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Month: March 2021

A cheaper carbon capture is on the way

Posted on by dishanth
A cheaper carbon capture is on the way

As part of a marathon research effort to lower the cost of carbon capture, chemists have now demonstrated a method to seize carbon dioxide (CO2) that reduces costs by 19 percent compared to current commercial technology. The new technology requires 17 percent less energy to accomplish the same task as its commercial counterparts, surpassing barriers that have kept other forms of carbon capture from widespread industrial use. And it can be easily applied in existing capture systems.

In a study published in the March 2021 edition of International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory—along with collaborators from Fluor Corp. and the Electric Power Research Institute—describe properties of the solvent, known as EEMPA, that allow it to sidestep the energetically expensive demands incurred by traditional solvents.

“EEMPA has some promising qualities,” said chemical engineer Yuan Jiang, lead author of the study. “It can capture  without high water content, so it’s water-lean, and it’s much less viscous than other water-lean solvents.”

Carbon capture methods are diverse. They range from aqueous amines—the water-rich solvents that run through today’s commercially available capture units, which Jiang used as an industrial comparison—to energy-efficient membranes that filter CO2 from flue gas emitted by .

 

This animation depicts the two-stage flash configuration, one of several processes..

 

Current atmospheric CO2 levels have soared higher in recent years than at any point within the last 800,000 years, as a new record high of 409.8 parts per million was struck in 2019. CO2 is primarily released through human activities like fossil fuel combustion, and today’s atmospheric concentrations exceed pre-industrial levels by 47 percent.

At a cost of $400-$500 million per unit, commercial technology can capture carbon at roughly $58.30 per metric ton of CO2, according to a DOE analysis. EEMPA, according to Jiang’s study, can absorb CO2 from power plant flue gas and later release it as pure CO2 for as little as $47.10 per metric ton, offering an additional technology option for power plant operators to capture their CO2.

Jiang’s study described seven processes that power plants can adopt when using EEMPA, ranging from simple setups similar to those described in 1930s technology, to multi-stage configurations of greater complexity. Jiang modeled the energy and material costs to run such processes in a 550-megawatt coal power plant, finding that each method coalesces near the $47.10 per metric ton mark.

 

Solving a solvent’s problems

One of the first known patents for solvent-based carbon capture technology cropped up in 1930, filed by Robert Bottoms.

“I kid you not,” said green chemist David Heldebrant, coauthor of the new study. “Ninety-one years ago, Bottoms used almost the same process design and chemistry to address what we now know as a 21st century problem.”

The chemical process for extracting CO2 from post-combustion gas remains largely unchanged: water-rich amines mix with , absorb CO2 and are later stripped of the gas, which is then compressed and stored. But aqueous amines have limitations. Because they’re water-rich, they must be boiled at high temperatures to remove CO2 and then cooled before they can be reused, driving costs upward.

“We wanted to hit it from the other side and ask, why are we not using 21st century chemistry for this?” Heldebrant said. So, in 2009, he and his colleagues began designing water-lean solvents as an alternative. The first few solvents were too viscous to be usable.

“‘Look,'” he recalled industry partners saying, “‘your solvent is freezing and turning into glass. We can’t work with this.’ So, we said, OK. Challenge accepted.”

Over the next decade, the PNNL team refined the solvent’s chemistry with the explicit aim to overcome the “viscosity barrier.” The key, it turned out, was to use molecules that aligned in a way that promoted internal hydrogen bonding, leaving fewer hydrogen atoms to interact with neighboring molecules.

Heldebrant draws a comparison to children running through a ball pit: if two kids hold each other’s hands while passing through, they move slowly. But if they hold their own hands instead, they pass as two smaller, faster-moving objects. Internal hydrogen bonding also leaves fewer hydrogen atoms to interact with overall, akin to removing balls from the pit.

 

Pivoting to plastic

Where the team’s solvent was once viscous like honey, it now flowed like water from the kettle. EEMPA is 99 percent less viscous than PNNL’s previous water-lean formulations, now nearly on par with commercial solvents, allowing them to be utilized in existing infrastructure, which is largely built from steel. Pivoting to plastic in place of steel, the team found, can further reduce equipment costs.

Steel is expensive to produce, costly to ship and tends to corrode over time in contact with solvents. At one tenth the weight, substituting plastic for steel can drive the overall cost down another $5 per metric ton, according to a study led by Jiang in 2019.

Pairing with plastic offers another advantage to EEMPA, whose reactive surface area is boosted in plastic systems. Because traditional aqueous amines can’t “wet” plastic as well (think of water beading on Teflon), this advantage is unique to the new solvent.

The PNNL team plans to produce 4,000 gallons of EEMPA in 2022 to analyze at a 0.5-megawatt scale inside testing facilities at the National Carbon Capture Center in Shelby County, Alabama, in a project led by the Electric Power Research Institute in partnership with Research Triangle Institute International. They will continue testing at increasing scales and further refine the solvent’s chemistry, with the aim to reach the U.S. Department of Energy’s goal of deploying commercially available technology that can capture CO2 at a cost of $30 per metric ton by 2035.

 

 

Provided by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Source Phys.org

Is A Renewable Energy Boom Coming To The Middle East?

Posted on by dishanth
Is A Renewable Energy Boom Coming To The Middle East?

The coronavirus pandemic has raised awareness among GCC countries of the importance of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) standards. If current trends continue, then ESG could become a valuable element of the region’s recovery from Covid-19.

ESG standards are used by investors to evaluate potential investments, as well as enabling business leaders to formulate responsible and sustainable corporate strategies.

Environmental criteria take into account a company’s environmental footprint, as well as the actions it takes to offset it. Social criteria evaluate how it manages relationships with its various internal and external stakeholders. Lastly, governance criteria evaluate the inner mechanisms of a company’s management and operations.

Demand for investments that are ethical and sustainable has been increasing in recent years. Globally, more and more investors are turning to businesses that embrace ESG, and this tendency has been boosted by Covid-19.

As phrased in a report published by S&P Global in April last year, “strong ESG performers with stakeholder-focused and adaptive-governance structures are likely to remain resilient amid these rapidly changing dynamics”.

ESG standards have become a central focus of the world’s major financial bodies. In January this year, at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, it was announced that a coalition of multinationals and business leaders had signed up to the “Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics”, a set of ESG standards released by the WEF and the International Business Council in September 2020.

“Stakeholder capitalism [has become] mainstream,” Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the WEF, told international media at the time. “The public commitments from companies to report not only on financial matters but also their ESG impacts are an important step towards a global economy that works for progress, people and the planet.”

Meanwhile, the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation is moving forward with its plan to develop a single set of internationally recognised sustainability standards. In early February the foundation announced the goal of producing a definitive proposal by September this year.

In the GCC region, ESG has likewise become a hot topic in recent months.

For example, at the end of last year the CFA Institute – a global investment association – announced the results of a study which found that 94% of retail investors in the UAE were interested in or applied ESG principles in 2020, up from 90% in 2018.

Meanwhile, 74% of investors in the UAE with values-based objectives said they would be willing to give up some profit in exchange for meeting their values objective.

 

Green shoots in the GCC

Significant steps have been taken by major regional players towards a more ESG-oriented future.

Qatar National Bank (QNB) set up its Green, Social and Sustainability Bond Framework in February last year.

 

Related Video: Fukushima’s Radioactive Wastewater Disaster Then, in September last year, QNB launched its $600m green bond, for which it received subscriptions of more than $1.8bn. These proceeds will be used to “finance and/or refinance assets in verified Eligible Green Projects”, the bank said.

This was only the second such issuance from a commercial bank in the GCC, following the green bond of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, as it was then known, in 2017.

In a further sign of the growing interest in such instruments in the region, in April last year the Dubai Financial Market launched the UAE ESG index, while in August Tadawul – Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange – announced that it planned to launch its own ESG index in 2021.

This was followed in September by Saudi Electricity’s $1.3bn green sukuk (Islamic bond) issuance, which was five times oversubscribed, a result that was driven by growing regional demand for ESG-compliant investments.

Saudi Arabia recently reinforced its commitment to ESG and sustainability during the Saudi Future Investment Initiative in January, at which Tadawul and the Future Investment Initiative Institute signed a memorandum of understanding to advance ESG awareness in the Kingdom.

At the same conference Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, the minister of energy, told media that Saudi Arabia was set to become “another Germany when it comes to renewables”.

 

Related: How Oil Could Go To $100 Per Barrel

Despite these promising indications, however, the Saudi ESG index has yet to be launched.

Elsewhere in the region, in early February the Abu Dhabi Investment Office launched an ESG policy, which it will deploy in relation to different operations, among them public-private partnerships.

 

ESG key to GCC recovery?

The growing focus on ESG standards dovetails with development priorities shared by countries in the GCC region.

On the one hand, it ties in to different diversification strategies. Last year’s slump in oil prices served to underline the importance of a more broad-based economy. Investments guided by ESG – for example, in renewable energy – offer a way to augment diversification.

On a related note, the Gulf is on the front line of climate change, and ESG can boost resilience as well as reducing emissions.

Lastly, globally speaking, ESG-guided companies have proven remarkably resilient in the face of Covid-19. An increased focus on ESG may thus constitute a way to drive a sustainable recovery from the pandemic.

 

 

By Oxford Business Group

Source Oil Price

Could krill become a carbon-neutral aquafeed ingredient?

Posted on by dishanth
Could krill become a carbon-neutral aquafeed ingredient?

One of the world’s leading providers of krill for the aquafeed industry, Aker BioMarine, has pledged to meet net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

One of a raft of new sustainability goals from the Norwegian company, they plan to achieve this through various means, including the use of green ammonia to power their fishing and processing vessels. They also plan to step up the use of ocean drones and flying drones, to minimise the time harvesting vessels need to spend searching for krill.

Other goals include reducing the CO2 emissions per tonne of krill oil produced by 50 percent by 2030 in their Houston production plant and increase support for AION, a newly launched circularity company that will repurpose all product and plastic waste into new products that are used in high volume, such as shopping baskets and food trays. AION is already working with customers such as McDonald’s, NorgesGruppen and Varner.

“We consider ourselves pioneers at Aker BioMarine, which for us means that we want to lead our industry in a more sustainable direction. As a company, we make no excuses when it comes to meeting our targets. We are forging a new and more planet-friendly path, tackling challenges, embracing technology, and making more sustainable choices than ever done before in our industry,” said the company’s CEO, Matts Johansen, in a press release.

At the end of February 2021, Aker BioMarine and Aker Clean Hydrogen signed an agreement and are teaming up with other key players to industrialise the production of green ammonia, in an industry first move. This will support Aker BioMarine’s mission to make the vessels completely carbon-free. For example, Aker BioMarine’s newest support vessel, Antarctic Provider, is equipped with the most energy efficient engine in the world, a hybrid engine that is convertible for greener fuels of the future.

 

Christina Ianssen, sustainability director at Aker Biomarine

 

“Green ammonia is the most promising sustainable fuel for the shipping industry. It is essential that the industry tests and develops solutions for ammonia on a large scale. This will make it possible not only for Aker BioMarine, but also for Norwegian suppliers and renewable companies, to be world-leading on greener solutions for a broad range of sectors,” says Christina Ianssen, sustainability manager at Aker BioMarine.

 

Aker BioMarine plans to have vessels that are using ammonia as fuel towards 2030, when the infrastructure for production and distribution of green ammonia is in place.

The company’s ambitions for reducing CO2 emissions are closely connected to the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs), specifically goal 13, which calls for urgent action to combat climate change and to slow and stop global warming. To achieve this, CO2 emissions must be reduced significantly in the near-term.

In the last ten years the company has cut its CO2 emissions per tonne of krill produced by approximately 50 percent. The goal is to redo this in the next ten years, through the implementation of analytical tools to reduce consumption of consumables and energy at the Houston manufacturing plant, reuse of energy and efficiency projects on the vessels.

 

Other sustainability commitments to be achieved by 2030 include:

  • Ensuring full circularity on all of its principal waste streams.
  • Making aquaculture production more efficient, by contributing to 1 billion extra servings of seafood produced annually.
  • Combatting lifestyle diseases by delivering 5 billion doses of health promoting nutrients annually.
  • Developing innovative products that play an integral role in sustainable diets and the future food system.
  • Decarbonising aqua and animal feed by delivering low-carbon marine ingredients.
  • Improving the sustainability of fisheries through contributing to data and science driven regulation and ocean management.
  • Maintaining unconditional Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification and ensure transparency in vessel operations.

“These sustainability goals support our overall purpose – to improve human and planetary health – and make this purpose even more tangible. Every single person working in Aker BioMarine is involved in achieving these goals, and we will work across the company’s entire value chain to make sure we lead the way to a net zero end,” added Johansen.

 

 

by The Fish Site

US urged to cut 50% of emissions by 2030 to spur other countries to action

Posted on by dishanth
US urged to cut 50% of emissions by 2030 to spur other countries to action

The US needs to commit to slashing its planet-heating emissions by at least half by the end of the decade to address the climate crisis and spur other countries to greater action, a coalition of American environmental groups has urged.

Joe Biden’s administration is set to unveil a new national emissions reduction target at a climate meeting it has convened with other major economic powers on Earth Day, 22 April, which it hopes will galvanize countries that are currently dangerously lagging in efforts to stave off disastrous climate change.

A motley selection of environmental groups and leaders have said the US goal must be no lower than a 50% cut in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, based on 2005 levels. This will, the groups argue, put America on track to meet Biden’s aspiration of net zero emissions by 2050, as well as provide a major push to countries and businesses that were bereft of American climate leadership during Donald Trump’s presidency.

“The target has to be ambitious enough to show US leadership, but also credible, it can’t just be plucked from thin air,” said Nat Keohane, vice-president for international climate at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “This is ambitious but also feasible. We need to show the US is bringing everything it can to this fight.”

A new EDF report calls for a “whole of government effort” to combat the climate crisis, with all cars sold in the US to be zero emissions from 2035, a clean electricity standard to shift the grid to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, and new regulations to restrict methane emissions from oil and gas drilling.

Other environmental groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, World Resources Institute and National Resources Defense Council, have also rallied to the idea of a 50% cut, along with figures such as Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington, and Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, as crucial to curb ever-worsening wildfires, floods and heatwaves that are suffered disproportionately by underserved Americans of color.

“We see this important opportunity to bolster equity and fairness,” said Starla Yeh, a clean energy policy specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The goal is not only achievable but cost effective. The more progress we make this decade, the better off we will be.”

The US first set an emissions reduction target, known in diplomatic jargon as a nationally determined contribution (or NDC), in 2014 during Barack Obama’s administration, vowing to cut emissions by up to 28% by 2025, on 2005 levels. The target by itself does not lower emissions but helps set federal government policy and provides a framework for businesses, cities and states to work towards.

A 50% reduction by 2030 would “be a challenge”, according to Nathan Hultman, director at Center for Global Sustainability at the University of Maryland, who helped design the Obama-era goal, but would be achievable with a “whole of society approach”.

The international credibility of the world’s second largest carbon polluter was severely damaged during the Trump administration, when the US pulled out of the Paris climate agreement and dismantled various rules aimed to reduce emissions. The US’s return to the international fold has come with added expectations, with Laurence Tubiana, a French diplomat and key architect of the Paris agreement, saying the American target should be “at least” a 50% reduction.

“There are broad expectations from America’s allies that the NDC needs to start with a ‘5’,” said Keohane. “There is a level of urgency you hear from folks in the White House that is a sea change from even the Obama administration. I think they are serious in putting out an ambitious marker.”

John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, is currently on a trip to Europe to meet leaders in the lead-up to crucial UN climate talks in Glasgow later this year. Kerry met with the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, on Monday and will this week hold talks with officials from the European commission and the French government.

Kerry said the UK was a “strong partner” in facing the climate crisis but that the world’s largest emitters needed to do far more. Before his trip, Kerry had said the world was “marching forward to what is almost tantamount to a mutual suicide pact” by failing to cut emissions quickly enough. China, the world’s largest emitter, recently released a five-year plan that severely disappointed environmentalists.

 

 

By 

Source The Guardian

‘Biodegradable’ plastic will soon be banned in Australia—that’s a big win for the environment

Posted on by dishanth
‘Biodegradable’ plastic will soon be banned in Australia—that’s a big win for the environment

To start dealing with Australia’s mounting plastic crisis, the federal government last week launched its first National Plastics Plan.

The plan will fight plastic on various fronts, such as banning plastic on beaches, ending polystyrene packaging for takeaway containers, and phasing in microplastic filters in washing machines. But we’re particularly pleased to see a main form of  will also be phased out.

Biodegradable plastic promises a plastic that breaks down into natural components when it’s no longer wanted for its original purpose. The idea of a plastic that literally disappears once in the ocean, littered on land or in landfill is tantalizing—but also (at this stage) a pipe dream.

 

Why ‘biodegradable’ ain’t that great

“Biodegradable” suggests an item is made from plant-based materials. But this isn’t always the case.

A major problem with “biodegradable” plastic is the lack of regulations or standards around how the term should be used. This means it could, and is, being used to refer to all manner of things, many of which aren’t great for the environment.

Many plastics labeled biodegradable are actually traditional fossil-fuel plastics that are simply degradable (as all plastic is) or even “oxo-degradable”—where chemical additives make the fossil-fuel plastic fragment into microplastics. The fragments are usually so small they’re invisible to the naked eye, but still exist in our landfills, water ways and soils.

The National Plastics Plan aims to work with industry to phase out this problematic “fragmentable” plastic by July, 2022.

Some biodegradable plastics are made from plant-based materials. But it’s often unknown what type of environment they’ll break down in and how long that would take.

Those items may end up existing for decades, if not centuries, in landfill, litter or ocean as many plant-based plastics actually don’t break down any quicker than traditional plastics. This is because not all plant-based plastics are necessarily compostable, as the way some plant-based polymers form can make them incredibly durable.

So it’s best to avoid all plastic labeled as biodegradable. Even after the ban eliminates fragmentation—the worst of these—there’s still no evidence remaining types of biodegradable plastics are better for the environment.

Home compostable label. Source: Australian Bioplastics Association (ABA).

 

Compostable plastics aren’t much better

Compostable plastic is another label you may have come across that’s meant to be better for the environment. It’s specifically designed to break down into natural, non-toxic components in certain conditions.

Unlike biodegradable plastics, there are certification standards for compostable plastics, so it’s important to check for one the below labels. If an item doesn’t have a certification label, there’s nothing to say it isn’t some form of mislabelled “biodegradable” plastic.

But most certified compostable plastics are only for industrial composts, which reach very high temperatures. This means they’re unlikely to break down sufficiently in home composts. Even those certified as “home compostable” are assessed under perfect lab conditions, which aren’t easily achieved in the backyard.

And while certified compostable plastics are increasing, the number of industrial composting facilities that actually accept them isn’t yet keeping up.

Nor are collection systems to get your plastics to these facilities. The vast majority of kerbside organics recycling bins don’t currently accept compostable plastics and other packaging. This means placing compostable plastics in these bins is considered contamination.

Even if you can get your certified compostable plastics to an appropriate facility, composting plastics actually reduces their economic value as they can no longer be used in packaging and products. Instead, they’re only valuable for returning nutrients to soil and, potentially, capturing a fraction of the energy used to produce them.

Finally, if you don’t have an appropriate collection system and your compostable plastic ends up in landfill, that might actually be worse than traditional plastic. Compostable plastics could release methane—a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide—in landfill, in the same way food waste does.

So, you should only consider  plastics when you have a facility that will take them, and a way to get them there.

And while the National Plastics Plan and National Packaging Targets are aiming for at least 70% of plastics to be recovered by 2025 (including through composting), nothing yet has been said about how collection systems will be supported to achieve this.

 

A brief guide to help you responsibly dispose of your plastics. Source: University Technology Sydney

 

Is recycling helpful?

Only an estimated 9% of plastics worldwide (and 18% in Australia) are actually recycled. The majority ends up in landfill, and can leak into our oceans and natural environments.

In Australia, systems for recycling the most common types of plastic packaging are well established and in many cases operate adequately. However, there are still major issues.

For example, many plastic items can’t be recycled in our kerbside bins (including soft and flexible plastics such as bags and cling films, and small items like bottle lids, plastic cutlery and straws). Placing these items in your kerbside recycling bin can contaminate other recycling and even damage sorting machines.

What’s more, much of the plastic collected for recycling doesn’t have high value “end markets.” Only two types of plastic—PET (think water or soft drink bottles and some detergent containers) and HDPE (milk bottles, shampoo/conditioner/detergent containers)—are easily turned back into new plastic containers.

The rest end up in a stream called “mixed plastics,” much of which we have traditionally exported overseas for recycling due to low demand here. The new waste export ban may help fix this in the future.

 

So what do you do about plastic?

The obvious answer then, is to eliminate problematic plastic altogether, as the National Plastics Plan is attempting to do, and replace single-use plastics with reusable alternatives.

Little actions such as bringing your reusable water bottle, coffee cup and cutlery, can add up to big changes, if adequately supported by businesses and government to create a widespread culture shift. So too, could a swing away from insidious coffee capsules, cling wrap and cotton buds so many of us depend on.

Opting too, for plastic items made from recycled materials can make a big impact on the feasibility of plastic recycling.

If you do end up with  on your hands, take a quick glance at the graphic above, or read the University Technology Sydney’s Detailed Decision Guide to Disposing of Plastics.

 

 

By Jenni Downes, Kim Borg and Nick Florin, The Conversation

Source: PHYS.ORG

Sunrise Movement Launches Campaign to Fight Climate Crisis With Guaranteed Jobs

Posted on by dishanth
Sunrise Movement Launches Campaign to Fight Climate Crisis With Guaranteed Jobs

Amid the ongoing climate emergency and the devastating coronavirus pandemic that has resulted in more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. alone as well as an economic meltdown that has left millions of people unemployed, the Sunrise Movement on Thursday launched its “Good Jobs for All” campaign to demand that lawmakers pursue a robust recovery that guarantees a good job to anyone who wants one and puts the country on a path toward a Green New Deal.

“It will take millions of people to build a new energy grid, care for older folks, teach little kids, restore parks and buildings that have fallen into disrepair, and do the work of building happy, healthy communities,” the climate justice organization wrote on its campaign website. “This year, we can put millions of people back to work in good paying jobs building a sustainable, just, and people-centered economy.”

“In the richest country in the world, no one should go without a good job,” Varshini Prakash, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, said to thousands of people across the country who attended Thursday’s online launch event via livestream or at one of 600 virtual watch parties. “For years, our movement has been demanding a Green New Deal that fulfills Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s promise and Coretta Scott King’s dream through guaranteed good jobs and a better society.”

“This campaign,” Prakash added, “will galvanize and grow our movement around this critical component of the Green New Deal as we recover from Covid-19 and the economic recession.”

 

 

During the campaign launch, Sunrise—joined by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Sara Nelson, president of the the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO—introduced their Good Jobs for All Pledge, which calls on President Joe Biden and members of Congress to immediately enact economic recovery legislation that meets the scale of the overlapping crises society is facing and paves the way for a Green New Deal that puts millions of people to work to fight against catastrophic climate change.

Given the current convergence of crises—public health, economic inequality, racial injustice, and “a climate crisis that looms over it all”—the Good Jobs for All Pledge stresses that “with so much work to do building a better society that works for all of us, there’s no reason anyone in the richest country in the history of the world should be unemployed, underemployed, or working a job that isn’t in the public interest.”

Pressley, a Green New Deal co-sponsor, recently introduced the Federal Job Guarantee Resolution, which seeks to make “meaningful, dignified work” at a livable wage an enforceable legal right.

Becoming the first signatory of the Good Jobs For All Pledge, the Massachusetts Democrat said Thursday that “establishing the legal right to a good job for every person will help address the current employment crisis, create the foundation for an equitable economic recovery, and ensure that we are able to meet the pressing challenges facing our communities.”

“I’m excited to work alongside the Sunrise Movement—as well as my colleagues, advocates, and activists across the country—to advance bold employment policies that ensure every person has access to a good job that pays a living wage, and that we put people to work addressing urgent priorities, like the climate crisis,” said Pressley, who is expected to soon be joined by other prominent progressive lawmakers.

Signatories to the Good Jobs for All Pledge promise to do everything in their power—including abolishing the Senate’s anti-democratic filibuster rule that obstructs the will of the majority—to “champion economic recovery legislation that invests $10 trillion to create at least 15 million good jobs sustained over the next decade in clean energy, transportation, housing, the care economy, public services, and regenerative agriculture, with the goal of ultimately guaranteeing full employment.”

 

In addition, backers of the pledge vow to:

  • Support “Indigenous sovereignty and strong labor, equity, immigration, and environmental justice standards,” as outlined in the THRIVE Agenda, a proposal for a just and sustainable recovery from the coronavirus crisis unveiled in September 2020 by a progressive coalition of unions, advocacy groups, and Democratic lawmakers;
  • Create or improve “public employment programs to directly put Americans to work in serving the public interest, including the robust funding of a Civilian Climate Corps and a Public Health Jobs Corps”;
  • Strengthen and protect the nation’s “workforce, unions, and workers’ rights through the provisions in the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act,” a broad piece of legislation introduced in May 2019 that would “negate four decades worth of anti-labor barriers that right-wing forces have put in place,” according to Alan Minsky, executive director of Progressive Democrats of America;
  • Direct “at least 50% of investment funds to communities on the frontlines of our economic, environmental, and public health crises”; and
  • Shift “every sector of the economy to 100% clean, renewable energy as fast as possible over the next decade.”

 

As Sunrise noted in a statement released Friday, “The campaign comes 43 days into the administration, as time ticks down on the Democrats’ now or never moment to stop the worst effects of the climate catastrophe and avoid the fatal political mistakes of the early Obama years: not acting at the full scale of the economic crisis, and falling short in delivering on promises made.”

Emphasizing that “the clock is ticking,” Prakash said that “we expect Biden and Congress to deliver on a bold economic recovery in its first 100 days—by April 30th.”

“We’re going to put on the pressure to make sure that they do,” she added. “And if they don’t, well then they’re really gonna hear from us—and there’ll be hell to pay. You’ve got 57 days to deliver.”

Reposted with permission from Common Dreams.

 

 

Source Eco Watch

China’s Five-Year Plan ‘Underwhelming’ on Climate

Posted on by dishanth
China’s Five-Year Plan ‘Underwhelming’ on Climate

On Friday, China set out an economic blueprint for the next five years, which was expected to substantiate the goal set out last fall by President Xi Jinping for the country to reach net-zero emissions before 2060 and hit peak emissions by 2030.

While the plan calls for a “major push” on clean energy development, a few aspects have left climate experts with questions about how exactly the world’s largest emitter will hit its stated climate goals. For example, the plan did not include a ban on new coal projects, nor did it set a “carbon cap” to define what peak emissions will be, instead setting a carbon intensity target that is the same as in the previous five-ear plan.

However, some are hopeful that the government will announce more detailed regulations on carbon-intensive construction and manufacturing industries later this year, and that more details will be laid out in an upcoming separate five-year plan for the energy sector. Fan Dai, director of the California-China Climate Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, told Quartz that the plan is “simply aggregating existing targets from last year.”

Dai added that “[t]here’s a lot of room for further development and ambition, especially around those targets that were missing that we hoped would be included.”

 

As reported by The Guardian:

China will reduce its “emissions intensity” – the amount of CO2 produced per unit of GDP – by 18% over the period 2021 to 2025, but this target is in line with previous trends, and could lead to emissions continuing to increase by 1% a year or more. Non-fossil fuel energy is targeted to make up 20% of China’s energy mix, leaving plenty of room for further expansion of the country’s coal industry.

Swithin Lui, of the Climate Action Tracker and NewClimate Institute, said: “[This is] underwhelming and shows little sign of a concerted switch away from a future coal lock-in. There is little sign of the change needed [to meet net zero].”

Zhang Shuwei, chief economist at Draworld Environment Research Centre, said: “As the first five-year plan after China committed to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, the 14th five-year plan was expected to demonstrate strong climate ambition. However, the draft plan presented does not seem to meet the expectations. The international community expected China’s climate policy to ‘jump,’ but in reality it is still crawling.”

 

 

Source Eco Watch

A Complete Guide To Electric Cars

Posted on by dishanth
A Complete Guide To Electric Cars

Introduction: Get Charged Up!

 

As time goes on, electric cars become more popular. There are an increasing number of brands from Jaguar to BMW to Audi that are making their own electric cars, and they’re becoming easier to access for the general public.

There are a lot of benefits to buying an electric car – they’re not just for the richest people in society anymore. They are affordable, and you’ll spend a lot of money on gas. You can also get tax breaks as they are energy efficient.

With that being said, electric cars are still a fairly new thing in some respects. This means that a lot of people may not know how they operate, or even if an electric car is the right choice for them.

Thankfully, we’ve got the lowdown in this article about every single thing you could possibly need to know about electric cars.

 

When Was The First Electric Car Invented?

 

It’s easy to think that the electric car was a recent, 21st century invention. What you may be surprised to learn, however, that its history spans back a lot further than this.

Electric cars have actually been around since around the late 19th century, almost the same amount of time that we’ve had standard gas fueled cars.

It is somewhat challenging to pin an exact date on when the first electric car was invented. The reality is that it was a journey consisting of a range of smaller ideas.

During the early 1800s, many inventors in the Netherlands and the United States were beginning to come up with the idea of vehicles powered by batteries.

It was during this time that some of the very first smaller-scale electric cars were produced. Then, later on the first electric carriage was made by Robert Anderson. With that being said, the first electric cars made for practical purposes didn’t emerge until the latter half of the 19th century.

There are a few different inventors credited with the ideas behind the first electric cars used in a practical setting. The electric motor is generally attributed to the Hungarian Engineer Anyos Jedlik.

Lead acid batteries for commercial projects were invented by the French physicist Gaston Plane in 1859. These two things then combined together to manufacture the first electric car in London in 1884 by Thomas Parker.

The first ‘real’ electric car was made in 1888 by a German inventor by the name of Andreas Flocken, and it was called the Flocken Elektrowagen.

In fact, during the late 19th and early 20th century, electric cars were widely popular and a favorite method of transportation.

They have continued to be popular through the years, especially during the 1960s and 70s where gas was short and electric vehicles were an attractive alternative. They were not without their faults, however.

Today, electric vehicles are seen as an environmentally friendly alternative to gas fuelled cars, releasing far fewer carbon emissions for the sake of a greener planet.

Electric cars may be seen by many as the way forward for motorized vehicles, so understanding more about these energy efficient contraptions is certainly beneficial.

 

Electric Cars: A Short Timeline

 

Date & Events

1830s

First small scale electric cars developed, and the very first crude electric car was made in 1832 to debut in the United States in 1889.

1901

Thomas Edison develops a new battery to make electric batteries more efficient and the very first hybrid electric car is invented by Ferdinand Porsche. His car was called the Lohner-Porsche Mixte.

1908

1908 – the electric car briefly falls out of popularity, thanks to Model T releasing gas operated cars that were earlier to purchase and were more affordable to the masses

1960-70

During the 60s and 70s, the prices of gas began to skyrocket. As a result, electric cars started to rise in popularity once again.

1973

General Motors created an urban electric car prototype that’s later exhibited at the Low Pollution Power Systems Development in the same year. Alternative fuel cars are being investigated by automakers across the world.

1979

Electric cars yet again fall in popularity as they couldn’t provide the same range and performance as gas alternatives.

1996

The EV1 is released by GM, and it gains a large amount of popularity in niche groups.

1997

The very first mass produced hybrid is unleashed onto the market by Toyota – it was called the Prius. It became a massive hit among celebrities and gained global fame.

2006

Tesla Motors, a company started in 2003, unleashes the prototype Tesla Roadster to the world. It used the lithium-ion battery, a common battery in electric cars in the users following.

2009

A nation wide charging infrastructure is developed to allow users to charge their cars on the go. In the United States alone, there are at least 8,000 charging stations to date.

2010

The first plug in hybrid is released by GM called the Chevy Volt, followed by the Nissan LEAF in 2010

 

What types of electric cars exist today?

 

As time has advanced, the kinds of electric vehicles on the market have also developed. As such, there is not one specific type of electric car on the market. Rather, there are numerous different kinds of electric cars on the market, all with their own pros and cons.

There are currently three primary kinds of electric cars on the market, also known as EVs. The electric vehicles are BEVs, PHEVs, and HEVs.

The first is the BEV, short for Battery Electric Vehicle. Then you have the PHEV, standing for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Finally, HEVs – Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Of course, there are a number of additional types of EVs, but these are the main ones that you need to know about.

BEV

PHEV

HEV

Emissions

Low

Higher

Higher

Engine Type

Electric Only

Electric & Back Up

Electric & Back Up

Charging Type

Regenerative Braking

Plug In

Regenerative Braking

All Electric Range

50-250 Miles

5-50 Miles

Short

 

BEV

The first kind of electric vehicle is the Battery Electric Vehicle. These are generally just referred to as EVs, but to put it simply they are entirely electric vehicles.

They usually come with rechargeable batteries that you would need to charge at a designated charging point, and they do not feature a gasoline engine.

You heard that right – they run on only one kind of fuel type. There’s no more worrying about the extortionate prices of gas if you have a BEV!

These vehicles are also sometimes called pure electric vehicles.

You may have already heard of some Battery Electric Vehicles. Just a few examples include:

  • Tesla X
  • Hyundai Ioniq
  • Renault Zoe
  • BMW i3
  • Kia Soul
  • Nissan LEAF
  • Volkswagen e-Golf
  • Toyota Rav4

A BEV usually stores its electricity inside of a high capacity battery pack that’s inside of the vehicle. Of course, you can’t just use any battery, in case you’re wondering.

The batteries are made just for powering up your electric vehicle, and the packs power up all of the electronics in the BEV. They also charge the electric motor.

To charge a BEV, you simply need to plug them into an external outlet. This may be an outlet that you would normally have at home, though it is best to get your own home charging point. This will make the charging better, giving your car a thorough charge in a shorter amount of time.

Battery Electric Vehicles usually tend to come with a way of charging the battery internally. This is known as regenerative braking. In essence, when you slow the vehicle, the effort of this charges the battery inside of the car.

This means that the heat and kinetic energy that is normally wasted inside of a car is instead put to good use.

There are a bunch of benefits to getting Battery Electric Vehicles, though the primary benefit is that it’s eco friendly. If you are eco conscious then you will be pleased to know that BEVs are the best for the environment out of all the EV types.

They don’t produce any harmful emissions, and you don’t need to worry about hazards caused by other kinds of fuel. You can also save a lot of money on fuel, and they’re generally easier to maintain. You even get tax benefits for owning an EV!

EVs also run much more quietly. This can be a little alarming at first if you’ve never driven an electric vehicle and you’re used to cars making a lot of noise.

It is not without its issues, however. While the ranges on EVs are certainly better than they once were, they certainly aren’t the best. They can only run for so long before they need to be charged again. This is made even more annoying thanks to the fact that EVs can take a pretty long time to charge.

 

PHEV

PHEV stands for Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicles. It’s not difficult to figure out how they operate – it’s literally in the name. These vehicles are pretty similar to the BEVs discussed above in the sense that you can charge them by using an external charger.

They’re also pretty good as far as energy is concerned – in fact, using a PHEV car can save you up to 60% in energy, pretty impressive in comparison to many other kinds of hybrids.

As the PHEV uses an external charger to power up the electric motor, they actually boast a zero emission range. If you aren’t sure what this is, it’s essentially a vehicle that’s capable of emitting around 75g/km of CO2 or less than this.

If you’re looking to go greener in your day to day life and transport, then a PHEV is a good choice.

What about their running time? Well, a PHEV is capable of traveling at low speeds for a short amount of time, and then the standard gas engine will activate for the remainder of the journey.

You can sometimes find a PHEV will run for around 40 miles before the power will switch. As a result of this, it’s much better suited to drivers that are planning on traveling short distances than for people traveling long distances on the highway.

In short, the PHEV is essentially a stop point in the middle of a parallel hybrid and an entirely electric vehicle.

There are a few Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles on the market that you may have heard of, including:

  • Mercedes C350e
  • Kia Optima
  • Toyota Prius
  • BMW 330e
  • BMW i8
  • Ford Fusion Energi
  • Chrysler Pacifica
  • Chevy Volt
  • Mini Cooper SE Countryman
  • Audi A3 E-Tron
  • Volvo XC90 T8
  • Fiat 500e
  • Hyundai Sonata

 

So why should you invest in a PHEV, instead of the alternative electric car options? Well, the main reason is that it has a much longer range than a standard electric car. You can get quite a substantial run time out of your electric car before it needs to switch to gas.

As a result of this, it’s also rather cheap to use, especially for short journeys. If you’re only traveling for around 40 miles then you can save yourself a lot of money on fuel, and you don’t need to worry about the fuel depleting for the short journey.

What about the problems? Well, the battery of the PHEV can be rather heavy. This means that when your car is operating on fuel after the electricity has run out, the fuel economy isn’t the best for long journeys.

Thus for longer journeys, you are probably going to be spending more money on fuel than you may have anticipated. You will also need to charge the batteries a lot more often than you would on a standard EV, and it needs to be plugged in to charge, in contrast to a parallel hybrid.

 

HEV

If you aren’t quite ready to fully let go of traditional fuel sources but you want an introduction on the way to going fully electric, an HEV Electric car may be a good choice for you.

HEV stands for Hybrid Electric Vehicle, and as the name suggests, they usually run both on electricity and on gasoline.

Hybrid Electric Vehicles are likely the type of electric vehicle that people know the most about.In fact, they made their way onto the market all the way back in 1997 when the Toyota Prius made its first debut.

A standard hybrid vehicle usually runs on electricity, in addition to another kind of fuel such as diesel or gas.

The car will usually start on the electric motor, and then when you’re traveling at higher speeds it will switch to the standard form of power, and it may also change in other situations where the vehicle needs additional power.

Like the standard EV, the HEV charges the electric battery through regenerative braking. This means that you don’t need to seek out an external power source.

In addition to this, a standard hybrid controls its motors through the use of a computer system inside of the car.

The decision about whether electricity or gas is used is dictated by this system, and the decision is based on the most economical option for the driver. It means the car will always work in the way that you intend for it to work.

As we’ve already covered, you’ve probably heard of a few hybrids before now, but some specific models include:

  • Honda Civic Hybrid
  • Toyota Camry Hybrid
  • Toyota Prius Hybrid

 

A hybrid vehicle is usually best suited to drivers doing short to medium journeys. Thankfully though you aren’t limited to shorter journeys thanks to the additional fuel source.

They’re ideal for traveling around the city or in urban areas, and this is primarily because the regenerative braking is highly effective for charging the electric motor. You’re a lot less likely to brake on a motorway than you are in an urban area!

The big glaring issue with a hybrid is that the fuel economy is not the best. This is again because of the same problem with PHEVs – the batteries are very heavy, and the motor can run low on charge when you’re traveling at high speeds.

It’s also not nearly as eco friendly as the other two models, though it’s certainly better in this respect than a standard gas powered vehicle.

 

Electric Cars: How do they work?

 

So now you know about the main kinds of electric cars, how exactly do they work? In many respects, they don’t operate like the standard gas fueled cars that we’re used to.

Before we get into it, here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know:

  • Instead of a gasoline engine, the electric car features an electric motor
  • This motor receives power from a controller inside of the car
  • This controller then receives power from rechargeable batteries.

 

Here’s the long version:

An electric car has an electric motor inside of the car. This contrasts to the combustion engine that you would find in most gas cars.

They also have a large traction battery pack – these are positioned on the interior of the car quite low down, and are pretty large. This battery pack is what powers up the electric motor.

They are positioned lower down to make sure that the centre of gravity of the car is low, and it means that it stays in place when you are rounding corners. As we’ve already mentioned, the batteries can be incredibly heavy.

In addition to this, you will usually find most electric vehicles are equipped with auxiliary batteries. This means that if you run out of your primary kind of power the electronics such as lights and the information system will continue to work.

Once you have charged your vehicle, the inverter kicks into gear. This will change the direct current, also known as DC, from the electrical charge, into the alternating current (AC) instead.

This AC power is then changed into AC power in the AC motor, and this is what gets the wheels moving. The power from the motor is then transferred to the wheels thanks to the drivetrain.

Some cars also feature an E-Pedal. This will get the regenerative braking system going, which in turn changes the kinetic energy into the electricity you need to get the battery working properly.

 

EV Batteries

One of the key parts of an EV is the battery. To put it simply, the battery is what enables it to run on electricity! EV batteries are usually very long, sometimes stretching up to several meters! They are usually positioned on the bottom of the car along the chassis.

The batteries can stay charged for quite some time, though it depends largely on the vehicle that you buy.

There are a few different types of battery available for your EV.

  • Lithium Ion Batteries

The vast majority of EV batteries are lithium ion batteries. In terms of operation, they’re pretty similar to how batteries work in laptops or mobile phones.

The battery whole eventually drains and needs to be recharged, and their capacity will also decline as the years go on. It won’t decline too much though – it’ll likely only be around 80% of the original capacity once you’ve been using the car on a daily basis after 8 years or so.

These batteries tend to have the best power to weight ratio, they work very well in high temperatures and have low self discharge. You can usually recycle these batteries too. There are some concerns about overheating with these batteries, however.

  • Nickel Metal Hydride

These batteries are generally found in computers and medical equipment. They’re ideal because they tend to last much longer than some other battery types, they are very safe and durable. They are also expensive, however, and hydrogen loss needs to be controlled with these batteries.

  • Lead Acid Batteries

These high power batteries are pretty affordable, can last for some time without any trouble and they are safe to use.

The problem is that they aren’t the best in cold weather and they have low specific energy. Manufacturers are working on new high powered lead acid batteries, but they aren’t really the best choice at this stage.

 

EV Infrastructure and the Challenges of Charging EVs

 

Thankfully, owning and running an electric car is becoming much more feasible as time goes on and the EV infrastructure improves. With that being said, it’s not without its challenges.

In fact, one of the main reasons why EVs aren’t even more popular is because of how it works for regional travels.

Many EV owners worry about the range of their vehicle and how it will perform for longer journeys. While EV charging stations are becoming more common, there also aren’t nearly as many as there should be.

Even so, in 2020 the market size for electric vehicle charging infrastructure was placed as 2.08 billion USD and it is only estimated to grow. More governments throughout the world are beginning to focus on making charging stations more accessible in order to support the environment.

Naturally, cities and other metropolitan areas are the most prepared for electric vehicles. Here are just a few of the locations in the United States with the most charging stations to offer its residents.

 

Location

No. Charging Stations per 100,000 Residents

Washington DC Metropolitan Area

4.7

Orlando, FL

4.7

Honolulu, HI

5.1

Tucson, AZ

5.3

Austin, TX

5.3

Seattle, WA

6.5

San Francisco Bay, CA

6.6

Nashville, TN

8.2

Dallas, TX

10.6

Portland, OR

11.1

 

Naturally the infrastructure will change as more charging stations are made available, though owning an EV is becoming increasingly more popular as time progresses and more awareness is made about them.

 

Economics of Owning an EV

 

There are a few things to consider when it comes to buying an EV when it comes to price. To put it simply, you may be paying more upfront to buy the car, but could you be paying less in the long run?

Let’s get the most obvious part out of the way: buying an electric vehicle up front can be expensive. Even some of the more affordable vehicles start at around $30,000 for the latest model. Does the tax relief and the fuel economy make up for this? Let’s take a look.

 

Tax Credits and Incentives

The first thing to think about is tax credits. What you may not know is that if you buy a new electric vehicle, you can have up to $7,500 in tax credits depending on your location.

There are some brands that have reduced the tax credits, but this is not the case for all electric vehicles so you will need to check that with the car you are considering buying. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty big incentive to buy one of these vehicles. If you aren’t sure exactly how the electric car tax credits work, you can check out our guide here.

In addition to this, there are also incentives that your state can provide. For instance, in Massachusetts you could get a rebate up to $2,500 if you buy or loan a PHEV so long as you apply for the rebate within three months of the date when you purchased the vehicle.

You can find out what incentives are available in your state here.

 

Charging Costs

The running cost is the next thing to think about. If you’re free from gasoline and other fossil fuels, you may think you’re in the clear and that your car will cost you barely anything now you’re running on electricity.

This is not totally true, as it will cost some money to charge your vehicle. After all, even an electric vehicle can’t run on Fresh Air!

As you may expect, the amount of money that it could cost to run your EV can depend on a number of things from the type of charger that you use to the model of the car. When you charge an electric car it’s measured in kWh.

So for instance, if you’re going to be paying around $0.13 per kWh for your car, and your vehicle requires roughly 33 kWh in order to do a 100 mile journey, then you’re paying around $0.04 per mile.

If you’re trying to charge an EV that can travel for 200 miles then you may be spending around $9 to get it fully charged.

If you’re planning on installing your own EV charging station you may be looking at paying more than $1000 for that alone. If you’re charging in public though, the costs can vary depending on the time of day that you are charging and the location of the charging point.

For instance, if you had the 2020 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus then it could cost you around $5.88 for 50 miles of electricity to charge it during peak hours, seeing as this car is rated at 24 kWh/100 miles.

In comparison, if you were charging it at home it may cost $1.44 for the same amount of power. It can cost a lot less if you were charging the vehicle during quieter times of the day in public.

Regardless of how you look at it, you’re still going to be paying less than you would for a vehicle that runs solely on gasoline, even if you have a HEV.

The only problem is that once your EV runs out of electricity (if you have a PHEV or a HEV), it is going to switch over to your backup fuel source such as gasoline.

So you will still need to purchase the fuel, it’s just going to cost you less money as you won’t be using it so often as long as you can charge your vehicle regularly enough.

 

Maintenance Costs

As with any other vehicle, you need to think about how much it’s going to cost for you to maintain the vehicle. The biggest thing to consider is the batteries. Yes, they are made to deal with long term use, but eventually they will wear out.

Batteries can be pretty expensive, though many manufacturers will provide you with 8-year/100,000 mile battery warranties despite the fact that many could last you as long as 12 to 15 years so long as they are looked after properly.

 

Safety of Owning an EV

 

Manufacturers have worked tirelessly for decades to ensure that the battery of your EV is completely safe.

The cars often have things like smart management systems installed to ensure that the battery doesn’t overheat, and some even come with things like liquid cooling systems to ensure they remain cool.

The biggest concern when it comes to electric vehicles is the fact that the lithium ion battery can sometimes combust and catch fire. This is because they have power cells that on rare occasions can short circuit if they end up getting damaged.

They are less likely to get caught in fire explosions than your standard gasoline vehicle would be. Vehicle explosions are also usually due to car accidents – it’s the same for standard gasoline vehicles.

It should be noted that really, EVs are incredibly safe. They actually tend to have lower centers of gravity than most vehicles do, and this means that the likelihood of them rolling over is much slimmer.

Electric vehicles are generally quite quiet in terms of operation, and this can sometimes make it more dangerous for pedestrians that may not be able to hear the vehicle when they are walking along the road.

Some EVs do come with the ability to play sounds that pedestrians can hear when you’re traveling at slower speeds, however. You just need to be more careful if you are planning on driving your vehicle in highly populated areas.

 

Common Questions About Electric Cars:

 

How long do they take to charge?

The answer to this question largely depends on a number of factors. Some vehicles may take as little time as around 30 minutes, whereas others could take as long as 12 hours to charge.

The amount of time that it takes to charge an electric vehicle depends on the size of the battery.

It can also depend on how fast your charger is. To put it short, you can use the following equation to figure out how long the car will take to charge:

Battery size ÷ charging speed = charging time.

For instance, if you have a 40kWh battery size, and a 7kw home charger then it would take around 5 hours to charge the battery.

If you used a 22kW charging point then it would likely take less time to charge your vehicle. It could take around 2 hours.

There are also rapid chargers available that are 43-120kW, and this may mean you can get on the road after a mere 20-40 minutes.

Usually a home charging point has a power rating of around 3.7kW or 7kW. Unfortunately it’s not possible to get 22kW chargers – you need to have three phase power for this. Some cars are also not able to charge at 22kW, though it’s sometimes possible to use them for charging at a lower speed.

It’s also worth remembering that top up charging is an option. Sure you can charge it all in one go, but if you live in an area where there are a lot of charging stations then you can just top up as you go about your day. Just charge the car whenever it’s idle.

For instance, you can sometimes get workplace charging points providing 7kW to 22kW of power, so when you’re at the office you can put your car on charge. A public charging point is also suitable. Alternatively, you can charge the car overnight and then top it up throughout the day.

If you’re still a little confused and want more information about charging times, check out our electric vehicle charging time calculator.

 

How long does the battery last?

When you first charge your car’s battery, if you charge it using a 3kW slow charger then you will get an additional 10 miles of battery after you’ve charged it for an hour.

This increases when you use a more powerful charger, so if you used a 7kW charger then you may expect to have up to 30 miles after 60 minutes of charging.

The amount of time that the battery lasts will depend on the power of the charger and the amount of time that you are charging.

It’s also important to know that a car battery is a lot like the battery in a smartphone or any other electronic device – it will eventually get weaker as time goes on and will need to be replaced. When the battery degrades, it usually means that the amount of time that the car stays charged is reduced too.

Generally the vast majority of manufacturers will have a warranty of between five and eight years on the battery, however they can usually last anywhere between 10 – 20 years if they are well maintained.

Taking proper care of your car’s battery is key to ensuring that it lasts a long time.

The first thing to keep in mind is that it’s actually a bad idea to constantly keep the car completely charged. This can damage the battery because heat is created when it’s charging.

You don’t often need to worry about this as many car models on the market will automatically stop charging once they are totally charged. With others you can charge the car up to a certain percentage before it automatically stops charging.

It’s also not a good idea to let the car run on a totally empty battery. In fact, the vast majority of car batteries are at their peak performance at around 50% – 80% capacity.

You should also be careful about what weather you are traveling. The battery of the car may not react well to very cold or hot temperatures, and this means that the weather can impact how far you can travel.

If your battery isn’t sufficient to your liking, it’s worth considering your warranty. Some manufacturers such as Nissan can give you a warranty spanning 5 years for the battery.

 

Can you drive them in the rain – what weather conditions impact an electric car?

If you’re not familiar with electric cars, you may not be sure whether driving one in certain weather conditions is a good idea.

Perhaps one of the biggest questions that people have is whether it’s safe to drive an electric vehicle in the rain.

Thankfully you are not limited by the rain when you have an electric vehicle.

the idea that you can’t drive one in the rain is a complete myth. These cars have been made with covering shields and protective layers on the charging plugs. This means that they don’t spark, lose their current, and water won’t get into the circuits.

If you wish to do so it’s also possible to charge an electric vehicle in the rain. The charging plugs have been protected so that they aren’t impacted by the rain. Vehicles are extensively tested before they’re unleashed onto the market to avoid any issues pertaining to rain. For more information about charging your vehicle in the rain, check out our article.

What about other weather conditions? Well, winter weather can have an effect on electric vehicles as it can influence the range of the vehicle. Unfortunately the cold can impact the batteries in the vehicle in a negative way, as the cold can slow down the chemical reactions inside of the battery.

In addition to this, the cold can also affect the speed at which your vehicle charges. The charging speed is generally lower during the winter.

Other than this there’s no real need to worry about the winter affecting your vehicle. You just need to take precautions when you’re out to ensure that the range is still okay and that the roads are safe to drive on.

On the same note, the range of your vehicle can be affected when it’s extremely hot outside. There are a few things that you can do to maximize the performance of your vehicle when you’re driving in hot weather. These are:

 

  • Don’t charge your battery too fast or at an exceptionally high capacity overnight. This can cause the battery to heat up too much, only for the hot weather to drain it again later on. If you have a large drive ahead of you then charge it to 100%, but generally you don’t need to go much higher than around 60%-80%.
  • It’s worth activating the preconditioning setting on your car if you have one. This will help to ensure that the temperature of the battery is cool enough when you are ready to drive.
  • Leave your car out of the sun – it’s best to park it in a shaded spot when you stop. It can also help to have tinted windows or sunshades.
  • Put the AC on when you’re driving, and activate eco mode. If possible, try to avoid driving at very high speeds.

 

What are the Pros and Cons of Having an Electric Vehicle?

There are a lot of reasons to buy an electric vehicle. Likewise, there are also reasons why you shouldn’t. Let’s take a look at both:

Pros

  • Environmentally friendly – The impact that electric vehicles have on the environment is one of the main reasons why many consumers choose to buy them. These cars usually don’t include an exhaust system like their gasoline alternatives, so they don’t emit any harmful substances out into the atmosphere. It’s an easy way to reduce your eco footprint.
  • Long Term Affordability – It costs a lot less money to run an electric car. Gasoline can be expensive, but EVs usually run at less than a third of the cost of a standard car. In addition to this, EVs don’t run on oil so you don’t need to change the oil. The brakes don’t wear as much either, so you’re saving yourself at least a little bit of money on maintenance costs, too.
  • Quiet operation – Cars are loud. This may be good for some people, but others may not like the noise pollution. EVs operate very quietly, so you don’t need to worry about the noise that they make.
  • Tax Credits – Owners of electric vehicles can sometimes get tax credits as their vehicles are having less of an impact on the environment.

 

Cons

  • Charging points – You’re going to need to charge your EV on a regular basis, and unless you live in an urban area or in a city, you may have a hard time finding a charging point.
  • Charging Time – It can take a while to charge an electric vehicle, and you need to think about this before you set out on your journey. It’s often best to plan your journeys in advance so you can make sure that the car is charged properly.
  • Price – While electric cars are a lot cheaper now than they ever were before, they can still be pretty expensive.

 

Are All Electric Cars Automatic?

If you’re used to driving a manual car where you have to change gears, it may take you a while to get used to an EV. This is because yes, pretty much all electric cars feature automatic operation. They don’t have clutches.

This has its advantages as it means that you won’t stall nearly as often. You do occasionally see 5 or 6 speed gearboxes but they are hard to come by.

This is because an electric vehicle doesn’t really need to have a gear for it to operate correctly. They have fantastic 100% torque, and this is even the case when you are traveling at lower speeds.

To get more torque then you should try to ensure your revs per minute are under 2000. Your car won’t generate as much torque at higher revs.

There’s no real reason to add gears to an electric car – it overcomplicates the system and adds extra weight to the vehicle. It may even decrease the overall power of the car.

 

How Do You Charge an Electric Vehicle?

The way that you charge your electric vehicle will largely depend on the type of EV that you have. If you need to charge your vehicle at a charging point, then you will need to think about where the best place to charge it will be.

For instance if you have off street parking then it’s possible to install a home charger in your house. This will allow you to plug your car in overnight, especially handy if your car takes a particularly long time to recharge.

Having a plug in station at home is also handy as they can come with additional features, such as Wi-Fi functionality that allows you to monitor software updates and the energy.

The vast majority of chargers for the home come with a Type 2 socket that is universally recognized. If your car does not use a Type 2 socket then most of them also work with a separate cable that you can plug into the car and charge it right away.

The manufacturer will usually give you the separate cable when you purchase the car.

It’s also possible to plug the car into a normal 3 pin charger, but this isn’t the safest option and it can often take longer to charge. It’s usually better just to invest in a home EV charger instead.

Alternatively you could charge your EV at a public charging station. As we’ve already mentioned, there are thousands of these dotted around the United States, so you shouldn’t have a problem getting to one!

How do you find an EV charging station? Your EV will likely come with a sat-nav system built in, and this should send you to the nearest location where there is a charging point.

If your car does not come with one of these, you can look online for websites that may tell you where the charging points are. You can often even see whether the charging points are currently being used.

Generally though, you will find the vast majority of electric car chargers in cities or any other urban areas – they can be more difficult to come by elsewhere.

Using a public charging station is fairly simple – it usually involves using the swipe card or mobile phone app for your vehicle. Then you can unlock and use the charging point. Then, you connect the charging cable from the charging point to your car.

It is important to note that some different charging providers will work differently than others do. It’s worth checking in advance how the charging station works before you visit it to avoid unnecessary time waiting around.

You should also keep in mind that the charging point usually comes with a lock that will stop it from disconnecting. To remove it you will again need to use your swipe card.

 

Conclusion: Time To Volt

 

So now that you know everything that there is to know about electric cars, you’re ready to embark on this new, green way of driving!

Electric cars are a great choice if you want to save on fuel expenses and you want to have a positive impact on the environment. So – what are you waiting for? Time to take all of your new found knowledge out for a test drive!

 

 

Citations

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/electric-cars/101002/history-of-the-ev-from-the-first-electric-car-to-the-present-day

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/auto-parts/brakes/brake-types/regenerative-braking.htm

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2014/03/20140311-lin.html

https://blog.toyota.co.uk/history-toyota-prius

https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-evci-market

https://avt.inl.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/fsev/costs.pdf

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/plug-in-electric-vehicle-credit-irc-30-and-irc-30d

https://afdc.energy.gov/laws/search

 

 

 

By 

Source THINK EV

Testing, testing: how responding to climate change will make our world quieter

Posted on by dishanth
Testing, testing: how responding to climate change will make our world quieter

Our hearing organs start to develop at two or three weeks of gestation, and as we continue to develop in the womb we can hear well enough to react to sound. Sight may well be listed second in influential academic Marshall McLuhan’s ordering of the human senses into a hierarchy of importance yet traditionally, industrial design has focused on sight and touch, especially for expensive items. But, as we learn more about the design of infrastructure required for a net-zero emissions future, audio is becoming increasingly important in how we design, and for whom.

A more sustainable future means that our world will likely become quieter as energy-efficient technology has the potential to reduce noise impacts.

In most machines or systems, noise reflects a loss of energy in the system – energy being wasted rather than put to productive use. As we focus on reducing emissions and increasing energy efficiency, there is potential to achieve a quieter environment.

Creating power with solar panels or hydrogen instead of boilers and steam turbines; powering vehicles with batteries or hydrogen fuel cells rather than gasoline or diesel engines; electrifying rail lines to take diesel-electric locomotives out of service, and developing high-efficiency electric motors to make commercial processes (from air conditioning to manufacturing) whisper-quiet.

What are the ramifications of a quieter world as communities transition to net zero emissions, and how does that impact design? Could the noisiness of your factory floor or your suburb become a measure of how sustainable you are as a business or a community?

 

Do we need more or less noise?

This question is in the eyes (or ears) of the beholder. Rachel Carson’s seminal text ‘Silent Spring’, responsible for kicking off the modern environmental movement, argues that a healthy natural environment should be ‘noisy’ with natural life.

However, COVID-19 has revealed a mixed reaction to the relative silence that so many people experience from working remotely. For some, prolonged silence and isolation made them desperate for interaction with others; some introverts thrived in lockdown and never want to return to an office; others craved solitude after the noise of home-schooling kids, while trying to work.

Anecdotally, people are seeking out silence, as evidenced by the trend of city folks moving to regional centres. There is also the increasing use of noise-cancelling headphones, allowing people to curate their own audio environment, regardless of what sounds are actually around them.

The influence of increased or decreased noise on creativity, mental health and reflectiveness is probably down to the individual, although there are questions to be asked as we design this new audio world. Sound-masking systems conceal noise in new offices, but what if these became more common? Would organisations lose creativity if eavesdropping was lost? Research shows eavesdropping actually makes us better people. Could plugged-in employees result in decreased stress at the expense of less creativity and social engagement?

Hearing is a primal threat detector for humans and design has compensated for quieter noise in the past: for instance, the first cars were preceded by a person ringing a bell as a warning. Silence can be a problem, which is why electric trams and cable cars traditionally ring a bell to alert pedestrians to their approach, and why pushbikes have a bell on their handlebars.

Now, electric vehicle makers have synthetic sounds generated from their quiet motors – to make pedestrians aware that cars are around. While this has already become a legal requirement in the EU, other automakers are looking for workarounds: for example, Ford reportedly wants to include an ‘off switch’ for its line-up of police vehicles, presumably so officials can sneak up on suspected criminals.

 

How audio design can improve sustainable outcomes

Audio design in infrastructure could become a way to solve problems or achieve better sustainability outcomes. Look at start-up Ping Services, the creators of a stethoscope for monitoring the ‘health’ of wind turbines. Acoustic technology ‘listens’ to turbine blades to monitor their condition and helps predict degradation without early retirement, a common issue afflicting wind turbines.

The idea of creating an ‘acoustic fingerprint’ of well-maintained operating equipment, as a measure of equipment performance, has multiple applications across many industries such as mining and manufacturing. Ping, a small Adelaide start-up, is reaping the benefits of being an innovative first mover in using noise, or absence of it, as a measure of efficiency.

This movement towards less noise could change our property and settlement patterns, reducing urban sprawl. For instance, real estate next to busy roads may not necessarily lose value in a future of predominantly electric vehicles, because the reduced noise and reduced particulate emissions (no engines, less brake wear) will alleviate the impact on an amenity that a busy roadway would normally have.

A school in the Netherlands has placed acoustics at the heart of design under the premise that less noise equals less stress, illness and lower absentee rates. More than 30 000 m² of stone wool tiles and a long wall of reindeer moss supports the ceiling in creating a comfortable acoustical environment. Acoustic panels themselves are becoming more sustainable with options now made from chemical-free pulp.

The opportunities a net-zero future brings for design are endless. As roadways become narrower due to automated, quieter and non-emitting vehicles, the physical environment can be integrated further into design. Increased vegetation has the power to muffle harsh noise and absorb carbon dioxide. Just as rooftop gardens and flower walls are now commonplace, the best of Mother Nature’s audio like the calming benefits of birdsong could be incorporated on a broader scale.

 

Designing for silence

An electrified economy could potentially see increased audio pollution restrictions (for example, construction site noise limits, airport curfews) to reduce intrusions on people’s audio space. In the same way that smog and pollution were controlled in response to the industrial revolution’s excesses, the transition to a net-zero economy could include further control of public sound.

New regulations around use of drones already protect local wildlife, and sound laws have been enacted by governments and councils to account for technology that causes ambient public noise to recede from electrification and high-efficiency motors.

Not all of these will be reactions against sound: already, pleasant background sounds are actively introduced in places where people need to be calm, such as medical settings, or synthetic engine noise is simulated in electric vehicles to create a sportier sound upon acceleration.

Incorporating the design of sound into the built environment from the beginning is the best way to achieve a quieter environment, and avoids subjective tastes dictated by a few for the group. Already there are moves to design quiet spaces while, at the same time, we are warned of the psychological dangers of silence. Between the two extremes is a design challenge for perhaps audio-neutrality – more likely to be attained if we start with human need.

Decarbonising economies to combat climate change is a complex journey and won’t happen overnight, and neither will our response to lowering noise levels. Instead of the future soundscape being managed as an afterthought, more value could be obtained if we consider it early in the design phase, especially of workplaces and educational institutions, as a driver of qualitative measures such as engagement, fulfilment and purpose.

Sound is important to us. It is not only one of the first senses to develop, but it is also widely-believed to be the last sense people retain before they lose consciousness forever. While COVID-19 has provided an unexpected context in which to consider the audio environment we want to live, work and play in, climate change is providing ongoing opportunities to return to the sounds of nature.

You’ll have to keep listening to find out what a net-zero emissions future sounds like. Perhaps it might not only be smelling the roses, but also hearing the birds chirp. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful world!

Aurecon’s award-winning blog, Just Imagine provides a glimpse into the future for curious readers, exploring ideas that are probable, possible and for the imagination. This post originally appeared on Aurecon’s Just Imagine blog. Get access to the latest blog posts as soon as they are published by subscribing to the blog.

 

 

Source Eco News AU

Johor set to become country’s largest solar power producer

Posted on by dishanth
Johor set to become country’s largest solar power producer

JOHOR BARU: Johor will soon become a major producer of environmentally-friendly energy with the opening of a solar power plant in Pengerang, Kota Tinggi.

This was announced by Sultan of Johor Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar in a posting on his Facebook page.

The RM1.4 billion power plant, named the “Sultan Ibrahim Solar Park”, is touted to be the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia with a combined installed capacity of 450 megawatts.

It will also be the region’s largest solar energy storage system when fully commissioned by 2023.

This marks the state’s first major private investment project for 2021, and the result of Sultan Ibrahim’s continued efforts to woo investors and spur Johor’s economic growth for the benefit of the people.

The ruler will officiate the official ground-breaking ceremony on March 23 at the project site in Pengerang.

The project is also in line with the 2030 Johor Sustainable Development Plan which places major emphasis on environmental preservation and protection as part of the state’s economic development plan for a more prosperous society.

Sultan Ibrahim said the project will have a healthy economic spillover effect for the people in the form of job creation at various levels.

“With this exciting project, Johor will make a quantum leap into the world of renewable and sustainable clean energy,” the ruler told the Royal Press Office (RPO).

He said the project will mark Johor’s first major foray into large-scale sustainable energy to foster green economies and a cleaner environment.

“Johor is one of the states blessed with high sun hours. It is time that we tapped into this resource to boost our power-generating capacity and contribute to the production of renewable energy,” said Sultan Ibrahim.

 

 

By Rizalman Hammim

Source New Strait Times