Lecture 10 wraps up our course by introducing the material covered in Chapter 14 of Energy Systems and Sustainability, 2/e (2012), Remedies: towards a sustainable energy future and focuses on two topics: (1) energy storage and (2) geoengineering. Energy storage, particularly storage of electricity generated by intermittent renewable energy technologies like solar and wind, is widely perceived as essential for successful transition away from fossil fuels. Improved energy storage isn't controversial but geoengineering is! Geoengineering is the proposed engineering of our climate to mitigate the effect of increasing concentrations of atmospheric carbon emitted by combustion of fossil fuels. Geoengineering itself does not seek to reduce emissions, but to mitigate the effects of GCC caused by increasing levels of atmospheric carbon. Why the controversy? There are two major concerns. First, the promise (as yet unproven) of geoengineering may lull us into thinking that reducing use of fossil fuels and their emissions is unnecessary or not incredibly urgent. Second, engineering the planet's climate is inherently risky: it might work, but it might not and the all global populations and ecosystems would suffer. Who makes decisions about geoengineering? Could rouge geoengineers become global environmental terrorists despite their good intentions? While appropriately daunting, geoengineering may become necessary if we continue to delay major actions to transition global energy systems.
Topics for Module 10 [lecture slides ets linked] 10.1: Cleaning up fossil fuels [For more on 'clean coal' see Lecture 5.] 10.2: Geo-engineering options 10.3: Fuel cells & the (fossil-fuel) hydrogen economy 10.4: Reducing energy demand 10.5: Introduction to renewable energy sources
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Fuel switching (cleaner fossil fuels?):
> Fact or fiction: Natural gas will reduce global warming pollution (Bello, Scientific American, 3 Aug 2015)
> Fact or fiction: Natural gas will reduce global warming pollution (Bello, Scientific American, 3 Aug 2015)
Carbon tax:
> BP claims to support taxing carbon, but it's spending $13 million against an initiative that would do just that (Aronoff, The Intercept, 1 Nov
2018)
> The 5 most important questions about carbon taxes, answered (Roberts, Vox, 18 Oct 2018)
> ExxonMobil is giving $1 million to conservative carbon tax campaigners (Laursen, Fortune, 9 Oct 2018)
> 40 countries are making polluters pay for carbon pollution. Guess who's not. (Roberts, Vox, 15 Jun 2017)
> BP claims to support taxing carbon, but it's spending $13 million against an initiative that would do just that (Aronoff, The Intercept, 1 Nov
2018)
> The 5 most important questions about carbon taxes, answered (Roberts, Vox, 18 Oct 2018)
> ExxonMobil is giving $1 million to conservative carbon tax campaigners (Laursen, Fortune, 9 Oct 2018)
> 40 countries are making polluters pay for carbon pollution. Guess who's not. (Roberts, Vox, 15 Jun 2017)
Negative emissions technologies (aka carbon capture and storage or reuse):
> Let the sunshine in: UNH team 'photosynthesizes' liquid solar fuels from carbon emissions (Ropeik, VPR, 6 Dec 2018)
> Sucking carbon out of the air won't solve climate change, but it might fill in a few pieces of the puzzle (Roberts, Vox, 16 Jul 2018)
> Climate solutions: Is it feasible to remove enough CO2 from the air? (Kolbert, YaleE360, 15 Nov 2018)
> Negative emissions technologies and reliable sequestration (The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, 2018)
> Let the sunshine in: UNH team 'photosynthesizes' liquid solar fuels from carbon emissions (Ropeik, VPR, 6 Dec 2018)
> Sucking carbon out of the air won't solve climate change, but it might fill in a few pieces of the puzzle (Roberts, Vox, 16 Jul 2018)
> Climate solutions: Is it feasible to remove enough CO2 from the air? (Kolbert, YaleE360, 15 Nov 2018)
> Negative emissions technologies and reliable sequestration (The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, 2018)
Geo-engineering (hacking the climate as adaptation):
> VIDEO: Can geoengineering fix Earth's climate (Headlee and Olufani, PBS, 21 Oct 2019)
> VIDEO: How Bill Gates-funded solar geoengineering could help stop global warming (CNBC, 7 Sep 2019)
> VIDEO: Finding the right "dose" for solar geoengineering (Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science, 11 Mar 2019)
> First ever sun-dimming experiment will mimic volcanic eruption in attempt to reverse global warming (Gabbattis, The Independent, 4 Dec
2018)
> Solar geoengineering could be 'remarkably inexpensive' - report (Carrigton, The Guardian, 22 Nov 2018)
> Manifesto against geoengineering: hands of Mother Earth!
> Geoengineering could stop warming but comes with a side of sea-level rise (Johnson, 31 Oct 2018)
> VIDEO: A new way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere (Wilcox, TED, April 2018)
> VIDEO: GOP embraces geo-engineering... which terrifies geo-engineering researchers (Temple, MIT Technology Review, 8 Nov 2017)
> The growing case for geo-engineering (Temple, MIT Technology Review, 18 Apr 2017)
> How a giant space umbrella could stop global warming (Gorvett, BBC Future, 26 Apr 2017)
> Scientists who want to study climate engineering shun Trump (Greenfield-Boyce, NPR, 29 Mar 2017)
> Trump presidency 'opens doors' to planet hacking geoengineer experiments (Lukacs, The Guardian, 27 Mar 2017)
> A cheap and easy plan to stop global warming (Rotman, MIT Technology Review, 8 Feb 2013)
> Salt spray may prove the most feasible geo-engineering (Gass, Scientific American, 12 Dec 2012)
> Refilling the carbon sink: biochar's potential's and pitfalls (Levitan, Yale Environment360, 9 Dec 2010)
> Geo-engineering the climate: science, governance and uncertainty (The Royal Society, 1 Sep 2009)
> VIDEO: Can geoengineering fix Earth's climate (Headlee and Olufani, PBS, 21 Oct 2019)
> VIDEO: How Bill Gates-funded solar geoengineering could help stop global warming (CNBC, 7 Sep 2019)
> VIDEO: Finding the right "dose" for solar geoengineering (Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science, 11 Mar 2019)
> First ever sun-dimming experiment will mimic volcanic eruption in attempt to reverse global warming (Gabbattis, The Independent, 4 Dec
2018)
> Solar geoengineering could be 'remarkably inexpensive' - report (Carrigton, The Guardian, 22 Nov 2018)
> Manifesto against geoengineering: hands of Mother Earth!
> Geoengineering could stop warming but comes with a side of sea-level rise (Johnson, 31 Oct 2018)
> VIDEO: A new way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere (Wilcox, TED, April 2018)
> VIDEO: GOP embraces geo-engineering... which terrifies geo-engineering researchers (Temple, MIT Technology Review, 8 Nov 2017)
> The growing case for geo-engineering (Temple, MIT Technology Review, 18 Apr 2017)
> How a giant space umbrella could stop global warming (Gorvett, BBC Future, 26 Apr 2017)
> Scientists who want to study climate engineering shun Trump (Greenfield-Boyce, NPR, 29 Mar 2017)
> Trump presidency 'opens doors' to planet hacking geoengineer experiments (Lukacs, The Guardian, 27 Mar 2017)
> A cheap and easy plan to stop global warming (Rotman, MIT Technology Review, 8 Feb 2013)
> Salt spray may prove the most feasible geo-engineering (Gass, Scientific American, 12 Dec 2012)
> Refilling the carbon sink: biochar's potential's and pitfalls (Levitan, Yale Environment360, 9 Dec 2010)
> Geo-engineering the climate: science, governance and uncertainty (The Royal Society, 1 Sep 2009)
Hydrogen fuel cell economy:
> VIDEO: Fuel cell technology from EDF's energy innovation series (Environmental Defense Fund, 19 Mar 2012)
> VIDEO: Fuel cell technology from EDF's energy innovation series (Environmental Defense Fund, 19 Mar 2012)
Energy efficiency:
> The U.K. economy is growing - but its energy use is shrinking (Domonoske, NPR, 23 Nov 2018)
> Comparing US and European approaches to energy efficiency (Bitterbaum, Douris & Katon, Binghampton University, Fall 2011)
> What makes Europe greener than the US? (Rosenthal, Yale Environment 360, 28 Sep 2009)
> The U.K. economy is growing - but its energy use is shrinking (Domonoske, NPR, 23 Nov 2018)
> Comparing US and European approaches to energy efficiency (Bitterbaum, Douris & Katon, Binghampton University, Fall 2011)
> What makes Europe greener than the US? (Rosenthal, Yale Environment 360, 28 Sep 2009)
100% renewable energy by 2050?
> Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States (Abraham, Guardian, 26 March 2018)
> VIDEO: Renewables 2017: A new era for solar power (International Energy Agency)
> Landmark 200% renewable energy study flawed, say 21 leading experts (Fares, Scientific American, 23 Jun 2017)
> Scientists sharply rebut renewable energy plan (Temple, MIT Technology Review, 19 Jun 2017)
> 100% clean and renewable wind, water and sunlight; all sector-energy roadmaps for 139 countries of the world (Jacobson, Joule, 2015)
> TED: Amory Lovins: a 40-year plan for energy (2012)
> Roadmap to a sustainable energy system, Dominican Republic (Woldwatch.org, 2011)
> A path to sustainable energy by 2030 (Jacobson and Delucchi, Scientific American, Nov 2009)
> The solutions project: creating a world with clean energy for all
> Study: wind and solar can power most of the United States (Abraham, Guardian, 26 March 2018)
> VIDEO: Renewables 2017: A new era for solar power (International Energy Agency)
> Landmark 200% renewable energy study flawed, say 21 leading experts (Fares, Scientific American, 23 Jun 2017)
> Scientists sharply rebut renewable energy plan (Temple, MIT Technology Review, 19 Jun 2017)
> 100% clean and renewable wind, water and sunlight; all sector-energy roadmaps for 139 countries of the world (Jacobson, Joule, 2015)
> TED: Amory Lovins: a 40-year plan for energy (2012)
> Roadmap to a sustainable energy system, Dominican Republic (Woldwatch.org, 2011)
> A path to sustainable energy by 2030 (Jacobson and Delucchi, Scientific American, Nov 2009)
> The solutions project: creating a world with clean energy for all
Stabilization wedges strategy (CMI):
> Stabilization wedges (Carbon Mitigation Institute, Princeton University)
> Stabilization wedges: solving the climate problem for the next 50 years with current technologies (Palaca and Socolow, Science, 13 Aug 2004)
> Stabilization wedges (Carbon Mitigation Institute, Princeton University)
> Stabilization wedges: solving the climate problem for the next 50 years with current technologies (Palaca and Socolow, Science, 13 Aug 2004)