Peter Fairley
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Articles by Peter Fairley
Islands Tap Energy From Oceans’ Thermal Layers Original
Construction underway on a remote island nearly 400 kilometers west of India’s mainland could demonstrate, for the first time, the commercial viability of a vast, untapped renewable resource: the ocean’s thermal layers. Here, on the Lakshadweep Archipelago, surface waters are more than 20 °C warmer than the depths below, and with the right equipment that temperature differential can be exploited to generate electricity.
Remote Island Taps Energy From the Ocean's Thermal Layers
9 hours ago Paris (France) (AFP) – The EU's climate monitor said Thursday that August was the hottest single month ever recorded globally, with ocean temperatures also reaching unprecedented highs as western Europe capped its warmest summer. In response to the assessment by the Copernicus Climate Change …
Are pro-nuclear politics a threat to public safety?
Over the past decade or so, the once- sleepy nuclear sector has become a hive of activity. Venture capital drove innovative reactor designs promising lower risk. The need for low-carbon energy eroded environmental opposition. Electrification and artificial intelligence boosted energy demand, and the geopolitical weaponization of energy put a premium on domestic generation. As a result, nuclear regulators suddenly face pressure to rapidly assess an unprecedented number and variety of projects.
This 1976 University Experiment Spun Up the U.S. Wind Industry Original
A half century ago, a scrappy crew at the University of Massachusetts Amherst erected a wind turbine on Orchard Hill, the highest point on campus. It was a frugal production, cobbled together from the rear axle of a Ford truck, a donated generator and microcontroller, a steam pipe, and various handcrafted steel and fiberglass parts, including its 4.5-meter blades.
Do Offshore Wind Farms Pose National Security Risks? Original
When the Trump administration last year sought to freeze construction of offshore wind farms by citing concerns about interference with military radar and sonar, the implication was that these were new issues. But for more than a decade, the United States, Taiwan, and many European countries have successfully mitigated wind turbines’ security impacts. Some European countries are even integrating wind farms with national defense schemes.
How Electrical Engineers Fight a War Original
Every time Russia attacks Ukraine’s power infrastructure, Ukrainian engineers risk their lives in the scramble to get electricity flowing again. It’s a dangerous job at best, and a lethal one at worst. It also requires creativity. Time pressure and equipment shortages make it nearly impossible to rebuild things exactly as they were, so engineers must redesign on the fly. These dangerous, stressful conditions have led to more engineers being hurt or killed.
How $4,500 Conductive Suits Are Saving Lives in Power Line Work Original
In 2018, Justin Kropp was restoring a fire-damaged transmission circuit in Southern California when disaster struck. Grid operators had earlier shut down the 115-kilovolt circuit, but six high-voltage lines that shared the corridor were still operating, and some of their power snuck onto the de-energized wires he was working on. That rogue current shot to the ground through Kropp’s body and his elevated work platform, killing the 32-year-old father of two.
How $4,500 Conductive Suits Are Saving Lives in Power Line Work
In 2018, Justin Kropp was working on a transmission circuit in Southern California when disaster struck. Grid operators had earlier shut down the 115-kilovolt circuit, but six high-voltage lines that shared the corridor were still operating, and some of their power snuck onto the deenergized wires he was working on. That rogue current shot to the ground through Kropp’s body and his elevated work platform, killing the 32-year-old father of two.
Grid Congestion Bottlenecks U.K.'s Wind Power Original
12 min read The SmartValve array at Penwortham substation near Preston, England, is one of several new grid-enhancing technologies aimed at moving more power throughout the U.K. National Grid Electricity Transmission/Smart Wires The power surging through transmission lines over the iconic stone walls of England’s northern countryside is pushing the United Kingdom’s grid to its limits. To the north, Scottish wind farms have doubled their output over the past decade.
Grid Congestion Bottlenecks U.K.'s Wind Power
12 min read The SmartValve array at Penwortham substation near Preston, England, is one of several new grid-enhancing technologies aimed at moving more power throughout the U.K. National Grid Electricity Transmission/Smart Wires The power surging through transmission lines over the iconic stone walls of England’s northern countryside is pushing the United Kingdom’s grid to its limits. To the north, Scottish wind farms have doubled their output over the past decade.
Geothermal networks let cities warm and cool as one
Troy in New York state is one of the first cities to use an innovative type of heat pump.Credit: TW Farlow/Getty The half-a-dozen nineteenth-century commercial buildings huddled beside the Hudson River that make up an arts centre in Troy, New York, are destined for a distinctly twenty-first-century energy makeover. The same goes for an apartment building across the street and a department store-turned-technology hub a few blocks away.
Grid-Scale Battery Stabilizes Scottish Power Supply
A grid-scale battery in the Scottish Highlands got a chance to prove its mettle in March when, 11 days after it started up, a massive wood-burning generator in northern England shut down unexpectedly. Suddenly 1,877 megawatts of supply was missing, causing the 50-hertz frequency of the grid’s alternating current to crash below its 49.8-Hz operating limit in just 8 seconds.
Grid-Scale Battery Stabilizes Scottish Power Supply
A grid-scale battery in the Scottish Highlands got a chance to prove its mettle in March when, 11 days after it started up, a massive wood-burning generator in Northern England shut down unexpectedly. Suddenly 1,877 megawatts of supply was missing, causing the 50-hertz frequency of the grid’s alternating current to crash below its 49.8-Hz operating limit in just 8 seconds.
Can Maine's Floating Wind Turbines Weather the Political Storm?
When the platform for a prototype floating offshore wind turbine arrived at a dock in Searsport, Maine on April 11, engineers at the University of Maine were ready to add a tower and a turbine and set it afloat in the Gulf of Maine. The prototype, called the VolturnUS+, was a 1:4 scale model of a 15-megawatt version, and its deployment would mark only the second wind turbine to float in U.S. waters.
Can Maine's Floating Wind Turbines Weather the Political Storm?
When the platform for a prototype floating offshore wind turbine arrived at a dock in Searsport, Maine, on April 11, engineers at the University of Maine were ready to add a tower and a turbine and set it afloat in the Gulf of Maine. The prototype, called the VolturnUS+, was a 1:4 scale model of a 15-megawatt version, and its deployment would mark only the second wind turbine to float in U.S. waters.
Can Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Plant Rise from the Ashes of Conflict?
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, has provoked anxiety ever since Russian troops captured it barely two weeks into the 2022 invasion. But recently, after three years of occupation and frequent near misses that threatened radiological disaster, a promise of sunnier days suddenly popped into view, albeit briefly.
Shipping solar power at the speed of a freight train
Shipping solar power at the speed of a freight train By charging up battery cars where renewable energy is cheap and delivering the power to where it’s needed, this startup thinks railroads could break the clean energy transmission logjam. Let the best of Anthropocene come to you. Electricity moves down a wire at close to the speed of light.
Undersea Observatory: Remote Sub Sustains Science 2500 Meters Down
The water column is hazy as an unusual remotely operated vehicle glides over the seafloor in search of a delicate tilt meter deployed three years ago off the west side of Vancouver Island. The sensor measures shaking and shifting in continental plates that will eventually unleash another of the region’s 9.0-scale earthquakes (the last was in 1700), and dwindling charge in the instruments’ data loggers threatens the continuity of the data.
Reconductoring: Boosting U.S. Grid Capacity Efficiently
As grid operators across the United States plan new transmission lines to keep up with surging investment in renewable energy, electric vehicles and heat pumps, many are neglecting an easier solution: stringing a new set of wireson their existing lines.
TSMC’s Clean-Energy Demand Drives Taiwan’s Geopolitical Future
The wind blowing in from the Taiwan Strait regularly blasts across Changhua Coastal Industrial Park. On this expanse of reclaimed land outside Taichung, Taiwan’s second largest city, 80 wind turbines, a pair of gas-fired power plants, and 4.3 square kilometers of solar farms generate electricity for Taiwan’s grid.
Getting Off Gas, Block by Block
Electrifying homes and businesses one at a time can be hard, and leave people behind. What if we could instead liberate entire neighborhoods from reliance on natural gas? My latest feature shows how one California utility is taking baby steps to do just that, helping customers go all-electric en masse so it can start dismantling its gas grid. Since 2018 San Francisco-based PG&E has been finding spots where it can make a buck by capping dodgy gas pipes rather than replacing them.
TSMC’s Clean-Energy Demand Drives Taiwan’s Geopolitical Future
The wind blowing in from the Taiwan Strait regularly blasts across Changhua Coastal Industrial Park. On this expanse of reclaimed land outside Taichung, Taiwan’s second largest city, 80 wind turbines, a pair of gas-fired power plants, and 4.3 square kilometers of solar farms generate electricity for Taiwan’s grid.
Installing Solar Over Fish Farms Is a Climate-Friendly Twofer
A maze of brackish and freshwater ponds covers Taiwan’s coastal plain, supporting aquaculture operations that produce roughly NT $30 billion (US $920 million) worth of seafood every year. Taiwan’s government is hoping that the more than 400 square kilometers of fishponds can simultaneously produce a second harvest: solar power. What is aquavoltaics? That’s the impetus behind the new 42.9-megawatt aquavoltaics facility in the southern city of Tainan.
Installing Solar Over Fish Farms Is a Climate-Friendly Twofer
A maze of brackish and freshwater ponds covers Taiwan’s coastal plain, supporting aquaculture operations that produce roughly NT $30 billion (US $920 million) worth of seafood every year. Taiwan’s government is hoping that the more than 400 square kilometers of fishponds can simultaneously produce a second harvest: solar power. What is aquavoltaics? That’s the impetus behind the new 42.9-megawatt “aquavoltaics” facility in the southern city of Tainan.
Roping the Motor Dopers
A French cycling official confronts a rider suspected of doping and ends up on the hood of a van making a high-speed getaway. This isn’t a tragicomedy starring Gérard Depardieu, sending up the sport’s well-earned reputation for cheating. This scenario played out in May at the Routes de l’Oise cycling competition near Paris, and the van allegedly carried evidence of a distinctly 21st-century cheat: a hidden electric motor.
We’ll Help You Get Off Gas, Says Washington’s Top Gas Supplier
WHY PUGET SOUND ENERGY’S ELECTRIFICATION PILOT WORKS WHO WORKS: Puget Sound Energy employees and contractors are delivering a pilot project to inform customers how they can electrify their homes to get off gas. The heat pumps and other retrofits they spark could create work for over 12,000 more Washingtonians by 2030. WHAT WORKS: By shifting people off gas, the utility relieves pressures on its gas supplies and is better able to plan its energy future.
Olympics Officials Work to Prevent Motor Doping in Cycling
A French cycling official confronts a rider suspected of doping, and ends up on the hood of a van making a high-speed getaway. This isn’t a tragicomedy starring Gérard Depardieu, sending up the sport’s well-earned reputation for cheating. This scenario played out in May at the Routes de l’Oise cycling competition near Paris, and the van was believed to contain evidence of a distinctly 21st-century cheat: a hidden electric motor.
Olympics Officials Work to Prevent Motor Doping in Cycling
A French cycling official confronts a rider suspected of doping and ends up jumping onto the hood of a van making a high-speed getaway. This isn’t a tragicomedy starring Gérard Depardieu, sending up the sport’s well-earned reputation for cheating. This scenario played out in May at the Routes de l’Oise cycling competition near Paris, and the van was believed to contain evidence of a distinctly 21st-century cheat: a hidden electric motor.
Coho sailings expected to resume after vehicle fire on board Thursday
One day after two sailings had to be cancelled due to a vehicle fire, the Coho ferry says sailings are expected to resume. In a notice posted to its website, the Coho says there was a vehicle fire on board the 3 p.m. sailing leaving Victoria. This resulted in the 5:15 p.m. leaving Port Angeles and 7:30 p.m. leaving Victoria being cancelled on Thursday.
Two Environmental Activists Convicted for Civil Disobedience
Two climate activists who argued that the threat of climate change justified their efforts to block highways, banks and airports were convicted today in a Nanaimo court. Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners There’s More to Everyone’s Story Sometimes people need help writing the next chapter. Family Services of Greater Vancouver is there to help.
As Ukraine Builds New Reactors, Renewables Beckon
Earlier in April, the U.S. ambassador to Kyiv was at Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi nuclear power plant, celebrating the first concrete poured for the first of two U.S.-designed AP1000 nuclear reactors to be built at the site.It’s just the start of Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power firm’s investment plans. In June, Energoatom says it will start building two further VVER reactors at Khmelnytskyi, which will double the site’s complement of Russian-designed equipment.
Los ejércitos no deberían volver a atacar nunca una parte fundamental de la vida moderna
Es hora de añadir las redes eléctricas a esa lista privilegiada. A fines de marzo, tras dos años de duros ataques a Ucrania, Rusia acabó con la mitad de la red eléctrica de Ucrania. Hasta entonces, los objetivos de los misiles y drones kamikazes rusos habían sido sobre todo las subestaciones ucranianas que transportan la electricidad desde las centrales eléctricas a los consumidores.
A Part of Modern Life So Essential That Armies Should Never Attack It Again
It’s time to change the laws of war to punish and hopefully deter the insane and inhumane destruction of power grids. So argues my guest essay for The New York Times opinion pages. For two years, it has pained me to observe and occasionally cover Russia’s increasingly destructive pummelling of Ukraine’s power grid.
Opinión: Los ejércitos no deberían volver a atacar nunca una parte fundamental de la vida moderna
Peter Fairley 16 de abril de 2024, 4:08 p. m.·6 min de lectura LA COMUNIDAD MUNDIAL DEBE ESTABLECER LÍMITES CLAROS PARA LOS COMBATIENTES EN FUTUROS CONFLICTOS A FIN DE CREAR PROTECCIONES ESPECÍFICAS PARA LAS REDES ELÉCTRICAS. A fines de marzo, tras dos años de duros ataques a Ucrania, Rusia acabó con la mitad de la red eléctrica de Ucrania.
There Is a Part of Modern Life That Is So Essential Armies Should Never Attack It Again
You have been granted access, use your keyboard to continue reading. Guest Essay April 15, 2024 A Ukrainian power plant heavily damaged by recent Russian missile strikes.Credit...Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters In late March, after two years of withering attacks on Ukraine, Russia knocked out half of Ukraine’s power supply. Up to that point, Russia’s missiles and kamikaze drones had mostly targeted the Ukrainian substations that push electricity from power plants to consumers.
Unveiling the West Coast’s Electric Big Truck Future
[Editor’s note: This article runs in a new section of The Tyee called ‘What Works: The Business of a Healthy Bioregion,’ where you’ll find profiles of people creating the low-carbon, sustainable economy we need from Alaska to California. Find out more about this project and its funders.] WHY TITAN’S ELECTRIC FLEET WORKS Who works: Titan Freight Systems in Portland, Oregon, is investing millions in shifting its freight-hauling semis and delivery box trucks from diesel-fuelled to electrified.
“They Had to Break the Law to Try to Save Humanity”
The climate clock ticks toward midnight, yet US fossil fuel output keeps setting records and Canada goes on chopping Old Growth forests. Under such circumstances it’s hardly surprising that many climate activists have turned to civil disobedience, blocking highways and attacking masterworks to amplify their message. What is surprising is that courts seem to be listening.
Studying Yesterday’s Blackouts to Head Off Tomorrow’s
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. The power grid today is in flux as its analog devices go digital. Electrical plants with rotating generators are giving way to solar and wind farms fronted by power inverters, which convert the renewables’ DC-out into the grid’s AC-in. And, on the consumption side, inverter-coupled devices including electric vehicles and variable-speed heat pumps represent a rising share of demand.
They Had to Break the Law to Try to Save Humanity
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This technology fights climate change by making more CO
The half-century old brick-clad Parsons Laboratory that houses chemical and environmental engineering labs at MIT is easy to overlook amidst the shiny corporate and billionaire-financed science centers adjoining the campus. Bút big bucks and flash clearly aren’t a prerequisite for ambition and impact in the eyes of oceanographer-turned-chemical engineer Desirée Plata. Plata is working up materials that could one day rip apart megatons of heat-trapping methane, stalling global climate change.
HVDC Networks Come to Europe
The days are numbered for the Lerwick Power Station, whose diesel generators have supplied electricity to the Shetland Islands for over 70 years. Starting around the middle of 2024, the Shetlands—and also part of mainland Scotland—will be powered by the 443-megawatt Viking wind farm, consisting of 103 wind turbines on the main island of Shetland.
Sizing up hydrogen’s hydrological footprint
To steer economies away from fossil fuels and to cut carbon emissions, hydrogen needs to be produced from low-carbon energy sources, such as wind and solar power. This green hydrogen is particularly attractive to certain big-energy users such as the shipping, aviation and steel industries, which would struggle to run on batteries or plug into renewable energy directly through power grids.
The Complex Calculus of Clean Energy and Zero Emissions
In the past two years, the U.S. Congress has provided hundreds of billions of dollars to speed the deployment of clean-energy technologies. These investments are one reason why the International Energy Agency (IEA) in September insisted that there’s still hope to hold global temperature rise to 1.5 °C in this century. Thousands of Washington insiders and climate activists have had a hand in these legislative breakthroughs.
To Free The Baltic Grid, Old Technology Is New Again
The Baltic countries—Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia—recently accelerated a plan to cut the electrical chains that keep them tied to Russia. A technical lynchpin to their planned escape from the Moscow-controlled synchronous AC power zone is a constellation of synchronous condensers: free-spinning and fuel-free electrical generators whose sole purpose is to stabilize and protect power grids.
Backing Up the Power Grid with Green Methanol
It would be great if everyone could back up the intermittent power from wind and solar plants with energy stored as low-cost, zero-carbon hydrogen gas. But hydrogen can be hard to store.
The Midwestern Pragmatists Behind the Renewables-Ready Power Grid
Power line congestion is forcing “dramatic drops” in wind power production, yet we need far more wind power and even more solar. As one renewable energy developer put it last week: “We are sprinting towards a brick wall.” My latest grid feature profiles the Made-in-the-Midwest fix that could vault North America’s power grids over the hurdles, forging a truly continental network to reliably deliver clean power for homes, highways and industries.
Inside the Global Race to Tap Potent Offshore Wind
In a hangar at the University of Edinburgh, a triangular steel contraption sits beside a giant tank of water. Inside the tank, a technician in a yellow dinghy adjusts equipment so that the triangled structure can be hoisted into the water to see how it deals with simulated waves and currents. One day soon, a platform 50 times as large may float in the deep waters of the North Sea, buoying up a massive wind turbine to harvest the steady, strong breezes there.
The US Electricity Transmission System Is in Gridlock
FOR MORE THAN a year, the utilities that own various parts of the Midwest's power grid have been advancing the largest investment in electricity transmission lines in US history: more than 2,000 miles of added transmission at an estimated cost of $10 billion. The 18 new lines promise a suite of advantages. Most will thread through existing rights-of-way to tread lightly on ecosystems and communities.
Peter Fairley
The US Electricity Transmission System Is in Gridlock How a national macrogrid could accelerate the movement to electrify everything
Could Weaker Lines Prevent Catastrophe in Ukraine?
A thick fog of war has enveloped Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant since Russian forces seized it 16 months ago. And the crisis has only hit new levels in recent weeks. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant lies on the front line amidst a Ukrainian counter-offensive whose full firepower remains to be unleashed. Russia’s readiness to wreak havoc appears both larger and less predictable after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam and an armed rebellion aimed at Moscow.
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