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2021 was an enormous yr for energy-related information, what with the continued hunt for brand new types of vitality storage and cleaner if not carbon-free electrical energy and occasions and analysis that spotlighted the weak hyperlinks in our energy grid. Because the pandemic continued to grind on, it was really comforting to know that good individuals within the vitality sector had been working laborious to maintain the lights on, advance the know-how, and enhance individuals’s lives. IEEE Spectrum did its greatest to cowl these developments, and these had been the tales that our readers preferred greatest.Gravity Vitality Storage Will Present Its Potential in 2021Why was this Spectrum’s hottest vitality story of the yr? Effectively, let’s assume. As energy grids in all places more and more depend on intermittent renewable vitality, batteries and different types of vitality storage that may even out the bumps in provide and demand are taking over a vital position. No battery is ideal, nevertheless, so engineers maintain pushing for brand new and improved methods to retailer these electrons. The gravity batteries described on this story elevate big weights within the air or up mine shafts to retailer extra electrical energy, releasing the weights afterward to recuperate the saved vitality. One of many corporations featured within the story, Gravitricity, accomplished its 250-kilowatt gravity battery demonstrator in Edinburgh final April and is now engaged on a full-scale deployment at a mine within the Czech Republic.Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Lastly Takes Off in North America and EuropeBattery makers around the globe are cranking out lithium-ion batteries of varied flavors as quick as they will. Whereas lithium isn’t precisely briefly provide, extracting it from the bottom exacts an enormous environmental value. Thus the latest growth in battery recycling—and readers’ curiosity on this story on how the trade is increasing past China and South Korea and into america, Canada, and Western Europe. Final Could, one of many story’s featured startups, Canada’s Li-Cycle, introduced it might start recycling the manufacturing scrap from Ultium Cell’s $2.3 billion EV battery plant—that’s GM’s and LG Chem’s new mega-gigafactory in Lordstown, Ohio. Right here’s How We Might Brighten Clouds to Cool the EarthGeoengineering—altering the planet to mitigate the worst results of local weather change—is an concept that has taken on new forex of late. As world temperatures rise, greenhouse gases accumulate, and all indicators level to Actually Unhealthy Issues occurring within the coming a long time, Spectrum readers are clearly in search of a method out of our present local weather predicament. This text, by researchers at PARC and the College of Washington, is one potential reply. The fundamental concept is so as to add particles of sea salt to the environment to brighten clouds and funky the planet. We’ll nonetheless need to do the laborious work of reducing carbon emissions, however geoengineering could possibly be a method to purchase us a while.Photo voltaic-to-Hydrogen Tech Sees “Exceptional” Effectivity JumpAnother massive growth within the vitality sector is the return of the hydrogen financial system. This time round, although, the emphasis is on “inexperienced hydrogen”—that’s, hydrogen produced utilizing clear vitality reminiscent of photo voltaic or wind energy. A lot of the world’s hydrogen comes from deeply polluting strategies. And most inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing nonetheless depends on electrolyzers, which themselves devour numerous electrical energy. This story seems at promising analysis out of Japan’s Shinshu College on light-absorbing supplies to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen straight—reducing the electrolyzer out of the equation. Because the story notes, it would take fairly a bit extra R&D till this methodology is “prepared for prime-time hydrogen manufacturing.”China Says It is Closing in on Thorium Nuclear ReactorAlso getting a re-evaluation: nuclear energy! Whereas some latest efforts name for radical new reactor designs, this report highlights an previous method with a contemporary spin. Molten salt nuclear reactors fueled by thorium had been first investigated at Oak Ridge Nationwide Laboratory within the Fifties. A brand new molten salt reactor reportedly being constructed by China follows the Oak Ridge design but additionally incorporates the identical type of high-temperature salt pumps utilized in concentrated solar-power crops.What the Texas-Freeze Fiasco Tells Us About The Way forward for the GridIn this clear-eyed consideration of final winter’s lethal deep-freeze in Texas, Robert Hebner, director of the Middle for Electromechanics on the College of Texas at Austin, describes the converging components and troubled historical past that contributed to the catastrophic blackout. “[It] appears fairly clear that what occurred in Texas was possible preventable with readily accessible and longstanding engineering practices,” Hebner concludes. “However a collective, and sure implicit, judgment was made that the danger to be mitigated was so small that mitigation wouldn’t be price the price. And nature ‘messed’ with that judgment.”One Atmospheric Nuclear Explosion Might Take Out the Energy GridAnother in style story within the “issues which might be unhealthy for the ability grid” class was this piece by nationwide safety author Natasha Bajema. She checked out a latest research out of the U.S. Geological Survey and the College of Colorado on the possible results of detonating a several-kiloton nuclear weapon within the environment and producing a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (EMP). (To be honest, Overseas Coverage in the same 2020 examination rated the EMP drawback as very a lot outsized and “the very last thing you might want to fear about in a nuclear explosion.”) The conductivity of the Earth, the Geological Survey scientists found, performs an vital position within the final result, with low-conductivity areas most susceptible to struggling a “grid-crippling energy surge,” as the electrical discipline travels out via high-voltage energy strains. Right here’s hoping that doesn’t occur in 2022, or another yr. Off-Grid Photo voltaic’s Killer AppSpectrum contributing editor Peter Fairley traveled to Kenya to report on a growth in agriculture pushed by off-grid solar energy and environment friendly solar-powered irrigation pumps. The pumps faucet into huge shops of groundwater that lie not too far underground and canopy a lot of sub-Saharan Africa. Photo voltaic-irrigation know-how, mixed with micro-lending fee plans, lets small farmers increase crop yields, lengthen rising seasons, and neutralize the consequences of drought. It is a win-win-win for part of the world that might actually use a victory proper now.How A lot Vitality Does It Take to Develop a Tomato?Lastly however by no means leastly, Spectrum columnist and deep thinker Vaclav Smil contemplated the vitality footprint of the tomato. Discipline tomatoes, unsurprisingly, are the least energy-intensive to provide, whereas elevating hydroponic tomatoes grown in greenhouses can devour 60 instances as a lot vitality. Meals for thought as we shut out 2021.From Your Web site Articles
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