Month: May 2019

WZZM TV:

LUDINGTON, Mich. — Work to build the Ludington Pumped Storage plant started 50 years ago this June. However, a license allowing Consumers Energy and DTE to operate the facility expires on June 30.
The unique hydroelectric plant, at one time, was the largest of its kind in the world. It’s now the fourth largest. 
Some drivers rushing past the massive berm on the west side of US-31, just south of Ludington likely don’t know it’s a man-made reservoir capable of holding up to 27-billion gallons of Lake Michigan.In 1959, Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison began designing the hydroelectric plant. Construction started a decade later and the plant began commercial operation in 1973.
“This is unique site. It’s different; there aren’t a lot of them around,” Zatloukal said.
When power costs are low, billions of gallons of Lake Michigan are pumped uphill into the reservoir. The water is stored there until power is a higher cost. It’s then the water is released and allowed to travel downhill, spinning six turbines to create electricity.

Meanwhile, what’s happened since I made this video, new studies show many, many more opportunities for pumped storage than previously imagined, around the world.

Science Alert:

We just got some massive news in the ongoing drive to switch to renewable energy: scientists have identified 530,000 sites worldwide suitable for pumped-hydro energy storage, capable of storing more than enough energy to power the entire planet.

Pumped-hydro is one of the best technologies we have for storing intermittent renewable energy, such as solar power, which means these sites could act as giant batteries, helping to support cheap, fully renewable power grids.

Added together, these hundreds of thousands of sites have the potential to store around 22 million Gigawatt-hours (GWh) of energy. It’s more than enough to get the entire planet running on renewables, which is where we want to get to.

Continue reading “Giant Battery on Lake Michigan, and it’s Not from Elon Musk”

Nathaniel Bullard for Bloomberg:

Climate change is at the top of many American voters’ minds, as evidenced by a CNN poll last week that found “96% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say it’s very or somewhat important for a presidential candidate to promise aggressive action” on the issue. At the same time on the other side of the globe, “Promises to fight the world’s most toxic air have made it to the manifestos of major political parties for the first time in Indian elections.” And in the U.K., the Committee on Climate Change recently said the U.K. can “end its contribution to global warming within 30 years by setting an ambitious new target to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.” 

However, many governments — as well as a number of financial institutions — maintain faith in the need for an expansion of coal-fired power, one of the biggest contributors to global warming. A new survey shows the challenges that commitment will face within some major markets, and they will underpin any coal growth story.

The study, commissioned by think tank E3G, polled citizens in Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam on their preferences for foreign investment in the energy sector. In every country, renewable energy was the top choice.

WKAR – East Lansing, MI:

Michigan residents support a transition from coal-fired energy to more solar and wind powered electricity, a new Michigan State University research report finds.

Continue reading “Coal’s Future “In the Hands of the People””

Observer:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared at the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Finland to discuss the United States’ commitment to the Arctic region. While much of the secretary’s speech addressed the growing threats of Russia and China in the region, he also called the Arctic’s melting ice caps “new opportunities for trade”—despite warnings from scientists that the shrinkage is caused by climate change and could become irreversible.

“Steady reductions in sea ice are opening new passageways and new opportunities for trade,” Pompeo told the room. “This could potentially slash the time it takes to travel between Asia and the West by as much as 20 days. Arctic sea lanes could come before—could come [sic] the 21s century Suez and Panama Canals.”

Last week, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) released its monthly sea ice update which found “daily ice extent remained at record low levels throughout the month.” Over the past three decades, the Arctic has lost 95 percent of its oldest ice to global warming—more ice loss could result in ice-free summers, causing the planet to warm even further.

“The steep decrease in Arctic sea ice is one of the more dramatic consequences of human-caused climate change,” Michael Mann, a climate scientist and the director of Pennsylvania State University’s Earth System Science Center, told Observer. “And it comes with huge national security challenges as we are forced to defend a new coastline. So there are really multiple levels of unintended irony to Pompeo’s statements.”

Last week, The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration sought to remove references to climate change from the Arctic Council’s declaration signed by all eight Arctic nations. When asked by ABC on Sunday how he would rank climate change on a list of national security threats, Pompeo said the issue did not qualify.

“And its centerpiece, the Arctic Ocean, is rapidly taking on new strategic significance,” continued the secretary. “Offshore resources, which are helping the respective coastal states, are the subject of renewed competition.”

Maher is not much help in messaging here – but Inslee works to get the story out.

Mark Carney is governor of the Bank of England. François Villeroy de Galhau is governor of Banque de France.

In the wake of declarations of climate emergency by the Scottish and UK parliaments, Global financial leaders warn on the need for financial institutions to plan for climate risks and inevitable technological upheaval as renewables take over – as Mark Carney says above, “actively managing” both risks, and opportunities.

Mark Carney and Francois Villeroy de Galhau in The Guardian:

The catastrophic effects of climate change are already visible around the world. From blistering heatwaves in North America to typhoons in south-east Asia and droughts in Africa and Australia, no country or community is immune. These events damage infrastructure and private property, negatively affect health, decrease productivity and destroy wealth. And they are extremely costly: insured losses have risen five-fold in the past three decades. The enormous human and financial costs of climate change are having a devastating effect on our collective wellbeing.
The impact of climate change has compelled governments to act.

Catalysed by the Paris agreement, governments around the world are putting policies in place to limit the global rise in temperatures to 2C, and preferably as close to 1.5C as possible. The actions undertaken by individual countries will deliver a collective transition to a low-carbon economy. But this transition brings its own risks. Carbon emissions have to decline by 45% from 2010 levels over the next decade in order to reach net zero by 2050. This requires a massive reallocation of capital. If some companies and industries fail to adjust to this new world, they will fail to exist.

The prime responsibility for climate policy will continue to sit with governments. And the private sector will determine the success of the adjustment. But as financial policymakers and prudential supervisors, we cannot ignore the obvious risks before our eyes.
That is why 34 central banks and supervisors – representing five continents, half of global greenhouse gas emissions and the supervision of two-thirds of the global systemically important banks and insurers – joined forces in 2017 to create a coalition of the willing: the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS).

On Wednesday, this coalition’s first comprehensive report seeks to translate commitments to act on climate-related financial risks into concrete action. The four recommendations in the report provide all central banks, supervisors and the financial community with deliverable goals that will help to ensure a smooth transition to a low-carbon economy. We therefore call on policymakers and the financial sector to do the following.
First, integrate the monitoring of climate-related financial risks into day-to-day supervisory work, financial stability monitoring and board risk management. Supervisors are encouraged to set expectations to ensure financial firms are adequately addressing the financial risks from climate change, including by conducting scenario analysis to assess their strategic resilience to climate change policy. Firms are encouraged to take a long-term, strategic approach to the consideration of these risks, and to embed them into their business-as-usual governance and risk-management frameworks.
Second, lead by example, specifically central banks are encouraged to integrate sustainability into their own portfolio management.

Continue reading “Banking Chieftains Warn on Climate”

Nearby on this page, find statement from Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, and François Villeroy de Galhau, governor of Banque de France.
Moving to a net-zero carbon economy has enormous economic upside, while the financial community is realizing that putting off that shift has a catastrophic downside.

Quartz.com:

In April, renewables eclipsed coal generation in the US for the first time. The Energy Information Administration estimates renewables outperformed coal by 16% in April and will generate 1.4% more in May.

Telegraph: (registration req)

There is no macro-economic cost to a climate target with zero emissions. To claim that we cannot afford to wean ourselves off fossil fuels by 2050 is to rely on primitive accounting fallacies. The switch to a post-fossil economy is more likely to be an accelerant to GDP growth, akin to the successive upheavals of steam power, electricity and digital technology, each with a ripening phase of 30 years or so.
The Bank of England argues that green investment is a net economic benefit. It is a way to soak up the glut of excess savings in the global financial system and put idle capital to work.
The bond market is evidence that the world economy is badly out of alignment. Some $10 trillion (£8 trillion) of debt is trading at negative yields. Central bank rates in Japan and Europe are below zero a decade into the global economic expansion. This is what “secular stagnation” looks like.
Such is the mismatch between global savings and investment. What we need is an emergency to shake us out of our structural trap – like rearmament in the Thirties, which ended the last secular stagnation. In that sense the climate crisis is an economic gift from Mars.
For Britain, a zero target is the necessary catalyst for a revival of investment. It is how we can regain energy sovereignty instead of relying on imports that currently bleed a net 2pc of GDP each year, paid mostly to despotisms.
So I for one am cheering the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) as it exhorts the Government this week to establish the first legally binding target for zero-CO2 among major states, setting an example as it did with the original Climate Act in 2008.

Financial Times:(sub may be required)

Britain is setting out plans to become a world leader in fighting climate change, with a landmark report that seeks to cut the country’s net greenhouse gas emissions to zero in the next 30 years. Thursday’s recommendations from the Committee on Climate Change for a 2050 target to end net emissions — something no other big economy has yet signed up to — are expected to be largely adopted by Theresa May’s government.

“We recognise the situation we face is an emergency, it is a crisis, it is a threat that all of us have to unite to meet,” said Michael Gove, environment secretary, in a House of Commons debate on Wednesday. “Five of the warmest years that this planet has ever endured have happened since 2010. The consequences for all of us are visible.”

Continue reading “Climate Action will Boost Economy”