The integration of solar energy is helping usher in a new era of more sustainable steel production, with facilities making the switch to renewable power
See also the older Global Warming blog part 1, featuring articles I have found and posted between 2015 and 2022
Latest found articles first.
https://cleantechnica.com/2023/10/05/what-does-it-cost-to-replace-the-battery-in-your-ev/
With time, the general public will notice that these cars are still on the road and the batteries are outlasting the cars. RethinkX was quick to point this out in a LinkedIn response to the Recurrent Auto article:
"Modern EV batteries should outlast the cars themselves," Najman of Recurrent Auto said.
We said the same thing in our report, Rethinking Transportation (2017) p. 20: "The drivetrain and battery are expected to outlast other elements in the vehicle, which may need refurbishment."
The Recurrent Auto research seems to indicate that EV batteries have a much longer lifespan than even the carmakers imagined. The comment "since very few of them have been replaced, even once the 8-year, 100,000-mile warranty period ends" assumes that a product only lasts as long as the warranty. This assumption underpins the questions from the general public mentioned above. For some reason, they expect the battery to have to be replaced at 100,00 miles or 8 years of use. We usually counter this with a question about replacing the engine and drivetrain in an ICE car once the warranty is up. No, they don’t do that.
More recent EVs have benefitted from improvements in battery chemistry and battery management. To succeed, carmakers need to ensure that battery life exceeds the warranty period. There is a large second-hand market for cars that needs to be fed. Apart from the major battery replacement recalls by GM for the Chevrolet Bolt and Hyundai for the Kona, there have been fewer battery replacements year after year since EVs were first introduced.
Solar energy is fuelling more sustainable steel production
.... Steel is a resource- and emissions-heavy industry but is also one that plays a vital role in producing the materials needed for the transition to a more sustainable global economic model. Wind turbines, solar farms, hydroelectric dams, and more, are all steel-intensive infrastructure that underpin renewable energy production. If the world is to successfully limit the impacts of climate change, it will be relying on steel to help it get there. The industry has been hard at work on improving the efficiency of its operations, producing a tonne of steel takes 40% less energy than it did in 1960, and solar is set to play a key role in improving steel’s sustainability.
Using solar power in its production allows EVRAZ to create more sustainable steel. See the world’s first solar-powered steel mills
Traditional steel production uses large amounts of fossil fuel energy to generate the temperatures needed, but the industry is working hard to find alternative ways of powering this process. Indeed, three of the world’s top steel producing companies are already taking the leap towards solar powered steel production.
In Pueblo, Colorado, EVRAZ North America has announced that solar energy will power its steelmaking operations there. The Pueblo site operates an Electric Arc Furnace that can produce finished steel from recycled ferrous scrap, making it Colorado’s largest recycler, and its recently unveiled Bighorn solar project will reduce emissions and make the mill the world’s first to be powered largely by solar energy.
Modern steelmaking techniques allow EVRAZ to create longer rails, meaning safer, quieter train journeys. The project boasts a 300-MW DC / 240 MW AC solar field located on 7.3 km2 of land, making it the largest on-site solar facility in the US dedicated to a single customer. The site’s 750,000 solar panels provide nearly all the plant’s annual electricity demand.
"This pioneering partnership will make EVRAZ North America the industry leader in the use of renewable energy to produce the greenest steel and engineered steel products in the world, from rail to rod & bar," said James Skip Herald, president and CEO of EVRAZ North America.
Nucor, a North American steel producer, is also working on a 250MW of solar energy project to be constructed in Texas. Unlike the single site Pueblo facility, this project will produce electricity that will contribute to powering Nucor’s entire North American operations. The Nucor project involved the signing of a virtual power purchase agreement with EDF renewables North America that will run for 15 years, in a deal that is the largest of its kind for the steel industry. "Nucor is one of the most efficient and cleanest steel producers in the world and we are always looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint," said Leon Topalian, President and CEO of Nucor Corporation. "That is why we are proud to make our production process even cleaner by supporting the development of this solar energy project." Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2022 with electricity production slated to begin in 2023.
On the other side of the world, Tata Steel and Tata Power are working together on a grid-connected 41MW solar project in Jharkhand and Odisha, India. Using rooftop, floating and ground-mounted solar panels, the project will produce solar power for the Jamshedpur and Kalinganagar steel-making facilities, saving 45,210 tonnes of CO2 per year. T V Narendran, CEO & MD of Tata Steel, said, "We have taken several definitive steps across the value chain to reinforce our sustainability credentials. We will continue with our pursuit of clean energy solutions and expand our renewable energy footprint."
In 2017, the two companies also collaborated on the commissioning of a 3MW photovoltaic power plant at Tata Steel’s iron ore mine in Noamundi. This made it the first solar powered iron mine in the country, and underlined Tata Steel’s commitment to whole lifecycle thinking in its approach to reducing the emissions associated with steelmaking.
Steel produced by these innovative companies will be among the greenest on the planet, but as the industry increasingly moves away from coal powered operations, the world’s steel is only set to get more sustainable.
Images: Lightsource bp, EVRAZ
Green Energy That Works For Industry. Explore Our Solutions
Heliogen’s modular solution is designed to replace the use of fossil fuels in demanding operations. By combining AI-controlled concentrating solar thermal technology with long-duration thermal energy storage, Heliogen can provide dispatchable renewable energy for heat and energy-intensive operations.
Rick Kazmer
September 13, 2023-- 2 min read
Graphene has been heralded by the European Parliament, universities, and other institutions as a "wonder material" that could impact multiple industries. It’s very light and extremely strong. Better yet, the conductive material helps improve battery tech.
Made of a single layer of carbon atoms, graphene, which the EP says is a million times thinner than a human hair, is poised to transform the electric vehicle landscape, according to AZoNano, a site reporting on nanotechnology.
The report listed fire safety and better energy efficiency as benefits, with the potential to charge EV batteries in minutes, not hours.
The EP stated that graphene (discovered in 2004) is the thinnest material ever created. A Harvard blog added that it is formed by a connected lattice of carbon atom hexagons and is derived from graphite, just like the kind in pencils.
AZoNano highlighted its advantages over common lithium-ion batteries now powering our rides, and safety might be chief among them. Graphene will “dissipate” heat better during the charge/discharge cycle, limiting the risk of overheating and fires.
A lighter weight and an environmentally friendly production method that reduces energy consumption are other potential perks listed. The production process, however, is still being developed. The Harvard report cited a project using a plasma gun to produce graphene as one option being explored.
"Science is the easy part. To develop a technology, you should know what products you are aiming at, and this should be coming from the industry," graphene co-discoverer and Nobel Prize laureate Konstantin Novoselov said on the EP’s website, which noted bendable smartphones and extremely light planes as other products that could be made with graphene.
NASA is even exploring batteries made with a special kind of graphene with holes in it, allowing air to pass through. The material is lightweight and highly conductive, according to its experts. The goal is for the batteries to power electric aircraft.
There are still some challenges to work through before graphene batteries are mainstream for EVs, including "scalability of graphene production, cost-effectiveness, and integration into existing battery manufacturing processes," Taha Kahn wrote for AZoNano. But, Kahn is optimistic about the research. "It is expected that the integration of graphene EV batteries will become more practical and economically viable in the coming years," Kahn added.
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The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think
Aug 17, 2023
alternate website to access the above
The United States is pivoting away from fossil fuels and toward wind, solar and other renewable energy, even in areas dominated by the oil and gas industries.
from the New York Times. David Gelles reported from Tulsa, Okla.; Brad Plumer and Jim Tankersley from Washington; and Jack Ewing from New York to see how an accelerated energy transition is playing out.
This is the first article in a three-part series examining the speed, challenges and politics of the American economy moving toward clean energy.
Delivery vans in Pittsburgh. Buses in Milwaukee. Cranes loading freight at the Port of Los Angeles. Every municipal building in Houston. All are powered by electricity derived from the sun, wind or other sources of clean energy.
Across the country, a profound shift is taking place that is nearly invisible to most Americans. The nation that burned coal, oil and gas for more than a century to become the richest economy on the planet, as well as historically the most polluting, is rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels.
A similar energy transition is already well underway in Europe and elsewhere. But the United States is catching up, and globally, change is happening at a pace that is surprising even the experts who track it closely.
Wind and solar power are breaking records, and renewables are now expected to overtake coal by 2025 as the world’s largest source of electricity. Automakers have made electric vehicles central to their business strategies and are openly talking about an expiration date on the internal combustion engine. Heating, cooling, cooking and some manufacturing are going electric.
As the planet registers the highest temperatures on record, rising in some places to levels incompatible with human life, governments around the world are pouring trillions of dollars into clean energy to cut the carbon pollution that is broiling the planet.
This website features a good graph of global termperatures.
https://www.temperaturerecord.org/#code
GOP presidential candidates avoid discussing climate change on campaign trail
See full transcript and video of this broadcast at the link above. Excerpts of transcript:
William Brangham, correspondent, PBS Newshour Aug 4, 2023: This summer, smoke from Canadian wildfires cast a dystopian yellow haze over U.S. cities. The drought-stricken Colorado River forced seven Southwestern states to consider drastic water cuts. A blistering heat wave punished millions of Americans. The disparate impacts of our warming world were impossible to miss. But out on the campaign trail, Republican candidates are talking about everything but climate change.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Presidential Candidate: "We're going to end the woke agenda."
Vivek Ramaswamy (R), Presidential Candidate: "An open border is not a border."
Mike Pence (R), Presidential Candidate: "It's the worst inflation in 40 years."
William Brangham: The Republican silence on climate change is echoed in recent polling, which shows Republican voters also don't see it as a concern. In a new "PBS NewsHour"/NPR/Marist poll, while 56 percent of Americans think climate change is a major threat, only 28 percent of Republicans do. A third of Republicans say it's a minor threat. And another third say it's no threat at all.
Lisa Friedman, The New York Times: "To talk about climate change remains very difficult for a number of conservative lawmakers, who feel that their constituents are themselves either apathetic or antagonistic to it..... Overwhelmingly, Republican leadership acknowledges that climate change is happening, that it is driven, in their view, at least, in part by fossil fuels."
Mike Pence: "Well, let me just say that, clearly, the climate is changing, not as dramatically as the radical environmentalists like to present."
William Brangham: Most Republicans reject the single biggest way to cut the emissions that are driving climate change, to shift away from burning fossil fuels and transition to renewable power, like solar, wind, hydropower, and geothermal.
Vivek Ramaswamy: "Fossil fuels are a requirement for human prosperity."
William Brangham: What's more, many Republicans pledge to roll back the Biden administration's signature climate initiative, the Inflation Reduction Act, which directs billions of dollars in subsidies and incentives to deploy those technologies.
Lisa Friedman: What you hear often from conservatives is that we can address climate change, we can address the emissions from fossil fuels without reducing the fossil fuels themselves. That is not the way scientists see it. Scientists have said over and over again, that, in order to reduce emissions, we need to convert to renewable energy and reduce the burning of fossil fuels altogether.
William Brangham: The leading Republican in the race, former President Donald Trump, is also the most ardent denier of the reality of climate change.
Leah Stokes, University of California, Santa Barbara: "Donald Trump is a climate denier. He has consistently cast doubt on climate science. He says that it's a hoax. Under his administration, there was a massive gutting of bedrock environmental agencies, like the Environmental Protection Agency, and rolling back hundreds of environmental regulations."
William Brangham: Other leading Republicans, like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, have also dismissed the issue as an exaggerated left-wing talking point. "I have always rejected the politicization of the weather."
Critics argue a main reason why Republicans resist any limits on fossil fuels is campaign money. According to the money tracking group Open Secrets, the top 20 oil, coal and gas donors gave out over $80 million in campaign contributions in the last two years. That money went almost exclusively to Republicans and conservative groups.
Leah Stokes: "The problem is that the fossil fuel industry has increasingly bought and paid for huge swathes of Republican Party politicians, whether that's in Congress or in statehouses or sometimes in the White House."
William Brangham, PBS: A conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, has drafted a detailed climate and energy plan called Project 2025 for the next Republican president. Its sweeping reforms would cut nearly all of the federal government's current climate work, blunt the use of renewable energy and cut current regulations on the fossil fuel industry.
Leah Stokes: "It's unconscionable. It would be like being in a global pandemic and deciding that the thing you needed to do was fire all of the doctors and nurses. That's basically what the conservative Republican plan is if they take the White House in 2025."
U.N. Warns: The Era of Global Boiling Has Arrived July 28, 2023
July is on pace to be the hottest month ever recorded, and the impact of the soaring temperatures is being felt across the globe in massive heat waves, wildfires, flooding and more. On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the world has entered the "era of global boiling," and President Joe Biden gave a major speech to unveil new measures to combat the crisis but resisted calls to declare a climate emergency. David Wallace-Wells, an opinion writer for The New York Times and a columnist for The New York Times Magazine, says the world is not moving quickly enough to phase out fossil fuels, and even some of the progress that has been made is easily erased by massive wildfires like those burning in Canada right now. We also speak with Dharna Noor, fossil fuels and climate reporter at The Guardian US_ who wrote an exposé on "Project 2025," a right-wing plan to dismantle environmental policies and many regulatory protections if a Republican takes the White House in the next election. She calls the document's drafters "a who's who of the far right."
What Happens AFTER Global Warming?
By: Curt Stager © 2012 Nature Education
What happens to our heat-trapping fossil fuel emissions after we release them, how long will they persist, and what might life be like in a warming - and then cooling - world?
Until recently, most discussions of modern global warming have looked only as far ahead as 2100 AD. Now, new investigations by pioneering climate modelers are beginning to tell another story, one in which the legacy of our heat-trapping carbon emissions lasts not just decades or centuries but long enough to interfere with future ice ages.
Read more at the link
Canadian Climate Activist: Big Oil Is Fueling Fires. We Must Stop Funding New Fossil Fuel Pipelines, from Democracy Now, June 29, 2023
As wildfire smoke fills the skies and record heat waves cook much of North America, Canadian climate activist Tzeporah Berman says governments need to be pushed to phase out fossil fuels more rapidly. "We need people to stand up to this industry. We need activism to protest in the streets, to demand our governments stand up to this industry. And we also need international cooperation," says Berman. She also discusses Canada’s investment in the Trans Mountain Pipeline and how governments around the world are propping up the fossil fuel industry rather than embracing a transition to clean energy. Her recent article for The Guardian is headlined "Canada is on fire, and big oil is the arsonist."
Related videos from Democracy Now on June 29, 2023
Climate Silence: Corporate Media Failing to Link Wildfires, Extreme Weather to Climate Crisis
Meet One of the Teens Suing Montana over Climate Crisis. She Says Planet’s Future Is at Stake
2 articles pro and con about nuclear power.
PRO: Reconsidering the Risks of Nuclear Power
Oct.25, 2016
most relevant excerpt: The nuclear industry is constantly developing innovative technologies and protocols towards making the energy production process failsafe. Newer generations of nuclear reactors, particularly what is called a pebble-bed reactor, are designed so that the nuclear chain reaction cannot run away and cause a meltdown, even in the event of complete failure of the reactor’s machinery. Geological stability considerations will also likely play a bigger role in approving new sites of construction. And although long-lived nuclear waste may remain dangerous for considerable periods of time, that timescale is not prohibitive. In fact, even without recycling the fuel, which would further shorten the lifetime of radioactive waste, the radioactivity of the waste is reduced to around 0.1% of the initial value after about 40-50 years.
(see to what extent the PRO article answers the questions of the CON article, and vice versa, and consider your own questions)
CON: 10 Reasons to Oppose Nuclear Energy (2017)
2 of the most relevant reasons:
1. (reason #3) Nuclear power plants are a potential target for terrorist operations (and, I add, in war, as in the Russian invasion of Ukraine). An attack could cause major explosions, putting population centers at risk, as well as ejecting dangerous radioactive material into the atmosphere and surrounding region. Nuclear research facilities, uranium enrichment plants, and uranium mines are also potentially at risk for attacks that could cause widespread contamination with radioactive material.
2. (reason #8) Unlike renewables, which are now the cheapest energy sources, nuclear costs are on the rise, and many plants are being shut down or in danger of being shut down for economic reasons. Initial capital costs, fuel, and maintenance costs are much higher for nuclear plants than wind and solar, and nuclear projects tend to suffer cost overruns and construction delays. The price of renewable energy has fallen significantly over the past decade, and it projected to continue to fall.
And I add: time is running out to change from fossil fuels to clean energy before climate tipping points and feedback loops lead us irreversibly to hothouse earth.
The final article from my global warming blog part 1 is very interesting, so I have copied it here too.
......Tesla recently announced that their Model 3 battery has an energy density close to 260 Wh/kg. Still, it requires a complicated cooling system to prevent overheating and thus takes up a lot of space. On the other hand, because graphene batteries do not overheat or explode, there is no need for a cooling system, and the space could be used for energy-storing batteries in electric vehicles.
A breakthrough in graphene battery technology occurred when GAC Motor Co. Ltd, a Chinese automobile company, announced the launch of the AION V car, which features a graphene battery with a range of 1000 km and can be recharged to 80 percent capacity in 8 minutes. Undoubtedly the ongoing commercialization of graphene batteries will soon outperform conventional batteries for its wider adoption......
Eric's Global Warming Blog Part 1