Power Surge 5.4

Volume 5, Issue 4
March 4, 2018 – March 10, 2018
Anushka Dasgupta '19 | Amy Amatya '21 | Neha Chauhan '21

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Lower Oil Prices Force Saudis to Widen Their Circle of Friends
Clifford Kraus | February 25, 2018 | The New York Times
Saudi Arabia, which once wielded significant power through OPEC, is adjusting to the influx of American oil and natural gas and the low oil prices of late. Its revamped economic strategy involves the proposed public offering of the national oil company, Aramco, as well as positioning itself as a leader in oil refining with the help of foreign investment. Saudi Arabia and Russia remain at odds in their relations with Syria and Iran, but they could soon be working together to buoy up oil prices. The kingdom is also investing in refineries with Chinese business partners. Saudi representatives say that the IPO of Aramco, which produces more crude than any other company, will be the largest in history. -AD

P.S. In the article, look out for a quote from David Goldwyn *86, a prominent energy consultant who was interviewed in a recent issue of the Power Surge

GE Unveils World’s Most Powerful Wind Turbine
Jeremy Hodges | March 1, 2018 | Bloomberg
GE plans on spending $400 million to construct Haliade-X, an offshore wind turbine 100m taller than the Washington Monument with blades the length of a soccer field. Designed to power 5000 homes and produce 67 KW/hr, the turbine will likely be erected in Germany, one of the world’s leaders in offshore wind energy. The proposal is just another step in our pursuit of widespread renewables implementation, a goal that is beginning to take shape as installation and storage costs decrease.  -AA

This 18-Mile Stretch of Georgia Highway is a Living Laboratory for Clean Energy
Jeremy Deaton | March 1, 2018 | Popular Science
Late CEO Ray Anderson’s vision for clean energy has inspired “a zero carbon, zero deaths, zero waste, zero impact highway.” This 18-mile road is paved with solar panels and has a charging station for solar powered vehicles and roll-over pressure monitor that helps keep fuel efficiency high. Also in the works for future implementation are electromagnetic field charging lanes, noise-cancelling solar barriers alongside the road, and solar-powered studs that light up at night to mark lanes. The Ray was created to show an alternative to the contemporary “take-make-waste industrial system.” -NC

Relying on renewables alone would significantly raise the cost of overhauling the energy system
James Temple | February 26, 2018 | MIT Technology Review
An article published last month in Energy & Environmental Science concludes that transforming the grid to one completely by renewable energy would be prohibitively expensive. Because renewables are intermittent by nature, relying only on renewables would require the construction of double the capacity of renewables as needed at any one time, large-scale battery systems, and an overhaul of the national transmission system. It suggests that an 80% renewables target is more reasonable, with the rest filled in by other low-carbon technologies. -AD

Can Green Energy Beat Lebanon's 'Generator Mafias'
Alex Dziadosz | February 26, 2018 | Bloomberg News
The poor condition of Lebanon’s modern-day electric grid can be traced back to the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90), when many of its thermal power plants were destroyed. During that time, consumers began to rely on privately owned diesel generators for electricity. Today, Lebanese generator owners boast political connections and can shape energy policy to suit their own interests, making energy reform near impossible. A local utility company in the town of Zahle, however, has provided reliable electricity for the last three years by leasing its own generators and implementing net metering. It’s a model for other microgrids in sunny Lebanon to follow, although negotiations can get violent. -AD

Power Surge 5.3

Volume 5, Issue 3
February 25, 2018 – March 3, 2018
Anushka Dasgupta '19 | Amy Amatya '21 | Neha Chauhan '21

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Why companies are scrambling for the once little-known element cobalt
Robert Ferris | February 23, 2018 | CNBC
Demand for cobalt is rising with the use of lithium-ion batteries in electronics and electric vehicles. Cobalt is difficult to replace in its role as a key ingredient in these batteries because it is most effective at ensuring their stability. Replacing it with an alternative element would mean producing lower-quality batteries, and industry experts industry predict that cobalt will not be excluded from production for at least another three decades. The increasing demand for cobalt is driving up prices, and the threat of a shortage of the element looms. Because it is mined as a byproduct of other elements, its supply is difficult to control; some companies are attempting to secure their cobalt supplies by buying it directly from miners. -NC

New Project to Tackle Crypto Energy Crisis by Generating Electricity Through Waste
Katharine Sharpe | February 23, 2018 | Coin Telegraph
With Bitcoin’s skyrocketing market, concern shifts toward supplying the massive amount of energy needed to support this expansion. One company, 4NEW, is looking to make mining more sustainable by producing their own renewable energy using waste. Revenue from waste collection and byproduct sales will be used to fund privately handled renewable energies (as opposed to traditional farms which often utilize coal), with coin holders being able to use this energy within 4NEW’s mining farms, or sell it directly to the grid at their own fixed prices. At its current rate of increase, cryptocurrency operations are expected to use more energy annually than countries such as Peru and Hungary, so finding a sustainable source is becoming increasingly necessary. -AA
Note: Last week's Power Surge referenced Iceland's Bitcoin energy crisis.

New England Has a Power Problem
Erin Ailworth and Jon Kamp | February 23, 2018 | The Wall Street Journal
While residents of New England states support the incorporation of clean energy into their electric grid in theory, building the necessary infrastructure has proven to be a challenge. Offshore wind has taken off in Europe, but Cape Wind, the first proposed offshore wind project in the U.S., was cancelled late last year because residents feared disruption of the landscape and fishing grounds. Plans for a natural gas pipeline connecting New England with Pennsylvania, which is experiencing a fracking boom,  were abandoned in 2016. The Northern Pass Power line, which would bring Canadian hydroelectric power to the region, was the latest attempt to prop up the populous region’s aging electric grid. However, a New Hampshire regulatory committee rejected its portion of the project this month. -AD

Geothermal Energy Grows in Kenya
Amy Yee | February 23, 2018 | The New York Times
Kenya sits over the East African Rift, a hotspot for tectonic activity. This makes the region ideal for geothermal development. The Kenyan government, with an eye to its rapidly growing population and the gaps in its electric grid, has pushed to expand the nation’s geothermal capabilities in recent years. The main hurdle has been finding financiers for the construction of geothermal plants and the infrastructure to connect them with homes and businesses. But there’s a chance that geothermal energy could power Kenya’s economic growth the way it did for Iceland in the seventies. -AD