Headlines | News
EIA expects 7% increase in US energy-sector CO2
emissions USA Climate change
Increased economic activity and a changing fuel mix in the electric power sector in 2021 will lead to a significant increase in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in the USA this year, according to the Energy Information Administration’s August edition of ‘Short term Energy Outlook’. After decreasing by 11% in 2020, US energy-related CO2
emissions will
increase by 7% to reach 4.9 billion metric tons this year.
EIA forecasts coal-related CO2 emissions will
increase by 17% in 2021 because the share of US electricity generated by coal has increased significantly this year.
“Despite significant growth in energy-related CO2
emissions as the US economy opens up, we don’t see these emissions returning to pre-pandemic levels, at least in the short term,” said EIA acting administrator Steve Nalley.
EIA expects overall energy-related CO2 emissions to increase an additional 1% in 2022,
and emissions from coal to decrease 7%. US consumption of natural gas will decrease 1.0% in 2021, largely owing to there being less electricity generated from natural gas. IEA forecasts an 87% increase this year in delivered natural gas prices for the electric power sector, and that these higher prices will make natural gas a less competitive electricity source.
The full ‘Short-Term Energy Outlook’ is available on the EIA website.
US lab closes in on a key goal of nuclear fusion USA Nuclear power
Scientists at the National Ignition Facility, a science institute in Livermore, California, believe they are on the verge of achieving a longstanding goal in nuclear fusion research, namely, to create a fusion reaction that generates more energy than is required to maintain it.
The experiment at the NIG uses a powerful laser to heat and compress hydrogen fuel, initiating fusion. In a process called inertial confinement fusion, 192 beams from NIF’s laser – the highest-energy example in the world – are directed towards a peppercorn-sized capsule containing deuterium and tritium. This compresses the fuel to 100 times the density of lead and heats it to 100 million degrees Celsius – hotter than the centre of the Sun. These conditions help kickstart thermonuclear fusion.
An experiment carried out on 8 August yielded 1.35 MJ of energy, around 70% of the 1.9
MJ laser energy delivered to the fuel capsule. That is a yield eight times greater than NIF’s previous record, established in spring 2021, and 25 times the yield from experiments carried out in 2018.
“The pace of improvement in energy output has been rapid, suggesting we may soon reach more energy milestones, such as exceeding the energy input from the lasers used to kick-start the process,” commented professor Jeremy Chittenden, co-director of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London. NIF scientists also believe they have now achieved something called “burning plasma”, where the fusion reactions themselves provide the heat for more fusion, making the process self-sustaining.
“Self-sustaining burn is essential to getting high yield,” said Dr Debbie Callahan, a physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which hosts NIF. “The burn wave has to
propagate into the high density fuel in order to get a lot of fusion energy out. We believe this experiment is in this regime, although we are still doing analysis and simulations to be sure that we understand the result.” Dr Callahan said that as a next step the experiments would be repeated. “We need to understand how reproducible and how sensitive the results are to small changes,” she said. “After that, we do have ideas for how to improve on this design and we will start working on those next year.”
Prof Chittenden commented: “The mega-joule of energy released in the experiment is indeed impressive in fusion terms, but in practice this is equivalent to the energy required to boil a kettle. Far higher fusion energies can be achieved through ignition if we can work out how to hold the fuel together for longer, to allow more of it to burn. This will be the next horizon for inertial confinement fusion.”
UK government launches plan for hydrogen economy UK Hydrogen grid
The UK government intends to unlock billions of pounds in investment and add new export opportunities through its plans to create a thriving low carbon hydrogen sector in the UK over the next decade and beyond, the Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng announced on17 August.
The UK’s first Hydrogen Strategy drives forward the commitments laid out in the prime minister’s 10 Point Plan for a green industrial revolution by setting the foundation for how the UK government will work with industry to meet its ambition for 5 GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030.
A UK-wide hydrogen economy could be worth £900 million and create over 9000 high-quality jobs by 2030, potentially rising to
100 000 jobs and £13 billion by 2050. Government analysis suggesting that 20-35% of the UK’s energy consumption by 2050 could be hydrogen-based, so this energy source could be critical to meeting targets of net zero emissions by 2050 and cutting emissions by 78% by 2035.
The government’s approach is based on previous success with offshore wind, where early government action coupled with strong private sector backing has been very successful. One of the main tools used by government to support the establishment of offshore wind in the UK was the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, which incentivises investment in renewable energy by providing developers with direct protection from volatile wholesale prices and protects consumers from paying increased
support costs when electricity prices are high. The government has therefore launched a public consultation on a preferred hydrogen business model which, built on a similar premise to the offshore wind CfDs, is designed to overcome the cost gap between low carbon hydrogen and fossil fuels, helping the costs of low-carbon alternatives to fall quickly, as hydrogen comes to play an increasing role in our lives. Alongside this, the government is consulting on the design of the £240 million Net Zero Hydrogen Fund, which aims to support the commercial deployment of new low carbon hydrogen production plants across the UK.
See also ‘UK majors on hydrogen hubs...and CCUS clusters’ pp 16–20.
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