America was already losing to China on clean energy. Trump just sealed its fate

 by Ella Nilsen

The new clean energy regime can be summarized in one incredible statistic: China installed more wind and solar power in a single year than the total amount of renewable energy currently operating in the United States.

America was already laps behind China in the race to dominate the industry, new data from Global Energy Monitor shows. President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful,” spending bill will secure its position as a clean-energy loser, experts told CNN.

The spending law Trump signed earlier this month knee-caps clean energy tax credits for wind and solar. Business leaders say it will raise electricity prices for businesses and consumers alike here, as the cheapest electrons on the grid (generated by wind and solar) become more costly to build and are replaced with more expensive gas.

At the same time, pulling funds from the clean energy industry puts it on its heels just as it was looking to make gains toward more efficient technologies and better battery storage.

Meanwhile, China is currently building 510 gigawatts of utility-scale solar and wind capacity, according to Global Energy Monitor. It will be added to the eye-popping 1,400 gigawatts already online — five times what is operating in the US.

In short, “the game has already been called,” said Li Shuo, director of the China climate hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute. 

Wind and solar, bolstered by giant batteries that can store their energy, are also becoming an increasingly dominant force in the US, but on a much smaller scale. Renewables generate the vast majority of new electricity that’s come online in the past few years in the US and make up about 85% of what is currently waiting to be approved in the nation’s permitting queue. 

The US had roughly 275 gigawatts of wind and solar operating at the end of last year. There are another 150 gigawatts of wind and solar planned for construction through 2031, according to the US Energy Information Administration — projects at risk with Trump and Republicans’ bill that quickly phases out subsidies for renewables.

In the US, wind and solar developers are running into the buzzsaw that is President Donald Trump. Trump pushed forcefully to kill tax credits for wind and solar development in his signature law, succeeding in curtailing the credits and vowing to hinder the industry in other ways. 

 The law effectively cuts planned renewables additions to the grid in half over the next decade compared to projections without it, according to modeling done by the non-partisan think tank Rhodium Group. That will mean rising electricity prices in every continental US state, due to the price of renewables increasing and more expensive gas filling the gap, as CNN has reported. 

 

Even with China’s blistering pace of installations so far, 510 gigawatts of wind and solar currently being built is astonishing. Shuo said the number seemed a little higher than what Chinese analysts have projected.

Mengqi Zhang and Yujia Han, the two Global Energy Monitor analysts who authored the report, told CNN that part of the reason the number is so high is that Chinese renewables developers were racing to build out quickly in order to claim government subsidies that expired in June.

“This is why the surge is coming before May,” Han said.

Most of China’s wind and solar farms are far away from its largest cities. But in China’s capital of Beijing, the country’s energy transition is apparent in another way – it is difficult to find a gas-powered car driving on the roads, Shuo said. Shuo recently visited Beijing and said nearly all Uber drivers there are driving EVs. 

A worker controls a robotic arm on the production line at an electric vehicle factory in Ningbo, China, on May 29.

Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

 

 

“All the drivers will tell you it just doesn’t make any economic sense for them to purchase another (gas) vehicle,” Shuo said. “Some of them told me that the fuel cost of driving an EV is about one sixth of an (gas)-powered vehicle.”

Climate analysts in China feel confident the nation has reached its peak oil use, given the dramatic uptick in EV use, Shuo said. But the outstanding question is China’s power sector, and whether all the wind and solar the country has installed over the last several years can displace coal-fired power. Over the few months, China’s increased demand for power has been met entirely by renewables, meaning the country hasn’t increased its planet-warming pollution even as it’s using more power. 

 

“There’s still a lot of entrenched interest to support coal, but overall what we’re looking at is renewable energy eating into the share of fossil fuel power generation,” Shuo said.

Meanwhile, in the US, more expensive electricity could significantly hamper economic development and discourage companies from building here, undermining one of Trump’s own priorities. With less wind and solar coming online due to the GOP law, plus long wait times to get new natural gas plants up and running, Rhodium analyst Ben King said some data centers and large manufacturing facilities may struggle to get enough power.

“Data centers, semiconductor manufacturing and other sources of new industrial load, that just might not be able to come online, because we may not have the generators to meet that demand,” King said.

Chevron assume controle da maior planta de hidrogênio verde do mundo

 

Projeto desenvolvido pela ACES deverá entrar em operação em 2025, com capacidade de produzir mais de 300 gigawatts hora de energia limpa

Por  Bloomberg 

A Chevron vai se tornar acionista majoritária do projeto da maior planta de hidrogênio ‘verde’ do mundo. O movimento reforça a busca das grandes petroleiras em investir em teses ligadas à transição energética. Nesta terça-feira (12), a Chevron New Energies comprou uma participação de 78% no projeto Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES) em Utah, da Haddington Ventures, uma empresa de capital privado com sede em Houston. Os termos do acordo não foram divulgados.

O local fornecerá inicialmente mais de 300 gigawatts hora de energia limpa para o oeste dos EUA e ajudará a estabilizar a rede quando a geração eólica e solar apresentarem instabilidades. A ACES garantiu um empréstimo de US$ 504 milhões junto ao Departamento de Energia dos EUA (DOE, em inglês) no ano passado e está atualmente em desenvolvimento. A conclusão da obra está prevista para meados de 2025.

O investimento sinaliza que as grandes petrolíferas estão empenhadas em projetos que visam reduzir as emissões de carbono fora dos seus negócios tradicionais. No início deste ano, a Exxon Mobil comprou a maior rede de gasodutos de CO2 nos EUA, enquanto a Occidental Petroleum está a construindo a maior fábrica do mundo para remover dióxido de carbono diretamente da atmosfera.

 A Chevron planeja gastar US$ 10 bilhões em investimentos de baixo carbono ao longo de oito anos, tanto na redução das suas próprias emissões como na expansão da produção de energia limpa. Para a petroleira, o investimento na ACES proporciona uma “plataforma de crescimento para o futuro” que poderá ver o hidrogênio ser utilizado para geração de energia, transporte pesado ou mesmo substituir o hidrogênio baseado em combustíveis fósseis nas suas próprias refinarias, disse Austin Knight, vice-presidente da Chevron New Energies.

 

A Chevron fará parceria com a Mitsubishi Power Americas no projeto ACES, com a empresa japonesa preparada para construir a turbina que usará o hidrogênio armazenado para produzir eletricidade que poderá ser enviada para lugares tão distantes quanto a Califórnia. O hidrogênio será usado para abastecer uma turbina a gás híbrida de ciclo combinado de 840 megawatts que está sendo construída para substituir uma usina de energia a carvão de 1.800 megawatts.

Muitas empresas estão a procurar o hidrogênio como ferramenta de descarbonização porque pode ser extraído da água utilizando energia renovável sem produzir gases com efeito de estufa. Quando queimado em uma turbina, o hidrogênio não emite dióxido de carbono. Mas a maior parte do hidrogênio utilizado hoje em dia é extraído do gás natural num processo que emite carbono e muitos ambientalistas encaram o hidrogênio com suspeita, vendo-o como uma forma de as grandes empresas petrolíferas continuarem a utilizar combustíveis fósseis.

O hidrogênio é “abundante, versátil, é um transportador de energia com baixo ou nenhum carbono e pode ser produzido a partir de múltiplas fontes”, disse Jeff Gustavson, presidente da Chevron New Energies. “O hidrogénio pode ser armazenado em grandes quantidades, que é exatamente o que este projeto será capaz de fazer, e pode ser dimensionado.”

 

Sizzle Factor for a Restless Climate

ENJOYING the heat wave?


The answer is probably no if you live in Abilene, Tex., where temperatures have been at or above 100 degrees for 40 days this summer. It’s been a little cooler in Savannah, Ga., where the mercury hit 90 or more for 56 days in a row. Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma are coping with their driest nine-month stretch since 1895.

Yes, it has been a very hot summer after one of the most extreme-weather springs on record. It’s time to face the fact that the weather isn’t what it used to be.

Every 10 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recalculates what it calls climate “normals,” 30-year averages of temperature and precipitation for about 7,500 locations across the United States. The latest numbers, released earlier this month, show that the climate of the last 10 years was about 1.5 degrees warmer than the climate of the 1970s, and the warmest since the first decade of the last century. Temperatures were, on average, 0.5 degrees warmer from 1981 to 2010 than they were from 1971 to 2000, and the average annual temperatures for all of the lower 48 states have gone up.

For climate geeks like me, the new normals offer a fascinating and disturbing snapshot of a restless climate. The numbers don’t take sides or point fingers. They acknowledge both powerful natural climate fluctuations as well as the steady drumbeat of warming caused by roughly seven billion people trying to live and prosper on a small planet, emitting heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the process.

Even this seemingly modest shift in climate can mean a big change in weather. Shifting weather patterns influence energy demand, affect crop productivity and lead to weather-related disasters. In the United States, in any given year, routine weather events like a hot day or a heavy downpour can cost the economy as much as $485 billion in crop losses, construction delays and travel disruptions, a recent study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research found. In other words, that extra 1.5 degrees might be more than we can afford.

And while the new normals don’t point to a cause, climate science does. Drawing from methods used in epidemiology, a field of climate research called “detection and attribution” tests how human actions like burning fossil fuels affect climate and increase the odds of extreme weather events.

Heat-trapping pollution at least doubled the likelihood of the infamous European heat wave that killed more than 30,000 people during the summer of 2003, according to a study in the journal Nature in 2004. And if we don’t ease our grip on the climate, summers like that one will likely happen every other year by 2040, the study warned. Human actions have warmed the climate on all seven continents, and as a result all weather is now occurring in an environment that bears humanity’s signature, with warmer air and seas and more moisture than there was just a few decades ago, resulting in more extreme weather.

The snapshots of climate history from NOAA can also provide a glimpse of what’s in store locally in the future. Using climate models, we can project what future Julys might look like. For example, by 2050, assuming we continue to pump heat-trapping pollution into our atmosphere at a rate similar to today’s, New Yorkers can expect the number of July days exceeding 90 degrees to double, and those exceeding 95 degrees to roughly triple. Sweltering days in excess of 100 degrees, rare now, will become a regular feature of the Big Apple’s climate in the 2050s.

The next time NOAA calculates its new temperature normals will be in 2021 — when there will be about another billion people on the planet. Lady Gaga may no longer be hot. But the climate almost surely will be.

Heidi Cullen, a scientist at Climate Central, a journalism and research organization, is the author of “The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet.”




A version of this op-ed appeared in print on July 20, 2011, on page A27 of the New York edition with the headline: Sizzle Factor for a Restless Climate.

Sizzle Factor for a Restless Climate

ENJOYING the heat wave?


The answer is probably no if you live in Abilene, Tex., where temperatures have been at or above 100 degrees for 40 days this summer. It’s been a little cooler in Savannah, Ga., where the mercury hit 90 or more for 56 days in a row. Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma are coping with their driest nine-month stretch since 1895.

Yes, it has been a very hot summer after one of the most extreme-weather springs on record. It’s time to face the fact that the weather isn’t what it used to be.

Every 10 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recalculates what it calls climate “normals,” 30-year averages of temperature and precipitation for about 7,500 locations across the United States. The latest numbers, released earlier this month, show that the climate of the last 10 years was about 1.5 degrees warmer than the climate of the 1970s, and the warmest since the first decade of the last century. Temperatures were, on average, 0.5 degrees warmer from 1981 to 2010 than they were from 1971 to 2000, and the average annual temperatures for all of the lower 48 states have gone up.

For climate geeks like me, the new normals offer a fascinating and disturbing snapshot of a restless climate. The numbers don’t take sides or point fingers. They acknowledge both powerful natural climate fluctuations as well as the steady drumbeat of warming caused by roughly seven billion people trying to live and prosper on a small planet, emitting heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the process.

Even this seemingly modest shift in climate can mean a big change in weather. Shifting weather patterns influence energy demand, affect crop productivity and lead to weather-related disasters. In the United States, in any given year, routine weather events like a hot day or a heavy downpour can cost the economy as much as $485 billion in crop losses, construction delays and travel disruptions, a recent study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research found. In other words, that extra 1.5 degrees might be more than we can afford.

And while the new normals don’t point to a cause, climate science does. Drawing from methods used in epidemiology, a field of climate research called “detection and attribution” tests how human actions like burning fossil fuels affect climate and increase the odds of extreme weather events.

Heat-trapping pollution at least doubled the likelihood of the infamous European heat wave that killed more than 30,000 people during the summer of 2003, according to a study in the journal Nature in 2004. And if we don’t ease our grip on the climate, summers like that one will likely happen every other year by 2040, the study warned. Human actions have warmed the climate on all seven continents, and as a result all weather is now occurring in an environment that bears humanity’s signature, with warmer air and seas and more moisture than there was just a few decades ago, resulting in more extreme weather.

The snapshots of climate history from NOAA can also provide a glimpse of what’s in store locally in the future. Using climate models, we can project what future Julys might look like. For example, by 2050, assuming we continue to pump heat-trapping pollution into our atmosphere at a rate similar to today’s, New Yorkers can expect the number of July days exceeding 90 degrees to double, and those exceeding 95 degrees to roughly triple. Sweltering days in excess of 100 degrees, rare now, will become a regular feature of the Big Apple’s climate in the 2050s.

The next time NOAA calculates its new temperature normals will be in 2021 — when there will be about another billion people on the planet. Lady Gaga may no longer be hot. But the climate almost surely will be.

Heidi Cullen, a scientist at Climate Central, a journalism and research organization, is the author of “The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes From a Climate-Changed Planet.”




A version of this op-ed appeared in print on July 20, 2011, on page A27 of the New York edition with the headline: Sizzle Factor for a Restless Climate.

Soros Plans to Invest $1B in Clean Energy Technology

NEW YORK (DTN) -- George Soros, the New York-based billionaire hedge fund manager, plans to invest $1 billion in clean energy technology.

Soros made the announcement on Saturday during a panel discussion on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark, saying his move would be part of an attempt to address the problem of climate change.

Soros spokesman Michael Vachon confirmed those plans to Telvent DTN this morning. Soros also plans to donate $100 million to an environmental advisory group to aid policymakers.

Soros, the founder of hedge fund Soros Fund Management LLC, is well known for his support of liberal causes at home and in Eastern Europe.

However, Soros said he would apply stringent criteria to his clean energy investments. He said those investments should be profitable as well as contributing to solving the problem of climate change.

Soros' money would be one of the largest investments from an individual going into clean energy, which has seen a slowdown in capital inflows over the past year.

New Energy Finance, a research firm in London, says that global investment in renewable energy technology totaled $25.9 billion in the third quarter, 22 percent below the same quarter in 2008. The total includes venture capital, private equity, public equity, asset finance, bonds and corporate debt.

Soros Plans to Invest $1B in Clean Energy Technology

NEW YORK (DTN) -- George Soros, the New York-based billionaire hedge fund manager, plans to invest $1 billion in clean energy technology.

Soros made the announcement on Saturday during a panel discussion on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark, saying his move would be part of an attempt to address the problem of climate change.

Soros spokesman Michael Vachon confirmed those plans to Telvent DTN this morning. Soros also plans to donate $100 million to an environmental advisory group to aid policymakers.

Soros, the founder of hedge fund Soros Fund Management LLC, is well known for his support of liberal causes at home and in Eastern Europe.

However, Soros said he would apply stringent criteria to his clean energy investments. He said those investments should be profitable as well as contributing to solving the problem of climate change.

Soros' money would be one of the largest investments from an individual going into clean energy, which has seen a slowdown in capital inflows over the past year.

New Energy Finance, a research firm in London, says that global investment in renewable energy technology totaled $25.9 billion in the third quarter, 22 percent below the same quarter in 2008. The total includes venture capital, private equity, public equity, asset finance, bonds and corporate debt.