Monthly Archives: April 2022

Offshore Wind Turbines in California

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The state of California is home to 840accessible miles of coast line to the Pacific Ocean. In recent years, as technologies and climate change awareness have increased, the state of California have made a conscious effort to enhance and improve their usage of the coast in its application of renewable energy sources. The most effective form of renewable energy that California has used is taking advantage of the offshore wind. The major tool to capture off shore wind to harness renewable energy comes in the form of wind turbines. Most of which can be built to stand in shallow ocean water. With Californias pacific being much deeper, the turbines must be constructed on to floating stands that are able to absorb currents and other sorts of natural causes that otherwise may alter their movements.

In 2018, the 100 Percent Clean Energy Act was implemented into the state of California. This increased California’s goal of renewable energies to 60% by 2030 and a hopeful 100% by 2045. With oil resources becoming harder to capture and other things such as gas increasing in price, renewable energy sources are the trends of the future. One thing that will not change anytime soon is there being wind off of California’s coastline. If California gets to its goal of 100% by 2045, there will be no energy sources that produce carbon in hopes of altering the curve we viewed a few weeks ago.

 

https://www.energy.ca.gov/programs-and-topics/topics/renewable-energy/offshore-renewable-energy

 

https://www.energy.ca.gov/sb100

Sustainability and Energy Conservation

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One of the first things that has come to my mind on the topic of sustainability is the concept of energy conservation.  This can be accomplished in many ways, and through many different forms.  For example, some ways to conserve energy could be turning off the lights when you are not home, turning down the heat in the winter at night time or turning down the air conditioner om the summer when you go to bed.  These simple things can make a large impact on your own personal footprint.  For the purpose of this blog we will focus on the amount of energy that can be saved by simply turning off the lights.  Lets say that a incandescent light bulb is graded for 60 watts.  This light bulb will use approximately .06 kilowatts of energy per hour while it is on.  Over time this adds up not only in energy use but also in money to pay the bill.  If you were to turn off that bulb there would be a 100% decrease in energy obviously, with a decay factor of 1.0.  This seems like it is so obvious, yet not enough of us are doing this.  In the long run turning off your bulb is not only incredibly helpful for the environment but also for your wallet.  When thinking about sustainability it is the little things that we have to do that will make an impact.  If we are able to do the small things like I have listed above it will be beneficial for all.

Greenhouse Gases and our Sustainability Efforts

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Greenhouse gases contribute to many dangers in sustainability efforts and these greenhouse gases have been closely monitored by the EPA, with the government organization monitoring the rises and sinks of greenhouse gas emissions and the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.  I believe that sustainability efforts should first and foremost look to reduce the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions that we are placing into the world.  The US emissions totaled 5,222 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents in 2020.  This is an 11% decrease from 2019 with the total change from 2019 to 2020 decreasing from 5796.42 million metric tons to 5222 metric tons.  This resulted in a 574.42 million metric ton decrease in CO2 emissions.  This was largely due to the pandemic  as well as the continued search for more renewable and sustainable forms of energy.

One interesting topic I found regarding sustainability GHG emissions, especially CO2 emissions is electric cars.  While electric cars are better for the environment, the deciding factor on the sustainability is how much is required to produce these electric cars.  An all electric Chevrolet Bolt produces 189 grams of CO2 for every mile, as opposed to a gas fueled Toyota which produces 385 grams of CO2 per mile.  However the challenge comes in the production of electric cars and the energy grid.  It is important to understand that just because a car is electric might not mean it is as sustainable as it seems.  This issue concerning electric cars relates back to my main point earlier about greenhouse gas emissions.  We as people need to look to find the best possible solutions to decrease the harm we are doing to our planet.

 

Works Cited:

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks

https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#colorbox-hidden

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/climate/electric-vehicles-environment.html

 

 

Deforestation and the Consequences

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Deforestation has become a serious problem in the past few decades. Forests around the world have been destroyed due to increased demands for lumber supply, as well as many other resources. Many people don’t know how important forests are to the ecosystem, however. Forests “help people thrive and survive by, for example, purifying water and air” as well as by “soaking up carbon dioxide” (worldwildlife.org). Recently, more attention has been placed on forests because of the raging wildfires that we saw in the Amazon rainforest as well as in Australia. It is essential that we maintain the integrity of our rainforests because it is the habitat for millions of animals, as well as a supplier of jobs for millions of people. Unfortunately “in the Amazon, around 17% of the forest has been lost in the last 50 years” (Worldwildlife.org). If this continues, a vital part of our ecosystem will be destroyed in the next centuries. When we talk about the huge amount of land that is being destroyed, many people have a difficult time visualizing exactly how much it is. To put it into perspective, “In 2019, the tropics lost close to 30 soccer fields’ worth of trees every single minute” (Worldwildlife.org). This is an incredibly large amount of land. By saving the forests, we are really saving ourselves. We need to put more emphasis on the conservation of resources and realize that although the earth is tenacious, we may do damage that is not reversible.

 

Works Cited:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation-and-forest-degradation#:~:text=Deforestation%20is%20a%20particular%20concern,forest%20conversion%20for%20cattle%20ranching.

 

Metal+Glass Recycling in the USA

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Using a similar set of statistics as some of my peers, I thought about the topic of sustainability, and so a question I asked myself is: what’s in my environment that I can potentially reuse. Two types of material I come to find I use often include: glass especially when I think of my phone, what I use to drink, windows etc. The second one I often use is metal whether that be my phone, my car, my speaker etc. From 1960-2018, the epa estimates that the total change in glass recycling amounted to approximately: 2,960,000 tons. In that same time stretch, total change in the amount of metal recycled amounted to 8,670,000 tons. The growth factor for glass was about 30.6 and for metal it was about 174.4. The Percentage Change for glass is then: 3060% and for metals it was 17440%. When calculating the rate of change for glass: 2.96 x 10^6/58= 51034.48 tons more of glass was recycled per year and for metals it was: 8.76 x 10^6/58= 151034.48 tons more of metal recycled per year. 

Glass recycling on the surface may sound like a good idea, but I decided to dig a little deeper into the materials recycling controversy surrounding its overall utility. According to various websites disputing the overall eco-friendliness of the material, glass is “endlessly” recyclable yet bottles/jars etc. require more energy to manufacture and then recycle and process into sand or reprocess into reusable glass than it takes to reuse plastic. However, plastics’ lifetime utility decreases after a few years whereas glass according to some websites is repeatedly reusable. According to one source, for 10% of broken down glass getting recycled (per year) total energy costs to break it down reduces by 3%. This controversy makes me reevaluate the short-term and long term impacts, in other words, the opportunity cost not just on the good itself, but the lifetime impact of the consumption of the good and its future ramifications on an interconnected issue like carbon emissions.

Works cited: 

https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#composting

https://earth.org/glass-bottles-environmental-impact/

https://www.britglass.org.uk/our-work/recycling

https://cen.acs.org/materials/inorganic-chemistry/glass-recycling-US-broken/97/i6

https://earth911.com/business-policy/how-many-times-recycled/

Europes goal climate neutrality

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When I think of sustainability the first that comes to mind is carbon neutrality. “Carbon neutrality means having a balance between emitting carbon and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere in carbon sinks.”(European parliament).  I am addressing a company named European Green Deal by the European Commission which aims to make Europe climate neutral by 2050 by enforcing laws by the EU Legislations(European parliament). Data shows that the decay factor is 9.5-11 gt while the growth factor is 38 Gt. The percentage change is decreasing by  -.75(9.5-38/38) and -27/28(11-38/38). This decrease is due to the natural carbon sink because no unnatural carbon sinks are able to remove carbon from the atmosphere at a significant scale to fight global warming the co2 emission will increase. Nonetheless, the rate of change demonstrates the amount of co2 released in the atmosphere is 27 and 28.5 annually (27-28.5). 

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20190926STO62270/what-is-carbon-neutrality-and-how-can-it-be-achieved-by-2050

 

The Importance of Solar Panels

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Solar panels are an extremely effective way to help combat greenhouse gas emissions by taking natural energy from the sun and converting that into electricity. Using solar panels decreases our dependance on fossil fuels, which as we have previously learned in important to reduce for sustainability purposes and the health of the earth. There are at least 92.7 billion solar panels in use throughout the world today. One year of solar power saves 12,500 pounds of carbon emissions, which is very important in the subject of sustainability. With less carbon emissions and using natural energy, there are less fossil fuels and therefore a more healthy planet.

The United States and other European countries, like Spain and Italy, and China are the driving forces in increasing the amount of solar panels used. These countries receive a lot of sunlight making this initiative to use solar panels very effective. It is predicted that the growth rate of solar panels will be 7.8% from 2022 to 2030.  The power generated from solar panels has grown by 23% since 2019, making this energy source account for 3.1% of global electricity. In America specifically, the amount of solar panels installed grew 485% from 2010 to 2013. The amount of solar panels that the U.S. had installed by 2014 was enough energy to power about 2.4 million U.S. households. According to the growth rate, solar panels are increasing around the world and saving this initiative from countries is helping to save energy globally.

 

citations: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/solar-panels-market#:~:text=The%20global%20solar%20PV%20panels%20market%20is%20expected%20to%20grow,USD%20286.64%20billion%20by%202030.

https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/solar-power-rise

https://sunbadger.com/solar-energy-statistics/#:~:text=At%20least92.7%20billion%20solar,average%20U.S.%20residential%20solar%20installation.

Solar Worldwide

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One method to the world becoming more sustainable is the use of solar energy. Solar power is a process of taking renewable energy from the sun and turning it into electricity or power run sources. A method of this is the use of solar panels on houses or buildings. These panels take in the sunlight and are able to turn the natural resource of the sun into electricity, which is cost saving and way more environmentally friendly. The amount of greenhouse gasses such as CO2 getting released into the atmosphere is substantially brought down from the use of solar energy. A way to explain how much improvement that solar panels are doing is to say that each car emits 4.7 metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. It is proven that a solar panel system can offset the emissions of one car per year. The amount of CO2 emissions by a single vehicle may not sound impactful, but just think if everyone was aware of the benefits of having solar panels, then thousands to millions equivalent of one car can be impactful through reducing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. This is basically saying that through solar energy, one car per year can be taken off the road theoretically, benefiting the environment hugely.
Through looking at the current exponential growth of solar energy and wind energy, both renewable sources, the market share grew, “at a compound average annual growth rate of 15% from 2015-2020. If exponential growth continued at this rate, solar and wind would reach 45% of electricity generation by 2030 and 100% by 2033.” If by 2030 there is 100% use of renewable sources of energy, then the environment and atmosphere would benefit through the lack of greenhouse gasses being emitted. With the rising awareness of how the atmosphere is effected through CO2, if more people can implement using solar or wind energy, not only would families have a ton of money on their electricity bills, but also will benefit the environment. How can anyone be against these two huge benefits?

References:

https://news.energysage.com/much-solar-panels-save/

https://www.wri.org/insights/growth-renewable-energy-sector-explained

Recycling rates

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The first topic that comes to my head when thinking about sustainability is recycling. This is probably due to me learning about recycling from a young age hearing the popular phrase “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”. As a kid this phrase did not hold much meaning, but as I got older it made more sense as I took more of an effort to be mindful of my own recycling habits. The total amount of municipal solid waste recycled in 2018 surpassed 69 million tons. Paper and cardboard made up 2/3 of that amount. The impact of recycling can be seen in the increased recycling rate from less than 7% in 1960 to the rate in 2019 of 32%. The growth factor of this is 2.36 per year from 1960 to 2019. Though the recycling rate increased overall during this time period, it decreased in 2018 from a rate of 34.7% in 2015. Additionally, one person on average per capita recycles 1.16 pounds per day.

Much of the overall increase in recycling since 1960 can be attributed to communities and businesses in the United States putting a direct effort into recycling and sustainability in their workplaces and with their products. The job market is also thriving due to the increase of recycling. In a single yeah reusing and recycling activities accounted for about 1.17 jobs for every 1,000 tons of recycled material. This shows that not only is recycling important for sustainability, but it is also beneficial for America in other ways as well.

Works cited:

https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#:~:text=In%20percentage%20of%20total%20MSW,recycling%20rate%20was%2032.1%20percent.

https://www.epa.gov/recyclingstrategy/america-recycles-day

Solar and Wind Energy Working Together To Make A Difference

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Solar and Wind are both good forms of renewable energy. Very recently, during the first week of this month, photovoltaic energy (a form of Solar Energy) broke records in the Spanish, Italian, and French markets. This energy along with wind energy helped lower the prices of energy in most European Electricity markets.

The first week of April ended with a general increase in solar energy production compared to the previous week. In the Spanish Energy Market, the hourly photovoltaic energy production record was broken on April 7 with 11 313 MWh. On April 10th, the highest production in history was registered in the French market, at 8788 MWh. The Italian market reached the highest production with this technology since July 2014, with 12 310 MWh on the same day April 10th.

The increase in production in the Italian market was 48% and in the French market was 24%, compared to the previous week. In the German market, the increase in solar energy production was 11%.

Solar PV Energy Breaks Records & Together With Wind Energy Lowers European Electricity Markets Prices