Energy

We Will Triple Renewable Power Global by 2030

- Adam Clare

Solar Panel School

With renewables already cheaper than fossil fuels it’s not surprising that uptake in renewable energy is increasing. The benefits of renewable aren’t just a clean source of energy but also a cheap source of energy. Some countries around the world are on track to more than triple their renewable energy production and every nation can at least triple theirs with current technology. There’s no reason to build fossil fuel power generators anymore.

National targets do not account for the recent acceleration of renewables

Many government targets do not reflect the recent acceleration in renewables deployment worldwide. For example, 12 countries are set to add capacity in 2023 faster than the pace required to meet their 2030 target. In 22 countries the prospective project development pipelines for wind and solar exceed the renewable capacity needed to meet their 2030 targets. The world could achieve its current targets–a doubling of renewables–just by continuing the 500 gigawatts of estimated deployment in 2023 from 2024 to 2030, but all signs point to a more rapid growth curve.

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Iraq Looking to the Sun to Power its Future

- Adam Clare

Solar panels on grass

Iraqi oil fields have a lot of fossil fuels ready to be exported, and that’s a problem. The Iraqi population, like many oil states, don’t benefit from the cheap oil that corporations extract and export. As a result Iraqis have now turned to solar power for their local energy needs. The current installation of solar panels is relatively small, but they are gaining in popularity and being a nation that gets a lot of sun we can only hope that more people see the light. Let’s keep oil in the ground and put up solar panels.

In nearby Sulaymaniyah, the second-largest city in northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, only 500 out of the 600,000 households are equipped with solar panels, said Sirwan Mahmud, a spokesman for the province’s electricity department.

Solar power had seen “rapid progression”, he said, after the region’s parliament adopted incentives in 2021 to compensate households for any excess electricity that they generate.

The region aims to build three commercial solar power plants with a total capacity of 75 megawatts (MW), he added.

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In Cold Weather, Heat Pumps Outperform Fossil Fuel Furnaces

- Adam Clare

AI generated image of energy efficient home

If you don’t already have a heat pump then you’re going to want one ASAP. These machines that act as heaters in the winter and air conditioning in the summer are already more efficient than traditional AC units. Now, the current version of heat pumps even outperform fossil fuel furnaces in the cold of winter. At their core heat pumps transfer heat from one space to the next which means they can be anywhere from 200-500% efficient compared to the paltry 98& efficiency of a planet-killing fossil fuel burning fossil. If you own a home then you really should get a heat pump because we need to stop burning fossil fuels as soon as possible.

Efficiency measurements don’t measure comfort, explained Gibb, but he said there are consumer surveys showing those who use heat pumps fare well in cold temperatures. A 2022 consumer analysis in Europe found 81 per cent of respondents said their comfort improved after installing a heat pump. Another study conducted in New York and Massachusetts, which installed monitoring equipment in heat pump users’ homes, found 32 of the 42 people who participated said they were more comfortable post-heat pump.

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Climate Solution Simulator

- Adam Clare

Avoiding a bigger climate catastrophe should be a concern for everyone, but understanding how to do that could be a challenge for some. The EN Roads simulator is a way for people to easily understand how to end our destructive energy practices. It’s an easy to use interface that has tons of educational resources behind it, and if you like it you can get training on how to use it to train other people on the how we can save the climate.

Developed by Climate Interactive, the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative, and Ventana Systems, En-ROADS is a system dynamics model carefully grounded in the best available science, and has been calibrated against a wide range of existing integrated assessment, climate, and energy models. En-ROADS runs on an ordinary laptop in a fraction of a second, is freely available online, offers an intuitive user-friendly interface, and is available in over a dozen languages.

En-ROADS helps people make connections between things they care about and the possibilities available to help ensure a resilient future. Users can quickly see the long-term effects of the global climate policies and actions they imagine. The goal? To break through the noise and equip elected officials, business leaders, and others with the knowledge they need to implement equitable and high-leverage climate solutions. You can learn more about the science behind the simulator here.

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Better Solar Helps Bitter Hops

- Adam Clare
beer

Agrivoltaic setups aren’t new to regular readers of this site as we’ve seen many times that certain crops benefit from the shade solar panels provide; and, the solar panels benefit the farmers by producing clean energy. Now we know that hops, which flavour beer, thrive under solar panels. A German experiment with a special solar setup for hops has proven more successful than expected since the hops fared better against disease.

Which crops thrive under solar panels depends on many factors, and for a crop like hops a default solar field setup is not a good one. Hops like to grow straight up which means that the solar panels need to be elevated high off the ground. The hops then grow up to the solar panels and get lots of benefit from the cooling effects of the panels themselves.

The pilot project — a collaboration between Wimmer and local solar technology company Hallertauer Handelshaus — was set up in the fall of last year. The electricity made at this farm can power around 250 households, and the hops get shade they’ll need more often as climate change turbocharges summer heat.

Solar panels atop crops has been gaining traction in recent years as incentives and demand for clean energy skyrocket. Researchers look into making the best use of agricultural land, and farmers seek ways to shield their crops from blistering heat, keep in moisture and potentially increase yields. The team in Germany says its effort is the first agrivoltaic project that’s solely focused on hops, but projects have sprouted around the world in several countries for a variety of grains, fruits and vegetables.

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