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This 96 page amendment to existing clean energy legislation in Massachusetts contains lots of incentives to reduce GHG emissions and generate clean, green, electricity. I have reason to be optimistic that good things could come from this, BUT I remain skeptical based on my own past attempts to work on climate change policies and practices. If NESCOE continues to pursue an FCEM approach AND ISO..
Energy Central…
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report at the end of February titled “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.” Among the warnings found in the 3,675-page report is that human-induced climate change is causing dangerous and widespread disruption in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks.
“When we look at the quantitative evidence, we clearly see that global average temperatures and sea levels have risen over the last 150 years, and that we are still on that trend. We also see that climate models cannot replicate historical observed global and continental changes without the human-related inputs, such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use activity,” Dr. Steven Rose, senior research economist and technical executive in the Energy Systems and Climate Analysis Group at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), who was also one of the lead authors of the IPCC report, told POWER.
“The evidence that climate change is affecting society and ecosystems has grown and is continuing to grow.…
Coal has long been a lifeblood for Australia. The country is the world’s largest exporter of metallurgical coal used to make steel, and it’s the second-largest exporter of coal for use in power generation, supplying much of Asia. Government data shows the coal industry directly and indirectly supports more than 150,000 jobs, and in recent years has contributed more than $ 60 billion in economic impact annually. Coal-fired generation accounts for as much as 60% of the country’s electricity, even as renewable energy’s share of electricity output continues to grow (topping 30% last year), with renewables far outpacing both gas-fired generation and hydropower.
The coal industry faces headwinds, though, as Australia joins much of the rest of the world in developing decarbonization strategies to hit climate targets—in Australia’s case, a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The public debate about climate change has grown louder after major wildfires in Australia in 2019 and 2020. Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government has been criticized for moving too slowly to close coal-fired power plants and build more solar and wind farms; current leadership has said they want to be cautious with that transition in order to mitigate an energy crisis in the country that has led to blackouts in recent years.…
India, a nation heavily reliant on coal power, will set out to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2070, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged in a surprise declaration at the ongoing COP 26 climate summit on Nov. 1.
While India’s central government has yet to issue a detailed plan to achieve the necessary carbon reductions, the nation will kick off its climate ambitions by issuing five aggressive near-term targets.
“First, India will increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 GW by 2030,” Modi said in a 12-minute speech (in Hindi) on the first day of the conference in Glasgow, Scotland. “Second, India will fulfill 50% of its energy requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030,” he said. “Third, between now and 2030, India will reduce its total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tons. Fourth, by 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45%. And fifth, by 2070, India will achieve the target of net-zero emissions.”…
Pennsylvania, a major power producer that relied on fossil fuels for 66% of its net power generation in June, plans to maintain its nuclear generation at current levels until it can ramp up other carbon-free supplies to 100% by 2050, the state’s Sept. 22–released 2021 Climate Action Plan suggests.
The measures are part of a broader 18-strategy suite outlined in the Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP’s) fifth iteration of the plan, which is updated periodically as required by the 2008 Pennsylvania Climate Change Act. But because electricity generation is the greatest source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the Commonwealth, accounting for nearly 30% of total emissions, they are a priority, officials told reporters on Wednesday.
The plan acknowledges Pennsylvania’s historic and current role as a significant regional energy hub. The state is the third-largest energy-producing state in the U.S. (after Texas and Florida); it ranks in the top three for coal and natural gas production, and it is the nation’s second-largest nuclear generator.…
The post The POWER Interview: Climate Change and Renewable Energy in 2021 appeared first on POWER Magazine.
With the start of a new year comes new year resolutions, new campaigns, new administrations, new policy goals, and new initiatives. To kick off 2021, POWER talked with Jens Wolf, vice president and general manager of Europe at Enviva, a renewable energy company and the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets.
Wolf has more than 20 years of experience working across the value chain within the power, heat, and biomass industries, and has expertise in renewable energy, sustainability, and new market development. From his office in the UK, he works with customers, regulators, policy-makers and external stakeholders to grow his company’s market and customer footprint, and expand the use of its sustainable wood biomass product across Europe.
Wolf previously was the commercial director for Drax, where he was responsible for the development, logistics, trading, and sourcing of biomass on behalf of the company. Prior…