Russia’s NatGas And The War

Natural gas supply in Eastern Europe remains intact but costs are going up. What will happen next winter? From Bloomberg Markets and Finance via YouTube

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The Benefits And The Debate About Solar

The savings that come from solar are not a simple calculation. But how much does the climate crisis cost? From CBS Mornings via YouTube

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Here’s What Has To Be Done About Climate

This is a scientific roadmap for emerging from the current crisis. The technologies are available. All that is lacking is the will. From SciShow via YouTube

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Global Market Data Shows New Energy Rising, Old Energy Dropping

Global renewables to ‘double within 15 years’ – Peak oil could be as soon as 2025, finds McKinsey’s latest Global Energy Perspective report

26 April 2022 (RENews)

“[The share of renewables in global power generation is] expected to double in the next 15 years while total fossil fuel demand is projected to peak before 2030…[The 2022 McKinsey Global Energy Perspective] projects a rapid shift in the global energy mix…Global electric vehicle uptake will see global oil demand peak in the next three to five years…[But] with current government commitments and forecasted technology trends, global warming is projected to exceed 1.7°C by 2100, and reaching a 1.5°C pathway is increasingly challenging…

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…[Under the report’s middle scenario assumptions, oil demand could] peak in the next three to five years, primarily driven by electric-vehicle adoption…[The global energy mix is projected to shift towards low-carbon solutions, with a particularly strong role for power, hydrogen and synfuels…[R]enewables are projected to grow three-fold by 2050, accounting for 50% of power generation globally already by 2030 and 80-90% by 2050…

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…[H]ydrogen demand is expected to grow four-to-six-fold by 2050, driven primarily by road transport, maritime, and aviation, with hydrogen and derivative synfuels expected to account for 10% of global final energy consumption by 2050… 61% of new renewable capacity installation is already priced lower than fossil fuel alternatives and…battery costs have also fallen by nearly half in the past four years…By 2050, [carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS)] could grow more than 100-fold from an almost non-existent footprint today, with investment opportunities exceeding LNG markets today…” click here for more

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New Storage Makes World New Energy The Climate Solution

The Big Myth About Renewable Energy You Need To Stop Believing

Ray Fernandez, April 17, 2022 (SlashGear)

“…By 2022, the consequences of climate change, and the benefits of clean energy, have been well established…[But] clean energy skepticism and myths still proliferate…All electricity systems, whether used domestically by businesses or by industries, are composed of two main elements: the energy generation system, and the energy storage and distribution network…[No energy plant works] around the clock, year-round…Disruptions and downtime are very common…

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…[Wind and solar] idle times are set by weather…[Hydroelectric] generation drops in times of drought…[Fossil fuel and nuclear plant disruptions] can affect up to 12% of their total operating time…Solar and wind projects, like all energy generation projects, are linked to energy storage and distribution systems. During outages or on days when the sun does not shine and the wind does not blow, storage systems kick in…Pumped Storage Hydropower systems totaled 95% of all energy storage in the U.S. in 2020…When demand for energy is low, these systems use surplus energy to pump water into a reservoir at elevated heights. When demand for energy is high, the water is released to generate energy through hydroelectric systems…

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…[But hydroelectric projects] alter and damage the environment…[Battery solutions] can be scaled to a customer's need...[but are expensive, risk chemical fires, battery degradation, and use] problematic materials like lithium…[Gravity energy storage uses excess energy to raise] heavy blocks… when demand is high, the blocks come down and the force of gravity is converted back into electricity….Innovating in energy storage is as key for the future, as scaling renewable energy generation…” click here for more

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ORIGINAL REPORTING: Western States Power Market Design Emerges

CAISO Regional Market Design Details Emerge, Big Questions Remain

Herman Trabish, December 13, 2021 (California Current)

Editor’s note: CAISO’s committed effort to build this market continues at a deliberate pace.

The newly reinitiated stakeholder process to build a Western Day-Ahead Market took two steps forward that shows the California Independent System Operator’s ongoing commitment to the process. Stakeholders continued engagement also demonstrates progress.

On Dec. 3, following a forum and foundational workshop, CAISO responded to stakeholders’ calls for more detail and committed to creating working groups to resolve the thorny problem of potential market manipulation. The first effort to create a day-ahead market power was launched before the pandemic but then halted.

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Seeing the success of CAISO’s voluntary real-time Energy Imbalance Market power providers are working toward a much bigger and more challenging ambition. While the real-time market handles less than 10% of the West’s daily energy transactions, the proposed Extended Day-Ahead Market could handle over 90% of them.

A glaring absence in CAISO’s recent responses is how it will resolve the hard questions about governance in an Extended Day-Ahead Market, which dominated stakeholder concerns during an October forum. The outline of the principles presented at the forum included those vital to a regional day-ahead market’s function, like clarity on generation and transmission commitments and compensation.

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The principles were developed collaboratively by the investor-owned utilities and public power agency EDAM stakeholders, showing significant alignment between potential EDAM participants, said CAISO SVP and COO Mark Rothleder.

Recent governance reform that shares authority between CAISO and the EIM demonstrates California is ready to share EDAM governance with other states, said Southern California Edison President and CEO Kevin Payne during the forum. EDAM’s governance is “critical,” CAISO acknowledged. The principles “largely align” with the shared authority model and “is a good model to consider for EDAM,” it added… click here for more

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California New Energy Momentarily Hit 97%

California sets clean energy record as it pushes toward climate change goals

David Knowles, April 18, 2022 (Yahoo News)

On the road to transitioning to net-zero carbon emissions by 2045, California set a new record earlier this month when its power grid briefly ran on 97% renewable energy [at 3:39 pm on April 3, according to the California Independent System Operator. The previous record was] 96.4%...Gov. Gavin Newsom heralded the new record, which was achieved primarily though the state's production of solar and wind energy…

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California has aggressively boosted solar and wind energy production in recent years, with the hope of generating half its energy from renewable sources by 2025. Lawmakers in the state continue to craft legislation that will speed up the transition to clean energy, with more than 25 bills currently under consideration in the Legislature…[C]lean energy advocates note that the electricity used to power EVs also should come from sources that do not emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

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In 2020, just 33% of the state's energy came from renewable sources…Since then, however, the country’s most populous state has worked to increase capacity for renewable sources of energy…Renewable sources of energy are growing nationwide…[In late March, U.S.] electricity generated by wind turbines was the second-highest source in the country over a 24-hour period…” click here for more

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Monday Study – The IBM Approach To New Energy

Balancing sustainability and profitability; How businesses can protect people, planet, and the bottom line

April 2022 (IBM Institute for Business Value)

Forging a sustainable future

Today’s executives walk a tightrope, balancing the long-term imperative to protect the planet with the immediate need to preserve the bottom line. In a landscape defined by chaos and disruption, they must hedge against the future costs of inaction while remaining economically viable today.

On a rapidly warming planet, companies across sectors have transformed their business models to forge —one that protects people, planet, and profits. In the race to reduce emissions, consumption, and waste, everything is on the table. Supply chains are being recalibrated. Source materials are evolving. Travel requests are carefully scrutinized.

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But companies can’t do it alone. Consumers also play an important part. What they’re willing to do defines, in part, how far businesses can go. And while consumers have said they want companies to be stewards for change—and that they’re willing to commit significant personal resources to protect the planet—there has historically been a disconnect between their aspirations and their actions.1

However, the pandemic may have turned the tide. Last year, the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) found that 93% of global respondents said COVID-19 had influenced their views on sustainability.2 And over the past year, this trend has intensified. Our February 2022 survey of 16,000 global consumers in 10 major economies found that more than half (51%) of respondents say environmental sustainability is more important to them today than it was 12 months ago (see Methodology on page 20)

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Key Findings

51% of respondents say environmental sustainability is more important to them today than it was 12 months ago.

49% of consumers say they’ve paid a premium for products branded as sustainable or socially responsible in the last 12 months.

We also found that consumers’ actions are starting to match their intent. In 2021, we found that half of consumers said they were willing to pay a premium for a sustainable brand or sustainable products. 3 And this year, 49% of consumers say they’ve paid a premium for products branded as sustainable or socially responsible in the last 12 months.

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Many consumers see these issues through a shared lens. Almost two-thirds (65%) of consumers say that sustainability and social responsibility are at least somewhat linked. To understand how those linkages play out in their daily lives, we asked consumers about their ability to take action with respect to environmental sustainability and social responsibility, highlighting 15 key topics:

– Reducing gender inequality

– Ending poverty and hunger

– Reducing income and opportunity inequality

– Providing access to quality education

– Promoting inclusion and equal access to justice

– Ensuring good health and wellness

– Ending systemic racism

– Securing fresh water supplies

– Reducing ozone layer depletion

– Reducing air, water, and ground pollution

– Protecting rainforests and other ecosystems

– Reducing loss of species and protecting biodiversity

– Supporting the circular economy

– Addressing climate change

– Reducing wildfires and brushfires

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We found that a significant portion of people in developed countries find it difficult to make choices that take sustain - ability and social responsibility into account. And individuals in developing countries often face even more significant challenges.

However, while socio-economic factors—such as where people live, their income level, and how informed they are— influence an individual’s ability to act, our research has revealed a few common barriers that hold all people back.

The ability to remove these barriers puts businesses in the driver’s seat, giving them the opportunity to make a positive impact on the environment. It all comes down to pulling the levers that will both resonate with consumers and boost the bottom line.

“You want to be in the game because you want to be learning,” said Marshall Wilmot, President, Retail and CDO of ATCO, in an interview for our upcoming 2022 CEO Study. “Then you can see what’s going to have the best ROI in the future.”

To help executives develop sustainability strategies that will support profitability, our research highlights what habits individuals have already changed, where they would like to do more, and how companies can capitalize on unmet consumer demand for more sustainable choices. By paving a clearer, more accessible path to responsible consumption, executives can do even more to build a sustainable future—for the planet, for their customers, and for their businesses…

Home…Shopping…Investing…Employment…Travel and Mobility…

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How businesses can become stewards of change

The sustainability imperative is approaching a precipice. If we don’t make big changes in the short term, climate change will take many options off the table. As UN Chief António Guterres put it, the world is “sleepwalking toward climate catastrophe”—and the problem is only getting worse.14

While no single nation—let alone a single organization—can reverse the tide, the decisions executives make can have a ripple effect across the global economy. In fact, a recent study by the World Economic Forum found that just 8 supply chains account for 50% of all global emissions.15

This opportunity to make a positive impact isn’t lost on execs. Recent IBV research found that almost 4 in 10 (39%) executives said that environmental sustainability is a top priority for them today, and more than half (53%) said it will be a top priority in 3 years. However, while 86% of organizations have a sustainability strategy in place, just over 1 in 3 (35%) have acted on that strategy.16

What can help businesses overcome this inertia? It all starts with a mindset shift.

“One thing that I’ve learned is, don’t wait to be perfect in everything to embrace sustainability or be more proactive on it,” said Guy Cormier, Chair of the Board, President, and CEO of Desjardins Group, in an interview for the IBV’s upcoming 2022 CEO Study. “No one is perfect on the planet right now. We just have to do everything we can to change the situation.”

With the fate of the planet hanging in the balance, collaboration must become a top priority. When executives across sectors come together to discuss challenges and share solutions, new doors spring open and awe-inspiring ideas take shape. And if the private sector, global governments, and NGOs join forces—with everyone pushing toward a shared destination— humanity may be able to chart a course to a sustainable future...

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Earth Day 1970 – “An Awesome Warning”

They would not listen then. Are they listening now? From greenmanbucket via YouTube

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If There Is Good News About The Ukraine War…

Russia has turned much of the world against fossil fuels and opened the energy sector to homegrown New Energies. From Thom Hartmann Program via YouTube

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Teaching Tomorrow’s Solar Installers

As long as policymakers support New Energy, this will be a solid "career pathway." From U.S. Department of Energy via YouTube

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The New Energy Solutions Are Ready

5 Interesting Renewable Energy Facts

Martina Igni, April 16, 2022 (Earth.Org)

“…In 2021, all mainstream clean energy sources – hydroelectric, solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal– generated a combined 38% of the world’s electricity. They surpassed the amount of energy produced from coal – which stopped at 36.5% in the same year despite a record 9% rise, the fastest yearly growth in coal energy generation since 1985…[That was largely because] global electricity demand grew by 5.4%, the biggest increase since 2010. Despite a record rise in wind and solar power generation, clean electricity has not been deployed quickly enough to keep up with the rapid increase of global demand…

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…[T]he fastest-growing sources of clean energy were wind and solar, whose share doubled since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015…For the first time, solar panels and wind turbines generated over 10% of the global electricity demand…and saw] an average of 20% compound growth per year…[But to meet the 1.5C pathway by 2030, those] high growth rates need to be maintained throughout the current decade…[Norway, Brazil, and New Zealand use over 80% clean energy and] 50 countries have now crossed the 10% wind and solar mark, with seven new countries doing so in 2021 alone: China, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Argentina, Hungary, and El Salvador…

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…[Renewables were the world’s cheapest energy source in 2020…[and] solar power schemes now offer the cheapest electricity in history…[The cost of large-scale solar projects has plunged 85% in the past decade… In 2020, onshore wind power dropped by about 13% while offshore wind costs decreased by about 9%...These low-cost, low-emission, infinite natural resources have the potential to pave the way for the world to reach a net-zero scenario by 2050…[But annual clean energy investments must increase] from less than USD$150 billion in 2020 to over USD$1 trillion by 2030…to achieve carbon neutrality…” click here for more

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New Energy Connects Morocco To The UK

The world’s longest subsea cable will send clean energy from Morocco to the UK

Michelle Lewis, April 21, 2022 (Electrek)

A 10.5 gigawatt (GW) solar and wind farm will be built in Morocco…[to] supply the UK with clean energy via subsea cables. The twin 1.8 GW high voltage direct current (HVDC) subsea cables will be the world’s longest…[Subsea cable manufacturer XLCC] will supply four 2,361-mile-long (3,800 km) subsea cables, with the first phase between 2025-2027 connecting wind and solar power generated in Morocco to Alverdiscott, North Devon…[This will] nearly double the world’s current production of HVDC cable manufacturing…

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…[It] will need 90,000 metric tons of steel…[The Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project] will cover an area of around 579 square miles (1,500 square kilometers) in Morocco…[The HVDC subsea cables will] follow the shallow water route from Morocco to the UK, past Spain, Portugal, and France…[The 7 GW solar, 3.5 GW wind, 20GWh/5GW battery storage project] will cost $21.9 billion. Xlinks will construct 7 GW of solar and 3.5 GW of wind, along with onsite 20GWh/5GW battery storage, in Morocco… An agreement has been reached with the National Grid for two 1.8GW connections at Alverdiscott in Devon…

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…[By 2030, the project will be capable of powering 7 million UK homes and] supplying 8% of Britain’s electricity needs…Morocco benefits from ideal solar and wind resources…Remote generation and interconnection between distant geographic regions with inversely correlated weather systems will be more effective at addressing imbalances of supply and demand over longer time periods…The project is expected to create [about 8,000 temporary and 2,000 permanent] jobs in Morocco…” click here for more

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ORIGINAL REPORTING: Making Los Angeles A Green Hydrogen Mecca

LA Green Hydrogen Hub Prospects Growing

Herman Trabish, December 6, 2021 (California Current)

Editor’s note: Green hydrogen has gained momentum with expanded efforts to find non-fossil fuel ways to respond to the war in Europe.

It is feasible for HyDeal Los Angeles, a public-private renewable hydrogen advocacy consortium, to make Los Angeles a global renewable hydrogen hub and to deliver cost-competitive renewable hydrogen to the LA basin and build a mass market, but only with a rigorous set of strategies and investor buy-in, HyDeal’s phase one multisector planning group concluded.

To drive the current high costs of green hydrogen down, HyDeal needs to become a multi-sector, high-volume supply chain/off-taker ecosystem comparable to gasoline’s refineries, pipelines, and fueling stations, Green Hydrogen Coalition President and Founder Janice Lin said at a Dec. 1 coalition webinar.

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There is $9.5 billion “clean hydrogen” spending in the new U.S. infrastructure law, including $8 billion for “Clean Hydrogen Hubs” like HyDeal LA, Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office Director Sunita Satyapal said during the webinar. In addition, DOE Earthshot investments are projected to help reduce the costs of this renewably-generated fuel, potentially bringing its average market price from today’s over $50/MWh to $20/MWh in 2030, she added.

DOE’s Hydrogen Earthshot funding proposes to bring the current per kilogram cost of green hydrogen of about $15 to $1/kg by 2030. That would replicate the success of the DOE Sunshot, which brought the cost of utility-scale solar from $0.15/kWh or more to below $0.03/kWh in the last decade, Satyapal said. In addition, LADWP committed to converting the Intermountain Power Plant in Utah and three in-basin power plants to green hydrogen over the next 15 years to advance the market.

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Between 2030 and 2035, a $27 billion investment would be needed, according to HyDeal’s planning group. That would build 26 GW of solar and 20 GW of electrolyzers at IPP and other Southwestern sites to fuel renewable hydrogen generated electricity via existing and new transmission and liquid fuel via thousands of kilometers of new pipelines to meet the LA hub’s 1 million to 3 million metric tons of demand. From 2025 to 2030, HyDeal would accelerate upstream production outside LA and introduce higher percentages of pipeline blends, proponents say.

Ultimately, dedicated pipelines will be needed to transport green hydrogen because they carry eight times the energy of transmission lines and will be needed to deliver liquid fuels to the LA basin for applications beyond power generation, HyDeal reported. Early conclusions from more advanced programs in Europe and testing by Dominion Energy and others suggest repurposed natural gas pipelines can be safe for large-scale liquid green hydrogen transport, Lin said…” click here for more

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Green Hydrogen Price Dropping

Rapid development could push cost of hydrogen below $2/kg in the next 10-20 years, analysts say

Emma Penrod, April 11, 2022 (Utility Dive)

“The sudden growth of green hydrogen since 2020 could cut the cost of the resource to less than $2 kilogram as soon as 2040 in most markets…Hydrogen fuel cells are already cost-competitive with lead-acid batteries used in the forklift market. Green hydrogen from renewable energy may be economic for use in long-haul trucking as soon as 2025…

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Supply chain constraints in natural gas markets are poised to spur broad adoption of hydrogen in Europe…The firm expects to see hydrogen co-fired with coal and natural gas in the 2030s and beyond, with the power sector accounting for 31% of hydrogen demand by 2050…After several false starts, hydrogen now appears to be growing at the exponential rate seen in other renewable energy resources — and the rapid course of development may finally break the industry's longstanding price problem, analysts say.

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The number of announced hydrogen projects suddenly jumped at the height of Covid-19 in 2020, and then almost doubled again in 2021, van Dorsten said. Exponential growth seems set to continue — announcements from the first quarter of 2022 are already equivalent to 25% of the total project pipeline…[The war in Ukraine does not seem to be] that slowing the trajectory for hydrogen in the long-term. If anything, surging energy prices have only bolstered the case…” click here for more

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Monday Study – Power Sector Innovation Leadership Here

The Role of Innovation in the Electric Utility Sector

Lisa Schwartz, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates; Kevin Lee, BlueGreen Alliance; Adam Cooper, Lisa Wood, and Mike Shuster, Institute for Electric Innovation; Anne Hoskins and Christopher M. Worley, Sunrun; Kristin Barbato, Barbara Kates-Garnick, and Max McCafferty, Build Edison; April 2022 (U.S. Department of Energy Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Executive Summary

A new National Academies report evaluates energy technologies, grid operations, business practices, electricity demand, and other developments that could support beneficial evolution of the nation’s power systems across a wide range of futures. According to the authors, “Creating an environment that promotes innovation will be essential if the future power system is to do an adequate job of providing service that is safe and secure, clean and sustainable, affordable and equitable, and reliable and resilient.”1

The report recognizes the importance of utility regulatory advances to speed socially beneficial innovation for investor-owned electric companies.2 Among them is accelerating investigations into changes in electric industry structure, services, security, pricing, and market design to: (1) align with significant deployment of behind-the-meter technologies and other distributed energy resources (DERs) and (2) address equity issues for energy access and clean energy.3 In addition, the authors assert that “[a]chieving greater deployment of advanced electrical technologies will require states to implement regulatory reforms that allow utilities to recover the costs of larger research and development (R&D) budgets alongside other forms of regulatory approval that encourage more adoption of new technologies.”4

Overall, state regulation can slow utility innovation, in large part because the risks for utilities may be too high relative to the rewards. 5 In addition, consumer advocates would rather have R&D funded in ways that are not on consumer electricity bills. 6 As a result, electric company innovations tend to be reactive to initiatives by regulators and the utility's corporate customers. In contrast to firms that put money at risk to provide solutions that customers did not even know they wanted, such as the smart phone, electric companies often are not financially motivated to change the status quo. So it is not surprising that energy utilities on average invest a low percent of net revenues in R&D compared to similarly situated industries.7

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To achieve state targets for clean energy and reducing greenhouse gases, some public utility commissions are exploring new approaches that are intended to spur beneficial utility innovation, while minimizing risks to utility customers. Among these initiatives are regulatory and marketing flexibility for utilities, increased funding for utility demonstration projects, and performance-based ratemaking including multiyear rate plans. Another pathway some commissions are exploring is facilitating third parties to provide utility customers with innovative products and services directly.

This report provides consumer, labor, utility, third-party service provider, and clean technology consultant perspectives on innovation in the context of state regulation of utilities. A key point of departure among the authors is the role of utilities versus third-party providers in developing and providing innovative solutions. The organizations represented by the authors also are at odds over the level of spending on innovation, who bears the costs and risks, who will benefit, and who builds and maintains the electricity infrastructure that innovation requires.

The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) begins the discussion by describing both opportunities and challenges for regulatory innovations in six areas to advance the transition away from fossil-fuel powered generation toward a more renewable and distributed grid: prioritization of DERs; pricing, rate design, and cost allocation; performance-based regulation; integrated planning; stranded costs; and energy equity…

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Kevin Lee, BlueGreen Alliance, explains why state regulatory and utility actions to meet the climate challenge also should support strong local economies and fairness for utility workers…

Adam Cooper, Lisa Wood, and Mike Shuster, Institute for Electric Innovation (IEI), present case studies on U.S. investor-owned utilities that provide innovative solutions to meet the needs of their customers through partnerships with technology companies…

Anne Hoskins and Chris Worley, Sunrun, instead call for a “market-based approach” for innovative technologies and services with a strong role for third-party providers willing to risk capital and compete to develop the innovations needed to meet energy, climate, and other state goals…

Conversely, Kristin Barbato, Barbara Kates-Garnick, and Max McCafferty at Build Edison, a consulting firm for innovative clean technology companies, maintain that utilities should play the dominant investment role in the transition to a clean energy future…

Protecting Consumers in a Period of Rapid Transformation By National Association of State Utility Consumer A

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Introduction…Major developments affecting the electricity grid will continue to drive its transformation. This essay summarizes the views of consumer advocates on expected changes in the U.S. electricity sector and ways that innovation will both drive and respond to these changes. To formulate this work, the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA)6F 10 asked its members about their expectations for how the electricity sector will change over the next 10 to 20 years, views on the potential benefits of innovation and prospective challenges, and perspectives on how all these developments will impact the roles of consumer advocates in the electricity sector…

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A Labor Perspective on Innovation to Meet Climate Goals for the Electricity Sector By Kevin Lee, BlueGreen Alliance

Introduction…Tackling the climate change crisis will require a massive mobilization of resources. For the U.S. electricity sector, reducing emissions to prevent damaging climate change will require grid modernization investments and infrastructure build-out on a scale not seen in generations.56F 60 Meeting this goal is technically feasible, but poses challenges ranging from the purely technological and cost-related to those rooted in social, political, and community-oriented forces. Critically, these challenges are often intertwined, and policymaking to address one facet of the challenge can and should be carefully and intentionally crafted to account for challenges across the sociopolitical spectrum. In short, we can (and arguably, must) meet the climate challenge while also meeting the challenges of racial and economic equity, fairness for workers, community agency, and environmental health…

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U.S. Electric Companies Are Innovating to Provide the Solutions and Options that Customers Want by Adam Cooper, Lisa Wood, and Mike Shuster, Institute for Electric Innovation

Introduction…New technologies, data analytics, partnerships, and regulatory flexibility are enabling U.S. electric companies to provide the innovative energy services and solutions that today’s customers want. This essay provides examples of how U.S. investor-owned electric companies are innovating to meet the evolving needs and expectations of their customers, focusing on:

1-Innovations in providing services and solutions to residential customers

2-Innovations in providing carbon-free energy solutions to corporate customers

The essay also explores regulatory approaches that are needed to support new services and solutions for customers in the future…

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Innovating the Electricity System from the Hearing Room to the Edge of the Grid By Anne E. Hoskins and Christopher M. Worley, Sunrun

Introduction…The climate crisis requires a dramatic shift in how the United States produces and consumes energy. The switch from fossil fuels to cleaner alternatives will require trillions of dollars in investment in order to meet local, state, and national objectives, including building gigawatts of renewable energy and electrifying buildings and the transportation sector.178F 182 In addition, the climate crisis is exposing the fragility of our energy system to extreme weather events and natural disasters. Our aged centralized electricity systems failed to provide reliable power during California’s wildfires and the Texas freeze of 2021. Without a fundamental change in the way we generate and distribute power, repeated outages and related harm to people and communities will increase as the Earth’s temperature rises and extreme weather events become more common…

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Scaling Utility Innovation: Identifying a Path to Action By Kristin Barbato, Barbara Kates-Garnick, and Max McCafferty, Build Edison

Introduction…Energy and climate goals are accelerating around the country (Figure 16). Increasingly, states are moving in the direction of sustainable energy practices, and the targets for renewable generation, energy storage, electric mobility, energy efficiency, and energy equity continue to grow. States including Massachusetts, Maine, New York, California, and fourteen others have developed substantive clean energy and climate action policies, linked with strict timelines…

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Food And The Climate Crisis

There's a disconnect between food eaters and food producers.From NRDCflix via YouTube

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A Place To Charge

San Diego is leading the "charge" at the cutting edge of the exciting transition to Transportation Electrification and helping infrastructure deployment catch up to demand. From ABC 10 New San Diego via YouTube

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Count On New York’s Grid Of The Future

Part 2 in NYISO’s series looks at reliability. From NYISO via YouTube

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New Energy Was 81% Of Global New Power Build In 2021

Renewables Take Lion’s Share of Global Power Additions in 2021; Renewable energy continued to expand steadily and well above the long-term trend, with share in total capacity expansion reaching new record of 81% last year

11 April 2022 (International Renewable Energy Agency)

“…[By the end of 2021, global renewable generation capacity amounted to 3 064 Gigawatt (GW), increasing the stock of renewable power by 9.1 per cent…[H]ydropower accounted for the largest share of the global total renewable generation capacity with 1 230 GW…[but] solar and wind continued to dominate new generating capacity…[with] 88 per cent to the share of all new renewable capacity in 2021. Solar capacity led with 19 per cent increase, followed by wind energy, which increased its generating capacity by 13 per cent…

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To achieve climate goals, renewables must grow at a faster pace than energy demand. However, many countries have not reached this point yet, despite significantly increasing the use of renewables for electricity generation…Sixty per cent of the new capacity in 2021 was added in Asia…China was the biggest contributor, adding 121 GW to the continent’s new capacity. Europe and North America—led by the USA—took second and third places…Renewable energy capacity grew by 3.9 per cent in Africa and 3.3 per cent in Central America and the Caribbean…

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…[T]he pace in both regions is much slower than the global average, indicating the need for stronger international cooperation to optimise electricity markets and drive massive investments…Growth in hydro increased steadily in 2021…Wind expansion continued…[but global] solar capacity has now outgrown wind energy capacity…[Net bioenergy] capacity expansion increased in 2021…Geothermal capacity had an exceptional growth in 2021…[and off-grid capacity] grew by 466 MW…” click here for more

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New Energy Prices Spike On Supply Chain, War Worries

LevelTen Energy’s new report reveals that European P25 solar and wind PPA prices increased 8,6% in Q1 of 2022, reaching 57€ per MWh. Year-over-year, prices have increased 27,5%

April 2022 (Level Ten Energy)

“The war in Ukraine is exacerbating Europe’s ongoing energy crisis and further fueling the unrelenting demand for renewable energy contracts from corporations. Developers are struggling to meet this demand because of supply chain, interconnection and regulatory challenges…Despite uncertainty in the market, developers and buyers say they want to build and procure more renewables – including in countries that are highly dependent on Russian natural gas…

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…[Power purchase agreement prices are up 8,6%, to 57€ per MWh… European PPA prices have increased 27,5% year-over-year…High natural gas prices, fueled by the conflict in Ukraine, are spiking wholesale electricity prices, which have already been rising for months due to the energy crisis that began in Europe last year. In response to volatile energy prices, demand for power purchase agreements [that lock in electricity prices and renewable energy supply] is skyrocketing…

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…[Voracious buyer appetite for PPAs is creating a rapidly growing imbalance between demand for renewables and supply from developers, who are struggling to build new solar and wind projects fast enough due to supply chain, interconnection and regulatory challenges…[especially in Italy, Germany, and Spain]…” click here for more

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ORIGINAL REPORTING: The Challenges Of The Carbon Price Solution

Pricing carbon is vital to US climate goals and politically unlikely but there is another way, analysts say; The new way to think of pricing carbon is as 'a journey, not an endpoint'

Herman K. Trabish, November 24, 2021

Editor’s note: Calls continue for a price on carbon and legislation to get it done remains in limbo.

Imposing a federal price on carbon to drive decarbonization is both urgent and unlikely, but there may be a workaround, according to some economists and policymakers.

One approach to pricing carbon is a direct tax. The other is a market-based cap and trade system in which tradeable allowances for emissions above or below a pre-set cap can be bought and sold. Most economists say either can work. Neither approach has been politically viable for carbon at the national level. But many are beginning to see another approach.

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The federal government could start with the "suite of policies" California used to reach its first emissions reduction goals four years early, California Air Resources Board (CARB) Deputy Executive Officer Rajinder Sahota said. California has a price on carbon now, but its success was built on a "clear regulatory framework of clean energy policies, programs, incentives and strong enforcement."

There are still multiple legislative efforts in Congress to create a federal carbon price, some with bipartisan interest, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) told a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Sept. 30, 2020, conference. And elimination of the clean energy mandate from the infrastructure bill makes proposed methane and carbon pollution fees in federal legislation "even more critical," he told Utility Dive Oct. 18.

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Sen. Whitehouse's urgency about a price signal for carbon is appropriate, advocates for carbon pricing agreed. But they also agreed with CARB's Sahota that imposing a price is a process and where it is not politically viable, mandates and standards created by policy and regulations can lay the groundwork.

Limited carbon pricing is now reducing emissions in California and in the 11-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). But past and current U.S. federal legislation to price carbon has not advanced… click here for more

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Europe’s Energy Transition Is Now Global

that the war in Ukraine means for energy, climate and food; Russia’s invasion has caused a short-term spike in prices, but could prompt a long-term shift towards sustainability.

Jeff Tollefson, 5 April 2022 (Nature)

“…[E]ven as Russia’s bombs rain down on Ukraine, its oil and gas continues to flow to Western nations that have condemned the invasion…Similar concerns arose when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, and in 2014 when it invaded and then annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea. The allure of cheap Russian energy proved too strong in the past, but…[but political leaders are rethinking] their energy plans, which could have profound impacts on a range of issues, from a burgeoning food crisis to global efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions…For now, the biggest question facing world leaders is how to sever their energy dependence on Russia…

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…[Despite bold promises,] the amount of Russian oil and gas entering Europe has actually increased since the war in Ukraine began…But that could change in the coming months, as countries implement plans to diversify their energy sources and reduce the flow of Russian oil and gas…[Poland,] Germany and Austria are laying the groundwork…[for EU-wide] plans to curb imports of Russian gas by around two-thirds by the end of the year…[But that depends] largely on increasing imports of natural gas from abroad, and it is not clear whether individual nations in Europe will follow this plan…

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…Although the next few years could be tough, the long-term impact on energy policy and greenhouse-gas emissions in Europe could be beneficial…The power sector is covered by the European trading system, which caps cumulative carbon emissions, so a temporary increase in coal power, for instance, should drive up the price of carbon credits and force emissions reductions elsewhere…[though that] could slow the clean energy transition — and boost greenhouse-gas emissions — in other parts of the world…” click here for more

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Monday Study – The Green Hydrogen Balance

Green hydrogen: The only oxygen and water balanced fuel

Marcus Newborough and Graham Cooley, March 2021 (Science Direct)

Introduction

The use of any fuel depletes the oxygen content of the atmosphere, with one exception: hydrogen produced from water. Water electrolysis liberates oxygen from water in the precise stoichiometric ratio required to oxidise (and hence release energy from) the co-produced hydrogen. As a commercial fuel production process, electrolysis is unique in providing the oxidant as well as the fuel; electrolytic oxygen can thereby replenish the consumption of atmospheric oxygen due to hydrogen use. Furthermore, the amount of water consumed during electrolysis is reproduced when the hydrogen is oxidised. So the use of electrolysers and electrolytic hydrogen does not affect global oxygen and water resources: ‘green’ hydrogen may thus be described as the only oxygen and water balanced fuel. Conversely, the use of hydrogen derived from fossil fuels (with or without carbon capture and storage, CCS) depletes the oxygen resource and increases water vapour emissions to the atmosphere, which enhances the rate of global warming. Therefore, a worldwide multi-TW deployment of electrolysers could provide very substantial amounts of hydrogen for the energy system, and oxygen for the global ecosystem. This should be done in combination with other measures for combatting oxygen depletion (such as reducing combustion, increasing forestation, and reducing nutrient inputs to the ocean from sewage and agriculture). In this way the long-term objective should be to stabilise, or even increase slightly, the concentrations of atmospheric and aquatic oxygen, and possibly speed up the decay of atmospheric methane. Clearly the production-and-use of hydrogen derived from fossil fuels contravenes this objective, and should cease without delay.

Oxygen depletion and water vapour addition

Oxygen is the second most abundant gas on Earth after nitrogen. It is produced primarily by photosynthesis and consumed mainly by combustion, respiration and fire (e.g. it has been estimated that fossil fuel combustion consumes over eight times more oxygen per annum than human respiration[1]). There are also several industrial processes which of themselves consume oxygen (e.g. steel production, oil refining and wastewater treatment). Based on measurements taken since 1989, the atmospheric oxygen concentration has been decreasing slowly at an annual rate of about 19 molecules per million.[2] This trend will continue, and for the business-as-usual RCP8.5 (Representative Concentration Pathway, 8.5 W/m2) global warming scenario,[3] the concentration is predicted to decrease from 20.946% to 20.825% by 2100,[1] or on average by about 0.0015% per annum. The overall rate of change (e.g. see Figure 1), which is influenced both by changes in oxygen production and consumption, may be parabolic rather than linear, and so result in the concentration falling to zero in about 4400 years.[4] In the short term, the change is too gradual to impact human health; this will only occur when the concentration falls below about 19.5%. However, the current rate of oxygen depletion is sufficient to influence global warming.

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Oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen do not absorb infrared radiation (unlike carbon dioxide, methane and water vapour), but a lower oxygen concentration thins the atmosphere, reduces the scattering of incoming shortwave radiation, and so allows more solar energy to reach the Earth's surface. This causes more moisture to evaporate, increasing humidity and cloud formation, and the additional water vapour in the atmosphere traps longwave re-radiation from the surface, so temperatures rise and precipitation increases. Increasing the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere due to a declining oxygen concentration serves to amplify global warming, because water vapour is the most potent greenhouse gas.[5]

In oceans and lakes, water deoxygenation is occurring due to global warming and the oversupply of nutrients from agriculture and human sewage. Warmer water simply cannot hold as much dissolved oxygen, and as the atmospheric partial pressure of oxygen declines, it is easier for oxygen to diffuse out of water (Henry's Law). Greater thermal stratification of the ocean, in combination with a declining dissolved oxygen content of the upper layers, inhibits the oxygenation of deeper waters. At the same time, increased nutrient inputs to the ocean from agriculture and human sewage act to increase organic biomass, which consumes oxygen and produces CO2, causing deoxygenation and acidification. When oxygen levels become too low for aerobic respiration, microbes conduct denitrification to obtain energy, and this produces nitrous oxide[6] – a powerful greenhouse gas that forms nitric oxide in the stratosphere, which destroys the ozone layer. Furthermore, the deoxygenation of inland water may be resulting in greater dissolved methane concentrations in the lower reaches of lakes and reservoirs, thereby increasing their global warming potential.[7]

Good quality water has an oxygen concentration of about 7 ppm, but the global average value fell by ~0.04% per annum between 1960 and 2010,[8] and further deoxygenation of 4–7% by 2100 has been predicted[9] (i.e. in the region of 0.05% per annum). Since 1960, oxygen levels have dropped by 40–50% in parts of the ocean at low latitudes, threatening marine life close to the surface where most species live and in deep water.10, 11, 12 The area of low oxygen levels in the open ocean has now increased by 4.5 million km2, and over 500 low-oxygen sites have been identified in estuaries and coastal waters.[6] In general, when compared with the rate of oxygen attrition in the atmosphere, water deoxygenation is occurring much more rapidly and is having a more immediate impact on life. In addition, because photosynthesis by phytoplankton in the ocean is the main source of oxygen production on Earth, lower levels of dissolved oxygen not only suppress life in the oceans, but in the long term could lead to a catastrophic loss of oxygen production. Schaffer et al.[13] concluded that reductions in fossil-fuel use are needed, if extensive oxygen depletion for thousands of years in the ocean is to be avoided.

The global warming impacts of oxygen depletion are additional to those associated with the ongoing rapid increases in trace gases. Since 2000, CO2 and methane concentrations have each been rising at an average annual rate of roughly 1%.[14] Small changes in the concentrations of these greenhouse gases, in combination with very small changes in the oxygen concentration, result in significant changes in the atmospheric water vapour content, which amplifies global warming. For example, it has been estimated that in a scenario where the atmospheric CO2 concentration is doubled, radiative absorption would increase by 4 W/m2, but when the associated effects of increased water vapour are taken into account, this rises to almost 20 W/m2.[15]

It is clear that we should prioritise actions that will counteract oxygen depletion and water vapour addition, as well as curtail emissions of CO2, methane and nitrous oxide. For the energy system this equates to minimising its greenhouse gas emissions and reducing its rate of oxygen consumption. When renewable electricity is produced and used, oxygen isn’t consumed and CO2, methane and water vapour aren’t emitted. The same environmental benefits are now required for molecular energy. In this context, a key question is: will switching away from fossil fuels to hydrogen help solve the problems of oxygen depletion and water vapour addition?

Deriving hydrogen from water versus methane

Hydrogen has long been advocated as a fuel for displacing fossil fuels and combatting emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants. Commercial hydrogen production processes are based either on extracting hydrogen from a hydrocarbon or water.[16] Usually attention is focused on the reduction of CO2 emissions, without considering how hydrogen impacts the production or depletion of oxygen and water. Water electrolysis produces hydrogen and oxygen simultaneously (in a volume ratio of 2:1 and a mass ratio of 1:8):(1)2H2O → 2H2 + O2

The main method competing with electrolysis is the autothermal reformation (ATR) of natural gas (predominantly methane) combined with CCS for capturing the CO2 emissions, in order to produce so-called ‘blue’ hydrogen. Unlike electrolysis, the ATR process consumes rather than produces oxygen:(2)4CH4 + O2 + 2H2O → 10H2 + 4CO The carbon monoxide is then converted to CO2 via the water-gas shift reaction:(3)CO + H2O → CO2 + H2

From equations 2 and 3, it can be seen that the production of 14 mol of hydrogen and 4 mol of CO2 requires a total input of 4 mol of methane, 1 mol of oxygen and 6 mol of water. For comparison, from equation 1, to produce 14 mol of hydrogen by electrolysis requires 14 mol of water and no oxygen.

The hydrogen may require further purification to satisfy the gas quality requirements of the end-use application, but normally when it's used (e.g. combusted or converted to electricity by a fuel cell) it yields water by consuming atmospheric oxygen:(4)2H2 + O2 → 2H2O

It is therefore important to consider the overall effect on the Earth's water and oxygen resources of hydrogen production-and-use for each method of production. Figure 2 shows the relative effects, based on the simple example of producing and consuming 14 mol of hydrogen. Clearly the electrolysis pathway results in no overall depletion of water or oxygen, while the other pathways act to consume oxygen and emit water vapour. Hydrogen production-and-use via ATR results in a consumption of 9.1 kgO2/kgH2 and an emission of 5.1 kgH2O/kgH2 (assuming perfect reformation and combustion).

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The utilisation of hydrogen from ATR thereby imposes a double negative on the environment, relative to electrolytic hydrogen. Indeed, had the methane been combusted rather than reformed into hydrogen, the same amount of water vapour would have been emitted and the same amount of oxygen consumed:(5)4CH4 + 8O2 → 4CO2 + 8H2O Clearly the electrolysis pathway ensures water and oxygen conservation, while the ATR pathway achieves neither. Switching from fossil fuels to blue hydrogen production-and-use will continue the depletion of atmospheric oxygen and continue to increase water vapour emissions, while simply consuming more fossil fuels (due to the parasitic energy requirements of the reformation and sequestration processes). The alternative of switching to ‘turquoise’ hydrogen produced by methane pyrolysis will achieve a similar outcome.[16] When compared with blue hydrogen, the production-and-use of turquoise hydrogen will consume slightly less oxygen but emit considerably more water vapour (see Figure 2). As a fuel, green hydrogen stands alone because it avoids impacting oxygen, water and CO2 levels (see Figure 3).

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Reducing oxygen depletion

Estimates vary, but there is approximately 1.2 × 1018 kg of oxygen in the atmosphere. The aforementioned annual depletion rate of 0.0015% equates to a loss of about 18 gigatonnes (Gt). It is interesting to estimate the electrolyser capacity that would be required to counteract this scale of oxygen consumption. Current electrolyser performance is characterised by an oxygen production rate of up to 1.3 Gt O2 per TW, so an installed capacity of about 14 TW would yield up to 18 Gt O2 per annum. The concurrent annual production of hydrogen would be up to 2.3 Gt H2 (~77 000 TWh, lower heating value LHV).

This scale of electrolyser implementation may be used to guide future scenarios for achieving both a climate-neutral energy system and a much reduced rate of oxygen depletion. To achieve these objectives, the 2030 deployment targets (such as those recently set by the European Commission of 2 × 40 GW, and Chile of 25 GW), will need to be succeeded by TW-scale targets for 2040 and 2050. Implementation will involve much more than just installing very large capacities of renewable power sources and electrolysers: it will require extensive use of subterranean hydrogen storage (to manage the temporal mismatch between renewable energy supply and demand), hydrogen transmission pipeline infrastructures (to convey hydrogen to storage and the relevant points of use), and hydrogen carriers for long-distance transfer of renewable energy by ship (e.g. green ammonia).[17]

In general, the future energy system design needs to be reoriented around renewable energy capture, electrolyser deployment, and the storage, distribution and use of electrolytic hydrogen. Fortunately, venting electrolytic oxygen to atmosphere is standard practice for electrolyser installations, so abating oxygen depletion presents no additional complications or costs. Electrolysers can also be designed to produce electrolytic oxygen at pressure for oxygenating lakes, river basins and oceans at depth if required (e.g. an electrolyser generating oxygen at 20 bar would enable oxygenation at water depths of up to 200 m without requiring additional energy for compression).

For a future energy system that makes extensive use of hydrogen, leaks and releases into the atmosphere should be expected – the very low density of hydrogen simply makes it the most leaky gas. The addition of hydrogen to the atmosphere will influence ozone, methane and water vapour concentrations. It may cause a small degree of stratospheric cooling and so slow down the recovery of the ozone layer, while increasing the build-up of methane and ozone in the troposphere, which will promote global warming.[18] Based on limited data and the indirect role that hydrogen plays in global warming, its Global Warming Potential (GWP) value has been estimated to be about 4.3 on a 100-year time base (versus 1.0 for CO2).[18] Therefore estimates should be made of the extent to which hydrogen leaks and releases will occur in practice from various designs of energy system, and their environmental consequences predicted for a range of future scenarios, including minimum use of fossil fuels and maximum use of electrolytic hydrogen. Clearly, a slightly greater rate of hydrogen production will be required to compensate for any hydrogen losses, but it should be noted that the corresponding rate of electrolytic oxygen production is always theoretically sufficient to oxidise the excess hydrogen. Only electrolysis offers this self-compensating capability.

Further research should address the long-term possibility of increasing slightly the oxygen concentration, in order to provide a degree of global cooling and help accelerate the decay of methane in the atmosphere. However, electrolysis of itself will not achieve this; it is only able to redress the balance for oxygen depletion due to fuel use. Therefore an overarching environmental strategy is needed for oxygen, which should involve a mass deployment of electrolysers in combination with other measures (including direct removal of greenhouse gases, forestation, and solutions for slowing/reversing oxygen depletion in the oceans[19]). >p> Conclusions

Implementing hydrogen as a zero-emission fuel is not enough to combat global warming; it is now essential that we switch to the only oxygen and water balanced fuel: green hydrogen. Using hydrogen derived from fossil fuels results in a net decrease in atmospheric oxygen and a net increase in water vapour, irrespective of whether CCS is applied to the production process. Conversely, hydrogen derived from water electrolysis neither results in oxygen depletion nor increases the atmospheric concentrations of water vapour and CO2. It is therefore fundamentally important to avoid viewing blue, turquoise and green hydrogen as one and the same. It is not valid to compare these types of hydrogen on the basis of CO2 footprint alone, when they have markedly different impacts on atmospheric oxygen and water vapour. Policy makers and governments should place a priority on producing and using green hydrogen, not blue or turquoise hydrogen.

Future efforts to combat climate change should include the deployment of very substantial installed capacities of electrolysers. This will slow down the rate of oxygen depletion and provide us with a fuel that has minimal impact on the environment, provided that the energy system is designed to minimise hydrogen leaks and releases. The solution to the O2 and CO2 concentration problems is to minimise fossil fuel combustion and avoid using fossil fuels to make hydrogen. The global ecosystem now requires us to extract hydrogen and oxygen from water. Achieving a multi-TW electrolyser capacity by mid-century would have a massive positive impact on combatting climate change.

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