Hopeful Energy Stories: Energy Impacts from Extreme Weather

 Photograph by Karly Domb Sadof, AP

An exploding transformer lit up part of lower Manhattan, which was otherwise plunged into darkness during power outages in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. Mother Nature roughed up the power industry in 2012—and some believe she got a boost from human-driven climate change.

Sandy knocked out power to some 8.5 million homes and businesses in 16 states. Damage from the storm highlighted the aging and vulnerable grid infrastructure found across much of the U.S., which many states are working to update with smarter electric-distribution systems that can quickly identify and respond to trouble. 

During the lead-up to Labor Day, Hurricane Isaac was part of a perfect storm that drove pump prices sky high just before one of the year's biggest travel weekends. The approaching storm shut down Gulf Coast refineries, which caused dips in inventory and reactionary spikes in gasoline prices. 

Not all of the stress on the power grid came from storms. Record-breaking drought conditions that gripped much of the U.S. over the summer also took a toll. Nuclear power plants, which require water for cooling, were forced to scale back production, and some shut down—even as heat drove demand for air-conditioning and electricity. Hydroelectric power production was also slowed during summer 2012's extended dog days.

—Brian Handwerk




Read More

Hopeful Energy Stories: An Isle of Ambitious Energy Goals

Photograph by Richard Hughes, Kos Picture Source/Getty Images

Using the natural energy found in wind, a sailor slices through the sea just off the Isle of Wight. Onshore, supporters of the Ecoisland effort hope to turn the small slice of Great Britain into a utopia of renewable energy in the English Channel.

The project boasts more than 70 corporate sponsors joining forces to make the Isle of Wight self-sufficient with green energy by 2020. "It will be a living laboratory," said David Green, Ecoisland founder and chief executive officer. Green was inspired by seafarers who live on board ship and have developed ways to remain self-sufficient for weeks or months at a time.

If all goes according to plan, the island's electricity will be produced by solar, tidal, waste, geothermal, and wind energy projects. Sustainable food and water initiatives also will nourish inhabitants.

Similar projects are planned or under way on numerous islands worldwide. The Danish island of Samsø, in the North Sea, has already achieved enough energy self-sufficiency to send power back to the mainland.

READ MORE

Hopeful Energy Stories: A Price for Carbon

Photograph by Rich Pedroncelli, AP Images

Refineries like this one in Rodeo, California, face the prospect of paying to pollute. With an online auction, California launched its own cap-and-trade system with an aim of curbing carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent over the next eight years. Proponents hope it will serve as a model for wider action in the United States and globally.

Earlier this year, Australia launched its own modified "carbon tax." Coal-dependent Australia has one of the world's most carbon-intensive economies, but concern over climate change is high, as the nation has faced drought and wildfire and the degradation of its tourist gem, the Great Barrier Reef.

The challenge is great for jurisdictions that act on their own. Some in British Columbia are now questioning its pioneering carbon tax enacted in 2008, despite popular support for the plan. Proponents hope efforts here and elsewhere will serve as a model for the kind of wider global action that is needed.

READ MORE

HOPEFUL ENERGY STORIES: Innovation in Cities

Energy Sustainable Transport

 Photograph by Kike Calvo, National Geographic

The new aerial tramway in Medellin, Colombia, looks more like a ski lift than an urban transportation system—but the project is just one of the many creative energy innovations being advanced by cities around the globe. The tram cars, which traverse hilly, low-income neighborhoods, won a Sustainable Transport Award from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).

In other cities, drivers are helping to ease gridlock—and the financial burdens of auto ownership—with car-sharing systems.  And communities such as Singapore, the capital of the nation with the same name, and Stanford, California, home to Stanford University, are enticing drivers to skip rush hour entirely by giving them a chance to win cash prizes.

While many projects aim to ease traffic on city streets, others are  looking below them in hopes of tapping an unusual energy source—the hot water that showers, dishwashers, laundries, and other users send down the drain each year. Some estimates suggest that the energy in America's wastewater could power 30 million U.S. homes per year—and fledgling projects in Vancouver and Chicago aim to capture that resource through heat-recovery systems.



READ MORE

HOPEFUL ENERGY STORIES: Solutions in the Developing World

Photograph courtesy Robert A. Freling, Solar Electric Light Fund

A man tends solar panels in Benin, Africa, site of a project that aims to bring energy, water, and hope to villages. The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) has shown how solar panels can power drip-irrigation systems that grow crops sustainably in arid regions where food shortages and malnutrition have been endemic. 

It is just one of the efforts that aim to deliver clean energy to the 1.6 billion people in the world who don't have access to reliable electric power. The United Nations sought to bring attention to the problem by declaring 2012 the Year of Sustainable Energy for All.

Small-scale solutions can bring enormous dividends, such as simple solar lamps that can sell for as little as $10 to $20.

SELF's Benin irrigation project is aided by a grant from the Great Energy Challenge, which funds other innovative energy solutions around the world, from Costa Rica to India and Washington, D.C.



READ MORE

HOPEFUL ENERGY STORIES: Concern for Wildlife Alters Energy Plans

Photograph by Joel Sartore

Bison cluster on the native grassland at Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge, just one example of the Nebraska wildlife in the ecosystem at the center of a major energy battle this year—the fight over the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline.

Pressure built against the project in part over concern for the unique 19,600-square-mile (51,000-square-kilometer) ecosystem in Nebraska called the Sandhills, and the Obama administration blocked the proposed pipeline route. (See "Pictures: Animals That Blocked Keystone XL Pipeline Path.") TransCanada says it remains fully committed to the project to move crude from Canada's oil sands some 1,700 miles (2,740 kilometers) to refineries in Texas, and a decision on a revised plan is expected from Washington early in 2013.

Climate change activists are sure to continue their opposition, because of concern over carbon-intensive oil sands production. But the debate forced a rethinking of the project with renewed attention on the importance of protecting the Sandhills and the underlying Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies drinking water to about 2 million people in Nebraska and seven other states.

On the other side of the globe, in Sabah, Malaysia, threats to the critically endangered Sumatran rhino and vibrant coral reefs derailed a planned coal-fired power plant in one of the region's top biological hot spots—an ecotourism destination to boot. While green advocates hope to see renewable energy thrive here, Sabah's short-term needs will be filled by a 300-megawatt natural gas plant, which is cleaner than the coal alternative. (See "Concern Over Rare Rhino Rouses Clean Energy Drive in Malaysia.")

—Brian Handwerk


READ MORE