Ontario Teachers' buys stake in U.S. renewable energy portfolio

The Canadian Press

TORONTO -- Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board says it has signed a deal with a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc. to buy a 50 per cent stake in a portfolio of 13 wind, solar and energy storage assets in the U.S. for US$849 million.

The pension fund manager has also committed to buy at least a 25 per cent interest in a US$824-million convertible equity portfolio financing announced by NextEra Energy in October.

NextEra Energy manages and owns contracted clean energy projects.

Chris Ireland, managing director, greenfield and renewables at Ontario Teachers', says the investment marks the beginning of what is expected to be a long-term partnership with the company.

The deal is expected to close later this year or in early 2022, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

The pension fund manager committed earlier this year to having net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across its portfolio by 2050.

China’s Sinopec banks on green hydrogen with Xinjiang solar-powered plant

The country’s largest oil refiner says it has started building the world’s largest facility of its kind, with production to start in 2023

The US$470 million project is expected to have an annual output capacity of more than 10,000 tonnes


Echo Xie
Published: 1 Dec, 2021

China’s largest oil refiner Sinopec has started work on the country’s largest solar-powered green hydrogen plant. Photo: EPA-EFE

China’s largest oil refiner China Petrochemical Corporation – also known as Sinopec – has started building the world’s largest green hydrogen plant, to be entirely powered by solar energy.

Sinopec said on Tuesday the 3 billion yuan (US$470 million) plant in Kuqa, in the far western region of Xinjiang, was expected to start production in June 2023, with a 20,000 tonnes-per-year capacity.

According to the company, it will be China’s first photovoltaic-powered hydrogen plant with an annual output capacity of more than 10,000 tonnes, as well as the world’s largest.

Sinopec urges Hong Kong government to kick-start hydrogen-fuelled transport
4 Oct 2021


Hydrogen, a highly reactive gas, has many industrial uses, including as a source of energy. China, which produces the world’s largest amount of it, mainly uses it as an industrial raw material – for example, to manufacture plastics or chemicals

Most of the country’s hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, with just 4 per cent coming from renewable sources.

Green hydrogen – produced from renewable sources such as solar and wind energy – has significantly lower carbon emissions than grey hydrogen, which is produced using fossil fuels such as natural gas.

Sinopec’s demonstration project will go through the whole process of green hydrogen production and utilisation, including photovoltaic power generation, transformation, electrolytic hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, transport and refining.

The company will build a solar power station with an installed capacity of 300 megawatts to support hydrogen production. It will also build a hydrogen production plant from water electrolysis, hydrogen storage tanks and a hydrogen pipeline.

The plant will supply Sinopec’s oil refinery in Tahe, Xinjiang, replacing its current natural gas-based hydrogen production, saving an expected 485,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.


Two sessions: How China's environmental policies are giving a boost to green industries

Sinopec chairman Ma Yongsheng said the project would give full play to Xinjiang’s resource advantages and was a key project for the company’s ambitions to be the country’s No 1 hydrogen producer, according to party mouthpiece People’s Daily.

Han Xiaoping, a chief analyst at energy industry website china5e.com, said low land costs and high solar power generation efficiency in Xinjiang would reduce the overall cost of the Sinopec project.

And, while the cost of green hydrogen is relatively high compared to fossil-based hydrogen, intermediate transport costs would be reduced by supplying a local refinery, he said.

“Xinjiang has a strong chemical production capacity … The economics should be relatively acceptable.”

US-China rivalry ‘threatens further action on climate change’
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Sinopec is China’s largest hydrogen producer with a capacity of 3.9 million tonnes per year, accounting for 11 per cent of China’s total production. It aims to build 1,000 hydrogen refuelling stations during the 14th five-year plan period to 2025.

The company has three more green hydrogen production projects in the pipeline, including two in the northern region of Inner Mongolia and an offshore wind-based facility in the southeastern province of Fujian.

Careful planning to reduce risks for China on road to carbon net zero
25 Oct 2021



The adoption of low-carbon hydrogen will play a key role in China’s path towards carbon neutrality. According to a report by the China Hydrogen Alliance in May, the proportion of hydrogen energy in the country’s energy mix is expected to increase from about 3 per cent in 2018 to 20 per cent in 2060.

Already, 23 provinces and municipalities have issued plans and guidelines to develop their hydrogen industry. China is expected to release a mid- and long-term national plan for the sector after discussion, Shanghai Securities News said on Monday.

Goldman Sachs-backed ReNew Power joins India's big-name dash to green hydrogen

Developer links with conglomerate L&T to advance renewable H2 opportunities in market already focus of fellow giants


Sumant Sinha, CEO of ReNew Power.Photo: ReNew Power

ReNew Power became the latest Indian heavyweight to unveil big plans in green hydrogen as it linked with engineering and construction giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to advance projects in the sector.

Goldman Sachs-backed ReNew in a statement said the two will jointly own, develop and operate projects as their part in what they expect to be a total $60bn investment in Indian renewable H2 infrastructure by 2030 to meet demand of 2 million tonnes per annum by then.


Asia's richest man to build gigafactory to mass-produce Stiesdal’s new low-cost hydrogen electrolyserRead more

ReNew – which has more than 6GW of wind and solar operating and a 3.8GW committed pipeline – said it is already studying specific opportunities with L&T, one of India’s largest E&C groups.

The two were quoted in the Indian media saying they expect to see a $2bn market opportunity in green H2 in as little as two years.

ReNew CEO Sumant Sinha said: “Green hydrogen will be a key driver of the transition to cleaner sources of energy and this partnership between ReNew and L&T, will allow both companies to pool their knowledge, expertise and resources to take maximum advantage of this transition. I expect this partnership to set new benchmarks in the Indian renewable energy space.”


Modi pledges massive green hydrogen 'quantum leap' to Indian energy independenceRead more

The pair become the latest big names to pledge major expansion of green H2 in India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the fuel a key plank of the nation’s energy transition strategy in a speech earlier this year when he said it could help secure “energy independence”.

Also active are Reliance Industries led by billionaire chairman Mukesh Ambani and fellow tycoon Gautam Adani, who said his Adani Group conglomerate will spend $70bn to amass a 45GW renewable energy portfolio by 2030 and produce the world’s cheapest green hydrogen.(Copyright)

L&T and ReNew join hands to tap green hydrogen business

The companies have signed an agreement to tap into the $60 billion emerging green hydrogen market in India.2 min read .

 Updated: 03 Dec 2021

Kalpana Pathak

The firms are targeting a business potential of $2 billion from India, neighbours in two years

MUMBAI : Construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and leading renewable energy company ReNew Power (ReNew) on Thursday signed an agreement to tap the $60 billion emerging green hydrogen market in India.

The companies are targeting a business potential of $2 billion from the segment in India and neighbouring countries in two years.

“The partnership brings together the track record of L&T in designing, executing and delivering EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) projects and the expertise of ReNew in developing utility-scale renewable energy projects," said S.N. Subrahmanyan, chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director of L&T.

Green hydrogen is produced by a process that does not emit any greenhouse gases. Efforts are on globally to make green hydrogen the fuel that can help countries attain their net-zero emission targets.

It is anticipated that the green hydrogen demand in India for applications such as refineries, fertilizers, and city gas grids will grow to 2 million tonnes per annum by 2030 in line with the nation’s green hydrogen mission. This would call for investments upward of $60 billion.

A number of opportunities are available in the green hydrogen segment and the partnership will not be constrained by capital availability, said Sumant Sinha, chairman and CEO at Gurugram-based ReNew. “For each opportunity that comes up, we will essentially put together a specific entity that will go ahead and pay for that particular project," said Sinha. He added that the companies will pool all their resources and put in a bid.

Many countries, including India, have announced specific policy interventions to push for widespread adoption of green hydrogen.

For India, with its ever-increasing energy import bill, it can also provide energy security by reducing the dependence on fossil fuels.

The estimated cost of setting up a 500-megawatt hydrogen plant would be about a billion dollars, 70% of which typically goes into setting up renewable energy capacity, and 30% into electrolyzers. Subramanian Sarma, whole-time director and senior executive vice president (energy), L&T, said the companies are already exploring opportunities in the Indian market for green hydrogen. “We believe that in maybe two to three years’ time we should be having something like a $2 billion of a business building up, but it can accelerate quite quickly depending upon how the market works," he said.

“We will see more such partnerships as the market is huge and with all companies announcing net zero ambitions, green hydrogen will help them achieve that," said a senior renewable energy official from an advisory company

Fact-check: Do China and India's per capita carbon dioxide emissions outpace the U.S.?

Becca Schimmel, PolitiFact.com
Sat, December 4, 2021, 

Viral Facebook post: Are China and India wildly outpacing the U.S. and other countries on carbon dioxide emissions?

PolitiFact's ruling: Half True

Here's why: Are China and India wildly outpacing the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany and Japan on emissions of carbon dioxide? A chart shared on Facebook shows a staggering increase in carbon dioxide emissions in China and India since 1990, while showing declines for the U.S. and other developed countries over the same time.

On Facebook, a user sharing the chart asked: "Why are we weakening our economy?" They cited the New York Post as the source.

It’s important to know what the chart shows, and what it doesn’t.

This is the image from the Facebook post, which originated from an Oct. 28 New York Post opinion article. The graph obscures that the U.S., U.K., Japan and Germany already had high levels of carbon dioxide emission prior to 1990.

While the headline on the graphic says "Per capita CO2 emissions," what the lines on the chart show is the percentage change in CO2 emissions from 1990 to 2019 for China, India, Japan, the U.S., Germany and the United Kingdom.

It appeared alongside an Oct. 26 opinion article in the New York Post headlined "Why destroy our economy to cut emissions — when China and India are spewing away?" The piece ran ahead of the international climate change conference of world leaders in Glasgow, Scotland, called COP26.

The opinion article, written by Eddie Scarry, sourced the data in the chart from Our World in Data, a project of Oxford University. So we asked Hannah Ritchie, a senior researcher for Our World in Data, to tell us more about it.

Ritchie offered a simple explanation: Because China and India had very low levels of per capita emissions in 1990, when their economies were far less developed, their emissions have grown a lot since then. Readers wouldn’t know it from this graphic, but the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan already had high levels of emissions, which didn’t change very much over the same period.

A different way of looking at the data provides more context.

Our World in Data provided a similar chart looking at per capita CO2 emissions for the same countries and time periods. The difference in this chart is that it shows not the percentage change, but rather the actual change in per capita emissions over time, measured in tons. This version of how the data is presented shows the U.S. and Japan leading in per capita CO2 emissions.

The difference in charts from Our World in Data depends on whether the "relative change" option was selected. Checking this box shows the percentage change over time and makes it appear as though China and India are leading in CO2 emissions compared with other developed nations.

The Facebook post is missing context because it shows the change in emissions per person, but not the actual emissions.

The United States is responsible for the largest share of historical emissions with about 509 gigatons of carbon dioxide released since 1850. China has the second-largest share of historical emissions with more than 284 gigatons. Simon Evans, deputy editor for Carbon Brief, analyzed why cumulative CO2 emissions matter in an Oct. 5, 2021, article. He wrote:

"There is a direct, linear relationship between the total amount of CO2 released by human activity and the level of warming at the Earth’s surface. Moreover, the timing of a ton of CO2 being emitted has only a limited impact on the amount of warming it will ultimately cause.

"This means CO2 emissions from hundreds of years ago continue to contribute to the heating of the planet — and current warming is determined by the cumulative total of CO2 emissions over time."

Our ruling

A Facebook post shows China and India leading in per capita CO2 emissions compared to the U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan between 1990 and 2019.

The chart is missing some context, and the headline is misleading. When looking at the percentage change in per capita CO2 emissions from 1990-2019, China and India have seen the largest increases. Both countries had relatively low emissions in 1990, and they have grown a lot since then. The U.S., U.K., Germany and Japan already had high levels of emissions in 1990, and they have remained at high levels, with the U.S. leading the pack.

We rate this claim Half True.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

Sources
Facebook post, Oct. 28, 2021

New York Post, "Why destroy our economy to cut emissions — when China and India are spewing away?" Oct. 26, 2021

Our World in Data, "CO2 emissions," last accessed Nov. 16, 2021

Our World in Data, "CO2 data explorer," last accessed Nov. 16, 2021

Carbon Brief, "Analysis: Which countries are historically responsible for climate change?," Oct. 5, 2021

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Facebook post misleads on China's, India's carbon dioxide emissions

BP's CEO Is Trying to Convince the World He's Serious About Going Green

Vivienne Walt
Sun, December 5, 2021

BP Plc CEO Bernard Looney Sets Out His Vision

Bernard Looney, chief executive officer of BP Plc, on Feb. 12, 2020. 

Credit - Hollie Adams—Bloomberg/Getty Images

Nothing in Bernard Looney’s youth suggested that he would find himself, at 50, leading one of the world’s biggest oil giants at the most tumultuous moment in its history. The CEO of the 112-year-old British company was raised in relative poverty on a farm in rural Ireland, and joined BP straight out of college 30 years ago. Then he rose through the ranks, and nailed the top job in February 2020.

Now he says he is determined to remake BP entirely. Just weeks after becoming chief exec. last year, Looney announced the company would cut its oil and gas production by 40% by the end of this decade, plow billions into solar, wind and other renewables, and roll out electric-vehicle charging points at its convenience stations worldwide. By 2050, he says, BP will zero out its polluting carbon emissions—a whopping 415 million metric tons a year in 2019.

Climate activists are deeply skeptical, fearing Looney is tinkering at the edges, and claiming big loopholes in his plan; they hear echoes of BP’s failed attempt in the 1990s to ramp up clean energy, when it dropped its old name British Petroleum. Such skepticism was underlined in October, when the organizers of the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow rebuffed requests of BP and other oil companies to formally join the massive confab of governments, businesses, and climate activists. BP’s plans, they said, did not match the climate goals.

Looney says he understands the doubts, but insists he is “all in,” to use one of his favorite phrases. On November 22, he sat down with TIME in his sleek executive offices on London’s St. James’s Square, to explain the reach—and limitations—of his strategy, and to describe the immense complexity in resetting the company’s direction after a century of putting carbon into the atmosphere.

(This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)
Some might say it’s an unenviable job leading a Big Oil company now. You’re the villain in the climate debate.

We must change. We have to lean into the transition. We must give society what it wants and needs, and that is clean, reliable, affordable energy, and to do that, we have to change. And of course, we want to change and we want to change because our employees are part of society too. They have children, they have neighbors, they have friends. They want to make a difference in the world. And we also believe in this. And it’s an enormous business opportunity for us, because trillions of dollars are going to get spent rewiring and replacing the Earth’s energy system. So yes, it is complex. Yes, there are times when it is hard. But tell me something in life that was worthwhile, that was neither complex nor hard.
People are skeptical that you are actually for real.

We understand why people feel like that. They see us as part of the problem, not part of the solution. I believe that we are and will be and need to be part of the solution. I would go further and say that if BP doesn’t transition, the world won’t transition.

Energy is where the emissions are. Tesla sells close to a million cars a year today. The world needs 70 million cars a year. Toyota, Volkswagen, Renault-Nissan: They make 30 million cars a year. When they go electric, the world goes electric. When companies and sectors like BP start to transition, the world will transition. You just cannot scale and build enough green companies fast enough at the pace enough to make the difference.
Even so, climate activists say that word “ambition” is a fuzzy word. It’s not a real commitment.

Any objective person would struggle to say we are not all in on this. We took the painful decision to cut our dividend in half last year. We wrote off over $20 billion worth of assets last year that we said neither should be produced nor could be produced. We took the difficult decision to have 10,000 people leave the organization. We are reallocating capital. We are increasing our spend. We are the only company who said that they’re going to reduce their production of oil and gas.

We’re not doing this to window dress and we’re not greenwashing. We’re trying to do what is the right thing for our company, for its stakeholders and importantly, for its shareholders.
Environmentalists say that’s all very well, but this does not include, for example, your joint venture with [Russian oil giant] Rosneft, which is a considerable amount of BP’s production—something like a third, I believe.

It’s about a million barrels a day, about a third. We’ve been absolutely transparent. We said we will reduce our production by 40%. If you include Russia, it’s 28%—still a huge amount. It’s not like we control Rosneft. We’re a 20% shareholder. You would you be surprised to hear that Rosneft’s greenhouse gas intensity per barrel of oil is lower than BP’s. They have a plan to eliminate routine flaring. They’re reducing emissions as we speak.

The question is, is the world better off by BP being there or not? It’s the same argument I would use for an investor: An investor has a choice to divest from BP or invest in BP. Some people feel that they should divest, they feel that’s the right thing for the world.
I think many people feel they should divest. BP is hardly alone in this. Many people, many funds, endowments, are basically getting out of fossil fuel companies. How worrying is that for you?

I can assure you that is not the right thing. Our shareholders own our company. We listen to our shareholders. The way to bring about change is to invest and make your views known. We need people to back the agenda that we’re on.

A transition like this is going to be messy, it’s going to be complex. It does not lend itself to a simple, ‘Who’s good, who’s bad? Who’s green, who’s not?’ There is no simple solution here. The best thing you can do for climate is to invest in a carbon-intensive company like BP and back them going green. We’re going to reduce our emissions by between 35% and 40% by 2030. We’re going to invest 10 times more in low carbon than we do today by 2030, eight times by 2025. We’re going to install 70,000 charging points for electrification. We have the scale and the resources and the cash flows and the skills to do that.
But you are also in the next several years adding barrels. If I read the the third-quarter results correctly, there has been an increase in production. I read that you have added 900,000 barrels a day.

Yes, between 2016 and 2021, five years. We brought on seven projects this year, and we will bring on projects next year, and the year after. We will start up new oil fields and we will invest in new oil fields, but only the ones that have the best carbon intensity, only the ones that have the best economics, the shortest paybacks, the highest returns. But we will do that because we have a three-part strategy: Part one is resilient hydrocarbons. Part number two is convenience and mobility. Part three is low carbon energy.

So part one of our strategy is hydrocarbons and will be for decades to come. We’re not shying away from that. Any scenario has oil and gas in the system in 2050. Our job is to produce those hydrocarbons with the lowest possible emissions. Oil and gas will continue to be needed. People may not like to hear that. It may be an unpopular truth. We will do that and we will use those cash flows to help us make the transition.

We will continue very clearly to sanction and develop new oilfields. The existing oil fields decline, and some of them decline very quickly. So net-net our production goes down by 40% through this decade: 20% by 2025, 40% by 2030.
The International Energy Agency projects something like 20 million barrels of oil a day global consumption by 2050. That’s a fraction of current demand.

Yes, 80% less. Very, very much smaller. We’ve projected [BP’s production will be] 1.5 million barrels a day by 2030, down from 2.6 million today. Our focus is on is developing reserves on two criteria: How do we produce barrels with the lowest possible environmental footprint? Number two: What produces the best returns. We will invest in only the best because less barrels will meet those investment thresholds.
Does this mean that from your reserves of 18 billion barrels of oil equivalent, a chunk of that will never be touched, that it will remain in the ground?

We’ve said things like we are no longer going to explore into new basins for exploration, right? We are no longer going to enter a new country to find the next giant oilfield.
But, for example, you are in Norway. So you are going to explore new oil prospects in Norway, correct?

We have a joint venture in Norway, and they will develop new oil fields. And BP will explore for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, where we have existing infrastructure: It’s been growing and it will grow. It was a great success story for America and the world, and we believe we can grow it over the next three to four years.

But that doesn’t mean that the overall picture doesn’t decline. That’s what we mean by “high grading.” We will develop the best barrels, will make the portfolio higher value.
How much of your overall greenhouse gas emissions targets will rely on things like carbon capture and storage technology, which climate activists see as not a solution?

We can do what we’ve set out to do between now and 2030 without using carbon capture. Beyond that, we believe that the world will need sort of every tool available to it to meet its net-zero. In the longer term, things like natural climate solutions, things like carbon capture and storage will be a very big part.
What about offsets, like planting trees?

That’s what I mean by natural climate solutions. Planting trees or preventing trees from being cut down. There is no silver bullet. I wish there was. The world is going to have to use every tool to help it get there. People like Mark Carney, Prince Charles, activists that I’ve spoken to, Conservation International, these people believe that this is part of the solution and it will be part of our toolkit in the medium term.

The barrels where we have existing infrastructure are very positive, because you’re not having to build new infrastructure and start up new facilities. So places like the Gulf of Mexico will be very important to the company for a very long time to come. Our position in the onshore in the United States is very important to the company for a long time. We’re mainly in Texas.
But you will still be exploring and producing new fields.

It is a three-part strategy and there is not a light switch. We cannot turn off the business that generates the cash flow overnight.

There is 100 million barrels a day being used in the world today. BP produces about 2.5 million barrels a day right now. If BP is somehow removed from the system, the 100 million demand isn’t going to go away. People still need the product they need. And you would somehow have just removed one of the greatest contributors for positive change. Why would you want to do that? What you really want to do is back those people, to make the transition a real success. But you can’t do it overnight. You simply cannot flick a switch.
The market has not been particularly giddy with enthusiasm about your strategy.

Why do you think that is?
I don’t know. You tell me.

Well, look, I think this is a big change. The most important part of our strategy is what we call performing while transforming. You have to do multiple things at once. It’s about reducing emissions, and it’s about growing cash-flow. It’s about purpose. We just had our third quarter in a row of strong results. Our business is running really, really well.
I was struck by the testimony of oil executives before the U.S. Congress in late October. The whole framing of that was this is like the Big Tobacco testimony, which was so memorable. Hollywood movies were made of it. Firstly, what’s it like to be compared to Big Tobacco in the media?

I think the provision of energy to the world is a very, very different proposition to tobacco. The energy that the world has consumed over the last many, many decades has brought about enormous increases in standards of living. So that’s how I think about it.
Talking of that, climate activists say the industry never deals with its historic carbon emissions, and the fact that they have taken so much out of the world’s carbon budget. It has been a century. Aside from transitioning to green energy now, is there also a kind of debt to be paid to the planet?

I’m not the best person to ask about that. What I can tell you is that in 1997, BP’s chief executive Lord Browne gave a speech at Stanford University, where he was the first leader in our industry to acknowledge that there was a link between human activity and carbon emissions. And if you look at the work that we have done since then, including investing $10 billion and writing off most of it between 2000 and 2010, because we were simply too early, the world wasn’t really ready for renewable energy. We established an internal emissions trading system. We’ve been doing everything that we can to put this on the agenda and be do something about it.

We have both an opportunity and a responsibility to help the world transition. I actually believe that with the thousands of engineers and the thousands of scientists and one of the world’s largest trading organizations and decades of experience in the energy markets, we actually can help. Society wants reliable, affordable, clean energy. This is not easy when you have wind, solar, hydro, natural gas, nuclear in the mix. Somebody has to take those forms of energy and knit them together to give a hospital or give a data center what it needs.

Think about it. We spent decades going offshore, drilling for oil, finding it, building big facilities, producing it, refining it, putting it into our retail network into your car. We’re going to take offshore wind. We’re going to build that. And this time we’re going to generate electrons rather than molecules, and we’re going to take those electrons in our energy system, take them to our charging network, and put them into your car.

I am thinking of buying a car, trying to figure out what to get.
Will you buy an electric vehicle?

I think it may be a hybrid. The hybrid is a nice representation of a world in transition.
You mentioned your trading business, which is a big business. The 40% cut in oil and gas production does not include that. How much of your oil and gas is from trading, selling oil and gas that other producers drill?

I don’t have a number in terms of volume. A barrel might change hands 10 times. That’s why we focused on our aim, which is the oil and gas that we take out of the ground and introduce to the world. We’re going to reduce it by 40%.

I genuinely believe that if we stick to our plot, and perform while we transform, that’s the formula for success. It’s not one at the expense of the other. We have to do both. Shareholders like what we’re doing. And increasingly, they understand it and back it.
Moody’s credit agency published a report in October saying the oil and gas industry has a high probability for default, because they are the least prepared for the energy transition. Even if you are a standout in the industry, are you concerned that investors, that a major credit rating agency, sees the oil and gas industry as just not the place to put your money?

Well, allow me to make the value argument. Oersted used to be an oil company called the Danish National Oil Company. It transformed itself from being an oil and gas company into being the world’s largest offshore wind company, and in the process, its value went up by 30 or 40 times. We are at the beginning of a journey that will take time. That has the potential to create enormous amounts of value for our shareholders who invest in us. Good for the world and good for the bottom line.
You think you can convince the young generation of that?

You talk to our employees, talk to our own young people. They’re very committed. They know this transition is not a light switch. It’s going to be hard work.

Can Biomass Burning Really Replace Fossil Fuels?


Editor OilPrice.com
Sun, December 5, 2021, 
As state governments and oil majors begin shifting their energy strategies to align with net-zero carbon emissions pledges and the earlier adoption of largescale renewable energy projects, not everyone agrees on what it means to ‘go green’. Turning our backs on coal, oil, and gas means finding an alternative to produce in its place, which is why so many are turning to readily available biomass to bridge the gap. But is this energy source really better than the fossil fuels it’s replacing?

U.K. biomass company Drax has seen huge revenues, with stocks hitting a seven-year high, since an energy crisis hit Europe due to shortages of oil and gas in a season of high demand, expecting to see profits until 2023. Drax is now producing massive amounts biomass pellets to burn in order to generate electricity, much to the dismay of environmentalists. And the company is planning to invest $3 million to double production by 2030, arguing the electricity produced from burning biomass is carbon neutral. All the while, Drax may be ignoring other harmful gas emissions according to environmental experts.

Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax, suggested in response to criticism about the company’s negative environmental impact that these concerns are unfounded, stating that Drax intends to implement carbon capture and storage technology into its operations to eventually generate ‘carbon negative’ electricity.


The burning of biomass to produce electricity is not new, with tonnes of wood lining dry woodland ground around the world and fast-growing trees cut down to be collected and stored to use in fuel production. In fact, the global industry was valued at $50 billion in 2020, and is set to continue growing as energy demand increases worldwide.

The argument in favor of this type of biofuel is that fast-growing trees that are cut down to provide biomass pellets can be replanted and will absorb carbon dioxide that is released when it’s burned as they grow. The EU and several state governments have agreed on this idea, accepting it as a green source of energy. With much of the world focusing on net-zero carbon emissions, little attention has been paid to the other harms it might be causing, including the release of various other greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

As we curb coal and oil production, are we simply moving from bad to worse instead of ramping up renewable energy production at the pace needed to respond to the global energy demand?

Some argue staunchly in favor of biomass energy production, particularly in areas where access to electricity is typically limited. On remote Indonesian islands, Clean Power Indonesia (CPI) is developing its biofuel operations, transforming degraded land into fields of fast-growing bamboo that will help boost energy production in the region.

The idea is to establish biomass production and conservation forests across several of Indonesia’s small islands, supporting rural livelihoods and developing low-carbon power structures. The scope of this development is immense and could potentially help 40 percent of the 250-million Indonesian population without stable electricity to get access to alternative power sources. Jaya Wahono, Director of CPI, explains “In Indonesia, each island has to develop its own power generation – 9,000 islands means developing 9,000 power plants and 9,000 mini grids.”

Others say the collection of wood for biomass could help to prevent wildfires in areas prone to this devastating phenomenon. California has been experiencing more severe droughts in recent years, leading to annual wildfires, which have been devastating to communities across the state.

In his argument in favor of developing California’s biomass industry, Congressman John Garamendi stated, “I have long supported a utility-scale subsidy for biomass electricity to incentivize proper forest management and much-needed hazardous fuels reduction in fire-prone states like California. As California and neighboring states face increasingly severe and year-round fire seasons, this will help to reduce the artificially high levels of biomass on our forestlands due to man-made climate change, drought, invasive species like bark beetle outbreaks, and years of mismanagement.”

But is referring to this wood burning technique as ‘carbon-neutral’ problematic at a time when we’re supposed to be switching to green energy? Many remain unconvinced by biomass energy production, worried about the growing trend of wood burning. Not only does the burning of biomass pellets release greenhouse gasses, environmentalists argue, but cutting down forests even with the intention of replanting them could destroy habitats and threaten endangered species.

With several state governments and international bodies accepting biomass burning as a green energy source, and companies around the world increasing production to meet the growing energy demand, it is important to question what we mean by ‘green’ in the transition to renewable energy, to ensure we’re not simply replacing fossil fuels with environmentally harmful alternatives.

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

Buildings consume lots of energy – here's how to design whole communities that give back as much as they take


Charles F. Kutscher, Fellow and Senior Research Associate, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Institute, University of Colorado Boulder
Sat, December 4, 2021

Artist rendition of the National Western Center, a net-zero campus under construction in Denver to house multiple activities. City and County of Denver | Mayor’s Office of the National Western Center, CC BY-ND

Although the coronavirus pandemic has dominated recent headlines, climate change hasn’t gone away. Many experts are calling for a “green” economic recovery that directs investments into low-carbon energy sources and technologies.

Buildings account for 40% of total energy consumption in the U.S., compared to 32% for industry and 28% for transportation. States and cities with ambitious climate action plans are working to reduce emissions from the building sector to zero. This means maximizing energy efficiency to reduce building energy use, and then supplying the remaining energy needs with electricity generated by carbon-free sources.

My colleagues and I study the best ways to rapidly reduce carbon emissions from the building sector. In recent years, construction designs have advanced dramatically. Net zero energy buildings, which produce the energy they need on site from renewable sources, increasingly are the default choice. But to speed the transition to zero carbon emissions, I believe the United States must think bigger and focus on designing or redeveloping entire communities that are zero energy.

Tackling energy use in buildings at the district level provides economies of scale. Architects can deploy large heat pumps and other equipment to serve multiple buildings on a staggered schedule across the day. Districts that bring homes, places of work, restaurants, recreation centers and other services together in walkable communities also significantly reduce the energy needed for transportation. In my view, this growing movement will play an increasingly important role in helping the U.S. and the world address the climate crisis.

Ambient loops heat and cool

Heating and cooling are the biggest energy uses in buildings. District design strategies can address these loads more efficiently.

District heating has long been used in Europe, as well as on some U.S. college and other campuses. These systems typically have a central plant that burns natural gas to heat water, which then is circulated to the various buildings.

To achieve zero carbon emissions, the latest strategy uses a design known as an ambient temperature loop that simultaneously and efficiently both heats and cools different buildings. This concept was first developed for the Whistler Olympic Village in British Columbia.

In a typical ambient loop system, a pump circulates water through an uninsulated pipe network buried below the frost line. At this depth, the soil temperature is near that of the yearly average air temperature for that location. As water moves through the pipe, it warms or cools toward this temperature.

Heat pumps at individual buildings or other points along the ambient loop add or extract heat from the loop. They can also move heat between deep geothermal wells and the circulating water.

The loop also circulates through a central plant that keeps it in an optimum temperature range for maximum heat pump performance. The plant can use cooling towers or wastewater to remove heat. It can add heat via renewable sources, such as solar thermal collectors, renewable fuel or heat pumps powered by renewable electricity.

Putting wastewater to use

One example of a potentially zero-energy district currently being developed, the National Western Center, is a multi-use campus currently under construction in Denver to house the annual National Western Stock Show and other public events focused on food and agriculture.

A 6-foot-diameter pipe carrying the city’s wastewater runs underground through the property before delivering the water to a treatment plant. The water temperature stays within a narrow range of 61 to 77 degrees F throughout the year.

The wastewater pipe and a heat exchanger transfer heat to and from an ambient loop circulating water throughout the district. The system provides heat in winter and absorbs heat in the summer via heat recovery chillers, which are heat pumps that can simultaneously provide heating and cooling. This strategy serves individual buildings at very high efficiency.

Electricity used to operate the heat pumps, lighting and other equipment will come from on-site photovoltaics and wind- and solar-generated electricity imported from off-site.
Integrated low-energy housing in Austin

Another district that will minimize carbon emissions is the Whisper Valley Community, under construction in Austin, Texas. This 2,000-acre multi-use development includes 7,500 all-electric houses, 2 million square feet of commercial space, two schools, and a 600-acre park. Its design has already received a green building award.

Whisper Valley will run on an integrated energy system that includes an extensive ambient loop network heated and cooled by heat pumps and geothermal wells located at each house. Each homeowner has the option to include a 5-kilowatt rooftop solar photovoltaic array to operate the heat pump and energy-efficient appliances, including heat pump water heaters and inductive stovetops. According to the developer, Whisper Valley’s economy of scale allows for a median sale price US,000 below that of typical Austin houses.

The future of zero-energy communities

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and other project partners are developing an open source software development kit called URBANopt that models elements of zero energy districts, such as building efficiency/demand flexibility strategies, rooftop photovoltaic arrays and ambient loop district thermal systems. The software can be integrated into other computer models to aid in the design of zero energy communities. NREL engineers have been engaging with high-performance district projects across the country, such as the National Western Center, to help inform and guide the development of the URBANopt platform.

The projects I’ve described are new construction. It’s harder to achieve net zero energy in existing buildings or communities economically, but there are ways to do it. It makes sense to apply those efficiency measures that are the most cost-effective to retrofit, convert building heating and cooling systems to electricity and provide the electricity with solar photovoltaics.

Utilities are increasingly offering time-of-use rate schedules, which charge more for power use during high demand periods. Emerging home energy management systems will allow home owners to heat water, charge home batteries and electric vehicles and run other appliances at times when electricity prices are lowest. Whether we’re talking about new or existing buildings, I see sustainable zero energy communities powered by renewable energy as the wave of the future as we tackle the climate change crisis.

[You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can get our highlights each weekend.]

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Charles F. Kutscher, University of Colorado Boulder.

Read more:
How energy efficiency delivers green dividends in red and blue states

Solar farms, power stations and water treatment plants can be attractions instead of eyesores

Overcooling and overheating buildings emits as much carbon as four million cars

Charles F. Kutscher retired in 2018 from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, where he directed the Buildings and Thermal Sciences Center. He is a fellow at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, a joint institute of the University of Colorado-Boulder and NREL.

Western companies are blind to Ugandan investments - President Museveni

Sun, December 5, 2021,
By Elias Biryabarema and Karin Strohecker

KYANKWANZI, Uganda (Reuters) -Chinese private investment in Uganda is growing while Westerners are losing appetite to put money to work in the country, President Yoweri Museveni told Reuters, pledging to step up efforts to tackle corruption that have made slow progress.

Museveni, in power since 1986 and one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, said Uganda was working to sign a number of deals with Chinese private sector lenders in sectors such as agro- and fertilizer-processing, minerals processing and textiles.

"The Western companies have lost their spectacles; they no longer have the eyes to see opportunities. But the Chinese see opportunities, and they come, and they are knocking, they are coming very vigorously," Museveni told Reuters. "But (Western companies) are saturated with wealth. They are not bothered."

Chinese state entities and private-sector firms have long been a driving force of investment in Africa 

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/african-nations-mend-make-do-china-tightens-belt-road-2021-11-22

lending countries on the continent hundreds of billions of dollars as part of President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

According to the Uganda Investment Authority, the country ranked third in Africa on foreign direct investment (FDI) from China in recent years.

The ties have not been without conflict, however.

A parliamentary probe in October concluded that China had imposed onerous conditions on a $200 million loan to Kampala, including the potential forfeiture of the east African country's sole international airport.

Museveni flatly denied using the airport as collateral.

"I don't remember mortgaging the airport for anything," Museveni said, adding Kampala would pay what it owed to China. "There is no problem, they will be paid."

Museveni's administration, seeking to finance its infrastructure construction programme and shore up political support, has secured large credit lines from China https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-uganda-debt-idUSKBN2AB1BU 

over the last decade.

Differences over the terms of the contract were also the reason why Kampala had not yet secured a deal with Beijing on the 1,000-km (620 miles) super-fast rail link from Kenya's port of Mombasa to Uganda, though talks were still ongoing, the president said.

FAITH AGAINST CORRUPTION

Talking about the fight against corruption, Museveni acknowledged more effort was needed. Transparency International ranked Uganda 142 out of 179 in its 2020 corruption perceptions index.

"We are still fighting. I wouldn't boast that we have improved - initially we weren't really concentrating much on corruption," the 77-year-old said, adding the battle against graft was one of his main priorities for his current and sixth term as president.

His administration was focusing on recruiting from faith groups, of which the country had plenty, to have enough manpower to fight that war on corruption and would provide an assessment of progress on the issue in two years time, he said.

"That is our struggle: to get clean people to implement - otherwise the laws are there, the institutions are there," Museveni said.

Speaking about the Nov. 16 bombings in Kampala, which killed three people and were blamed on the Islamic State-aligned Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Museveni said that there was evidence of coordination from abroad with the men who carried out the attack.

The blasts in the heart of the capital shocked a nation known as a bulwark against violent Islamist militants in East Africa, and prompted Museveni to send 1,700 troops into neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, where the ADF has training camps. But Museveni said foreign links stretched beyond eastern Congo.

"The bombs which they exploded in Kampala recently, we have some indication that they were coordinating with groups in Kenya and in Somalia," Museveni said. "Maybe not command and control but collaboration."

He was coordinating the operation with Congo's president, Museveni said, but he did not answer a question whether there was coordination with Rwanda, which also has security interests in eastern Congo, and which has fought with Ugandan troops there before.

Uganda said on Friday that its troops sent this week into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo would stay as long as needed to defeat Islamist militants.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema in Kyankwanzi, Karin Strohecker in London, Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, Hereward Holland in Kinshasa and Tommy Wilkes in London; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Iraqi fishermen caught in net of water frontiers

On the banks of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, Iraqi fishermen live in constant fear of arrest by Iranian and Kuwaiti forces for mistakenly straying across frontiers with former enemy countries.

© Hussein FALEH An Iraqi youth carries freshly-caught fish in the southern Iraqi port city of Al-Faw

© Hussein FALEH Iraqi men fish in their boat anchored in the Shatt al-Arab waterway next to the wreckage of a ship which was sunk during the 1980s Iraq-Iran war

About 15 kilometres (nine miles) from where the mighty Tigris and the Euphrates rivers merge and flow out to the Gulf lies the fishing port of Al-Faw.

The port town has been on the front line of two wars that have shaped Iraq's modern history -- in the 1980s against Iran and then after Saddam Hussein's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

On the opposite bank of the Shatt al-Arab, the green-white-red flag of Iran flutters in the wind, alongside portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic republic, and his successor as supreme guide, Ali Khamenei.

© Hussein FALEH Head of the fishermen's union in Al-Faw, Badran al-Tamimi

"We have a lot of problems with the Iranians," said Abdallah, an Iraqi fisherman who preferred not to give his surname.

"If we cross the border because of the current, they arrest us."

In the past, the border along the invisible median line of the Shatt al-Arab has been a casus belli.

In September 1980, Saddam's forces invaded after scrapping the 1975 Algiers agreement that aimed to put an end to disputes over the borderline.

After the 2003 US-led invasion, Iraq and Iran said they wanted to return to the agreement, against the backdrop of growing Iranian influence in its Arab neighbour.

- Arrests and fines -

Iraqi fishermen at Al-Faw, such as Tareq Ziad, complain of "being harassed" by both Iran and Kuwait.

When their boats leave the Shatt al-Arab and head for the open seas of the Gulf, they often find themselves in Kuwaiti and Iranian waters because of the currents.

The Iranians "put you in prison and make you pay a fine of $3,000. That is what happened to my brother a few days ago. He was arrested by an Iranian river patrol and he paid $3,000," Ziad said.

Iranian authorities, contacted by AFP, did not respond to a request for comment.

The head of the fishermen's union in Al-Faw, Badran al-Tamimi, said they have "no support from the (Iraqi) government".

Kuwait also arrests Iraqi fishermen who "inadvertently" venture into the territorial waters of the emirate, he said.

"Yesterday evening, I went to the Kuwaiti border to bring back three fishermen who were arrested. This week, I have been there three or four times," Tamimi said.

A Kuwaiti security official, on condition of anonymity, told AFP: "People seized in the border areas are handed over, in good health, by the ground forces, in coordination with the Iraqi side."

- Marine species in rivers -

The fishermen of Al-Faw also have environmental challenges to grapple with.

"We go out to sea for eight to 10 days and when we return, we've caught between 500 kilograms and one tonne, compared to three or four tonnes 20 years ago," complained fisherman Abdallah.

Fishing expeditions have become much shorter and the boundaries are closely monitored by Iraq's neighbours.

In addition, the price of fuel has shot up.

As Iraqi rivers dry up due to drought and the construction of dams in Iran and Turkey, so too does the amount of seasonal fish that locals relied on for food.

And while the river waters ebb to ever lower levels, the Gulf rises.

"We are seeing more and more marine species in the river as the water becomes saline," said Iyad Abdelmohsen, a marine biologist at Baghdad's Al-Mustansiriyah University.

And "human activities, such as sewage and waste" that end up in Iraq's waterways are causing "digestive illnesses, diarrhoea and even cholera", he said.

gde/tgg/jsa/hc

North Syria's one-legged kung fu master



Othman runs a small martial arts school in the rebel-held town of Abzimu in the western countryside of Aleppo province (AFP/Aaref WATAD)

Aaref Watad
Sun, December 5, 2021, 9:12 PM·2 min read

From butterfly kicks to power jabs, a group of children in rebel-held northern Syria are honing martial arts techniques under the instruction of an unlikely trainer: amputee kung fu master Fadel Othman.

The 24-year-old runs a small martial arts school in the rebel-held town of Abzimu in the western countryside of Aleppo province.

His 100 students include orphans and children who lost their fathers to Syria's decade-old war.

"This is the first team I train after my injury," he told AFP from an open field where he often gives kung fu lessons.

"I strongly believe they will one day grow up to become world champions," he said referring to his students.

Othman was hit by an artillery shell in 2015, during fighting between rebels and government forces in Aleppo.

He became one of the more than 86,000 Syrians that the World Heath Organization says have endured amputations due to conflict-related injuries.

As a result, the young man who started his kung fu training at the age of 12, braced to forgo his life-long passion.

"I felt like the world was closing doors in my face," Othman told AFP in his academy, beneath a large Syrian opposition flag.

But over the course of the three years he spent in Turkey for medical treatment, he continued classes with martial arts trainers and even participated in several tournaments.



Earlier this year, he set up a kung fu academy that trains students at different levels.

Inside the gym equipped with punchbags and pull up bars, pictures of Othman participating in tournaments adorned the walls.

During one lesson, he demonstrated a series of warm up exercises, without even using crutches.

He looked on as students performed sophisticated kung fu sequences on colourful mats before helping them refine techniques to block kicks and punches.

The trainer said he wanted to teach children "useful moves they can use to defend themselves" and to boost their confidence.

The gym has no mains electricity and when the batteries powering the converted warehouse's lights died, Othman propped himself up against a wall in one of the last rays of daylight slanting into the room to catch his young pupil's punches in his sparring mitts.

In an open field in Abzimu, Othman gave another lesson to around 14 school-aged students dressed in matching uniforms.

"I see them as my little brothers," he said.

"My goal is to have a strong team and nurture a generation (of fighters) that can make it to international competitions," he said.

str/ho/jmm/kir

Augmented reality tours open as push to make Cahokia Mounds a National Park advances



Beth Hundsdorfer
Sat, December 4, 2021, 8:00 AM·2 min read

There’s a new way to explore an ancient place in Illinois.

Visitors of Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site can try experiencing it in “augmented reality,” or AR, to see the Grand Plaza as it appeared 1,000 years ago, the Palisade as it once stood and the exterior and interior of the temple that once stood atop Monks Mound.

Cahokia Mounds was the central hub and largest city built by the Mississippian culture of Native Americans. The site has been recognized as a National Historic Landmark, an Illinois State Historic Site and a World Heritage Site by the United Nations.

At its height, Cahokia stretched over six square miles and was home to 10,000 to 20,000 people. Set near the Mississippi River, Cahokia was a trade hub and an agriculture production site. There were 120 mounds in Cahokia, including the largest, Monks Mound. The Mississippians built them between 900 and 1400 AD, according to archeologists.

The augmented reality tour unveiling comes as there is a renewed push to make the site a part of the federal National Park System.

Illinois’ U.S. senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, both Democrats, sent a letter to President Joe Biden Tuesday asking him to incorporate Cahokia Mounds into the National Park System. In 2016, a study found that Cahokia Mounds met all four of the criteria – significance, suitability, feasibility, and need for National Park Service management.

“We write to encourage you to use your authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site as a unit of the National Park System,” Duckworth and Durbin wrote in the letter to Biden. “We support elevating, protecting, and sharing this important archeological and cultural resource that represents the people and landscapes that once made up one of America’s first cities in the Western Hemisphere.”

In April, Durbin introduced the Cahokia Mounds Mississippian Culture National Historical Park Act to change the current designation as a National Historic Landmark to a National Historic Park. This move would add protections for the ancient mounds that straddle St. Clair and Madison counties.

Visitors can experience the site in augmented reality by downloading the app at a cost of $4.99 to their Apple device, or they can rent an iPad for $15 at the site. Developers spent five years creating the new application that allows visitors to step back and experience Cahokia as it once was.

“Once the app is downloaded to your device, visit Cahokia Mounds and begin your tour at the Monks Mound parking lot where the first ‘Waypoint’ can be found,” Cahokia Mounds site superintendent Lori Belknap said in a news release. “These Waypoints are unique images mounted to concrete blocks and will launch the app once scanned.”

The Cahokia AR Tour application was developed and produced by the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society and Schwartz and Associates Creative of St. Louis and was funded by two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities.