The seeds of the Woven City were sown in 2011, after the Great East Japan Earthquake decimated the area of a manufacturing centre and the Higashi-Fuji Plant was moved to the Tohoku area. Before the move, the plant had produced over 7m vehicles and was a “a driving force in the motorization of Japan.”
Toyota has been present in Japan for over 50 years, with manufacturing centers and corporate bases in the country creating employment and investing in community – The Toyota School programme, established in 1977 has educated over 40,000 young minds.
The plant relocation inspired the creation of Woven City, a hub of sustainability, community and mobility designed by Danish architect Bjarjk Ingels and inline with Toyota’s global sustainability promises.
Electricity for the Woven City is primarily generated by hydrogen powered fuel cells, like Toyota’s Mirai vehicle, in an effort to reduce emissions.
“Building a complete city from the ground up, even on a small scale like this, is a unique opportunity to develop future technologies, including a digital operating system for the city’s infrastructure,” says Akio Toyoda, president, Toyota Motor Corporation. “With people, buildings and vehicles all connected and communicating with each other through data and sensors, we will be able to test connected AI technology… in both the virtual and the physical realms… maximizing its potential.”
The Woven City, named for Toyota’s belief that sustainability and technology needs to be woven into the fabric of our future, has begun as home to around 300 residents but will swell to thousands.
The development of the city, despite looking firmly to the future, featured many traditional Japanese woodworking techniques and recycled wood and other materials.
Sustainable tourism for Thailand
Toyota has just partnered with Pattaya City to develop the city as an electric tourism hub, utilizing the development of sustainable energy to enhance service efficiency, reduce costs, and minimize the ecological impact of the city’s operations.
Sustainable transport lies at the center of the city’s developments, including electric buses as the city trials electric baht-busses.
The undertaking falls under criteria from the decarbonized Sustainable City Development Project, created in 2020 to promote sustainable urbanization
Following in the footsteps of the Woven City’s fuel generation, Toyota and Pattaya City aim to establish Thailand’s first hydrogen refueling station for fuel cell electric vehicles, establishing infrastructure for longevity for the development. As electric vehicles grow in popularity, the consistent question is how the infrastructure of charging stations can keep up with the demand.
The partnership aims to pave the way for sustainable tourism developing globally, encouraging profitability without costing the planet.
Living green in the suburbs is gaining interest from all over the US. Today, 8 of every 10 Americans live in the suburbs. Suburbs are areas within a metropolitan area that are primarily residential. They are not as densely populated as the inner city and are generally a separate political entity of the city. In many suburban areas, a car is required to get around the area and enter the main city or downtown core. In America, the suburbs are responsible for 50% of carbon emissions due to car dependence.
Moreover, these homes conserve less energy as they are required to heat and cool larger houses. Many suburban homes have lawns which require water and maintenance. Over 3 trillion gallons of water a year across 40 million acres of lawn is used in the US. Lawns are also one of the nation’s largest sources of pollution due to the chemical runoff from pesticides and fertilizers that make their way into waterways. Suburban lawns have been known to contaminate swimming and drinking water and harm local fish.
Living Green in the suburbs is simple (and fun).
But it doesn’t all have to be bad. Many environmentally friendly solutions exist to help make living green in the suburbs easier. Front or backyards could be transformed into wildflower meadows or rain gardens. Wildflower meadows mainly contain native plants and are a perfect habitat for pollinators like bees, butterflies and birds. Rain gardens are filled with plants and native grasses that collect storm water runoff from roofs, driveways and streets and are ways to protect the aquatic ecosystem.
Another lawn alternative is planting ground coversthat require no mowing and little fertilizer and water. Food scaping is also growing in popularity as a lawn replacement as it enables sustainable edible landscapes. The plants can be edible, which will help contribute to food security, or ornamental, providing an aesthetically pleasing landscape with little planning.
Another way for suburbanites to reduce their environmental impact is by harvesting rainwater from runoff surfaces. The water can be used for irrigation and toilet flushing. It also reduces energy use and carbon emissions from water treatment industries that treat and transfer water.
Reducing energy consumption while living green in the suburbs includes buying more energy-efficient light bulbs, installing insulation and storm windows, purchasing Energy Star Label appliances and choosing renewable energy. Within these suburban communities, a community solar project may allow homeowners to buy into a collectively owned energy project.
Here is an easy-to-follow checklist for living green in the suburbs.
1. Reduce, reuse, and recycle: Practice the three R’s of sustainability by reducing your disposable consumption, reusing items as much as possible, and recycling materials such as paper, plastics, and glass.
2. Compost: Start a compost pile to reduce organic waste and produce nutrient-rich soil for gardening.
3. Install energy-efficient appliances: Replace old appliances with energy-efficient models to reduce energy consumption and save money on utility bills.
4. Use public transportation or carpool: Use public transportation whenever possible or carpool with others to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles.
5. Plant native species in your yard: Planting native species can help support biodiversity and provide habitats for local wildlife.
6. Conserve water: Install low-flow showerheads and toilets, and limit outdoor watering to reduce water usage.
7. Use eco-friendly cleaning products: Switch to environmentally friendly cleaning products that use natural ingredients instead of harsh chemicals.
8. Support local farmers and businesses: Buy produce and products from local farmers and businesses to reduce the carbon footprint associated with shipping and distribution.
9. Use solar power: Install solar panels on your property to produce clean energy and reduce reliance on non-renewable energy sources.
10. Participate in community-wide sustainability initiatives: Join community groups or organizations that promote green living and participate in local sustainability programs or events.
Just because you live in the suburbs, it doesn’t mean you get a free pass to environmental damage. Suburban living can be environmentally damaging, but many opportunities exist to reduce your impact. By simply converting your lawn, you can protect local wildlife and ecosystems. Finding ways to reduce your energy consumption, installing compost bins and piles, and even choosing to eat locally and seasonally will all positively impact how you live, no matter where you live and soon you will find your own family living green in the suburbs.
The total energy demand from buildings has risen dramatically in recent years. Driven by improved access in developing countries, greater ownership of energy-consuming devices and increasing urban densities, today it accounts for over one-third of global energy consumption and nearly 15% of direct CO2 emissions. As the climate crisis aggravates and its consequences are more visible than ever, the architecture and construction industry must respond accordingly. It must take responsibility for its environmental impact and give priority to reducing energy consumption, whether through design decisions, construction techniques or innovative products. The key lies, however, in not sacrificing aesthetics and comfort in the process.
The main areas of energy use in a building correspond to heating, ventilation and air conditioning, meaning that the role of building envelopes and fenestration is pivotal. Of course, windows and doors are essential for natural light, views, air flow and entries. With the right systems and materials, they can also provide insulation for improved temperature control, creating a barrier against cold weather during winter and blocking outdoor heat during summer months. In this way, energy-efficient thermal fenestration systems can open many possibilities in the path towards efficient, cost-effective spaces – although they have higher initial costs, these are offset in a few years thanks to substantial energy savings.
Often, the Passive House Certification is set as the leading standard in ensuring resiliency in buildings. Projects designed according to its criteria perform 60-85% better on an energy consumption basis when compared to code compliant projects. But in many large-scale buildings with complex configurations, like multi-family housing projects, meeting this standard can be quite the challenge. And if we add to this the desire to create spaces that are appealing to live or work in, it is clear that design professionals face a complicated task.
Recognizing these needs, manufacturers of large format fenestration have focused on offering products that can be easily incorporated into a variety of building schemes. To be effective, these must follow a set of requirements: the glass selected in multi-pane units should restrict thermal heat flow or solar heat gain based on the building’s climate zone, the frames must be designed to control heat flow and thermal bridging within them, and the whole assembly needs to open easily to provide ventilation, yet still be able to close tightly to restrict unwanted air infiltration. All of this while responding to today’s visual demands, including expansive views, a connection to the surrounding landscape and a sleek, clean line contemporary style.
Recent innovations in engineering and design have taken these criteria into account to produce some appealing and efficient choices. For instance, CRL – the industry’s leading manufacturer and supplier of architectural glazing systems – has developed a series of large-scale fenestration products with a high thermal performance and outstanding functional (and aesthetic) qualities. We present some of them below, exploring their unique characteristics.
Sliding doors
Although oversized glass doors create striking visuals, they can also cause excessive heat loss or solar gain. With this in mind, CRL’s large-format sliding door systems provide daylight, uninterrupted views and maximum transparency while mitigating heat transfer using thermal breaks and insulating glass. Working with the rest of the building envelope to maintain comfortable interior temperatures, they place less strain on heating or cooling systems and foster user well-being. For example, the Palisades S100 Sliding Door, known for its elegant minimalistic look, is designed with ultra-slim panel rails and stiles, with panel heights up to 13 feet (approximately 3960 mm) and widths up to 7 feet (approximately 2130 mm). It features specialized seals designed to resist the entrance of air and water and is suitable for exterior applications with high loads, limits on deflection and heavy usage, exceeding in structural and thermal performance.
Palisades S100 Sliding Doors. Image Courtesy of CRL
Bi-folding doors
Characterized by multiple hinged panels that stack to one side, the latest bi-folding glass door systems also offer advancements regarding thermal and aesthetic qualities. When opened, they provide seamless transitions that allow for ventilation and daylight; when closed, they deliver a streamlined look, prevent obstruction to preserve views, and seal up tightly to protect against water and air infiltration. In addition, these can feature thermally broken frames and 1-inch (2.5 cm) double pane insulating glass that together produce standard U-factors of 0.36, maintaining comfortable interior temperatures year-round and putting less strain on air conditioning systems. This applies to products like the Monterey S80 and the Palisades S90, which are able to meet the aesthetic and functional needs of today’s buildings with their sleek appearance, smooth movement and ability to reduce heat transfer.
Palisades S90 Bi-Folding Door. Image Courtesy of CRL
Entrance doors
Entrance doors, for their part, can defy efficiency through air leaks – especially in large-scale buildings with constant circulation. In this sense, the Blumcraft Entice Series Doors were created to fulfill energy conservation requirements and simultaneously maintain an elegant appearance. The system has very slender vertical lines and the unique ability to support handle hardware on insulating glass with a “floating on air” aspect. It has also been engineered with thermally broken framing and cladding that lets the product achieve U-factors as low as 0.33. Altogether, Entice® enables architects to achieve an all-glass style while meeting increasingly stringent energy codes.
To develop complex buildings or multi-family projects that are healthy, appealing and achieve high levels of energy-saving performance, architects must adopt a series of strategies. This includes design decisions like enhancing the building envelope with the proper use of Weather-Resistant Barriers (WRBs) and incorporating effective Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems. Fenestration, on the other hand, can be addressed by selecting large-scale doors that provide high thermal performance without compromising comfort and beautiful visuals. If these strategies are combined, it is possible to contribute to the universal goal of net-zero architecture, promoting human and environmental well-being.
Earlier this week, Singapore Airlines (SIA) announced that it would launch the sale of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) credits in July 2022. The move is part of a pilot initiative of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and global investment company Temasek to advance the use of SAF in Singapore.
he credits will be available for purchase to corporate customers and individual passengers as well as air freight forwarders. On offer will be a total of 1,000 SAF credits, corresponding to 1,000 tonnes of neat sustainable fuel uplifted from Singapore Changi Airport, to be blended with conventional jet fuel.
Every credit purchased is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by 2.5 tonnes, for a total of 2,500. Now, this might be a mere fraction of the emissions that the regular fuel still needed – both for regulatory reasons and a lack of supply – is responsible for. However, aviation isn’t going anywhere, neither is climate change, and the transition toward sustainable fuels has to start somewhere. Ms Lee Wen Fen, Senior Vice President Corporate Planning, Singapore Airlines, said,
“As we progress with the SAF pilot in Singapore, we can now offer more opportunities for our corporate customers and travellers to mitigate their carbon emissions using SAF credits, which are registered and accounted for within the RSB Book & Claim System. This will help to accelerate and scale up the collective adoption of SAF, reinforcing our commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.”
Singapore is hoping to become a regional SAF hub. Photo: Singapore Airlines
By purchasing SAF credits, customers will help stimulate the demand for SAF, which in turn will increase supply. As it becomes more available, even though they are by no means a perfect solution, sustainable fuels will begin to make more of a dent in aviation’s carbon footprint.
Sustainable Air Hub Blueprint in the works
Singapore has its sights set on becoming a South East Asia SAF hub. As part of its Green Plan 2030, Changi has ambitions to become one of the early movers in the region, thus far lagging behind the US and Europe when it comes to production and uptake. Mr Han Kok Juan, Director-General, CAAS, stated,
“The creation of a trusted and vibrant marketplace for the sale and purchase of SAF credits in Singapore will help support the adoption of SAF which is essential for the decarbonisation of the aviation sector and a key element of the Singapore Sustainable Air Hub Blueprint which CAAS is developing.”
Singapore Changi Airport has developed a ‘green plan’ for the remainder of the decade. Photo: Getty Images
Combining offsets and SAF
From Q4, all of SIA’s customers will be able to purchase a mix of SAF credits and carbon offsets as part of the SIA Group Voluntary Carbon Offset Programme, through a partnership with Climate Impact X, a global marketplace and exchange for high-quality carbon credits. Mr Mikkel Larsen, Chief Executive Officer, Climate Impact X, commented,
“SAF credits can help to spur adoption by enabling competitive price discovery, and channelling finance towards projects that can drive the use of sustainable fuels at the scale necessary to support decarbonisation in the aviation sector. Through CIX’s ongoing efforts to curate verified projects for our platforms, we aim to increase access to quality carbon credits worldwide and drive environmental impact at scale.”
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport is among the first major hubs to convert yesterday’s french fries to tomorrow’s jet fuel, in a supersize effort to boost sustainable energy efforts.
Used cooking oil, such as the greasy goodness coming from fryers at the DFW McDonald’s restaurants, is being repurposed and converted to fuel in a surprisingly efficient manner, airport officials said.
“If you are Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and you have a fryer in your restaurant — you’re recycling oil,” DFW McDonald’s franchisee Chalmer McWilliams said.
“When it’s no longer at the quality to make those great fries and we can repurpose it, why wouldn’t you do that?”
Pratik Chandhoke, the technical services manager for sustainable aviation fuel at Houston-based Neste US Inc., said the chemical compositions of cooking oil and jet fuel aren’t too far off.
The company strains out leftover fries and McNuggets, heats the oil and adds hydrogen — among other steps — to convert it to jet fuel.
“If you look at any oil, they all have these building molecules, hydrocarbons. We can take those atoms, and we then do some processing magic in our refineries, and we actually mimic the chemistry of a jet fuel,” said Chandhoke, who insisted that fryer-based fuel is exactly the same as all other petroleum fuels going into jets across America today.
“There’s no difference. It’s the same jet fuel that you are using right now.”
San Francisco International Airport said it’s committed to phasing out fossil jet fuel by 2050.
At DFW, about 32,000 pounds of cooking oil is recycled every month to be converted to sustainable aviation fuel, known in the industry as SAF.
The cooking-to-jet-fuel conversion rate is efficient, according to Neste, with 1 gallon of recycled cooking oil amounting to about three-quarters of a gallon of SAF.
The big drawback for now is the high cost of producing the recycled fuel, as the price of SAF is two to six times higher than traditional jet fuel.
But DFW officials said that as more airports covert cooking oil to jet fuel, the prices will bottom out.
“We already believe we have the infrastructure setup. We have fuel distribution systems,” DFW’s vice president of environmental affairs, Robert Horton, told NBC Dallas. “If we can get continuous supply at the right economic rates, we have a drop-in solution that can be applied right here.”
DAVOS, Switzerland — Davos is living up to its name as a place for movers and shakers. On Wednesday, a group known as the First Movers Coalition announced major climate commitments intended to create markets for everything from green steel and aluminum to carbon dioxide removal.
Microsoft, Alphabet and Salesforce are among the heavy hitters in tech at the forefront of the coalition that includes more than 50 companies with a total market cap of $8.5 trillion. That’s a large chunk of the U.S. stock market, and the pledge means those companies will start procuring climate-friendly products that are more expensive than their standard counterparts as well as services that don’t really exist at scale (yet). The companies’ commitments could give industries that we know we need to grow down the road the confidence that demand will be there.
The coalition launched last year at United Nations climate talks as an initiative spearheaded by Climate Envoy John Kerry and Bill Gates. The focus then was mostly on steel, shipping and aviation, all sectors of the economy that are incredibly hard and costly to decarbonize. Wednesday’s announcement threw CDR — Silicon Valley’s favorite climate solution — into the mix, along with green aluminum.
“Today is a great milestone in a very difficult long-term project,” Bill Gates said.
Indeed, the trio of major tech companies collectively committed $500 million to CDR between now and 2030. Alphabet joined a handful of other tech companies in pledging $925 million to purchase CDR services last month. It didn’t respond to Protocol’s request about if its First Movers Coalition money was the same as its commitment to Frontier, but Bloomberg confirmed the $200 million is the same money. Microsoft has also made its own investments in removing carbon from the atmosphere while Salesforce founder Marc Benioff has invested in companies that do so.
Right now, a handful of startups are removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using techniques ranging from protecting forests to growing kelp to relying on machines to do the dirty work. Paying those companies to do that is currently pretty pricey, costing hundreds of dollars per ton. That adds up fast when you’re talking about a company that pumps millions of tons of carbon dioxide per year into the atmosphere when factoring in Scope 3 emissions.
Obviously Alphabet, Salesforce and Microsoft are good for it, though, and their early investments could help bring prices down by signaling there’s going to be a market for CDRl. At numerous events at the World Economic Forum this week, Kerry echoed a phrase coined by Gates called the “green premium,” which refers to the idea of paying extra for the more climate-friendly option. For companies, that can refer to paying a bit of extra cash for green steel or CDR. (Though to be clear, there’s no alternative to the latter outside cutting emissions.)
“No government has the money to be able to solve this problem by itself,” Kerry said. “No government can move fast enough to solve this problem by itself. We need you. We need the private sector around the world to step up.”
While that first point is a bit up for debate given that the federal budget for the military alone is north of $700 billion per year, it’s clear that procurement is a huge avenue for both corporations and the government to spur new markets and bring down costs of the technology we need to address the climate crisis. The Biden administration itself has pulled on some of those levers, notably with a plan to purchase only electric vehicles by 2035. With 645,000 vehicles, that would help drive costs down for batteries, charging and other parts of the EV equation.
The government is also investing billions in direct air capture R&D, which could bring down costs. But tech companies’ commitment to buying those services offer another avenue to do that. Right now, most tech can remove maybe a few thousands of tons from the atmosphere a year. To keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a key guardrail, the world will need to pull multiple billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the sky each year in the coming decades. Exactly how much will depend on how fast we deploy renewables, EVs and other climate solutions we already have at the ready.
Kerry noted that the government partners in the First Movers Coalition are also working to create more regulatory certainty and policies that can speed the adoption of new, cleaner technologies. Tax credits and even more R&D investments are some of the avenues that could open the door to reimagining polluting industries and creating new sectors of the economy to clean up the carbon pollution already in the atmosphere.
The new commitment from the First Movers Coalition will give CDR companies a little more certainty that the market will develop for their services. That, in addition to commitments for green steel and aluminum as well as other products, is, in Kerry’s words, the “highest-leverage climate action that companies can take, because creating the early markets to scale advanced technologies materially reduces the whole world’s emissions.”
In November 2019 engineers switched on the 18th and final turbine at Brazil’s Belo Monte Dam: the final step in an odyssey of planning and construction that had started almost 50 years earlier. The vast hydroelectric complex—the fourth-largest in the world—completely upended the northern stretch of the Xingu River, one of the Amazon’s major tributaries. The waters held back by the main dam created a reservoir that flooded 260 square miles of lowlands and forests, and displaced more than 20,000 people.
Major hydroelectric dams can have catastrophic consequences—flooding homes and habitats and changing the flow, temperature, and chemistry of rivers for decades. Although few are quite as big as Belo Monte, there are a glut of new hydroelectric dams in the works all over the globe. In 2014 researchers estimated that there are at least 3,700 major hydroelectric dams in planning or under construction globally. Most of these new projects are located in low- and middle-income countries eager to fuel their growing economies with a crucial source of low-carbon power: In 2020, hydroelectric dams generated as much electricity as nuclear and wind power combined. But the race to tap the world’s rivers for renewable energy presents something of an environmental conundrum: Do the benefits outweigh the environmental chaos that dams can wreak?
Some researchers think there’s a smart way out of this dilemma. Rather than building more dams, why don’t we figure out a way to get more out of the ones that already exist? The majority of them aren’t generating electricity at all—they’re used for irrigation, water supply, flood control, or for fishing and boating. If we can figure out a way to put turbines into those dams so they also produce hydropower—a process known as retrofitting—we could unlock a huge renewable energy potential that isn’t being tapped.
In a retrofitted system, water falling through the dam would spin newly installed turbine blades connected to a generator—and that spinning would generate electricity that could be distributed to local homes or connected to a larger power grid. “How much more can we get out of revitalizing existing infrastructure, rather than expanding and building new infrastructure?” asks Ryan McManamay, an ecologist at Baylor University in Texas and coauthor of a paper exploring the untapped potential of non-powered dams. (McManamay’s own office in Waco is a short walk from one of these dams on the Brazos River. A wasted opportunity right on his doorstep, he points out.)
McManamay and his colleagues estimated that retrofitting dams and upgrading existing hydroelectric plants could boost their maximum output by an extra 78 gigawatts. That’s roughly the power generated by seven Belo Monte Dams, or more than double the average electricity demand in the whole of the United Kingdom. And in parts of the world where new dams are being planned and constructed, the change could be huge. Retrofitting and upgrading dams in the Amazon River basin could unlock 1.6 gigawatts of new electricity production. That’s roughly the amount of energy produced by a natural-gas-fired power station and enough to avoid the construction of 17 new smaller dams altogether. Upgrading and retrofitting dams in the Mekong River basin in Southeast Asia could generate so much power that all the new ones slated for construction in the region would be surplus above what’s required.
Some countries are already making use of this potential. Since 2000, 36 dams in the US have been retrofitted with turbines, adding more than 500 megawatts of renewable generation capacity. There is even more potential out there: A 2016 US Department of Energy report found that an additional 4.8 gigawatts of electricity could be generated by retrofitting non-powered dams over the next three decades. In places like the US and Western Europe, where the dam-building boom of the mid-20th century has long since faded, retrofitting may be the only option left for governments looking to eke out a little more hydropower. “If there are dams that are going to remain in place, let’s try and find solutions and work together to the most optimal solution,” says McManamay.
But before anyone starts upgrading all these dams, they might want to take another look at the numbers. It’s not easy to accurately predict how much electricity a retrofitted facility will actually produce, because it turns out not every dam is a good fit for conversion. Say someone wants to fit turbines in a dam that was built to hold back water so it can be used to irrigate farmers’ fields. During the growing season, a lot of that water would normally be directed toward crops, instead of flowing over the dam to generate electricity. Or perhaps it’s in an area where the water is only high enough to generate electricity for part of the year. Suddenly those retrofitted dams might not seem like such a smart idea.
One recent study on retrofitted dams in the US, also commissioned by the Department of Energy, found that projections of their power output veered toward the optimistic side: On average, those projections were 3.6 times greater than the actual output. The study found that the most successful retrofits tended to be concrete dams initially built to aid navigation. (Dams are often used to widen or deepen waterways to make it easier for boats to pass through.) “This is a complex issue. It’s not an easy fix,” says McManamay.
But in countries such as Brazil, big dams are still very much on the agenda. “If they’re going to develop and really raise the standard of living in the country as a whole, they need energy. That’s the long and short of it,” says Michael Goulding, a senior aquatic scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society. The country’s most recent 10-year energy plan outlines nine new large dams scheduled to be completed before 2029. Rather than hoping these dams won’t be built, it’s important to make sure that proper studies are carried out to make sure that they’re built in a way that minimizes environmental destruction, says Goulding: “Often the environmental impact frameworks aren’t very good. They’ll define an area of interest close to the dam and that area of interest doesn’t include all the downstream impacts and upstream impacts as well.”
The Belo Monte Dam is a good example of just how much of an effect large dams have on the surrounding environment. The dam complex redirected 80 percent of the Xingu’s flow away from a 62-mile stretch of the river known as Big Bend. This section of the Xingu also happens to be the only known wild habitat of the Zebra Pleco—an eye-catching striped catfish beloved by aquarists. “There is a huge risk that this species will go extinct,” says Thiago B. A. Couto, a postdoctoral researcher at Florida International University’s Tropical Rivers Lab. The impact of dams on fish species is well-documented elsewhere in the world. In Washington state, the Elwha Dam disconnected the upper and lower Elwha watersheds, reducing the habitat available to salmon by 90 percent. Some species local to the river disappeared altogether, while the populations of others—such as Chinook—fell to a fraction of their previous levels.
Eventually, however, even large dams may outlive their usefulness. In 2014, the last remnants of the Elwha Dam were removed forever. The Chinook salmon that for decades had remained locked behind two dams are now slowly making their way back upstream. A full recovery is expected to take decades. “Dams don’t last forever,” says Couto. “There are many that are abundant, but are not providing the minimum benefits that they are supposed to.”
Germany recorded about 25% more electricity generated from renewable sources in the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year thanks to unusually windy and sunny weather, industry officials said Monday.
Preliminary calculations by the energy lobby group BDEW and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research indicate that Germany generated about 74.5 billion kilowatt hours of renewable power in the first quarter.
Renewable energy provided about 54% of Germany’s energy needs in January and February, they said.
The German government has pledged to ramp up the use of solar and wind power as part of its plan to wean the country off Russian fossil fuels because of the war in Ukraine.
But like other European countries, Germany is expected to fill part of the shortfall with fossil fuel imports from other regions of the world in the short term.
Green hydrogen could revolutionise energy production, helping utilities run more flexible power grids while reducing fossil fuel emissions.
Beyond plans to sell electricity transmitted to energy-hungry Asian nations, Australia is looking to become a leading producer and exporter of green hydrogen by 2030. In addition to meeting the rising demand for clean fuel domestically and overseas, this vision will also bring benefits to the Australian community and nation’s economic prosperity.
While it has been touted as the fuel of the future for the past fifty years, the wider adoption of hydrogen has had several false starts. Nevertheless, a growing number of scientists and investors believe that the falling costs of renewables, electrolysers and fuel cell technology, could help see green hydrogen become commercially viable.
“While countries committed to substantially reducing their emissions by 2030, they realised that they did not have enough tools in the toolbox,” said Alan Finkel, who served as Australia’s chief scientist until last year.
“Many people do not appreciate just how difficult it will be to decarbonise the global energy supply. It is an enormous task, and we have to use all available means to do so,” Finkel said.
Australia’s big bet
Pressure crunching on countries to drive down their greenhouse gas emissions and meet their commitments to clean-up, is driving investment in hydrogen.
Developing hydrogen for export is part of Australia’s wider efforts to wean its economy off its dependency on fossil fuels which raked in A$103 billion (US$73 billion) in export earnings in 2019.
Investment in hydrogen-related projects in Australia started to take off around 2018 with the government committing A$146 million towards developing hydrogen resources along the supply chain to “enhance Australia’s energy security, create Australian jobs and build an export industry valued in the billions”.
HyResource, a knowledge sharing-platform on Australia’s hydrogen industry, estimates that around A$1.5 billion has been funnelled into clean hydrogen projects by Australian governments, industry, and research institutions over the past three years.
There are five operating projects, 14 under construction or in advanced development and 38 projects under development as of May, according to HyResource.
Green hydrogen for homes and industry
Hydrogen Park South Australia (HyP SA), located in the Tonsley Innovation District about 20 km south of Adelaide, is the first project operating in this state, with three others under development.
HyP SA is an Australian-first facility to produce a blend of 5 per cent green hydrogen in natural gas for supply using the existing gas network.
The A$11.4 million project was delivered by Australian Gas Networks (AGN), part of the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG), with funding of A$4.9 million from the South Australian Government.
The five-year demonstration plant commenced renewable blended gas supply to over 700 properties near the facility in May this year. It is also providing direct hydrogen supply to industry, and aims to supply hydrogen for transport in the future.
The introduction of green hydrogen reduces the amount of carbon in the gas supply network, without any changes to infrastructure or receiving household appliances, and lays the foundations for scaling-up green hydrogen projects elsewhere.
The success of this demonstration plant will be pivotal for South Australia, which has a reliable renewable energy supply and is working towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Enabling technology – electrolysers
At the heart of the HyP SA facility, is a 1.25 megawatt (MW) Siemens Energy Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyser that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable electricity, capable of producing up to 20 kg of hydrogen an hour.
This is the largest single electrolyser unit in operation in Australia today, although new projects in the development stage include electrolyser units or facilities at 10 MW or more.
PEM electrolysers are a potential solution to tackle the variable conditions by renewable energy generation, according to Siemens Energy. Electrolysers can ramp up when renewable electricity is abundant and switch off when demand is high. Integrating electrolysers into the electricity networks could also support energy stability.
The Siemens Energy electrolysis solution for making green hydrogen is based on the PEM concept. Image: Siemens Energy
There are water resource considerations to take into account, particularly in areas where there is scarcity. The PEM electrolyser uses about 15 litres of water to produce one kg of hydrogen. For future developments, there may be potential use for the oxygen by-product – such as in wastewater treatment.
“It is imperative for hydrogen producers to carefully consider water availability, especially for larger plants in remote areas. We see the potential for wastewater recycling and desalination which would add a surprisingly small amount to overall project costs,” according to Michael Bielinski, managing director of Siemens Energy Australasia.
Nevertheless, cheap renewable energy needs to be rolled out fast enough for this technology to work. This might be difficult when demand from other sectors for wind, solar and other alternative power sources is expected to rise.
Scaling up for decarbonisation
The South Australia demonstration plant is paving the way for other states to decarbonise their gas consumption and has helped to build confidence in the industry that up to 10 per cent green hydrogen natural gas blend is suitable for current use in Australia without disruption to supply.
Two projects with a higher blend rate of 10 per cent green hydrogen are in progress at Hydrogen Park (HyP) Murray Valley in Wodonga, Victoria and Hydrogen Park (HyP) Gladstone in Queensland. HyP SA is also helping to establish a domestic market for renewable hydrogen.
However, the long-term goal is to transition domestic gas supply to 100 per cent renewable by gas by 2050, with a 2040 stretch target. Research by the Australian Hydrogen Centreis underway to understand the feasibility of100 per cent hydrogen replacement of natural gas in Victoria and South Australia would look like. This also provides a strong signal to electrolyser manufacturers for the potential deployment of large-scale electrolysis.
Expanding green hydrogen potential
Natural gas replacement in people’s homes is only one example of green hydrogen use. Part of its appeal is that it could reach parts of the economy other green fuels cannot.
“The electrons in electricity are incredibly versatile, almost magical, but nevertheless, there are limits. By using zero emissions electricity to crack water, we can produce a supply of molecules that can take over where the electrons fall short,” Finkel told Eco-Business.
Finkel believes that hydrogen is the obvious solution for replacing the metallurgical coal in steelmaking that is responsible for 7 per cent or more of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“A large fraction of that metallurgical coal works as a chemical, to reduce the iron oxide to elemental iron, with carbon dioxide as a by-product. Hydrogen can replace coal in that role, acting as a chemical, to reduce the iron oxide to elemental iron, with dihydrogen oxide (water) as the by-product.”
“Ammonia made from clean hydrogen can be used as the chemical feedstock to make zero emissions fertiliser. It is also the leading contender to replace the bunker fuel that powers the world’s maritime fleet,” Finkel said.
Many of the slated export-oriented projects include electrolyser capacities that are equal to or exceed 100 MW. In addition, other hydrogen-related developmental projects have sought environmental approvals for wind and solar generation capacities over 10 GW. Timelines are under development but experts expect few will be operational in the first half of this decade.
For applications that cannot be easily electrified, green hydrogen forms the bridge between renewable electricity and carbon neutral fuels. We have no doubt that clean hydrogen will be essential to power our world in the future.
Michael Bielinski, managing director, Siemens Energy Australasia
The path to economically sustainable hydrogen
Despite being the most abundant element in the universe, hydrogen has faced its fair share of challenges.Risk management firm, DNV, identifies infrastructure and cost as two of biggest hurdles facing a transition to a global hydrogen economy.
The Australian government has set a stretch goal of ‘H2 under $2’, an ambition to reach price parity with fossil hydrogen. Including typical capital investments needed to prepare sites for electrolysis, green hydrogen can be produced for about A$6-9 per kg compared to “grey” hydrogen produced from traditional carbon intensive methods at A$1.40 per kg.
To achieve the price point of under A$2, electrolyser costs will need to fall from between A$2 and A$3 million per MW to A$500,000 per MW with the cost of electricity from solar and wind to half, according to Darren Miller, chief executive of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
There is hope. Analysis by the IEA in 2019 found that the cost of producing hydrogen from renewable electricity could fall 30 per cent by 2030 as a result of the declining costs of renewables and the scaling up of hydrogen production. The cost of electrolysis equipment has fallen by around 40 per cent in the past five years while the price of solar alone has fallen by 85 per cent in the past decade.
“As more industries adopt green hydrogen energy, the total costs will continue to come down. The key to this is in scaling up production, efficient deployment methodologies and of course the ongoing reduction in renewable energy costs,” Bielinski said.
It is likely that full-scale plants will be powered by dedicated solar and wind resources depending on renewable energy requirements of all Australian hydrogen projects combined, including export.
“The key to cost savings could be hydrogen production facilities built jointly with wind/solar farms, so producers could generate power without incurring grid fees, taxes and levies,” according to analysis by Carolina Dores, co-head of the investment bank, Morgan Stanley European Utility team. While recognising that green hydrogen today is “uneconomical”, Morgan Stanley believes price parity is possible.
Developers and investors also need to factor in policy, regulatory approvals and practical issues that span construction, production, transport and storage and use, export, and demand-side regimes, according to a note by Allens, a law firm. Proving the safety case in both the workplace and for transport and storage remains key to scaling and widespread industry and community acceptance.
The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), who provides forecasting and planning publications for the National Electricity Market (NEM) has developed the Hydrogen Superpower Scenario – placing the hydrogen economy within the realm of possibility.
“Clean hydrogen will be crucial in the global energy transition. For applications that cannot be easily electrified, green hydrogen forms the bridge between renewable electricity and carbon neutral fuels. We have no doubt that clean hydrogen will be essential to power our world in the future,” said Bielinski.
“As a company with a strong portfolio along the energy value chain, Siemens Energy can provide the expertise and innovative technologies that will advance Australia’s hydrogen future and lead the nation’s status as a major energy leader.”
Australia has the potential to develop a substantial offshore wind energy industry from scratch, with abundant resources available near existing electricity substations across the continent, according to a new report.
The Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre said Australia was yet to capitalise on significant offshore wind capacity despite the International Energy Agency nominating it as one of the “big three” likely sources of renewable energy globally alongside solar and onshore wind.
It found more than 2,000GW of offshore wind turbines – far more than Australia’s existing generation capacity – could be installed in areas within 100km of substations. Environmentally restricted and low-wind areas were excluded from the assessment.
Sites that have traditionally been electricity generation hubs, such as the Hunter and Latrobe valleys and Gladstone, were found to be particularly suitable as they were close to transmission grids and had strong offshore winds at times when solar and onshore wind output was limited.
Dr Chris Briggs, research director at the University of Technology Sydney’s Institute for Sustainable Futures and a contributor to the report, said there had been a view in the energy industry that offshore wind energy would not play as significant a role in Australia as some other countries due to the availability of much cheaper solar and onshore wind energy.
He said that was starting to change as people recognised the scale of the clean energy transition required and what offshore wind could deliver. “The combination of the scale, falling cost and the development of floating wind turbines means it has come into focus,” he said.
Briggs said offshore wind could be built on a much larger scale than solar or onshore wind – up to 2GW for a project – and could generate more electricity per megawatt of capacity. “This could be very valuable in the late 2020s and 2030s as we see coal plants retiring,” he said.
The project’s leader, Dr Mark Hemer of the CSIRO, said offshore wind could be particularly important under “energy superpower” scenarios that involved mass electrification of industry and transport and hydrogen production for domestic use and export.
The report said there were 10 offshore wind projects with a combined capacity of 25GW in development in Australia, all at an early stage. The most advanced is the $10bn Star of the South – a 2.2GW windfarm planned for between 7km and 25km offshore in South Gippsland.
The federal government is yet to finalise the regulatory framework necessary for an offshore wind industry to develop. The report said it could help develop an industry by supporting the technology through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, incorporating it into planning for the national hydrogen strategy, and considering allocation of marine space in commonwealth waters.
The work was partly funded by the maritime, electrical and manufacturing unions. They called on federal and state governments to take immediate steps to support the development of an industry, saying it had the potential to create jobs for workers in fossil fuel industries.
Paddy Crumlin, the national secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, said the development of an offshore wind industry would give seafarers and offshore oil and gas workers an opportunity “to transition into the important work of delivering Australia’s clean energy future”.
Offshore wind is more advanced in countries with limited capacity to develop renewable energy on land. The report said 2030 targets for offshore wind energy totalled about 200GW, including 60GW in the European Union, 40GW in Britain and 12 GW in South Korea. Japan plans to reach 45GW by 2040.
A report by BloombergNEF and Bloomberg Philanthropies this week found Australia increased support for fossil fuel by 48% between 2015 and 2019, the largest rise in the G20.
It said most of the support had been delivered in the form of tax breaks to oil and gas projects. They included tax capex deductions for mining and petroleum operations, fuel-tax credits and reductions in fuel-excise rates and offset schemes. Australia “lost out on nearly US$6bn in foregone taxes” over the five years, it said.
The Bloomberg report did not include the Morrison government’s support for a “gas-fired recovery” from the pandemic. The government dedicated hundreds of millions of dollars to gas projects in the May budget, including up to $600m for a new power plant in the Hunter Valley that experts say is not needed.
