Energy Archives - Peak Geek

A friend recently made me aware of a website for a group called Project Drawdown. It’s interesting…it’s addressing the concerns of those who want to do something to fight global warming but maybe aren’t sure where to start. On a larger scale though, it’s identifying all the things we can be doing to reach that drawdown point…where greenhouse gas emissions start decreasing for a change.

In their own words, “Project Drawdown is the first effort to measure and project the collective impact of a broad range of solutions if implemented at scale. Rather than focusing on a single solution or sector of solutions, Project Drawdown has done the math on what humanity is capable of achieving with the broad range of tools already in use around the globe.”

Politicians would be wise to draw from this knowledge base to draft their own proposals for fighting climate change, if they wish to attract the interest of voters who care about this issue. The breadth of ideas here is inspiring.

Apple achieved a milestone recently, powering 100% of its operations via renewable energy! That includes all offices, data centers, and stores…and they’ve accomplished this without having to pay more for electricity, either. Next up, they’re putting pressure on their suppliers to follow suit…and with a customer as large as Apple asking, I doubt much pressure at all will be needed! It’s cool to see tech companies like Apple and Alphabet leading the charge here. Read more here.

Scientists in Germany reached a major milestone when, after around 19 years in development and 1.2 billion Eutos spent, the Wendelstein 7-X created hydrogen plasma. It’s one big step closer to a fusion power plant, but it got me thinking. Why are we doing this? Maybe 19 years ago it mad sense, but these days, solar energy production has dropped in price to the point where it’s nearly cost competitive with fossil fuels already. Fusion is still many years awat before a large scale design can even be considered, let alone built. Solar is a clean energy solution that is ready to implement now. Instead of sinking billions of dollars into fusion (the reactor in Germany is just one of many being built), we should invest that money in building large scale solar energy power plants instead.

Ah, but if we did that, what would happen? With the economies of scale, prices of solar panels would drop even further. More people would opt to install their own, and maybe add a Tesla Powerwall to the system and go off grid. Fewer customers will be available to pay for maintenance of the power grid. It’s a disruptive technology,whereas fusion power maintains the power (literally and figuratively) in the control of large corporations. Solar gives that control to the people. So of course those with the money to invest opt for fusion. But I’m not seeing how it benefits people…just corporations.

Ever since Nikola Tesla demonstrated the wireless transmission of electricity, the world has been fascinated by the idea and countless people have tried to make it work. Physics have continuously gotten in the way…the power transmitted decreases dramatically with distance. UBeam is taking a different approach though…using targeted ultrasound to accomplish this. Electricity is converted to ultrasound, broadcasted to your approximate location, where a receiver then converts it back into electricity. Imagine your iPhone automatically charging when you walk into Starbucks, for example. Pretty cool. Read more about it here.

A draft UN science report, expected to be approved this week, warns that we’re on the path toward irreversible climate change. We can still avoid that by making significant cuts to CO2 emissions, but the question is, will we? Unless you’re a Republican (sorry, but I call it like I see it), you’ve probably already accepted that the current situation is unsustainable and that immediate change is needed. What will it take? Fortunately, the answer is ‘not much’…well, apart from a decision to change (which in this political climate in the US, is no small feat!). A report from Deutsche Bank finds that rooftop solar will reach grid parity in all 50 states in the US by 2016. This means the cost will be the same or less than getting power from the electric grid (10 states have already reached grid parity). Removing the ‘cost’ argument from the debate will help a ton. What about the reality that solar power is not a 24/7 energy source? Good news there, too. Many companies have been working on energy storage systems, and they’re looking more and more promising (meaning, closer to production!). The latest is interesting…a company called Alevo has been operating out of the spotlight (sort of in stealth mode, though not like some startups)…and expects to be producing hundreds of utility-scale (read:massive) energy storage systems within a year. These 1MWh containers use lithium ferrophosphate and graphite batteries..cool tech. It’s easy to perhaps dismiss Alevo as yet another company with dreams and promises…except this one has raised a billion dollars from Swiss investors. Whoa. So they have the technology, they have the money, and they’re taking over a former Phillips Morris plant in North Carolina. This is a company to watch. Then of course you have Solar City looking to include battery storage systems with every home solar installation within 5-10 years.

So the future is bleak if we do not act…yet advances in technology along with greatly decreased costs is looking to push renewable energy to the forefront, despite the best efforts of Republicans opposing it. Now, just imagine how awesome that industry could be if it actually had broad support! Oh well. It’s a tsunami that can’t be stopped, I think…fortunately!

Category: Energy

Project Drawdown

Apple on 100% renewable energy

Advances in nuclear fusion

Wireless transmission of electricity using ultrasound

The possibility of irreversible climate change