues used stable isotopes and high throughput DNA sequencing to identify different species of bacteria and to track how each species consumes carbon over time.

"This approach allows us to identify the isotopically labeled DNA and figure out which microbe ate each different type of carbon," Buckley said. He likened the approach to marking dollar bills, releasing them in a city, and then tracking them as they moved through the economy.

They found that microbes have different strategies for assimilating carbon. Microbes that grow, eat and die rapidly feed on plant matter with easily accessible carbon, such as sugars. Meanwhile, other bacteria specialize in carbon that is harder to break down and absorb. These microbes grow and consume materials more slowly and are more specialized and efficient. In the study, the researchers categorized these types of bacteria into guilds, which are groups of organisms that are all accessing food – or carbon, in this case – in the same way.

"The more we understand, the better we can predict what's happening with carbon in the soil," Buckley said.

In future work, the team is also investigating whether some guilds prefer different habitats, such as forests or farm fields, and the effects of soil pH on microbial communities.How the secret world of soil microbes helps keep carbon in the ground

More information: Samuel E. Barnett et al, Multisubstrate DNA stable isotope probing reveals guild structure of bacteria that mediate soil carbon cycling, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2115292118

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

Provided by Cornell University 

Researchers try producing potato resistant to climate change


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FILE — Potatoes await harvesting at Green Thumb Farms, Sept. 27, 2017, in Fryeburg, Maine. University of Maine researchers are trying to produce potatoes that can better withstand warming temperatures as the climate changes. 

(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)


BANGOR, Maine (AP) — University of Maine researchers are trying to produce potatoes that can better withstand warming temperatures as the climate changes.

Warming temperatures and an extended growing season can lead to quality problems and disease, Gregory Porter, a professor of crop ecology and management, told the Bangor Daily News.

“The predictions for climate change are heavier rainfall events, and potatoes don’t tolerate flooding or wet conditions for long without having other quality problems,” Porter said. “If we want potatoes to be continued to be produced successfully in Maine, we need to be able to produce varieties that can be resistant to change.”

Around the world, research aimed at mitigating crop damage is underway. A NASA study published this month suggests climate change may affect the production of corn and wheat, reducing yields of both, as soon as 2030.

Maine is coming off of a banner potato crop thanks in part to the success of the Caribou russet, which was developed by UMaine researchers. But Porter fears that even that variety isn’t as heat tolerant as necessary to resist the future effects of climate change.

Pests are another factor. The Colorado potato beetle and disease-spreading aphids have flourished with the changing climate, said Jim Dill, pest management specialist at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.

Breeding seemingly small changes like hairier leaves that make it difficult for insects to move around on the plant can cut down on pests’ destruction and also the need for pesticides, he said.

Breeding such characteristics into potatoes is a long process of cross-pollinating different potato varieties.

The process is well underway.

They’re in a research testing phase right now at sites throughout the United States. Test potatoes in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida are testing high temperature stress.

“It takes 10 years of selection after that initial cross pollination, and it might take two to five years before enough commercial evaluation has taken place to release a new potato variety,” Porter said.

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Community systems offer alternative paths for solar growth

By JOHN FLESHER

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Bishop Richard Howell poses Aug. 19, 2021 beside some of the 630 solar panels on the roof of Shiloh Temple International Ministries in Minneapolis The church is one of many "community solar" providers popping up around the U.S. as surging demand for renewable energy inspires new approaches. Aug. 19, 2021, in Minneapolis.

 (AP Photo/Jim Mone)


MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Strolling his church’s rooftop among 630 solar panels, Bishop Richard Howell Jr. acknowledged climate change isn’t the most pressing concern for his predominantly Black congregation — even though it disproportionately harms people of color and the poor.

“The violence we’re having, shootings, killings, COVID-19,” Howell said wearily. “You’re trying to save families, and right now no one’s really talking about global warming.”

Yet his Shiloh Temple International Ministries in north Minneapolis welcomed the opportunity to become one of many “community solar” providers popping up around the U.S. amid surging demand for renewable energy.

Larger than home rooftop systems but smaller than utility-scale complexes, they’re located atop buildings, or on abandoned factory grounds and farms. Individuals or companies subscribe to portions of energy sent to the grid and get credits that reduce their electricity bills.

The model attracts people who can’t afford rooftop installations or live where solar is not accessible, such as renters and owners of dwellings without direct sunlight.

“We’re helping fight this climate war and blessing families with lower costs,” Howell said.

Barb and Gerald Bauer stroll along a row of solar panels on their farm near Faribault, Minn., on Aug. 20, 2021, They say leasing land for the "community solar" garden removes several acres from crop production but provides extra revenue. Many community solar providers are popping up around the U.S. as surging demand for renewable energy inspires new approaches. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Stand out solar panels near corn growing on Barb and Gerald Bauer's farm Aug. 20, 2021, near Faribault, Minn. They say leasing land for the "community solar" garden removes several acres from crop production but provides extra revenue. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

Nearly 1.600 community solar projects, or “gardens,” are operating nationwide, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. Most are in Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York and Colorado, although 41 states and Washington, D.C., have at least one. Florida has relatively few but they’re big enough to make the state a leading producer.

Together they generate roughly 3.4 gigawatts — enough for about 650,000 homes — or roughly 3% of the nation’s solar output. But more than 4.3 gigawatts are expected to go online within five years, says the Solar Energy Industries Association.

“We can have a cheaper, cleaner and more equitable system for everyone if we build smaller, local resources,” said Jeff Cramer, executive director of the Coalition for Community Solar Access, a trade group.

Yet it’s unclear how big a role community solar will play in the U.S. transition from fossil fuels to renewables.

The Biden administration is continuing a $15 million Energy Department initiative begun in 2019 to support its growth, particularly in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. The department announced a goal in October of powering the equivalent of 5 million households with community solar by 2025, saving consumers $1 billion.

But power regulation happens at the state level, where interest groups are fighting over what defines community solar and who should generate it.

The Solar Energy Industries Association says the label should apply only where private developers and nonprofit cooperatives, not just utilities, can operate solar gardens and send power to the grid. The association says 19 states and Washington, D.C., have such policies.

Utilities say having too many players could unravel regulatory structures that assure reliable electric service. They warn of disasters such as last winter’s deadly blackout in Texas.

“You’ve got lots of individual profit-motivated actors trying to make a buck,” said Brandon Hofmeister, a senior vice president with Consumers Energy. The Michigan power company is fighting state bills that would allow non-utility community solar providers.

Others say utilities are simply ducking competition.

“What’s really driving the rise of community solar is the free market,” said John Freeman, executive director of the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association, a trade group. “It saves money and promotes a cleaner environment.”

Noy Koumalasy, left, and Keith Dent discuss their enrollment in a "community solar" program Aug. 19, 2021, in Minneapolis. The couple say subscribing to a solar garden at nearby Shiloh Temple International Ministries has lowered their utility bills an average of $98 per year while supporting renewable energy. Aug. 19, 2021, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

GROWING PAINS

Community solar took off in Minnesota after lawmakers in 2013 required Xcel Energy, the state’s largest utility, to establish a program open to other developers. It has more than 400 gardens — tops in the U.S. — with nearly 500 applications pending.

Keith Dent and Noy Koumalasy, who are married, say subscribing to the Shiloh Temple garden has lowered their bills an average of $98 per year.

“You’re generating your own power and saving a little money,” said Dent, who helped install several complexes built by Cooperative Energy Futures, a local nonprofit.

Xcel, which is required to buy the gardens’ electricity, says the state formula for valuing solar energy makes it too expensive. The costs, spread among all the utility’s customers, essentially force non-subscribers to subsidize community solar, spokesman Matthew Lindstrom said.

Community solar backers say Xcel’s claim ignores savings from local gardens’ lower distribution costs.

Among Cooperative Energy Futures gardens are 3,760 panels on a parking deck overlooking the Twins’ baseball stadium and a collection on a farm near Faribault, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Minneapolis.

Although conflicted about taking six acres out of production, farmer Gerald Bauer supports the climate cause and says lease payments of $1,200 per acre make community solar a financial winner.

“Farming doesn’t even come close to the revenue that the solar generates,” he said, walking through rows of panels framed by fields of corn.

A cooperative project for a municipal roof in nearby Eden Prairie has twice as many would-be subscribers as panels.

”There are people in the community who want to support clean energy any way they can,” said Jennifer Hassebroek, sustainability coordinator for the suburban city.

But community solar developers are hitting a roadblock: Under state law, residents and businesses can subscribe to facilities only in their county or an adjacent one.

That means the heavily populated Twin Cites have many potential subscribers but are short of space for gardens. Rural areas have plenty of room but fewer buyers for the energy.

“Instead of spreading across the state, we’re going to concentrate on those counties that are adjacent to the subscription demand,” said Reed Richerson, chief operating officer of Minneapolis-based U.S. Solar Corp., which builds solar projects in half a dozen states.

A bill by State Rep. Patty Acomb, a Democrat representing a Twin Cities suburban district, would drop the “contiguous county” rule.

But Xcel says that contradicts a basic community solar principle: producing energy close to where it’s used.

Community solar is billed as making renewable energy more available to households, especially needy ones. Yet businesses and public entities with sustainability goals, such as schools and city halls, subscribe to most of the power.

Some states are trying to change that.

New Mexico requires at least 30% of each community solar project’s subscribers to be low-income. Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey and Oregon reserve portions of energy for low- and moderate-income residents. New York provides financial incentives for developers to recruit them.

“There’s still a lot to be done to open community solar market access to marginalized folks,” said Gilbert Michaud, an assistant professor of public policy at Loyola University Chicago.

LOOKING AHEAD

Community solar is struggling in states without established systems.

Michigan has about a dozen projects, although Consumers Energy this summer opened a 1,752-panel garden on abandoned factory grounds in Cadillac.

Conservative Republican Michele Hoitenga and progressive Democrat Rachel Hood are sponsoring House legislation to establish a state-regulated program open to third-party energy providers and utilities.

Hoitenga says it would boost freedom and the economy without raising taxes. Hood emphasizes climate benefits and equal access to renewable energy.

But their bills are opposed by Consumers Energy and DTE Energy, the state’s two biggest utilities. They would cause “overproduction of energy ... and ultimately higher rates,” said DTE Energy spokesman Pete Ternes.

Prospects are brighter in states friendly to non-utility developers such as New Jersey, Maine and Illinois, said Rachel Goldstein of the consulting firm Wood Mackenzie.

She forecasts a 140% nationwide jump in production capacity by 2026, although growth could hinge on lifting barriers such as project size limits.

Community solar likely won’t rival home rooftop installations soon if ever, Goldstein said, much less approach utility-scale operations.

“It’s not realistic to say we’re going to solve the climate crisis with this and everyone’s going to be a millionaire,” said Timothy DenHerder-Thomas, general manager of Cooperative Energy Futures. “But we can say you’re going to have a better life, more affordable and cleaner.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Offshore wind farms could make Nova Scotia an 'energy-exporting region'

Fri., November 26, 2021

Offshore wind is long-established in Europe. Some people think it's time for Nova Scotia to follow suit. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images - image credit)

Natural gas platforms near Sable Island, N.S., were dismantled and removed years ago, but someday the shallow shelf in the North Atlantic could once again produce energy: renewable energy from offshore wind turbines.

Offshore wind is increasingly becoming part of a low-carbon future and, according to promoters in Halifax this week, Nova Scotia is an ideal location thanks to shallow seabed areas that can anchor offshore turbines and — of course — plenty of wind.

"The nice thing about Nova Scotia is that there's a lot of options. We have a lot of areas where you can get over 10 metres per second average wind speeds, which in a global context is spectacular," said Scott Urquhart, CEO and founder of Aegir Insights, based in Copenhagen.

Urquhart, a Cape Breton native, was one of the speakers at a marine renewable energy conference in Halifax this week. Working with Danish developers, he was part of the rapid increase in offshore wind farms in Europe.

He said costs there have dropped 70 per cent in the last decade, while the average project is expected to grow from 750 megawatts in 2025 to up to 3,000 megawatts by 2030. Nova Scotia Power has a capacity of 2,400 megawatts.

Cutting carbon

The opportunity here is not the domestic market, said Wendy Franks, an executive with Toronto-based Northland Power, a leading developer of offshore wind farms in Europe and Asia.

"If we could harvest the renewable energy and transform it into hydrogen, then the Maritimes could become an energy-exporting region," said Franks.

Electrons generated by turbines are fed through an electrolyzer with water, which separates hydrogen and oxygen molecules. Hydrogen can be stored and converted into "green ammonia" and used as zero carbon fuel.

"We're thinking about many different uses," said Franks.

"It could be something where we are exporting the ammonia by ships. It could be something also where actually the ships are consuming the hydrogen and using that to decarbonize their operations."

Offshore wind is likely coming to the east coast of North America with or without Nova Scotia.

Construction began this month on the first large offshore wind farm in the United States, the 800-megawatt, $3-billion, 62-turbine Vineyard Wind project off Cape Cod.

It will produce enough electricity to power 400,000 homes — about the size of the Nova Scotia Power residential customer base.

"We need so many more of these," said Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker at the Nov. 18 sod turning.

Vineyard Wind is the first but not the last big wind farm, he said.

"We now have [gigawatts] galore all the way up and down the Eastern Seaboard."

Need for clearer rules

The rules for offshore wind are not yet established in Canada, say promoters like Simon De Pietro, an Irish renewable energy developer also working on a tidal power project in Nova Scotia.

"Working in Atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia, what we're trying to say is, OK, what is the regulatory mechanism that we need to get seabed? What is that process?" he said.

Franks, of Northland Power, said she is heartened by conversations with "forward thinking" local regulators, but more clarity is needed.

"Clear regulation is very important. It doesn't exactly exist today."

Urquhart said the industry is waiting for encouragement from the government.

"People are looking to hear, what is the signal of the government? What's the signal for marine renewables in Canada?"

In a statement, the Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mines said the government is committed to having 80 per cent of provincial electricity needs filled by renewable energy by 2030 and will entertain proposals for offshore wind.

"We are open to considering any and all proposals that offer affordable ways to increase our renewable energy use," spokesperson Patricia Jreige said.

Companies have been trying to harness electricity from the ocean for over a decade in Nova Scotia — but through tidal power in the Bay of Fundy.

Wind and tidal options

Jason Hayman of Sustainable Energy is one of those developers.

The company has just constructed an on-shore electrical substation to connect its floating tidal turbine platform on Digby Neck with the provincial grid.

He said offshore wind and tidal are complementary.

"We have developed anchoring and mooring technology for our tidal system that must endure very, very high loads. And we're getting a significant amount of interest now from the floating wind community about using that technology to moor floating wind turbines."

Like any offshore energy project, offshore wind development would likely trigger a fight with fisheries groups.

Vineyard Wind, in Massachusetts, is facing opposition from a coalition of commercial fisheries groups currently challenging the federal approval in court.

It shows that social licence is "a really big deal," said Franks.

"This includes a very careful, methodical evaluation of the environmental impacts. It means stakeholder engagement with the local communities, especially the fisheries, to make sure that we're being mindful of minimizing the impact to that important sector particularly here," she said.

"And then lastly, I would highlight because it's really important, is First Nations engagement in this."

Electricity exports to New York from Quebec will happen as early as 2025: Hydro-Quebec


The Canadian Press

Thursday, November 25, 2021 

MONTREAL -- Hydro-Quebec announced Thursday it has chosen the route for the Hertel-New York interconnection line, which will begin construction in the spring of 2023 in Quebec.

The project will deliver 1,250 megawatts of Quebec hydroelectricity to New York City starting in 2025.

It's a 25-year contract for Hydro-Quebec, the largest export contract for the province-owned company.

The Crown corporation has not disclosed potential revenues from the project, but Premier François Legault mentioned on social media last September that a deal in principle worth more than $20 billion over 25 years was in the works.

The route includes a 56.1-kilometre underground and a 1.6-kilometre underwater section.

Eight municipalities in the Montérégie region will be affected: La Prairie, Saint-Philippe, Saint-Jacques-le-Mineur, Saint-Édouard, Saint-Patrice-de-Sherrington, Saint-Cyprien-de-Napierville, Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle and Lacolle.

The last part of the route will run along Fairbanks Creek to the Richelieu River, where it will connect with the American network.

Further south, there will be a 545-kilometre link between the Canada-U.S. border and New York City.

Hydro-Quebec is holding two consultations on the project, on Dec. 8 in Lacolle and Dec. 9 in Saint-Jacques-le-Mineur.

Once the route is in service, the Quebec line will be subject to a partnership between Hydro-Quebec and the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, which will benefit from economic remunerations for 40 years.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 25, 2021

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Author of the article:
La Presse Canadienne
Publishing date:Nov 25, 2021

A Hydro-Québec substation.

 PHOTO BY JOHN MAHONEY /Montreal Gazette files

Hydro-Québec on Thursday unveiled the route of its Hertel-New York interconnection line , whose construction will begin in the spring of 2023 southeast of Montreal.

The project will see 1,250 megawatts of Quebec hydroelectricity exported to New York City as of 2025.

The 25-year contract is Hydro-Québec’s largest export contract. The company has not published revenue projections, but Quebec Premier François Legault said in September it was worth $20 billion.

The route runs 56 kilometres underground through the Montérégie municipalities of La Prairie, St-Philippe, St-Jacques-le-Mineur, St-Édouard, St-Patrice-de-Sherrington, St-Cyprien-de-Napierville, St-Bernard-de-Lacolle and Lacolle. It includes a 24-kilometre segment along Highway 15.

At the border is a 1.6-kilometre underwater segment where the Richelieu River meets Lake Champlain, and then a 545-kilometre line toward New York City.

“Over the past few months, Hydro-Québec has carried out technical and environmental studies and spoken with community representatives, environmental groups, Indigenous communities, property owners potentially affected by the project, and residents of the study area,” the utility said. “Throughout the many discussions held, the project and the line routes under study were presented and concerns were taken into consideration. The public consultation process resulted in a better project and one that is tailored to the realities of the host communities.”

Two open-house meetings are scheduled to allow Quebecers to ask questions about the project:

Dec. 8, 4 to 8 p.m. at 10 Ste-Marie St. in Lacolle
Dec. 9, 3 to 8 p.m. at 263 Route Édouard-VII in St-Jacques-le-Mineur

Once put into service, the project will be a partnership between Hydro-Québec and the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, which will see economic spinoffs over 40 years, the utility said.

Korea to greenlight self-service hydrogen charging stations, replace coal with ammonia

By Kim Byung-wook
Published : Nov 26, 2021 

(123rf)
South Korea on Friday unveiled a pangovernmental hydrogen blueprint that laid out detailed plans to realize the nation’s hydrogen economy, from authorizing self-service hydrogen fueling stations to replacing coal with ammonia at power plants.

The blueprint aims to address the key weaknesses of Korea’s hydrogen ambition -- heavy reliance on foreign-made hydrogen, concerns over safety, lack of demand and price competitiveness in the hydrogen mobility sector and infrastructure, the government said.

One of the key takeaways is the review of self-service hydrogen filling stations. For safety concerns, hydrogen vehicles can only be refilled with the assistance of trained employees at the stations. As this drives up costs significantly, the government will launch a feasibility test of a self-service station next month and establish safety standards by next year.

Also, the government plans to improve the lifespan and driving range of hydrogen vehicles, which remain too short at the moment. The lifespan and driving range of a hydrogen truck stand at 250,000 kilometers and 400 kilometers, respectively.

The goal is to achieve the same performance of an internal combustion engine truck, which can run over 800,000 kilometers and 1,000 kilometers by 2030.

As for a hydrogen passenger car, the target is to reach over 300,000 kilometers by 2023. The driving range is already equivalent to 600 kilometers of an ICE car.



To drive up hydrogen demand, the government will order public power companies to use a fuel mix of 20 percent ammonia and 80 percent fossil fuel when generating electricity by 2030. The aim is to gradually upgrade coal plants and have them produce electricity with 100 percent ammonia by 2050.

Above all, Korea will build 40 overseas clean hydrogen production bases by 2050 to ensure a stable supply of translucent gas. In 2050, Korea’s hydrogen demand will spike to 27.9 million metric tons from the current 220,000 tons. The global production bases will allow Korea to source 60 percent of the 27.9 million tons on its own.

Clean hydrogen refers to blue or green hydrogen. Though colorless, hydrogen is given color descriptors depending on its feedstock and production method.

Blue hydrogen is extracted from natural gas and captures carbon emitted during the process. Green hydrogen is made by passing electricity generated by renewables through the water. Korea lacks a domestic source of natural gas and adequate natural conditions for renewable energy and therefore has to import most of its clean hydrogen.

As for infrastructure, the government will test whether existing underground natural gas pipelines can also be used to transport hydrogen. By upgrading gas and LPG stations, the government will increase the number of hydrogen stations to more than 2,000 by 2050 from the current 70.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum, who announced the hydrogen blueprint, said that the plan will create accumulated economic effects of 1,319 trillion won ($1.1 trillion) and 567,000 jobs by 2050.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)

S. Korea aims to become first mover in hydrogen economy, shift 100% to clean hydrogen energy by 2050

While hydrogen itself produces zero emissions, some ways of making it can produce greenhouse gases. That's why South Korea plans to get 100 percent of its hydrogen energy from clean sources by 2050,... as part of its blueprint in becoming a first mover in the hydrogen economy. Kim Sung-min starts us off. By 2050,... South Korea aims for its hydrogen fuel energy to come from 100-percent "clean hydrogen energy." There are three main categories of hydrogen: gray, blue and green... depending on how they are made. Only green, which comes entirely from renewable energy... and blue produced from natural gas with carbon capture and storage... are considered clean hydrogen energy. Currently,... South Korea produces only gray hydrogen, made using fossil fuels like natural gas,... but in the coming three decades,... it will shift completely to clean hydrogen,... with 60 percent self sufficiency. This is only part of the country's hydrogen economy blueprint announced on Friday, as South Korea aims to become a first mover in the field. "The journey towards the hydrogen economy, which no one has been on yet, will be very challenging. To make such challenge a turning point for the country in becoming a leader,... the government has come up with the first basic plan in achieving a hydrogen economy. With the plan,... by 2050, around 33% of energy needs will be powered by hydrogen fuel, making it the biggest single source of energy in the country. More than 23 percent of energy generation will come from hydrogen by that period,... helping the country shift away from fossil fuels. The plan will make vehicles greener too. From ordinary cars to taxis and trucks to buses,... it will be possible to power some 5-point-3 million vehicles by hydrogen. The country aims to create facilities to support this expansion,... by placing some 2-thousand hydrogen fuel chargers across the country. Combined,... the government's hydrogen economy roadmap is expected to generate economic benefits worth some 1-point-1 trillion U.S. dollars,... and create more than 5-hundred-60-thousand jobs. Most importantly,... it will contribute to the nation's carbon neutral goal,... by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 2-hundred-million tons. The government has also pledged to train more skilled personnel to push for this goal while cooperating with private firms.

Kim Sung-min, Arirang News.

Living With A Hydrogen Car (Toyota Mirai) Did NOT Go As Expected: Here's What Happened

Nov 26, 2021 The Fast Lane Car ( https://tfl-studios.com/ ) Check out our new spot to find ALL our content, from news to videos and our podcasts! Hydrogen cars offer a lot of great benefits, but what is it like to actually live with hydrogen on a daily basis? Tommy finds out by trying to refuel the 2021 Toyota Mirai...with unexpected results. In this video I try seeing what it would be like to live with a car powered entirely by hydrogen, the new Toyota Mirai!

 UNICORN TECH

Korea's Cutting-Edge Fusion Reactor Just Broke Its Own Record For Containing Plasma

MIKE MCRAE

26 NOVEMBER 2021

Barely a year after the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) broke one record for fusion, it's smashed it again, this time holding onto a churning whirlpool of 100 million degree plasma for a whole 30 seconds.

Though it's well short of the 101 seconds set by the Chinese Academy of Sciences earlier this year, it remains a significant milestone on the road to cleaner, near-limitless energy that could transform how we power our society.

Here's why it's so important.

Deep inside stars like our Sun, gravity and high temperatures give simple elements such as hydrogen the energy they need to overcome the repulsion of their nuclei and force them to squeeze into bigger atoms.

The result of this nuclear fusion is heavier elements, a few stray neutrons, and a whole lot of heat.

On Earth, scooping together a Sun's worth of gravity isn't possible. But we can achieve similar results by swapping the crunch of gravity for some extra punch in the form of heat. At some point we can even squeeze enough heat from the fusing atoms to keep the nuclear reaction going, with enough left over to siphon off for power.

That's the theory. But getting that insanely hot plasma to stay in place long enough to tap into its heat supply for a sustained, reliable source of energy requires some clever thinking.

The KSTAR is just one of a handful of test facilities around the world attempting to iron the kinks out of a plasma-wrangling technology called a tokamak.

Tokamaks are essentially large metal loops designed to contain clouds of hot, charged particles. Being charged, the moving cloud generates a strong magnetic field, allowing it to be pushed into place by a counter-field.

The KSTAR Tokamak (National Fusion Research Institute)

The trick with tokamaks is to fine-tune the current in such a way that it doesn't slip free of its magnetic confines. This is easier said than done, as heated pulses of plasma aren't so much tornadoes of particles, as unstable, churning maelstroms of chaos.

Try to contain a loop of jelly inside a ring of rubber bands to get a sense of the challenge.

There are various other ways to achieve similar results. Stellerators, like Germany's Wendelstein 7-X test-device, flip the script and use a highly complex, AI-designed tunnel of magnetic coils to keep its churning loop of plasma in place, for example. This promises a longer hang-time, but makes it a little harder to heat the plasma.

Tokamaks, on the other hand, have been hitting bigger and bigger temperatures the past few years.

China's Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) reactor in Hefei became the first to hit a significant temperature landmark of 100 million degrees Celsius back in 2018, a temperature that's still out of reach of stellerators (for now).

This year, EAST heated plasma to 120 million degrees Celsius, holding it for more than a minute and a half.

Those temperatures, however, were a measure of the energy shared among its electrons. Hot, no question, but getting the temperature of the much heavier ions to increase is also important. Not to mention harder.

The KSTAR hit 100 million for its ion temperature last year, maintaining the pulse for 20 seconds.

The fact it's just hit 30 seconds – a little over 12 months later – is incredibly encouraging.

Every test facility does things a little differently, using variations on the technology to push the limits on anything from pulse duration to stability to electron or plasma temperature.

While it's tempting to see each record as a competition, it's important to celebrate every milestone as one more lesson learned.

Every achievement shows others ways to deal with the hurdles we still face in harnessing the Sun's engine into a powerhouse on Earth.

(Andriy Onufriyenko/Moment/Getty Images)