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THE MAGAZINE FOR LEADERS IN AMERICAN ENERGYWinter 2022EnergiesMagazine.comJeff Bridges, Academy Award Winning Actor and Environmental Activist | WIND. SOLAR. STORAGE.
Learn more at portofcc.com100 YEARS STRONG.Over the past century, the Port of Corpus Christi has become America’s largest port by total revenue tonnage and the nation’s leading U.S. produced energy export gateway. From the historic Ship Channel Improvement Project to initiatives like the centralized Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) solution and scalable hydrogen and renewable energy production — the Port is expanding its infrastructure and capabilities today to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com1FEATURE Jeff Bridges: We’re All In This Together PAGE 24Jeff Bridges with his Signature Oregon Concerto Bourbon CE guitar created in collaboration with Breedlove. Photo courtesy of Jeff Bridges. Photography by Audrey Hall. www.audreyhall.comIN THIS ISSUELetter from the Editor-in-Chief PAGE 2ENERGIES Contributors PAGE 2ENERGIES Online PAGE 3Industry Data PAGE 3TECHNOLOGYBlack Powder Solutions Unfolds Cutting Edge Emission Reduction Technology PAGE 4CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGEPort of Corpus Christi Sees Carbon Storage Future from Multiple Vantage Points PAGE 8SOLARSailing Into the Sunset PAGE 10LOGISTICSDrones Streamline Logistics forOffshore Wind Maintenance PAGE 12INFLATION REDUCTION ACTThe IRA’s Energy Provision Success Hinges on Transmission Infrastructure PAGE 16GEOTHERMAL ENERGYOn the Cusp PAGE 18UTILITIESUtilities Can Drive a Clean, Reliable PathForward with Distributed Energy Resources PAGE 22DOCUMENTARYFilmmaker Susan Kucera: A RealisticEnvironmentalist PAGE 32ACTIVISMIn the Hot (Money) Seat with Wes Clark, Jr. PAGE 36BIOFUELSSmoke and Mirrors: Why the World’s Rush to Electric Vehicles Hides a Dirty Secret PAGE 38NONPROFIT Let’s Solve For That PAGE 42SAFETYTop Four Workplace Hazards in Renewable Energy – And How to Prevent Them PAGE 46Energies Cartoon PAGE 49ELECTRIC VEHICLES Mobile Charging Innovation: Solving Challenges for Commercial EV Fleets PAGE 50LOCAL CONTENT STRATEGIES Local Content in the Energy Transition PAGE 52DOCUMENTARYSusan Kucera Illustrations PAGE 54
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com2WINTER 2022PUBLISHER Emmanuel SullivanEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Rebecca PontonMANAGING EDITOR Sarah SkinnerASSISTANT EDITOR Nick VaccaroCOPY EDITOR Shannon WestCREATIVE DIRECTOR Kim FischerCONTRIBUTING EDITORS Katie Navarra 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 reect the opinions of the publisher. Any advice given in editorial content or advertisements should be considered information only. Cover photo courtesy of Jeff Bridges.LETTER FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEFCONTRIBUTORS — BiographiesRebecca Ponton, Editor-in-ChiefAs you may have noticed from the cover, this issue of ENERGIES Magazine is slightly different from the rest. Since the rst issue premiered in Spring of this year, we have been privileged to talk to and feature insights from leaders at the forefront of the energy transition, starting with Abby Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), followed by Al Vickers, bp’s CEO of Wind Energy, in the Summer issue, and CJ Warner, who sits on Chevron’s board of directors, on the cover of the Fall edition. (If you missed any of those issues, you will want to sign up for the complimentary digital edition of the magazine, so that you can access the archives.) So, where does an Academy award-winning actor t into the scheme of things?As we all know, it is imperative to accelerate the energy transition while, at the same time, increase diversity – of all forms – within the industry. Which is why, with this issue, we are thrilled to feature Oscar winner and environmental activist Jeff Bridges, someone with a slightly different perspective, although he has been fascinated by, and concerned with, the environment since childhood. Over the past few years, Bridges has collaborated with documentary lmmaker, Susan Kucera, also proled in this issue, on two lms, Living in the Future’s Past, and Hot Money, to highlight the issues surrounding climate change and its effects on the planet and humanity.Bridges brought his unique brand of mellow, yet passionate, energy to the interview, touching on a wide variety of topics, and incorporating thoughts from elds as diverse as science, psychology and philosophy. (As he said in our conversation, “I like getting into the Buddhist [philosophy because] I think they know a beginner’s mind is a good place to start.”) Words of wisdom, as it’s going to take open minds and creative thinkers to nd innovative solutions to power the world’s energy needs while mitigating climate change.And that’s a wrap for 2022! (It seems only tting to work in some movie terminol-ogy!)In 2023, we look forward to bringing you more stories of cutting-edge technology and discussions with industry leaders who are helping move the energy transition forward.Happy holidays!Katie NavarraKatie Navarra is a non-ction writer. Her byline has appeared in Popular Science, The Motley Fool, Education Dive, ChemMatters, Society of Human Resources Management, Western Horseman Magazine and Working Ranch, among others. Previously, Navarra has proled a solar entrepreneur and an executive coach for Oilwoman Magazine. She has also written about nuclear energy and agri-energy for the magazine. In this issue, she reports on residential wind. Photo courtesy Carien Schippers.Elizabeth 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.
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com3DIGITAL INDUSTRY DATAConnect with ENERGIES anytime at ENERGIESMAGAZINE.com and on social media#EnergiesNEWSStay updated between issues with weekly reports delivered online at EnergiesMagazine.comSOCIAL STREAM
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com4Black Powder Solutions Unfolds Cutting Edge Emission Reduction Technology By Nick VaccaroWhile mounting scrutiny has plagued the oil and gas industry, companies con-tinue to seek ways to earn a prot while reducing their carbon footprint. Al-though some have invested in alternative energy ventures, the complete removal from oil and gas remains unlikely as it provides more than just fuel sources. With petroleum products being inter-twined in almost every aspect of our lives, some companies nd themselves entrenched in the game of remaining faithful to the industry, but with a new and efcient methodology that allows for an oil and gas future that contributes to planet preservation.Roger Simonson and his company, One Eye Industries, recognized an opportu-nity early on for cleaning crude oil and rened products, as well as natural gas. While technology already existed, One Eye Industries formed Black Powder Solutions and secured patents for large semi and fully automatic systems to remove black powder contamination from oil and gas pipelines. Black Powder Solutions has grown into a global leader in magnetic separation technology, help-ing energy industry majors reduce their carbon footprint and increase prots. Black Powder Contaminant MakeupSimonson, who serves as the CEO of One Eye Industries, denes black pow-der as a collection of iron compounds such as iron oxide and iron sulde and is referenced as a rouge, black or brown dust. Additional materials released from formations and found in black powder include vanadium, silica, phosphorus and calcium. It forms due to corrosion and erosion of pipeline walls and storage reservoirs, and can be introduced into products when temperature and pressure changes occur.“Black powder is found in transmission pipelines and piping systems in reneries, gas plants and chemical plants,” says Simonson. “The sources of black powder originate from the formation during the drilling process and after production from the gathering lines into the pipeline systems.”Magnetic TechnologyBlack Powder Solutions’ patented tech-nology encompasses core technology radial magnetic elds capable of cleaning down to or below a one-micron particle size. The magnetic elds used refrain from impeding oil and gas ow as they operate at minimal differential pressure.“This is very important as high differen-tial pressures caused by basket screens and depth media ltration stress pumps and compressors, and consume high levels of energy to ensure ow values,” says Simonson.This picture is of the BPS ltration body with the magnetic separator after a two-hour run time. Photo courtesy of Black Powder Solutions.TECHNOLOGY
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com5The magnetic separator elements deployed in Black Powder Solutions’ housing include a high holding capac-ity and can be cleaned and returned to service. Because they can be introduced with minimal ow restrictions, pumps and compressors endure signicantly re-duced energy consumption. Additional-ly, cleaning cycles are typically increased to three to six times the traditional lter change out rate.Traditional lters employed for black powder contamination collection create hazardous waste when managed by hand during the change out process. Black Powder Solutions’ technology elimi-nates the need for human contact as the contaminants collect on the magnetic separator elements. The cleaning process is enacted by semi and fully automatic systems where a series of spray nozzles soak the elements with a potassium per-manganate solution that neutralizes iron sulde compounds. Pumps transport the contamination from the lter housing to a safe storage container for disposal.“Black Powder Solutions’ prime direc-tive is to design and manufacture our magnetic separators,” says Simonson. Reducing the Carbon Footprint Black powder particles take a destruc-tive path in initiating a negative impact regarding the world’s carbon footprint. With the race to reduce emissions and lessen negative effects, Black Powder So-lutions’ technology serves as the gateway in eliminating harmful emissions.According to Simonson, black powder particles damage valves, meters and seals due to their abrasive makeup. This results in methane leakage, a primary contributor to the carbon footprint. Without adequate attention given to righting the wrongs of harmful emis-sions, the carbon footprint will continue to grow and result in increased damage to the planet. Black Powder Solutions’ technology offers a solution to curtail carbon footprint growth.“When natural gas fuel is contaminated with black powder, it will cause damage to the combustion engines,” says Si-monson. “The combustion process then becomes inefcient thereby reducing the energy output, and releases unspent gas into the atmosphere increasing green-house gas emissions.”Cleaning or ridding systems of black powder contamination from the gas re-duces equipment damage and emissions and allows for a two-part combative method in lowering overall emissions. While limiting gas emissions helps to preserve the planet, reducing equipment damage offers the same outcome, as failure can result in catastrophic release.Black Powder Solutions’ technology not only drives a responsible solution to emissions control, but adds the addi-tional benet of increased prots. While reducing emissions aids in environmental protection, increasing equipment lifespan puts money back into the prot equa-tion. Simonson reasons that clean gas reduces methane leakage opportunities and protects valves, seals, compressors and meters from the well location to the end user. Clean gas utilized as a fuel for power generation provides an efcient burn that yields a reduction in methane leakage and greenhouse gas buildup.“Clean fuels provide multiple benets by burning more efciently and reducing emissions,” says Simonson.Black Powder Solutions offers an emis-sion busting technology that does not perform exclusively in conjunction with natural gas pipelines. Crude oil and rened product pipelines also realize the benets. With crude oil, the value begins at the gathering lines where the oil, water and gas are separated before being transported down the line. By removing black powder particles, separation sys-tems can enjoy longer run times without having to be shut down for cleaning operations. The additional benet is cleaner oil will be delivered to reneries.“Clean feedstock into a renery will reduce the operating energy costs, ex-tend life and, more importantly, reduce emissions released when burned,” says Simonson.When the discussion of the oil and gas industry’s carbon footprint contribu-tion becomes a talking point, the more popular source tends to be identied as the are. Visions of gas burning create an image of an ill-fated planetary future. The Black Powder Solutions’ technol-ogy, however, possesses the ability to counteract those effects.“Burning dirty are gas reduces the burn efciency and allows unspent TECHNOLOGYBPS applied its contaminant capture technology to a crude oil slop tank and returned 8,000 BBL to an acceptable cleanliness level for rening and resale. Source: Black Powder SolutionsContinued on next page...
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com6Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com6gas to enter the atmosphere,” says Simonson, who added that are gas should be used for creating energy whenever possible.Future ContributionAccording to Simonson, Black Pow-der Solutions nds itself in a unique position, ensuring success as a com-pany, as well as contributing to the oil and gas industry reducing emissions. Through a series of case studies per-formed, Black Powder Solutions has made impressive strides in overcom-ing widespread opposition.“The oil and gas industry is acknowl-edging our technology at an increas-ing rate every year,” says Simonson. “We are overcoming the biggest challenge of change and are becom-ing the standard for many of the applications we employ our technol-ogy upon.”By partnering with Black Powder Solutions, oil and gas companies reap the rewards of cost savings, and further benet from increased efciency. Reducing energy output through efciency enables an im-pactful reduction in the carbon foot-print. The bonus of reducing actual emissions takes good environmental stewardship to the next level. By providing a path to increased prots and emissions control, Black Pow-der Solutions can offer the industry continual support as it evolves with the energy transition future. “ESG and greenhouse gas emissions are becoming a serious concern of the oil and gas industry,” says Simonson. “Black Powder Solutions is staged to offer its technology to be a part of the future solution of a clean energy world.”TECHNOLOGYBPS applied its ltration technology to a sample of aviation fuel that realized impressive OPEX savings and ESG risk reduction. Source: Black Powder SolutionsApproximately 100 percent of black powder contaminants were captured when BPS applied its technology to a natural gas system. Source: Black Powder SolutionsNick Vaccaro is a freelance writer and photographer. In addition to providing technical writing services, he is an HSE consultant in the oil and gas industry with eight years of experience. Vaccaro also contributes to SHALE Oil and Gas Business Magazine, Louisiana Sportsman Magazine, and follows and photographs American Kennel Club eld and herding trials. He has a BA in photojournalism from Loyola University and resides in the New Orleans area. Vaccaro can be reached at 985-966-0957 or navaccaro@outlook.com.
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Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com8Port of Corpus Christi Sees Carbon Storage Future from Multiple Vantage Points By Nick VaccaroAs energy companies concentrate on diversifying to increase prots and meet governmental regulations, the Port of Corpus Christi works to support them by embracing the future with a warm wel-come to an energy transition revolution. With a prime geographical location and infrastructure capabilities, the Port has found a position to support the impend-ing energy alternative and signicantly contribute to preserving the planet.Identifying himself as a “planner by trade,” Jeff Pollack has contributed to the Port’s clean energy contribution as the chief strategy and sustainability of-cer for the past four years. Focusing on large-scale land use planning and regula-tory compliance, key performance targets concentrate heavily on carbon reduction and storage. With the implementation of a new storage strategy, the Port of Cor-pus Christi expects to develop an added revenue stream of abundant possibilities with carbon storage.The Port includes about 30,000 acres of land with a considerable portion available for development. Partnering the ability to secure federal funding with the avail-ability of real estate and infrastructure, the Port nds itself in a unique situation where it is home to a range of industries, most of which generate some level of carbon dioxide emission. To uphold its place in the clean energy economy, the Port strives to help manage those emissions. Capture and storage prevail as viable solutions.The Port’s already developed property acts as a target-rich environment in itself. Its network of pipelines and facilities already carries natural gas that releases carbon dioxide when converted to hydrogen. The Port can further accom-modate its customers by meeting those capture and storage needs.The capture and storage methodology enables the Port to serve as a solution CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com9provider for multiple reasons. Pollack indicates that the geology of the Coastal Bend—including the geology under Port-owned acreage—is very well suited for carbon dioxide storage.Talos Energy and Howard Energy Part-ners established a lease option with the Port of Corpus Christi earlier this year to pursue carbon capture and sequestra-tion opportunities on Port property. The venture capitalizes on Port real estate, Howard Energy Partners’ transportation infrastructure experience, and Talos’ subsurface specialties to create a decar-burization hub offering solutions to all customers who utilize the port.“We have a unique opportunity to use existing Port-owned rights-of-way to help connect target sources of CO2 with target injection locations on Port property,” says Pollack.While seeking to accommodate custom-ers in all aspects available, the Port of Corpus Christi offers farther reach to customers outside its nearby vicinity. While customers like Howard benet from proximity to the Port, others cover the signicant distance to benet from its ideal geographical location.Wind energy is a fast-growing renewable energy source. The Port services green energy customers located elsewhere in the state, but whose product is pipe-lined to the Port. With a robust carbon injection and storage solution, the Port can further position itself in generating revenue and assisting these clients in reducing their carbon emissions.The Port announced in May of 2021 that it entered a memorandum of un-derstanding with Ares Management to develop infrastructure to support green hydrogen production and, separately, a directive to generate renewable electric-ity. This would include solar facilities, battery storage infrastructure and elec-trolyzers, which would be constructed on Port property. The downside seems slim to none. The Port of Corpus Christi’s carbon storage abilities see little limitation but an endless network enabling a bright future in emission reduction. The mapping of pipelines and reach on land is vast, but it can facilitate solutions for carbon storage solutions from a nautical vantage point. The port boasts a deep draft channel with decreased congestion in waterway trafc, as well as low rates of delay. “We’re working to develop both on-shore and offshore geologic storage of captured CO2,” says Pollack. “The avail-ability of an offshore storage option will bring a different order of scalability to our carbon management solution.”The land use, offshore component and existing infrastructure allow the Port to offer multiple services instead of one singular response. Those searching to produce hydrogen can partner with the Port in these ventures and access the carbon capture aspect that enables low-carbon hydrogen to be produced from natural gas. While the product is distributed and transported, the carbon dioxide can be directed to an injection and storage site at the port. This enables a rich response levied by the Port of Corpus Christi.“Diversity in energy options is the order of the day,” says Pollack. “We’re working to cultivate new energy com-modities even as we continue to invest in infrastructure that supports our core customer base.”Pollack identies the crucial role that location plays in the drive for efciency. Customers who utilize the port and its services repeatedly capitalize on the location factor because of the multiple benets offered across the board. As society calls upon the energy sector to develop alternate or better solutions, the Port can be a strategic ally.Nick Vaccaro is a free-lance writer and pho-tographer. In addition to providing technical writing services, he is an HSE consultant in the oil and gas indus-try with eight years of experience. Vaccaro also contributes to SHALE Oil and Gas Business Maga-zine, Louisiana Sportsman Magazine, and follows and photographs Ameri-can Kennel Club eld and herding trials. He has a BA in photojournalism from Loyola University and resides in the New Orleans area. Vaccaro can be reached at 985-966-0957 or navac-caro@outlook.com. Jeff Pollack, Chief Strategy Ofcer, Port of Corpus Christi. Photos courtesy of Port of Corpus Christi.CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com10SOLARSailing Into the Sunset By Katie NavarraTravel specialist Tammy Doucette and her husband James steer others toward their “vacation of a lifetime,” through her agency Sundowner Travel by Dream Va-cations, located in Troy, New York, while simultaneously working toward their ulti-mate getaway – an untethered life. Their goal is to eventually sell their property to live aboard their solar-powered Catama-ran sailboat and sail the Caribbean.“Our preference is to be off the grid. We love being on a mooring and at anchor. Some people love to be docked where they can connect to shore power,” she says. “We want to be able to tuck into an island, stay on anchor for a month, a day, a year or whatever we decide to do. If we like the people and there is a great atmosphere, we don’t want to have to rely on power to stay where we are.”The couple owns a 411 Catana Cata-maran that is just under 23.5 feet wide. The vessel runs on 1200W of solar power split into two 600W feeds that are directed into two different battery banks. The couple plans to add another 150 W battery, which would be continuously charged by solar.“Outside of the coffee maker, we can be 100 percent off-grid on solar power. We can run our refrigerator, freezer, lights and navigation station instruments,” Doucette says. The couple must watch the amp hours and calculate their energy intake and usage. For example, they know that the freezer onboard requires three amps ev-ery hour. Adding that to the energy needs of other amenities, they know they can sail on solar as long as the solar panels bring in the minimum amperage required. “If we have cloudy, miserable weather for two weeks straight, we may run into a sit-uation where we have to start the battery to refresh it because the alternator runs from the engine,” Doucette says.The solar-powered boat industry is tiny, notes David Borton, a physicist and retired associate profes-sor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti-tute where he taught solar engineering. The global solar boat market generated $0.65 billion in 2021, and the industry is projected to reach $2.4 billion by 2031, according to a report by Allied Market Research. Solar-powered vessels are not only for private boating enthusiasts. The indus-try is gaining in popularity, and being brought onboard commercial boats. Electric-powered vessels are primarily commercial ferries that can charge at each end while loading, as Borton explains. He initially saw solar power as an alterna-tive to gasoline in the mid-1970s, having just nished a PhD in physics. Shortages and rationing meant he couldn’t buy gas-oline easily, so he began investigating the potential of all energy sources and chose the sun because it is the only one that has provided power for millions of years. “I’ve been in solar ever since,” he says. “Solar power is big enough and clean enough.” Borton began joining his family on boat-ing excursions before his rst birthday. When he considered solar energy, it was only natural that his thoughts turned to building a solar-powered vessel.Borton’s rst solar-powered boat was an Adirondack canoe, then a 44-foot tour boat on the Hudson River, and his designs have evolved from there. His rst 25W photovoltaic panel cost $10 per watt, a price he considered a great bargain. “Today’s cost is around $1 per watt, so it is even more of a bargain,” he says. In 2015, Borton drove the rst 100 percent solar-powered cargo vessel to Lockport, New York. The tugboat named Solar Sal traversed nearly 650 miles across the state to deliver four tons of cargo. The boat is outtted with ve kW of solar panels, which feed two battery banks. The solar panels supply power to Torqeedo lithium batteries and traditional lead-acid batteries. Twin Torqeedo Cruise 4.0 electric mo-tors propel the boat at an average speed of seven mph and the motors provide thrust equal to two 9.9-horsepower com-Tammy Doucette and husband James.
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com11SOLARbustion engines. During daylight hours, travel is unlimited. After sunset, the ves-sel can run on stored battery power for up to 50 miles. “Solar is a great bargain,” Borton says. “Electronically controlled motors are even better than older motors and lithi-um batteries are even better than lead.”Borton shares his passion for solar-powered boating with his wife, Harriet (a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana in the 1960s), and their son Alex. Their company, Solar Sal Boats, holds U.S. Patent No. 10,875,608 for its solar-powered aquatic vessels. They work with expert designers and boat builders to launch commercial boats, and also cruisers for picnic/cocktail launches with the option of private cabins. In 2018, their Solar Sal 44 model was the rst 100 percent solar powered commercial boat inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard. Now named Solaris, the solar passenger vessel was the rst of its type to receive certication. In 2021, the father-son duo piloted Wayward Sun, a 27-foot solar-powered boat, on a 1,400-mile journey from Bellingham, Washington, to Juneau, Alaska, making it the rst recorded 100 percent solar-powered voyage up the Inside Passage.As Alex explains, the Wayward Sun cruises at 4.5 knots with 1000 watts and ve knots with 1500 watts. Twelve Solbian 144 watt panels capture the sun’s energy and feed 1,728 watts to six Torqeedo Power 24-3500 batteries, giving the boat 21,000 watt-hour capacity.“Doubling the power from 1,500 watts to 3,000 watts will gain just over an ad-ditional knot of speed,” he posted on a blog recounting the trip. “Adding another 1,500 watts only gets another half knot to max out our top speed of 6.5 knots at 4,500 watts of power.”“People are used to electric cars, and they always ask how far we can go. The day-time range on a solar boat is unlimited,” Alex says. “There is a misconception that [solar-powered boats] are complicated, and you need to be an engineer, a physi-cist or do-it-yourselfer to have a solar boat. It is really easy to both understand and operate a solar boat.”Naysayers of solar boating say it is not of consequence because it does not generate enough power or speed to be a viable solution. Borton says that, unlike land-based electric vehicles, the solar boat range is not limited, though the amount of available sunshine inu-ences speed.“The solar boating industry is growing. I know of a couple commercial solar boats besides Solaris. One is a ferry in India, and one is a tour boat somewhere in the tropics,” Alex adds. “There are a couple smaller, all-solar recreational boats that you can nd online, if you Google “solar boats.” The ones I have seen do not have a head like our SS24. We think the head is important. Solar boats eliminate range anxiety, but what good is unlimited range if you have bladder anxiety?”Like the Bortons, other entrepreneurs, including Gunter Pauli from Belgium, believe oth-erwise. Pauli’s 118-foot-long, 79-foot-wide ship dubbed Porrima uses hydrogen from seawater, solar power panels and more, reported Architectural Digest in April 2022.“Electric boats are coming, as are electric cars,” Borton says. “Solar boats will be the way to go since there is no place to charge many places boats want to go. We plan to make solar cabin cruisers but, more importantly, solar freight boats – rst for the Erie Canal, Hudson River and inland waters.”Katie Navarra is a non-ction writer. Her byline has appeared in Popular Science, The Motley Fool, Education Dive, ChemMatters, Society of Human Resources Management, Western Horseman Magazine and Working Ranch, among others. Photo courtesy Carien SchippersAlex Borton (left) and David Borton (right).
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com12Drones Streamline Logistics for Offshore Wind Maintenance By Aaron ZhangDrone technologies continue to prolifer-ate the renewable energy sector. From autonomous drones conducting inspec-tions of turbine blades, to cargo drones making ship-to-ship, and shore-to-ship payload drop-offs, energy sector opera-tors have been robust adopters of inno-vative uses for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). With the rapid advancement of commercial delivery drone platforms, UAVs are also now being trialed in offshore logistics applications to help streamline preventative and corrective maintenance missions. While commercial payload drones are not going to replace the ships and heli-copters that ferry maintenance personnel from shore to the turbine elds, they can help streamline the transport of spare parts and tools to teams deployed off-shore, or between offshore installations. These missions can mitigate downtime for offshore installations, realize cost savings, and help reduce emissions. The demanding conditions of these logistics missions also require some purpose-built UAV platforms.Mitigating Costly DowntimeThe main objective of any preventa-tive maintenance program is to reduce costly downtime. While service techni-cians usually travel to offshore instal-lations with the tools and components most often needed for turbine repairs, if their inspection deems additional parts are needed, it could require a complete roundtrip to shore-based facilities to retrieve those components. This is costly in ship or helicopter opera-tions hours, personnel and fuel costs. Even more costly is the added delay of the turbine restart. Leveraging com-mercial delivery drones would streamline these repairs. Rather than deploy ad-ditional ships or helicopters, technicians could instead request the necessary tools, components or materials be deployed aboard an autonomous delivery drone. For example, a team deployed for routine replacement of a sensor might nd additional electric components in need of replacement. A commercial delivery drone deployed from shore could reach a turbine 25 kilometers offshore in un-der 30 minutes. By the time the sensor replacement is complete, the needed components would be neatly deposited at the turbine access point or even atop the nacelle, if applicable. For teams deployed from a mothership, drones could transfer parts and supplies ship-to-ship, pre-venting the vessels from steaming long distances to make such transfers at sea.Cost Savings and Emissions ReductionsEliminating even a portion of the ships steaming to offshore facilities, or the he-licopters making roundtrip ights, would mean savings on fuel, personnel costs, etc. In fact, Marco Polo Marine, a Singa-pore-based integrated maritime logistics company, and drone services provider, F-Drones, recently partnered on the world’s rst large-scale, electric aerial delivery UAVs designed to service offshore wind farms. The joint endeavor estimates it will realize a 90 percent cost savings com-pared to current transport options. Also, for renewable energy produc-ers striving for a carbon neutral goal, leveraging UAVs for offshore logistics offers an opportunity to service these installations more sustainably. With even heavy-lift drone platforms powered by rechargeable lithium-ion battery packs, the platforms offer a zero emission transportation platform. Marco Polo Marine estimates deploying UAVs for transporting supplies to the platforms will lower carbon outputs by 99 percent compared to supply boats or crew trans-fer vessels.Hardware Demands for Offshore Logistics DronesFor offshore operators to leverage drone platforms in offshore logistics, the drones need to be purpose-built for the operations and conditions. While many near-shore wind farms may be within sight of shore, to service more distant Photo courtesy of Nordic Unmanned. LOGISTICS
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com13facilities, drone platforms need expanded range and suitable payload capacity to meet the most common payload neces-sities. UAV platforms purpose-built for such missions are fairly readily available. In fact, renewable energy titan, Ørsted, recently launched offshore logistics trials with a drone platform capable of travel-ing 100 kilometers with a load capacity of 2.5 kilograms. Another such trial is underway as drone-maker Wingcopter has partnered with German Airways to test similar logistics capabilities for offshore wind farms. The Wingcopter drones transport payloads of up to ve kilograms between 75 and 110 kilometers.In addition to simply reaching these offshore installations, the delivery drones need to be able to deposit their cargo safely and accurately. Leveraging a teth-ered delivery system allows commercial cargo drones to deposit the payloads from altitude. This keeps spinning propellers away from personnel and equipment on the ground or offshore platform. The tethered system is also designed to auto-release its payload without person-nel having to interact with the parcel. In addition, the tethered system gives tech-nicians the ability to pick up payloads. Filled with redundant safety systems, the heavy-duty Kevlar tether can also be abandoned if it becomes ensnared. While tethered deliveries are ideal for safety, heavy offshore winds can some-Photo courtesy of A2Z Drone Delivery.LOGISTICSContinued on next page...
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com14Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com14LOGISTICStimes complicate tethered delivery. To address this, operators, like Nordic Unmanned in Norway, are testing a modular UAV design that quickly swaps the tether system for an enclosed payload bay. With the latter, the UAV is required to land on the platform.While logistics ights between ships or from shore-to-ship will continue to require some pilot interaction, current autonomous ight capabilities already enable essentially hands-free deliveries between known xed points. Operators simply pre-plan a delivery path from the UAV’s ground station, and, with the tap of a button, the drone will take off, travel the prescribed ight pattern, deposit the package and then return along the same route. Pre-planning these ight paths allows the drones to avoid known hazards such as power lines on shore, restricted air spaces or other offshore installations. Integrating autonomous capabilities also mitigates potential for pilot error, which can be valuable in seeking regulatory approvals for the operations. Regulatory Requirements for Offshore Drone FlightsTo realize the efciencies drones can deliver for offshore logistics, operators will also need to adhere to the regional regulatory requirements. These obvi-ously differ throughout the world. In each area of operation, regulatory au-thorities will issue certicates enabling very specic authorizations for drone operations beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). Offshore energy produc-ers seeking to trial drones for offshore logistics often partner with established drone service providers with experience operating in their respective areas of operation. These service providers also will ensure proper regulatory approv-als for the operations, if they do not already hold the necessary certicates.Competitive Advantages Whether for installation inspections, routine facilities surveillance or creating efciency in offshore maintenance mis-sions, innovative drone technologies represent a new competitive advantage for renewable energy producers. Limit-ing ship travel or helicopter ights not only saves capital expenditures, but mitigates detrimental emissions from these traditional transportation plat-forms. Most notably, leveraging drones to expedite offshore logistics speeds repairs and puts offshore turbines back online sooner. Renewable energy pro-ducers that embrace these cutting-edge capabilities will undoubtedly be better positioned within the sector.Aaron Zhang is the founder and CEO of A2Z Drone Delivery, Inc., which develops innovative solutions capable of pushing drone delivery into mainstream logistics operations. Based in Los Angeles, California, A2Z Drone Delivery originated as a drone delivery project at Brown University in 2016 and now serves customers around the world that are leveraging its technology for residential drone delivery, offshore logistics, search and rescue opera-tions and more. www.a2zdronedelivery.com Photos courtesy of A2Z Drone Delivery.
IT’S A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: CALIFORNIA’S MOMENT IN OFFSHORE WINDThe federal goal of 15 GW of floating oshore wind by 2035 and California’s recently announced goal of deploying 25 GW of oshore wind energy by 2045 oer unprecedented growth opportunities for West Coast businesses throughout the supply chain. Hosted by the Business Network for Oshore Wind, Oshore Wind Supplier Days oer your business the opportunity to learn about the latest oshore wind market updates. Learn about floating oshore wind, job opportunities, resources for your business, and connect with oshore wind developers, technology providers, and other suppliers. Whether you are new to oshore wind or already participate in the industry, this unique event oers the latest insights into the West Coast oshore wind supply chain and gives your business direct access to industry leaders. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Oshore Wind Supplier Day: California Edition will bring together 100+ California companies participating in or interested in joining the rapidly growing U.S. oshore wind supply chain. Supplier Day oers your company the opportunity to showcase your products and services directly to industry professionals with purchasing power. Learn more here or contact Denielle Christensen for more information. REGISTRATION: To register, visit oshorewindus.org/supplier-days REGISTRATION COST: • $95 for Network members • $150 for Non-members DATE:• December 14, 2022 • There will be a welcome reception on the evening of Tuesday, December 13 LOCATION:• Oshore Wind Supplier Day will be held at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel San Diego – Mission Valley (7450 Hazard Center Drive) PRESENTED BY THE BUSINESS NETWORK FOR OFFSHORE WIND
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com16The IRA’s Energy Provision Success Hinges on Transmission Infrastructure By Maria J. CheaOn August 16, 2022, President Biden signed into law one of the most sig-nicant reconciliation bills for climate and clean energy investments in the United States. The Ination Reduction Act (IRA) aims to support different technologies for clean energy produc-tion, transportation, carbon emission reduction, domestic manufacturing, and expanding a workforce suitable for the energy transition. However, despite the passing of this watershed bill, there is still a major challenge to successfully electrify the grid. The success of the IRA hinges on much needed transmis-sion infrastructure updates and im-proved policy.Transmission Woes: Congestion and CurtailmentEnsuring that renewable power reaches the areas that need electricity is a long-term challenge the U.S. needs to address. While renewable generation moves us closer toward decarboniza-tion, transmission infrastructure is needed to ensure that the clean en-ergy being produced is consumed and reaches the areas that need it. A widely cited study by Princeton University concludes that electricity transmission systems will need to expand 60 percent by 2030 and triple by 2050 to be able to incorporate the power generated from planned solar and wind projects. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) study, Examining Supply-Side Options to Achieve 100% Clean Electricity by 2035, concluded in all three of its renewable penetration scenarios that transmission capacity needs to increase by two to threefold. The IRA will only increase the already burgeon-ing solar and wind pipeline which will further press the need to expand the country’s transmission system. Two of the biggest challenges renew-ables face when it comes to transmis-sion are increasing congestion costs and curtailment rates. Grid congestion occurs when existing transmission lines are unable to deliver electricity to where it is needed. The analogy often used is to think of electrons as cars and power lines as highways: If too many electrons converge on the same road, congestion occurs. When the lowest-priced electricity cannot reach consumers, utilities must rely on closer, costlier, and usually more polluting plants to provide the electricity needed, which results in higher electricity prices for consumers and lost revenues for developers. Wind and solar projects require three to ve times as much land as fossil-fuel plants on a per megawatt (MW) basis; because of this, projects are usually built in remote areas where longer distance transmission lines are needed. Power generators usually pay for the interconnection lines that will connect them to the grid, but these costs can make a project untenable. In 2020, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC) published an analysis that showed 245 clean energy projects in advanced stages of development had withdrawn from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), one of the reasons for many were that grid upgrades would be too costly for the project. This issue is not unique to MISO, and project backers that fail to perform proper due diligence at the outset of a project may nd themselves with delayed timelines and higher costs. This is why an advisory team that helps clients identify risks at all the stages of a project’s life cycle is critical. Photo courtesy of lnpdm – www.123RF.comINFLATION REDUCTION ACT
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com17When congestion occurs, ISOs revert to different strategies, such as curtail-ment, to prevent a system overload. There are two main causes for cur-tailments: system-wide oversupply and local transmission constraints. System-wide oversupply is usually seen in the spring months where demand for electricity is low, but generation is high. Local transmission constraints occur when there is an abundance of electricity in one area, but insufcient or inadequate transmission infrastruc-ture to deliver the electricity to other places that need it. Storage has been helping to alleviate sys-tem-wide oversupply by storing surplus energy and using it in the evening hours. However, local transmission constraints need new infrastructure to help electric-ity move; storage alone cannot solve transmission constraints – for now. An example of a successful case is Texas, where, as wind generation continued to grow in the early aughts, the need for transmission lines increased. The Elec-tric Reliability Council of Texas (ER-COT) created an electric transmission plan and eventually built new lines that brought down wind curtailment from 17 percent in 2009 to 0.5 percent in 2014. Transmission expansion plans like these need to occur at a national level. As renewable penetration continues to increase, so have curtailment rates. For independent system operators (ISOs) that report curtailment details, the increase in curtailment has tripled or in some cases increased over vefold. Ac-cording to S&P Global, in the Califor-nia ISO (CAISO) combined wind and solar curtailment in 2019 totaled over 960,000 megawatt-hours (MWh). This curtailment has increased to 2.1 million MWh in the rst seven months of 2022. In Texas, where solar and wind installations have surpassed Califor-nia’s, curtailment rates totaled over 2.1 million MWh in 2019; by 2021, they increased to 6.6 million MWh. Wind curtailment in the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) increased over vefold, from nearly 1.2 million MWh in 2019 to over 6.3 million MWh in 2021.All Eyes on Transmission PolicyImproving transmission infrastructure is not easy. The transmission sys-tem is made up of different players, including a mixed bag of who owns and who operates transmission lines, private and public utilities that must answer to different stakeholders, while the same is true for the developers and independent power producers (IPP) that build power plants. To add on to the complexity of the grid, there are also environmentalists, util-ity lawyers, NIMBYism, and multiple state and local agencies that all have a say in when and where transmission lines get built. Despite the challenges and intricacy of the U.S. transmission system, steps are being taken to help improve trans-mission infrastructure. In November 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) authorized ap-proximately $65 billion in new spend-ing to expand and modernize the transmission system.Additionally, the Building a Better Grid initiative by the Department of Energy (DOE) will use $12.5 bil-lion from the IIJA for grid reliability improvements. The IRA builds on the incentives of the IIJA by allocating $2 billion to the Secretary of Energy for direct loans to non-federal borrowers for the construction or modication of transmission facilities. The Act also assigned $760 million for siting, permitting or nal determination of regulatory status of high-voltage inter-state or electricity transmission lines proposed for construction. The Federal Energy Regulatory Com-mission (FERC), which regulates interstate transmission, has also been taking steps to improve grid efciency, transmission planning and cost alloca-tions. Forecasts vary, but it is expected that with the IRA passed, the U.S. will see between 200 gigawatts (GW) to 400 GW of wind and solar capacity being added in the next decade. As it is now, the grid is unable to handle this planned generation. As attention turns to transmission, it is essential for policy makers to ensure the U.S. grid is robust enough to unlock the full potential of the IRA.Maria J. Chea is a senior renewable energy consultant at Wood. ReferencesWiser, R., & Bolinger, M. (2015). 2014 Wind Technologies Market Report. U.S. Department of Energy. www.energy.gov/sites/prod/les/2015/08/f25/2014-Wind-Technologies-Market-Report-8.7.pdfMerrill, D. (2021). The U.S. Will Need a Lot of Land for a Zero-Carbon Economy. Bloomberg www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2021-energy-land-use-economy/?leadSource=uverify%20wallWilson, A. (2022). As IRA drives renewables investment, attention turns to transmission upgrades. S&P Global. www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/research/as-ira-drives-renewables-investment-attention-turns-to-transmission-upgradesSeltzer, M. (2020). Big but affordable effort needed for America to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, Princeton study shows. Princeton University. www.princeton.edu/news/2020/12/15/big-afford-able-effort-needed-america-reach-net-zero-emissions-2050-princeton-studyLyndersen, K. (2020). Grid congestion a growing barrier for wind, solar developers in MISO territory. Energy news Network. energynews.us/2020/09/29/grid-con-gestion-a-growing-barrier-for-wind-solar-developers-in-miso-territoryEnglund, W. (2021). The grid’s big loom-ing problem: Getting power to where it’s needed. Washington Post. www.washing-tonpost.com/business/2021/06/29/power-grid-problemsSustainable FERC Project. (2022). Congress gets us to the start line for transmis-sion. sustainableferc.org/congress-gets-us-to-the-start-line-for-transmissionINFLATION REDUCTION ACT
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com18On the Cusp By Fran Kennedy-EllisIt was my honor to attend the European Geothermal Congress (#EGC2022) in Berlin, Germany, in October. I had the opportunity to connect with geothermal experts and industry professionals who have been leading the charge for years and those who are part of the energy transition. What I encountered was a spirit of cooperation and commitment to sustainability. The time is right and ripe for geother-mal energy, an abundant and renewable resource as plentiful as the earth under our feet. It is wonderful to see a com-mitment from a growing number of countries and companies to subsidize funding to expand R&D, accelerate technologies, infrastructure and access to geothermal energy. I am thrilled to be a part of the global community support-ing the energy transition. Representing Elsevier, a leader in data analytics and academic publishing, I’m honored to collaborate with subject mat-ter experts from academia and industry to develop quality publications in sup-port of sustainability. Our energy team is passionate about the role content can play in accelerating the transition to a more sustainable and carbon-neutral en-vironment. Elsevier’s Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering is devoting a special issue to technology transfer entitled Geothermal Science and Engineering – Technology Transfer from the Oil and Gas Industry to the Geothermal Indus-try, which is still accepting submissions. I asked Elsevier author and journal editor, Dr. Silviu Livescu of The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin), along with geothermal expert, visionary and game changer Jay Egg of Egg Geo, LLC, why geothermal is not more widely used in the United States and what it will take for it to be a larger share of the energy mix. So, why is geothermal not more widely used in the U.S.?Dr. Sylviu Livescu: There is abundant geothermal energy naturally occurring several miles underneath the surface of the earth. It is effectively inexhaustible, and so renewable, available continu-ously, and has minimal carbon footprint. Geothermal energy is easily accessible in some locations and is used for electricity Photo courtesy of Utah FORGE, Eric Larson.GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com19generation or for direct use, such as for heating and cooling of residential and commercial buildings, for agriculture or for other purposes [1]. However, the current geothermal energy produc-tion represents only approximately two percent of the U.S. renewable energy mix. To scale it up, several critical prob-lems need to be solved, addressing how, where and when to harness it safely, ef-ciently, predictably and cost effectively. Although “geothermal energy” is loosely used, it has several different avors. First, conventional geothermal systems are naturally occurring hot water or steam ows heated by magma and cir-culating through permeable rock. They are associated with volcanic systems and limited to regions with active or young volcanoes, such as along the so-called Ring of Fire, and in the U.S. are located mostly in the West. For instance, in 2021, geothermal energy in California produced 11,116 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity from a total of forty operating geothermal power plants [2]. Combined with another 700 GWh of imported geothermal power, geothermal energy produced 5.72 percent of California’s in-state genera-tion portfolio. Although these systems are well understood technologically, roadblocks are related to the limited area they are available in and long permitting and project development times, typically between seven and 10 years. Second, geothermal heating and cooling systems, also known as geo-exchangers, ground-source heat pumps or geo-thermal heat pumps, are systems that exchange heat between the underground and buildings, for both heating and cool-ing. These systems can be used almost anywhere in the U.S. because all areas have nearly constant shallow ground temperatures, although systems in vari-ous locations have varying degrees of efciency and cost savings. The world’s rst district heating system was built 1892 in Boise, Idaho, to serve 200 homes and 40 downtown busi-nesses. Today, there are four district heating systems in Boise that provide heat to over ve million square feet of residential, business and governmental space. There are now 23 district heating systems in the U.S. and dozens more around the world [30]. The U.S. geo-thermal heating and cooling market is so immense, that it would require more than one hundred billion feet in drill-ing borehole footage, if all the existing buildings were retrotted to use geo-thermal energy for their heating and cooling needs. For context, the total completed lateral footage of wells in the Permian, the most prolic oil and gas eld in the U.S., is expected to reach a record high of 50 million feet this year. While there are many engineering rms and drilling contractors installing geothermal and heating cooling systems in the U.S., the main roadblocks for higher adoption of geothermal heating and cooling systems are related to complex projects requiring effective collaboration between multiple technical domains and industries, a frag-mented market that lacks innovation and GEOTHERMAL ENERGY Continued on next page...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
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com20Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com20GEOTHERMAL ENERGY research and development funding, and simple technologies used today driven by low-operating costs. Third, enhanced and advanced geother-mal systems for power generation from geothermal energy anywhere outside of the Ring of Fire area have started to gain signicant momentum. These are systems that do not have the natural combination of heat, uid and perme-ability, like conventional geothermal systems, and need to emulate them. For instance, the Department of En-ergy’s agship project, Utah FORGE, is pushing the research envelope for understanding how enhanced geother-mal systems can be constructed using existing oil and gas technologies. [In September], U.S. Secretary Jenni-fer M. Granholm announced the U.S. Department of Energy’s fourth Energy Earthshot™, seeking to cut the cost of enhanced geothermal systems by 90 per-cent by 2035. While several startups are looking to prove various technologies for constructing these geothermal systems requiring drilling in deeper, hotter and tougher environments than those from oil and gas, signicant advancements and innovations in technologies, business models, and regulatory and policy affairs are needed and expected in the next decade. For this, much more funding for research, technology development and deployment is critically required. Fourth, there are many research topics budding in the emerging “geothermal anywhere” industry. Among them, the most popular are repurposing oil and gas wells to produce geothermal energy, co-production of geothermal energy and rare metals such as lithium, using subsurface wells and pore space for thermal storage, using geothermal energy coupled with direct air-capture technologies and so on. All of these topics, despite enormous potential, require signicant technology develop-ment and innovations.Jay Egg: I appreciate Sylviu’s comments and will add my thoughts as to why geo-thermal is not more widely used in the United States.Firstly, unlike wind and solar power systems, low-temperature geothermal exchange systems for buildings are not visible; they are out of sight and out of mind. That takes away from the “green badge of honor” that distinguishes re-newable energy buildings and communi-ties with massive wind power generators, and impressive solar electric collecting arrays. There is just nothing to see with a geothermal heating and cooling system once it’s installed.Additionally, putting in a geothermal exchanger involves any one of about six major methods: boreholes, trenches, surface water, infrastructure, wastewa-ter, and other types of exchange. The difference in cost varies widely but it is nonetheless an infrastructure cost that adds to the initial installation cost of the system. A good analogy is to talk about the cost of installing a sink in a home that does not have access to running water or sewer. That $100 sink, to make it operable, will need a $20,000 water well installed along with a $25,000 septic tank system. The same principle holds true with a geothermal heating and T H E R M A L E N E R G Y N E T W O R K S :D E C A R B O N I Z I N G B U I L D I N G S A T U T I L I T Y S C A L EThermal Energy Networks are utility-scale infrastructure projects that connect multiplebuildings into a shared network with sources ofthermal energy like geothermal boreholes, surfacewater, and wastewater.Thermal energy refers to energy that changes thetemperature of our spaces and the water we usein our homes and workplaces. Most people get thermal energy by burning fossil fuels ina boiler, furnace, or water heater. But there aremuch more efficient and clean ways to getthermal energy, such as from the earth, whichholds a constant temperature year-round. Many ofthe buildings around us also have waste heat thatcan be recycled and shared. For instance, largecommercial, recreational, and manufacturingbuildings have excess thermal energy that otherbuildings, like homes and small commercial, in ashared network can use.Thermal Energy Networks can be installed underthe street. Heat pumps in each building providethe heating or cooling by exchanging thermalenergy with pipes containing circulating water asneeded. The water in the pipes stays within theneeded temperature range by exchanging heatwith geothermal boreholes and other thermalResources.The solution for neighborhood-scale building decarbonization favored by policy experts & climate advocatesWHAT ARE THERMAL ENERGY NETWORKS?BENEFITS OF THERMAL ENERGY NETWORKS• JJOOBBSS: Transferability for gas utility workers• CCOOSSTT: Lower energy bills• SSAAFFEE and RREELLIIAABBLLEE: Non-combustible and consistent energy flow• EEQQUUIITTYY: Renewable thermal energy delivered to all customers• HHEEAALLTTHH: Improved indoor and outdoor air quality (no combustion in the building)• GGRRIIDD: Flattens the peak loads on the electricity grid• CCLLIIMMAATTEE: A major reduction in carbon emissions from buildingsThanks to TDS; Alliance for a Green Economy; HeatSmart Tompkins; HEET.org; Egg Geo for this content
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com21GEOTHERMAL ENERGY cooling system. The home air condition-ing system costs about the same as any home heating and cooling system. But to install it, we need the infrastructure. However, the infrastructure is a one-time cost that will continue to serve the property for generations to come.What will it take for geothermal to be a larger share of the energy mix?Sylviu Livescu: One thing that might get more people talking about geother-mal energy is the serendipitous opportu-nity it offers to the oil and gas industry, which is infamous for their oversupply, persistently low prices, and crater-ing demand caused by the pandemic. Consequently, it has been losing jobs, even if now all oil and gas companies are remarkably busy. In addition to all of the U.S. national laboratories and many universities with long or recent traditions in geoenergy research, many companies from the oil and gas indus-try and non-prot organizations, such as the Society of Petroleum Engineers (the largest organization for oil and gas professionals), have started to join the “geothermal anywhere” momentum, giving hope that power generation and direct heat applications using geother-mal energy could be within our reach.Jay Egg: I was asked the same question circa 1990 after nishing my rst thermal energy network for a mixed-use commu-nity in Florida. This apartment complex was the subject of a Tampa Bay morn-ing show, and the anchor was on site live during the broadcast. Of course, we were there with him, and every time they cut back to our eld report, we would be looking at another part of the system, from ground loops, to heat pumps, to thermostats, and nally an interview at the end of the segment. The last question the anchor asked me was, “When will geothermal be avail-able to all people in the United States?” I responded that when geothermal systems become part of a utility net-work, like city water, city sewer, electric and communications, then everybody would be able to hook up. He went on to ask when I thought that would take place. I told him that while I had no way of knowing, I hoped that it would be in my lifetime. I’m pleased to say that we are on the cusp of just such a revolution with the passage of the Thermal En-ergy Networks and Jobs Act of 2022 in New York, which was signed into law by Governor Hochul on July 5, 2022. Fran Kennedy-Ellis: Sylviu and Jay summarized it well: It’s an exciting time to be working in energy. Geothermal energy is at the core of this country’s transition to more sustainable energy solutions. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reect the ofcial policy or position of Elsevier.Bibliography1. U.S. Department of Energy Geo-thermal Technologies Ofce 2017. GeoVision: Harnessing the Heat Beneath our Feet. www.energy.gov/sites/default/les/2019/06/f63/GeoVision-full-report-opt.pdf.2. California Energy Commission 2022. California Geothermal Energy Sta-tistics and Data. ww2.energy.ca.gov/almanac/renewables_data/geother-mal/index_cms.php.3. National Renewable Energy Labora-tory 2021. U.S. Geothermal Power and District Heating Market Report. www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/78291.pdf.4. Geothermal Rising, 2022. New York Approves Landmark Thermal Net-work Legislation. www.geothermal.org/our-impact/blog/new-york-approves-landmark-thermal-network-legislation. For further reading: Geothermics, an international journal de-voted to the research and development of geothermal energy. www.sciencedi-rect.com/journal/geothermicsGeothermal Energy Systems, Dincer, I. and Ozturk, M. Elsevier, 2021. www.elsevier.com/books/geothermal-energy-sys-tems/dincer/978-0-12-820775-8Geothermal Power Generation, DiPippo, Elsevier, 2016. www.elsevier.com/books/geothermal-power-generation/dipippo/978-0-08-100337-4Reskilling of energy pros can tap geothermal’s vast potential, Elsevier Connect, 2022. www.elsevier.com/con-nect/reskilling-of-energy-pros-can-tap-geothermals-vast-potentialFran Kennedy-Ellis, se-nior acquisitions editor, Elsevier – Geother-mal Energy, Thermal Engineering, and Oil & Gas in Transition. Prior to joining Elsevier, Kennedy-Ellis’ publish-ing experience includes serving the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), University of Texas’s Petro-leum Extension Service (PETEX), International Association of Drill-ing Contractors (IADC) and Texas Tech University Press.Dr. Silviu Livescu, professor, University of Texas at Austin, SPE technical director for data science and engineering analytics, and incoming editor-in-chief, Elsevier Geoenergy Science and Engineering.Jay Egg’s 35 years in the geothermal indus-try have brought him the labels of Vision-ary and Game-changer in the adoption and deployment of thermal energy exchange. As a global geothermal expert, Egg focuses on feasibility and design for thermal energy networks and supporting activities involving geo-thermal exchange implementation, aquifer related feasibility and special permitting such as utility-scale geo-thermal exchange systems. Egg is a Certified Geothermal Designer, me-chanical professional, co-recipient of the 2020 Constellation Prize for Policy Change, and passionate ther-mal energy advocate who started his career in nuclear power with the U.S. Navy.
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com22Utilities Can Drive a Clean, Reliable Path Forward with Distributed Energy Resources By Bobbi Dillow-WalshIt’s no secret – the world of energy is changing rapidly. The trend of relying more extensively on distributed genera-tion, energy storage, EVs and forms of customer load management, such as demand response, to keep power ow-ing and in balance has only increased in an age of peak demand challenges and increasingly extreme weather.In fact, according to Guidehouse In-sights, more capacity from distributed energy resources (DER) became avail-able globally in 2021 than centralized generation capacity.While early DER technologies were notably on the customers’ side of the meter, essentially islanding off from the larger utility grid, the tide is turning toward traditional energy companies leveraging the benets of microgrids and energy storage as key to enabling a more sustainable and resilient energy fu-ture. This path forward combines fresh technology approaches with a sound nancial strategy to address the primary unmet need of today’s microgrid market in North America: The desire of new residential communities to have a more sustainable and resilient energy system that can be deployed and operated by their trusted host utility.Utilities are best positioned to deploy DER assets that are strategically inte-grated into the existing grid and the long-term network system upgrades in a manner that addresses the techni-cal complexities of grid planning and maintains the lowest long-term cost for all customers. They are also a solution to bring energy justice to underserved and minority communities that otherwise may not have the resources for rooftop solar, battery storage or EV charging UTILITIESSouthshore Bay community in Tampa running on a solar microgrid. Photo courtesy of Emera Technologies.
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com23networks. Microgrids based on these DER technologies are being installed today at college campuses, commercial and industrial facilities, and even mili-tary bases.Power surety is critical to a military base’s mission, and developing methods of greater power resiliency is para-mount to on-base security and the mis-sion for the greater U.S. military, which is why the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has committed to implement-ing resilient power solutions and has set major renewable energy goals.One example of how the DOD has accomplished both goals is at Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB), the fth largest such base in the country. Working the Department of Energy’s Distributed Energy Technology Lab, (DETL) and Sandia National Laboratories, (SNL) – a U.S. Department of Energy advanced research facility – Emera Technologies established the rst BlockEnergy™ microgrid on KAFB in 2019, which meshed a network of cyber secure, re-silient microgrids with renewable, onsite generation. Through the partnership, Emera utilized rooftop solar, battery storage and smart, distributed controls, creating a rst-of-its-kind, practical ap-proach to energy surety and resiliency. After energizing BlockEnergy almost three years ago at KAFB, the system has performed effortlessly without any power interruptions.Yet, even with successes, proposed microgrids by utilities have still been re-jected by regulators, primarily over con-cerns whether the benets of any single microgrid will ow to all ratepayers, not just a select few. Microgrid advocates publicly denounce existing prohibitions on transferring electricity over public rights-of-way or in “over the fence” transactions with their neighbors. This is because these advocates are narrowly focused on microgrids developed by non-utility third parties.The beauty of a microgrid is that it can be customized to meet the precise resiliency, economic and environmental goals of any customer, as each mi-crogrid is different from others. Each is a personalized energy system of any size, made up of any available distrib-uted energy resources (DER). Although this ability to customize is one of microgrid’s strongest selling points, the downsides include time and money.An alternative approach is to provide a modular microgrid design that is inher-ently more scalable, thereby shrink-ing design and deployment costs and providing ease of repeatability. This ap-proach is more attractive to nanciers, as it creates portfolios of similar assets, but this modular technology is only part of the solution.The key to enabling technology for a more sustainable and resilient energy future is direct current (DC). Our buildings are increasingly becoming DC-centric with LED lighting and other IT devices. With power out-ages increasing due to global climate change, extreme weather and increased penetration of DC energy resources not being integrated into the grid intel-ligently, the question begging for an answer is this: How can utilities work with customers, regulators and govern-ment to support the highest levels of clean, reliable DER asset deployment at the lowest cost for everyone?The whole world is developing plans to get to net-zero carbon emissions, but it is abundantly clear this goal will not be reached without utilities. If indeed utili-ties take responsibility for the develop-ment of DER systems that can evolve into microgrids or related concepts, it can result in:1. A technology agnostic platform that can foster a step-change increase in sustainable energy resources; 2. advanced reliability and security across all stakeholders due to owner-ship and design structure; 3. and distributed digital platforms that are adaptable and can accommodate future load growth (and corresponding need for generation and energy stor-age). This allows for organic and evo-lutionary growth of the system without losing any functionality or an increase in emissions.Overall, microgrids provide a combi-nation of benets and cost avoidance for a more cost-effective alternative to serve new customers at the grid edge. While they are connected to the grid, they do not burden the grid and can provide support to the grid, if chosen by the utility. This is where microgrids can provide resiliency when needed, but also support communities and the larger grid network, if needed.Utilities can and should take the lead in the march toward a new energy model focused on balancing decarboniza-tion, resiliency, cost to serve and equity stakeholder goals. Meeting all of these objectives is not easy, but there are existing and advancing technology solu-tions that offer promising answers to the challenges facing an energy system undergoing rapid and transformative change – answers that utilities are in the best position to tackle.As vice president of sales and commercial development at Emera Technologies, Bobbi Dillow-Walsh leads the go-to-market strategy and execution to enable decentralized clean energy production and consumption for our transitioning energy market with regard to new residential energy development models and regulatory framework.With more than 20 years in the energy sector, her global perspective and entrepreneurial spirit have led Dillow-Walsh to be recognized for her work with many rst-of-their-kind projects and solutions designed for resilient and sustainable energy. She leads with a focus on creating strong partnerships and collabora-tion that deliver economic value and advance safe, clean energy.Dillow-Walsh is a graduate of the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business and has an MBA from King University. UTILITIES
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com24FEATUREJeff Bridges with his Signature Oregon Concerto Bourbon CE guitar created in collaboration with Breedlove. Photo courtesy of Jeff Bridges. Photography by Audrey Hall. www.audreyhall.com
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com25FEATUREJeff BridgesWe’re All In This TogetherBY Rebecca Ponton Reaching the young boy, who had been swept into the churning water from his perch on the rocky ledge of the cave he had been exploring, the man grabs him around the waist and pulls the boy from beneath the water swirling forcefully around them as high tide comes in. Setting him atop a rock jutting out from the rising tide, the man asks with a mixture of relief and concern, “How are you, Davey boy?”The dramatic rescue scene, replete with orchestra music crescendoing in the back-ground, involves real-life father and son, Lloyd and Jeff Bridges, and is from the elder Bridges’ 1958 hit television show, Sea Hunt, in an episode from the rst season called The Lost Ones. The younger Bridges, then eight, made his acting debut at the age of two in a lm with his mother, Dorothy, who was an actress and poet. (His older brother, Beau, also would appear in a few of the 155 episodes of Sea Hunt, which ran for four years, and can still be seen online in the original black and white cinematography.) January 2023 will mark the 65th anniversary of the airing of the rst episode of Sea Hunt. Ahead of its time, the series dealt with seri-ous issues that continue to be relevant today, giving the episodes short, succinct titles like Toxic Waste, Underwater Quake and Danger – Mines Ahead!Family of ManSitting in his home ofce in California on a sunny September afternoon, with a large picture window behind him offering a view of his neighbors’ Spanish tiled roofs, Jeff Bridges leans back in his chair and runs his hands through his hair. The actor and envi-ronmental activist, who turns 73 in Decem-ber, smiles and reminisces about his father. “He really pulled that part off well. People thought he was this skin diver that did some acting lessons,” but, in fact, he was given a crash course in scuba diving in order to play the role of former Navy frogman, Mike Nelson. Not only did he become so adept at diving that he eventually did almost all of his own stunts, but Bridges says, “He fell in love with the ocean and all its beauty and its creatures, and he passed that on to his kids.” Bridges also remembers his father bringing home a book called The Family of Man, based on Edward Steichen’s 1955 groundbreak-ing photography exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and which has continuously been in print since 1955. “The book was a beautiful photo essay about what it’s like to be alive all over the planet and how we’re actually one big family,” a philosophy that has stayed with Bridges throughout his life. “We’re all in this together. If COVID has taught us anything, it’s that we are part of our environment – we can’t get away from it.” Smiling, Bridges says he’s imagining his father being in the ocean. “We’re part of a chain and each link affects the others, and so my father turned me on at a very early age to being concerned with our planet and each other.” Trees of LifeBridges would later work and become friends with scientist and physician John C. Lilly, whom he refers to as “an explorer of the mind,” in the 2014 BBC documentary, The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins, which chronicles Lilly’s experiments in an attempt to teach dolphins to speak English, in order for hu-mans to be able to communicate with them.“It seemed like an obvious idea that wasn’t really taken seriously,” Bridges recalls. “We’ve got a being on our planet that’s got a brain Continued on next page...
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com26FEATURElarger than ours and we’re not attempting commu-nication; that seemed odd to me. I thought John was really on to something. Now, we hear about the intelligence of plants and trees and we can all learn from each other.”“Sue,” Bridges says, deferring to lmmaker Susan Kucera, who is dialed into the Zoom call from her home in Hawaii, “what do you say? We’ve talked about this before. We’re both fans of the book, The Overstory,” he says, referencing author Richard Powers’ novel, which won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for ction, and focuses on trees – “living wood” – to illustrate the interconnectedness between humans and the world of nature. “Everything requires energy,” Kucera chimes in. “Obviously, plants need energy; we need energy. We need energy to dance; we need energy to eat. Everything takes energy and engineers are look-ing for new ways of doing things.” Laughing, she is reminded of a story Bridges had been telling her, referencing a 1966 experiment conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin – Madison involving a group of monkeys and some bananas, known rather unimaginatively as “Five Monkeys in a Cage.”Pavlov’s Monkeys?At rst, Bridges says it’s a “long, drawn out story,” and suggests that I look it up on the Internet some time to learn more about it. Then he changes his mind and says he will attempt to tell it quickly. Needless to say, Bridges’ version is more colorful than the one found online. Essentially, it’s an experiment in behavioral rein-forcement and group think. One of the monkeys in the cage climbs up a ladder to retrieve a banana at the top of the cage and all of the animals are sprayed with a blast of cold water. Naturally, the other monkeys don’t appreciate being punished for something they didn’t do and proceed to beat up the monkey who tried to retrieve the banana. This continues with the original monkeys being replaced one by one with new monkeys who have never experienced the blast of cold water, but don’t even attempt to retrieve the banana.“The punchline,” Bridges says, “is, ‘Why do none of the monkeys go for the banana?’ Well, because that’s the way it’s always been done around here!”Ultimately, the story illustrates that continuing to do something unquestioningly, without chal-lenging the status quo, results in complacency and the lack of desire to pursue new solutions. “Once you experience it, you’re changed. You have new information. New sh*t has come to light, as the Dude might say.”
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com27FEATUREThis leads Kucera to say, “Again, talking about interconnectedness, we – people, consumers – have a responsibility to try to nd another way to get the ‘banana.’” She believes that even people who have played a role in creating the current problems the world faces will also have a role in helping nd solutions.Life’s GiftsIt’s one thing to talk about climate change and global warming in the abstract. It is another thing entirely to experience the ramications of those environmental chal-lenges up close and personally. When asked about experiencing both the fragility and the ferocity of nature, having lost his home in Montecito, California, in a 2018 mudslide, when he and his wife, Susan, had to be rescued by helicopter, Bridges says, “I’m laughing because not only from the ood, but we lost a house in the Northridge earth-quake, we lost a house in Malibu to re, and then the most recent house loss was due to a debris ow after the Thomas re.”“Once you experience it, you’re changed. You have new information. New sh*t has come to light, as the Dude might say.” As the laughter dies down, he takes a mo-ment to reect and then says, “When you get acquainted with what’s going down, with what the scientists and experts say, and you’ve had something like that happen to you personally, you want to do every-thing you can for your kids and your grandkids and the planet. It’s a natural [response].”Bridges believes life presents us with gifts and that one of those gifts was meeting Susan Kucera, and being asked to narrate her 2018 documentary Living in the Future’s Past, which he also co-produced. He thought to himself, “This is a chance for me to make a difference to help realize a dream of how I see the most posi-tive way the earth can go.”Emergent BehaviorDescribing himself as “a pretty resistant cat,” Bridges says he was hesitant to do the project at rst, but is glad he “jumped in with Sue” because of her talent – as a direc-tor, cinematographer, photographer and writer – but also because, “It would give me an opportunity to learn so much more about our environment than I had known before.”Emergent behavior is one of the concepts that comes up in Living in the Future’s Past. It is dened by IGI Global as, “Behavior that arises out of the interactions between parts of a system and which cannot easily be predicted or extrapolated from the behavior of those individual parts.” Bridges has a more relatable take. “It’s this idea that we’re all in this together, creating a super organism. The relationships between each of these smaller parts of the superor-ganism are what determines what it’s going to become. So, it’s this kind of dichotomy, this paradox. Do we have anything to do with what’s going on? There’s this huge thing happening and so often you feel, what can I do? I’m one little, tiny part.”“Call Me Trim Tab”In asking these existential questions, Bridges is echoing the thoughts of Richard Buck-minster (“Bucky”) Fuller, whom he calls “one of my heroes.” Fuller, an American architect, philosopher and futurist, was one of the pioneering glob-al thinkers and, while best known for his pat-ented geodesic dome, he is also remembered for a metaphor that was a central part of his philosophy about how the individual can affect change.Fuller, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War I, shared in a 1972 interview, “Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do,” and he used the maritime example of how the small trim tab at the edge of a rudder on a huge ship “builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So, I said that the little individual can be a trim tab . . . So, call me trim tab . . . To be a real trim tab, you’ve got to start with yourself, and soon you’ll feel that low pres-sure, and suddenly things begin to work in a beautiful way.”This metaphor may resonate with Bridges, given his relationship to water and the ocean, and also the little-known fact that he, like his father and older brother, Beau, served as a member of the Coast Guard. Bridges goes on to say, “I think all these little parts have things in common that run through us. The corny L word comes to mind: love. I love being alive, man, just Documentary lmmaker, Susan Kucera, and Jeff Bridges at a screening of Living in the Future’s Past. Photo courtesy of Susan Kucera.Continued on next page...
FEATUREbeing able to jump into the ocean. We love to see animals, we love plants – that goes for all of us. So, I think [love] guides us to skillful means to create the most positive outcome from the situation that we’re in that I can see. What do you think, Sues?”The easy rapport between the two illustrates the collaborative nature of their work. In response, Kucera says, “The thing I loved about Living in the Future’s Past is that it didn’t point ngers because we’re all in this together. It allowed people to watch it at home with family members, who might be sort of resistant to the whole idea [of climate change], and that’s why I’m proud of what we did together, and I learned so much from Jeff.”Climate – A Non-Partisan ImperativeNot only did Living in the Future’s Past facilitate conversation among families, who may have had differing views, it also helped bridge the divide between the two political parties – at least where the environment is concerned. Kucera says her 2021 documen-tary, Hot Money, which Bridges appeared in and co-executive produced, “Showcases the realities of our money system and its profound exposure to climate change and, obviously, affects us all – no matter the politics.”Bridges watched Bob Inglis, a former congressman (R-SC), and climate skeptic, undergo a personal transformation. “He’s probably my favorite person in Living in the Future’s Past. His son said, ‘Gee, Dad, there’s an election coming up and I want to vote for you, but I can’t with your current leanings on the environment. You’ve got to study up on it.’ So, he took his son up on it and he completely turned around and said, ‘Gosh you’re right.’ He’s a conservative, a Republican, but that didn’t stop him from caring about the planet.” Bridges was so impressed by the change in Inglis’ mindset that he makes it a point to mention his “wonderful website” called RepublicEn: Home of the EcoRight, “that talks about people with our [progressive] perspective and Republicans, what their ap-proach is. We can work on this together.”BreedloveBridges collaborates on projects that are meaningful to him, acting as a trim tab in his own sphere of inuence, which, given his stature and platform as an Academy Award winning actor and longtime envi-ronmental activist, is vast. A musician who plays guitar in the band, The Abiders (a reference to his character’s mantra – “the Dude abides” – in The Big Lebowski), Bridges performed his own vocals for his Oscar winning role in the 2009 movie Crazy Heart.When his “dear friend” Chris Palones offered to introduce him to Tom Bedell, owner of Oregon-based Breedlove guitars, it only made sense that he would combine his passions and join forces with Bedell, whose craftsmen make guitars from sustain-ably sourced wood. “I love music and the world presented this opportunity for me to make a signature guitar,” Bridges says of his Oregon Con-certo Bourbon CE guitar made from myrtle wood. In 2020, Breedlove debuted its Or-ganic Collection, which includes two “All in This Together” models named for Bridges’ personal motto. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bridges said, “It can’t be overstated how important our forests are to the health of the planet…You can have a beautiful instrument and still be kind to our planet.”To ensure that, the Breedlove site says, “Owner Tom Bedell traveled to each forest – in Suriname, the Republic of Congo and the Swiss Alps – to verify individual harvest, chain of custody, and sound ecological practices.” A large portion of the proceeds from the three guitars in Bridges’ “All in This To-gether” signature line go toward supporting the Amazon conservation team, which is headed by Mark Plotkin, who makes an appearance in Living in the Future’s Past, and says, “You always have to leave room in your analysis of animals… in the broad sense – I include people in that – of think-Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com28FEATURE“This is a chance for me to make a difference to help realize a dream of how I see the most positive way the earth can go.”
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com29FEATUREing that we’re always going to do the right thing, that we’ve optimized all of our ac-tions, our foraging strategies and everything else, and we can extrapolate from there because, if we had everything right, there wouldn’t be any problems, would there? There’d be no poverty; there’d be no climate change; there’d be no warfare.”No Kid HungryIf Bridges has his way, there will be no world hunger – specically, no child hunger. Bridges, a father of three adult daughters and now a grandfather, has long been part of the global crusade against hunger. He, along with a number of celebrities, founded the End Hunger Network in 1983 and in April of that year held the three-hour End Hunger Televent, featuring major stars of the day – Gregory Peck, Burt Lancaster, Jack Lemmon and others. In a sense, it was the forerunner to the 1995 Live Aid concert, which featured performances by some of music’s biggest names – U2, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan, Queen and more – and promot-ed messaging developed by the End Hunger Network to help educate people about hun-ger and dispel myths around the issue.Many years later, Bridges was approached by Billy Shore, head of Share Our Strength – “I love that [name], and I think that’s what all of us can do,” says Bridges – who asked if he wanted to be the national spokesper-son for No Kid Hungry (a role he accepted in 2010).Bridges had lobbied Congress about hunger and was frustrated by what resulted in little more than photo ops. In talking to Shore, he discovered that his approach was to work with state governments, city mayors and take it all the way down to the local level. “That’s what holds hunger in place,” Bridges says, “a lack of community and also the lack of respect for the environment. I got on board with No Kid Hungry and it’s proven just wonderful the differences that that approach has made.”As the interview comes to a close, some-thing Bridges said earlier is called to mind. “It feels wonderful to be a part of creating a positive situation or dream that we share, and we get with the team, and it’s just a wonderful feeling to get into cahoots with somebody like Susan Kucera. It’s like that emergent behavior is the relationship that you have and that causes a certain amount of energy or heat – friction – and then the re starts to heat up. Life presents these op-portunities to us all the time.” Photo courtesy of Jeff Bridges. Photography by Audrey Hall. www.audreyhall.com
FEATUREPhoto courtesy of Susan KuceraEnergies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com30FEATURE
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com31FEATURE“We’re part of a chain and each link affects the others, and so my father turned me on at a very early age to being concerned with our planet and each other.”
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com32Filmmaker Susan Kucera: A Realistic Environmentalist By Rebecca Ponton “If oil went away tomorrow, millions of people would die – not just because of not being able to turn on the light switch – but our whole system. We need to start chang-ing that, obviously, but it can’t be done overnight.”Not exactly what you would expect to hear from someone whose whole life has been deeply rooted in environmentalism, a lmmaker who has made two lms in the last four years that have focused on climate change. But documentary producer Susan Kucera says she grew up with a “grounded look, a more realistic environmentalism – humans are the way they are.”That worldview was instilled in her by her father, the multi-hyphen-ated, world renowned volcanologist-glaciologist-geomorphologist, Dr. Richard Kucera, as she was growing up rst in Canada and later on the island of Hawaii. Her nascent career in lmmaking started under his tutelage at the age of just nine when she assisted him in making educational shorts for the iconic Encyclopedia Britan-nica Film Corporation.Perhaps it’s genetic; Kucera is multi-hy-phenated herself. Academy Award win-ning actor and environmental activist Jeff Bridges, who has collaborated with Kucera on her last two documentaries, Living in the Future’s Past and Hot Money, says, “She’s such a talented director-cinematographer-photographer-writer – and she’s also a very talented artist.” It’s a mutual admiration society; the two are effusive in their praise of each other and that rapport is evident in their work together.Trading on Thin Air Given her background, it’s not surprising that Kucera’s rst full-length documentary was Trading on Thin Air (2008), featuring the late journalist Alexan-der Cockburn, co-author of Five Days that Shook the World: Seattle and Beyond, which chronicled the successful attempt by 50,000 activists to shut down the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) Minis-terial Conference in Seattle, Washington, in protest against what they felt was the commercialization of environmentalism by Big Business. Trading on Thin Air deals with carbon trading, which is described by the United Nations Climate Change as: Emissions trading, as set out in Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol, allows countries that have emission units to spare – emis-sions permitted them but not used – to sell this excess capacity to countries that are over their targets. Thus, a new commod-ity was created in the form of emission reductions or removals period since carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas, people speak simply of trading and carbon. Carbon is now tracked and traded like any other commodity. This is known as the “carbon market.”In the lm, Kucera interviews people on both sides of the political spectrum to get their views on carbon credit trading. Be-cause of the dry subject matter, she tried to interject some humor by using improv ac-tors to explain the concepts. “The long and short of it is, for different reasons, both people from the right and the left did not think carbon credit trading was a good idea. They managed to nd common ground. ” Breath of LifeUnbeknownst to Kucera, it would be her 2014 documentary, Breath of Life, that would be the catalyst to a working rela-tionship that has become an enduring friendship with Bridges. She and executive producer Jim Swift, with whom she has worked on most of her lms, were looking for a narrator for Living in the Future’s Past, and approached Bridges, who asked to see one of her previous lms. Watching Breath of Life was all it took for Bridges to commit. Photos courtesy of Susan Kucera.DOCUMENTARY
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com33The lm explores Hawaiian culture, a topic near and dear to Kucera’s heart, as she has lived on the island part time since she was a teenager. “I grew up there because my dad was doing research on the eruption of the volcano, Kīlauea, back in late 1974, and I had the privilege of going to school there and getting a really nice introduction into Hawaiian culture.” When her father was invited to be a guest researcher at the University of Hawaii, the family moved from Vancouver to Oahu. “They would actually y him over to the Big Island [to study the volcano] and he used to come home with singed shoes. I remember thinking, ‘That’s getting a little too close!’” In making Breath of Life, Kucera wanted to capture a realistic portrayal of the “earth island” given its isolation. “It’s 2,000 miles from anywhere else. It’s a really good look at how that culture developed over a period of a couple thousand years with no contact. I think when Captain Cook went there, and saw how they had cultivated the land, he thought they could have lasted that way forever. [Now], the energy – and even the food – has been imported.” (Ac-cording to Hawaiian Electric, over 80 per-cent of all the energy used in Hawaii for electricity, surface and air transportation comes from imported fossil fuels, mostly oil and some coal, but Kucera notes that Hawaii is making great strides in renewable energy and the production of local food.)That same year, Kucera went in a totally different direction and, instead of focus-ing on the environment, released a docu-mentary called For the Love of Tango. On the face of it, the lm is about a blind man’s immersion into the Argentine tango cul-ture, but, ultimately, it’s about our ability to communicate with one another regard-less of any differences. Describing it as an “absolutely beautiful lm,” Kucera wanted to capture the passion that tango dancers have for the dance, something they often have difculty conveying outside of the art form.Living in the Future’s PastKucera then returned to her roots as an environmentalist with 2018’s Living in the Future’s Past, as she turned her camera lens toward examining human behavior and the impact consumerism has on the natural world around us. It is the vehicle that began her partnership with Bridges, whose distinctive baritone narrates the lm, which he also co-produced. The result is an award winning documentary that received the UN gold medal for Outstanding Achievement in International Communica-tions, which best exemplies the ideals and goals of the United Nations.Long after the lm is over, Bridges’ voice lingers in your mind. “Ecology. It’s a word derived from the Greek “oikos,” or household. It’s the study of the relation-ships that interlink all the members of the earth’s household. We can’t think of ecol-ogy as only existing over there – beyond – because it has no boundaries and is in a state of constant ux. Ecology is intimate, coming right up to our skin, and through it. It’s permeable, and borderless – and chaotic. The internal and the external are always entwined. So, when we speak about sustainability, what is it that we hope to sustain?”DOCUMENTARYContinued on next page...
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com34Hot MoneyExpanding on the themes they explored in Living in the Future’s Past, Kucera, Bridges and Swift teamed up again for the 2021 documentary, Hot Money, which had the misfortune of premiering in the midst of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.One of the hallmarks of Kucera’s lms is they bring together a diverse cast of experts that reads like a Who’s Who of the best and brightest minds in their re-spective elds, whether that’s science or nance or economics or energy industry insiders such as ALLY Energy CEO Katie Mehnert, former Shell executive Peggy Montana, chief science and tech-nology ofcer at ENGIE Dr. Michael E. Webber, all of whom offer com-mentary in Hot Money, and retired four star general Wesley Clark, who features prominently in both Living in the Future’s Past and Hot Money. After the success of their initial collabo-ration – or as Bridges refers to it, “get-ting into cahoots with Susan Kucera” – he appears in and is co-executive producer of Hot Money, which explores one of the most pressing issues of our time: climate change. Kucera describes it as a “nuts and bolts view of how the machinery of our money system contrib-utes and reacts to climate change.” It’s also a cautionary tale “about [natural disasters] making homes impossible to insure and the ripple effect that will roar through the nancial sys-tem that seem as startlingly prescient as the scenes de-scribing populist break-down in a country like Venezuela and how it can happen here. It of-fers a glimpse into our future and a chance to avoid the dangerous course we are on.”Despite being a weighty lm, Kucera says, “We had so much fun making Hot Money.” It even became a family affair when her daughter Anna Kirsch, who is working on her PhD in English Lit-erature with a focus on Environmental Humanities, helped create the concepts for the cartoon sketches by New Yorker cartoonist Kaamran Hafeez, which are shown throughout the lm, in an at-tempt to make it more viewer friendly.12th HourSet to be released on Amazon in January 2023, Kucera and producer Jim Swift’s newest documentary rounds out her lmography on climate change. Kucera says Swift wanted to make a lm that does not “sugar coat” the issues. 12th Hour is that lm. It is described as be-ing “brutally honest” in countering the “hopeful delusions” many people harbor about the situation the world faces.Narrated by Emmy-nominated actor David Morse, the lm, which Kucera describes as “a little darker, but still beautiful,” asks the thought-provoking question, “Are humans even capable of solving the climate crisis?” Like Kucera’s previous lms, experts from disciplines as diverse as anthropology to evolution-ary biology, as well as several prominent Native Americans, provide their insights on how we evolved and the long-term challenges we face.12th Hour will be screened at the upcoming United Nations Associa-tion Film Festi-val. Through the Video Project, DVD li-censing of the lm is being offered free of charge to grades K through 12 for educational purposes, and has already been shown in hundreds of schools.In DevelopmentKucera, never one to rest on her lau-rels, is working on two more lms with producer Jim Swift. One is a biography of American evolutionary biologist and sociobiologist, Robert Trivers, whom she describes as “one of the most important biologists ever,” known mostly only to other scientists. “The average person may not have heard of him, but his theories in the ‘70s profoundly shaped a plethora of scientic elds. He’s a true boundary walker with bipolar disorder and an exceptionally colorful character.”The second lm, in what may seem like a departure from Kucera’s usual sub-ject matter, but really isn’t, looks at the history of the American West and how animals, both wild and domestic, shaped the region. As with all of her work, it addresses humans as part of nature; in this case, “issues that people are dealing with because they all have to t into this managed landscape.”Aside from Hot Money, Kucera says most of her lms are very philosophical and have the same thread running through them: understanding ourselves and our traits as an evolved species. “Becoming more aware of those does actually help us navigate times like this, but also have more compassion for people who might not have the same understanding. The more we share in a way that people can really hear and not [blame], the more people collectively will be aimed at doing the right thing.” DOCUMENTARY
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Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com36In the Hot (Money) Seat with Wes Clark, Jr. By Rebecca Ponton Growing up in a military family with a father who rose to become a four star gen-eral and Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, Wes Clark, Jr. spent his early life traversing the U.S. and Europe. A gradu-ate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, he served four years of active duty in the Army as a cavalry ofcer. Since then, he has had a wildly varied career from wind turbine project management to screenwriting. He wrote, co-produced and appeared alongside his father, General Wesley K. Clark, in the 2021 documentary Hot Money.RP: Would you call Standing Rock (the 2016 protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline) one of the seminal moments in your life? WC: There’s a complex story about how I got involved. There’s a whole podcast – American Psyop (available on all podcast services; November 15th) – that deals with it and it’s pretty crazy. The deciding factor was when I got a call from the elders. Es-sentially, the treaties we signed with differ-ent tribes are law, according to the Consti-tution, and it looked like their sovereignty was being violated. It was bleak. When I was on the phone, I could hear the fear in their voices, and I could see the videos on-line of people being abused by mercenary companies. It was emotional.The idea was to practice complete nonvio-lence and, for them, it was about prayer and spirituality. We had to take our lead from them. It’s their land. They asked us to come; we had to go under their rules. Once I arrived, I wasn’t in charge of any-thing. They wanted female Native veterans in charge. Editor’s note: In February 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid by Energy Transfer, the pipeline operator, to overturn the Sioux Tribe’s 2020 victory for a legally mandated environmental analysis. The pipeline will continue to operate as the review is conducted. According to Energy Transfer, the pipeline has the capacity to transport up to 750,000 barrels of oil a day.RP: What was the catalyst for your interest in climate change, fossil fuels and renewable energy?WC: Initially, I wasn’t that involved. Then, I went home for New Year’s 2000 when Dad was the head of NATO and he said, “Listen, I need to sit you down for a min-ute. We had a brieng from the European Science Commission and they’re predict-ing that, starting in the 2020s, the climate is going to start to change. It’s going to get so bad by the time you’re in your late 50s or early 60s, there’s a possibility civilization can collapse because people aren’t going to be able to grow food anymore in a lot of places that are currently ‘bread baskets.’” From that moment forward, I thought, “I’ve got to do something about this.” It was a shocking wake up call.People ask, “What can we do?” There’s a lot we can do, but continuing to do the same thing is not going to make it better. Look, I like our standard of living in the United States, I like the convenience of things, but I’m not ready to sacrice the lives of my children and every other child in America for it.My kids are very aware of the [problem]. I live in Los Angeles, so we’ve got water shortages. We don’t ush the toilet [except at certain times]. We’ve got a bucket in the shower to catch the water before it heats up, and we have a bucket in the kitchen sink to catch the water we rinse our veg-etables with, because that’s all the water we have to water our trees and bushes and owers outside. ACTIVISM
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com37We didn’t have to do that two or three years ago, but we had this crazy situa-tion this past summer where all of these major rivers – the Yangtze, the Rhine, the Tiber, the Po – dried up in the same summer. That should be terrifying to people. It’s very real to my kids because they’re living it.RP: In 2007-10, you worked as project manager on utility scale wind turbines in Midwest and Alaska. That was over 10 years ago. What do you see as its role in the energy mix?WC: There’s no magic silver bullet. Wind is just one of many technologies that can help us, but there’s no single technology that’s going to save us. There are a lot of old technologies but, when it comes to applying them, you’re talking about then dealing with an entirely separate world, which is nance. Let’s say I come out tomorrow with a brand new wind turbine that doesn’t require 550 yards of concrete underneath to anchor it and it was cheaper to make. Has it been in operation for 20 years? Do we have the numbers on a couple decades of it working? Banks are not going to invest in energy that’s a new technology; they’ll only invest in something that’s a proven technology. RP: Do you find that to be one of the hindrances to developing some of these alternative forms of energy? WC: We should be investing at a re-search level in everything that comes across the table. Our big challenge in go-ing with renewable energy is, of course, base load and, in order to have base load with renewable power without using gas or coal or oil or nuclear, you would need massive energy storage and you’re not going to get that from batteries. There are companies out there that are looking at older, more established technologies and also new ways, like air and water compression, using everything from salt domes… I’ve heard people talk about using old gas and oil wells to jack up pressure, but raising money to get those projects off the ground takes a lot and none of it’s cheap.RP: Taking all those things into consid-eration, do you still see wind as one of the better alternatives?WC: It’s simply an alternative. If you’re talking about a one MW and up wind turbine generator, you’ve got a lot of steel and berglass. If it’s not a direct drive turbine, you’ve got a lot of oils and lubricants that need to be used in the gear system. Turbines take a lot of main-tenance. Any problem you have is [an expensive] x. You’re relying on the wind and the wind doesn’t always blow. You’ll generally have better energy at night and when it’s colder. Offshore is great, but wind can’t be the only thing. We need a mix of everything and we also need bet-ter transmission systems.RP: How did you become involved in the documentary film Hot Money? WC: By [the time Standing Rock oc-curred in 2016], I already had the thesis for Hot Money, which was looking at trends and how things would work. We’ve got more capital now than we’ve ever had and that capital would start to disappear as climate change started to affect us. The rst thing that it would af-fect is property insurance rates and, since most of the money in nancial markets is – at its root – property, it’s going to erode the nancial system, and then we won’t have the capital we need to either adapt to it or change our energy systems.RP: Our country is extremely divided and yet we all live on the same planet and, hopefully, want to leave a better world for our children and future generations. How do we find common ground?WC: The divide is kind of articial. If you look at the actual numbers of what people want, whether it’s healthcare or the environment or anything else, [the majority] of Americans want these things xed. I think we have to approach the problems with open eyes and open minds and we have to gure out how to work together to save each other. ACTIVISMWes Clark, Jr. (L) shown with his father, General Wesley Clark (R), in Las Vegas in a scene from Hot Money. In a scene from Hot Money, Wes Clark, Jr. (L) and Amad Jackson (R), discuss Keynesian economics.
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com38Smoke and Mirrors: Why the World’s Rush to Electric Vehicles Hides a Dirty Secret By Roy HendersonAre we swapping one environmental crisis for another? If we really want to tackle the climate and fuel emergencies, Roy Henderson, CEO of Green Cell Technol-ogies, believes biofuels beat lithium-ion batteries right now.In August 1893, with hope and trepida-tion, Rudolf Diesel red up the new engine he’d invented. The test wasn’t a success, and another four years of devel-opment were needed before Diesel could unveil his 25hp single-cylinder motor and pronounce it a signicant improvement on the steam engine. It ran on oil extract-ed from peanuts.Nearly 130 years later, oil from crops still fuels motors. But most combustion engines run on fossil oil pumped from deep underground, then transported vast distances in pipelines and ships before being rened.One of the ironies of the fossil fuel age is that while diesel started its commercial life as a carbon-neutral fuel, it went on to become one of the leading contributors to the climate catastrophe. As recently as 2021, according to the US Energy Infor-mation Administration (EIA), 26 percent of transport-related CO2 emissions in the United States came from diesel. Meanwhile, biofuels produced from living materials such as rapeseed, soybeans and sugarcane fall into such a small category of petroleum products that the EIA counts them alongside substances such as asphalt, lubricants and kerosene when it publishes consumption data.Electric Vehicles are not NewThere are good reasons for biofuels’ failure to make a dent in the energy market, which we’ll come back to. But rst, another quick visit to the end of the 19th century when one in three cars in the U.S. ran on electricity. Recognizing the potential for further growth, the prolic inventor Thomas Edison patented a nickel-iron rechargeable battery and later he even worked with Henry Ford on ideas for a low-cost electric car.Unfortunately for Edison, the battery was one of his failures due to its unreliability, and his endeavors coincided with mas-sive early-20th century oil discoveries in Texas, which meant the U.S. had plentiful cheap fuel for decades to come. The fact that Ford’s petroleum-powered Model T was cheap didn’t help, and by 1935 electric cars had all but vanished from the roads.Here, then, is a second irony of the fossil fuel boom: It effectively killed off a promising technology that remained largely dormant for nearly a century, dur-ing which the carbon crisis became an existential threat to life on Earth. Today, as we know, renewable energy from solar and wind, and signicant progress in battery efciency, are seen as key develop-ments in the quest to save the world from global heating. But are they really? Or, in our panic-stricken efforts to slow climate change, do we run the risk of ignoring the lessons of the industrial age by embracing a “solution” that is nothing of the sort?The word “pollution” doesn’t seem large or complex enough to encompass the scale of the damage wrought by human-Photo courtesy of bestdesign36 – www.123RF.comBIOFUELS
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com39ity’s need for energy or the number of ways in which our addiction has harmed the planet. There is no space to rehearse them here, but they are well known, and they continue to expand, thanks to activi-ties such as accelerating destruction of the Amazon Rainforest to make way for farms and mines, and new attempts to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic. These are headline grabbing events driven by powerful lobbies, which recruit (and often fund) compliant politicians. But lying in wait for a world increasingly ready to clutch at any straw is a new wave of pollution driven by lithium-ion battery technology – for now, the gold standard of energy storage.First, there’s the problem of mining, never an environmentally friendly activity. In an article for the Wellcome Collection in 2021, Laura Grace Simpkins said: “The common environmental side effects of lithium mining are water loss, ground de-stabilization, biodiversity loss, increased salinity of rivers, contaminated soil and toxic waste.” No big surprises there for the people and creatures of Australia, Latin America and China, which together accounted for 98 percent of lithium production in 2020, according to McKin-sey. Mining for other battery constituents, such as cobalt and nickel, is not much better. But, in August 2022, Mining.com reported on an International Energy Agency assessment, which said 127 new lithium, cobalt and nickel mines are needed if 2030 global carbon emissions goals are to be met. Then there are the hidden carbon costs of manufacturing batteries, estimated by the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-nology at between 2.4 tons and 16 tons of emissions for every Tesla Model 3 battery. At the top end of the scale, you’d need to travel 64,000 km in a petrol-pow-ered vehicle to emit that amount of CO2. Next, there’s the open question of what will happen to millions of lithium-ion batteries when they reach the end of their 10-year life. The danger, difculty and expense of recycling them mean it’s cheaper and easier to mine new lithium. So, alongside toxic new mine dumps, we can now expect to see mountains of spent batteries loaded with heavy metals. Naturally, scientists are tackling every-thing from safer and cheaper recycling methods to alternative battery technolo-gies and materials, but in its frenzied rush to lithium, the world risks swapping one environmental crisis for another. When the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, tweeted in July 2022 that “lithium batteries are the new oil,” he was responding to a com-ment by venture capitalist David Sacks that “there can be no security without en-ergy independence.” Unfortunately, and unintentionally albeit aptly, he might just as well have been talking about pollution. Another difculty for electric vehicles – projected to be the biggest single growth market for lithium-ion technology – is infrastructure. Replacing the hundreds of thousands of petrol stations across the world with recharging facilities is a mam-moth and expensive task. By June 2022, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, the 307,000 public charging points installed in the E.U. represent less than ve percent of the number needed if the bloc is to reach its 2030 CO2 reduction target. Mean-while, vehicles powered solely by petrol and diesel still account for 56 percent of new registrations across the E.U., point-ing to signicant continuing demand for fossil fuels.Then there’s the rocketing price of lithium carbonate, which cost 493,000 Chinese yuan a ton at the end of August 2022, compared with 109,000 yuan a year earlier, according to Trading Economics. Rising demand for the metal, thanks to moves such as California’s plan to ban the sale of cars with internal combustion engines by 2035, means the price will keep rising for the foreseeable future.Finally, for many countries, generating the electricity to recharge vehicles is, in itself, a dirty business. And that’s if there is even enough generation capacity for existing needs – a problem still common BIOFUELSContinued on next page...Continued on next page...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 We have a creative team that can design your ad! Editor@USEnergyMedia.com • (800) 562-2340 Ex. 1Photo courtesy of Marc Morrison – www.marcmorrison.com
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com40in the developing world. Consequently, for the electric vehicle manufacturers to claim zero emission, it can only truly be realized, mining and battery disposal aside, when all bulk electric generation around the world is non-emitting.If we accept the argument that re-newable energy stored in lithium-ion batteries is not the panacea for climate change, where does that leave us? The Solution – Cracking the Biofuels Code?Texas-based ExxonMobil, by any measure is one of the world’s largest oil producers, is leading the charge, by heading back to the roots of pow-ered transport and investing in biofuel research in a collaboration with biotech company Viridos.Biofuel has never had an economic advantage over fossil fuels, meaning it held little interest for investors. Soar-ing fuel prices spurred by geopolitical developments in 2022 are eroding that disadvantage, but agricultural hurdles such as monoculture, the need for fertilizers and a perceived global food shortage, mean it will remain difcult to defend the use of farmland for growing fuel feedstock, especially if that also involves defor-estation. Then, there are emissions from biofuel processing, as well as high water use. Finally, car makers worldwide say the use of biofuels invalidates their warranties.Most of these disadvantages disappear with the development of third-genera-tion biofuels using microalgae as a feed-stock, because these tiny organisms do not compete for arable land with food and feed crops, and they can be grown almost anywhere in salt water. Indeed, in a world where the production of fossil fuel was limited – either by legisla-tion or by market forces – today’s big oil producers could retain their market share by using unproductive land to cultivate microalgae, some of which have a lipid (oily) content of up to 80 percent, according to a peer-reviewed paper published in 2018.Biotechnicians are using genetic engi-neering to create microalgae with even higher lipid content, and Viridos says desert-based farms that cover thousands of hectares “will be the tipping point at which algae biofuel becomes an essen-tial, scalable and cost-competitive tool to mitigate climate change.”With CRISPR gene-editing technology putting the world on course to solving one half of the biofuel equation, a revo-lutionary post-harvest technique called Dynamic Cellular Disruption (DCD®) deals with the rest of the problem. By replacing the biochemical, thermochem-ical and chemical methods traditionally used to extract oil from algae, DCD® processing and Disruptor® technology means higher yields, a lower price and minimal environmental impact.The Disruptor®, which has already found applications in the food, pharma-ceutical and agri-chemical sectors – dra-matically increasing yields and lowering costs in all cases – accelerates source material to many times the speed of sound, then decelerates it in a nanosec-ond, stretching the cell structure beyond the limits of its elasticity until it snaps. In doing so, the material’s inherent chemistry is released. The oil produced once microalgae have been processed in the Disruptor® is immediately ready for rening. This means no changes are needed in the rening or distribution network the world already has.If people are concerned that continu-ing to burn oil will cause further harm to the climate, the EIA in the U.S. has this to say: “Production and use of biofuels is considered … to have fewer or lower negative effects on the environment compared to fossil-fuel derived fuels.” This advice, last updat-ed in April 2022, is based on traditional agricultural feedstocks for biofuels. With microalgae, the argument be-comes even more compelling.As for the problem of vehicle manu-facturers refusing to honor warranties if biofuel has been used, a strong signal that their stance will change came when companies including Toyota, Suzuki, Subaru and Daihatsu set up a research association in July 2022 to explore ways of using biomass-based fuels in internal combustion engines.According to Reuters, the compa-nies are keen to nd greener ways of sustaining existing engine technology – including biofuels and hydrogen – so they can continue supporting supply chains that employ hundreds of thou-sands of people. The gist of all this, is that using biofuels, like microalgae, just means the source of energy is grown and not mined, but that the rest, which is proven and familiar to consumers, remains in place and with better environmental impact. Existing fuel vendors continue in the value chain and can carry on business as usual as it is only the fuel source that changes. Rudolf Diesel’s peanut oil is mainly used in cooking today but its descendant – oil from genetically engineered microalgae processed at molecular level by world-leading technology – could now see the dream of carbon-negative fuel nally coming true.Roy Henderson is a co-founder and the CEO of Green Cell Technol-ogies (GCT®). A retired combat ofcer, with a successful and medal awarded naval career over 21 years, has elicited a curious mind honed by an MBA and a drive to succeed. This has culminat-ed in the creation and development of the ground-breaking technology – Dynamic Cellular Disruption and Disruptor Technology. Henderson has a refreshing reputa-tion for forthrightness and tenacity. Everyone knows where they stand with him and with the company, which is appreciated by clients and colleagues alike. His can-do attitude, coupled with proven business acumen and a strong leaning toward problem solving, have also stood him and GCT in good stead as the company has self-funded its way from innova-tion to global commercial success. BIOFUELS
RENEWABLE ENERGYREDEFINEDArchaea Energy is one of the largest renewable natural gas (“RNG”) producers in the U.S., with an industry leading RNG platform and expertise in developing, constructing, and operating RNG facilities to capture waste emissions and convert them into low carbon fuel.www.ArchaeaEnergy.com
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com42NONPROFITLet’s Solve For That By Elizabeth WilderOff-grid living may sound like an attrac-tive, natural experience to those who don’t have to experience it every day. The reality of life without access to a power grid means health clinics use diesel generators with their attendant fumes for operating room lighting. Mechani-cal equipment stops working when fuel runs out. Life off the grid means cooking with wood, charcoal or kerosene, which presents a high risk of re in thatch-roof housing and emits black carbon that causes lung problems. Even a trip to the latrine becomes risky in pitch-black con-ditions. In sub-Saharan Africa, life off the grid means productivity stops when the sun goes down, which is one of the harsh realities of energy poverty. “There are currently 600 million people in Africa without access to reliable ener-gy,” says Olasimbo “Simbo” Sojinrin. As the chief operating ofcer of Solar Sister, Sojinrin leads the day-to-day work of a nonprot organization with an annual budget of approximately $3 million that has brought clean energy to more than 3.4 million people since its founding in 2009. Solar Sister has been recognized by such organizations as the Keeling Curve Prize for Energy Access, the Social Ven-ture Network, the International Centre for Research on Women, and the Clinton Global Initiative. Working at the nexus of energy access and women’s empowerment, Solar Sister does not simply raise funds and give products to recipients in off-grid com-munities. Sojinrin says, “We train Solar Sister Entrepreneurs (SSEs) – primarily women – to start their own businesses. We teach them how to operate and sell clean energy devices, such as solar lamps or efcient, safer cookstoves.” Because research has demonstrated that women use their prots to invest in further family prosperity, “The role of women in building economies cannot be over-emphasized.” The entrepreneurial ethos of one woman farmer was the inspiration for Ameri-can Katherine Lucey to found Solar Sister. While volunteering to install solar systems in Ugandan health clinics, Lucey noticed a tiny light positioned over one chicken coop. When questioned, the farmer explained that her chickens only ate when they could see. The woman rigged up the light to help her chickens eat more. The chickens then produced Eucharia Idoko on her motorbike with SSE Judith Ogbonna at a Sisterhood meeting in Enugu Ikpamodo village, Enugu State, Nigeria. Photos courtesy of Solar Sister.Sister Entrepreneur Iyanda Mujeedat meeting with a potential customer in Ibadan, Nigeria.
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com43NONPROFITbigger eggs, which sold for more money at the market. “Just one light made me realize people didn’t need huge panels and expensive inverters to get useful task power,” Lu-cey says. “Product size solar was pretty new in 2009, and it clearly improved lives. How could these small products get into people’s hands? I thought, let’s solve for that.”What was needed was a nimble, efcient and low-cost distribution network. Lucey envisioned and created a woman-to-woman sales force that could serve the remotest communities. “Women make the energy decisions in last-mile households,” she says. “They decide if they are going to buy kerosene for the stove or the lamp. They decide if new technology like cleaner stoves or solar lamps will enter the home. So, to reach these women, we decided to create a salesforce of women who were deeply embedded in the community. These women are able to teach their custom-ers, who are their friends and neighbors, how to put the lamp in the sun during the day so that it shines at night. They show customers how a lamp, which costs about ve U.S. dollars, saves four dol-lars in kerosene every week. This money saved pays for better food, school fees, clothes and these purchases then grow the local economy further. Where busi-nesses thrive, families thrive.” Local marketers are called Solar Sister En-trepreneurs (SSEs). Fatma Muzo, country director for Tanzania, says, “We work with leaders of grassroots organizations such as farmer’s groups to identify local women who might become committed role mod-els.” Once SSE candidates with “entrepre-neurship ethos” are identied, the local staff holds a “one-on-one recruitment conversation to share the entrepreneur-ship opportunity.” Staff members assist candidates in lling out the application form, provide training, and help procure the new SSE’s rst inventory. “It’s important to adjust our training and program to meet the needs of the local culture. For example, in northern Nige-ria, which is largely Muslim, women and men lead somewhat gender-segregated lives. Our business model, where women sell to other women, ts well with the culture and the women are supported in their success by their husbands,” says Jo-anna Pinneo, a member of the U.S. based team that recently returned from onsite meetings across Africa. “When you meet, say, Oluwakemi Ojewoye in Nigeria, who kept her business going via text message during Covid lockdowns – her husband lost his teaching income due to school closures – you really appreciate how en-trepreneurship improves families’ lives.” Solar Sister sales agent Mary Anyango, Kisumu, Kenya, taking a clean cookstove to a customer. Continued on next page...
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com44NONPROFITEucharia Idoko, a Solar Sister Entrepre-neur in Nigeria, says, “I have been leaving my solar lamps outside at night to keep the area well-lit.” She recommends this to her customers because, “If there is light, it helps deter gangs and thieves, because they do not want to be identied; they need darkness.”Three key factors differentiate Solar Sister in the market: The products are available locally and predictably. Second, prod-ucts come with a warranty. If a product does not work as expected, the SSE will replace it, which builds market trust. This is important, Muzo says, because “com-petition from counterfeit products, which sell at cheaper price” from the backs of trucks sometimes look attractive to a potential customer. Finally, SSEs are eas-ily identied in public due to the bright yellow logo T-shirt and matching hijab (if desired), which help customers know they are dealing with a professional. Kenya is the newest clean energy market for Solar Sister, although not for Country Director Finorah Manayala. In 2011, she began to volunteer for a clean energy social enterprise, LivelyHoods, founded by Tania Laden, a recent college graduate. Laden organized a youth network in Ke-nyan slums that, like Solar Sister, used a SSE Fatma Mziray, 38, delivers a clean wood cookstove to Ester Hodari, 22. Mforo, Tanzania, a village near Moshi, Tanzania.SSE Fatma Mziray (R) and her eldest daughter, Zainabu Ramadhani, 19, cook lunch in her kitchen house using both a clean cookstove using wood and one using coal.
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com45NONPROFITdistributed salesforce to provide cleaner energy stoves and solar light. Typical Kenyan cookstoves are made of clay or cheap metal and primarily burn charcoal, which is expensive and emits soot particulates. A recent study of air quality published in Nature magazine found the amount of soot (PM 2.5) was ve times higher in Nairobi than the acceptable level of air pollution as dened by the World Health Organiza-tion (WHO). Manayala says, “The clean cookstoves are more efcient,” because they have an ashtray-style damper that controls the burn rate and reduces charcoal consumption by 75 percent. Although the fuel is unchanged, “Our customers can save money and time with the clean cookstoves,” while also reducing indoor air pollution. A years-long series of conversations re-cently led to the merger of LivelyHoods and Solar Sister. “This merger represents the kind of collaboration and unity of effort that it will take to address the world’s greatest challenges, such as job creation, economic empowerment, and access to clean and affordable energy,” says Laden, who now serves on Solar Sister’s board of directors. Lucey adds, “Our mission, vision and values are in complete alignment, giving us a solid foundation for our combined efforts. We bring different geographic and market segment expertise to the table that will enable us to grow in size as well as strength. We are better together, and that benets our customers, our commu-nities, our partners and our funders.” Lucey believes people are drawn to sup-port Solar Sister because, “We benet from a strong core purpose. It’s pretty distinct. Solar Sister is the nexus where women’s empowerment, clean energy and climate change reduction all come togeth-er, and that catches people’s attention.” Board member Pam Darwin agrees. She met Solar Sister representatives while judging a technology competition when she was vice president of geoscience for ExxonMobil. “Even though they didn’t win the Ashoka challenge, their market-based approach was attractive. What stood out was the scalability of the program,” Darwin says. She helped Solar Sister earn nancial support from ExxonMobil’s Women Economic Op-portunity Initiative, and has volunteered with the organization for years. Darwin co-leads the board’s strategy committee with fellow geologist Todd Mitchell. Looking forward, “We’re work-ing on the next ve-year plan, rening our last-mile delivery, identifying what we’re particularly good at and where we could raise the bar. And we’re excited to learn from LivelyHoods, to see how their model for success can help us achieve our core mission: To alleviate energy poverty.” Lucey’s nal thoughts: “The individual entrepreneur is light, hope and opportu-nity in her community. Our job is to set her up and then step back, knowing she’s got this.”Elizabeth Wilder is a freelance writer based in Houston, Texas. Kenyan Solar Sister sales agent Leonida Odour, 26, with customer, Helen, who purchased a clean cookstove.
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com46Top Four Workplace Hazards in Renewable Energy – And How to Prevent Them By Bayette ReiterAs our energy spectrum evolves from traditional sources to renewables, the energy workforce will evolve along with it. It may surprise you to know that wind turbine service technician is the second fastest growing occupation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statis-tics. In 2018, three million people were employed in energy efciency jobs in the U.S. – more than all the wait staff in ev-ery bar and restaurant across the coun-try! Overall, in the decade from 2020 to 2030, global renewable energy jobs are estimated to increase threefold – from 12 million to 38 million.With any process or industry making a rapid transition, the key is to ensure that nothing falls between the cracks. Changes in operations and job roles need to be understood and assessed, particularly the requirements for train-ing and worker safety. The rst step to preventing on-the-job accidents and injuries is to understand the various hazards faced by renew-able energy workers – whether they are harnessing solar, thermal, hydro or wind energy, or are involved in the manufac-ture of biofuels. The American National Standards Institute and the American Society of Safety Professionals recog-nized this by releasing new standards in 2018 for Wind Turbine Construction and Demolition. These new standards demonstrate the increased focus on safety in the industry and the need to establish minimum safety requirements and recommended best practices. Renewable energy workers face many of the same hazards posed by traditional energy and construction sites. Some of the most common hazards in the renew-able energy sector include lone worker risks, conned space injuries, res and toxic gases. With a forward-looking view on energy, it’s not surprising that the re-newable energy industry is also looking to “smart PPE” as the norm. An example of smart PPE that is be-ing successfully deployed across many sectors is connected safety. Simply, connected safety solutions combine a personal wearable device that can moni-tor environmental hazards such as gas exposures, as well as worker conditions such as falls and no-motion detec-tion, with location and communication capabilities that are all analyzed, visual-ized and managed through a centralized dashboard.Let’s take a deeper look at the top four types of hazards renewable energy workers face where connected safety solutions can not only mitigate but also prevent incidents.SAFETY
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com47Lone WorkersNot only is working alone common in the renewable sector, but these lone workers are particularly vulnerable due to the nature of the work and the need to conduct that work at remote work-sites. For example, wind and solar farms are typically in isolated locations, often in rough terrain with limited access. “One of the biggest challenges with [renewable energy] industries is their location. You have issues when someone is injured making sure that emergency responders can access the site and get there quickly.” – Ilana Morady, Seyfarth Shaw L.L.P. (Business Insurance)Lone worker risks can be amplied if a slip, trip or fall occurs. Wind turbines are in the range of 280 feet tall and so-lar panel installations are often on roof-tops, requiring the use of ladders, hoists and cranes, with less and less room as panels are installed. These hazards make for an increased possibility of falls. Quick response to falls is crucial as it can make a lifesaving difference. It’s not enough to know when your workers are in distress and need assistance; knowing their exact location is key to ensuring emergency responders can reach them as quickly as possible. The crux of the issue is how to keep lone workers safe and connected when out of cellular range. Devices like Blackline Safety’s G7 wearables provide you with a connected safety solution to accomplish just that. With either cellular or satellite connectivity, worker safety is always being monitored, no matter how isolated they might be. Beyond real-time location detection, connected devices even know when a worker has fallen, and if they may be unconscious, through automatic fall detection and no-motion alerts, so the monitor can call for help even when the worker can’t. Instead of the old buddy system or the need to call to check in, modern safety wearables send missed check-in notications, alerting safety monitoring personnel to potential issues. They can also act as a commu-nication device with an SOS latch for immediate distress signals and two-way communications through text or push-to-talk functionality to ensure lone workers always have a lifeline to help.These connected safety solution fea-tures not only assist lone workers, but they can also be a boon to mitigate safety incidents in renewable energy facilities as well.Conned SpacesConned spaces are considered large enough for workers to enter and per-form jobs, but not intended for con-tinuous human occupancy, with limited or restricted means for entry or exit. Conned spaces are a well-recognized hazard in many industries and, while they are not as common in renewable energy, the same risks apply. These risks include unguarded machinery, live wires, poor ventilation or heat stress. The most common cause of death in conned spaces is atmospheric hazards. While we may typically think of toxic gas exposure as an atmospheric hazard, poor ventilation can cause oxygen displacement, which also poses a life-threatening hazard via asphyxiation. Low oxygen can be encountered in SAFETYContinued on next page...
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com48SAFETYconned spaces in the renewable energy industry in areas such as geothermal vaults, wind turbines and hydro power plants.Because conned spaces can have consistently high levels of gas, individual beep-and-ash units are ineffective, as workers are prone to turning them off. To ensure safe working condi-tions, conned spaces require both pre-entry and continuous gas monitoring. Connected gas detectors with a pump can be used to sample the air quality of a conned space before ac-cess and then put into diffusion mode to continuously moni-tor the space as workers complete the job. Because the gas detectors are connected, supervisors can monitor the condi-tions in the conned space and the workers’ safety remotely as work is conducted. Fire and ExplosionsFires and explosions are also a risk in renewable energy, espe-cially in the biofuel industry. Biofuel products like biodiesel and ethanol are combustible on their own, but potentially hazardous steps occur during their production as well. For example, hexane is highly ammable and can be used as a solvent during transesterication in biodiesel production.Working with biomass includes the use of steam, pressure, electricity and heat, as well as exposure to dust. In particular, “hot loads” from municipal solid waste (MSW) – waste used to make biofuels where there is some thermal activity – have a higher risk of re.Connected safety monitoring devices can also send gas detec-tion data that is below alarm levels. This helps facilities iden-tify potential explosive or atmospheric hazards before they become an incident and proactively repair the issue before it results in worker injury. Toxic Gases and Oxygen DepletionToxic gases, such as SO2 and H2S, can pose a hazard to work-ers in various processes in biodiesel and geothermal power plants in particular. Geothermal electric utility wellheads can
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com49SAFETYrelease substantial amounts of H2S as exemplied by two incidents noted on the OSHA website.With increased use of hydrogen for renewable electricity, oxygen decien-cies are a signicant risk as well. Green hydrogen through electrolysis rather than natural gas can also be used for industrial applications like steel (using direct reduced iron), cement and plastic production without CO2 emissions. The integrated location tracking capa-bilities of the connected personal gas detectors like Blackline’s G7 means, if a worker is exposed to hazardous air quality, monitoring personnel are alerted in real-time as to the worker’s precise location and the gas levels encountered in the area. This results in quick, safer response times since the response teams know the situation before a rescue operation is started (e.g., whether gas levels indicate SCBA is required for a rescue). No matter the hazard, using connected safety solutions means going from simple “beep-and-ash” gas monitors and manual check-ins to continuous, real time gas detection and monitoring the safety status of your workers and facilities – wherever they are.Bayette Reiter is re-gional sales manager for Blackline Safety. An experienced safety professional with an accomplished history working in the energy industry for over a decade, she has a proven track record of developing successful safety solu-tions for her clients throughout her career. Reiter has an associate’s degree in occupational safety, is a certied H2S safety instructor, and has an educational background that includes conned space certication and OSHA training. Energies Cartoon
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com50Mobile Charging Innovation: Solving Challenges for Commercial EV Fleets By Kevin DroletAs the consumer market increasingly adopts electric vehicles (EVs), charging demand increases as well. Commercial use EVs are a market segment with their own set of charging challenges. The global commercial electric vehicle market is forecast to grow to over $800 billion by 2030, with good reason, as eet-driven companies globally seek net zero goals. Public demand and various government incentives and regulations are helping accelerate the transition from fossil fuel eets to electried eets. Inno-vation is driving needed clean technolo-gies to solve the challenges associated with this transition.One major challenge is how exactly to charge the incoming commercial electric vehicles and eets. Unlike the con-sumer market, the charges needed for EV eets – often tens to hundreds of vehicles – require many megawatts of power. A city like New York, trafcked by hundreds of thousands of light, mid and heavy-duty trucks, requires serious charging solutions even with a small percentage going electric.The logical thought is to partner with the local utility to install the charging watt-age needed to service company eets. But building such infrastructure can take two to ve years or more. From reasons associated with planning, permitting and allocation of resources, utility companies lack the capacity to meet the immediate need. Coordinating with utilities and pro-viding charging dependability are front and center demands for eet operators.With this as a backdrop, the energy vet-erans and thought leaders who formed Power Edison and its sister company, EV Edison, are innovating quickly to solve these challenges. Their solution, which is already receiving high demand, is mobile utility-scale energy storage, a mobile battery technology that brings the charge to eets and circumvents the lag time and infrastructure cost of mas-sive charging stations.Dr. Shihab Kuran, co-founder and ex-ecutive chairman, explains the problem and solution this way, “A eet operator calls the utility and says, ‘I’ve got a eet that I need to electrify. I need electricity.’ Utilities can’t just bring power the next day. It might take a year, might take two, might take ve. We have engineered and devised a whole portfolio of mobile util-ity-scale energy storage solutions includ-ing EV chargers, switchgear, transform-ers and batteries. Standing up an EV charging hub, even if the infrastructure doesn’t exist or the infrastructure needs several years to show up. The ability to shuttle mobile charging on a truck or a barge or rail to that location from some nearby location. Providing the bridge for infrastructure, for the problem that exists in the industry today.”Offering what the company refers to as “mobile dynamic power infrastruc-ture” has multiple benets outside of simply meeting the immediate charging needs. An example in New York or New Jersey, where the company is based, is the cost of real estate. Oftentimes, eets are parked on leased property. Creating charging solutions on these proper-ties comes with its own set of logistical and legal challenges. Putting permanent infrastructure on land might not be the most efcient use of that land. Lastly, for many companies, investing in long-term infrastructure does not allow for agility and exibility in the market.EV Edison has multiple projects under-way to bring the charge directly to the eet and solve the infrastructure gap. It includes how batteries are moved to eets in size and capacity that can meet charging needs. In New York, for example, investment is being allocated to the construction of barges that move batteries on the less crowded “blue highways” or waterways. The company reports wide demand across an array of eets sizes. In just about any industry where eets are transitioning to electri-cation, there is a need – from airports, to entertainment, to schools, to last-mile vehicles and more.In the spring of 2022, EV Edison brought on David Daly as president. A previous high-level executive from New Jersey’s largest utility, PSE&G, Daly left at the end of 2021 after 35 years as a ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com51leader in the utility. Daly points out, “EV Edison’s innovative solutions are advancing the electrication of the transportation sector and the clean energy revolution, with a strong focus on workforce development and envi-ronmental justice.” Daly’s deep knowl-edge of utility operations and energy supply and demand infrastructure gives the company an edge in navigating and implementing charging solutions.The other opportunity being provided by EV Edison is a large-scale charging hub. This has provided a huge benet to drayage eets in particular. Dr. Kuran explains, “We joint ventured with a partner [that] owns 130 acres about 10 minutes from the largest seaport on the East Coast to build the U.S.’ largest EV charging hub, working with the local utility to bring up to 200 megawatts of power. The reason EV Edison is taking on this project is there are a massive number of trucks, including medium and heavy-duty vehicles and many dray-age trucks. As eets electrify, Kearny Point is a perfect, secure location for overnight charging.”There is an additional impact over time: This area has one of the highest rates of asthma in the country. Providing electric eet charging solutions here has a posi-tive side impact of reducing the need for fossil fuel eets, positively impacting air quality, and reducing noise pollution in underserved communities.“Mobile batteries on water, on the rail or on trucks have a lot of applications,” says Dr. Shihab Kuran. “We need to take those electrons where they’re needed. EV charging infrastructure became a major driver for the need of those bat-teries, so we created a sister company called EV Edison to handle the sales and marketing, and contracting and development, of such projects.”Kevin Drolet is a fractional CMO working to promote renewable energy innovators. He has over 20 years of marketing leadership and is passionate about companies like EV Edison that are solving the big problems related to the renewable energy transition. ELECTRIC VEHICLESADVERTISE 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
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com52LOCAL CONTENT STRATEGIESLocal Content in the Energy Transition By Ileana I. FerberTo determine whether Local Content (LC) strategies traditionally implemented in the oil and gas industry are transfer-able to renewable energy, we need to ask the following questions: Does LC play a role in the energy transition? Why is it important to continue the efforts on LC in the renewable space? What are the el-ements of LC and how are they bonded to the overall vision of governments and energy companies? The answer to the rst question is “yes.” LC strategies are transferable to renew-able energy to a greater extent. Like in oil and gas, they must be developed and implemented as a t-for-purpose approach, and LC results should be expected in the long run rather than im-mediately. LC is an approach that builds the capability of a resource holder by developing its workforce skills, and its suppliers’ capabilities with the goal of generating economic growth, stimulating diversication, and bringing know-how to a given location (community, city, province, region, and/or country). LC involves different key stakeholders such as private companies, governments, non-prot organizations, people (labor and professionals), suppliers, communities, academia, and civil society.The importance of LC lies in the posi-tive impact that its initiatives can have on the overall economy of a country, the competitiveness of its market, the cost of a project, the interests of foreign in-vestors, the population’s education, and the promotion of private-public part-nerships (PPP). There are three main elements in LC:Workforce DevelopmentThe rst one is workforce development, which includes the recruitment and training of locals to build and improve their skill levels; for this, the role of universities, trade schools, and techni-cal and vocational education training (TVETs) play an important role, as well as human resources and talent manage-ment functions of operators and major contractors. Craft labor and profes-sionals not only build their skills in the classroom. Field experience is the most valuable source of upskilling. Time is an important aspect of workforce develop-ment as it takes years to form an engi-neer, train a crane operator, and prepare a welder for offshore work.Supplier DevelopmentThe second one is supplier develop-ment, which embraces buying local goods and services, building the capa-bilities of suppliers via training, and creating a competitive market capable of bringing prices down and quality up. Here, the role of the private sector is key as communicating expectations and providing feedback will signicantly help suppliers meet their needs, and close gaps in weak areas like safety, quality, delivery, and business integrity. Joined efforts of the private sector, the govern-ment, NGOs, multilateral organizations, and civil society, suppliers can become qualied to work for the industry with the highest operational standards. Technology TransferThe third one is technology transfer which includes bringing know-how (also called “tacit knowledge” by Har-vard’s Professor Ricardo Hausmann). It is thought technology is only either a computer program or a sophisticated piece of equipment. Tacit knowledge is what everyone has learned through years of academic and practical experience, and it is stored in everyone’s brain. This knowledge can only be transferred from person to person by teaching, listening, repeating, and work shadowing. How-ever, this takes time; it does not happen overnight and is usually interrupted when expatriates are relocated to an-other assignment or simply sent home.LC policies and LC plans are two pieces that connect the requirements of a government and the performance Engineering students getting hands-on training at a technical and vocational education and training (TVET) facility in Takoradi, Ghana. Photos courtesy of Ileana I. Ferber.
Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com53LOCAL CONTENT STRATEGIESof an operator. The regulator or the government entity denes its expecta-tions and requirements through policy frameworks, clauses in commercial or licensing agreements, legislations, and regulations. Those can vary based on the maturity of the industry and the government’s experience in LC (from prescriptive and onerous to promoting and t-for-purpose). There are groups and organizations that provide advice and hands-on support to governments on how and when to develop mecha-nisms for LC. On the other hand, operators and major contractors use LC plans to describe how they are planning to do LC (wheth-er legally required or not), and how they will measure and report their perfor-mance. Communication and alignment between these two key stakeholders are essential for the success of LC strate-gies. Operators should continuously address expectations not only from the government but also from the local workforce and suppliers. Major compa-nies are used to having frameworks and systems to set internal expectations and requirements, and LC is one of them; for some, it is part of the company’s DNA. In this Energy Transition era, LC plays an important role in the “S” and “G” factors in ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance).The differences and similarities between the oil and gas industry and the renew-able energy sector can make a long-detailed list. If they are grouped into categories, these can be expenditures, project lifecycle, risks, technology, skill levels required, supply chain categories, industry standards, and raw materials, among others. The point is that LC is a t-for-purpose approach that must be adjusted to the context, and therefore can be applicable to oil and gas, min-ing, offshore wind farms, hydroelectric power, geothermal, and carbon capture and storage (CCS). LC is not a cookie cutter, but a white canvas with three elements to consider. Any source of energy is a source of economic growth, diversication, and know-how for a country, region, or community.For example, in developing the skills of marine mammal observers (MMO) and shing liaison ofcers (FLO) for off-shore operations (seismic, drilling and production), the oil and gas industry has skilled professionals who can provide their services and expertise to offshore wind and solar farms developers. Weld-ers and mechanical engineers are always in high demand in oil and gas; now, they have other energy sectors where they can use their skills. Opportunities for service providers are rapidly growing, mainly for logistics and manufacturing/maintenance suppliers. Shore based sup-port is critical for any offshore opera-tion, as it will need all kinds of vessels (installation, crew transfer, cable lay), fuel, aviation service, cranes and heavy lifting equipment. All these examples come with technology (digital twins), sophisticated equipment (umbilicals and power cables), and subject matter experts that will transfer skills, knowl-edge, experience, lessons and leads from sector to sector making the energy transition a non-stop ow.There is no need to reinvent the wheel in this energy transition. LC strategies that have been characteristic of the oil and gas industry can also be imple-mented in the renewables space if they maintain their t-for-purpose nature. Governments, operators, major con-tractors, academia, suppliers, workers, communities, NGOs, and civil society should work together on shared value creation. A skilled workforce, competi-tive suppliers, and cutting-edge technol-ogy are needed in the renewables sector, and the oil and gas industry already has the most technical and operationally qualied people and suppliers, as well as centuries of combined know-how read-ily available for the energy transition.Oil and gas professional Ileana I. Ferber has more than 24 years of experi-ence in the industry. She is a local content subject matter expert (SME), who provides ad-vice on policy, economic growth, and supplier development. She advocates for developing countries’ local content issues, facilitates alignment among key stakeholders, and supports women’s economic empowerment in the supply chain. Ferber has a BA in Languages (with a major in business) from Univer-sidad Metropolitana, Caracas; an MBA in International Development and a certicate in Corporate Social Respon-sibility & Sustainability from Thunder-bird School of Global Management, Phoenix Arizona; and is a candidate for Economic Development Executive Certication from Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
54Energies Magazine / Winter 2022 / EnergiesMagazine.com54DOCUMENTARYIllustrations courtesy of Susan Kucera.
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