Energy Efficiency, Energy Storage, GHG Emissions, Sourcing Renewables  -  May 4, 2024

Weekend Reads: The Promise of Seaweed Mining; Hydrogen Greens Up Steelmaking

It's the weekend! Kick back and catch up with these must-read articles from around the web.

The world’s most advanced economies just agreed to end coal use by 2035 – with a catch (CNN)  The Group of Seven nations announced Tuesday its member nations would end the use of “unabated” coal by 2035, but left the door open for countries to stretch that deadline in particular contexts. 

What the heck is seaweed mining? (Hakai Magazine)  Within the U.S. Department of Energy is the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), a scientific branch devoted to tackling challenging, high-risk projects on energy technologies. ARPA-E takes big swings and looks for big rewards. And so far, the agency has awarded $5 million to three ventures investigating whether seaweed can serve as a practical source of critical materials, such as platinum and rhodium, as well as rare earth elements, including neodymium, lanthanum, yttrium, and dysprosium.

WEBINAR: Climate Regulations Are Coming – Are You Ready? (EnergyCap)  It's in the news everywhere, more climate regulations and mandates passing every day. In today's ever-changing regulatory landscape, businesses need to stay up to date on the latest climate regulations and best practices for compliance. Attend EnergyCAP’s latest webinar where leading experts, Jessica Pransky, Principal Analyst at Verdantix, and Amber Artrip, VP of Marketing with EnergyCap, demystify the evolving landscape of environmental compliance and arm you with tactics and tools to comply. REGISTER HERE

States rethink data centers as ‘electricity hogs’ strain the grid (Minnesota Reformer)  Compared with other employers that states compete for, such as automotive plants, data centers hire relatively few workers. Still, states have offered massive subsidies to lure data centers — both for their enormous up-front capital investment and the cachet of bringing in big tech names such as Apple and Facebook. But as the cost of these subsidy programs balloons and data centers proliferate coast to coast, lawmakers in several states are rethinking their posture as they consider how to cope with the growing electricity demand.

How long will the world’s forests impound carbon below ground? (Harvard Magazine)  Will plants take up enough carbon in the future to offset the human activities driving climate change? This is a critical question, to which there aren’t yet good answers.

Green hydrogen to help eject fossil fuels from steel industry (CleanTechnica)  Decarbonizing the global steel industry is a tough row to hoe, but it must be done, and fast. Industry analysts project that demand for iron and steel could rise by up to 40% by 2050, assuming we’re not all underwater by then. Some steelmakers have dug in their heels on account of the increased cost. However, the green steel movement is gaining traction, with an assist from green hydrogen stakeholders.

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