April 2013 – Page 6 – This is Not Cool

The Paradox of Cold Continents, Warm Arctic

nasaspring13 — According to NASA scientists, a pronounced shift in air pressure conditions above the Arctic triggered unusual ground temperatures across much of North America and Europe during the March. In this map, which shows surface temperature anomalies from March 14 to 20 compared with the same dates from 2005 to 2012, areas that experienced above-average temperatures are shown in red and orange, while areas with below-average temperatures are shown in shades of blue. Click image for larger.

A pronounced shift in Arctic air pressure systems has triggered unusually cold temperatures across North America, Europe, and northern Asia, while allowing a flood of warmer air into Greenland and northeastern Canada, according to NASA.

In recent weeks, the so-called Arctic Oscillation (AO) index — which tracks the relative pressure differential between the Arctic and mid-latitudes — dropped to the fifth-lowest reading ever recorded, NASA scientists said. When the AO reaches this “negative” phase, scientists say, the pressure gradient between the Arctic and mid-latiutudes weakens, allowing Arctic air to stream south. The NASA graphic above shows unusual land surface temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere, with Europe, Russia, and the U.S. experiencing temperatures as high as 5 to 15 degrees C below normal, while temperatures in Greenland were as high as 15 degrees C above normal. The United Kingdom recorded its fourth-coldest March since 1962, Germany experienced its coldest March since 1883, and Moscow had its coldest March since the 1950s.

Jeff Masters at WeatherUnderground discussed one of the early papers on this phenomenon back in 2010, in a report from the American Geophysical Union meeting of that year.

The talk was given by Dr. Jim Overland of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, one of the world’s experts on Arctic weather and climate (I spent many long months flying in the Arctic with him during the three Arctic field programs I participated in during the late 1980s.) Dr. Overland discussed the remarkable winter of 2009 – 2010, which brought record snowstorms to Europe and the U.S. East Coast, along with the coldest temperatures in 25 years, but also brought the warmest winter on record to Canada and much of the Arctic.

He demonstrated that the Arctic is normally dominated by low pressure in winter, and a “Polar Vortex” of counter-clockwise circulating winds develops surrounding the North Pole. However, during the winter of 2009-2010, high pressure replaced low pressure over the Arctic, and the Polar Vortex weakened and even reversed at times, with a clockwise flow of air replacing the usual counter-clockwise flow of air around the pole. This unusual flow pattern allowed cold air to spill southwards and be replaced by warm air moving poleward. This pattern is kind of like leaving the refrigerator door ajar–the refrigerator warms up, but all of the cold air spills out into the house.

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Solar Industry Now a Net Energy Producer

As the solar industry continues explosive growth, you can bet the pushback from fossil fuel interests will increase. Trust me on this, you’ll be hearing about “solar cell syndrome” soon.
One of the more superficially credible snarks you might have heard in recent years would be the one about how much energy or rare materials go into producing solar panels. As the concerns about costly materials are steadily being addressed by new technology, new research at Stanford indicates that the obvious is now occurring – solar is becoming a net producer of energy, and going forward, more and more of the energy produced is “extra” energy that will be used for economic activity and to provide services.

Stanford University with H/T to CleanTechnica:

The rapid growth of the solar power industry over the past decade may have exacerbated the global warming situation it was meant to soothe, simply because most of the energy used to manufacture the millions of solar panels came from burning fossil fuels. That irony, according to Stanford University researchers, is coming to an end.

For the first time since the boom started, the electricity generated by all the world’s installed solar photovoltaic (PV) panels last year probably surpassed the amount of energy going into fabricating more modules, according to Michael Dale, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Global Climate & Energy Project (GCEP). With continued technological advances, the global PV industry is poised to pay off its debt of energy as early as 2015, and no later than 2020.

“This analysis shows that the industry is making positive strides,” said Dale, who developed a novel way of assessing the industry’s progress globally in a study published in the current edition of Environmental Science & Technology. “Despite its fantastically fast growth rate, PV is producing – or just about to start producing – a net energy benefit to society.”

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Germany Quadruples Energy Surplus

Clever people, those Germans.

Telegraph:

Figures just published appeared to vindicate Germany’s clean energy revolution, showing that the country’s electricity surplus had nearly quadrupled between 2011 and 2012.

However, the figures do not take into account the cost of subsidising renewable energy, which some estimates put at €14bn (£11.8bn).

Domestic energy consumers in Germany pay a surcharge on their electricity bills to fund government incentives for green energy. The costs for householders are higher because big businesses are exempted from the charges after complaints that making firms pay would hurt Germany’s global competitiveness.

Here in America, or course, we subsidize fossil fuels the old fashioned way, with multi trillion dollar wars for oil, massive tax breaks, public land giveaways, and, of course, with the lungs, brains, and circulatory health of our children.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government shut down the country’s eight oldest nuclear reactors after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011. The remaining nine are due to be phased out by 2022, and the government has set a target of getting 80pc of electricity from renewables by 2050. The move was a dramatic shift in energy policy, pinning the future of Europe’s biggest economy entirely on green energy.

North Dakota near Tipping Point for Development

Don’t Count on Cheap Fracked Gas

Price of Oil:

The oil and gas industry has long argued that the fracking boom sweeping America will lead to age of plenty where gas prices remain low indefinitely, energy is cheap and jobs are created.

But the oil and gas industry does not work in geographical isolation; it is an international industry. And increasingly the US is looking to export frack gas as LNG.

Yesterday came the first of what could potentially be many deals. The British company Centrica announced that it had signed a $15 billion, 20-year, “landmark” agreement with Cheniere Energy Partners, which would allow it to export enough from the US to supply just under 2 million British homes each year.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, welcomed the deal: “Future gas supplies from the US will help diversify our energy mix and provide British consumers with a new long-term, secure and affordable source of fuel.”

Exporting LNG to Europe and the thirsty markets of Asia could be a sign of things to come. Indeed, in the Financial Times, Ed Crooks argues that over 40 per cent of the entire US marketed gas production could be exported, if all the LNG applications go ahead.

Kurt Cobb in Christian Science Monitor:

..an industry that, having spent the last two decades denying climate change, now suddenly embraces it as a reason to produce more natural gas. So, despite the industry’s best efforts, the meme that shale gas is worse than coal is out there and being repeated again and again by opponents of shale gas drilling.

Well, at least we can say that shale gas is plentiful, cheap and American. But, then came the industry campaign to end federal limitations on the export of natural gas. What had been touted by the industry as a fuel that would help lead America to energy independence would henceforth be treated as just another world commodity seeking the highest bidder—even if that bidder is in China, Japan or Great Britain. The industry’s aim, of course, is to get higher prices for its product than customers in the United States can provide. As noted above, natural gas trades at around $4 per thousand cubic feet (mcf) in the United States. That compares to about $17 per mcf for liquefied natural gas delivered to Japan. The price in Europe is around $12.

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Renewables Top Nukes in US Energy Production

National Journal:

Energy production from natural gas grew 16% while coal-fired power fell more than 4%, thanks to a glut of cheap natural gas from the fracking boom. It’s a trend likely to continue as shale gas reserves are tapped and new emissions regulations effectively bar the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

Renewable energy production jumped nearly 24% but remains only 11% of the US’ total energy production. But the trend lines tell the story: Wind energy, for instance, grew 89% while electricity production from nuclear power plants fell 4%.

And this factoid should warm the hearts of anti-nuke activists: The US now gets more energy from renewable sources—wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and biomass—than it does from nuclear power plants.

While there are new nuclear projects winding their way through the regulatory process, don’t expect a nuke boom. Multibillion-dollar price tags, waste disposal issues and growing water shortages are likely to limit nuclear power’s contribution to the nation’s energy mix in the coming decades.

Mr. Burns just might want to start looking for another job, perhaps as a wind farm magnate.