Energies Magazine Fall 2022 : simplebooklet.com

Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com1Letter from the Editor-in-Chief PAGE 2ENERGIES Contributors PAGE 2ENERGIES Online PAGE 3Industry Data PAGE 3SOLAR POWERThe Solar Savior PAGE 4HYDROGEN TECHNOLOGYBrillouin Energy Hydrogen Hot Tube Technology Achieves Performance Breakthroughs: A Revolution in Low-Cost, Ultra-Safe, Pollution-Free Energy PAGE 6THE PLANETConstitutional Green Amendments: Ensuring Protection for Communities, Environment and Economy PAGE 10LITHIUM-ION BATTERIESReversing the Rise in Battery Prices PAGE 14CLEAN TECHInterview with Robert Cruess, President, ZeroNox PAGE 16ENERGIES Cartoon PAGE 19BIOPLASTICSQ&A with Sequana CEO Liz Madaras PAGE 20INFOGRAPHIC40 Years of Renewable Energy Production in Every Country PAGE 27OP-EDWhy Allies Are The Key To Energy’s Future PAGE 30ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMSPaving the Way for Energy Storage PAGE 32CLEAN ENERGYThe New Power Generation PAGE 34INDUSTRIAL INTERNET OF THINGSWhy Unlocking the Value of IoT is Key to Keeping Utilities and Renewables Operational PAGE 36ENERGY STORAGEInation Reduction Act Presents Opportunity for Standalone Storage, Test for Hybrid Power Plants PAGE 38ENERGY EXPERTThe Best Books on Energy Transitions Recommended by Chris Goodall PAGE 40FEATURE CJ Warner: Rening Our View Of The Energy Transition PAGE 22IN THIS ISSUE

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com2FALL 2022PUBLISHER Emmanuel SullivanEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Rebecca PontonMANAGING EDITOR Sarah SkinnerASSISTANT EDITOR Nick VaccaroCOPY EDITOR Shannon WestCREATIVE DIRECTOR Kim FischerCONTRIBUTING EDITORS Marc Morrison Elizabeth WilderADVERTISING SALES Diana George Connie LaughlinSUBSCRIBE To subscribe to Energies Magazine, please visit our website, www.energiesmagazine.com/subscribe. MAILING ADDRESS U.S. Energy Media P.O. Box 42511 Houston, TX 77242 Phone: (800) 562-2340 e-mail: editor@usenergymedia.comCOPYRIGHT The contents of this publication are copyright 2022 by U.S. Energy Media, LLC, with all rights restricted. Any reproduction or use of content without written consent of U.S. Energy Media, LLC is strictly prohibited.All information in this publication is gathered from sources considered to be reliable, but the accuracy of the information cannot be guaranteed. Energies Magazine reserves the right to edit all contributed articles. Editorial content does not necessarily reect the opinions of the publisher. Any advice given in editorial content or advertisements should be considered information only. Cover photo courtesy of McClanahan Studios.LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEFCONTRIBUTORS — BiographiesRebecca Ponton, Editor-in-ChiefHaving covered solar and wind, the two leading forms of renewable energy in the U.S., in our two previous issues, in this edition of ENERGIES Magazine, we talk to CJ Warner, who has been involved in nearly every sector of the energy industry during her 45 year career. Currently a member of the Chevron board of directors, Warner shares her belief that rening, where she spent a large part of her career, has an important role to play “even in a very aggressive transition projection.”Warner is among the energy industry leaders who believe that it will necessitate an “all of the above” approach to meet the energy needs of the U.S. and the world, and that it will take the best minds to come up with innovative solutions. Warner, the former CEO of Sapphire Energy, shares what she originally thought was one of the “wackier” ideas – cultivating algae to produce renewable biofuels – and why she still believes the process has potential.Taking an “all of the above” approach to our editorial content, with the upcoming Winter issue of ENERGIES, we will depart from our usual cover story interviews with industry leaders to feature a conversation with environmental activist and Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges, the narrator and co-producer of the climate change documentary, Living in the Future’s Past. As the co-executive producer, he also appeared in the documentary, Hot Money, which explores the intersection of the global nancial system and climate change. Retired four-star Army General Wesley K. Clark and ALLY Energy CEO Katie Mehnert, who were also in Hot Money, will be featured on the covers of Oilman and Oilwoman Magazines, respectively. This provides us with the unique opportunity to connect all three of our platforms to illustrate how all sectors of the energy industry are interconnected and can work together to nd solutions to the one of the most pressing issues facing the world today.Marc Morrison Marc Morrison is an Austin-based advertising photographer who has been shooting worldwide campaigns more than 15 years. His commissions have ventured into various genres. He has photographed numerous advertising campaigns for major agencies, and his portraiture includes everyone from celebrities to Fortune 500 CEOs and world leaders. Morrison enjoys pushing boundaries yet understands how to achieve the client’s vision. His ability to adapt to any situation, work within tight time frames, develop camaraderie with his subjects, and produce thought-provoking visuals are qualities that set him apart from other photographers. www.marcmorrison.comElizabeth WilderElizabeth Wilder is a freelance writer based in Houston, Texas. In addition to covering startups and nuclear energy in this issue, she has written about solar energy initiatives, including on Native lands. Her work has also appeared in Oilwoman Magazine.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com4SOLAR POWERThe Solar Savior By Shannon WestThose of us that experienced Texas’ early summer heat wave can attest to the abundance of solar power as a renew-able resource. The additional need to crank down the AC has put a substantial strain on the grid, surpassing the one seen during winter storm Uri last year which caused statewide blackouts – 75 gigawatts was used on one of the hot-ter Sundays in June, according to Ella Nilsen for CNN. She also mentioned that 40 percent of the power needed was generated from wind and solar (27 gigawatts), so solar was a major con-tributor to the grid’s ability to persevere despite extreme temperatures.According to the Department of Energy, solar energy reaches the southwestern United States to the highest degree, mak-ing it the most efcient place to harness its rays – a fact with which southwestern residents will certainly agree! When har-nessed, solar radiation or electromagnetic radiation, produced by the sun can be utilized to create advantageous types of energy like heat and electricity.The U.S. champion of solar power is California which, according to CNBC, has 23 GW of installed solar power capacity. Solar makes up over 26 percent of California’s overall electricity genera-tion. One of the larger solar farms in the state is the Topaz Solar Farm (Santa Margarita, CA), which is a photovoltaic facility that can produce 550 megawatts of electricity. According to First Solar, it produces enough electricity to power 160,000 homes. Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating system is a concentrated solar power project located in Califor-nia’s Mojave Desert that generates 392 megawatts. That’s enough electricity to power 100,000 homes. California loves this clean energy source and has the generating capacity to prove it!Solar power can be transformed into electrical or thermal energy. As far as renewable energy sources go, it is the most copious and the cleanest. It can be used for many things including: heating for interior environmental air and water, providing light and generating electricity, and it is harnessed using three main tech-nologies: concentrating solar power, solar cooling and heating and photovoltaics.Photovoltaics get electricity directly from the sun by using semiconductor materi-als. When these materials are hit with sunlight, electrons break free from their atomic bonds and can be guided through a circuit and used to power the grid or specic electronic devices. This is not the most efcient method because, accord-ing to the Solar Energy Industries As-sociation (SEIA), only some light waves on the spectrum can be absorbed, others create heat (ultraviolet) or are reected or too weak to create electricity (infrared).Solar heating and cooling use the heat from the sun’s thermal energy to provide pool heating, cooling, hot water and space heating. With all of its applications, there is a big market for this renewable resource. According to the SEIA, in three to four years people will receive the return on their investment for install-ment of solar heating and cooling – a rather quick turnaround!There are three elements comprising solar water heating technology: a hot water storage tank, insulated piping and the solar collector. Heat is transferred to potable water by the solar collector which is directed into a hot water tank and used as needed. In colder climates, an antifreeze solution is heated by the solar collector, and using a heat exchanger, it ows through the hot water storage tank and heats the potable water. Then the antifreeze ows through a pipe back to the solar collector. Another method is “drain-back” in which water is heated and ows to the portion of the building that requires it, then the water ows back to the solar collector by means of gravity.Solar water heating collectors come in several types: evacuated tube, integral collector storage, at plate, concentrating and thermosiphon. The most common is the at plate in which copper plates are attached to an absorber plate inside of an insulated box coated in polymer or tempered glass. Evacuated tube collec-tors are made of rows of parallel, clear glass tubes that have had the air removed which makes them more effective at heating the liquid that runs through the Photo courtesy of Marc Morrison ©2021 www.marcmorrison.com.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com5SOLAR POWERtube. These are used when elevated tem-peratures or a larger amount of water are needed.Additionally, there is technology that combines thermal and photovoltaic (PVT), which can heighten the electrical production by 20 percent. It uses solar electric panels on one solar module to heat water and create electricity. The most common type of PVT provides thermal energy and uses and cools the electrical photovoltaic parts which improves the output of electricity. PV alone only generates a quarter of the electricity that PVT panels can. Solar air heating is used for space heating and agricultural drying. Perforated solar panels are installed several inches from a wall which creates a space lled with air which is 30 to100 degrees above the outside temperature and through a connection to the HVAC tank which is ducted into the building.Concentrating solar power uses mir-rors to direct solar radiation to power engines or steam turbines to create electricity, and the energy can be stored and used to create electricity whenever it is needed. There are four types of concentrating solar power systems: parabolic trough, compact linear fresnel reector, power tower and dish-engine. The energy can be stored and used to create electricity whenever it is needed. Parabolic trough systems utilize curved mirrors to direct solar radiation onto a receiver tube that goes through the middle of a trough and is lled with a heat transfer uid. Once it reaches ap-proximately 750 degrees, it heats water and the resulting steam turns a turbine to produce electricity.Compact linear fresnel reector systems also use curved mirrors, but they are paired with inexpensive, lengthy, at mirrors. These mirrors heat tubes lled with water and, once boiling, can be used for industrial steam applications and power production. Power tower sys-tems use heliostats (mirrors controlled by a computer) to follow the sun along two different axes and direct the radia-tion onto a receiver which then heats a transfer uid to create steam and power a generator. Dish engine systems involve mirrors that are spread across a para-bolic dish surface to focus light onto a receiver that then heats a working uid to around 1,200 degrees and is used to power an engine.The power of the sun can be harnessed and used for our benet in many ways with no harm to the planet. It has helped rescue the grid in Texas, keeping us safe during the unprecedented temperatures that this summer has brought our way, and already makes up a large percentage of California’s electricity generation.In April of this year, California reached a historical milestone when it was powered for nearly 15 minutes by 100 percent clean energy (that gure was later adjusted by California Independent System Operator (CAISO) to 99.87 percent). Reportedly, two-thirds of that was provided by solar power with the remainder coming from wind, geother-mal and other renewable sources.Prior to release of the corrected gure, Environment California state director Laura Deehan was quoted as saying, “California has shown that, for one brief and shining moment, we could do it! Now we need to get our state running on 100 percent clean energy for the whole day, the whole week, and the whole year. It’s time to move to 100 percent clean energy, 100 percent of the time.”Shannon West gradu-ated with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts in Psychol-ogy from Texas State University, where she de-veloped a knack for writing research papers and case study analyses. After years of helping friends edit their university papers and cover letters, she is now putting those skills to use by copy editing and writing here at ENERGIES Magazine. In her spare time, West also handcrafts jewelry. Instagram @shannonmakesjewelry. State Solar Spotlight: CaliforniaTotal Solar InstalledNational Ranking Solar Jobs1Growth ProjectionEnough solar installed to power:Percentage of state’s electricity from solar:2Price decline over the last ten years:Key Figures37,085.60 MW 1st75,71224,874 MW over the next 5 years3,648.20 MW in 2021 Ranks 2nd in 2021 Ranks 1st in 2021 Ranks 2nd26.21%53%10,133,299homes1National Solar Jobs Census 2020: www.seia.org/research-resources/national-solar-jobs-census-2020. 2Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly: www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/#generation

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Brillouin Energy Corp. www.brillouinenergy.com Berkeley, California Primary Logo: Alternate Background Logo: Logo with BEC Title: Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com6HYDROGEN TECHNOLOGYBrillouin Energy Hydrogen Hot Tube Technology Achieves Performance Breakthroughs: A Revolution in Low-Cost, Ultra-Safe, Pollution-Free Energy By Emmanuel Sullivan Brillouin Energy Corp of Berkeley, Cali-fornia, USA (BEC) announced perfor-mance breakthroughs – net-positive pow-er out-of-the-wall, steady-state operation, and heating water – for its rst transport-able Hydrogen Hot Tube™ (HHT™) Test System, which was demonstrated at the ICCF24 Solid-State Energy Summit during the last week of July 2022. The company’s rst transportable HHT test system demonstrated production of over 250 watts of heat in water at a 1.25 times excess heat ratio from power out-of-the-wall, steady-state, while running a small Stirling engine. The implicit excess heat ratio was over three times at the internal catalyst rod level. “These signicant per-formance achievements represent a major step forward on the pathway to commercializing our innovative LENR technologies for a wide range of product manufactur-ers that will benet from a better heat source,” says David Firshein, chief nancial ofcer, Brillouin Energy.Brillouin Energy is a clean technol-ogy company that is set to revolution-ize the global power industry. The company’s small scale Hydrogen Hot TubeTM (HHTTM) reactor system safely extracts the nuclear energy potential in hydrogen atoms to create an incredibly low-cost, highly scalable, completely non-polluting, non-hazardous source of heat. The process in which this heat is generated is most commonly referred to in scientic terms as a “low energy nuclear reaction” (LENR).Unlike all other nuclear tech-nologies, Brillouin’s unique and patented form of LENR technology generates absolutely no (ZERO) radioactive waste. There are no harmful emissions of any kind – including no CO2 and no penetrating radiation – ema-nating from this reaction. As a result, the HHT offers a potentially paradigm-shift-ing breakthrough in clean technology that can supplant the fossil-fuel based systems of the present with very low-cost, clean unlimited energy.“We are on the cusp of a new era of cheap, abun-dant and reliable power from LENR based systems, at a time when the United States and many other countries are reexamining their approaches for supporting clean energy technolo-gies,” says Robert W. George, chief executive ofcer, Brillouin Energy.The only inputs to Brillouin’s HHT sys-tem are electricity and tiny amounts of hydrogen. The only outputs are heat and microscopic amounts of harmless, inert helium. In fact, the solid-state design of the HHT’s heat generation system is so safe, that it is safer than natural gas deliv-ered to a home or commercial facility. Test results to date have been indepen-dently validated at SRI International and with other experts, and have been proven to be controllable, predictable and replicable at lab-scale.With nearly $5 billion in-vested in hot fusion over the last 12 months, enthusiasm for the practical alternative of solid-state fusion energy technolo-gies is gaining traction. A new generation of scientists, engineers, investors and corporate executives is investigating, de-veloping and investing in new solid-state fusion energy devices.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com7HYDROGEN TECHNOLOGYBrillouin Energy is a frontrunner in the eld, with its proven HHT sys-tems. In July, the company’s HHT test systems consistently demon-strated the key performance trifecta of net positive power out-of-the-wall, steady-state operation, as measured by heating water. This key combina-tion serves as commercial proof of concept. Currently, Brillouin has raised over $22.6 million in total funding to date, includ-ing $1.3 million of early-stage licensing revenue. This has advanced its technol-ogy to the beginning of its commer-cialization process. Based on already veried engineering work, BEC has now explicitly mapped out its remaining critical capital needs to equal the next $4 million. The Use of Proceeds from this next stage of funding will complete next-level milestone demonstrations, plus data reports of BEC’s already growing evidence of commercial proof, in less than 12 months. The company’s advancing commercial proof milestone is a huge turning point, which will ensure that a larger dollar amount of pending strategic licens-ing revenue is fully launched with well-known Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) customers, with a corresponding dramatic increase in the company’s valuation and growth prospects. This in turn will enable the full funding and scale-up of BEC’s rst prototype manufacturing facility, able to supply commercial heat generation products to such OEMs, from which all stakeholders will highly benet. Even more importantly, such achievements will accelerate the exciting potential of Test results of Brillouin Energy’s LENR prototype systems are collected using industry-standard calorimetry and have been veried by independent third parties, including SRI International and other PhD experts. Brillouin conducts frequent ongoing tests to measure its reactors’ heat and COP levels, which have been increasing steadily since its rst consistently repeatable results were achieved in 2016.Brillouin Energy Hydrogen Hot Tube™ Boiler System.Continued on next page...

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com8BEC’s technology to make a huge dif-ference worldwide at a time when it is needed most.In prior years, Brillouin worked with leading LENR scientists from SRI In-ternational, which led to the company’s current status. BEC is the only com-pany in the eld today that has clearly developed an actual control switch that works, which allows it to turn the LENR heat generation reaction ON, UP, DOWN and OFF, on command, 100 percent of the time – something which SRI scientists originally validated independently.The company’s “water ow calorimetry” achievement is the simplest, yet most denitive, test measure of proving the LENR excess heat reaction in operation. The HHT’s performance will continue to improve with further investment in its engineering and manufacturing processes. Brillouin Energy’s HHT is optimally designed for successful commercialization. The company’s patented Q-Pulse technology is used to control the HHT thermal output, which is important for scaling multiple commercial product applications. Bril-louin continues to partner and work with reputable experts at prestigious U.S. academic institutions, laboratories and corporations to further prove the generation of ultra-cold, ultra-slow neutrons, which are completely non-hazardous. Brillouin is highly condent that its ongoing commitment to generating and documenting denitive scientic evidence of LENR will continue to advance its commercial proof of concept.“Solid-state fusion energy is abundant, low-cost, clean, safe, and exible in scale to meet demand,” says Robert Godes, Brillouin Energy’s founder and chief technology ofcer. This zero pollution, low-cost, renew-able energy technology is capable of producing thermal energy for multiple commercial product applications. The question of whether the phe-nomenon originally known as “cold fusion” has been proven has captivated scientists ever since the claims made by Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons at the University of Utah in 1989. Their observation of heat effects in electro-chemically driven palladium-deuterium experiments were consistent with nuclear but not chemical or stored energy sources. The importance of their discovery cannot be understated as the need for energy innovation has never been greater.Brillouin Energy is a clean-technology company based in Berkeley, California. The company is developing its unique, patented HHT technology in collabo-ration with former senior scientists from SRI International. For further information about Brillouin Energy, its current Series C round capital raise for accredited investors, commercial licensing opportunities or any of its recent news releases, contact David Firshein, chief nancial ofcer at (415) 419-6429 or dnf@brillouinenergy.com. The CEO of U.S. En-ergy Media, Emmanuel Sullivan is a technical writer who has built up his prole in the oil and gas industry. He lives and works in Houston, where he publishes Oilman and Oilwoman on a bimonthly basis, and Energies quarterly, distributing the magazine to energy thought lead-ers and professionals throughout the United States and around the world. At a time when technology is rapidly changing, he provides an invaluable service to oil & gas, and renewable energy executives, engineers, and managers, offering them both broad and specic looks at the topics that affect their livelihoods. Sullivan earned his BA in Communications at Thomas Edison State University and his MA in Professional Writing at Chatham University. HYDROGEN TECHNOLOGYBrillouin Energy Corp. www.brillouinenergy.com Berkeley, California Primary Logo: Alternate Background Logo: Logo with BEC Title: Brillouin Energy Hydrogen Hot Tube™ Reactor System.

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The Ventus Awards are the highest level of professional recognition, celebrating the trailblazing people, companies, organizations, and work worldwide ushering in the global adoption of oshore wind energy. SUBMIT NOMINATIONS BY OCTOBER 3at ventusawards.comAdvancement in Project Siting & Development HSE Program of the Year Innovation of the Year Next-Gen Leadership Oshore Wind Leadership Supply Chain Advancement Award Talent Management Leadership Viterna Award for Engineering Excellence AWARD CATEGORIESPhoto courtesy of FugroNOVEMBER 9-10, 2022 | CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINARegister today:oshorewindus.orgCreating a roadmap for anew renewable energy grid.The Ventus Awards are the highest level of professional recognition, celebrating the trailblazing people, companies, organizations, and work worldwide ushering in the global adoption of oshore wind energy. SUBMIT NOMINATIONS BY OCTOBER 3at ventusawards.comAdvancement in Project Siting & Development HSE Program of the Year Innovation of the Year Next-Gen Leadership Oshore Wind Leadership Supply Chain Advancement Award Talent Management Leadership Viterna Award for Engineering Excellence AWARD CATEGORIESPhoto courtesy of FugroNOVEMBER 9-10, 2022 | CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINARegister today:oshorewindus.orgCreating a roadmap for anew renewable energy grid.The Ventus Awards are the highest level of professional recognition, celebrating the trailblazing people, companies, organizations, and work worldwide ushering in the global adoption of oshore wind energy. SUBMIT NOMINATIONS BY OCTOBER 3at ventusawards.comAdvancement in Project Siting & Development HSE Program of the Year Innovation of the Year Next-Gen Leadership Oshore Wind Leadership Supply Chain Advancement Award Talent Management Leadership Viterna Award for Engineering Excellence AWARD CATEGORIESPhoto courtesy of FugroNOVEMBER 9-10, 2022 | CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINARegister today:oshorewindus.orgCreating a roadmap for anew renewable energy grid.The Ventus Awards are the highest level of professional recognition, celebrating the trailblazing people, companies, organizations, and work worldwide ushering in the global adoption of oshore wind energy. SUBMIT NOMINATIONS BY OCTOBER 3at ventusawards.comAdvancement in Project Siting & Development HSE Program of the Year Innovation of the Year Next-Gen Leadership Oshore Wind Leadership Supply Chain Advancement Award Talent Management Leadership Viterna Award for Engineering Excellence AWARD CATEGORIESPhoto courtesy of FugroNOVEMBER 9-10, 2022 | CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINARegister today:oshorewindus.orgCreating a roadmap for anew renewable energy grid.The Ventus Awards are the highest level of professional recognition, celebrating the trailblazing people, companies, organizations, and work worldwide ushering in the global adoption of oshore wind energy. SUBMIT NOMINATIONS BY OCTOBER 3at ventusawards.comAdvancement in Project Siting & Development HSE Program of the Year Innovation of the Year Next-Gen Leadership Oshore Wind Leadership Supply Chain Advancement Award Talent Management Leadership Viterna Award for Engineering Excellence AWARD CATEGORIESPhoto courtesy of FugroNOVEMBER 9-10, 2022 | CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINARegister today:oshorewindus.orgCreating a roadmap for anew renewable energy grid.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com10THE PLANETConstitutional Green Amendments:Ensuring Protection for Communities, Environment and EconomyBy Maya K. van RossumAs we face a growing climate crisis and communities across our nation face a multitude of environmental challenges – with communities of color, Indigenous and low-income communities being among those hardest hit – people are looking for solutions. Among the solutions most needed is to reframe access to clean, safe and healthy environments from something we strive for to something we are constitutionally entitled to through the passage of constitutional Green Amendments. This reframing does not pit industry and business against communities and the environ-ment – to the contrary, it recognizes they exist on the same playing eld and must advance hand in hand. Green Amendments place the environmental rights of people on par with other fundamental rights we hold dear, such as free speech, freedom of religion, property rights and the right to bear arms. As a result, Green Amendments ensure that natural resource protections are a proactive part of government decision-making, thereby offering greater clarity on the environmental and community impacts of a pro-posed project or action earlier in the process. Because environmental pollution and degradation are no longer presumed to be an accepted outcome justied by permitting, Green Amendments emphasize the importance of avoiding environmental harms as a condition precedent to securing government approval for a proposed operation or expan-sion. Especially at the state level, Green Amendments help secure early and more robust environmental reviews that can actually protect industry, developers, and business interests by ensuring they are able to better design and site projects in order to ensure needed approvals, or conversely by protecting them from making signicant investments in a project that will not ultimately withstand agency and public review.By ensuring more well-rounded and timely government con-siderations of the environmental ramications of a project, Green Amendments can help businesses avoid costly com-munity opposition or legal challenges that might otherwise advance because of government’s failure to consider and evade avoidable harm. Sometimes this more robust review will result in a “no action” determination, but this decision can come early in the process before irreversible economic or business investment has been made. Additionally, essential protec-tions to the business operations or property rights of others that might result from a new energy or industrial proposal can be identied and implemented. In sum, Green Amendments can help highlight legal, environmental or community hurdles at a time when alternative decision-making is more economi-cally viable because it comes before an irretrievable investment of money, time and resources. Clean water and air, a stable climate, and healthy environments are es-sential for supporting healthy lives, healthy communities and healthy economies. When business inter-ests, including energy development, advance in a way that inicts harm-ful environmental consequences, the result also yields signicant economic consequences for society as a whole, in addition to harming the joyful lives of the communi-ties where businesses operate. To the extent energy creators believe that their work is supportive of environmental and climate protection, while at the same time serving the energy, job, economic and other goals of their host communities and nations, supporting Green Amendments is a powerful way to demonstrate that belief.While prot and growth is certainly a valid goal of business, good citizenship and stewardship for the communities and environments of which we are all a part is an equal, if not greater value – both from a moral but also a business perspective. We all need clean water and air, a stable climate, and healthy environments to support our healthy lives. When

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com11THE PLANETpollution-induced cancer hits a body, it doesn’t matter who you are – whatever your wealth, job, family lineage or political stripes – the consequences are devastating. In addition to the personal costs, environmental degradation acts as a drain on our communities, economy, work force, and lives. Often the more sound-environmental approach will save money from improved business operations or avoid liability for envi-ronmental harm; but it will also attract customers and free, positive media for your operations. Increasingly, the environmental and social ethic of a company factors into investment and purchasing decisions. Constitutional environmental rights are not about shutting down business operations – they are about getting it right. Don’t misunderstand. For those that will look me up, I’m not pretend-ing to be pro-fossil fuel or fracking. I am not shy about my informed posi-tion that continuing fossil fuel extrac-tion, growth and combustion results in too many unavoidable environmental, human health, climate and economic harms to be justiable. But I do believe in energy creation that can serve our human needs while at the same time best protecting our environment and future generations. I believe that many clean and renewable energy options are available and evolving. And I believe in the ingenuity of scientists, engineers and visionary business leaders to nd new ways to reduce the energy foot-print. Green Amendments are not an impediment to robust energy creation and growth; they are an incentive to do it in a way that protects human health and the environment while serving energy needs and goals. The benets of Green Amendments for ensuring needed environmental protections without preventing eco-nomic and industry growth, is being demonstrated in the three states that have Green Amendments: Pennsylva-nia, Montana and, most recently, New York. As well explained by Pennsyl-vania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Castille, the Pennsylvania Green Amendment was not intended to “deprive persons of the use of their property or to derail development leading to an increase in the general welfare, convenience, and prosperity of the people.” As he further explains, the “Environmental Rights Amendment [i.e., Green Amendment] does not call for a stagnant landscape; nor … for the derailment of economic or social de-velopment; nor for a sacrice of other fundamental values.” But, according to Chief Justice Castille, it does make clear that “… to achieve recognition of the environmental rights enumerated … necessarily implies that economic development cannot take place at the expense of an unreasonable degrada-tion of the environment.” (Quoted from Robinson Twp., Delaware Riverkeeper Network v. Commonwealth, 623 Pa. 564, 83 A.3d 901, 954 (2013))SUBSCRIBE TODAY!Get the Renewable Energy news and data you need in a magazine you’ll be proud to read. To subscribe, complete a quick form online:EnergiesMagazine.com/Subscribe Editor@USEnergyMedia.com • (800) 562-2340 Ex. 1Continued on next page...

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com12Green Amendments are being pur-sued in multiple states across our nation because of their value for protecting the environment, human health, community quality of life, the economy and for honoring the rights of future generations to a healthy and safe world. In response, the energy industry should not be afraid of constitutional recognition of environ-mental rights in the form of Green Amendments; it should embrace them as an opportunity to demon-strate a true belief in their own en-vironmental practices and to protect their families and communities.Maya K. van Rossum is the founder of the Green Amendment for the Generations Movement, Delaware Riverkeeper and leader of the Del-aware Riverkeeper Network. She is a licensed attorney in three states – Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. In 2021, the Green Amendment inspired and supported passage of the rst modern day Green Amendment in New York State. van Rossum grew up in the Delaware watershed and lives there today with her fam-ily. She is the author of The Green Amendment, The People’s Fight For A Clean, Safe & Healthy Environment (foreword by Mark Ruffalo and Kerri Evelyn Harris). THE PLANETChapter 7: Confronting the Climate CrisisAs the Maine effort was rst un-folding, questions about how the … Amendment could help address climate change were often at the forefront of the conversation, includ-ing how it might impact a potentially game-changing discovery for Maine and efforts to advance clean energy technologies. That discovery, in west-ern Maine in late 2021, was a massive deposit of lithium ore, weighing an estimated eleven million tons and worth approximately $1.5 billion – the “richest known hard rock lithium deposit in the world.”Lithium plays a signicant role in modern society. Its most prominent use is in batteries, not only for cell phones and laptops but now also for electric vehicles—cars fueled by true clean energy… Lithium is also important for solar and wind energy storage. Because of its light weight, combined with its high electrochemi-cal potential, the U.S. Geological Ser-vice predicts that “lithium is expected to play a key role in efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that are responsible for global warming.”…Given lithium’s potential for help-ing advance a clean-energy, clean car future, would the [Maine] Amend-ment prove counterproductive by preventing its extraction? Mining laws in Maine already raise questions about the future ability to secure the lithium nd for any of a myriad of uses. Would the amendment be an even more unyielding hurdle to harness-ing this lithium nd for clean-energy progress? Or would it ensure that as we travel into a brighter clean-energy future, we do so in a way that avoids the pitfalls of our energy past?The proposed Pine Tree Amend-ment [Maine’s Green Amendment] is not going to prevent clean energy or economic progress—that is not its goal. Instead, it should help ensure that if the lithium extraction hap-pens, it will be in a way that’s protec-tive of the environment—and that avoids costly harms that inict ir-reparable damage along the way. En-vironmentally protective extraction is important not only for the health and safety of all Mainers, but also for the state’s economy. The state’s primary industry is tourism, and ecotourism is nearly twice as popular in Maine as the national average. The [Maine] Amendment would ensure that all these interests are considered, balanced, and protected – not that we repeat history by allowing extrac-tive industries to prot while the rest of us suffer from the many facets and costs of the resulting environ-mental degradation.We are at a critical moment in the history of the world. As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urgently warned, because of the quickly accelerating climate crisis, we are in “a code red for humanity.”…And climate is far from an equal-op-portunity offender: Indigenous com-munities, along with Black and brown people and low-income communities, are on the front lines of impact due to the increased pollution they are more likely to experience day to day. And it is not just people at risk: All of nature teeters on this same precipice.Ultimately, future generations will bear the brunt of our lack of effort – or instead will enjoy the safety, secu-rity and beauty of our forethought in taking swift and meaningful action to protect our planet. But it is impor-tant that, as we address the climate crisis, we do so in a way that does not sacrice other essential foundations of life. We must protect water, air, native ecosystems and the species that enrich our lives and with whom we share this Earth.Excerpted with permission from The Green Amendment: The People’s Fight for a Clean, Safe & Healthy Environment by Maya K. van Rossum (Disruption Books; 2nd edition, November 1, 2022).

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com14LITHIUM-ION BATTERIESReversing the Rise in Battery Prices By Abhishek Rao Battery pack prices dipped below US$500 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the rst time in 2015 (in real 2021 dollars) and declined drastically to US$132 per kWh in 2021, after which prices started rising.1 What factors contributed to this dramatic price decline, what caused prices to rise, and what’s in store for the U.S. energy storage sector going forward?Growing markets for consumer electron-ics and electric vehicles over the past de-cade, increased deployment of solar and wind coupled with storage incentivized by renewable portfolio standards (RPS), and environmental, social and gover-nance (ESG) targets in the U.S., and the federal investment tax credit (ITC) for storage coupled with solar all created strong demand signals for the battery manufacturing industry. Technological advancements as a result of public and private research and development initia-tives on battery subcomponents – spe-cically on cathode and anode materials, electrolytes and separators – followed by economies of scale in battery manufac-turing were the biggest drivers for the battery price decline.2,3 With battery prices falling, utility-scale energy storage deployments in the U.S. shot up from a cumulative installed capacity of roughly 1,000 MW at the end of 2015 to nearly 4,000 MW by the rst half of 2021. If battery pack prices had continued their expected decline to US$100 per kWh, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) had projected that another 10,300 MW of battery energy storage would be added in the U.S. in 2022 and 2023.4However, in the third quarter of 2021, battery prices reversed direction and started climbing upward. This has been mostly due to supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic, plus the ripple effects of the Suez Canal obstruction in March 2021, and the demand for bat-teries outstripping supply following the subsequent restarting of business activi-ties, which was exacerbated by increases in shipping costs. The mismatch in demand and supply, and the ever-increasing demand for bat-teries have created a shortage in three major battery raw materials: cobalt, nickel and lithium. Cobalt is facing a pro-jected production decit of 149,000 tons by 2030, and the demand for nickel and lithium also currently outweigh supply.5 As a result, costs for battery subcom-ponents increased astronomically from January to September 2021. Photo courtesy of malp – www.123RF.com.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com15LITHIUM-ION BATTERIESDuring this timeframe, in China, the cost has increased by 67 percent for lith-ium iron phosphate (LFP), 58 percent for single-crystal nickel manganese co-balt (NMC), 135 percent for electrolyte, 30 percent for synthetic graphite, and 22 percent for wet process separators.6 Rising raw material costs made inte-grated battery energy storage system (BESS) procurement more expensive. One BESS integrator reported a 20 per-cent increase in equipment price starting November 2021, with other integrators quoting similar price hikes. Due to the raw materials shortages, BESS supply has slowed down too, with integrators quoting lead times of 34 to 52 weeks, up from pre-pandemic lead times of 20 to 22 weeks. Battery price and avail-ability have delayed a number of BESS projects in development, while a few developers are attempting to renegotiate power purchase agreements (PPAs) with offtakers due to the increased equip-ment price.The battery industry is pulling all stops to meet demand. With the rapid growth in demand for lithium, the lithium min-ing industry is ramping up efforts to boost supply. Established major produc-ers as well as newer players have raised substantial capital and are advancing novel lithium extraction technologies around the world. Lithium production is expanding from the more traditional hard rock resources to include lower grade and less pure sources such as pegmatite mineral and sedimentary clay deposits and, increasingly, brines found in salt ats, oil elds, geothermal well leachates, waste streams and even in the oceans. Lithium brine projects employ-ing direct lithium extraction technologies raised over US$500 million in 2021 to scale up their processes.7In response to supply shortages, many battery manufacturers are moving away from NMC chemistry that uses nickel and cobalt and are turning to LFP chemistry that uses iron-based cathodes, due to the abundance and relatively low cost of iron. The price hikes in lithium-ion batteries are also paving the way for alternative, non-lithium-based energy storage technologies to become cost-competitive. Aqueous zinc, iron-air, iron ow and sodium sulfur batteries that do not contain rare earth materials will get a stronger foothold in the storage market. Moreover, if lithium-ion prices do not resume a downward trajectory in the coming months, they may accelerate the adoption of long-duration storage technologies which were previously not competitive in the shorter duration applications that lithium-ion batteries currently dominate. A few of these long-duration storage technologies that have made technologi-cal strides in recent years are thermal storage, compressed air, compressed natural gas, and geomechanical pumped hydro storage. It can be expected that as more solar and wind capacities come online on the grid, stationary energy storage will move away from lithium-ion technologies to long-duration technolo-gies, and lithium-based batteries will primarily be used in mobile applications such as consumer electronics and elec-tric vehicles.The Ination Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 could prove to be the single-largest driver of growth for the U.S. energy storage market. The IRA not only ex-tends the 30 percent base ITC for solar-coupled-storage through to 2033, but also establishes a 30 percent base ITC for standalone storage through to 2033, which is likely to turbocharge energy storage deployment. Both tax credits come with a potential 10 percent adder for meeting certain domestic content minimums and labor requirements, and a further 10 percent adder for siting the project in certain “energy communities.” Apart from creating demand drivers, the IRA also creates supply drivers through tax credits for domestic manufacturers of active electrode materials, battery cells, modules, and critical materials.8 Furthermore, the IRA expands the denition of energy storage beyond bat-teries to include thermal energy storage, providing an impetus to the develop-ment of long-duration energy storage technologies.The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) estimates that the IRA will double the installed energy storage capacity in the country by 2030 as compared to projec-tions without the IRA. Energy storage plays a critical role in decarbonizing the power generation and transportation sectors. With exciting advancements in storage technologies coupled with new policy incentives, the U.S. energy storage market is poised for its largest growth ever. The next challenge for the indus-try is to decarbonize each aspect of the energy storage life cycle – from greening the raw materials sourcing operations to manufacturing, to establishing regula-tions and advancing technologies for extensive recycling of materials at the end of the energy storage system’s life.Abhishek Rao is a senior renewable energy consultant at Wood. His role requires advising clean energy develop-ers, electric utilities, investors, lenders and governments to help develop, design and deploy utility-scale solar and storage. Rao has over 10 years of experience in the clean energy sector, during which he has supported over 6,400 MWdc of solar and over 5,500 MWh of storage globally. He received a master’s degree in solar energy engineering, business and policy from Arizona State University. References:[1] www.bloomberg.com/news/arti-cles/2021-11-30/battery-price-declines-slow-down-in-latest-pricing-survey[2] pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/ee/d1ee01313k[3] pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2021/ee/d1ee01530c[4] pages.marketintelligence.spglobal.com/rs/565-BDO-100/images/US-battery-storage-by-the-numbers.pdf[5] publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC123439/roskill-jrc_classi_ni_mar-ket_study_identiers_nal.pdf[6] www.gg-lb.com/art-43548.html[7] www.batterybrunch.org/battery-report[8] www.seia.org/sites/default/les/Inationper-cent20Reductionpercent20Actpercent20Summa-rypercent20PDF.pdf

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com16CLEAN TECHInterview with Robert Cruess, President, ZeroNox By Emmanuel SullivanEmmanuel Sullivan: Who is ZeroNox and what is your business doing?Robert Cruess: ZeroNox is a leader in innovative clean tech solutions mostly focused on the off-highway and heavy equipment market. Practically speaking, this means that we partner with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and eets to provide them with our propri-etary electric powertrain platform while developing and deploying renewable microgrids to support this mass vehicle electrication.ES: Do you have a certain market you focus on?RC: Our headquarters is located in the San Joaquin Valley, the breadbasket of the United States, so we denitely start-ed the company to help the agriculture community. However, we have evolved quite a bit since releasing our products and seeing the needs in the overall marketplace. We also look at mining, construction and other industries. We generally try and stay away from the on-road market, which can require certain certications and red tape that we are not interested in navigating, and the on-road market is quite inundated, while we are a rst mover in the off-road markets.ES: What is ZeroNox’s differentiating strategy in the clean tech space?RC: Our differentiating strategy is the value proposition to our partners of a scalable and agile solution, where we provide them with high-performing electric powertrains engineered to their application that we will continually be supporting and upgrading. With the rapidness of new advancements in tech-nology and innovation, it is important to OEMs that the products developed today will not be outdated tomorrow. Also, we support and deploy the in-frastructure to effectively power these eets which are through renewable mi-crogrids. We look at clean tech solutions through three interconnecting lenses: Is it clean, is it higher-performing, and is it economical? This has become the ethos for our ZeroNox solutions.ES: What would a ZeroNox renewable microgrid look like?RC: Our renewable microgrid solu-tions utilize renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, hydro or thermal, with a battery energy storage system to provide green energy distribution to our partners. They are paramount to ZeroNox Team in Ghana analyzing electrication of the Zoomlion refuse trucks. Photos courtesy of ZeroNox.ZeroNox Team and Jospong Team meeting to electrify Zoomlion’s refuse trucks in Ghana.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com17CLEAN TECHmaximizing energy distribution, energy independence, security and true sus-tainability. They provide the ability to optimize clean energy while mitigating the risks of dealing with potential ca-tastrophes and security breaches. They are the key to managing the electric-ity needs of our mass electric vehicle deployments.ES: How did you choose your battery chemistry for the ZeroNox batteries?RC: Our focus is using lithium iron phosphate both for our vehicle batter-ies and for our energy storage systems. Obviously, for economies of scale, it makes sense to use the same cell types across all of our products, but we also are looking to utilize our ability to recy-cle vehicle battery cells into our energy storage systems when developing our ZeroNox battery recycling plan. The cells used in energy storage systems have a much easier life cycle and so combining them from second life cells of previous EV batteries makes sense. From a performance standpoint, lithi-um iron phosphate is as good as it gets right now. You lose a little on energy density compared to a battery chem-istry like a nickel manganese cobalt but, with increased performance and longevity of life cycles, it makes sense. Then there is the safety aspect. Lithium iron phosphate has one of the lowest thermal runaways of most commercial battery chemistries, which is extremely important to us. As an overall business plan for our battery solutions, though, we are agnostic to chemistry and we are always looking for better solutions as innovation occurs.ES: Where do you see the intersection of battery storage and EVs?RC: The battery storage side is impor-tant as we evaluate one of the main reasons for the global desire of mass vehicle adoption, which is emission removal and sustainability. EVs are zero emission, but where do they get their power? If the grid that we use to power up our “clean” EVs is dirty, then have we really succeeded in emission remov-al and sustainability? For instance, in California we have regulations that all new vehicle sales must be EVs by 2035, but our grid is about two-thirds dirty with carbon intensive fuels. Also, the current grid can’t even handle the energy require-ments of California today. What would that look like with all vehicles being electric? We need more power, we need that power to be clean, and we need the ability to store that power to be used at the appropriate needed times. That looks like renewables paired up with battery energy storage systems. Continued on next page...

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com18CLEAN TECHES: Are renewable microgrids a vi-able solution to our power needs?RC: I believe so. One of the great things about renewables is that we can utilize an array of clean power-generating technologies based upon the geographic location of the need and then pair it with a battery energy storage system for dependability. So, where it is sunny using solar, where it is windy using turbines, where there is moving water using hydro, etc. Inno-vation is going to be essential in driv-ing this forward with more efcient technologies. At ZeroNox, we are working on various new technologies for our microgrid applications. For example, we have built a thermal energy conversion system that uses waste heat to move a phase-changing ood through a proprietary-designed pressurized system to drive a shaft and produce power. Much smaller foot-print than solar and signicantly more efcient. Deploying these types of new innovations will assist in main-taining viability for the power needs we will continue to have.ES: Is there a big project that Ze-roNox is working on right now that you can share with us?RC: We just signed a contract with the Jospong Group of companies in Ghana to electrify its eet of 1,000 refuse trucks over the next couple of years. It is one of the largest compa-nies in Africa. I believe it has around 60 subsidiary companies, and one of the largest of these subsidiaries, Zoomlion, operates waste manage-ment throughout Ghana. Now I know I said we usually stay away from on-road vehicle applications, but in Africa there is no differentiation between on-road and off-road, so it t into our purview. One of the major considerations to this project is how to effectively charge all of these refuse trucks once we get them electried. Of course, they want to charge them at night while the vehicles are down, but imagine trying to charge 1,000 refuse trucks at the same time. So, we have to design smart systems for staggering the charging while also utilizing the hydro power of a large dam nearby. We are starting by electrifying three of the trucks and once the performance metrics have been passed, we will move on to the mass electrication of the eet. The environmental impact of this project over a ve-year period looks like 400,000 metric tons of CO2 will be eliminated, which is the equiva-lent of having 18 million mature trees. And the cost-benet analysis looks like an ROI of under two and a half years and savings of $323MM over that ve-year period. Worthwhile in every measurable category! PEAK forklift with standard Lithium-Iron battery powered by ZeroNox.Electric Tuatara utility vehicle powered by ZeroNox.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com20Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com20BIOPLASTICSQ&A with Sequana CEO Liz Madaras By Rebecca PontonRebecca Ponton: What motivated you to begin thinking about a solution to chemical and plastic pollution, and form the company that would eventually become Sequana? Was there a specific incident or moment? Liz Madaras: Since the dawn of the plastic era, we have pro-duced 8.3 billion tons of plastic. That is 27 times the weight of the entire human race. We have increased our plastic produc-tion, with a recent 400 million ton/annum production rate. Of this, more than 250 million tons is plastic waste. Despite recycling efforts, 72 million tons still end up in landlls and 77 million tons leak into the environment. This not only destroys marine environments, but landlls contaminate sources of drink-ing water. We study plastic degradation. We have found something very disturbing: Even in cases where toxic chemicals were banned, they were still leaching into products that we get into contact with every day. The data indicates that most coffees that we drink, take-away food that we eat, and shampoo that we use might not be safe. We have started asking questions and decided to ght this danger. RP: We know that plastics aren’t good for the planet, but everywhere you turn we are surrounded by plastic and plastic products. What is the biggest problem – or even danger – from plastics? LM: Plastic is more than meets the eye. Firstly, of course it’s a waste issue, but it’s also a global warming, social equity and a public health issue. Humans invented plastic and nature does not recognize it, so it’s only logical that nature by itself has no means to integrate plastic back into the ecological cycles of the globe. Additives make polymers into plastics: lightweight, durable and versatile. Heavy metals, ame retardants, phthal-ates, BTEXs, bisphenols and uorinated compounds are di-rectly associated with plastics production. These compounds can cause cancer, neurological disorders, infertility and impotence. No one is protected from chemical leachate. Phthalate exposure is linked to early death, particularly due to heart disease and causes 91,000 to 107,000 premature deaths a year among people ages 55 to 64 in the U.S. alone. BPA is directly linked with childhood obesity and heart disease. When plastic breaks apart, it forms microplastic. The presence of mi-croplastics has been detected in maternal human placentas. Plastic is also a contributor to global warming, as it generates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at every step of its life cycle, from extraction to waste.As the waste management of plastic is usually done near low income communities they are disproportionately affected by plastic waste. The most common ways of plastic disposal in the U.S. are landlling and burning plastic waste. These landlls and incinerators release various types of harmful emis-sions and greenhouse gasses. Low-income communi-ties and communities of color feel the impacts most heavily. RP: Sequana’s mission statement is “Make Plastics Safe!” How do you do that? LM: We have two main pillars of develop-ment: Aiding plastic phase outs and develop-ing solutions for the issues that are already there. Our idea of integrating plastic waste into the circular economy by imitating nature and breaking it down microbiologically has taught us that this concept is only possible if we design our plastic raw materials more consciously. Based on our research, we have discovered alarming facts: The use of toxic chemicals/additives in everyday plastic products can be harm-ful to human and environmental health and hinder the possibil-ity of a safe circular economy. Our mission is to create truly safe, non-toxic biodegradable plastics, that do not contain hazardous additives. Our conscious design covers all stages of the life cycle of plastics, so that not only during use but also during complete decomposition, hazardous additives do not enter the human body or the environment. In addition, our solution uses bio-waste/food by-products.RP: What can those of us who are not scientists do to help eliminate the plastics problem and make the planet safer for all of us? LM: Reduce, reuse, recycle is always great advice, with empha-sis on the rst two, when the material is still in your personal control. I would also add “replace” – use new, novel materials wherever possible, especially if it’s single use packaging! RP: Sequana is producing sustainable bioplastics from organic waste (mainly coffee), so here is a “fun” question – do you drink coffee and, if so, how do you take it (black, with cream and sugar, iced, something fancy?). LM: Cappuccino all the way! (poliloop)

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com23FEATURECJ WarnerREFINING OUR VIEW OF THE ENERGY TRANSITIONBY Rebecca Ponton Leading the charge in the race to nd innovative solutions to the energy chal-lenges the world faces is a heavy respon-sibility for any CEO or board member, but CJ Warner, who has held both roles, has a clear-eyed, yet optimistic, view for someone carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. Where others see nearly insurmountable obstacles, as the clock ticks on climate change and decar-bonization, she sees opportunities.“I could never have selected a more excit-ing industry to be part of,” Warner says, citing the diverse challenges found in the various sectors, and “the essential nature of the industry’s contribution to society – the meaning behind it. The work I’m do-ing really is important, so there’s purpose behind it, and I really love that.”A Sea ChangeWhile it may seem to the general public that the energy transition is a relatively new concept, Warner has the advantage of a retrospective view, having spent nearly 45 years in the industry. A gradu-ate of Vanderbilt University (‘80) with a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and an MBA from the Illinois Institute of Technology, she says, “I actually still re-member where I was when it hit me that something different was going to have to happen during my lifetime.”Working for bp in Aberdeen, Scotland, where, among other things, she was responsible for all its partner operated production in the North Sea, Warner ob-served that, one by one, many of the wells were coming off production much more rapidly than what had been projected. “It was making me stand back and think re-ally hard about volume sustainability and where energy was going to come from for my kids, who were little at the time.” She’s not sure whether she was being protec-tive as a mother or whether the gray, rainy weather of Aberdeen was affecting her mood, but she says, “It hit me that change was going to need to be made.”Birth of a MovementThe concept of renewable feedstocks using existing infrastructure made sense to Warner, considering how much had al-ready been invested in the oil production and delivery sector, as well as transporta-tion and other modern improvements. To the extent that those things could still be utilized, it would reduce the environ-mental footprint caused by demolishing existing infrastructure, in order to build new, and it would have the potential to make things even more renewable. “Throughout my whole career, even within the oil majors, I’ve always been a bit of an environmentalist and an intra-preneur, as it were, continuously trying to help reduce the level of pollution and produce cleaner energy.” Warner remembers checking off a mental list of improvements that could be made: Re-duce criteria pollutants, improve environ-mental footprints, use more renewable feedstocks, and continue to use existing infrastructure.“This was in the days of Lord Browne, beyond petroleum, at bp. It really was the birth of a movement. We did start experi-menting with bringing renewable feeds into reneries and experimenting with using more hydrogen as a fuel. It was before its time and was met with a little “It really was the birth of a movement. It was before its time and was met with a little bit of derision. But I’m glad that we got things started back then because it is a long journey and there’s still a lot more for us to do.”Continued on next page...

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com24FEATUREbit of derision in those days. But I’m glad that we got things started back then be-cause it is a long journey and there’s still a lot more for us to do.”Rening of the FutureDespite her awareness of environmental issues, much of Warner’s early career was spent in the downstream sector in rening, which typically involves heavy industrial pollution. After joining Amoco in 1983 and working in the rening sys-tem, she eventually worked in more than 30 reneries both in the U.S. and abroad. Later, at Andeavor (formerly Tesoro), she oversaw the company’s rening business. Having that extensive experience gives Warner unique insight into the role ren-eries will play in the energy transition.“From a historical standpoint, most ren-eries started before society had any kind of proper appreciation for protecting our environment and that was true for the oil industry, as well as multiple other industries. It’s important to understand, as a backdrop, that a huge amount of progress has already been made to reduce the environmental footprint of these operations. This trend has to continue because there remains a lot to do, espe-cially internationally.”Having said that, Warner emphasizes the critical role reneries play in the produc-tion of energy, a reliable, ratable supply of quality fuels, and the feedstocks for materials that society depends on. “We’re going to continue to need them for quite a while even in a very aggressive transi-tion projection. And we should remem-ber that reneries are complicated infra-structure that enable us to take a product – petroleum crude – which by itself is actually pretty worthless and convert it into useful products.”Warner points out that reneries can use other feedstocks to do the same things and says Chevron, where she sits on the board of directors, is demonstrating that now by providing some renewable feedstocks and processing them in its reneries. Because of that, she believes the infrastructure is going to be useful for both petroleum and renewable feeds for the long-term.“We’ve learned a tremendous amount and those lessons can be used to con-

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com25FEATUREtinue to accelerate improvement and sus-tainability. Reneries can be part of the transition by continuously reducing their own carbon and environmental proles.”Creating Solutions TogetherWarner’s decades of experience, knowl-edge and expertise enable her to chron-icle the monumental changes that have taken place in the industry. “If I think back to what things were like when I rst started, they’re tremendously safer and cleaner now. The workplace is more diverse. There is a greater sense of contribution to, and responsibility for, humanity.” She also notes that companies have increased partnerships with stake-holders and want to be seen as part of the solution to the issues the world faces, “enabling us to brainstorm together and become a solution-creating team. Forever decreasing carbon, ever improving sus-tainability, and becoming an ever cleaner industry will help us in the next stage going forward.”“When we see each other as allies, think how much faster we can make progress.” Emphasizing her respect for those who work in the energy industry, Warner says, “It’s easy to depersonalize things, but we mustn’t forget there are amazing people, who are capable and dedicated, trying to make the right things happen all the time.” She recalls a time in her career when she worked at a renery in Whiting, Indiana, and acknowledges her colleagues who kept things running even when the weather was 25 below zero outside. “The human dedication to making these things work should never be forgotten. To the extent that we can remind our-selves of that, it helps us to get to that point that will make a difference, which is for us to see each other as allies, who are in this together, and to gure out how we’re going to make things better moving forward.”Joining ForcesLooking back on her own career and the lessons she’s garnered along the way has enabled Warner to be one of those change makers. She interned for two summers at the Amoco Research Center in Naperville, Illinois, before graduating from Vanderbilt in 1980. The rst few years of her career were spent working for a company called Universal Oil Prod-ucts, where she was taught to be a hands-Continued on next page...

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com26FEATUREon engineer, and worked on shift as a renery operator for a period of time. “That experience continues to help me now in understanding how things actually work, the culture in a plant, and how we can work better together.” Warner’s experience in the industry runs the gamut – having worked in technol-ogy development, operations excellence, for Big Oil as well as startups, learning everything from how customer ser-vice works to helping with government policy – all of which are necessary to run a company like the Renewable Energy Group (REG), where she was CEO from January 2019 until its June acquisition by Chevron. “I’m very hopeful that all of that understanding is going to help me continue to contribute to the world and to what we’re do-ing within energy to foster the next level of the transition.” She’s also con-vinced that the fast-est path to getting to scale with new energy concepts is for holders of those concepts, like REG, to join forces with experi-enced partners. Chevron is working in areas like renewable natural gas, hydrogen, and carbon sequestration, in order to meet its ambi-tion of becoming a leading renewable fuels business. The formation of the new company, known as Chevron Renewable Energy Group, will help accelerate that process. Warner says Chevron has set a goal of 100,000 barrels a day of renew-able fuels capacity by 2030, stressing that it would have been impossible for REG to have met that target on its own.“I’m thrilled that we’re not in the white hats, black hats point of view from years ago. I think we’re at a place now where at least Chevron and REG gured out that bringing things together was going to make a lot more sense.”Warner believes that companies like Chevron can be seen not just as part of the solution, but as willing parties to the solution, who want to work together to solve the energy challenges the world is facing. She is rm in her commitment that traditional energy has the potential to help foster acceleration and decarboniza-tion, while at the same time being aware that what it delivers every day supports our quality of life and enables humanity to thrive. “If we forget that, which we’re seeing right now in real life, it’s at every-one’s peril.”In order to continue to help the world’s inhabitants prosper and have access to needed economic quantities of energy, while also continuing to de-carbonize and increase sustainability, War-ner emphasizes, “Our depen-dencies are a lot higher than we realize. It’s important for us to embrace that and realize that we have a mutual interest in making things better. There’s so much for us to do together when we decide that we’re all going to partner.”World of ChangeReecting upon not only her career, but the energy industry, and even the world at large, Warner says, “It’s been an amazing journey over nearly 45 years to see what we’ve been able to create through realiz-ing that change was necessary.” She feels strongly that having a broad background in both fossil fuels and re-newables is a major advantage in under-standing what it’s going to take to boldly accelerate into the transition. “It’s really challenging for those who only have one view or the other, but bringing them together is where the real magic is going to be created.”

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CJ Warner, former chairman, president and CEO of Sapphire Energy from 2009 to 2014, discusses the concept of turning algae into renewable biofuels, why it was ahead of its time, and whether it’s a viable alternative for the future.What we were doing at Sapphire was much more daunting than I realized when I started because, essential-ly, we were building the end-to-end value chain of a brand new form of energy – which was exhilarating – but incredibly detailed and challenging. We were having to make multiple innova-tion breakthroughs at the same time. We were trying to identify the best natural strains of algae to use and then cre-ate ways to improve them biologically. We were learning how to cultivate algae commercially. We were learning about water chemistry and how to use that to optimize the algae’s growth rate and its uptake of CO2; how to harvest the algae, and how to extract the oil and convert it to something that could be used com-mercially. All of those things actually require completely different scientic and engineering disciplines, and they all needed to connect in order to work. It made it a lot of fun, but it was also much more challenging from an end-to-end standpoint than what we really realized from the beginning. We were able to utilize a tremendous amount of existing industrial knowledge to make most of those parts of the value chain work. A quick example is the harvesting of the algae. It was very, very energy intensive in its original construct, which was to fully dry the algae to pre-pare it for dry hexane extraction. When you’re trying to decarbonize by feeding CO2 to algae, which then sequesters that CO2, if you then burn it all up by drying the algae, that’s counterproductive and your resulting oil is no longer low carbon.So, we realized that drying wasn’t the answer. Instead, we turned to adopt an ex-isting process that is used to remove solids in wastewater treating called dissolved air otation (DAF). We reversed its typical function (removing waste solids) and, in-stead used DAF, which is much less energy intensive than drying, to concentrate the valuable algae solids. Cultivating A NewForm of EnergyPhoto courtesy of cabrin – www.123RF.com.Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com28FEATURE

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That’s just one example. Using existing industrial knowledge turned out to be a great thing because it helped us to speed the scaleup process by learning from others. The one thing that we didn’t have good knowledge to draw upon was how to cultivate the algae at scale. We made quite a bit of headway in this area, but it remains a challenge. My view is that what still most needs to be worked on is the agriculture – and that is happening. I’m really proud to say that the farm we built is still in opera-tion. Algae is still being grown there, where they’re learning how to grow it more consistently and efciently while utilizing the farm to grow algae for nutraceuticals – valuable food addi-tives. In fact, if you buy one of those “green” protein shakes at the grocery store, the chances are that it contains algae that came from the farm that we built in Co-lumbus, New Mexico.I’m always so excited for the folks that are working on it because they are developing a whole new form of desert agriculture. The really challenging thing about open pond algae farming is how to keep the weeds and the critters out of the algae ponds. Weeds and bugs are a challenge with all forms of agriculture, but controlling them in a desert pond is another thing altogether. Once you provide some open water – even if its salty – and add nutrients to a desert environ-ment, there are a lot of other things that either want to eat your algae or compete with your algae for access to that attractive growth environment. I would say there is still so much potential behind growing algae for energy. They’re making progress – it just took lon-ger than what we would have wanted it to. Standing back and thinking about our experience, it’s just a wonderful illustration of all the challenges behind scaling up any new form of energy. Getting to scale in energy is a challenge that is a completely dif-ferent order of magnitude than with most other industries. It’s not like, for example, an iPhone, where, when you offer a new device that everyone is excited about, customers are ini-tially willing to spend a lot more money to get that new thing. And they don’t mind a few ‘bugs’ in the rst version. With new energy options, your offer needs to compete with existing – very efcient – energy right from the get-go both on cost and functionality. With new energy options, you’ve got to either develop some-thing that is compatible with the existing value chain, or you must build out a whole new value chain. And you’ve got to choose something that’s capable of becoming large without introducing new problems (which, as you achieve meaningful scale, will also become large). Making good choices – taking the full value chain and the full impact of your choice into account – is therefore very important. I am so thrilled that I got involved in building out an early stage renewable energy option. I learned so much. I think that the algae technology is still coming. I’m still cheering for everyone who is working on this, because I continue to believe that it is an ultimately scalable, biological way to sequester CO2 and pro-vide a sustainable form of low carbon-intensity energy. I have to admit, when the algae-to-oil concept was rst pre-sented to me, I thought it was probably one of those wackier ideas but, the more I learned about it, the more the bar was raised for whatever else I was going to do with my time. Photo-synthesis is the biological mecha-nism of capturing CO2 from the atmosphere, and algae performs this particularly efciently. And growing algae in brackish desert ponds is a way to produce energy that doesn’t compete with other precious resources: You don’t need to use fresh water, you’re not competing for farmland, and the process doesn’t require other types of precious metals or catalysts. All of those things are very positive in terms of potential for scaling up to very signicant proportions. And we very much need sustainable energy sources that have large scale potential. This makes it denitely worthwhile to continue to work on algae for oil. We are all fortunate that there are many great ideas and ongo-ing developments of alternative, lower carbon, more sustain-able forms of energy. Our future needs for sustainable energy are large, making all ideas potentially valuable, and the develop-ment of these ideas into reality an essential, purposeful en-deavor. The reality is that many of these ideas ultimately won’t make it to scale, and some of them are going to take a long lead time to get there. So, working on multiple options with diligence is essential! It’s also important to never forget that the assets and existing systems that we have today are incredibly valuable, too, because we still need energy today. So, at the same time that we must be working on new options, we must also keep providing today’s energy reliably and in a way that is ever cleaner and ever lower carbon. Innovation is important both with new and existing energy sources. I rmly believe that our future energy so-lution is going to be an all-of-the-above kind of answer. “Standing back and thinking about our experience, it’s just a wonderful illustration of all the challenges behind scaling up any new form of energy.”Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com29FEATURE

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com30OP-EDWhy Allies Are The Key To Energy’s Future By Katie MehnertThe stakes have never been higher. The world needs to undergo an energy trans-formation. With climate change already here, the future of society depends on it. And, as the lm Hot Money from Gen-eral Wesley K. Clark and Wesley Clark, Jr. (featuring actor/activist Jeff Bridges) makes clear, our economies depend on it, too.Building Energy 2.0 – a new era of en-ergy – means embracing the opportuni-ties that come from innovation. It means honoring those who have delivered the energy that powers the world, and help-ing them build careers as things change. And it means facing the future with an open mind.Most importantly, it means dropping the divisions that block action. Political and ideological battles should have no place as we move forward. Similarly, diversity, equity and inclusion are much more than buzzwords; they’re imperatives. Only by bringing together people of different backgrounds and experiences will we invent and create new pathways.We need all stakeholders and all forms of energy – renewables, hydro, nuclear, fossil fuels and more – to work as one team. Does this sound pie-in-the-sky? Here’s why, from my unique vantage point, I know it can be done.The Energy Industry Knows How to ChangeI’m the daughter of an oil engineer. I’ll never have anything but respect for the hard work my dad, and so many other people, did and continue to do in deliver-ing oil and gas to humanity.He and my mom, a nurse anesthetist, also taught me the crucial lesson that women can pursue any career we wish, and are just as capable as men. I did not go into energy at rst. After college I became a management consul-tant. Then, a chance meeting altered my path. Shell hired me as a contractor to manage a process and systems project. Through this work, I met Peggy Mon-tana, then a VP at the company. I was so impressed by her. We developed a friend-ship, and it was she who convinced me to take a full-time job there.She helped me believe that there were opportunities for women to develop ca-reers and grow in oil and gas. That times were changing. That while it took thick skin, hard work and grit, there were ways to succeed. And, perhaps most impor-tantly, that energy can be the most exciting eld to join.She was right. I went on to become a global program and change leader in safety and environment. I then jumped over to bp to serve as global director of safety culture and operational risk to help address the Deepwater Horizon incident.You can see a recurring theme. I’ve always been about pushing for change, with very little interest in keeping the status quo. And I witnessed dramatic change from the inside. Just look at what happened when oil and gas made safety a central value – tremendous, life-saving improvements followed.Soon, another chance meeting led me on a new path.“Lady Like You”I was ying home from London in 2013 when the man sitting next to me struck up a conversation. Learning that I was on a work trip, he was perplexed, and asked where my husband was and who was taking care of our daughter. I explained that Mark was at home in Houston. That’s when this man, whom I refer to as “Bubba,” went into the next line of sexist questioning: “What’s a pretty, young lady like you doing in a dark, dangerous business like oil?”I checked my calendar to make sure it was, indeed, the 21st century. I knew in that moment that I had to launch a new effort to change this paradigm. It was time to show the world that women can and should be an equal part of the energy industry. It was also time to dispel the myths about “dark and dangerous,” and change the way the world sees and uses energy.So, I did what so many other entrepre-neurs have done: Scribbled the idea on a cocktail napkin. I wanted to launch a global community that would usher in a new era for energy, based on diversity, equity, inclusion and advancing the transi-tion to other forms of energy.Pink Petro Was BornThat idea would become Pink Petro. I left my secure, salaried job to become an entrepreneur, with the early help of some friends and volunteers who be-lieved in the cause. In the manifesto for Pink Petro, we wrote, “We believe that by delivering high quality resources, learning and development tools, we can create an engaged, empowered and inspired energy

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com31OP-EDworkforce. We aspire to put a human face on an industry that has quietly powered some of the most amazing technologies and innovations of our lifetime. We unite, connect, develop and grow women in energy.”Over the next few years, we grew into a business that held large global events, worked with companies across the energy sector, spotlighted the stories of diverse leaders and ushered new people into the industry, showing them job opportunities and career pathways. I discovered that my voice and messages resonated across the globe, leading to columns in major news outlets, speeches at industry conferences and testimony at a congressional hearing.But there was another big pivot in store. Welcome to ALLYWhat began with a focus on gender equality had become so much more: The professional community for the energy sector. The place that brings everyone together on one team. So, in 2020, when the pandemic changed everything, our company changed as well. We became ALLY Energy.As I explained, “ALLY is about the future we are building together. We need ALL forms of energy, ALL people working together for a more diverse, re-liable, clean energy ecosystem. We need all intersections of society to make this happen… ALLY is about jobs, learning, connections and education. It’s where we will advocate, listen and learn.”Already, the growth of ALLY has shown me that people are ready to roll up their sleeves and work together. As an ambassador to the Department of Energy (under two administrations) and representative to the National Petroleum Council, I regularly see people from dif-ferent walks of life come together, listen and take action.So, I know that real cooperation can happen. That we can be true allies, and that there is a rational middle where solutions ourish.There’s also another meaning behind our name. My daughter’s name is Ally. She was strapped to my back clinging to me as we were rescued by strangers during Hurricane Harvey. She knows the ongoing dangers of extreme weather. Ally is a huge source of inspiration to me. I’m committed to building a better world for her and her generation, as well as an industry that empowers them with the skills to succeed and welcomes them into its fold. None of us knows exactly what’s in store. But no matter what comes, we are all in this together. And if any industry can show the world how to come to-gether and achieve big results, it’s energy.Katie Mehnert is founder and CEO of ALLY Energy, an ambassador for the Energy Department’s Equity in Energy initiative, and a member of the National Petroleum Council. She is featured in the documentary Hot Money. ADVERTISE WITH US!Are you looking to expand your reach in the renewable energy marketplace? Do you have a product or service that would beneﬁt the industry? If so, we would like to speak with you!CALL US (800) 562-2340 EX. 1 We have a creative team that can design your ad! EnergiesMagazine.com/advertise Advertising@USEnergyMedia.com

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com32ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMSPaving the Way for Energy Storage By Audrey CopelandThis past month has been a critical one for energy storage in light of passing of the Ination Reduction Act (IRA), which creates a standalone storage Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for the very rst time. Until now, such an ITC was merely a storage developer’s dream. But now, the IRA has made that dream a potential reality, which would greatly level the play-ing eld for standalone energy storage systems (ESS).And yet, while this bill is a huge step in the right direction for ESS, these proj-ects continue to experience roadblocks – from supply chain issues to tax abate-ments – both of which have been largely overcome by photovoltaic (PV) and wind projects. These roadblocks create real barriers to widespread adoption and implementation of ESS.To decarbonize the grid, it is imperative that we focus on removing these barriers, particularly given that ESS offers opera-tional exibility and can be deployed at a moment’s notice – the type of capacity we need as intermittent baseload increas-es and traditional forms of longer dura-tion resources come ofine. Flexible ESS resources will also become increasingly required in a world experiencing climate change and extreme weather events. As a member of the Spearmint Energy team, a newly-launched, next-generation renewable energy company enabling the clean energy revolution through battery energy storage, it is my hope that we can work together – policy makers, develop-ers, investors and more – to pave the way for faster energy storage development. With that in mind, provided below are the most prominent barriers to entry for ESS, and potential solutions that can be adopted to remove them.FinancingThe problem: Anyone who has spent time modeling storage knows there are no simple answers as ESS have a multitude of variables compared to PV – augmenta-tion, battery cycles, system life – just to name a few. Add merchant revenue to this and the returns can seem uncertain.As more ESS come online, and there is operational data to support key assump-tions, some of these issues will get xed. Reframing how we think about the value of these assets is also key. They are not another PV or wind project and, there-fore, merchant proles and risks need to be viewed from a unique perspective. A solution: With this in mind, one such solution from which ESS can benet is implementation of tolling agreements during the initial stages of a project’s life to offset some of the risks and provide certainty of returns. Such tolling agree-ments are core to the strategy we’re putting into practice at Spearmint to help alleviate some of the nancing risk. And, for those familiar with non-renewable generators, the operating prole of energy storage is similar. Unlike solar and wind projects, the assets are exible and can be deployed when needed. Long Duration and the Effective Load Carrying Capability (ELCC)The problem: Long duration ESS is a key component of the energy transition and future of the grid. Not only do we need storage assets now, but we also need ESS that can reliably ll in the gaps as traditional resources retire.In December 2020, CESA reported California will need ~55 MW of long duration assets by 2045. Notably, as we move toward a decarbonized future, Site for Project Revolution, Spearmint Energy’s recently acquired 150 MW battery energy storage project, in ERCOT Power Market. Photo courtesy of Spearmint Energy.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com33ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMSthis same signicant scale of need, with varying levels, will exist across all geog-raphies in the U.S. Despite the clear need in many markets, there aren’t incentives to support the development of longer duration solutions. Take PJM as an example. The 2024/2025 BRA ELCC Class Ratings rates a six-hour solution at 97 percent and a four-hour solution at 82 percent. However, the capacity market isn’t strong enough to support the added cost of a four-hour solution, let alone a six-hour solution, and the cost of transferring from a four- to six-hour solution is approximately one-third more. Add that to the fact that the ELCC benet is just 15 percent. As a result: 1) four-hour projects earn less, and 2) six-hour projects aren’t appropri-ately incentivized.A solution: While I recognize that an ELCC methodology isn’t designed to in-centivize one solution over another, but rather appropriately weigh the benet of varying resources for capacity, it does in-deed provide a market signal that policy makers should consider when attributing percentages to varying durations.Further, policy makers can supplement the transition to longer duration by of-fering additional statewide incentives. Take Governor Newsom of California as an example. He took steps in that direction by including $350M in the budget to support long duration en-ergy storage – a move that encourages development of longer duration assets and ensures those critical resources exist when we need them. Permitting and ApprovalsThe problem: Permitting and zoning approval are additional hurdles facing en-ergy storage projects. For most jurisdic-tions, energy storage projects are brand new technologies and, as such, do not have a place in the zoning matrix.The solution: This can go one of two ways – either the projects are put in an existing bucket, like industrial, or the proj-ects trigger a zoning amendment. The best solution to mitigate these issues is to implement statewide permitting standards and processes. The State of Virginia pro-vides an example of a statewide permit-ting exemption for energy storage.Standalone Energy Storage and Renewable Energy Certicates (REC)sThe problem: ESS don’t qualify for RECs or equivalent market incentives in most markets today because they don’t directly charge from renewable energy. As the grid becomes saturated with re-newables, standalone projects are charg-ing from renewable generation indirectly.And yet, the ability for ESS to obtain RECs would open the market opportu-nities for these assets, including corpo-rate procurement.A solution: The MA Clean Peak Stan-dard offers a great model for valuing the indirect renewable charging. Charg-ing is linked to the shape of renewables on the grid and ESS can obtain CPECs if they charge during peak solar genera-tion windows.Supply ChainThe problem: It’s no secret that the energy storage industry is experiencing supply chain challenges. Even as the stars have aligned for the creation of a storage ITC, the cost of raw materials continues to climb, and supply constraints are tight-ening. The passing of the IRA is unlikely to improve that picture in the near term, as the increase in demand it will spur will merely exacerbate these trends.A solution: Resolving this issue will take investment and patience, given the time and cost required for development of new supply avenues for lithium and the building of new energy storage manu-facturing facilities to support increasing demand. The good news is that these ef-forts are already underway, and the IRA is likely to fuel further capital into energy efcient innovation, including in lithium-ion alternatives.Tax Abatements The problem: In most markets, there are no established abatements for stand-alone energy storage, which can have signicant impacts on project economics due to the size of the capital expenditure.For local jurisdictions evaluating the value of the project relative to other development, it is important to note that ESS comprise some of the most valuable/expensive uses of undesirable land, far eclipsing most alternative uses in the same, less than ideal, locations (substation frontage). Partial abatements can encourage development, while still generating signicant tax income.A solution: State and local governments have the power to facilitate projects by adopting favorable policies. The state of Arizona serves as a notable example, having amended its existing partial abate-ment for PV and PVS to include ESS as a standalone project. The world is going to get warmer in the coming decades – the science is clear. As we work to decarbonize and stabilize the grid, we need supportive ESS policies and frameworks in every category. We need to pave the way for ESS to enable a 100 percent renewable future. Join us in being the solution. Join us in the clean energy revolution: visit www.SpearmintEnergy.com, email info@spearmintenergy.com or our LinkedIn page to learn more.Audrey Copeland is the senior vice president of Strategy and Origina-tion at Spearmint En-ergy. She brings more than 15 years of diverse renewable energy and sustainability experience to her role, having previously worked across both utility-scale and distrib-uted generation projects, and success-fully leading the development of ve GW-plus of projects. Before joining Spearmint, she managed the energy storage strategy and origination efforts for Q CELLS. Prior to that, she held roles at Vesper Energy, Ørsted, and Borrego Solar Systems. Copeland holds a BA in Environmental Stud-ies and Anthropology from Eckerd College, as well as an MBA in Sustain-able Management and certicate in Sustainable Energy Management from the Presidio Graduate School.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com34CLEAN ENERGYThe New Power Generation By Claudia MelatiniWith increasing pressure to battle cli-mate change, utilities and private com-panies are transforming the way they deliver energy through greener, more efcient methods. These changes not only positively impact the environment, but create numerous jobs and oppor-tunities within the energy sector. The rapid advancements in technology are enabling the delivery of clean energy, and utility companies everywhere are jumping onboard.The Power Players Leading the ChargeThe majority of the United States’ en-ergy comes from natural gas, nuclear en-ergy and coal. The big players in the oil and gas industry have been adding green energy innovators to their portfolios in order to slash their carbon imprints and incorporate greener practices. In 2018, bp acquired a $200M stake in Europe’s largest solar developer, Lightsource (now known as Lightsource bp). The company will focus on developing solar projects in the U.S., India, Europe and the Middle East. Additionally, compa-nies like ExxonMobil are developing biofuels that are derived from sources such as algae, corn stover or switchgrass. ExxonMobil has been doubling down on research efforts, and says it’s on track to produce 10,000 barrels of algae bio-fuel by 2025.Other efcient strategies are being implemented in the oil and gas sector in order to deliver clean energy. Freshwater usage and its extraction strategies are be-ing rethought in order to reduce waste. Companies are implementing strategies that incorporate 100 percent non-pota-ble water by improving ltration oxida-tion methods and chemical-free water treatment solutions. New ultrasound technologies that create 3D images of the inside of oil wells are enabling com-panies to make more efcient decisions. Also, the adoption of cloud-based tech-nologies is giving providers the ability to monitor operational data in real time through the use of “digital oil elds.”Approximately 34 percent of the world’s clean electricity comes from nuclear energy. The Nuclear Innovation: Clean Energy Future (NICE) initiative, led by the United States, Canada and Japan, spearheads efforts to include nuclear energy in high-level discussions about clean energy. It encourages energy lead-ers throughout the world to focus on full scale nuclear for baseload energy, as well as innovative technologies that are focused on four key areas: Technology evaluations of energy systems and their usage, the engagement of stakeholders in future energy choices, valuation, and communicating nuclear energy’s role in delivering clean energy to the world. Under the 2015 Paris Climate Agree-ment, 195 countries agreed to limit

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com35CLEAN ENERGYglobal warming well below 20 degrees Celsius. This agreement set in mo-tion the need for the mining and coal industries to reinvent the ways in which business is done. With the given shift in the demand for coal, as well as pressure from policy makers, mining companies are focusing on the increased demand for key minerals, as well as how they can decarbonize their own operations. Min-ing companies are being encouraged to address local water stress projections, as well as reduce and recycle water opera-tions within their mining processes. Along with these efforts, a push to move away from coal is placing pressure on the mining industry, and forcing it to innovate to other, cleaner minerals that don’t place as much stress on the envi-ronment or decrease water supplies. The Future is BrightAccording to the EPA, major compa-nies across the United States are run-ning on 100 percent green energy. Huge blue chip companies like Google, Proc-tor and Gamble, T-Mobile and General Mills operate from a variety of green energy, such as solar, wind, hydroelec-tric and other sources. With the popular push to more eco-friendly resources, energy companies are providing organi-zations like these with the power solu-tions they need to run business as usual. Additionally, many of these companies comprise the RE100, which lists the companies that have made commit-ments to operate 100 percent sustain-ably, including target years to achieve that goal.Green Mountain Energy (GME) is a carbon-neutral company based in Texas, whose mission is to change the way power is made. It provides the Green Mountain Energy Certied Electric-ity product for commercial businesses, as well as its “Go Local Solar” plan for Texas residential customers. Since 1997, GME has consistently tracked the pounds of CO2 its customers have avoided through the company’s prod-ucts. As of this writing, 103,839,007,139 pounds of CO2 have been avoided, which equates to planting 12, 365,514 trees. The Green Mountain Energy Sun Club, started by GME, is an offshoot of the company that empowers local com-munities with sustainability solutions. Its mission is to invest in nonprots to advance sustainability for people and the planet. McLean Energy Solutions, based in Australia’s Northern Rivers community, is a clean energy solar and electrical company that is devoted to helping homeowners and businesses install solar power. Its bespoke design systems are based on aerial imagery of a customer’s home or business. Its core mission is to save consumers money and give them the opportunity to live or work in a comfortable and sustainable home or business. In addition to solar installa-tion, McLean also offers its customers sustainable electrician services, battery storage and air conditioning service. The state of California itself, which aims to have a carbon-free power grid by 2045, ran on more than 99 per-cent renewable energy (the majority of which came from solar) for a brief period in April of this year, breaking its previous record. Aside from solar and wind, the state has geothermal, biomass, solar thermal and hydropower to help in providing renewable energy to the grid. The state of Texas leads in overall re-newable energy production, due largely to its wind energy program. Washington State follows Texas as the country’s leader in hydroelectric energy. Califor-nia comes in third overall, leading with utility-scale solar and geothermal. The earth’s temperature has risen by 0.14 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, and has risen more than twice that since 1981. With the amount of heat-trapping gases in the air increasing, efforts to operate in a green and sustainable manner are more important than ever. Technological solutions, and the com-panies behind them, are united in their efforts to reverse the human impact on the environment. Over the next decade, innovations that improve the climate is-sue will be developed, giving us cleaner, greener energy and a brighter outlook on the future. Claudia Melatini has been a content marketing writer in the private wealth, FinTech, and energy and renewables spaces for over 15 years. She has written for American Funds, Capital Group, LPL, RBC Wealth Management, Living Lela, Petnovations and more. Visit www.thepowerfulpage.com. Photos courtesy of outsiderzone – www.123RF.com.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com36INDUSTRIAL INTERNET OF THINGSWhy Unlocking the Value of IoT is Key to Keeping Utilities and Renewables Operational By Alastair MacLeodThe Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has been transforming global industries and driving digitalization for some years now – the utilities and renewables sectors are no exception. From offshore wind through to solar and the grid, the IIoT eco-system is delivering efciencies and productivity to meet the demands of an ever-evolving energy landscape.But everything requires reliable and re-silient connectivity. After all, fragmented and data gaps can give a wildly inaccurate picture of operations and assets. Despite the myriad of measurable benets IIoT offers, everything will fall at the rst hurdle if connectivity isn’t addressed as a priority.The utilities industry has experienced global disruption in 2022, arguably more so than ever before. While the common objective is to reduce reliance upon hy-drocarbons, the impacts felt by the con-ict in Ukraine have seen energy security climb the agenda, with gasoline prices in the U.S. spiking by March 2022.1 This has meant a shift – even if it’s a temporary one – in strategy with coal on the upswing.What is evident, however, is that the utilities industry continues to in-novate, to meet these challenges head on, and IIoT is at the heart of this. Given the often remote nature of the environ-ments in which utilities and renewables plants operate, the ability to monitor and analyze real-time data, enabling timely, effective decision making, and automated control would not be possible without seamless connectivity.Optimizing Connectivity Facilitates the Value Of IiotCritical infrastructure, including electri-cal grids and gas distribution systems, orchestrate utility and gas supply through SCADA, IoT and M2M solutions. But to reliably route, monitor and control resource delivery efciently, automated, continuous data from infrastructure and assets at every point of the supply chain is essential. Without this, the risk of outages and supply interruptions signicantly increase, and can often result in huge nancial burden and penalties for the supplier and severe (potentially prolonged) disrup-tion for consumers.In practice, connec-tivity has been identied all too often as being a barrier in our quest to exploit the full potential of IIoT, where huge varia-tions in terrain and the disparate nature of remote assets can limit the suitability of terrestrial connectivity. Indeed, Inmar-sat’s 2021 industry report stated that 58 percent of electrical utility providers were unable to implement IoT projects because of inadequate or unreliable connectivity in the areas where they required it.2 Furthermore, as cellular connectivity continues to advance with 5G reaching speeds up to 20 times faster than its 4G predecessor, and network connection density 10 times higher, 5G is expected to boost utilities’ application both of IIoT and articial intelligence. This is echoed by a 2022 survey published by Deloitte, which has reported that 26 percent of respondents within the power and utilities sector included 5G within their strategy, with a further 36 percent indicating they were planning to.3 The dichotomy here is that the mass rollout of a terrestrial network is great on one hand as it meets most requirements. But it doesn’t offer backhaul or redun-dancy, for when terrestrial infrastructure is compromised, nor does it offer con-Remote monitoring in the eld.BGAN utilities installation.Hughes 9450 c10 in use with engineer.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com37INDUSTRIAL INTERNET OF THINGSnectivity in remote areas which often cannot economically be reached. Currently, the only fail-safe connectivity option is satellite. It enables companies to retrieve real-time data from previ-ously unreachable sites and provides a robust failover should anything happen. Satellite connectivity, including the newer low earth orbit (LEO) satellites – which of-fer improved speed and ultralow latency to transmit sensor data back to SCADA software – is reliable, effective, and capable of bridging the gap between legacy technology and digital service evolution. What’s more, it can be implemented at a far lower cost than many might think. However, only one third of companies within the utility sector currently use satellite in their communication strate-gies, contrasting with almost half in other sectors.3 Satellite can be used primarily to reach previously unconnected sites, and/or as a failover in the event of terrestrial network interruption, creating a more resilient grid.The Impact of No ConnectivityAccording to our survey of utility us-ers in February and March 2022 (Empower-ing utility providers to better align with consumer priorities), almost one third of respondents experience more service interruptions now than they did 10 years ago. In 2020, the average electricity customer in the U.S. experienced more than eight hours4 of power outage – the longest since the U.S. Energy Administra-tion started recording this data in 2013. Without consistently reliable connectivity, and therefore the ability to manage vast streams of mission-critical data, utilities companies are not only operationally hamstrung, but at risk of costs and pen-alties impacting their bottom line. Satellite can also reduce operational costs for utility suppliers, negating the require-ment for employees to make frequent and costly onsite visits in areas not serviced by 4G/5G, and providing the ability to diagnose problems online before any production time is lost and costly break-downs occur. Skimping on connectivity really is a false economy.In fact, at Ground Control we’ve never been more excited about the potential of new IIoT-enabled satellite services to support operations within the utilities and renewables sectors. From edge comput-ing devices to articial intelligence and machine learning, this industry has never had more sophisticated capabilities to optimize data capture and automate processes. The ability today to transfer sensor data from anywhere in the world, regardless of location, is unleashing the full potential of IIoT, leading to faster and better business decisions across grids and infrastructure.Over the coming decade, potentially thousands of satellites, including nanosats for remote surveillance around the world, will be launched into Earth’s orbit. This will alter how other industries operate, providing even greater opportunity for compa-nies to gain a 360° view of their data, and utilize this insight to further streamline operations and drive cost ef-ciencies. Connectivity is more reliable than ever but, unless robust connectivity solutions are deployed, network uptime and the full power of data strategies will not be fully optimized. Satellite connectivity will become increasingly vital in ensuring organizations not only remain productive and operational, but that the condence of consumers and industry is assured. For further information about Ground Control, its products and services, visit: www.groundcontrol.com/us. Alastair MacLeod is the chief executive ofcer of Ground Control, spe-cializing in satellite and cellular services to help connect people and things, particularly within hard to reach, remote areas. Whether you need to collect IoT data, track positions, access the internet or make video calls, Ground Control has you covered.Previously, MacLeod served as manag-ing director and chief executive ofcer to companies within information ser-vices, data, SaaS and telecommunica-tions. He has been instrumental to the success of several operational restruc-tures and business growth initiatives, increasing turnovers from sub $100 million to more than $1 billion.Having also sat on various boards, MacLeod’s passion for innovation and technology, coupled with his electronic systems engineering degree, has placed him well to lead teams which deliver truly creative customer solutions. References:1 - Energy Wire2 - Inmarsat Research Programme 2021, Industrial IoT in the time of COVID-19, Inmarsat, viewed 4 July 2022 Inmarsat Research Programme - Industrial IoT in the Time of Covid-193 - Deloitte’s Research Centre for Energy & Industrials 2021, 2022 power and utilities industry outlook, Deloitte, viewed 4 July 2022 us-eri-power-utilities-outlook-2022.pdf (deloitte.com)4 - Lindstrom A & Hoff S 2021, U.S. electricity consum-ers experience eight hours of power interruptions in 2020, viewed 4 July 2022 U.S. Energy Information Ad-ministration - EIA - Independent Statistics and AnalysisRemote monitoring.Hughes 9502, BGAN.Mobile BGAN for M2M and SCADA.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com38ENERGY STORAGEInflation Reduction Act Presents Opportunity for Standalone Storage, Test for Hybrid Power Plants By Morten LundEnergy storage is an important part of a modernized energy grid. Energy stor-age has always been important, but as variable renewable resources become a larger part of the resource mix, energy storage becomes increasingly essen-tial. While the energy industry broadly recognizes the importance of energy storage, there are signicant obstacles to the development of energy stor-age facilities in the U.S., and as a result there are relatively few such facilities currently in operation.Instead, in recent years, the U.S. has seen the rise of the hybrid power plant – energy storage coupled with genera-tion. The most common combination is solar energy and lithium-ion batteries, but there are many variations. Hybrid power plants (typically) combine stor-age and generation behind a single interconnection and are contracted and nanced as a single facility.Standalone storage in the U.S. faces obstacles in two major categories – regulatory constraints and cost – and hybrid power plants cleverly mitigate both of those. A hybrid power plant is a power plant and is regulated as such. This avoids most of the regulatory ob-stacles imposed on standalone storage. Similarly, the storage component of a hybrid solar power plant can be consid-ered part of the eligible basis for invest-ment tax credit (ITC) purposes, thereby effectively applying the solar ITC to energy storage and reducing its cost.Hybrid power plants also have some dispatchability. This can reduce the volatility normally associated with solar and wind energy. There are, how-ever, signicant drawbacks to hybrid power plants.Modern battery technology is extraordi-narily exible. In addition to the famil-iar time-shifting function, batteries can also provide ancillary services including spinning reserve, frequency regulation, VAR support and more. These are all important services that provide value to the grid, and batteries can provide these services at only nominal marginal cost. In order to provide ancillary services to their fullest extent, however, the batter-ies must charge from the grid. Therein lies a fundamental limitation of hybrid power plants. Hybrid power plants in which the batteries are intended to qualify for the ITC historically have not charged from the grid in signi-cant quantities, but instead charge their batteries primarily from the attached generating facility. If they charge from the grid in excess of applicable thresh-olds, it endangers ITC eligibility.The Ination Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) became law on August 16th. After implementation of the IRA, standalone energy storage that is placed in service after 2022 is an eligible tech-nology under both the current Section 48 investment tax credit (ITC) and its future replacement, the Clean Electric-ity Investment Credit. This means that energy storage can qualify for the ITC without being attached to a generat-ing facility. The IRA helps mitigate the cost obstacle to standalone storage, and places standalone storage on the same cost level as the storage component of hybrid power plants. Does this mean that hybrid power plants are instantly obsolete? No. The IRA removes a major obstacle to standalone energy storage, but does nothing to address the remaining obstacles. In particular, the IRA does not address the regulatory obstacles to energy storage.Photo courtesy of cpaulfell – www.123RF.com.

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com39ENERGY STORAGEThe regulatory challenges of energy storage in the U.S. are complex. The overall energy regulatory regime was designed long before the advent of modern battery technology, and energy storage does not t neatly into the old structures. Resulting challenges for en-ergy storage include the inability to ac-cess energy and power markets, unclear or inapplicable interconnection rules, rate-base uncertainty and more. While the IRA does not address any of these issues, a host of changes at federal and state levels over the past several years have mitigated the regulatory challeng-es of energy storage – at least to some extent in some places.Today, standalone energy storage has meaningful access to markets in several regions, including the California Inde-pendent System Operator (CAISO), the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and California (ERCOT), the New York Independent System Opera-tor (NYISO) and the PJM Intercon-nection (PJM). Several states now also have energy storage mandates. In much of the country, however, standalone energy storage still only has limited ac-cess to revenue sources, if any.This regulatory disparity is reected in installations. A large majority of stand-alone storage projects currently operat-ing in the U.S. are located in those few open markets. Hybrid power plants, on the other hand, have been adopted much more broadly across the country.The IRA does nothing to change this dynamic. As a result, we should expect hybrid power plants to continue to be the design of choice in markets where there currently are few or no stand-alone energy storage facilities installed. This may change as local regulatory easing continues, but standalone energy storage in restrictive markets will, in the near term, be mostly unaffected by the IRA.Nonetheless, the IRA is important also for these markets. Even though the IRA may not result in immediate change in more restrictive markets, an important obstacle has been removed when regulatory obstacles eventu-ally fall. More interesting in the near term are the markets where standalone energy storage is currently possible under local regulatory regimes, which includes some of the country’s largest energy markets.In these markets, including California and Texas, the IRA may have removed the last remaining signicant obstacle to standalone energy storage. If so, there is likely to soon be an explosion of proposed storage projects, as well as a corresponding movement away from hybrid power plants, if only to move to a design that allows for more exible battery operations. It is also unlikely that hybrid power plants will vanish even in the more open markets. What the IRA does is make the hybrid design optional, not obsolete. Future hybrid power plants in these markets will be built because they are preferred, not because they are the only available path. Even viewed with great caution and limited application, and even when considering the signicant challenges that remain, the IRA is a signicant achievement and a potential game-changer for standalone energy storage in the U.S.Morten Lund is a part-ner in the San Diego ofce of Stoel Rives LLP. A member of the rm’s Energy Develop-ment group, he is the current chair of the Energy Storage Initiative and former chair of the Solar Energy Initiative. His experience includes development and nancing of a broad variety of energy and infra-structure projects, covering the full lifecycle of infrastructure projects, from early-stage development through construction, nancing and acquisition/divestiture. Lund has worked on wind and solar energy projects, energy storage projects, combustion generator projects, nuclear energy facilities, hydro-elec-tric facilities, cogeneration facilities, chemical facilities, forestry/paper facilities, large aircraft and shipping eets. He can be reached at morten.lund@stoel.com. SUBSCRIBE TODAY!Get the Renewable Energy news and data you need in a magazine you’ll be proud to read. To subscribe, complete a quick form online:EnergiesMagazine.com/Subscribe Editor@USEnergyMedia.com • (800) 562-2340 Ex. 1Photo courtesy of Marc Morrison – www.marcmorrison.com

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com40The Best Books on Energy Transitions Recommended by Chris Goodall By Casper Henderson The switch to sources of energy other than oil and gas is now well under way, but how long will it be before we can rely on them for the bulk of the world’s power – if ever? Renewable energy expert Chris Goodall gives us a thought-provoking reading list to think about both past and future “energy transitions.”Where does your interest in energy transitions – the switch from one fuel to another – come from?When I started writing about climate change, I thought that advanced societies would solve the greenhouse gas emission problem largely by reducing energy consumption by changing habits and improving efciency. But, as time went on, I came to realize that most people did not want a world in which en-ergy was scarce or its use guilt-generating. They wanted to be able to use it freely and cheaply. Our wish to have a prosper-ous lifestyle tends to overwhelm our desire to be good climate citizens, even though we know today’s energy consumption has implications for the future of humanity. So, I moved from working on climate change to working on how we make en-ergy cheap, but also without deleterious consequences for the global atmosphere.What is the argument in your book The Switch?I say that solar photovoltaics will form, for the majority of the world, the bulk of energy supply in fty years – both electricity and other fuels that have been manufactured using solar energy. That’s an entirely benecial transition both because solar will be cheap and because it is relatively easy to give people in poorer countries access to electricity that’s from PV – compared to setting up huge power stations and taking networks of electric-ity cables thousands of kilometers. Although still very much a minority view, I think it is a much less unconventional opinion than it was when I started writing the book in 2015.“Our wish to have a prosperous lifestyle tends to overwhelm our desire to be good climate citizens.”PV needs to be supplemented by other forms of energy conversion technologies such as wind turbines in less sunny parts of the world, but also with storage. In fact, the majority of the book is about the problems of dealing with the intermittency of solar, both intermittency on a minute by minute basis and more generally because the seasonal availability of sun varies hugely in high latitude locations such as the U.K. We have a lot of sun in the summer and virtually none in the winter. But, remember, only 10 percent of the world’s population lives north of London. For the vast bulk of the globe, solar is a pretty reliable source of energy year round.Couldn’t a solar revolution happen more quickly than 50 years?Well, it could, but progress crucially depends on whether the world decides to commit to a single central source of energy such as solar. Most people think that a full-scale transition away from oil, gas and coal will take many decades. One of the books that we’re going to talk about is written by Vaclav Smil. He says that energy revolutions – transitions from one fuel to another – take a very, very long time and the current switch is going to be no different. Depressingly, he says that optimists exaggerate the maximum speed of the switch to low-carbon energy sources and that by 2050 renewables will still meet a small fraction of global energy demand.1Smil’s Energy and Civilization: A History (2017) is your rst choice. This is an extensively updated and expanded version of a book he wrote in 1994. It covers all of the major transitions in human history. Why do you think this book is useful, particularly if your argument is that actually that he underestimates the likely potential speed of change?He is extremely scholarly; there isn’t a page you don’t learn something from. In particular, he knows a great deal – prob-ably more than anybody else in the world – about the way that energy was used in past centuries. And he is extremely inuential outside academic life. He sets the framework for people’s discussions of our energy future. They may not realize it but, when people talk about energy and how we move from one source of energy to another, in the background are things that Smil has written. Everybody talking about energy, in a sense, lies within his orbit because we all accept much of what he says.“As time went on, I came to realize that most people did not want a world in which energy was scarce or its use guilt-generating.”The only point of disagreement is going to be as to whether this transition away from fossil fuels to low-carbon forms of energy can happen faster than he thinks they can. And I per-sonally think there’s good reason to believe that history is not necessarily going to be repeated in this case.ENERGY EXPERT

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com412Let’s turn to your second book. This is Daniel Yergin’s The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power, published back in 1990. Why do you think this book is important to read and to understand in a context of thinking about major transitions in energy? This book was also reissued [in Decem-ber 2008]. The new[er] edition is by no means as extensively rewritten as Vaclav Smil’s book, but it is a wonderfully readable history of the development of the oil age: How the world came from a point where if you had energy it was either biomass – that is wood – or coal, to a point where oil was the dominant source of energy. It was probably never more than 50 percent of total energy worldwide, but it has been the most traded energy commod-ity, and it changed the nature of geopolitics over the course of 100 years from around 1890 to late in the twentieth century. It’s only the rise of shale oil in the U.S. that has reduced crude oil’s central role in world politics.It’s primarily a book about realpolitik and the politics of oil, isn’t it? And a lot about the characters of the people who were the developers of oil in the early days. There’s a fascinating chap-ter in this book about John D. Rockefeller and how he dif-fered from the conventional entrepreneur. We would think of someone like Rockefeller as probably good at running oil rigs and drilling them quickly and selecting the right areas, but he was actually an exceptional manager. His success came more from monopolizing the means of transport of oil than from the extraction of oil in the rst place. That is, the develop-ment of the Standard Oil Trust in the latter half of the 19th century was more to do with monopolizing oil transport on the railways than it was about owning a large fraction of total oil production capacity.But the oil picture has changed, hasn’t it? Now, the great majority of the world’s oil is not owned by private corpora-tions but by states, notably Saudi Arabia and Russia and a few others. Bearing in mind the concept of a major transi-tion away from oil, does Yergin take account of a topic beloved of some environmentalists: The idea of a carbon bubble, that is, the idea that we actually now have more oil that we can safely use?No, not at all. Yergin’s view, I think it’s fair to say, is very simi-lar to Smil’s. His company, Cambridge Energy Research As-sociates (CERA), has published or used some of Smil’s work. These are people who are committed to the view that oil and other fossil fuels are utterly central to modern life and that we really can’t do without them. The recently written epilogue is only 12 pages long and not a lot has been changed, I suspect, since the rst edition. There’s not much about the future of oil and how the world of energy might be different from the past, but I suspect that Yergin sides with Smil in thinking that the transition away from carbon fuels is going to be very slow indeed. I suspect he thinks there is no carbon bubble. I sincerely hope he is wrong.Can one read the book for warnings for the present mo-ment? Are there lessons, perhaps? [Is] there, for example, a new generation of renewable energy entrepreneurs who might be the Rockefellers of our day?No, and I think the reason there is that renewable energies do not lend themselves naturally – or are not thought to lend themselves naturally – to exploitation by big, centralized, multinational behemoths. What we’re seeing is the develop-ment, I suspect, of a much more decentralized energy system which isn’t reliant on huge oil elds or enormous coal elds generating many, many terawatt hours of energy. The move is towards both digitalization – so that things can be controlled centrally but can happen locally – but also there are going to be vastly more places where energy is collected than there are at the moment. These rst two books are about the mining of energy and what the world will have to do is to move to the point where we farm energy. That transition has only really just begun, but that’s the nature of the challenge that we face.3Let’s come to your third book, which is a very different. This is Sustainable Energy: Without the Hot Air by David J. C. MacKay. It was published in 2008 and, at the time, Bill Gates called it one of the best books on energy ever written. Was he right? If so, why? Gates takes a very big interest in this whole area. He’s a big fan of Vaclav as well as MacKay. The fact that Gates continuously refers to Smil as the main thinker in this area is one of the reasons the world doesn’t believe that transition can happen quickly, because Gates thinks Smil is right and thinks that it will take a long time. In Gates’s words, it will take a miracle to change things.What the late David MacKay did was give us a rigorous un-derstanding of the way that we use and generate energy. The book is aimed at a British audience, but he wanted it to have international relevance, and it sold very well abroad. There is a great deal about the basic physics of renewable energy in the book, but the majority of the numbers in the book are about British energy consumption and production patterns. Books newsletterWhy this is such a successful book is that it marries both anecdotes about how we use energy and a lot of physics to say what the constraints are on us with how that energy is generated, and the mathematics that govern how much we ENERGY EXPERTContinued on next page...

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com42can extract or not extract per unit of time or unit of area. It’s the book that people like me always see when we’re giving talks to groups of people in cold community centers halfway up the country. In the front row, there are reliably a few hard-headed engineers with this book sitting on their laps. Their copies of MacKay’s book often have bookmarks showing at the top and have many annotations throughout the text. They quietly wait to challenge anything stupid you say. Although 10 years old now, it is extraordinarily inuential and it appeals very much to the trained mind because it uses readily comprehensible sci-ence to prove its points.Speaking as a non-physicist and a non-engineer, I found it very clear and brilliantly presented. It’s easy for the non-specialist to understand so long as you’re ready to take a little trouble. One of the things I remember taking away from it is that MacKay is enormously scrupulous about assessing renewable energy potential in the U.K. specifically. Broadly speaking – and correct me if I’m misrepresenting – his conclusion is that it’s a very big stretch for the U.K. to achieve a significant proportion of its energy demands from renewables. I think that is indeed what he wanted us to take away from this. He hoped we would say, “Crikey, this is going to be very difcult indeed. We really do need to invest in nuclear energy. We don’t have any choice.” But I think that a lot of his assumptions about renew-ables now look very conservative. Renewables such as wind and solar are far, far more effective sources of energy than he indicated [more than] a decade ago.You have written about this in your blog Carbon Commentary. You say, “Since 2008, the fastest developments have been in solar power and in batteries. Perhaps the best way to illustrate just how rapidly solar has moved on is to quote from the figure that David used for the cost of providing each person in the U.K. with 50 kWh per day. The number was about 91,000 euros for each inhabitant. Today, that’s fallen to about 18,000 – or just under 20 percent of the cost of less than a decade ago.” And MacKay didn’t project that kind of fall. He denitely didn’t project that. He also didn’t project that mainstream commercial solar panels would become as efcient at collecting sunlight as they are today. He told us what the absolute maximum efciency could be because that’s set by physics, but what he wasn’t able to do was to predict the way in which solar power would come down in price worldwide. He also didn’t want us to put large amounts of solar panels in elds. In a sense, he was an unashamed romantic and wanted the English countryside to stay as it was and thought it would be better to have 50 nuclear power stations dotted around the country rather than perhaps 10 to 15 percent of the country given over to renewable generation of one form or another. I think he was probably wrong but I understand his reluctance to change the landscape.Do you think the rapid drop in cost of solar – and of course there are other issues that we haven’t yet talked about like storage – undermines MacKay’s case for the inevitability or the need, at least, for nuclear power?Were he working today, I think MacKay would recognize that nuclear power now looks very expensive compared to renew-ables plus storage. The other thing that he doesn’t deal with in any way in the book is demand management. That is to say, the whole of the electricity system in the U.K. and most other parts of the world was set up simply to provide the availabil-ity of capacity to produce as much electricity as could ever be needed at the peak half hour, which in this country is on something like a December Thursday at about ve o’clock in the early evening. We now know that it’s actually rather easy to get people to change their electricity consumption patterns, either by price or by digitalized assets of one form of another. David didn’t talk about that here. He was trying to build a world in which there was availability whenever we wanted it, at a consistent price with no risk of intermittency, and no worries about not being able to produce electricity whenever we want it. So, there is also very little in here about storage. There’s a bit about batteries and storage. But it was over 10 years ago when he wrote [it], so that is understandable; he didn’t envisage the huge growth of electric cars and the falling price of batteries that has resulted from that.4Perhaps we can talk about storage a little in rela-tion to the next book which actually appeared two years before David MacKay’s book. This is Travis Brad-ford’s Solar Revolution. Now, eleven years ago, in the eld we’re talking about, is a long time; it’s almost ancient history! Why do you still think this book is relevant?When I was researching for my book The Switch, I tried to nd what people had written about the future of solar energy. And I asked myself, was there anybody out there who had put the evolution of the costs of solar photo-voltaics in[to] some sort of robust intellectual framework which allowed him or her to predict the decline in costs that’s actually occurred? And, to my mind, this was the best one out there. But it still comes up with numbers for the costs of solar photovoltaics now or in 2045 which look absurdly high. So, for example, Bradford estimates that a watt capacity of solar photovoltaics by 2045 will cost $1.50. And it’s now fair to say that a good quality Chinese panel now sells in world markets in 2017 at about $0.35. Nevertheless, Bradford understood that the cost of photovoltaics was being driven downwards by the learning curve effect and said it’s inevitable that solar will become by far the cheapest source of electricity, and energy generally, for the bulk of the world.ENERGY EXPERT

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Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com43In The Switch, you present the astonishingly rapid fall in the cost of solar but you also say that it’s not the only part of the equation. To some extent, other renewable energy technologies must play a role. And, crucially, even in the brightest scenario – to coin a foolish phrase – the sun only shines some of the time. So, you’ve got to have storage technologies, particularly in northern and extreme southern latitudes, I suppose. Even in India, the sun doesn’t shine at night.The sun doesn’t shine at night. There are monsoons. There are places in China, for example, which are remarkably cloudy. So, this by itself does not solve the problem, however cheap solar photovoltaics become. However, it does de-nitely solve part of our problem. For example, in India about 20 percent of current electricity demand is to pull water up from wells and use it for irrigation. And you didn’t have to have that activity going on all the time so, for that type of ap-plication, solar is absolutely suitable. Indeed, for a large frac-tion of the world, the point of highest daily energy demand is in late afternoon when the air conditioning is working at its hardest. For those places, solar is useful; the sun is still above the horizon.We here in the U.K. have a different perspective, of course. When we need energy, the sun generally isn’t shining. For the bulk of the world, solar is pretty good. But everywhere is going to need storage. It’ll either be storage in the form of things like concentrating solar power, which is where the sun heats a liquid or uid of some form during the day and that heat – we’re talking about hundreds of degrees centigrade here – is used at night to create steam to drive a turbine. That is being taken up in various parts of the world, such as Morocco, South Africa, China, Saudi Arabia and Dubai. That’s a way of capturing the sun’s energy during the day and using it at night.But the most important thing is batteries for short-term overnight storage. There, we have seen exactly the same phe-nomenon as we have seen with PV, with costs coming down in a way that nobody predicted, driven by the iron law of the learning curve. The mathematics behind the learning curve gives you a gure for the amount that the cost of something will fall that is derived from how much of it is produced. So, a learning or experience curve typically says that once the pro-duction of a commodity such as PV panels has cumulatively doubled, the cost will fall by a predictable amount.In the case of PV, in Travis Bradford’s book, he suggests that every time the accumulated volume of solar photovoltaic panels that has ever been produced has doubled the cost has fallen by about 18 percent. Today this number is thought to be nearer 20 percent but he got the number basically right over 10 years ago. That means, if solar panel production is growing at 40 percent a year, which is what solar has done for the last 50 years, very roughly the cost will go down by 20 percent every two years – indenitely – in a relatively smooth decline. And that’s happened with batteries as well.There are lots of other different forms of storage. One that’s attracting a lot of attention at the moment is storage in com-pressed air. There are some technical problems with that but it looks as though it’s going to be fairly widely used. You pump air when electricity is available from the sun at high pressure into a salt cavern or something like that beneath the surface and it comes out, when you need the electricity, and drives a turbine. So, batteries and other short-term storage mecha-nisms are there and available to us. But long-term storage is more of a problem and that’s what the last chapters of my book deal with.5Your nal book is rather different again. This is The Planet Remade by Oliver Morton, published in 2015. This is a book largely about geoengineering. How is this relevant to the great energy transitions?By “geoengineering” we mean altera-tion of the world’s physical systems in a way that changes the planet’s ecological balance. Most of Oliver Morton’s book is about reducing the amount of the sun’s energy that gets through to the earth’s surface as a way of counterbal-ancing the increase of the heat blanket in the earth’s atmosphere.However, he also points out that the invention of the Haber-Bosch process in the rst decades of the 20th century enabled the world to convert fossil fuels into nitrogen-based agricultural fertil-izer and he calls this geoengineering as well. The application of articial fertilizer to elds expanded the total amount of energy from food that’s available to the planet’s inhabitants. In turn, that loosened the Malthusian constraints on the world’s population. Smil has shown that, before the use of fossil fuels for such things as fertilizer, energy availability per person was only a few kilowatt hours a day.The increase in human wellbeing coming from greater fertil-izer availability has had a growing impact on the concentra-tion of CO2 in the atmosphere. It was, as George Monbiot has so beautifully written, a Faustian bargain that gave us prosperity today in return for a possible climate hell in the ENERGY EXPERTContinued on next page...“Renewable energies do not lend themselves naturally — or are not thought to lend themselves naturally — to exploitation by big centralized multinational behemoths.”

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44Energies Magazine / Fall 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com44ENERGY EXPERTfuture. If Vaclav Smil and Daniel Yergin are right, we are deluding ourselves if we think we can switch to low car-bon energy sources fast enough to avoid that hell. Inevita-bly, Oliver says, we do need to contemplate solar radiation management, that is to say, using some form of chemical to block the sun’s radiation so that it doesn’t reach the earth’s surface.This is the idea of putting dust up into the stratosphere?Yes. Oliver says that we have a big problem. We know that we want to continue to be able to use large amounts of energy, we know that it’s going to be difcult to switch to entirely non-fossil fuel sources and give people cheap reliable energy; therefore, as sensible human beings, we need to think about what happens if we cannot pull down our fossil fuel use fast enough. And what the book is really about is a plea for people to start thinking about this, rath-er than saying – as they tend to do at the moment – that we shouldn’t talk about geoengineering, because it makes us think we have an excuse for not doing anything about carbon emissions, because we can always get rid of the problem by throwing up a few thousand tons of sulfates into the upper atmosphere.I’ve heard the distinguished climate scientist Ken Calde-ira say that, sure, we should we looking at geoengineer-ing and, yes, there may be some technical fixes but, when you look at the costs, it’s almost always likely to be much cheaper to just reduce carbon emissions in the first place than to geoengineer.Well, what Oliver tries to do in this book is to show that that’s not necessarily the case; that it’s really quite cheap. The contention is that solar radiation management – put-ting a blanket outside the stratosphere – is relatively inexpensive compared to, say, the cost of building nuclear power stations across the world to reduce the use of fossil fuels. But there are enormous ethical issues. It’s not just a question of putting a rocket up there and blasting the sulfates out.Do you find the argument plausible? I think the world needs to look at it. I think Oliver is right to ask us not to just dismiss it. There are lots of problems with geoengineering using sulfate aerosols, including that it will probably change the world’s rainfall patterns. Areas which have a lot of rainfall at the moment might have much less in the future. Others might have too much. Get-ting the global community to act when one large group of people suffer and another large group of people benet has proved to be almost impossible in the past and may well be so in the case of geoengineering. But I think Oliver Morton is right to insist that because climate change could be utterly devastating – and fairly soon – for large parts of the world, we need at least to openly discuss how the global community might reach a decision to geoengineer the atmosphere. And, like the other books in this selection, it is an engaging and informative read from a ne stylist.I wanted to conclude by breaking the rules and talking briey about a sixth text. This is not a book but a recent academic article. I’ve included it both because it is an absolutely superb piece of writing and also because it was written by a woman. All the rest of the works in this list are by men. That troubled me. Climate change already disproportionately affects women. In many places, for example, they have to travel farther for water and for wood as a result of temperature and rainfall change. However, the world of energy production and energy research, as well as writing about energy, is wholly dominated by men. This has to change.Let me talk about Olivia Judson’s ne paper for a moment. In The Energy Expansions of Evolution, which was published [in April 2017] and is available outside a paywall, Judson shows how from the earliest times organisms have ex-ploited the energy available to them. Evolution, as in the development of cyanobacteria, allowed the use of dif-ferent sources of energy. What Olivia shows, as with all the works in my micro-library, is that energy availability is central to the development of living things, including the human race. Energy availability has been, and will continue to be, the central determinant of human prosperity. The challenge is to nd ways of farming it, and then storing it, rather than mining it from the crust. Since the sun pro-vides at least 6,000 times as much direct energy as we are ever likely to need – two orders of magnitude more than any other source – solar energy is now the obvious choice.Chris Goodall is an author and expert on renewable energy technologies. He runs the Carbon Commentary blog. Reprinted by permission from Five Books. This article originally appeared in the September 7, 2017, issue of Five Books: The Best Books Recommended by Experts.“As sensible human beings, we need to think about what happens if we cannot pull down our fossil fuel use fast enough.”

Energies Magazine Fall 2022

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