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Free Renewable Energy Presentation Templates

Turn up the eco-volume on your presentations with free renewable energy powerpoint templates and google slides. explain the benefits of solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal power with captivating visuals. impress your audience with clear diagrams, informative infographics, and inspiring quotes. encourage your audience to embrace a greener future with us.

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What are renewable energy presentation templates.

These templates are customizable slides designed to make your presentations on sustainable energy sources engaging and informative. They feature visuals like solar panels, windmills, and recycling diagrams to convey key concepts effectively.

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RMS Objective 13: Identify geothermal energy as a renewable energy source, and give examples of places where geothermal energy is being used.

Geothermal energy is the natural heat of the Earth.

Heat flows outward from Earth's interior. The crust insulates us from Earth's interior heat. The mantle is semi-molten, the outer core is liquid and the inner core is solid.

The deeper you go, the hotter it gets (in Fahrenheit and miles).

Earth's crust is broken into huge plates that move apart or push together at about the rate our fingernails grow. Convection of semi-molten rock in the upper mantle helps drive plate tectonics.

New crust forms along mid-ocean spreading centers and continental rift zones. When plates meet, one can slide beneath another. Plumes of magma rise from the edges of sinking plates.

Thinned or fractured crust allows magma to rise to the surface as lava. Most magma doesn't reach the surface but heats large regions of underground rock.

Rainwater can seep down faults and fractured rocks for miles. After being heated, it can return to the surface as steam or hot water.

This steaming ground is in the Philippines.

When hot water and steam reach the surface, they can form fumaroles, hot springs, mud pots and other interesting phenomena.

When the rising hot water and steam is trapped in permeable and porous rocks under a layer of impermeable rock, it can form a geothermal reservoir.

A geothermal reservoir is a powerful source of energy!

Many areas have accessible geothermal resources, especially countries along the circum-Pacific "Ring of Fire," spreading centers, continental rift zones and other hot spots.

These and other methods are used.

Exploration commonly begins with analysis of satellite images and aerial photographs.

Volcanoes are obvious indications of underground heat, this volcano, Mt. Mayon in the Albay province of the Philippines erupted in 1999.

Geologists explore volcanic regions to find the most likely areas for further study, like this steaming hillside in Nicaragua.

Geologic landforms and fault structures are mapped in the region. �This view overlooks Basin and Range terrain East of the Sierra Nevadas.

Rocks are examined up close.

Geologic maps like this one are created, showing rock type and ages in different colors.

Data from electrical, magnetic, chemical and seismic surveys is gathered in the field.

The data obtained in the field are displayed in various ways and analyzed.

Geologists and drillers study the data to decide whether to recommend drilling. Geothermal reservoirs suitable for commercial use can only be discovered by drilling.

First, a small- diameter "temperature gradient hole" is drilled (some only 200' deep, some over 4000 feet deep) with a truck-mounted rig to determine the temperatures and underground rock types.

Production-sized wells require large drill rigs like these and can cost as much as a million dollars or more to drill. Geothermal wells can be drilled over two miles deep.

Natural steam from the production wells power the turbine generator. The steam is condensed by evaporation in the cooling tower and pumped down an injection well to sustain production.

Like all steam turbine generators, the force of steam is used to spin the turbine blades which spin the generator, producing electricity. But with geothermal energy, no fuels are burned.

Those white plumes you see at geothermal power plants are steam (water vapor). Geothermal plants do not burn fuel or produce smoke.

Geothermal power plants are clean and are operating successfully in sensitive environments.

The first modern geothermal power plants were also built in Lardello, Italy. They were destroyed in World War II and rebuilt. Today after 90 years, the Lardello field is still producing.

The first geothermal power plants in the U.S. were built in 1962 at The Geysers dry steam field, in northern California. It is still the largest producing geothermal field in the world.

This power plant provides about 25% of the electricity used on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Geothermal power has many local and global benefits.

The fastest growth in US geothermal capacity was from 1980 to 1990, following enactment of federal laws that compelled utilities to purchase electricity from independent power producers.

People who live in these areas are receiving electricity from geothermal power plants.

Producing electricity is a relatively new use of geothermal energy. People have used Earth's natural hot water directly since the dawn of humankind.

This historical drawing depicts Native Americans using hot springs at what is now Calistoga, California. Some tribes considered hot springs to be neutral territory where no wars were allowed.

Use of hot springs by Maoris of New Zealand for cooking and other purposes extends into modern times.

Modern day Beppu Japan uses geothermal water and heat in buildings and factories and has 4,000 hot springs and bathing facilities that attract 12 million tourists a year.

Bathing in hot pools like these at Hot Creek, Mammoth Lakes, California, has been practiced throughout history. Be careful -- people and animals have been burned badly in unfamiliar pools.

Since Roman times, we have piped the hot water into pools to better control the temperature. These are photos of outdoor and indoor pool and spa bathing in Japan, the US, and Europe.

This small greenhouse is heated with geothermal water. Plants grow faster and larger when they have additional heat available.

In several western US states, many long greenhouses are built and heated with geothermal water. This one is in New Mexico.

Geothermal water is also used to speed the growth of fish. These are growing in a geothermally heated hatchery at Mammoth Lakes, California.

This net full of fish was grown in geothermally heated waters in California's Imperial Valley.

Closeup of a prawn grown in a research project with geothermally heated water at the GeoHeat Center, Oregon Institute of Technology.

These alligators are grown in geothermally heated water in Idaho.

Geothermal water is also used for industrial uses, like drying lumber or food products. This plant in Brady, Nevada, provides dried onions to Burger King.

Pipes of geothermal water can be installed under sidewalks and roads to keep them from icing over in winter, like this sidewalk in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

In some places, geothermal water is piped from wells to heat single homes or whole residential or commercial districts. This truck-mounted drill rig is drilling a well for use in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

This photo of Reykjavik, Iceland, was taken in 1932, when buildings were all heated by burning of (imported) fossil fuels.

Today, about 95% of the buildings in Reykjavik are heated with geothermal water. Reykjavik is now one of the cleanest cities in the world.

The first geothermal district heating system in the US was built in Boise, Idaho. Today, Boise's capital and city buildings are heated with a geothermal district heating system.

The areas in orange and red are where with today's technology, we can find and use geothermal reservoirs.

Geothermal heat pumps can be used almost everywhere in the world, without a geothermal reservoir. The insulating properties of the earth, just below our feet, can keep us warm or cool.

In a poll, over 95% of people who had installed a geothermal heat pump said they would recommend it and would do it again.

The entire U.S. (and most other areas of the world) are suitable for geothermal heat pumps. In the U.S., geothermal reservoirs occur primarily in western states.

It is of critical importance that we use energy sources that are easy on the environment.

Our modern world relies more and more on electricity -- to run our simplest household appliances, to keep businesses humming, to operate our computers and to light the night.

We rely on abundant, affordable energy. We must conserve, use energy more efficiently, and diversify our energy resource base.

Today, coal provides 55% of the U.S. electricity supply and the U.S. imports more than half of the oil it consumes. The burning of fossil fuels cannot be sustained.

Much air pollution is caused by burning of fossil fuels. The costs of pollution include health effects like rising rates of asthma, especially in children and especially in cities.

Currently we are using primarily fossil fuels.

What will be the consequences if our growing energy needs are also met by fossil fuels?

You can choose clean renewable energy from wind, solar, small hydropower and geothermal resources.

Discussion Questions

What is Geothermal Energy?

Geothermal Energy is energy from heat inside the Earth.

The centre of the Earth is around 6000 degress Celsius - hot enough to melt rock. Even a few kilometres down, the temperature can be over 250 degrees Celsius.

In general, the temperature rises one degree Celsius for every 36 meters you go down.

In volcanic areas, molten rock can be very close to the surface.

Geothermal energy has been used for thousands of years in some countries for cooking and heating.

The name "geothermal" comes from two Greek words: "geo" means "Earth" and "thermal" means "heat".

How does Geothermal Energy Work?

Hot rocks underground heat water to produce steam. �We drill holes down to the hot region, steam comes up, is purified and used to drive turbines, which drive electric generators. There may be natural "groundwater" in the hot rocks anyway, or we may need to drill more holes and pump water down to them. 

What are the advantages to using Geothermal Energy?

• Geothermal energy does not produce any pollution, and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect.��
• The power stations do not take up much room, so there is not much impact on the environment.��
• No fuel is needed.��
• Once you've built a geothermal power station, the energy is almost free. �It may need a little energy to run a pump, but this can be taken from the energy being generated.

What are the disadvantages to using Geothermal Energy?

• The big problem is that there are not many places where you can build a geothermal power station.

� You need hot rocks of a suitable type, at a depth where we can drill down to them. �The type of rock above is also important, it must be of a type that we can easily drill through. ��

• Sometimes a geothermal site may "run out of steam", perhaps for decades. ��
• Hazardous gases and minerals may come up from underground, and can be difficult to safely dispose of.

Is Geothermal Energy Renewable?

Geothermal energy is renewable. �The energy keeps on coming, as long as we don't pump too much cold water down and cool the rocks too much.

Geothermal power means getting __________ from hot __________ underground. This is __________ , as long as we don't take too much energy out. �Hot __________ comes up out of the hole we've drilled, and usually "flashes" into __________ which we can purify and use to drive turbines, which drive generators to make __________ . �At some sites we have to __________ water down, at others the hot water comes up anyway. Sometimes poisonous __________ come up too.�Geothermal power can be __________ , because there needs to be the right type of __________ , at a suitable __________ , where we can __________ down to it.

drill    electricity    gases    heat    pump    

renewable    rock    water

rocks    steam    temperature    unreliable       

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Renewable energy is a term used to refer to forms of energy that are naturally obtained from the environment and from sources that can be replenished naturally. These include solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, hydropower, and biomass.

The term renewable energy should not be confused with alternative energy, which describes sources of energy outside the regular forms like gasoline that are considered more environment-friendly or less harmful.

Advantages of Renewable Energy

Advantages of using renewable sources of energy are −

Less maintenance cost as most sources entail few or no moving parts, hence, less mechanical damages.

They are economical and can cut costs spent on fossil fuel.

They emit little or no waste in the environment.

Renewable energy sources do not deplete. Therefore, these have a better prospect for the future.

Sources of Solar Energy

This tutorial explains five major sources of renewable energy. Each source will be reviewed briefly, although detailed discussion will be provided in the subsequent chapters.

Solar energy − Energy from the Sun is referred to as solar energy. Solar energy could be used as either active solar or passive solar. Active solar is directly consumed in activities such as drying clothes and warming of air. Technology has provided a number of ways to utilize this abundant resource.

Geothermal energy − This refers to heat energy stored under the ground for millions of years through the earth formation. It utilizes a rich storage of unutilized thermal energy that exists under the earth’s crust.

Hydro-power − This is a major renewable energy source used all over the world today to produce electricity.

Wind energy − In ancient times, wind energy was used to move ships by impacting on the sails.

Biomass energy − In energy generation, it refers to waste plants that are utilized to generate energy by combustion.

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California Is Showing How a Big State Can Power Itself Without Fossil Fuels

Something approaching a miracle has been taking place in California this spring. Beginning in early March, for some portion of almost every day, a combination of solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower has been producing more than a hundred per cent of the state’s demand for electricity. Some afternoons, solar panels alone have produced more power than the state uses. And, at night, large utility-scale batteries that have been installed during the past few years are often the single largest source of supply to the grid—sending the excess power stored up during the afternoon back out to consumers across the state. It’s taken years of construction—and solid political leadership in Sacramento—to slowly build this wave, but all of a sudden it’s cresting into view. California has the fifth-largest economy in the world and, in the course of a few months, the state has proved that it’s possible to run a thriving modern economy on clean energy.

A good place to view this feat is from Mark Jacobson’s home—a light-filled two-story modernist house that he shares with his family at the end of a classic suburban cul-de-sac on the edge of the campus of Stanford University, where he is a professor of civil and environmental engineering. In part, that’s because the house is an energy-efficient showpiece; its solar panels produce more than enough energy to cover what he uses, though it is still tied to the grid. In the garage, there are two Teslas (including a 2009 Roadster with a license plate that reads “GHG Free”) and a pair of the company’s Powerwall batteries. The first place Jacobson shows you on a tour is the mechanical room, where an air exchanger recovers ninety-seven per cent of the heat from the stale air that it pushes out of the house. Next up is the kitchen, where an induction cooktop cuts energy use by sixty per cent compared with gas, even as it boils water twice as fast. He also showed me an app on his phone that monitors his usage of the power generated by solar panels on his roof every few seconds. “Yesterday, seventeen per cent of the generation from my rooftop went into the batteries in the garage,” he said. “I used eight per cent of it at home, and I sold seventy-nine per cent to the grid.”

But the real reason to go see Jacobson is that he said this transition could and would happen. Beginning with an article he co-wrote for Scientific American , in 2009, he’s been making the case for a-hundred-per-cent renewable energy. It’s not been easy—after he won a prize, from the National Academy of Sciences, for a 2015 paper laying out the vision, twenty-one energy researchers wrote an analysis for the academy’s magazine that accuses him of modelling errors and of making “implausible and inadequately supported assumptions.” So Jacobson can be excused for crowing a bit on social media this spring, if you define crowing as posting almost daily graphs of the renewable-energy surge.

“Last year, we reached one hundred per cent a few times,” he told me, as we sat in his living room. “But, this year, there’s been thirty-two-per-cent more solar output” as big new solar farms have come online, and “wind is up eleven per cent.” And demand for electricity from the grid has dropped three per cent—mostly because so many people have put solar panels on their roofs, so they, like Jacobson, can supply much of their own power. Renewable energy has reached an inflection point in California, where there’s enough installed capacity to begin to show its real muscle, a message that’s being heard across the country. From January to April, renewables accounted for ninety-nine per cent of new power added to America’s grid. “Tides have turned,” Jacobson tweeted last week. “Fossil gas, coal, and nuclear are quickly becoming the ‘alternative energy.’ ”

And it’s not just in the United States. A new report from the British energy think tank Ember shows that in 2023 the European Union—spurred in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine —in a month produced more electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuels for the first time. In May, Ember reported that wind and solar are now growing faster than any energy sources in history, besting even the rate that nuclear power grew at its height, during the nineteen-sixties and seventies. Although new data released this week showed world carbon emissions still climbed slightly last year, the Rocky Mountain Institute, in a report released last week, declared that the world could see peak fossil-fuel use this year, as the surge in renewables could account for even the rising demand for energy from growing Asian economies. In the past decade, the R.M.I. group found, “solar generation has grown 12 times, battery storage by 180 times, and EV sales by 100 times.” This growth has been led by China, where “solar generation is up 37 times and EV sales up 700 times.” China is “poised to be the first major electrostate.”

Jacobson leads a team of researchers at Stanford who have modelled plans to take a hundred and forty-nine countries to a-hundred-per-cent wind, water, and solar power by 2035; the latest countries added to his database, this spring, are Madagascar, Rwanda, Uganda, and Eswatini (the former Swaziland). For each of them, Jacobson has a model that can forecast the weather every thirty seconds, for decades ahead, taking into account the predictions of a warming climate. If, on some June day in 2050, it’s going to be eighty degrees in the mountains of Madagascar, and you want it to be seventy degrees inside a home, he can calculate the insulation value of the wall of an average residential building there and show how much energy it will take to cool things down. Then he can show exactly what combination of wind, water, and solar will provide it. Very occasionally, he’ll find a place with so little land that it can’t produce the energy it needs on its own soil. (He limits the acreage to be used for solar and wind production to about two per cent of a nation’s territory.) “Singapore, Gibraltar, places like that,” he says. “Then we go offshore.” And, in the interest of grid stability, he tries to couple wind and solar in relatively equal amounts. “That’s because in a heat wave, you have high pressure, and lots and lots of sun, but the wind tends to die,” he says. “And then the low pressure comes in, and with it storms, which cuts the solar energy, but the pressure gradients mean strong winds.” Hydro is a reliable source—essentially the biggest battery on his grid, because its power can be so easily stored for dispatch when needed—but when a drought causes its availability to drop, that almost certainly means that there’s been a lot of sun. “Everywhere in the world, we can find ways to match demand for energy by supply and storage,” he says.

The crucial question, of course, is not whether this transition will keep growing—it will, because the cost of solar, wind, and batteries continues to fall dramatically. The question is whether it will grow fast enough to let us begin to catch up with the implacable physics of global warming. (Globally, May was the twelfth month in a row of record-high temperatures.) And here the news is a little less sanguine: at the current pace, according to a new study from the International Energy Agency, we will more than double renewable capacity by 2030, but to meet the targets set in the Paris climate agreement, we’ll have to triple it . As the I.E.A.’s director, Fatih Birol, said, “the tripling target is ambitious but achievable, though only if governments quickly turn promises into plans of action. Countries worldwide have a major opportunity to accelerate progress towards a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system.”

Governments are fickle, though—even blue-state ones. Earlier this month, Governor Kathy Hochul, of New York, killed off a congestion-pricing scheme designed to toll automobile traffic into Manhattan and raise money for the city’s mass-transit system. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom has come under fire for cutting back support to rooftop and community solar power in favor of vast utility-scale projects. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has promised, if elected in November, to “drill drill drill,” and to end offshore wind on “Day One.” Even the Biden Administration, by Jacobson’s calculation, is spending about forty per cent of the money from the Inflation Reduction Act on expensive schemes such as “carbon capture,” which is designed to allow the fossil-fuel industry to go on burning carbon, even though “it would be endlessly cheaper to just use the money to build more solar.”

Sometimes, critics look at California’s electricity prices, among the highest in the nation, and conclude that renewables must be the reason, Jacobson says. In fact, “it’s just the opposite.” California’s prices have been driven up by wildfires, which are often sparked by utility wires, and natural-gas disasters at San Bruno and Aliso Canyon. “If we didn’t have renewables, our prices would be much higher,” Jacobson told me. (He has data showing that the other American states with high renewable penetration—mostly Midwestern wind giants such as Iowa and the Dakotas—have among the lowest electricity costs in the country.) “The secret now is deploy, deploy, deploy. We have ninety-five per cent of the technology we need.”

The dimensions of California’s miracle can be measured from a house like Jacobson’s. (Most owners of solar-powered homes, in my experience, are evangelists, converted the first time they watch their meter spin backward.) But you can also measure it in other places, including an impossibly cluttered, small research lab in the industrial district of Oakland. Danny Kennedy is a veteran renewable-energy guru and the head of the New Energy Nexus, a nonprofit that helps companies leading the transition off fossil fuels. Kennedy had recently been insisting that I see a two-year-old startup in Oakland called Magrathea Metals, which, he said, is “making metal from seawater with sunshine.”

We found the lab, in a renovated warehouse, right next to a California-inevitable microbrewery and coffee roaster. When we stepped inside, someone in a welder’s helmet shouted, “Watch out, we’re pouring molten metal over here!” We scurried farther into the building, to meet two young men, Alex Grant, formerly a lithium technology developer, and Jacob Brown, a chemical engineer educated at Cambridge University. They are Magrathea’s founders, and they bubble with the energy of Silicon Valley-adjacent entrepreneurs. But, instead of producing apps, they produce magnesium, which is the world’s third most common structural metal, though it trails steel and aluminum by large measures, mostly because it’s traditionally more expensive to make.

But that’s potentially no longer the case, for reasons that show how renewable power can help transform industry itself—making it both cheaper and less material-intensive. To meet peak demand in places like California, you need to build a lot of solar panels, which means that when demand is lower you are producing more power than you can use, which, in turn, means that during those hours the power is very cheap. Magnesium can be smelted intermittently, partly because its melting point is low: you can start to heat up the feedstock in a smelter (there is a trial-sized one in a room isolated for safety at Magrathea) during the afternoon hours when solar productivity is at a peak, and then, when people come home and turn on their ovens and their washing machines, and the price of electricity goes up, you can turn off the smelter. Then you wait until electricity becomes cheap again, and resume smelting. It’s not feasible to do this with aluminum—the molten salt it is combined with will freeze.

Another reason magnesium could have less impact on the planet is that it doesn’t have to be mined, because it is found in the ocean—a hundred and forty-two gallons of seawater can yield a pound of metal. Or you can start with naturally occurring brines and salts, or the brine left behind by desalination plants. Grant calls himself a “brine nerd,” and he showed me trays of the stuff from Namibia and Western Australia, and from just up the Bay in Newark, California. Brine can be delivered by truck from Newark whenever the startup needs it. (Usually, brine is sold for keeping down dust on roads or de-icing them in the winter; milk of magnesia is another use.) “We think of it as farm-to-table metal,” Grant said. In a corner of the factory, he curates a small museum of things made of magnesium from around the world—snowshoes, a bicycle, a lawnmower, the gearbox from a helicopter. “We’ve had global automakers tell us, ‘If we had a supply chain, it’s a no-brainer. In a specific design, it’s lighter, easier to die-cast, and stronger than aluminum,’ ” Grant said. “All the fundamentals point to it being as competitive as aluminum, if the costs can come down—and intermittency is the key.”

“We’ll be making a thousand tons a year by 2035, a million tons a year by 2050,” Grant said. “We’ll probably develop our first big smelter in the wind belt, in the middle of the country, because the onshore wind is so cheap.” There will almost certainly be a market—the military, for one, uses a lot of light metals for things like airplanes and, currently, more than eighty per cent of the world’s magnesium supply comes from China, and the second-largest producer is Russia.

As we talked, we peered through a window in the room where the trial-scale smelter is set up. It looked like a rusted kiln with a giant electric cord running into it. But that old-school infrastructure is combined with a new-age vibe: a Solarpunk flag (a green-and-gold banner of the nascent Solarpunk movement) hung on a wall above the smelter, and just outside the room there was a neon number 42. Fans of the cult classic “ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ,” by Douglas Adams, will remember that “42” is the answer to the question—arrived at by the computer Deep Thought after 7.5 million years of calculation—of the meaning of “life, the universe, and everything.” Grant and Brown also took the company’s name from Adams’s book—Magrathea is the planet that built other planets.

The hope is that companies like Magrathea can help build a more sustainable planet. Not only does the smelting process use just solar power and seawater, its main by-product is magnesium oxide, which, when released into the ocean, helps sequester carbon. Indeed, instead of turning to rust, as steel eventually does, magnesium breaks down into magnesium oxide. So, if a bike made of magnesium is left to disintegrate in a landfill, it will eventually break down into its component parts and flow to the sea, where it will help in the process of rebalancing the atmosphere. “It’s an inherently carbon-neutral primary metal,” Brown said.

“What’s happening in places like California is not just substitution—not just replacing dirty energy with clean stuff,” Kennedy told me. That’s important, of course—the most impressive of Jacobson’s statistics from this spring in California is that the amount of natural gas used for electricity generation has dropped more than forty per cent from last year, which is the kind of number that the climate crisis requires. “But remember when Wi-Fi replaced modems?” Kennedy asked. “It wasn’t just a better signal—people started thinking up a thousand new things to do with all that connection. That’s what abundant electricity means: we’ll be able to think differently.” ♦

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Geothermal energy, a lesser known form of clean energy scored a big win this week

Ayesha Rascoe

NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks to Jesse Jenkins of Princeton University about enhanced geothermal energy, a clean, renewable power source that is being tested on a large scale.

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A signature Biden law aimed to boost renewable energy. It also helped a solar company reap billions

FILE - Workers continue to build rows of solar panels at a Mesquite Solar 1 facility under construction in Arlington, Ariz., Sept. 30, 2011. One of President Joe Biden’s signature laws aimed to invigorate renewable energy manufacturing in the U.S. It will also helped a solar panel company reap billions of dollars. Arizona-based First Solar is one of the biggest early winners from the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, offering a textbook case of how the inside influence game works in Washington.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room at the White House in Washington, June 4, 2024. One of Biden’s signature laws aimed to invigorate renewable energy manufacturing in the U.S. It will also helped a solar panel company reap billions of dollars. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - First Solar Inc’s corporate headquarters are seen April 18, 2012, in Tempe, Ariz. One of President Joe Biden’s signature laws aimed to invigorate renewable energy manufacturing in the U.S. It will also helped a solar panel company reap billions of dollars. Arizona-based First Solar is one of the biggest early winners from the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, offering a textbook case of how the inside influence game works in Washington. (AP Photo/Matt York)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — As he campaigned for the presidency, Joe Biden promised to spend billions of dollars to “save the world” from climate change. One of the largest players in the solar industry was ready.

Executives, officials and major investors in First Solar, the largest domestic maker of solar panels, donated at least $2 million to Democrats in 2020, including $1.5 million to Biden’s successful bid for the White House. After he won, the company spent $2.8 million more lobbying his administration and Congress, records show — an effort that included high-level meetings with top administration officials.

The strategy was a dramatic departure from the Arizona-based company’s posture under then-President Donald Trump , whom corporate officials publicly called out as hostile toward renewable energy. It has also paid massive dividends as First Solar became perhaps the biggest beneficiary of an estimated $1 trillion in environmental spending enacted under the Inflation Reduction Act , a major piece of legislation Biden signed into law in 2022 after it cleared Congress solely with Democratic votes .

Since then, First Solar’s stock price has doubled and its profits have soared thanks to new federal subsidies that could be worth as much as $10 billion over a decade. The success has also delivered a massive windfall to a small group of Democratic donors who invested heavily in the company.

Big returns

Ahead of what is shaping up to be a tight race for the White House this year, Biden and his fellow Democrats point to the sprawling legislation as an example of investing in alternative energy in ways that will help the environment and lift the economy. But First Solar offers an example of how the same piece of legislation, shaped by a team of lobbyists and potentially influenced by a flood of campaign cash, can yield mammoth returns for the well-connected.

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First Solar’s top lobbyist, Samantha Sloan, offered a revealing glimpse of the company’s reach after a bill signing celebration .

“Those of us who’ve worked on this know that none of this would have been possible without the dedication and collaboration of a group of Congressional staffers who worked long hours” to ensure that the law would “deliver as intended,” she posted on LinkedIn alongside a photo of herself beaming on the White House South Lawn.

Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesperson, did not directly address First Solar’s efforts to curry favor with the Biden administration.

“President Biden has led and delivered on the most ambitious climate agenda in history, restoring America’s climate leadership at home and abroad,” Fernández Hernández said in a statement. “The White House regularly engages with industry leaders across all sectors, including clean energy manufacturers and gas and oil producers.”

In a statement, First Solar CEO Mark Widmar said the new subsidies have helped build the company’s domestic footprint . He also took a swipe at some of First Solar’s rivals with ties to China, which dominates the industry.

“Unlike others who routinely spend substantially more lobbying on behalf of Chinese companies that circumvent US laws and deepen strategic vulnerabilities, our interests lie in a diverse, competitive domestic solar manufacturing base supporting American jobs, economic value, and energy security,” Widmar said.

Founded in 1999 by a private equity group that included a Walmart fortune heir, First Solar went public in 2006, the same year former Vice President Al Gore’s movie “An Inconvenient Truth” helped raise consciousness about the threat of climate change. Company officials cultivated a constituency with Democrats during Barack Obama’s administration, which in turn subsidized their industry — and First Solar — through billions of dollars in government-backed loans.

When the Biden administration started writing rules to implement the Democrats’ new law, First Solar executives and lobbyists met at least four times in late 2022 and 2023 with administration officials, including John Podesta, who oversaw the measure’s environmental provisions. One of the more intimate gatherings was attended by Podesta, Widmar and Sloan, as well as First Solar’s contract lobbyist, Claudia James, an old friend of Podesta’s who worked for decades at a lobbying firm run by Podesta’s brother, Tony, records show.

Widmar and Sloan also attended a September 2022 celebration at the White House, according to records and social media posts, with Sloan praising the new law as “one of the most consequential pieces of legislation of our lifetimes.”

A consequential law

The law has been consequential for First Solar.

The company will benefit from billions of dollars in lucrative tax credits for domestic clean energy manufacturers — a policy aimed at putting the U.S. on a more competitive footing with green energy giant China. Though intended to reward clean energy businesses , the credits can also be sold on the open market to companies that have little to do with fighting climate change.

Last December, First Solar agreed to sell roughly $650 million of these credits to a tech company — providing a massive influx of cash, courtesy of the U.S. government.

Investors in the company, including a handful of major Democratic donors, have also benefited as First Solar’s share price soars.

Farhad “Fred” Ebrahimi, co-founder of the software company Quark, was added to Forbes billionaires list in 2023 thanks to the skyrocketing value of his roughly 5% stake in First Solar, financial disclosures show. Ebrahimi, along with his wife and family, contributed at least $1 million to Biden’s 2020 election effort, according to campaign finance disclosures.

Lukas T. Walton, an heir to the Walmart fortune, held a 4.9% interest in the company, according to financial disclosures from 2020. Walton donated $360,000 to Biden’s 2020 campaign, as well as $100,000 to his 2021 inauguration, campaign finance records show.

A breakthrough

For a period, there were real doubts about whether Democrats could reach a consensus and approve the bill, which had stalled in the Senate in late 2021. A breakthrough came the following July when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and holdout Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia began secret negotiations in hopes of reviving it.

A day after the two lawmakers began meeting, Democratic megadonor Jim Simons, an enthusiastic backer of the party’s green energy efforts, gave $2.5 million to Schumer’s super PAC, which spends tens of millions of dollars each election season supporting Senate Democrats.

Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund founded by Simons, also started buying First Solar shares. The hedge fund purchased 60,000 shares between July, when Schumer was privately negotiating with Manchin, and September, when Biden held a celebration after signing the bill, financial filings show. The fund eventually increased its position to 1.5 million shares, which it sold in 2023 after the company’s stock price price shot up.

Simons, who died in May , was no ordinary donor. His family contributed $25 million to Democrats in 2022, records show. And in the past, he had said that he helped Schumer craft legislation and called the New York Democrat as “a pretty good friend of mine,” according to a 2020 oral history interview with the American Institute of Physics.

A spokesperson for Schumer said the Senate leader did not speak with Simons about the negotiations.

“At Sen. Manchin’s request no one outside of Sen. Schumer’s staff or Sen. Manchin’s staff was told about the negotiations,” the spokesperson said. A Manchin spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

A representative for Renaissance Strategies said the hedge fund uses computer-based trading strategies that “do not involve human stock-picking.”

Investments in alternative energy

Democrats’ investments in alternative energy companies have not always panned out. The 2011 bankruptcy of Solyndra , which had received a $500 million government-backed loan, became a rallying cry for Republicans.

It also drew a spotlight to First Solar, whose chairman was called to testify before the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee in 2012, when he was grilled about strong-arm tactics used to secure over $2 billion in loans from the Obama administration for projects First Solar was involved with.

In an email turned over to House Republicans, a First Solar executive pressured the Department of Energy for the financing, suggesting that otherwise a Mesa, Arizona, factory that Obama administration officials were eager to tout may not be built.

“A failure to receive” approval could “jeopardize construction” and “frankly, undermine the rationale for a new manufacturing center in Arizona,” the former executive wrote in 2011 .

The loans were granted. The factory, however, was never completed.

First Solar spokesman Reuven Proenca said the decision was driven by a solar industry downturn and the company also shuttered a factory in Germany.

More recently, the company paid $350 million to settle a securities fraud lawsuit — an agreement announced shortly before the case was set to go to trial. The company denied wrongdoing and the settlement in 2020 included no admission of liability.

Details included in the case file offer a damning portrait. Investors accused company officials of lying about the scope of a defect that caused panels to fail prematurely, court records state. It was a decision, investors argued, driven by company executives’ desire to preserve First Solar’s stock price.

But while First Solar officials downplayed the extent of the problem, some of them dumped personally held stock, according to court records. Mark Ahearn, the company’s founder and chairman, alone sold off more than $427 million in shares before the extent of the defect was made public and the stock tumbled. The ordeal ultimately cost the company $260 million to fix, court records state.

Proenca, the First Solar spokesman, said the company settled the case to “focus on driving the business forward.”

Because First Solar is the biggest U.S.-based solar manufacturer, green energy advocates say Biden faces no other choice than subsidizing the company if he wants to meet his ambitious climate goals while becoming more competitive with China.

“Hopefully they’ve reformed,” said Pat Parenteau, an emeritus professor at Vermont Law School and a senior fellow at the Environmental Law Center. “They may be an imperfect vehicle. But the reality is we desperately need them.”

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• How Americans View National, Local and Personal Energy Choices

Most Americans want more renewable energy, but support has dipped. Interest in electric vehicles has also declined

Table of contents.

• 1. Views on energy development in the U.S.
• 2. Americans’ views on local wind and solar power development
• 3. Americans’ perceptions of solar power in their own lives
• Acknowledgments
• The American Trends Panel survey methodology
• Appendix: Detailed charts and tables

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans’ views of energy issues. For this analysis, we surveyed 8,638 U.S. adults from May 13 to 19, 2024.

Everyone who took part in the survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way, nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for this report , along with responses, and its Methodology .

The planet’s continued streak of record heat has spurred calls for action by scientists and global leaders . Meanwhile, in the United States, energy development policy is being hotly debated on the national and local levels this election year. How do Americans feel about U.S. energy policy options, and what steps are they willing to take in their own lives to reduce carbon emissions? A new Pew Research Center survey takes a look.

Among the major findings:

There’s been a decline in the breadth of support for wind and solar power. The shares who favor expanding solar and wind power farms are down 12 percentage points and 11 points, respectively, since 2020, driven by sharp drops in support among Republicans.

Interest in buying an electric vehicle (EV) is lower than a year ago. Today, 29% of Americans say they would consider an EV for their next purchase, down from 38% in 2023.

Still, a majority of Americans (63%) support the goal of the U.S. taking steps to become carbon neutral by 2050. When asked which is the greater priority, far more Americans continue to say the country should focus on developing renewable energy than fossil fuel sources (65% vs. 34%).

The survey, conducted May 13-19 among 8,638 U.S. adults, finds a fairly modest share of U.S. adults (25%) say it’s extremely or very important to them personally to limit their own “carbon footprint.” Far more give this middling or low priority.

These findings illustrate how large shares of Americans back more renewable energy that would decrease overall carbon emissions. Still, this general orientation does not necessarily translate into strong commitment to reducing personal carbon emissions or interest in buying an EV.

Jump to read more on: Trends in views of energy development in the U.S. | Views on wind and solar development at the local level | Perceptions of solar power in people’s own lives

What’s behind declines in support for wind and solar?

Declines in public support for renewable energy have been driven by Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, whose support started to fall sharply after President Joe Biden took office in early 2020.

• 64% of Republicans say they favor more solar panel farms, down from 84% in 2020.
• 56% of Republicans say they favor more wind turbine farms, a 19-point drop from 2020.

Over this same time period, views among Democrats and Democratic leaners on these measures are little changed, with large majorities continuing to support more wind and solar development.

In some cases, gaps between Republicans and Democrats over energy policy now approach the very wide partisan divides seen over the importance of climate change .

In May 2020, Democrats were 26 points more likely than Republicans to say the country’s priority should be developing renewable energy (91% vs. 65%). Four years later, that gap has ballooned to 49 points, due almost entirely to changing views among Republicans – 61% of whom now say developing fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas should be the more important priority.

Jump to more details on partisan differences in views of U.S. energy development.

But changes in attitudes about policies that would reduce carbon emissions are not solely the result of more negative views among Republicans. For instance, the share of Democrats who say they are very or somewhat likely to consider an EV for their next car purchase has declined from 56% to 45% in the last year. And the share of Democrats who call climate change a very big problem for the U.S. has declined from 71% in 2021 to 58% today.

Views within each party

Among Republicans, age matters. Younger Republicans express much more support for renewable energy than do older Republicans. For instance, 67% of Republicans ages 18 to 29 say the country should give priority to wind, solar and hydrogen development. The oldest Republicans (ages 65 and older) take the opposite view: 76% give priority to developing oil, coal and natural gas.

By and large, Democrats are more united in their views on energy. Democrats across age groups broadly support steps that would lower carbon emissions and prioritize renewable sources. But differences emerge over the degree with which to break from fossil fuels: 45% of Democrats say the country should phase out the use of oil, coal and natural gas completely, compared with 53% who say that fossil fuels should remain part of the mix along with renewable sources.

Differences within the two major parties are explored in more detail here .

Views on increasing electric vehicles in the U.S.

Amid a major policy push at the federal level for electric vehicles, Americans are unenthusiastic about steps that would phase out gas-powered vehicles.

In March of this year, the Biden administration announced a rule aimed at dramatically expanding EV sales . Overall, 58% of Americans say they oppose these rules that would make EVs at least half of all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. by 2032. Republicans overwhelmingly oppose this policy (83%). Among Democrats, 64% support these rules to expand EV sales, while 35% say they oppose them.

Americans bought EVs in record numbers last year, but the growth rate is slowing, and interest in EVs has declined. In the current survey, 29% of Americans say they are very or somewhat likely to consider an electric vehicle the next time they purchase a car. Last year, 38% expressed this level of interest in an EV purchase.

Related: About 3 in 10 Americans would seriously consider buying an electric vehicle and the distribution of EV charging stations in the U.S.

Americans’ views on limiting their own ‘carbon footprint’

Discussions about reducing carbon emissions often include the everyday actions people can take to reduce the amount of energy they use . One-in-four Americans say it is extremely or very important to them personally to limit their own “carbon footprint.” Larger shares say this is either somewhat (42%) or not too or not at all (32%) important to them.

Even among Democrats – who express broad support for renewable energy – only 39% say reducing their own carbon footprint is extremely or very important to them personally.

These findings align with a previous Center survey that shows a modest share of Americans (23%) expect to make major sacrifices in their own life because of climate change.

Simply put, the shares of Americans who place the highest priority on limiting their own carbon emissions or expect to make big changes to the way they live because of climate change remain relatively small.

Those who place a high priority on reducing their own carbon footprint – or expect major direct impacts from climate change – are far more likely than other Americans to back aggressive steps to reduce carbon emissions.

For instance, 70% of those who place high importance on reducing their own carbon footprint support rules to dramatically boost EV sales in the U.S. by 2032. Much smaller shares of those who say reducing their carbon footprint is somewhat (43%) or not too or not at all (14%) important support this policy.

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Bonn's 2024 International Energy Workshop Gave New Insights to Advance Global Energy Modelling

The 2024 edition of the International Energy Workshop (IEW) has concluded in Bonn, Germany last week, drawing energy modelling experts from across the globe. This year, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) hosted the event, which is regarded as a cornerstone for the international energy modelling research community.

Since its inception in 1981, the IEW has evolved into a prominent forum where analysts and thought leaders converge to compare quantitative energy projections, understand divergent views on future energy developments, and identify emerging trends in global energy production and consumption. The gathering aims to address the complexities of energy planning and policymaking amidst environmental and economic constraints.

Francesco La Camera, Director-General of IRENA, welcomed participants, emphasising the critical role of the conference in the global energy transition, “For IRENA, this conference is one of the Agency’s most important links to the scientific community; every year we look forward to the cutting-edge energy modelling work that is presented here. That work is more important now than ever. The historic call at COP 28 to triple renewable power generation capacity and double the rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030 has set the stage for a rapid scaling up of renewables in the remainder of this decade.”

This year’s conference featured three plenary sessions with three key themes respectively, and over 140 presentations in parallel sessions. These include energy supply and price projections, energy savings and efficiency, renewable and innovative energy technologies, environmental and climate policy, and the intersection of energy analysis, economics, and the natural sciences.

The first plenary session saw experts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Electric Power Research Institute, and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change examine latest insights into how climate change considerations can be included in today's models. “We need to go beyond the integrated assessment models that have dominated the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s assessments and look much more at models that apply to particular countries, particular regions and particular sectors,” said Professor Jim Skea, the Chair of IPCC, in his video remarks, echoing the day’s theme that focuses on a targeted approach to meet the Paris Agreement climate goals.

The second plenary on day two delved into the policy side of energy modelling. With her presentation, Dr. Sonia Yeh, Professor of Transport and Energy Systems at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, explored policy recommendations to advance the adoption of electric vehicles including grid management, robust charging infrastructure and big data to guide a sustainable transition in the transport sector.

Meanwhile, Prof. Dr. Bjarne Steffen from ETH Zurich, Switzerland, highlighted the role of public finance to catalyse private investments, and the importance of supporting policies to make renewables projects financially feasible. Finally, Dr. Gunnar Lederer gave the background of how robust energy modelling was able to play a pivotal role to support the development of the European Union’s latest climate target.

The third plenary session on the last day of the conference looked into data advances in energy modelling. Experts in this session shared insights on the latest advancements in data gathering for energy modelling, which include machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). A presentation from Dr. David McCollum, Distinguished Scientist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, highlighted the use of AI in optimising renewables deployment in the power grids.

Dr. Keigo Akimoto, Chief Researcher at the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth, Japan, further commented on the role of demand in the energy transitions, saying, “Energy demand is not usually the focus of modelling, but digitalisation, innovation, and behaviour change have the potential to reduce our energy and resource needs significantly in the energy transitions, and often at the lowest cost.”

The last day also saw IRENA’s outlook on the costs of renewable power generation. Highlighting the significant declines in costs of solar and wind technologies and the key drivers of the costs reduction, Michael Taylor, Head, Renewable Energy Costs and Outlook at IRENA, said, “What consistently surprises me is how remarkable the learning rates are for wind and particularly solar technology. And at a global level, these are actually accelerating.”

The 2024 IEW turned out to be a pivotal event, enriching the global energy modelling community with new ideas essential for navigating the challenges and opportunities in the energy sector. As the world grapples with the urgent need for sustainable energy solutions, the insights shared at the IEW will undoubtedly play a crucial role in shaping a sustainable and resilient future of the global energy system.

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World Bank Approves Additional $1.5 Billion in Financing to Support India’s Low-Carbon Transition

WASHINGTON, June 28, 2024 — The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved $1.5 billion in financing for a second operation to help India accelerate the development of low-carbon energy. The operation will seek to promote the development of a vibrant market for green hydrogen, continue to scale up renewable energy, and stimulate finance for low-carbon energy investments.

India is the fastest-growing large economy in the world, and the economy is expected to continue to expand at a rapid pace. Decoupling economic growth from emissions growth will require scaling up renewable energy, especially in hard-to-abate industrial sectors. This, in turn, will require an expansion of green hydrogen production and consumption as well as a faster development of climate finance to boost the mobilization of finance for low-carbon investments.

The  Second Low-Carbon Energy Programmatic Development Policy Operation – the second in a series of two operations similar in size – will support reforms to boost the production of green hydrogen and electrolyzers, critical technology needed for green hydrogen production. The operation also supports reforms to boost renewable energy penetration, for instance, by incentivizing battery energy storage solutions and amending the Indian Electricity Grid Code to improve renewable energy integration into the grid. In June 2023, the World Bank approved the $1.5 billion First Low-Carbon Energy Programmatic Development Policy Operation which supported the waiver of transmission charges for renewable energy in green hydrogen projects, the issuance of a clear path to launch 50 GW of renewable energy tenders annually and creating a legal framework for a national carbon credit market.

“The World Bank is pleased to continue supporting India’s low-carbon development strategy which will help achieve the country’s net-zero target while creating clean energy jobs in the private sector,” said  Auguste Tano Kouame, World Bank Country Director for India . “ Indeed, both the first and second operations have a strong focus on boosting private investment in green hydrogen and renewable energy.”

The reforms supported by the operation are expected to result in the production of at least 450,000 metric tons of green hydrogen and 1,500 MW of electrolyzers per year from FY25/26 onwards. In addition, it will also significantly help to increase renewable energy capacity and support reductions in emissions by 50 million tons per year. The operation will also support steps to further develop a national carbon credit market.

“India has taken bold action to develop a domestic market for green hydrogen, underpinned by rapidly expanding renewable energy capacity. The first tenders under the National Green Hydrogen Mission’s incentive scheme have demonstrated significant private sector interest,”  said Aurélien Kruse, Xiaodong Wang, and Surbhi Goyal, Team Leaders for the operation . “ The operation is helping in scaling up investments in green hydrogen and in renewable energy infrastructure. This will contribute towards India’s journey for achieving its Nationally Determined Contributions targets.”

This operation is aligned with the Government of India’s energy security and with the Bank’s Hydrogen for Development (H4D) Partnership .

The financing for the operation includes a $1.46 billion loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and a $31.5 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA).

• World Bank India Website (English)
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• World Bank India on Facebook
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• What is Green Hydrogen and how can India develop it for sustainable growth?
• India's Green Transition: World Bank’s Role in Advancing Low-Carbon Growth

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NHTSA closes recall query into about 420,000 Volkswagen vehicles

The U.S. auto safety regulator on Wednesday closed a recall query covering 420,072 Volkswagen vehicles after the automaker acted to fix a potential fuel leak.

• Natural Sources Of Energy

Sources of Energy

The sun is the main source of energy on Earth. Other energy sources include coal, geothermal energy, wind energy, biomass, petrol, nuclear energy, and many more. Energy is classified into various types based on sustainability as renewable sources of energy and non-renewable sources of energy.

What Is Energy?

The classical description of energy is the ability of a system to perform work, but as energy exists in so many forms, it is hard to find one comprehensive definition. It is the property of an object that can be transferred from one object to another or converted to different forms but cannot be created or destroyed. There are numerous sources of energy. In the next few sections, let us discuss the about different sources of energy in detail.

Sources Of Energy

Sources of energy can be classified into:

• Renewable Sources
• Non-renewable Sources

Renewable sources of energy are available plentiful in nature and are sustainable. These resources of energy can be naturally replenished and are safe for the environment.

Examples of renewable sources of energy are : Solar energy, geothermal energy, wind energy, biomass, hydropower and tidal energy.

A non-renewable resource is a natural resource that is found underneath the earth. These type of energy resources do not replenish at the same speed at which it is used. They take millions of years to replenish. The main examples of non-renewable resources are coal, oil and natural gas.

Examples of non-renewable sources of energy are: Natural gas, coal, petroleum, nuclear energy and hydrocarbon gas liquids.

Difference between Renewable and Non-renewable Sources of Energy

Natural Sources of Energy

During the stone age, it was wood. During the iron age, we had coal. In the modern age, we have fossil fuels like petroleum and natural gas. So how do we choose the source of energy?

Good sources of energy should have the following qualities:

• Optimum heat production per unit of volume/mass used
• Easy to transport
• Least Polluting

Types of Natural Sources of Energy

There are two types of natural sources of energy classified by their popularity and use,

• Conventional Sources of Energy
• Non-Conventional Sources of Energy

Difference between Conventional and Non-conventional Sources of Energy

In this article, you learned about natural resources, energy sources, and what makes a good source of energy. Explore more such articles at BYJU’S, which provides detailed solutions to the questions of NCERT Book for the energy source so that one can compare their answers with the sample answers given for this chapter.

Frequently Asked Questions – FAQs

What sources of energy are renewable.

• Biomass energy
• Wind energy
• Tidal energy
• Hydro energy

What is the main source of energy in India?

What are the sources of energy in india.

Following are the sources of energy in India:

• Natural gas
• Thermal energy
• Mineral oil

Can any source of energy be pollution-free?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of wind power.

• There are no harmful gases released into the environment.
• It is a way for the generation of revenue in the local communities.
• It is one of the clean sources of energy.

Disadvantages:

• The storage of energy needs to be improved.
• The initial setup requires a lot of investment.
• Numerous lands will be used up.

List the examples of sources of energy

• Biofuel energy
• Geothermal energy
• Solar energy
• Nuclear energy

Watch the video and find out conservation measures we can take to save the natural resources depleting at an alarming rate.

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The European Green Deal

• Find out what progress the von der Leyen Commission has made so far with the European Green Deal towards becoming climate-neutral by 2050.

Striving to be the first climate-neutral continent

Climate change and environmental degradation are an existential threat to Europe and the world. To overcome these challenges, the European Green Deal will transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, ensuring:

• no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050
• economic growth decoupled from resource use
• no person and no place left behind

The European Green Deal is also our lifeline out of the COVID-19 pandemic. One third of the €1.8 trillion  investments from the NextGenerationEU Recovery Plan, and the EU’s seven-year budget will finance the European Green Deal.

The European Commission has adopted a set of proposals to make the EU's climate, energy, transport and taxation  policies fit for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 , compared to 1990 levels. More information on  Delivering the European Green Deal .

Discover the European Green Deal visual story

12 March 2024 - The Commission has published a Communication on managing climate risks in Europe that sets out how the EU and its countries can implement policies that save lives, cut costs, and protect prosperity. It comes as a direct response to the first-ever European Climate Risk Assessment by the European Environment Agency. It also addresses the concerns that many Europeans have following last’s year record temperatures and extreme weather events. The Commission is calling for action from all levels of government, the private sector and civil society to improve governance and tools for climate risk owners, manage risks across sectors and set the right preconditions to finance climate resilience.

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The net-zero materials transition: Implications for global supply chains

Increasingly bold climate targets are changing global materials supply chains, to the extent that the transition to a net-zero emissions economy has sparked a “materials transition.” This report aims to provide an integrated perspective on these supply-chain changes, including materials demand, shortages that can be expected, and key actions that will be required to balance the equation and safeguard the speed of the transition.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Patricia Bingoto, Michel Foucart, Maria Gusakova , Thomas Hundertmark , and Michel Van Hoey , representing views from McKinsey’s Materials Practice.

With these points in mind, our research explores the following key findings:

Materials are a critical enabler of the net-zero transition. The world has embarked on an ambitious decarbonization journey toward a net-zero emissions economy, which will require fundamental technology shifts across industries at an unprecedented speed. These technologies often require more physical materials for the same output when compared with their conventional counterparts during the construction phase. For example, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are typically 15 to 20 percent heavier than comparable internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and will therefore become a key driver for materials demand in the coming decades. Consequently, the extent to which global materials supply chains can keep up with new and accelerating sources of demand will be a critical determinant of global decarbonization rates.

Even with the current decarbonization trajectory trending toward 2.4° Celsius, the supply of many minerals and metals embedded in key lower-carbon technologies will face a shortage by 2030. While some materials such as nickel may experience modest shortages (approximately 10 to 20 percent), others such as dysprosium, which is magnetic material used in most electric motors, could see shortages of up to 70 percent of demand. Unless mitigation actions are put in place, such shortages would likely hinder the global speed of decarbonization because customers would be unable to shift to lower-carbon alternatives. Moreover, these shortages would lead to price spikes and volatility across materials, which in turn would make the technologies in which they are embedded more expensive and further slow adoption rates.

We will continue to see a high concentration of mineral and metals supplies in a handful of countries, including for example China (rare-earth elements), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (cobalt), and Indonesia (nickel). Combined with a regulatory landscape that is increasingly focused on regionalization—as seen through the US Inflation Reduction Act and the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan, for example—these concentrated supplies could affect regional access to materials within the scope of certain agreement areas, even when the global market is balanced. At the same time, such concentration could also offer opportunities to traditional mining countries to develop refining activities domestically.

Harmonized actions on supply, demand, innovation, and policy will be required to balance the equation and safeguard the speed of the transition.

• Supply. It is crucial to ensure the timely scale-up of projects that have already been announced, which will require mining to accelerate beyond historical growth rates for many materials while simultaneously doubling down on exploration to ensure further scale-up of supply beyond 2030. Investments in mining, refining, and smelting will need to increase to approximately $3 trillion to $4 trillion by 2030 (about $300 billion to $400 billion per year). 1 This represents a 50 percent increase compared to the previous decade, in a context where mining investments have been declining in the recent past (approximately $260 billion in 2012 to approximately $150 billion in 2019, a decline of about 40 percent). Moreover, capital will need to be redirected toward new materials, with stable investments in iron ore but twice the investments in copper and an eightfold increase in investments in lithium expected. Labor capacity will need to be increased by 300,000 to 600,000 specialized mining professionals, and an additional 200 to 500 gigawatts of (ideally low-carbon) energy will need to come online by 2030 to power these assets, equivalent to 5 to 10 percent of estimated solar and wind power capacity by 2030. Finally, the scale-up will require smooth permitting processes, timely infrastructure deployment, equipment availability, and adequate water resources.
• Demand. Downstream industries will need to shift demand patterns toward proven technologies that are less materials-intensive or that require different materials for which supply is less constrained.
• Innovation. Investments in materials innovation and breakthrough technologies should be amplified. On the demand side, this might involve exploring material substitution options for long-term-constrained or regionally concentrated materials. On the supply side, investors could consider focusing on enhanced recycling practices for new materials such as rare-earth minerals, as well as innovative solutions to increase the throughput of existing assets.
• Policy. New policies may facilitate the scale-up of supply, such as by streamlining permitting procedures for new asset developments. Policies could also enable a demand shift toward alternative technologies by guaranteeing a level playing field across different technological options, for example, and safeguarding regional security of supply and industry competitiveness.

Stakeholders can increase the likelihood of success by developing strategies that offer optionality and resilience across a broad range of global responses to material shortages. As a first step toward mitigating risk and tapping into the vast opportunities presented by the materials transition, it will be critical for governments and companies alike to maintain or strengthen their understanding of the dynamics of the global materials supply chain and potential long-term scenarios. For governments, doing so could help shine a light on the security of supply and safeguard the long-term competitiveness of local industries. For companies, it can inform decisive actions that are more likely to position them as industry leaders in the years to come.

As the world accelerates the deployment of climate technologies in support of the net-zero transition, there is a risk that materials supply might not scale at the required speed. Our research has shown that energy and materials are strongly interconnected and that the world will also have to go through a materials transition to deliver on its net-zero ambitions.

While several uncertainties remain about how the materials transition will play out—such as the speed of decarbonization, development of trade policies, speed of innovation and time to market for breakthrough technologies, and permitting timelines for new projects, among others—governments and companies can plan strategic actions that are resilient across a broad range of outcomes.

As a first step toward mitigating risks and tapping into the vast opportunities presented by the materials transition, it is critical for governments and companies to maintain or strengthen their understanding of changing global materials supply chain dynamics with a long-term perspective. For governments, doing so could help shine a light on security of supply and safeguarding long-term competitiveness of local industries. And similar to the actions and results of frontrunners in the energy transition, companies can gain insight on decisive actions that are more likely to position them as industry leaders in the years to come.

Patricia Bingoto is a senior expert in McKinsey’s Zurich office; Michel Foucart is an associate partner in the Brussels office; Maria Gusakova is a partner in the Houston office, where Thomas Hundertmark is a senior partner; and Michel Van Hoey is a senior partner in the Luxembourg office.

The authors wish to thank Elaine Almeida, Marcelo Azevedo, Hana Dadic, Max Derie, Karel Eloot, Karilyn Farmer, Nicolas Goffaux, Ilana Kochetkova, Gregory Kudar, Laura Latzel, Sigurd Mareels, Amélie Nicolay, Nathan Reinders, Alina Saranova, Bram Smeets, Cécilia Smissaert, Sven Smit, Michelle Stitz, Humayun Tai, Iris Tavernier, Frederik Wullepit, Corinne Yabroudi, and Inese Zepa for their contributions to this report.

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How a ‘materials transition’ can support the net-zero agenda

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Denmark/Germany: EIB to co-finance RWE's new Gigawatt offshore wind farm with a €1.2 billion green loan

• The Thor wind farm in the Danish part of the North Sea with a capacity of 1.1 Gigawatt will provide enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of more than a million Danish households.  
• The loan of the European Investment Bank supports RWE’s decarbonization strategy.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) supports the construction of a new 1.1-Gigawatt wind farm in the North Sea by German company RWE with a loan of €1.2 billion. The Thor wind farm in the Danish part of the North Sea will be the largest in Denmark, consisting of 72 wind turbines with 15 MW capacity each. The wind farm will be capable of producing enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of more than a million Danish households, or one in three Danish households.

RWE is the second biggest developer of offshore wind globally and an experienced operator of such projects. The company is making a significant contribution to the success of the energy transition and the decarbonization of the economy by investing €55 billion in renewables, batteries, flexible generation, and hydrogen projects worldwide from 2024 until 2030. RWE has already made net investments of €20 billion between 2021 and 2023. The company has committed to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040.

The EIB loan will co-finance monopile foundations, turbines, inter-array cabling, an offshore converter station, export cables, a section of onshore cables and an onshore substation.  The turbines are provided by Siemens Gamesa.  The connection to the Danish national grid is built by the Danish transmission system operator Energinet.

The project is located on the west coast of Jutland, approximately 22 kilometres from Thorsminde in the municipality of Holstebro. Main offshore installation works are scheduled for 2025 and 2026. It is planned that the wind farm is fully operational no later than the end of 2027.

The North-Sea coastal states, the EU-Commission, and Luxemburg want to accelerate the construction of windfarms and have agreed on the North Sea Energy Cooperation , a giant wind-energy-program to facilitate the cost-effective deployment of offshore renewable energy. The governments of Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Ireland, Norway, together with Great Britain want to ensure that wind turbines with an output of 120 gigawatts are installed in the North Sea by 2030. By 2050, offshore wind farms should even have at least 300 gigawatts delivery capacity.

“The EIB was one of the very first investors in wind power technology and offshore wind farms. We will continue to support the development and the roll out of this technology,” said EIB-Vice-President Nicola Beer, who is responsible for the oversight of projects in Germany. “A large offshore wind farm that can provide power to more than a million households supports the transition to a net zero economy in Europe, fostering one of the big priorities of European Union for a better and resilient future of citizens.” 

Michael Müller, CFO of RWE said: “At RWE, we are fully committed to working towards a net-zero energy system. This loan at attractive terms helps to further diversify our funding sources. With our Growing Green investment programme, we are investing heavily in renewables. And we are also focusing on circularity. That is why we are installing recyclable rotor blades at Thor and are the first developer in the world to pilot new CO2-reduced steel towers that significantly reduce the carbon footprint of wind turbines.”

Background information

The European Investment Bank (ElB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, owned by its Member States. It finances sound investments that contribute to EU policy objectives . EIB projects bolster competitiveness, drive innovation, promote sustainable development, enhance social and territorial cohesion, and support a just and swift transition to climate neutrality.

The EIB Group, which also includes the European Investment Fund (EIF) , signed a total of €88 billion in new financing for over 900 projects in 2023 . These commitments are expected to mobilise around €320 billion in investment, supporting 400,000 companies and 5.4 million jobs.

All projects financed by the EIB Group are in line with the Paris Climate Accord. The EIB Group does not fund investments in fossil-fuels. We are on track to deliver on our commitment to support  €1 trillion in climate and environmental sustainability investment in the decade to 2030 as pledged in our Climate Bank Roadmap . Over half of the EIB Group’s annual financing supports projects directly contributing to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and a healthier environment.

Approximately half of the EIB's financing within the EU is directed towards cohesion regions, where per capita income is lower. This underscores the Bank's commitment to fostering inclusive growth and the convergence of living standards.

RWE is leading the way to a green energy world. With its investment and growth strategy Growing Green, RWE is contributing significantly to the success of the energy transition and the decarbonisation of the energy system. Around 20,000 employees work for the company in almost 30 countries worldwide. RWE is already one of the leading companies in the field of renewable energy. Between 2024 and 2030, RWE will invest 55 billion euros worldwide in offshore and onshore wind, solar energy, batteries, flexible generation, and hydrogen projects. By the end of the decade, the company’s green portfolio will grow to more than 65 gigawatts of generation capacity, which will be perfectly complemented by global energy trading. RWE is decarbonising its business in line with the 1.5-degree reduction pathway and will phase out coal by 2030. RWE will be net-zero by 2040. Fully in line with the company’s purpose - Our energy for a sustainable life.

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Rwe thor offshore wind farm green loan.

Design, implementation and operation of a 1000MW offshore wind farm including offshore substation and export cable, located in the North Sea west of Nissum Fjord, min. 20 km from the shore of Jutland, Denmark.

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The netherlands: dutch renewable energy boosted by eur 587m eib backing for world’s largest wind farm.

The European Investment Bank today agreed to provide EUR 587 million for the world’s largest wind farm to be constructed 85km north of the Netherlands, at a site not visible from land. Once operational the 600MW Gemini offshore wind farm will supply renewable electricity for more than 1.5 million people, equivalent to the all the inhabitants of the neighbouring Dutch provinces of Friesland, Drenthe and Groningen combined.

EUR 134 mio for the world’s largest offshore wind farm in Denmark

United kingdom: eib to fund world’s largest operational offshore wind farm.

With 100 wind turbines, each 115m tall, and a generating capacity of 300MW, the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm is the largest offshore wind farm operating anywhere in the world. Inaugurated in September 2010, it is an important step in enabling the United Kingdom to achieve renewable energy targets and generating 15% of energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.

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Is Solar Energy Renewable or Non-Renewable [2024 Guide]

With the sudden rise in electricity bills and harmful gas emissions, most Americans are looking for alternatives to on-grid power supply. The first easy-to-carry electricity alternative that they go ahead with is solar energy. But is solar energy renewable ? Well, the answer is yes because, in solar energy, we harness the energy or power from the sun, which is classed as an infinite resource.

Since solar energy is harnessed from the sun's light and does not deplete when used, it is classified as a renewable energy source. The sun continuously produces the light, which is used to generate electricity in the solar panel. For this reason, many people are shifting from non-renewable to renewable energy sources to reduce the effect of air pollution or greenhouse gases on the environment.

What is Renewable Energy

Renewable or clean energy is produced from natural sources that can quickly be replenished as per its availability. Sunlight and wind are considered the top two renewable energy sources because it is possible to produce electrical energy by harnessing the energy of the sun and wind whenever they are available.

Energy obtained from renewable sources is more sustainable than energy obtained from non-renewable sources. Not only do they offer many environmental benefits , but they are also an excellent option for reducing dependency on the utility grid.

Most countries have started to shift to renewable energy sources to lower the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment. According to Energy.gov, 20% of US electricity production in 2022 came from renewable energy sources. Solar energy sources help reduce carbon emissions, conserve land, and reduce high electricity bills.

What is Non-Renewable Energy

Non-renewable energy is produced from fossil fuels such as gas, oil, and coal. Unlike renewable energy sources, non-renewable energy sources take hundreds of thousands of years to form and are going to run out from the planet as they are finite in nature.

Even though non-renewable sources like coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power are necessary, they have several downsides. These energy sources can negatively impact the environment and take millions of years to replenish once they run out. Another major disadvantage of using energy generated from fossil fuels is that it directly contributes to global warming, which leads to climate change.

Is Solar Energy Renewable or Non-Renewable

While solar energy is renewable, most people get confused because of the manufacturing process. Let's analyze and understand whether solar energy is renewable or non-renewable :

Solar energy is produced from equipment such as solar panels, power stations or batteries, and microinverters. The energy needed to manufacture these devices often comes from non-renewable sources, so the entire process of solar energy production involves some use of non-renewable sources.

For instance, solar panels  are made with photovoltaic cells, and solar batteries are made with the safest LiFePO4 or Lithium Phosphate. Hence, one can say that the complete process of solar power production involves the usage of non-renewable energy sources. However, once these solar energy systems are operational, their dependency on non-renewable sources is reduced to zero because they are charged using the sun, which is a limitless and infinite resource.

The sun emits over 173,000 terawatts of energy, which can easily be harnessed with the help of PV panels. They are designed to absorb the sunlight to produce heat or energy, which is then converted into electricity using inverters.

Compared to fossil fuels, solar energy is clean and doesn't produce any greenhouse gases that can negatively impact the environment. As long as the sun shines, the PV panels continue to produce electricity and charge various electrical appliances. Since the energy source renews itself, solar energy is termed a “renewable energy source.”

Why is Solar Energy Renewable

Solar energy is a renewable source because, unlike other energy sources that are derived from fossil fuels, it is harnessed from the sun, which is an infinite and limitless source of energy. One popular example of solar energy is solar panels that convert sunlight into usable electricity to charge household or outdoor appliances of different wattages.

According to the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) report, a solar system generates only 40 grams  of carbon dioxide per kWh over its lifetime. On the other hand, a coal power plant generates over 1000 grams of carbon dioxide per kWh, which is much higher than the solar system. Even from this generic comparison, one can analyze the amount of harm a non-renewable source of energy has on the environment.

Given the environment-related benefits and reduction in electricity bills, most homeowners are planning to invest in solar panels or batteries to generate their own electricity.

How Does Solar Help the Environment

There are several ways in which solar energy helps the environment, from reducing the reliance on fossil fuels to emitting close to zero harmful gasses. Some of the most common benefits of choosing this clean energy are:

• Reduce Carbon Emissions : Renewable energy sources, specifically solar energy, lower dependence on fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and gas. Recent studies have shown that these fossil fuels have become the largest contributors to global climate change. According to a report from the United Nations, these fossil fuels account for 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 90% of all CO 2  emissions. So, when one invests in solar energy, they are directly investing in a way that promotes a sustainable lifestyle.
• Lower Electricity Bills: When residents or business owners opt for solar power systems, they reduce their reliance on the electricity grid, which leads to lower monthly electricity bills.
• Save Water: In addition to decreasing carbon emissions, solar energy also helps you conserve water. For example, water is constantly used to produce electricity from nuclear or fossil fuels. Some reports even suggest that coal mines and coal-fired power stations annually use approximately 380 billion liters of water. On the other hand, solar panels or related equipment require water only during the manufacturing process, making them more environmentally friendly.
• Minimal Ongoing Expenses: Solar power systems are low maintenance because they do not have any moving elements. Most solar panels, if appropriately racked, do not require any maintenance. One can even easily wipe off the dirt or debris stuck on them. With minimum effort and regular cleaning, one can use most solar panels for up to 25 years, which ultimately makes them a significant investment.

Solar panel systems can also be recycled, and their components can be repurposed to lower the overall carbon footprint.

Best Solar Panels for Beginners

There are several solar panels on the market, and when one decides to make environmentally friendly life choices, they often get confused about choosing the best solar panel to get clean energy. If this is your first time to invest in clean energy sources, you may consider the Renogy  solar panels.

The 100 Watt 12 Volt Monocrystalline Solar Panel  from Renogy is capable of generating 500Wh of electricity per day and is a great solution for off-grid applications. With these lightweight and portable solar panels, one can generate power in RVs, motorhomes, marine areas, or cabins.

This solar panel can also supply steady electricity during unexpected power outages or blackouts. It uses Grade A+ monocrystalline cells, which produce 22% higher power than average and are much more efficient than polycrystalline solar cells, which are generally used in other solar panels.

In addition, the solar panels from Renogy feature IP67-rated solar connectors and an IP65-rated waterproof junction box. So, you can easily power your low-to-mid-wattage appliances during extreme weather conditions.

FAQs about Renewable Energy

1. what is the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy.

As the name suggests, the primary difference between renewable and non-renewable energy sources is that renewable energy sources, like solar or wind, are limitless, while the non-renewable source of energy comes from finite sources, like fossil fuels.

2. What are the types of renewable energy?

There are different types of renewable energy, each derived from infinite natural sources like sunlight, wind, and even hydro. They are constantly replenished at a higher rate than they are consumed. Some of the most common renewable energy sources are solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, bioenergy, and ocean. Solar energy is one of the most abundant energy sources, and with the right solar panels, it can also be harnessed in cloudy weather. Each of these sources serves a valuable purpose that helps the environment and forthcoming generations.

3. What is the cleanest form of energy?

Solar energy is considered the cleanest form of energy because it doesn’t emit harmful carbon dioxide or produce air pollution or greenhouse gases when operating. The electricity generated using solar energy systems further eliminates the damage associated with coal mining.

4. What is the most polluting type of energy?

Coal-fired power plants generate the most polluting energy. The Sulfur dioxide and heavy metals released from these power plants contribute to acid rain and may lead to respiratory diseases.

Is solar energy renewable  or non-renewable? Based on the data presented here, one must have understood the importance and benefits of choosing solar energy. While all renewable energy sources have certain advantages, solar power is considered one of the cleanest and safest sources, as it does not emit harmful carbon dioxide and further helps you reduce your electricity bills.

Solar energy sources are also a great way to reduce the high monthly electricity bills and save money in the long run. Renogy offers a wide range of off-grid energy solutions, like solar panels , solar batteries , etc., that can help you charge appliances, leading you to choose a better alternative to non-renewable sources.

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Scientific breakthroughs: 2024 emerging trends to watch

December 28, 2023

Across disciplines and industries, scientific discoveries happen every day, so how can you stay ahead of emerging trends in a thriving landscape? At CAS, we have a unique view of recent scientific breakthroughs, the historical discoveries they were built upon, and the expertise to navigate the opportunities ahead. In 2023, we identified the top scientific breakthroughs , and 2024 has even more to offer. New trends to watch include the accelerated expansion of green chemistry, the clinical validation of CRISPR, the rise of biomaterials, and the renewed progress in treating the undruggable, from cancer to neurodegenerative diseases. To hear what the experts from Lawrence Liverpool National Lab and Oak Ridge National Lab are saying on this topic, join us for a free webinar on January 25 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. EDT for a panel discussion on the trends to watch in 2024.

The ascension of AI in R&D

While the future of AI has always been forward-looking, the AI revolution in chemistry and drug discovery has yet to be fully realized. While there have been some high-profile set-backs , several breakthroughs should be watched closely as the field continues to evolve. Generative AI is making an impact in drug discovery , machine learning is being used more in environmental research , and large language models like ChatGPT are being tested in healthcare applications and clinical settings.

Many scientists are keeping an eye on AlphaFold, DeepMind’s protein structure prediction software that revolutionized how proteins are understood. DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs have recently announced how their latest model shows improved accuracy, can generate predictions for almost all molecules in the Protein Data Bank, and expand coverage to ligands, nucleic acids, and posttranslational modifications . Therapeutic antibody discovery driven by AI is also gaining popularity , and platforms such as the RubrYc Therapeutics antibody discovery engine will help advance research in this area.

Though many look at AI development with excitement, concerns over accurate and accessible training data , fairness and bias , lack of regulatory oversight , impact on academia, scholarly research and publishing , hallucinations in large language models , and even concerns over infodemic threats to public health are being discussed. However, continuous improvement is inevitable with AI, so expect to see many new developments and innovations throughout 2024.

‘Greener’ green chemistry

Green chemistry is a rapidly evolving field that is constantly seeking innovative ways to minimize the environmental impact of chemical processes. Here are several emerging trends that are seeing significant breakthroughs:

• Improving green chemistry predictions/outcomes : One of the biggest challenges in green chemistry is predicting the environmental impact of new chemicals and processes. Researchers are developing new computational tools and models that can help predict these impacts with greater accuracy. This will allow chemists to design safer and more environmentally friendly chemicals.
• Reducing plastics: More than 350 million tons of plastic waste is generated every year. Across the landscape of manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers, reducing the use of single-use plastics and microplastics is critical. New value-driven approaches by innovators like MiTerro that reuse industrial by-products and biomass waste for eco-friendly and cheaper plastic replacements will soon be industry expectations. Lowering costs and plastic footprints will be important throughout the entire supply chain.    
• Alternative battery chemistry: In the battery and energy storage space, finding alternatives to scarce " endangered elements" like lithium and cobalt will be critical. While essential components of many batteries, they are becoming scarce and expensive. New investments in lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries that do not use nickel and cobalt have expanded , with 45% of the EV market share being projected for LFP in 2029. Continued research is projected for more development in alternative materials like sodium, iron, and magnesium, which are more abundant, less expensive, and more sustainable.
• More sustainable catalysts : Catalysts speed up a chemical reaction or decrease the energy required without getting consumed. Noble metals are excellent catalysts; however, they are expensive and their mining causes environmental damage. Even non-noble metal catalysts can also be toxic due to contamination and challenges with their disposal. Sustainable catalysts are made of earth-abundant elements that are also non-toxic in nature. In recent years, there has been a growing focus on developing sustainable catalysts that are more environmentally friendly and less reliant on precious metals. New developments with catalysts, their roles, and environmental impact will drive meaningful progress in reducing carbon footprints.  
• Recycling lithium-ion batteries: Lithium-ion recycling has seen increased investments with more than 800 patents already published in 2023. The use of solid electrolytes or liquid nonflammable electrolytes may improve the safety and durability of LIBs and reduce their material use. Finally, a method to manufacture electrodes without solvent s could reduce the use of deprecated solvents such as N-methylpyrrolidinone, which require recycling and careful handling to prevent emissions.

Rise of biomaterials

New materials for biomedical applications could revolutionize many healthcare segments in 2024. One example is bioelectronic materials, which form interfaces between electronic devices and the human body, such as the brain-computer interface system being developed by Neuralink. This system, which uses a network of biocompatible electrodes implanted directly in the brain, was given FDA approval to begin human trials in 2023.

• Bioelectronic materials: are often hybrids or composites, incorporating nanoscale materials, highly engineered conductive polymers, and bioresorbable substances. Recently developed devices can be implanted, used temporarily, and then safely reabsorbed by the body without the need for removal. This has been demonstrated by a fully bioresorbable, combined sensor-wireless power receiver made from zinc and the biodegradable polymer, poly(lactic acid).
• Natural biomaterials: that are biocompatible and naturally derived (such as chitosan, cellulose nanomaterials, and silk) are used to make advanced multifunctional biomaterials in 2023. For example, they designed an injectable hydrogel brain implant for treating Parkinson’s disease, which is based on reversible crosslinks formed between chitosan, tannic acid, and gold nanoparticles.
• Bioinks : are used for 3D printing of organs and transplant development which could revolutionize patient care. Currently, these models are used for studying organ architecture like 3D-printed heart models for cardiac disorders and 3D-printed lung models to test the efficacy of drugs. Specialized bioinks enhance the quality, efficacy, and versatility of 3D-printed organs, structures, and outcomes. Finally, new approaches like volumetric additive manufacturing (VAM) of pristine silk- based bioinks are unlocking new frontiers of innovation for 3D printing.

To the moon and beyond

The global Artemis program is a NASA-led international space exploration program that aims to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon by 2025 as part of the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable human presence on the Moon. Additionally, the NASA mission called Europa Clipper, scheduled for a 2024 launch, will orbit around Jupiter and fly by Europa , one of Jupiter’s moons, to study the presence of water and its habitability. China’s mission, Chang’e 6 , plans to bring samples from the moon back to Earth for further studies. The Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission by Japan’s JAXA plans to bring back samples from Phobos, one of the Mars moons. Boeing is also expected to do a test flight of its reusable space capsule Starliner , which can take people to low-earth orbit.

The R&D impact of Artemis extends to more fields than just aerospace engineering, though:

• Robotics: Robots will play a critical role in the Artemis program, performing many tasks, such as collecting samples, building infrastructure, and conducting scientific research. This will drive the development of new robotic technologies, including autonomous systems and dexterous manipulators.
• Space medicine: The Artemis program will require the development of new technologies to protect astronauts from the hazards of space travel, such as radiation exposure and microgravity. This will include scientific discoveries in medical diagnostics, therapeutics, and countermeasures.
• Earth science: The Artemis program will provide a unique opportunity to study the Moon and its environment. This will lead to new insights into the Earth's history, geology, and climate.
• Materials science: The extreme space environment will require new materials that are lightweight, durable, and radiation resistant. This will have applications in many industries, including aerospace, construction, and energy.
• Information technology: The Artemis program will generate a massive amount of data, which will need to be processed, analyzed, and shared in real time. This will drive the development of new IT technologies, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

The CRISPR pay-off

After years of research, setbacks, and minimal progress, the first formal evidence of CRISPR as a therapeutic platform technology in the clinic was realized. Intellia Therapeutics received FDA clearance to initiate a pivotal phase 3 trial of a new drug for the treatment of hATTR, and using the same Cas9 mRNA, got a new medicine treating a different disease, angioedema. This was achieved by only changing 20 nucleotides of the guide RNA, suggesting that CRISPR can be used as a therapeutic platform technology in the clinic.

The second great moment for CRISPR drug development technology came when Vertex and CRISPR Therapeutics announced the authorization of the first CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited therapy, CASGEVY™, by the United Kingdom MHRA, for the treatment of sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia. This was the first approval of a CRISPR-based therapy for human use and is a landmark moment in realizing the potential of CRISPR to improve human health.

In addition to its remarkable genome editing capability, the CRISPR-Cas system has proven to be effective in many applications, including early cancer diagnosis . CRISPR-based genome and transcriptome engineering and CRISPR-Cas12a and CRISPR-Cas13a appear to have the necessary characteristics to be robust detection tools for cancer therapy and diagnostics. CRISPR-Cas-based biosensing system gives rise to a new era for precise diagnoses of early-stage cancers.

MIT engineers have also designed a new nanoparticle DNA-encoded nanosensor for urinary biomarkers that could enable early cancer diagnoses with a simple urine test. The sensors, which can detect cancerous proteins, could also distinguish the type of tumor or how it responds to treatment.

Ending cancer

The immuno-oncology field has seen tremendous growth in the last few years. Approved products such as cytokines, vaccines, tumor-directed monoclonal antibodies, and immune checkpoint blockers continue to grow in market size. Novel therapies like TAC01-HER2 are currently undergoing clinical trials. This unique therapy uses autologous T cells, which have been genetically engineered to incorporate T cell Antigen Coupler (TAC) receptors that recognize human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) presence on tumor cells to remove them. This could be a promising therapy for metastatic, HER2-positive solid tumors.

Another promising strategy aims to use the CAR-T cells against solid tumors in conjunction with a vaccine that boosts immune response. Immune boosting helps the body create more host T cells that can target other tumor antigens that CAR-T cells cannot kill.

Another notable trend is the development of improved and effective personalized therapies. For instance, a recently developed personalized RNA neoantigen vaccine, based on uridine mRNA–lipoplex nanoparticles, was found effective against pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Major challenges in immuno-oncology are therapy resistance, lack of predictable biomarkers, and tumor heterogenicity. As a result, devising novel treatment strategies could be a future research focus.

Decarbonizing energy

Multiple well-funded efforts are underway to decarbonize energy production by replacing fossil fuel-based energy sources with sources that generate no (or much less) CO2 in 2024.

One of these efforts is to incorporate large-scale energy storage devices into the existing power grid. These are an important part of enabling the use of renewable sources since they provide additional supply and demand for electricity to complement renewable sources. Several types of grid-scale storage that vary in the amount of energy they can store and how quickly they can discharge it into the grid are under development. Some are physical (flywheels, pumped hydro, and compressed air) and some are chemical (traditional batteries, flow batteries , supercapacitors, and hydrogen ), but all are the subject of active chemistry and materials development research. The U.S. government is encouraging development in this area through tax credits as part of the Inflation Reduction Act and a $7 billion program to establish regional hydrogen hubs.

Meanwhile, nuclear power will continue to be an active R&D area in 2024. In nuclear fission, multiple companies are developing small modular reactors (SMRs) for use in electricity production and chemical manufacturing, including hydrogen. The development of nuclear fusion reactors involves fundamental research in physics and materials science. One major challenge is finding a material that can be used for the wall of the reactor facing the fusion plasma; so far, candidate materials have included high-entropy alloys and even molten metals .

Neurodegenerative diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases are a major public health concern, being a leading cause of death and disability worldwide. While there is currently no cure for any neurodegenerative disease, new scientific discoveries and understandings of these pathways may be the key to helping patient outcomes.

• Alzheimer’s disease: Two immunotherapeutics have received FDA approval to reduce both cognitive and functional decline in individuals living with early Alzheimer's disease. Aducannumab (Aduhelm®) received accelerated approval in 2021 and is the first new treatment approved for Alzheimer’s since 2003 and the first therapy targeting the disease pathophysiology, reducing beta-amyloid plaques in the brains of early Alzheimer’s disease patients. Lecanemab (Leqembi®) received traditional approval in 2023 and is the first drug targeting Alzheimer’s disease pathophysiology to show clinical benefits, reducing the rate of disease progression and slowing cognitive and functional decline in adults with early stages of the disease.
• Parkinson’s disease: New treatment modalities outside of pharmaceuticals and deep brain stimulation are being researched and approved by the FDA for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease symptoms. The non-invasive medical device, Exablate Neuro (approved by the FDA in 2021), uses focused ultrasound on one side of the brain to provide relief from severe symptoms such as tremors, limb rigidity, and dyskinesia. 2023 brought major news for Parkinson’s disease research with the validation of the biomarker alpha-synuclein. Researchers have developed a tool called the α-synuclein seeding amplification assay which detects the biomarker in the spinal fluid of people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and individuals who have not shown clinical symptoms.
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS): Two pharmaceuticals have seen FDA approval in the past two years to slow disease progression in individuals with ALS. Relyvrio ® was approved in 2022 and acts by preventing or slowing more neuron cell death in patients with ALS. Tofersen (Qalsody®), an antisense oligonucleotide, was approved in 2023 under the accelerated approval pathway. Tofersen targets RNA produced from mutated superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) genes to eliminate toxic SOD1 protein production. Recently published genetic research on how mutations contribute to ALS is ongoing with researchers recently discovering how NEK1 gene mutations lead to ALS. This discovery suggests a possible rational therapeutic approach to stabilizing microtubules in ALS patients.

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On June 28, 2024, the Director of the Office of Hearings and Appeals determined that DOE did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in finding Appellant ineligible for hydroelectric incentive payments. Appellant submitted evidence that its capital incentive project was not authorized by FERC, which resulted in its application being incomplete. Accordingly, the Director denied the appeal.  (OHA Case No. HEA-24-0076, Martin)

HEA-24-0076_.pdf

Governor Hochul Announces New Large-Scale Renewable Energy Solicitation to Deliver Clean Electricity Across the State

Final Proposals for Large-Scale Land-Based Renewable Energy Projects Due in August 2024

Supports Progress Toward Achieving New York’s Climate Act Goal to Obtain 70 Percent of its Electricity from Renewable Sources by 2030

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced a new large-scale renewable energy solicitation to deliver clean electricity to New Yorkers. Building on New York’s 10-Point Action Plan , this solicitation seeks proposals for the development of new large-scale land-based renewable energy projects which are expected to spur billions of dollars in clean energy investments and create thousands of family-sustaining jobs in the State’s green economy. Today’s announcement supports progress toward achieving the State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to obtain 70 percent of New York’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

“New York is building a clean energy economy that will allow us to drastically lower emissions while creating thousands of new good-paying jobs, boosting billions of dollars in economic growth, and spurring an injection of private investment into our local communities," Governor Hochul said . “Once selected, these projects will help accelerate our mission to power our state with affordable, reliable, zero-emission electricity for the benefit of all New Yorkers.”

The competitive solicitation, administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), is the latest in a planned series of procurements of land-based large scale renewable projects. As part of this solicitation, NYSERDA has included key provisions from the latest rounds of renewable energy procurements such as inflation indexing, labor provisions, stakeholder engagement requirements, new requirements emphasizing the importance of climate resiliency in project design, disadvantaged community commitments, agricultural land preservation, and related priorities to maintain the policy objectives introduced in prior solicitations to ensure an equitable energy transition. These elements are outlined within the solicitation documents and are designed to support the development and construction of numerous mature, late-stage renewable energy projects seeking to commence operation in the near term.

NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, “By advancing land-based renewable energy projects, New York is expeditiously moving our state forward as a leader in the transition to reliable and clean energy. NYSERDA remains committed to strengthening our renewable energy pipeline and delivering increasing amounts of renewable electricity to further bolster our grid of the future.”

The process for submitting proposals into the land-based renewables solicitation will be conducted in two steps, with eligibility requirements due on July 15, 2024 , to confirm that interested projects are eligible to bid, and final proposals due on August 8, 2024 . More details on the land-based renewable energy solicitation are available on the Large-Scale Renewables Solicitation page on NYSERDA’s website. Conditional award notifications to selected proposers are expected in September 2024.

New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said, “New York's clean energy sector is not just about creating a sustainable environment; it's also about building a robust and resilient workforce that can thrive in the green economy. Under Governor Hochul's leadership, initiatives like this large-scale renewable energy solicitation are vital in driving economic growth, fostering innovation, and providing thousands of family-sustaining jobs.”

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said, “Through Governor Hochul’s leadership, New York State continues to advance its strategic efforts to meet our renewable energy targets under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and create the clean energy economy of the future. Today’s announcement demonstrates the State’s commitment to expanding large-scale wind and solar projects and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, helping to ensure a cleaner and healthier environment for future generations.”

New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard A. Ball said, “Today’s announcement of new large-scale renewable energy solicitation is a crucial step in New York’s transition to clean energy, which will preserve our natural resources and help New York meet its ambitious climate goals. With key provisions included for agricultural land preservation, NYSERDA’s 10-Point Plan will help the State provide a foundation for a greener economy while also ensuring we are protecting our farmland.”

State Senator Kevin Parker, Senate Energy and Telecommunications Chair said, “Governor Hochul's announcement of the new large-scale renewable energy solicitation marks a significant step forward in New York's commitment to a sustainable future. By accelerating our transition to wind and solar power, we are not only advancing towards our ambitious Climate Act goal of 70 percent renewable electricity by 2030, but also fostering economic growth and creating green jobs across the state. This initiative reaffirms New York's leadership in combating climate change and sets a powerful example for other states to follow."

State Senator Peter Harckham said, “Thank you, Governor Hochul, for spearheading this solicitation to advance New York’s clean energy goals. The Executive and Legislature are in lockstep on building a sustainable future through clean renewable energy. It is important to note that a kilowatt of clean energy is now cheaper to produce than a kilowatt of carbon-based energy. With these large-scale renewable energy projects, we are addressing climate change, saving ratepayers money and creating new green jobs.”

Assemblymember Deborah Glick said, “As the summer heat is already upon us, nothing could make it clearer that we have no time to lose in generating more of our electricity from renewable sources. I applaud Governor Hochul for pursuing an aggressive plan to move us away from our dependency on fossil fuel generated electricity. New York State should continue to lead and with the Governor’s commitment we will see the transition to a cleaner environment by the expansion of renewable energy.”

Alliance for Clean Energy New York Executive Director Marguerite Wells said, "Private renewable energy developers are ready and willing to invest billions of dollars into New York, providing jobs and tax revenue for our local municipalities. We expect numerous quality responses to this RFP, and we look forward to NYSERDA awarding projects that will be built expeditiously to bring benefits to New Yorkers as soon as possible.”

New York League of Conservation Voters President Julie Tighe said, "As we enter what is expected to be another summer with record breaking heat and air quality alerts, the urgent need to tackle the climate crisis has never been more evident. It’s time to transition off of fossil fuels and deliver clean energy, and this solicitation will help do just that. We applaud Governor Hochul and NYSERDA on this progress, because more land-based wind and solar energy projects mean fewer greenhouse gas emissions and better air quality for New Yorkers."

New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento said, “Today’s announcement is an important step toward achieving New York’s clean energy goals. We applaud Governor Hochul and NYSERDA for ensuring the projects will be subject to precedent-setting labor standards and protections. We look forward to working together to ensure maximum application of those standards as well as domestic and New York content requirements and preferences so that we create family-sustaining careers while building New York’s clean energy future.”

New York State Building Trades President Gary LaBarbera said, “As New York continues to pursue the energy goals set out by the CLCPA, we must continue to push forward large-scale wind and solar developments that generate thousands of family-sustaining union careers and economic stimulus in our local communities. We applaud Governor Hochul for continuing to push forward these initiatives that will support the delivery of reliable, renewable energy to more New Yorkers and improve the living conditions in our state for generations to come. Our members look forward to having the opportunity to contribute to these projects and pursue the paths to the middle class they pave for them.”

Natural Resources Defense Council Director Jackson Morris said, “The launch of the 2024 solicitation process for new large-scale renewable energy projects, with proposals due in August 2024, builds on the momentum from the successful offshore wind awards for Empire Wind 1 and Sunrise Wind and provides an important opportunity to replace canceled projects so that New York stays on track to meet our ambitious target of 70% renewable electricity by 2030. Accelerating these renewable projects underscores New York’s commitment to a clean energy future and will bring cleaner air, better jobs, and a healthier environment for all New Yorkers.”

American Clean Power Director of Eastern State Affairs Director Moira Cyphers said, “We commend NYSERDA for their responsiveness and proactive efforts to keep New York State's clean energy goals on track. Governor Hochul's leadership is pivotal in driving significant progress to expedite procuring clean energy which will attract new investment opportunities and create well-paying jobs across the state.”

Citizens Campaign for the Environment Executive Director Adrienne Esposito said, “Governor Hochul’s exciting announcement is another surge for New York’s renewable energy sector! We will meet the state’s renewable energy Climate Act goals only by advancing new large-scale wind and solar projects. This week’s heat wave in mid-June is another clear indicator of climate change impacts across New York caused by our continued reliance on dirty fossil fuels. We must transition our energy production and land-based wind and solar energy projects are a key component of that transition. Today’s announcement exemplifies the state’s commitment to providing clean affordable energy to all residents while combating climate change, bolstering the economy, and creating thousands of green jobs. New York’s clean energy future is looking bright.”

New York Solar Energy Industries Association Executive Director Noah Ginsburg said, “As New Yorkers across the state grapple with extreme heat and rising electric bills, accelerating renewable energy deployment has never been more urgent. New York Solar Energy Industries Association applauds NYSERDA and Governor Hochul for their commitment to achieving the clean energy and equity mandates in the Climate Act. Scaling up solar deployment is foundational to New York’s energy transition, and our member companies and solar workforce are at the ready.”

New York State's Nation-Leading Climate Plan

New York State's climate agenda calls for an orderly and just transition that creates family-sustaining jobs, continues to foster a green economy across all sectors and ensures that at least 35 percent, with a goal of 40 percent, of the benefits of clean energy investments are directed to disadvantaged communities. Guided by some of the nation’s most aggressive climate and clean energy initiatives, New York is advancing a suite of efforts – including the New York Cap-and-Invest program (NYCI) and other complementary policies – to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030 and 85 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels. New York is also on a path to achieving a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and economy-wide carbon neutrality by mid-century. A cornerstone of this transition is New York's unprecedented clean energy investments, including more than $28 billion in 61 large-scale renewable and transmission projects across the State, $6.8 billion to reduce building emissions, $3.3 billion to scale up solar, nearly $3 billion for clean transportation initiatives and over $2 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. These and other investments are supporting more than 170,000 jobs in New York’s clean energy sector as of 2022 and over 3,000 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, New York also adopted zero-emission vehicle regulations, including requiring all new passenger cars and light-duty trucks sold in the State be zero emission by 2035. Partnerships are continuing to advance New York’s climate action with more than 400 registered and more than 130 certified Climate Smart Communities, nearly 500 Clean Energy Communities, and the State’s largest community air monitoring initiative in 10 disadvantaged communities across the State to help target air pollution and combat climate change.

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