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Tag: Alternative and sustainable energy

  • High energy prices lead to coal revival in Czech Republic

    High energy prices lead to coal revival in Czech Republic

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    OSTRAVA, Czech Republic — In this part of northeastern Czech Republic, huge piles of coal are stacked up ready to sell to eager buyers and smoke belches from coal-fired plants that are ramping up instead of winding down.

    Ostrava has been working for decades to end its legacy as the most polluted area of the country, transitioning from an industrial working-class stronghold to a modern city with tourist sights. But Russia’s war in Ukraine has triggered an energy crisis in Europe that as paved the way for coal’s comeback, endangering climate goals and threatening health from increased pollution.

    Households and businesses are turning to the fuel once considered obsolete as they seek a cheaper option than natural gas, whose prices have surged as Russia slashed supplies to Europe.

    Demand for brown coal — the cheapest and most energy inefficient form — used by Czech households jumped by almost 35% in the first nine months of 2022 over a year earlier.

    In the same period, production rose more than 20%, the first increase after an almost continuous, decadeslong decline, the Czech Industry and Trade Ministry said.

    “We’re worried,” said Zdenka Němečková Crkvenjaš, who is responsible for environment as a member the governing council of the Moravian-Silesian region. “If the prices won’t go down, what might happen is that we’ll be facing an increased pollution.”

    The region is part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, a large industrialized area straddling the Czech-Polish border with rich deposits of coal and factories producing steel, power and the type of coal used for steel-making that date to the 19th century.

    A combination of burning coal for residential heating and industrial plants resulted in “catastrophic” air pollution at the end of the communist era in 1989, said Petr Jančík from Technical University Ostrava, an air pollution expert who cooperated on the Air Tritia project that recently produced an online model of the polluted air on the Czech-Polish-Slovak border.

    Coal-fired power is not only disastrous for climate, it’s also a health hazard, releasing heavy particle emissions, nitrogen oxides and mercury, which contaminates fish in lakes and rivers.

    A decline of industrial and mining activities and advent of new environmental standards after the Czech Republic joined the European Union in 2004 vastly improved air quality.

    But big challenges remain.

    Airborne dust emissions — PM10 particles — now meet environmental limits in the region, but concentrations of smaller PM2.5 particles that can reach deep into the lungs and bloodstream still do not hit World Health Organization standards.

    A 2021 study of more than 800 European cities by Spain’s Barcelona Institute for Global Health, or ISGlobal, puts the regional capital of Ostrava and the nearby towns of Karviná and Havířov among the top 10 most polluted European cities. It estimated that 529 deaths a year could be avoided in those three cities if air quality guidelines are met.

    Burning coal also spews the dangerous substance benzo(a)pyrene, whose levels are still high despite government programs that pay to replace old furnaces with more effective ones that reduce pollution.

    Some 50,000 furnaces still need to be replaced in the Ostrava region, said Němečková Crkvenjaš, estimating that figure at 500,000 in a more populated and polluted area across the border in Poland.

    “I’m afraid this winter won’t be ideal as far the air pollution is concerned,” she said. “I’ll be delighted if I’m wrong.”

    Roman Vank, a board member for coal seller Ridera in Ostrava, said coal sales went up some 30% compared with last year. The cheapest form — brown coal — was most in demand.

    Jančík, the scientist, said the impact to air quality is hard to predict right away, especially if it’s another mild winter, and that pollution “might get only slightly worse.”

    He said a positive development is that high natural gas and electricity prices force people to acquire solar panels, more effective heating systems and try to become less dependent on sources of energy.

    “There are two opposing trends: The first one is that people have been trying to use better and more efficient furnaces, and the second one is they consider using more coal and wood,” Jančík said. “That’s perhaps a result of a shock or worries, and they want to get supplies ready.”

    Czech Greenpeace spokesman Lukáš Hrábek expected a negative impact in the near future.

    “We see conflicting trends right now. We see higher coal consumption, but at the same time, we see a massive investment in renewable energies, in heat pumps, in insulation,” Hrábek said. “So it’s hard to say what the long-term effect will be, but the short-term effect is quite obvious, the air pollution will be worse because of the higher coal consumption.”

    In another sign of coal’s revival, the Czech Republic has reversed plans to completely halt mining near Ostrava to help safeguard power supplies amid the energy crunch.

    The state-owned OKD company will extend its mining activities in in the Ostrava region until at least the end of next year, citing “enormous” demand. It will be mostly used for generating power and household heating, with coal-fired power plants producing almost 50% of the country’s electricity.

    The decision came after the European Union agreed to ban Russian coal starting in August over the war in Ukraine and as it works to reduce the bloc’s energy ties to Russia.

    The Czech government aims to phase out coal in energy production by 2033 and increase its reliance on nuclear power.

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    Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • US regulators to vote on largest dam demolition in history

    US regulators to vote on largest dam demolition in history

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    PORTLAND, Ore. — The largest dam demolition and river restoration plan in the world could be close to reality Thursday as U.S. regulators vote on a plan to remove four aging hydro-electric structures, reopening hundreds of miles of California river habitat to imperiled salmon.

    The vote by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on the lower Klamath River dams is the last major regulatory hurdle and the biggest milestone facing a $500 million demolition proposal championed by Native American tribes and environmentalists for years.

    Approval of the application to surrender the dams’ operating license is the bedrock of the most ambitious salmon restoration plan in history, and if approved the parties overseeing the project will accept license transfer and could begin dam removal as early as this summer. More than 300 miles (482.80 kilometers) of salmon habitat in the Klamath River and its tributaries would benefit, said Amy Souers Kober, spokeswoman for American Rivers, which monitors dam removals and advocates for river restoration.

    “This is an incredibly important milestone,” she said. “This project really carries important lessons for rivers and the conservation movement, and the most important lesson is the leadership of the tribes. It’s because of the tribes that these dams will come out and the river be will restored.”

    The vote comes at a critical moment when human-caused climate change is hammering the Western United States with prolonged drought, said Tom Kiernan, president of American Rivers. He said allowing California’s second-largest river to flow naturally, and its flood plains and wetlands to function normally, would mitigate those impacts.

    “The best way of managing increasing floods and droughts is to allow the river system to be healthy and do its thing,” he said.

    “Instead of having reservoirs where a significant amount of that water evaporates, it’s better to have that river flow and allow the flood plains and wetlands filter the water and bring it down to groundwater where it doesn’t evaporate.”

    The Klamath Basin watershed covers more than 14,500 square miles (37,500 square kilometers) and the Klamath itself was once the third-largest salmon producing river on the West Coast. But the dams, constructed between 1918 and 1962, essentially cut the river in half and prevent salmon from reaching spawning grounds upstream. Consequently, salmon runs have been dwindling for years.

    Native tribes that rely on the Klamath River and its salmon for their way of life have been a driving force behind bringing the dams down. Members of the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa tribes plan to light a bonfire and watch the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission meeting Thursday on a remote Klamath River sandbar via a satellite uplink to symbolize their hopes for the river’s renewal.

    Frankie Myers, Yurok vice chairman, told The Associated Press before the meeting that he was excited, but also anxious, about the outcome of the vote.

    “We’ve been doing this a long time and we’ve been let down so much over the last two decades,” he said. “If there’s still salmon in the water, they have a chance and we have a chance. …They will come down. They have to come down. Our existence depends on it.”

    But plans to remove the dams have been controversial.

    A group of homeowners who live around Copco Lake, one of the large reservoirs, have fought the dam removal plans for years and say the values of their lakefront homes have plummeted. A coalition formed to oppose the demolition plan argues that the money set aside to cover the demolition isn’t adequate, and that cost overruns and liability concerns would fall on the shoulders of taxpayers.

    They also question whether removing the dams will work to restore salmon because of changes in the Pacific Ocean that are also affecting the fish, said Richard Marshall, head of the Siskiyou County Water Users Association.

    “The whole question is, will this add to the increased production of salmon? It has everything to do with what’s going on in the ocean (and) we think this will turn out to be a futile effort,” he said. “Nobody’s ever tried to take care of the problem by taking care of the existing situation without just removing the dams.”

    Rate payers in the rural counties around the dams are also angered by the project, which is funded by $200 million from PacifiCorp and $250 million from a voter-approved water bond in California.

    U.S. regulators raised flags about the potential for cost overruns and liability issues in 2020, nearly killing the proposal, but Oregon, California and PacifiCorp, which operates the hydroelectric dams and is owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway, teamed up to add another $50 million in contingency funds.

    The utility would face steep costs to add fish ladders and other environmental mitigations to the outdated dams in order to renew their hydroelectric license and in recent years has diversified their energy portfolio enough to absorb the loss of the dams, the company has said.

    If regulators approve on Thursday, Oregon, California and the Klamath River Renewal Corporation — the entity formed to oversee the demolition and environmental mitigation — must sign off on the license surrender and then work can begin. Regulators could also approve it, but add further specifications, or reject it altogether.

    If approved, Copco 2, the smallest dam, could come down as early as the coming summer, said Craig Tucker, natural resources policy consultant for the Karuk Tribe. In early 2024, the reservoirs behind the dams would be slowly drawn down, with the hope of putting the river fully back in its channel by late 2024, he said.

    The scope of the project exceeds the other largest U.S. dam demolition to date, when two century-old dams were breached on the Eolwha River on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula in 2012, said Kober, of American Rivers. Environmental experts are unaware of any other river restoration project in the world with a bigger scope than the one planned for the lower Klamath, she added.

    Across the U.S., 1,951 dams have been demolished as of February, including 57 in 2021, the organization said. Most of those have come down in the past 25 years as facilities age and come up for relicensing.

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    Follow Gillian Flaccus here.

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  • Indonesia signs deals to accelerate clean energy transition

    Indonesia signs deals to accelerate clean energy transition

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    NUSA DUA, Indonesia — Indonesia signed deals with international lenders and major nations on Tuesday under which it is to receive billions of dollars in funding to help the country increase its use of renewable energy.

    The $20 billion agreement was announced on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. Called a Just Energy Transition Partnership, it is meant to help developing countries reduce their reliance on fossil fuels such as coal and gas that cause carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.

    It’s an important step for Indonesia, a major exporter of coal that has abundant potential for developing cleaner energy.

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  • Utility backs solar farm atop capped Kentucky coal ash pit

    Utility backs solar farm atop capped Kentucky coal ash pit

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    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The nation’s largest public utility has proposed building a $216 million solar farm project in Kentucky atop a capped coal ash storage pit at one of its coal-fired power plants.

    The federal Tennessee Valley Authority voted Thursday to advance the initiative at Shawnee Fossil Plant in Paducah. The utility called it a first-of-its-kind pilot project that would convert land used as a waste heap for the byproduct of burning coal for power into a solar farm that would help produce 100 megawatts. Officials say the model could ultimately be used at other closed Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash sites, with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts combined if they were to pursue that expansion.

    The solar initiative is among the changes unveiled by the utility in recent years to adjust operations to combat global warming. Environmental advocates, however, have continued to note that TVA’s efforts still fall short of the goal by President Joe Biden’s administration for a carbon pollution-free energy sector by 2035.

    “Moving quickly on this solar cap installation option at the Shawnee site allows us to move further and faster, as we build out towards our renewable generation goals while we balance the affordability, reliability and resiliency that our customers depend on,” Don Moul, TVA’s chief operating officer, said during a board meeting Thursday in Starkville, Mississippi.

    TVA has said installing the solar panels at the 300-acre coal ash site, which is in the process of being closed, would not compromise the turf used to cap the waste. The project can tap into the transmission infrastructure already in place at the plant, which burns coal to generate approximately 8 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to supply 540,000 homes. Additionally, TVA officials are looking into whether the new federal Inflation Reduction Act could help the project along.

    Pending environmental and regulatory reviews, the project could be operational within two years, Moul said.

    Amy Kelly, Tennessee’s representative on the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, said the group is “encouraged by TVA’s initiative to place cheaper, reliable and clean solar power on the closing ash ponds at Shawnee.” But she also said “it is also critical that TVA clean up the toxic mess left behind from more than six decades of burning coal.” She said TVA should move toward further solar development, noting that the utility manages almost 300,000 acres of land.

    Kelly said the coal ash is in unlined pits at Shawnee, contaminating groundwater. TVA spokesperson Scott Brooks said that when its groundwater monitoring shows “corrective action is necessary,” the utility takes those steps outlined in the federal coal ash rule and state rules.

    Kelly also said renewables should be considered, instead of natural gas, as they wind down work at aging coal power plants. Switching to natural gas is under consideration for TVA’s Cumberland and Kingston coal plants in Tennessee, though final decisions haven’t been announced yet.

    TVA already has plans to add 10,000 megawatts of solar power to its system by 2035. It has sought requests for proposals for up to 5,000 megawatts of carbon-free energy before 2029. TVA has also teamed up on projects with several prominent industrial customers who want their operations tied to renewables. In addition, it is developing small module nuclear reactors and infrastructure to support electric vehicles.

    But critics have said TVA is still falling short on its climate change obligation. During a September hearing, Democratic U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts expressed “frustration with TVA” and said it’s “kind of disgusting” that TVA brags about figuring out nuclear power plants, but “energy efficiency, or wind or solar, eludes the scientists, eludes the management.”

    TVA has set a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2035, compared to 2005 levels. TVA CEO Jeff Lyash has said TVA will not be able to meet the 100% reduction goal without technological advances in energy storage, carbon capture and small modular nuclear reactors, instead aiming for 80%. The utility has its own aspirational goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

    There are enough TVA nominees selected by Biden currently awaiting the Senate’s confirmation to make up a new majority on the board.

    TVA power provides electricity to local power companies serving 10 million people in Tennessee and parts of six surrounding states.

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  • Yellen visits India to shore up US-Indo-Pacific partnerships

    Yellen visits India to shore up US-Indo-Pacific partnerships

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    NEW DELHI — Supply chains, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the impact of COVID-19 were top of mind for U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as she prepared to meet with Indian leaders Friday in New Delhi.

    For too long, countries around the world have been overly dependent on risky countries or a single source for critical inputs, she told the technology sector leaders during a visit to the Microsoft India Development Center on the outskirts of New Delhi.

    Citing Russia’s leveraging of energy supplies, Yellen said President Vladimir Putin’s strategy was “an example of how malicious actors can use their market positions to try to gain geopolitical leverage or disrupt trade for their own gain.”

    She said Russia had previously been a long-time, reliable energy partner. “But for the better part of this year, Putin has weaponized Russia’s natural gas supply against the people of Europe,” she said.

    Cooperation among friendly countries will help diversify supply chains away from China, which currently dominates over 80% of global solar panel production, Yellen said.

    China’s strict “zero-COVID” policy has also affected global supply chains with widespread lockdowns in major financial and manufacturing hubs.

    Apple announced Sunday that customers will have to wait longer to get its latest iPhone models after anti-virus restrictions were imposed on a contractor’s factory in central China.

    The United States is pursuing an approach called “friend-shoring” to diversify away from countries that present geopolitical and security risks to the supply chain. “To do so, we are proactively deepening economic integration with trusted trading partners like India,” Yellen said.

    “Technology companies like Amazon and Google are investing in India and Vietnam. Apple recently announced that it was shifting some iPhone manufacturing from China to India,” she said.

    New supply chains already are developing across regions from Asia to the European Union, she added.

    Yellen is scheduled to meet India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman later Friday.

    Yellen will discuss the U.S. partnership with India establishing an economic framework in the Indo-Pacific “to increase economic integration with trusted trading partners and mitigate geopolitical risks,” the U.S. Treasury Department said. Also on the agenda are India’s G-20 presidency in 2023, climate change, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Later Friday, she will also participate in the U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership dialogue and meet with executives from major Indian companies and U.S. companies operating in India.

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    Follow AP’s coverage of the Asia-Pacific region at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

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  • UK’s first large-scale lithium refinery chooses location as race for ‘white gold’ intensifies

    UK’s first large-scale lithium refinery chooses location as race for ‘white gold’ intensifies

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    A lithium-ion battery photographed at a Volkswagen facility in Germany. Lithium-ion batteries are crucial components in electric vehicles.

    Jan Woitas | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

    LONDON — A facility described as the U.K.’s “first large-scale lithium refinery” will be located in the north of England, with those behind the project hoping its output will hit roughly 50,000 metric tons each year once up and running.

    On Monday, a statement released by Green Lithium on the website of the London Stock Exchange said construction of the £600 million (around $687 million) project was expected to last three years, with commissioning slated for 2025.

    The refinery will be based at Teesport, a major port on Teesside. Green Lithium said its product would “go into the supply chain for lithium-ion batteries, energy storage, grid stabilisation and EV batteries.”

    Alongside its use in cell phones, computers, tablets and a host of other gadgets synonymous with modern life, lithium — which some have dubbed “white gold” — is crucial to the batteries that power electric vehicles.

    The U.K. wants to stop the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans by 2030. It will require, from 2035, all new cars and vans to have zero tailpipe emissions. The European Union, which the U.K. left on Jan. 31, 2020, is pursuing similar targets.

    Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

    With demand for lithium rising, European economies are attempting to shore up their own supplies and reduce dependency on other parts of the world.

    In a translation of her State of the Union speech last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “lithium and rare earths will soon be more important than oil and gas.”

    As well as addressing security of supply, von der Leyen, who switched between several languages during her speech, also stressed the importance of processing.

    “Today, China controls the global processing industry,” she said. “Almost 90% … of rare earth[s] and 60% of lithium are processed in China.”

    “So we will identify strategic projects all along the supply chain, from extracting to refining, from processing to recycling,” she added. “And we will build up strategic reserves where supply is at risk.”

    Read more about energy from CNBC Pro

    Back in the U.K., Business Secretary Grant Shapps said Green Lithium’s refinery would “deliver more than 1,000 jobs during its construction and 250 long-term, high-skill jobs for local people when in operation.”

    “It is also allowing us to move quickly to secure our supply chains of critical minerals, as we know that geopolitical threats and global events beyond our control can severely impact the supply of key components that could delay the rollout of electric vehicles in the UK,” he added.

    The news about Green Lithium comes after Britishvolt, another firm looking to establish a foothold in the electric vehicle sector, said it had secured short-term funding that would enable it to stave off administration for the time being. The company said its employees had also agreed to a pay cut for November.

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  • UN experts urge stringent rules to stop net zero greenwash

    UN experts urge stringent rules to stop net zero greenwash

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    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — Companies pledging to get their emissions down to net zero better make sure they’ve got a credible plan and aren’t just making false promises, U.N. experts said in a report Tuesday urging tough standards on emissions cutting vows.

    Released at the the U.N.’s flagship climate conference in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the group of experts set out a number of strict recommendations for businesses, banks, and local governments making net zero pledges to ensure that their promises amount to meaningful action instead of “bogus” assurances. Countries are not included in the group’s scope as their emissions-cutting commitments are set out in the 2015 Paris deal.

    The group called the report a roadmap to prevent net zero from being “undermined by false claims, ambiguity and “greenwash.”

    United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed the group exactly a year ago at last year’s U.N. climate summit to draw up principles and recommendations aimed at clarifying the confusion around the growing number of net zero claims made by businesses and organizations. There’s been little transparency or uniform standards when it comes to net zero pledges, resulting in a boom in the number of hard to verify claims, the U.N. experts and environmental groups say.

    “Using bogus ‘net zero’ pledges to cover up massive fossil fuel expansion is reprehensible. It is rank deception,” Guterres said at the COP27 summit. “This toxic cover-up could push our world over the climate cliff. The sham must end.”

    Since the Paris Agreement in 2015 set a global target of limiting temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 F) there’s been a groundswell of support for the concept of “net zero” — drastically cutting greenhouse gas emissions and canceling out the rest — as the main way to meet that goal.

    So-called non-state actors include corporations, investors, and local and regional governments, which aren’t covered by the Paris Agreement’s requirements. Their voluntary carbon cutting pledges must be “ambitious, have integrity and transparency, be credible and fair,” the experts said.

    Among its 10 specific recommendations, businesses can’t claim to be net zero if they continue to invest or build new fossil fuel supplies, deforestation or other environmentally destructive projects. They can’t buy cheap carbon offset credits “that often lack integrity instead of immediately cutting their own emissions.”

    Guterres said he was deeply concerned about lack of “standards, regulations and rigor” in the market for voluntary carbon credits. Climate experts say offsets can be problematic because there’s no guarantee they’ll deliver on reducing emissions.

    Lobbying to undermine ambitious government climate policies is a no-no, the experts said. And companies can’t focus only on emissions they generate directly from, say, manufacturing but have to include all the carbon dioxide spewed along the way in their sourcing supply chains for parts and raw materials.

    “I think these are kind of no-nonsense, practical things that a regular person would expect,” Catherine McKenna, who heads up the group of 17 high-level experts that authored the report, told the Associated Press.

    The guidelines would help consumers who “want to choose products that are good for the environment and mean that the company is tackling climate action” and young people looking for jobs who “don’t want to work for climate laggards,” McKenna said.

    Business, environmental and corporate watchdog groups generally supported the proposals.

    “This surge of interest from the corporate sector to zero out emissions is truly inspiring,” said Ani Dasgupta, CEO of the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank, cautioning that “any corporate net-zero targets with loopholes or weak guardrails would put our planet and billions of people in peril.”

    In order to keep the Earth from warming less than 1.5 degrees, the U.N. says carbon dioxide emissions must peak by 2025, fall by nearly half by 2030, and to reach net zero by the middle of the century.

    The only way to do that now is to reduce the amount of heat trapping greenhouse gases going into the atmosphere and balance out the remaining emissions by permanently removing them, through planting trees, or through technologies yet untested at scale such as capturing carbon emissions at sources such as factory smokestacks and storing them underground.

    Along the way, net zero has become a corporate buzzword for companies and groups seeking to burnish their green credentials, though environmental activists worry it’s becoming greenwash.

    McDonald’s has opened net zero restaurants in the United States and United Kingdom powered by solar panels and wind turbines. Airline group IATA set a long term goal for the aviation industry to reach net zero by 2050. Even oil companies have jumped on the bandwagon. Chevron touts its “net zero aspiration” and Shell flaunts its “drive for net zero emissions.”

    Private equity firm Carlyle Group was an early adopter of net zero commitment, but did not include its largest oil and gas investment in a recent financial risk report on greenhouse gas emissions.

    Organizers of this year’s soccer world cup hosted by Qatar say the massive building spree of stadiums, highways and subway system for the event was all carbon neutral — a claim experts have cast doubt on.

    ———

    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Greek PM: Gas exploration to start off Crete in coming days

    Greek PM: Gas exploration to start off Crete in coming days

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    ATHENS, Greece — Exxon Mobil is poised to start a delayed gas prospecting project off southwestern Greece, the country’s leader said Monday amid tensions between Greece and Turkey over offshore rights and as Europe seeks alternative energy sources due to the war in Ukraine.

    The U.S. energy giant will start seismic exploration “in the coming days” southwest of the southern Peloponnese peninsula and the island of Crete, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told private Antenna TV.

    The project has been heavily criticized by environmental groups, which argue that the deep-sea prospecting would have “unbearable” consequences on endangered Mediterranean whales and dolphins. Critics also highlight the potential risk of spills, and say the project, if successful, would increase Greece’s use of fossil fuels amid the planet’s climate change crisis.

    Mitsotakis insisted Monday that Greece remains dedicated to “fast green transition.” But he added: “Our country … must ascertain whether it currently has the ability to produce natural gas, which would contribute not only to our own energy security but also to that of Europe.”

    European countries are scrambling to replace their former dependency on Russian fossil fuels following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent damaging of pipelines designed to bring natural gas from Russia to Germany.

    Meanwhile, Greece and Turkey are at loggerheads over offshore exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean, and Turkish prospecting east of Crete in 2020 prompted a military build-up and bellicose rhetoric.

    In 2019, Greece granted rights for exploration — which, however, didn’t go ahead — in two blocks of seabed south and southwest of the island of Crete to a consortium of TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil with Greece’s Hellenic Petroleum.

    The areas include the Mediterranean’s deepest waters. The Hellenic Trench, at 5,267 meters (17,300 feet) is a vital habitat for the sea’s few hundred sperm whales, and for other cetaceans already threatened by fishing, collisions with ships and plastic pollution.

    These mammals are particularly sensitive to the underwater noise produced by seismic surveys for fossil fuels, in which sound waves are bounced off the seabed to locate potential deposits. Sonar used by warships has been shown to have deadly effects on whales, and experts say seismic surveys can do the same.

    ———

    Follow all AP stories about climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

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  • Poland chooses US to build its first nuclear power plant

    Poland chooses US to build its first nuclear power plant

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    WARSAW, Poland — Poland has chosen the U.S. government and Westinghouse to build the central European country’s first nuclear power plant, part of an effort to burn less coal and gain greater energy independence.

    Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said late Friday on Twitter that Poland would use the “reliable, safe technology” of the Westinghouse Electric Company for the plant in Pomerania province near the Baltic Sea coast. The exact location remains to be identified.

    A strong Poland-U.S. alliance “guarantees the success of our joint initiatives,” Morawiecki said.

    Poland is planning to spend $40 billion to build two nuclear power plants with three reactors each, the last one to be launched in 2043. The deal with the U.S. and Westinghouse is for the first three reactors of the Pomerania plant, which officials saying should start producing electricity in 2033.

    Poland has planned for decades to build a nuclear power plant to replace its aging coal-fired plants in a country with some of the worst air pollution in Europe. Construction of a Soviet-technology nuclear plant began in the early 1980s, when Poland was in the East Bloc.

    Protests by residents and environmentalists, the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine and budget shortages led to the scrapping of the project.

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year and its use of energy to put economic and political pressure on European nations have added urgency to Poland’s search for alternative energy sources.

    Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller said Saturday that the government would adopt a decision at its meeting Wednesday, which will launch environmental approval and investment procedures.

    Mueller said the nuclear plant in northern Poland would require improving infrastructure in the area, including roads.

    U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the project would create or sustain more than 100,000 jobs for American workers.

    “This is a HUGE step in strengthening our relationship with Poland to create energy security for future generations to come,” Granholm said.

    “This announcement also sends a clear message to Russia: We will not let them weaponize energy any longer,” Granholm said. “The West will stand together against this unprovoked aggression, while also diversifying energy supply chains and bolstering climate cooperation.”

    Poland had also considered offers from France and South Korea. Poland State Assets Minister Jacek Sasin suggested there could still be a role for South Korea in the project and more talks are scheduled in Seoul next week.

    Westinghouse has sued in federal court to block a potential deal for competitor Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power to sell reactors to Poland.

    The United States is one of the most important allies of NATO-member Poland. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, the U.S. increased its military presence in the country, creating a permanent presence for the first time, and using Poland as a hub for sending weapons to Ukraine.

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  • Dominion, AG reach proposed agreement in offshore wind case

    Dominion, AG reach proposed agreement in offshore wind case

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    RICHMOND, Va. — Dominion Energy has agreed to implement several consumer protections in connection with its massive offshore wind project under a proposed agreement with the office of the Virginia attorney general and other parties released Friday.

    The proposed agreement, which includes performance reporting requirements and provisions laying out a degree of construction cost sharing, is still subject to final approval by the State Corporation Commission.

    Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican whose office represents the interests of consumers in utility regulation proceedings, said the agreement would provide “first-of-its-kind” protections for ratepayers while ensuring the 176-turbine project with an estimated $9.8 billion capital cost moves forward in a fiscally responsible way.

    “I am pleased that we have achieved consumer protections never seen before in modern Virginia history,” Miyares said in a statement. “For the first time Dominion has significant skin in the game to ensure that the project is delivered on budget. Should the project run materially over budget, it will come out of Dominion’s pocket, not consumers,” he said.

    Dominion filed its application to build and recover the costs of the project with the State Corporation Commission nearly a year ago. That kicked off a lengthy process before the regulatory agency, one that has included voluminous filings and an evidentiary hearing in May.

    The commission in August signed off on the project, but it included a consumer protection provision — a performance guarantee — that Dominion strenuously objected to, saying it would kill the project.

    The parties to Friday’s proposal said they had conferred since then and reached the terms of the proposed agreement. It calls for a cost-sharing arrangement for any overruns beyond the estimated $9.8 billion price tag. The company would cover 50% of construction costs between the range of $10.3-$11.3 billion and 100% of costs between $11.3-$13.7 billion. If construction costs were to exceed $13.7 billion, the issue would go back to the commission.

    The proposal would not require the company to guarantee certain energy production levels, like the SCC had initially ordered. Rather, Dominion will have to report average net capacity factors annually and “provide a detailed explanation of the factors contributing to any deficiency.” Capacity factor is a measure of how often a generating facility runs during a period of time.

    Richmond-based Dominion said in a news release that the deal would provide “significant customer benefits.”

    “I appreciate the thoughtful effort of all parties in reaching a constructive agreement to allow the project to continue moving forward,” said Bob Blue, Dominion’s chair, president and and chief executive officer.

    Also parties to the agreement are Walmart, Virginia’s largest private employer, and two conservation groups: Appalachian Voices and the Southern Environmental Law Center.

    Will Cleveland, an attorney for SELC, emphasized in a statement that the primary issue in the case was “never about offshore wind’s value but the risks created by the ownership structure.”

    No other offshore wind project under development in the U.S. is funded by captive ratepayers, and no other project has a monopoly utility owner acting as its own general contractor, the law center said.

    The project, which will be located about 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach, has drawn broad support from local officials, policymakers, business groups and trade unions, who say it will help fight climate change and create jobs.

    The company already has a two-turbine pilot project up and running. The 2.6-gigawatt, utility-scale project’s schedule calls for construction to be complete in late 2026. Dominion expects the project to generate enough clean energy to power up to 660,000 homes.

    Clean Virginia, an environmental and rate reform advocacy group that is a party to the proceeding, did not oppose the agreement, which it said in a statement represented a “vast improvement” for consumers.

    “Absent pressure from environmental advocates, the Office of the Attorney General, regulatory staff, and Walmart, Dominion would have proceeded with one of the most expensive energy projects to date in Virginia with few consumer protections and would have faced little performance expectations to actually generate consistent clean energy,” Laura Gonzalez, the group’s energy policy manager, said in a statement.

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  • EU strikes deal to ban the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars from 2035

    EU strikes deal to ban the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars from 2035

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    An electric car being charged in Germany. The European Union is moving forward with plans to ramp up the number of EVs on its roads.

    Tomekbudujedomek | Moment | Getty Images

    The EU’s plans to phase out the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans took a big step forward this week after the European Council and European Parliament came to a provisional agreement on the issue.

    In a statement Thursday evening, the European Parliament said EU negotiators had agreed on a deal related to the European Commission’s proposal for “zero-emission road mobility by 2035.”

    The plan seeks to slash CO2 emissions from new vans and passenger cars by 100% from 2021 levels and would constitute an effective ban on new diesel and gasoline vehicles of these types. The European Commission is the EU’s executive branch.

    Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

    The parliament said smaller automakers producing up to 10,000 new cars or 22,000 new vans could be granted a derogation, or exemption, until the end of 2035.

    It added that “those responsible for less than 1,000 new vehicle registrations per year continue to be exempt.”

    Formal approval of the deal from the European Council and European Parliament is required before it takes effect.

    Industry reactions

    Thursday’s news was welcomed by Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based campaign group. “The days of the carbon spewing, pollution belching combustion engine are finally numbered,” said Julia Poliscanova, T&E’s senior director for vehicles and e-mobility.

    Others commenting on the plans included the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. In a statement, it said it’s now urging “European policy makers to shift into higher gear to deploy the enabling conditions for zero-emission mobility.”

    “This extremely far-reaching decision is without precedent,” said its chair, Oliver Zipse, who is the CEO of BMW. “It means that the European Union will now be the first and only world region to go all-electric.”

    “Make no mistake, the European automobile industry is up to the challenge of providing these zero-emission cars and vans,” he added.

    “However, we are now keen to see the framework conditions which are essential to meet this target reflected in EU policies.”

    “These include an abundance of renewable energy, a seamless private and public charging infrastructure network, and access to raw materials.”

    During an interview with CNBC earlier this month, Carlos Tavares, the CEO of Stellantis, was asked about the EU’s plans to phase out the sale of new ICE cars and vans by 2035. ICE vehicles are powered by a regular internal combustion engine.

    It’s “clear that the decision to ban pure ICEs is a purely dogmatic decision,” said Tavares, who was speaking to CNBC’s Charlotte Reed at the Paris Motor Show.

    He added that Europe’s political leaders should be “more pragmatic and less dogmatic.”

    “I think there is the possibility — and the need — for a more pragmatic approach to manage the transition.”

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  • Alaska-Australia flight could place bird in record books

    Alaska-Australia flight could place bird in record books

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    CANBERRA, Australia — A young bar-tailed godwit appears to have set a non-stop distance record for migratory birds by flying at least 13,560 kilometers (8,435 miles) from Alaska to the Australian state of Tasmania, a bird expert said Friday.

    The bird was tagged as a hatchling in Alaska during the Northern Hemisphere summer with a tracking GPS chip and tiny solar panel that enabled an international research team to follow its first annual migration across the Pacific Ocean, Birdlife Tasmania convenor Eric Woehler said. Because the bird was so young, its gender wasn’t known.

    Aged about five months, it left southwest Alaska at the Yuko-Kuskokwim Delta on Oct. 13 and touched down 11 days later at Ansons Bay on the island of Tasmania’s northeastern tip on Oct. 24, according to data from Germany’s Max Plank Institute for Ornithology. The research has yet to be published or peer reviewed.

    The bird started on a southwestern course toward Japan then turned southeast over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, a map published by New Zealand’s Pukoro Miranda Shorebird Center shows.

    The bird was again tracking southwest when it flew over or near Kiribati and New Caledonia, then past the Australian mainland before turning directly west for Tasmania, Australia’s most southerly state. The satellite trail showed it covered 13,560 kilometers (8,435 miles) without stopping.

    “Whether this is an accident, whether this bird got lost or whether this is part of a normal pattern of migration for the species, we still don’t know,” said Woehler, who is part of the research project.

    Guinness World Records lists the longest recorded migration by a bird without stopping for food or rest as 12,200 km (7,580 miles) by a satellite-tagged male bar-tailed godwit flying from Alaska to New Zealand.

    That flight was recorded in 2020 as part of the same decade-old research project, which also involves China’s Fudan University, New Zealand’s Massey University and the Global Flyway Network.

    The same bird broke its own record with a 13,000-kilometer (8,100-mile) flight on its next migration last year, researchers say. But Guinness has yet to acknowledge that feat.

    Woehler said researchers did not know whether the latest bird, known by its satellite tag 234684, flew alone or as part of a flock.

    “There are so few birds that have been tagged, we don’t know how representative or otherwise this event is,” Woehler said.

    “It may be that half the birds that do the migration from Alaska come to Tasmania directly rather than through New Zealand or it might be 1%, or it might be that this is the first it’s ever happened,” he added.

    Adult birds depart Alaska earlier than juveniles, so the tagged bird was unlikely to have followed more experienced travelers south, Woehler said.

    Woehler hopes to see the bird once wet weather clears in the remote corner of Tasmania, where it will fatten up having lost half its body weight on its journey.

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  • Emissions reductions pledges ‘nowhere near’ what’s needed, UN says

    Emissions reductions pledges ‘nowhere near’ what’s needed, UN says

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    A boat photographed in Turkey. This year’s COP27 climate change summit will look to build on the work undertaken at COP26 in Glasgow.

    Temizyurek | E+ | Getty Images

    Countries are not doing enough to limit the planet’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, according to a new report from U.N. Climate Change.

    In an assessment published Wednesday, the U.N. said that “the combined climate pledges of 193 Parties under the Paris Agreement could put the world on track for around 2.5 degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century.”  

    The analysis comes ahead of next month’s COP27 climate change summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where the shadow of 2015’s Paris Agreement will loom large. 

    A key aim of the Paris accord is restricting global warming “to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.” 

    The challenge is huge, and the U.N. has noted that 1.5 degrees Celsius is viewed as being “the upper limit” when it comes to avoiding the worst consequences of the climate emergency.

    U.N. Climate Change said its new report also showed that countries’ pledges, as they stand now, would see emissions jump by 10.6% by the year 2030, compared to levels in 2010.

    “Last year’s analysis showed projected emissions would continue to increase beyond 2030,” it said.

    “However, this year’s analysis shows that while emissions are no longer increasing after 2030, they are still not demonstrating the rapid downward trend science says is necessary this decade.”

    In a statement Wednesday, Simon Stiell, executive secretary of U.N. Climate Change, pulled no punches about the current position the world finds itself in.

    “We are still nowhere near the scale and pace of emission reductions required to put us on track toward a 1.5 degrees Celsius world,” he said.

    “To keep this goal alive, national governments need to strengthen their climate action plans now and implement them in the next eight years,” he added.  

    COP27 will look to continue the work undertaken at last year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, which resulted in the Glasgow Climate Pact.

    On Wednesday Alok Sharma, the COP26 president said it was “critical that we do everything within our means to keep 1.5C in reach.”

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  • France enters ‘white gold’ rush as top producer aims to supply Europe with lithium

    France enters ‘white gold’ rush as top producer aims to supply Europe with lithium

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    A Lithium-ion battery photographed at a Volkswagen facility in Germany. The EU is looking to increase the number of electric vehicles on its roads in the coming years.

    Ronny Hartmann | AFP | Getty Images

    Paris-headquartered minerals giant Imerys plans to develop a lithium extraction project that it’s hoped will help meet demand and secure supply for Europe’s emerging electric vehicle market.

    In a statement Monday, Imerys said its Emili Project would be located at a site in the center of France, with the company targeting 34,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide production each year from 2028.

    According to the business, this level of production would be enough to “equip approximately 700,000 electrical vehicles per year.”

    Alongside its use in cell phones, computers, tablets and a host of other gadgets synonymous with modern life, lithium — which some have dubbed “white gold” — is crucial to the batteries that power electric vehicles.

    The project being planned by Imerys is taking shape at a time when major economies like the EU are looking to ramp up the number of electric vehicles on their roads.

    The EU plans to stop the sale of new diesel and gasoline cars and vans from 2035. The U.K., which left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020, is pursuing similar targets.

    With demand for lithium rising, the European Union — of which France is a member — is attempting to shore up its own supplies and reduce dependency on other parts of the world.   

    In a translation of her State of the Union speech last month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “lithium and rare earths will soon be more important than oil and gas.”

    As well as addressing security of supply, von der Leyen, who switched between several languages during her speech, also stressed the importance of processing.

    “Today, China controls the global processing industry,” she said. “Almost 90% … of rare earth[s] and 60% of lithium are processed in China.”

    “So we will identify strategic projects all along the supply chain, from extracting to refining, from processing to recycling,” she added. “And we will build up strategic reserves where supply is at risk.”

    Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

    Back in France, Imerys said it was finalizing what it described as a “technical scoping study” in order to “explore various operational options and refine geological and industrial aspects relating to the lithium extraction and processing method.”

    The site selected for the project has, since the end of the 19th century, been used to produce a type of clay called kaolin for use in the ceramics industry.

    The construction capital expenditure of the proposed lithium project is estimated to be around 1 billion euros (roughly $980 million), Imerys added.

    “Upon successful completion, the project would contribute to the French and European Union’s energy transition ambitions,” the company said. “It would also increase Europe’s industrial sovereignty at a time when car and battery manufacturers are heavily dependent on imported lithium, which is a key element in the energy transition.”

    In recent years, a range of factors has created pressure points when it comes to the supply of the materials crucial for EVs, an issue the International Energy Agency highlighted earlier this year in its Global EV Outlook.

    “The rapid increase in EV sales during the pandemic has tested the resilience of battery supply chains, and Russia’s war in Ukraine has further exacerbated the challenge,” the IEA’s report noted, adding that prices of materials like lithium, cobalt and nickel have soared.

    “In May 2022, lithium prices were over seven times higher than at the start of 2021,” it added. “Unprecedented battery demand and a lack of structural investment in new supply capacity are key factors.”

    Read more about energy from CNBC Pro

    In a recent interview with CNBC, the CEO of Mercedes-Benz sketched out the current state of play, as he saw it when it came to the raw materials required for EVs and their batteries.

    “Raw material prices have been quite volatile in the last 12 to 18 months — some have spiked and actually some have come back down again,” Ola Kallenius said.

    “But it is true as we become electric, all-electric and more and more automakers go into the electric space, there is a need to increase mining capacities and refining capacities for lithium, nickel, and some of those raw materials that are needed to produce electric cars.”

    “We have everything that we need now, but we need to look into the mid to long-term and work with the mining industry here to increase capacities.”

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  • German leader warns against ‘worldwide renaissance’ for coal

    German leader warns against ‘worldwide renaissance’ for coal

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    BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Thursday that Russia’s war in Ukraine mustn’t lead to a “worldwide renaissance” for coal — comments that come as Germany itself brings coal-fired power plants back online in an effort to prevent an energy crunch this winter.

    In a speech to parliament, Scholz highlighted his government’s efforts to counter the effects of Russia’s decision to cut off gas supplies to Germany. The government has in recent months approved reactivating several coal- and oil-fired power plants, and environmental activists warn that Germany risks defaulting on its climate goals by burning more fossil fuels.

    Scholz said five further plants that use lignite, a low-quality and high-emission type of coal, have gone back online in recent days “as a time-limited but necessary emergency measure.” The chancellor this week also decided to keep Germany’s last three nuclear power plants, which originally were supposed to be switched off at the end of the year, running until mid-April.

    “We continue to stand firmly by our climate targets,” Scholz told lawmakers.

    Officials from almost 200 countries will gather next month in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to discuss how to tackle global warming.

    Scholz vowed that Germany, which is moving to expand its use of renewable energy, will pass all the major legislation needed to fulfill its climate targets by the end of this year and that the European Union will stay on course. He called for a final agreement in the coming months on the EU’s proposed “Fit for 55” package to achieve the bloc’s goals of cutting emissions of the gases that cause global warming by 55% over this decade.

    “The Russian aggression and its consequences mustn’t lead to a worldwide renaissance of coal,” the chancellor said. “We will make clear offers so that developing and emerging countries also can embark resolutely on the path toward a climate-neutral energy sector.”

    “We will vigorously help the states that today already are suffering particularly from the consequences of climate change,” he added.

    Germany’s foreign minister said earlier this month that Berlin wants the huge economic damage resulting from global warming to be discussed at the climate talks in Egypt.

    Coal accounted for 31.4% of Germany’s electricity generation in this year’s first half, up from 27.1% a year earlier. Around 48.5% of the country’s electricity came from renewable sources, up from 43.8% the year before, while the proportions derived from nuclear power and gas declined to 6% and 11.7%, respectively.

    ———

    Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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  • U.S. to provide millions in funding for tidal energy and river current systems

    U.S. to provide millions in funding for tidal energy and river current systems

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    While there is excitement about the potential of renewable technologies such as tidal power, there are challenges when it comes to scaling up.

    Laro Pilartes / 500Px | 500Px | Getty Images

    The U.S. Department of Energy said $35 million in funding would be made available “to advance tidal and river current energy systems” under plans it hopes will provide a shot in the arm to a sector whose current footprint is tiny.

    In a statement Tuesday outlining the move, the DOE said the funding opportunity — which is slated for release in 2023 — represented the “largest investment in tidal and river current energy technologies in the United States.”

    A notice of intent related to the funding opportunity has been posted online. The DOE said it proposed “to develop a tidal or river current research, development, and demonstration site and to support in-water demonstration of at least one tidal energy system.”

    Alejandro Moreno, who is acting assistant secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, said oceans and rivers represented “a huge potential source of renewable energy.” The DOE said the funding would come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

    Read more about energy from CNBC Pro

    Over the past few years a number of projects related to tidal power, including ones in the United States, have taken significant steps forward.

    In July 2021, for instance, a tidal turbine dubbed “the world’s most powerful” started grid-connected power generation at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, an archipelago located north of mainland Scotland.

    In May 2022, a £4.6 million (around $5.18 million) facility that can test tidal turbine blades under strenuous conditions was officially opened, with those behind it hoping it will accelerate the development of marine energy technology and lower costs.

    While there is excitement about the potential of renewable technologies such as tidal power, there are significant challenges when it comes to scaling up, a point the DOE acknowledged in its announcement.

    “The U.S. tidal and river current energy industry requires long-term and substantial funding to move from testing devices one at a time to establishing a commercial site,” it said.

    “The complexity of installing devices and navigating permitting processes, combined with a lack of connection to local power grids, have proven to be a consistent barrier to advancing tidal and river current energy.”

    Today, America’s electricity generation mix remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels.  

    According to preliminary figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in 2021 fossil fuels’ share of utility-scale electricity generation was 60.8%. By contrast, renewables’ share stood at 20.1%, while nuclear accounted for 18.9%.

    While tidal barrage developments were the initial focus of those operating in the marine energy industry — EDF’s La Rance tidal barrage dates back to the 1960s, for example — recent years have seen companies focus their attention on different systems.

    These include tidal stream devices which, the European Marine Energy Centre says, “are broadly similar to submerged wind turbines.” Compared to other renewables, the overall size of tidal stream and wave energy projects is very small.

    In data released in March 2022, Ocean Energy Europe said 2.2 MW of tidal stream capacity was installed in Europe last year, compared to just 260 kilowatts in 2020.

    For wave energy, 681 kW was installed, which OEE said was a threefold increase. Globally, 1.38 MW of wave energy came online in 2021, while 3.12 MW of tidal stream capacity was installed.

    By way of comparison, Europe installed 17.4 gigawatts of wind power capacity in 2021, according to figures from industry body WindEurope.

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  • Patagonia condor repopulation slows with possible wind farm

    Patagonia condor repopulation slows with possible wind farm

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    SIERRA PAILEMAN, Argentina — It was a sunny morning when about 200 people trudged up a hill in Argentina’s southern Patagonia region with a singular mission: free two Andean condors that had been born in captivity.

    The emotion in the air was palpable as conservationists got ready for a moment that so many had been working toward for months. But the joyous moment was also bittersweet.

    Preliminary plans for a massive wind farm that could be located in the Somuncura Plateau to feed a green hydrogen project is putting at risk a three-decade-long effort to repopulate Patagonia’s Atlantic coast with a bird that is classified as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

    While members of the Mapuche, the largest Indigenous group in the area, played traditional instruments, and children threw condor feathers into the air that symbolized their good wishes for the newly liberated birds, an eerie silence engulfed the mountain in Sierra Paileman in Rio Negro province as researchers opened the cages where the two specimens of the world’s largest flying bird were kept.

    Huasi (meaning home in Quechua) seemed born for this moment. As soon as the cage opened, he spread his wings and took off without a moment’s hesitation. Yastay (meaning god that is protector of birds) appeared cautious, uncertain of the wide open Patagonia skies after spending his first two years in captivity, and it took him around an hour before taking off.

    People hugged while researchers sprang into action and started tracking the birds. In the back of their minds were latent worries about what the potential for new wind farms in the area could mean for the lives of these newly released birds.

    Conservationists fear the birds inevitably would collide with the rotating blades of the turbines and be killed. In neighboring Chile, an environmental impact study for a planned wind farm with 65 windmills concluded that as many as four of the rare condors could collide with the massive structures yearly. Environmental authorities rejected the project last year.

    “Why are we freeing two? We generally free more than two,” Vanesa Astore, executive director of the Andean Condor Conservation Program, said. “We’re at like a maintenance level now.”

    Researchers had to release Huasi and Yastay now or risk that they would have to remain in captivity for the rest of their lives, which can range from 70 to 80 years, Astore explained, noting condors can only adapt to the outside world if they are released before their third birthday.

    The current uncertainty regarding the future of the wind farm that would be built by Australian firm Fortescue Future Industries has not only put conservationists on alert but has prompted them to slow the pace of reproduction and release of the Andean condors even as the company insists it has no plans to set up shop in the Somuncura Plateau.

    Condors are notoriously slow breeders that only reach sexual maturity at 9 years old and have an offspring every three years, but researchers have found ways to speed that up by removing eggs from pairs in captivity to incubate artificially. When the egg is removed, the pair will then produce another egg within a month, which they will raise while the first one is raised by humans with the help of latex puppets meant to simulate their parents and help them recognize members of their own species.

    That strategy allow researchers to “increase reproductive capacity by six times,” said Luis Jacome, the head of the Andean Condor Conservation Program.

    That effort is now on pause.

    “We aren’t maximizing because I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Astore explained.

    Since the conservation program started 30 years ago, 81 chicks have been born in captivity, 370 condors have been rehabilitated and 230 freed across South America, including Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia.

    Sixty-six of those have been released along Patagonia’s Atlantic coast, where the bird was nowhere to be seen at the turn of the century even though Charles Darwin had written in the early 1800s about the presence of the large birds in the region.

    The Andean condor has now made a comeback, and for many locals that has a spiritual resonance.

    “The condor flies very high, so our elders used to say that the condor could take a message to those who are no longer here,” said Doris Canumil, 59, a Mapuche who took part in the ceremonies for the liberation of the condors.

    While they celebrate the success of the program, conservationists worry it could all be erased.

    “These birds that we’ve liberated, that once again joined the mountain range with the sea through their flight, that have matured and had their own offspring that live and fly here in this place, they will simply die in the blades of the windmills,” Jacome said. “So the condor would once again become extinct in the Atlantic coast.”

    Conservationists found out about the proposed wind farm through the media and alarm bells immediately went off.

    Last year, Fortescue unveiled a plan to invest $8.4 billion over a decade in a project to produce green hydrogen for export in what the government touted as the largest international investment in Argentina over the past two decades. In order to qualify as green, the hydrogen must be produced using renewable power, and that is where the windmill farm would come in, taking advantage of the strong, reliable winds of Patagonia.

    The government of President Alberto Fernández celebrated the project, saying it would create 15,000 direct jobs and somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 indirect jobs.

    Yet neither the company nor the provincial government of Rio Negro had carried out an environmental impact study before unveiling the project.

    For now at least, Jacome said, the “only thing green are the dollars” attached to the project.

    “We’re putting the cart before the horse,” Jacome said. “We need to have environmental impact studies that demonstrate what is going to be done, how many windmills, where they will be placed.”

    Fortescue agrees and says it “is committed to evaluating the social, environmental, engineering, and economic considerations before committing to the development” of any project.

    The Australian firm said in a statement that any pre-development study will include consultations with local organizations to “guarantee the protection of the local species such as the Andean Condor.”

    Following questions about the project, Fortescue has decided to not measure winds at the Somuncura Plateau until the province finishes its environmental plan and will instead explore “other areas of interest within lands near Sierra Grande and the Province of Chubut,” the company said.

    On Oct. 11, the Rio Negro provincial government said Fortescue launched a 12-month effort to analyze the environmental and social impacts of the project.

    Provincial officials see the number of jobs attached to the project as key.

    “On the one hand, we have to preserve and take care of our fauna,” Daniel Sanguinetti, Rio Negro’s planning and sustainable development secretary, said. But the government also must “promote the development of the 750,000 Rio Negro citizens who currently live (here) and generate sources of production and genuine work for all of them.”

    Sanguinetti added it was important “not to get carried away by different situations that supposedly would happen at some time in the future when all of this would have been implemented, when the reality is that the project is in its initial phases.”

    For those who have made repopulating the Patagonia coast with the condor their life’s work, the discussions over the future of the project are deeply personal.

    “We feel a little bit like parents,” said Catalina Rostagno, who moved to the base camp in Rio Negro two and a half months ago for the process of liberating Huasi and Yastay. “The condor is a reflection of me.”

    ——-

    Politi reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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  • Australia and Singapore strike agreement to achieve net-zero

    Australia and Singapore strike agreement to achieve net-zero

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    CANBERRA, Australia — Australian and Singaporean leaders announced Tuesday what they described as a world-first agreement to cooperate in transitioning their economies to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.

    Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese outlined their so-called Green Economy Agreement between the two countries after an annual meeting in the Australian Parliament House.

    The agreement has 17 components that cover facilitating trade and investment in green services, harmonizing standards and building green growth sectors through collaboration between business.

    Australia has committed to reducing its emissions to net-zero by 2050 and Singapore is considering adopting the same target.

    Albanese described Singapore as “one of the most innovative economies in the world,” while Australia had the potential to become a “renewable energy superpower” due to its vast open spaces and relatively small population.

    The agreement “will support clean energy innovation, unlock business opportunities and create jobs, and help deliver our mission’s targets while positioning Australia as a renewable energy superpower,” Albanese said.

    Lee foreshadowed further cooperation in cross-border electricity trade and “sustainable aviation” through what he described as the “world’s first such agreement.”

    ”These are all areas which are of interest to Singapore and to Singapore businesses and we hope with a Singapore-Australia GEA they’ll be able to move forward,” Lee said.

    “But we also hope with this GEA will encourage other countries to look at what we have been able to do and to ask whether some of this may not make sense to them to do with Singapore or to do with each other,” Lee added.

    Singapore is already planning to use solar power from northern Australia transmitted by a 4,200-kilometer (2,600-mile) submarine cable.

    Singaporean company Sun Cable plans to start construction in 2024 of the 30 billion Australian dollar ($19 billion) Australia-Asia PowerLink project that will include 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of solar panels near the northern Australian city of Darwin.

    Albanese described the export of Australian solar power to Singapore as an “ultimate win-win.”

    “If this project can be made to work — and I believe it can be — you will see the world’s largest solar farm, you will see the export of energy across distances … (and) the production of many jobs here in Australia, including manufacturing jobs,” Albanese said.

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  • Utility begins loading fuel at new Georgia nuclear plant

    Utility begins loading fuel at new Georgia nuclear plant

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    ATLANTA — Workers have begun loading radioactive fuel into a new nuclear reactor in Georgia, utilities said Friday, putting the first new American nuclear reactor built in decades on a path to begin generating electricity in coming months.

    Georgia Power says workers will transfer 157 fuel assemblies into the reactor core at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, in the next few days. There are already two reactors operating at the plant, with fuel being loaded into a third unit and a fourth unit still under construction.

    Chris Womack, chairman and CEO of Georgia Power, the largest unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co., said in a statement that fuel loading shows “steady and evident progress” at Vogtle.

    “We’re making history here in Georgia and the U.S. as we approach bringing online the first new nuclear unit to be built in the country in over 30 years,” Womack said. “These units are important to building the future of energy and will serve as clean, emission-free sources of energy for Georgians for the next 60 to 80 years.”

    After the 90 tons (82 metric tonnes) of uranium oxide is loaded by a crane into the reactor, operating company Southern Nuclear will test whether the plant’s cooling and steam supply system work while fuel is inside the reactor at the super-high temperatures and pressures created by splitting atoms. Operators will then start generating electricity and link the plant to the transmission grid, with the reactor planned to reach commercial operation by the end of March.

    The Georgia Public Service Commission approved the new reactors in 2012, and the third reactor was supposed to start generating power in 2016. The cost of the third and fourth reactors has climbed from an original estimate of $14 billion to more than $30 billion.

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved plans to load the fuel in August. Approval was delayed because much of the third reactor’s wiring had to be redone after federal regulators found major flaws. Southern Co. also fell behind on inspection documents that had to be completed before the NRC could sign off.

    Georgia Power’s 2.7 million customers are already paying part of the financing cost and state regulators have approved a monthly rate increase of at least $3.78 a month as soon as the third unit begins generating power. But the elected five-member Public Service Commission will decide later who pays for the remainder of the costs. The utility has other unrelated rate increases awaiting a decision.

    The fourth unit is supposed to be completed in late 2023. The two new units combined are projected to produce enough power for more than 500,000 homes and businesses.

    Vogtle is the only nuclear plant under construction in the United States. Its costs and delays could deter other utilities from building such plants, even though they generate electricity without releasing climate-changing carbon emissions.

    Georgia Power owns 45.7% of the two reactors, while Oglethorpe Power Corp. owns 30% on behalf of 38 power cooperatives. The Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia owns 22.3% on behalf of 49 city-owned utilities, while the city of Dalton’s utility owns 1.6%. MEAG has contracts to sell electricity from Vogtle to the city-owned utility in Jacksonville, Florida, and to some electric cooperatives and city utilities in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

    The other owners of Vogtle are trying to shift costs onto Georgia Power. Oglethorpe, MEAG and Dalton all sued Georgia Power earlier this year, claiming the company was trying to bilk them out of nearly $700 million by unilaterally changing a contract.

    Under a 2018 deal, Georgia Power agreed to assume all cost overruns above a certain level. In exchange, the co-owners would sell part of their ownership shares to Georgia Power. Oglethorpe and MEAG say projected overruns have reached that level, but Georgia Power said the threshold is $1.3 billion higher than the level claimed by the co-owners.

    Georgia Power is settling MEAG’s lawsuit in exchange for making at least $76 million in payments to MEAG.

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    Follow Jeff Amy at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.

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  • German energy company RWE to end coal use by 2030

    German energy company RWE to end coal use by 2030

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    BERLIN — German energy company RWE said Tuesday that it will phase out the burning of coal by 2030, saving 280 million metric tons of climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions.

    The decision will accelerate the closure of some of Europe’s most polluting power plants and a vast lignite strip mine in western Germany.

    It will also prevent the eviction of residents of several villages and farms west of Cologne near the Garzweiler mine. The exception is Luetzerath, a hamlet that has been the focus of protests by environmentalists and which will now need to be cleared to extract more coal in the short-term.

    The government argues this is necessary to ensure energy security amid the fallout of Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

    RWE’s announcement boosts the German government’s efforts to bring forward the deadline for phasing out coal use by eight years as part of the country’s goal of ending its greenhouse gas emissions by 2045.

    Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who is responsible for energy, said negotiations with the operators of Germany’s other coal mines and eight coal-fired power plants were ongoing.

    The Fridays for Future climate activist group said the announcement that Luetzerath will be destroyed and some coal-fired plants will temporarily be kept online for longer to cover possible energy shortfalls was “cynical.” It said protests against the plan would be organized in several locations across Germany.

    In parallel to its phaseout of coal, RWE said it would expand renewable energy production and build gas-fired power plants capable of burning hydrogen.

    RWE, which over the weekend announced the purchase of American company Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses, said it is now on a path that is compatible with the 2015 Paris climate accord’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

    Separately on Tuesday, the Netherlands said it plans to join a German-led initiative to promote the market ramp-up of hydrogen produced using renewable energy.

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the two countries will also explore cooperation on future offshore wind parks in the North Sea that would produce both electricity and “green hydrogen.”

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    Follow AP’s coverage of climate and environment issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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