ICC 2024 Revised Building Code Makes Electricity Minimums Optional
|

ICC 2024 Revised Building Code Makes Electricity Minimums Optional

ByAdmin

The International Code Council, which sets model construction standards for new homes, was expected to include building electrification measures in its 2024 energy code on March 20. But following appeals lodged by industry groups, the ICC board moved the measures to the code’s appendices, effectively making them optional, as first reported by the Huffington Post.

If new homes aren’t wired for increasing power needs from electric appliances and car chargers, it will bump the effort and cost of making such upgrades onto homeowners — a deterrent to going electric.

Terraform Industries converts electricity and air into synthetic natural gas

Terraform Industries converts electricity and air into synthetic natural gas

ByAdmin

Note: Here is a VC-backed company which is using solar power to pull CO2 and H20 out of the air and combine it into CH4 … better known as methane or natural gas!   Importantly, this tech looks like it might get cheap enough to scale up.  The video tour by the CEO explains the chemistry and economics.

Today, Terraform is announcing that it has commissioned a demonstrator plant and produced synthetic natural gas for the first time.
Roughly the size of two shipping containers, the Terraformer consists of three …

RFF Releases Annual Global Energy Outlook Report

RFF Releases Annual Global Energy Outlook Report

ByAdmin

The Global Energy Outlook, an annual analysis from Resources for the Future (RFF), charts a wide range of pathways for the world’s energy outlook. What are the key findings? 

The report comes to several conclusions based on 16 scenarios. 1) Consumption of coal, oil, and natural gas is expected to peak before 2030 but remain at or near a plateau through 2050 in many scenarios. Achieving international climate targets will require a peak followed by a rapid decline. 2) Carbon dioxide removal technologies are …

EMIT LESS Act garners bi-partisan applause

EMIT LESS Act garners bi-partisan applause

ByAdmin

Enteric methane, which is naturally emitted during the digestive process of most livestock species, has been deemed the single largest source of agricultural methane emissions. Garnering support from a diverse coalition, U.S. Senators Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., seeks to reduce enteric methane by integrating emissions-reduction practices into U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs and providing financial incentives to farmers that voluntarily adopt them.

DOE Awards $6 Billion for Green Steel, Cement, Aluminum and other industrial processes
|

DOE Awards $6 Billion for Green Steel, Cement, Aluminum and other industrial processes

ByAdmin

The industrial sector is responsible for over 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in the US. The 33 projects funded here might demonstrate viable fast pathways to decarbonize these notoriously hard-to-decarbonize sector: cement, alumninum, steel, pastics and a broad range of industrial processes that require heat and sometimes chemistries that create CO2 directly.

The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet

The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet

ByAdmin

Note: The author argues that the declining price of solar and wind GENERATION will not drive the transition without government subsidies.  After proving that (convincingly, IMHO), he responds to the question “isn’t this an argument for a carbon tax?” with “it absolutely is an argument for larger carbon taxes on fossil fuels.”

Cortez Masto co-sponsors bipartisan geothermal development bill
|

Cortez Masto co-sponsors bipartisan geothermal development bill

ByAdmin

Today, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto and other members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee introduced the Geothermal Energy Optimization (GEO) Act to accelerate the adoption of geothermal energy nationwide. Nevada is the second-largest producer of geothermal energy in the nation.

The GEO Act would put geothermal projects on an equal footing with oil and gas projects on public land and direct the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to develop a streamlined process for geothermal permits. The bill also …

Big Tech’s Latest Obsession Is Finding Enough Energy

Big Tech’s Latest Obsession Is Finding Enough Energy

ByAdmin

The world adds a new data center every three days according to Bill Vass, VP of Engineering at Amazon Web Services. The explosion of artificial-intelligence—and the data centers that power it—is fueling an insatiable appetite for electricity, creating risks to the grid and the transition to cleaner energy sources, according to utility executives. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told the conference that electricity is the key input for deciding whether a data center will be profitable and that the amount of power AI will consume is staggering.

Data centers, bitcoin and EVs send utilities scrambling for more power

Data centers, bitcoin and EVs send utilities scrambling for more power

ByAdmin

After more than 30 years of falling or flat demand for electricity, electric utilities are forecasting the nation will need the equivalent of about 34 new nuclear plants, or 38 gigawatts, over the next five years to supply power for data centers, EVs, crypto mining, cannabis farming, more electrification and new industry according to filings made to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and compiled by Grid Strategies.

Biden Administration Announces Rules Phasing Out Gas Cars

Biden Administration Announces Rules Phasing Out Gas Cars

ByAdmin

The Biden administration on Wednesday issued one of the most significant climate regulations in the nation’s history, a rule designed to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032.

Nearly three years in the making, the new tailpipe pollution limits from the Environmental Protection Agency would transform the American automobile market. A record 1.2 million electric vehicles rolled off dealers’ lots last year, but they made up just 7.6 percent of …

WRI Webinar Examines How to Expand Grid-enhancing Technologies
|

WRI Webinar Examines How to Expand Grid-enhancing Technologies

ByAdmin

Note: This is an advanced topic — adding tech solutions to the existing grid so as to increase the ability of the existing transmission infrastructure to carry larger loads. The growth of demand for electricity is higher than anticipated, and the slow permitting process is retarding deployment of transmission lines that clean energy can connect with. These “GETs” are quick-to-deploy, relatively inexpensive stopgap measures until new transmission capacities are installed.