Chuyên mục: Năng lượng sạch – clean energy

Vietnam’s forests have been cleared to supply the world’s timber industry (2 parts)

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

pulitzercenter.org – APRIL 4, 2023

Vietnam’s Forests Have Been Cleared To Supply the World’s Timber Industry

author image

In Central Vietnam’s factory, wood chips are accumulated in the rear of a three-wheel vehicle used to transport acacia wood to the processing machine. Image by Thanh Nguyen.

Vietnam is ranked the fifth-largest country in the world, second in Asia, and the largest in Southeast Asia in furniture exports. Vietnamese furniture has been directly exported to 120 countries and territories.

However, behind this impressive figure is that series of natural forests that have been cut down and quickly. These forest land areas have been occupied for growing short-term timber trees.

Deforestation makes natural disasters in Vietnam more severe, local people suffer the most from the consequences.

An investigation will be published on Mekong Eye.

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New Google geothermal electricity project could be a milestone for clean energy

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

A drill rig stands at a Fervo Energy geothermal site under construction near Milford, Utah, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. In Nevada, Fervo’s first operational pilot project has begun pumping carbon-free electricity onto the state's grid to power Google data centers, Google announced Tuesday, Nov. 28. Fervo is using the Nevada pilot to launch larger projects like this one in Utah. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

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A drill rig stands at a Fervo Energy geothermal site under construction near Milford, Utah, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. In Nevada, Fervo’s first operational pilot project has begun pumping carbon-free electricity onto the state’s grid to power Google data centers, Google announced Tuesday, Nov. 28. Fervo is using the Nevada pilot to launch larger projects like this one in Utah. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

BY JENNIFER MCDERMOTTUpdated 1:20 AM GMT+7, November 29, 2023Share

An advanced geothermal project has begun pumping carbon-free electricity onto the Nevada grid to power Google data centers there, Google announced Tuesday.

Getting electrons onto the grid for the first time is a milestone many new energy companies never reach, said Tim Latimer, CEO and co-founder of Google’s geothermal partner in the project, Houston-based Fervo Energy.

“I think it will be big and it will continue to vault geothermal into a lot more prominence than it has been,” Latimer said in an interview.

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Renewable energy jobs rise by 700,000 in a year, to nearly 13 million

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

news.un.org 22 September 2022 Climate and Environment

Worldwide employment in the renewable energy sector reached 12.7 million last year, a jump of 700,000 new jobs in just 12 months, despite the lingering effects of COVID-19 and the growing energy crisis, according to a new report published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in collaboration with the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO).

Renewable Energy and Jobs: Annual Review 2022, identifies domestic market size as a major factor influencing job growth in renewables, along with labour and other costs.

Solar growing fastest

Solar energy was found to be the fastest-growing sector. In 2021 it provided 4.3 million jobs, more than a third of the current global workforce in renewable energy.

With rising concerns about climate change, COVID-19 recovery and supply chain disruption, countries are turning inwards to boost job creation at home, focusing on local supply chains.

The report describes how strong domestic markets are key to anchoring a drive toward clean energy industrialization. Developing renewable technology export capabilities is also dependent on this, it adds.

‘Just transition for all’

ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, said that “beyond the numbers, there is a growing focus on the quality of jobs and the conditions of work in renewable energies, to ensure decent and productive employment.

“The increasing share of female employment suggests that dedicated policies and training can significantly enhance the participation of women in renewable energy occupations, inclusion and ultimately, achieve a just transition for all.”

Mr. Ryder encouraged governments, organized labour and business groups “to remain firmly committed to a sustainable energy transition, which is indispensable for the future of work.”

Resilient and reliable

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Federal Policies Are Fueling An American Clean Energy Jobs And Investment Boom

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

forbes.com

Jul 10, 2023,08:59am EDT Silvio Marcacci Contributor Senior Director, Communications

The United States’ is in the early stage of a clean energy boom that’s driving new investment and job growth in every state across the nation – thanks to smart climate policy.

Nearly 300,000 new energy jobs were created nationwide in 2022 according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) 2023 U.S. Energy and Employment Report (USEER). 114,000 of these jobs were in clean energy technologies like renewables and zero-emission vehicles, and clean energy jobs grew 3.9% compared to 2021, outpacing 3.1% nationwide job growth over the same time.

Clean energy jobs offer higher wages than the national average, and are widely available to workers without four-year degrees, meaning most Americans can access them. Earlier Brookings Institution research found that a clean energy job can equal an 8%-19% income increase, and 45% of all workers in clean energy production only have a high school diploma, while earning higher wages than similarly educated peers in other industries.

Alternative Energy
ABILENE, TX – JUNE 7: An engineer checks the wind speed with a had-held wind gauge at a tower base … [+]GETTY IMAGES

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Is Australia quietly quitting the LNG business?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

oxfordenergy.org

One of the major investors in Australian LNG, INPEX, has recently suggested that the country is quietly quitting the LNG business. This is in the context of increasing government regulation, including the possibility of gas intended for LNG projects being diverted into the domestic market. The federal government has responded by reassuring major buyers that Australia will continue to be a reliable LNG supplier.

However, there are a number of fundamental challenges for the government in living up to its promise. First, Australian gas reserves are not being replaced, with some important legacy gas fields reaching the end of their lives. This includes both LNG and domestic gas fields. This leads to the possibility that shortfalls in the domestic market will have to be met by diversions from LNG projects that also face gas supply challenges. Second, the LNG projects are significant CO2 emitters and many Australian gas fields, including those with the potential to backfill LNG, contain significant volumes of CO2. The new federal government has adopted more ambitious emissions reduction targets. Third, coal-fired generation is being closed faster than it can be replaced with renewables, increasing demand for gas in key periods such as winter and pushing up gas prices.

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Clean energy investment is extending its lead over fossil fuels, boosted by energy security strengths

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

iea.org

Global investment in clean energy is on course to rise to USD 1.7 trillion in 2023, with solar set to eclipse oil production for the first time

Investment in clean energy technologies is significantly outpacing spending on fossil fuels as affordability and security concerns triggered by the global energy crisis strengthen the momentum behind more sustainable options, according to a new IEA report.

About USD 2.8 trillion is set to be invested globally in energy in 2023, of which more than USD 1.7 trillion is expected to go to clean technologies – including renewables, electric vehicles, nuclear power, grids, storage, low-emissions fuels, efficiency improvements and heat pumps – according to the IEA’s latest World Energy Investment report. The remainder, slightly more than USD 1 trillion, is going to coal, gas and oil.

Annual clean energy investment is expected to rise by 24% between 2021 and 2023, driven by renewables and electric vehicles, compared with a 15% rise in fossil fuel investment over the same period. But more than 90% of this increase comes from advanced economies and China, presenting a serious risk of new dividing lines in global energy if clean energy transitions don’t pick up elsewhere.

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Europe’s pursuit of securing critical raw materials for the green transition

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Chathamhouse.org

The UK and EU are beginning to secure supply of critical raw materials necessary for the twin transitions to a digital and net-zero economy.

EXPERT COMMENT

4 APRIL 2023 5 MINUTE READ

It was possibly a coincidence when both the UK and the EU published their updated strategy documents on critical raw materials in the same week. The UK government published the Critical Minerals Refresh on 13 March 2023 which reinforces the government’s commitment to the Critical Minerals Strategy. Three days later, the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act and the EU Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) were released alongside each other on 16 March 2023.

10 per cent of domestic demand for mining and extraction and at least 40 per cent for processing and refining is outlined in the EU CRM Act. 

These different policies aim to ensure the sustainable supply of critical raw materials which are vital to the digital economy and net-zero transition. The key issues addressed in the strategies include the dependency on imports of critical materials – such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth metals – and key technologies – such as batteries and solar photovoltaics – as well as increased vulnerability to price volatility and potential supply disruptions.  

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Responding to Coronavirus: Low-carbon Investments Can Help Economies Recover

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

WRI.org

By Helen Mountford 

Windmills running in the background of a dense forest.
Cover Image by: Camila Fernández León

The COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a human tragedy, infecting more than 120,000 and killing more than 4,200 people as of March 12, 2020. The loss of human life is heart-breaking and set to continue ticking upwards.

The virus has also hit society like a global tsunami, disrupting travel, cutting off communities, shuttering factories and shaking up economic markets. The global manufacturing sector has suffered its worst contraction since the 2009 recession. Goldman Sachs forecasts zero earnings growth for U.S. companies, while airlines and cruise lines are reeling as people opt to stay home.

Unsurprisingly this major global disruption is leading to lower energy demand, which in turn reduces global greenhouse gas emissions. China’s industrial output has dropped 15% to 40% since the crisis began, leading to a roughly 25% drop in emissions over that same period.

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Creating the new hydrogen economy is a massive undertaking

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

It is also a delicate one

economist.com

Oct 9th 2021

NEW YORK

Today’s hydrogen business is, in global terms, reasonably small, very dirty and completely vital. Some 90m tonnes of the stuff are produced each year, providing revenues of over $150bn—approaching those of ExxonMobil, an oil and gas company. This is done almost entirely by burning fossil fuels with air and steam—a process which uses up 6% of the world’s natural gas and 2% of its coal and emits more than 800m tonnes of carbon dioxide, putting the industry’s emissions on the same level as those of Germany.Listen to this story

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German Coal Mine to Be Reborn as Giant Pumped Storage Hydro Facility

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

renewableenergyworld.com

By Bloomberg News Editors -3.17.2017

A coal-mine that powered German industry for almost half a century will get a new lease on life when it’s turned into a giant battery that stores excess solar and wind energy.

The state of North-Rhine Westphalia is set to turn its Prosper-Haniel hard coal mine into a 200-MW pumped storage hydroelectric reservoir, which acts like a battery and will have enough capacity to power more than 400,000 homes, said state governor Hannelore Kraft. The town of Bottrop, where people worked the 600 meter (1,969 foot) deep mine since 1974, will keep playing a role in providing uninterrupted power for the country, she said.

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Reshore, Reroute, Rebalance: A U.S. Strategy for Clean Energy Supply Chains

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

CSIS.org

May 19, 2021DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

Clean energy technologies are now big business. Vast sums of money in clean energy supply chains promise to rearrange the geopolitics of industrial competition and energy security. Further, to achieve their increasingly ambitious climate goals, countries are likely to do far more to reshape industrial sectors, compressing in a few years a process that normally takes decades.

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Better infrastructure is way to absorb surge in renewable energy production: experts

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

e.vnexpress.net 

By Viet Anh   January 24, 2021 | 07:56 am GMT+7

Storing renewable energy in batteries and pumped storage of water to generate power, and improving transmission capacity are keys for Vietnam to foster renewable energy, according to experts.

Nguyen Duc Ninh, director of the National Load Dispatch Center, said earlier this month Vietnam plans to reduce its renewable energy output by 1.3 billion kilowatt hours this year since it lacks transmission capacity.

Installed solar power capacity reached 19,400 MWp by the end of last year, or 25 percent of total power capacity.

Dr Hang Dao, a sustainable energy expert at the World Resources Institute (WRI), said the reason Vietnam has solar energy surplus is the country’s electric grid and infrastructure are quite weak, and so energy is not transmitted to locations where needed.

The national grid is out of date and needs to be upgraded, but it would take time to install a modern network, and while waiting for it the country could focus on short-term storage plans, said Hang.

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Renewable Energy Lab. NREL’s Updated System Advisor Model

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

The latest version of NREL’s popular System Advisor Model (SAM) is now available, providing more robust data and seamless integration with other NREL models to help the renewable energy industry make informed project decisions.

SAM is free, publicly available modeling software for technical performance simulation and financial analysis of renewable energy projects and includes a desktop application, software development kit, and open-source code.

Updates to the model include:

  • The addition of the latest solar resource data from NREL’s National Solar Radiation Database, including yearly and sub-hourly data and covering Europe, Africa, and Asia for the first time
  • Improved battery dispatch for both front-of-meter and behind-the-meter battery storage applications
  • Improved electricity bill calculations for distributed behind-the-meter financial models
  • Implementation of NREL’s Solar Position Algorithm for sun angle calculations of solar performance models
  • Integration of NREL’s Land-Based Balance-of-System Systems Engineering Model for improved wind power plant system cost estimation and design.

“With the recent improvements, we’re excited to continue to ensure that complex energy analysis questions can be answered quickly and easily,” said Janine Freeman, NREL lead for the SAM model.

Top 10 Priorities for President Biden to Tackle the Climate Crisis

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

WRI.org

Former U.S. Vice President Joseph R. Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris are widely recognized as having won the 2020 U.S. presidential election, with a majority in the Electoral College and a resounding majority in the popular vote. The Democratic Party has retained control of the U.S. House of Representatives, while the results for the U.S. Senate are very close and the outcome is undetermined at this time. In this WRI Commentary, WRI U.S. Director Dan Lashof suggests a 10-point plan for the new administration.

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President-elect Biden will be sworn into office in the midst of four deeply intertwined crises: the health crisis, the economic crisis, the racial injustice crisis and the climate crisis. He has promised to build back better by taking bold action on all four simultaneously, including making unprecedented investments in health care, infrastructure and clean energy.
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How Can Governments Attract Private Investment for the Green Energy Transition?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
October 27, 2020
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM EDTOnline

The world is not on track to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. With 2030 just a decade away, and governments are under pressure to speed up the clean energy transition.

The good news is that: a) the technologies and the capital are available to accelerate the green energy transition, and b) the private sector is ready to invest billions of green dollars into decarbonization and clean energy.

But how can governments provide the institutional and regulatory frameworks that make it attractive for private companies and investors to invest in and deploy the needed solutions and technologies to accelerate the clean energy transition?
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