U.S. Pursues New Energy Solutions in Green Ponds

By David Heberling, Policy Intern

The past few weeks have been exciting for those following the progress of renewable energy in North America. As fellow policy intern, Sage Ertman mentioned in his post this past Monday, the leaders of the United States, Canada, and Mexico met to discuss a renewed commitment to partnership in the pursuit of a green energy future for the continent. Spurred forward by the historical cooperation of the Paris Climate Agreement, President Obama joined Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in developing a plan to further integrate and innovate a clean energy future as laid out in North American Climate, Clean Energy and Environment Partnership Action Plan.

The plan has many ambitious initiatives for cooperation, conservation, and implementation of new technology. One example of the cooperation of the three countries can be seen in their development of cross-border transmission projects. According to the plan, the U.S. will cooperate with its neighbors “to achieve a goal for North America of 50% clean power generation by 2025.” Among the myriad of cooperation in policy and technology is a call for robust innovations in renewable energy technology.

Many innovations are currently underway to advance and diversify the means through which the U.S. can pursue these renewable energy goals. As I covered in my last blog post, there are some exciting innovations outside of what people typically see as the big three for renewable generation – wind, solar, and hydro. Recently, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced they would be pursuing algae as a new source of renewable biofuel. When most of us think of biofuels, especially ethanol, immediately we think of corn. And for good reason: Corn currently accounts for 80 percent of the bio-ethanol produced domestically. Biofuel derived from corn has had a few major disadvantages from its very conception. Corn has traditionally been a source of food and feed for livestock, corn requires the use of arable land, and yields a relatively low amount of fuel.  However, bolstered by the new DOE funding, that may soon change for the better. Algae has a few distinct advantages over corn in terms of producing biofuel.

First, and most obviously, algae is not a source of food in and of itself, so it does not compete with other food sources for terrestrial farming space. Also, it is important to consider the type of land that would be used for algae production. Algae cultivation does not require the use of arable land the way corn does.  That’s not to say that algae farms wouldn’t have a demand for space, they would, but algae-based generation comes second in land-use efficiency, surpassed only by solar arrays. When it comes to biofuel generation, algae could produce up to 60 times more oil per acre than its land-based cousins. According to Florida company Algenol, algae can produce 8,000 gallons of fuel per acre annually, and corn averages around 420 gallons of fuel for the same time period.

Secondly, algae-derived biofuel serves not only as a source of clean energy, but also has the ability to help combat the effects of climate change. Climate change has the potential to cause our already limited supplies of fresh water to decrease. Algae presents an opportunity to help mitigate some of that stress.  As algae grows in salt water it actually provides fresh water. For every one gallon of biofuel, algae would produce 1.4 gallons of freshwater. Corn derived ethanol requires 2.7 gallons of water per gallon of fuel.

Finally, in addition to requiring less land, not competing with the food supply, and providing instead of demanding water for production, algae could help in the reduction and recycling of our existing carbon output. Like all plants, algae require carbon dioxide to grow. This means that while producing fuel and fresh water, algae would be actively removing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere. The potential to utilize this for our benefit is huge. Algae ponds could be installed near operational fossil fuel plants and fed their carbon heavy exhaust as part of the ethanol production cycle.

As the U.S. continues to pursue innovation in its green energy future, funding these technological advances brings hope for a robust adaptation to the challenges of climate change. The green energy future could have huge potential for algae as a literal green energy powerhouse.

A Bright Future, Part I: A Changing Political Climate

By Sage Ertman, Policy Intern

The United States and the world at large have taken some great steps toward a sustainable

Credit: ca.usembassy.gov

energy future. Today’s post will cover some of the good things that have happened recently for U.S. and global energy policy. Over my next two posts I will shed light on some potential setbacks as well as the potential for the U.S. to convert “the energy infrastructures of each of the 50 United States to 100% wind, water, and sunlight (WWS) for all purposes (electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, and industry) by 2050.”

Until more recently as the effects of climate change have become more apparent, there wasn’t a unified push to transition toward renewable energy. However, now it seems as though the international community is finally beginning to recognize what we are doing to our planet and what we need to change to fix it. Not only have we seen a tremendous rise in renewable energy development and investment across the globe (both private and public), but the political climate is changing as well. Politicians are now listening to the environmental community and exercising their power to legislate for these necessary changes. The Clean Power Plan, the Paris Agreement, and the North American Leaders’ Summit are a few examples of these efforts at home in the U.S. and abroad.

Clean Power Plan

The Clean Air Act requires the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate emissions of air pollutants from stationary and mobile sources. Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act regulates existing stationary sources (e.g. power plants) by requiring compliance with standards of performance.The EPA’s Clean Power Plan, finalized only months before the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference, establishes emission guidelines and regulations under section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. Specifically, it requires States to develop plans to comply with set emission performance rates by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired electric generating units (EGUs). The EPA estimates that by 2030 the Clean Power Plan will have reduced emissions by 32% (from 2005 levels). However, the future of the Clean Power Plan remains uncertain in light of legal challenges.

COP 21

In late 2015, representatives from most of the world’s countries appeared in Paris for a United Nations conference on climate change (COP 21 for short). Signed by 178 countries (including the US) on April 22, 2016, the Paris Agreement seeks to prevent the rise of the global average temperatures beyond 2°C above pre-industrial levels. While countries agreed to make efforts to limit the temperature increase to 2°C, they also agreed to an additional aspirational goal of limiting the increase to 1.5°C. Never before has there been such a global movement in the name of the environment.

                                                                                      

North American Leaders’ Summit

In June 2016, the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. met at the North American Leaders’ Summit in Ottawa, Canada. While clean energy already provides roughly 35% of electricity generation in North America, these leaders set an even more ambitious goal that reaches beyond what the countries agreed to under the Paris Agreement: a 50% target for clean energy generation by 2025. The plan is to institute a series of initiatives that would tighten the energy efficiency standard in the next three years, to research further deployment strategies for renewable energy production across North America, and to reduce fossil fuel subsidies to mitigate carbon emissions.

This platform for transitioning to clean energy is building momentum and seeing much needed global support from politicians, legislators and world leaders. These efforts seem to show that the global community is finally waking up from a blissfully ignorant slumber to improve the quality of not only our lives but also the lives of future generations. Hopefully the global community can come together as a united front in time to fight the consequences of our changing climate.

In my next post, I will discuss a few potential setbacks in U.S. efforts to expand renewable energy policy.