Minimizing habitat conflicts in meeting net-zero energy targets in the western United States.

The scale and pace of energy infrastructure development required to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are unprecedented, yet our understanding of how to minimize its potential impacts on land and ocean use and natural resources is inadequate. Using high-resolution energy and land-use modeling, we developed spatially explicit scenarios for reaching an economy-wide net-zero GHG target in the western United States by 2050. We found that among net-zero policy cases that vary the rate of transportation and building electrification and use of fossil fuels, nuclear generation, and biomass, the "High Electrification" case, which utilizes electricity generation the most efficiently, had the lowest total land and ocean area requirements (84,000 to 105,000 km2 vs. 88,100 to 158,000 km2 across all other cases). Different levels of land and ocean use protections were applied to determine their effect on siting, environmental and social impacts, and energy costs. Meeting the net-zero target with stronger land and ocean use protections did not significantly alter the share of different energy generation technologies and only increased system costs by 3%, but decreased additional interstate transmission capacity by 20%. Yet, failure to avoid development in areas with high conservation value is likely to result in substantial habitat loss.

The mortality impacts of current and planned coal-fired power plants in India.

We examine the health implications of electricity generation from the 2018 stock of coal-fired power plants in India, as well as the health impacts of the expansion in coal-fired generation capacity expected to occur by 2030. We estimate emissions of SO2, NOX, and particulate matter 2.5 µm (PM2.5) for each plant and use a chemical transport model to estimate the impact of power plant emissions on ambient PM2.5 Concentration-response functions from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) are used to project the impacts of changes in PM2.5 on mortality. Current plus planned plants will contribute, on average, 13% of ambient PM2.5 in India. This reflects large absolute contributions to PM2.5 in central India and parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain (up to 20 µg/m3). In the south of India, coal-fired power plants account for 20-25% of ambient PM2.5 We estimate 112,000 deaths are attributable annually to current plus planned coal-fired power plants. Not building planned plants would avoid at least 844,000 premature deaths over the life of these plants. Imposing a tax on electricity that reflects these local health benefits would incentivize the adoption of renewable energy.

Emerging issues in fisheries science by fisheries scientists.

The current epoch in fisheries science has been driven by continual advances in laboratory techniques and  increasingly sophisticated approaches to analysing datasets. We now have the scientific knowledge and tools to proactively identify obstacles to the sustainable management of marine resources. However, in addition to technological advances, there are predicted global environmental changes, each with inherent implications for fisheries. The 2023 symposium of the Fisheries Society of the British Isles called for "open and constructive knowledge exchange between scientists, stakeholders, managers and policymakers" (https://fsbi.org.uk/symposium-2023/), a nexus of collaborative groups best placed to identify issues and solutions. Arguably, the Centre of Environment, Aquaculture and Fisheries Science (Cefas) and their Scientific Advice for Fisheries Management (SAFM) Team sit at the centre of such a network. SAFM regularly engages with managers and stakeholders, undertakes scientific research, provides fisheries advice to the UK government, and are leading experts within the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). As such, this paper is an opinion piece, linked to individual authors specialisms, that aims to highlight emerging issues affecting fisheries and suggest where research efforts could be focused that contribute to sustainable fisheries.

Operationalizing a fisheries social-ecological system through a Bayesian belief network reveals hotspots for its adaptive capacity in the southern North sea.

Fisheries social-ecological systems (SES) in the North Sea region confront multifaceted challenges stemming from environmental changes, offshore wind farm expansion, and marine protected area establishment. In this paper, we demonstrate the utility of a Bayesian Belief Network (BN) approach in comprehensively capturing and assessing the intricate spatial dynamics within the German plaice-related fisheries SES. The BN integrates ecological, economic, and socio-cultural factors to generate high-resolution maps of profitability and adaptive capacity potential (ACP) as prospective management targets. Our analysis of future scenarios, delineating changes in spatial constraints, economics, and socio-cultural aspects, identifies factors that will exert significant influence on this fisheries SES in the near future. These include the loss of fishing grounds due to the installation of offshore wind farms and marine protected areas, as well as reduced plaice landings due to climate change. The identified ACP hotspots hold the potential to guide the development of localized management strategies and sustainable planning efforts by highlighting the consequences of management decisions. Our findings emphasize the need to consider detailed spatial dynamics of fisheries SES within marine spatial planning (MSP) and illustrate how this information may assist decision-makers and practitioners in area prioritization. We, therefore, propose adopting the concept of fisheries SES within broader integrated management approaches to foster sustainable development of inherently dynamic SES in a rapidly evolving marine environment.

Energy shifting in wastewater treatment using compressed oxygen from integrated hydrogen production.

Integrating renewable hydrogen production via electrolysis with wastewater treatment is an opportunity to manage environmental resources more sustainably while providing a pathway to producing sustainable hydrogen at industrial scale. The synergies of integrating oxygen production from water electrolysis and oxygen use in wastewater treatment benefit both hydrogen production and wastewater industries. However, the understanding of the most suitable integrated process configuration and scale of renewable equipment is not known. A novel energy shifting process is proposed here using compressed and stored oxygen produced by water electrolysis and used in the activated sludge process, replacing traditional aeration in the wastewater treatment plant and eliminating the high energy consuming blowers supplying air to submerged fine bubble diffusers. In the proposed energy shifting process, excess oxygen produced by water electrolysis at times of peak renewable electricity production is stored and used for wastewater treatment at times of peak oxygen demand. Wastewater treatment data from the activated sludge process was used to calculate oxygen demand in 1-h intervals over a 24-h period, and the system response of the integrated plant was simulated at hourly intervals and equipment size determined according to an optimisation algorithm that balances oxygen and electricity supply and demand over a 24-h period. Sensitivity analysis of operational parameters is assessed and the case for replacing traditional WWTP aeration with newer technologies is quantified using a high efficiency oxygen transfer system such as a Speece cone as an example that is shown to be a prerequisite for the feasibility of the process. The results produced by this study provide valuable information to the hydrogen and wastewater industries on how an integrated plant could be configured. Besides the environmental advantages of sustainably produced hydrogen, using oxygen as a biochemical energy storage medium in this configuration means WWTP powered from renewable electricity becomes more viable reducing the industries reliance on fossil fuels.

Green industrial transition: Leveraging environmental innovation and environmental tax to achieve carbon neutrality. Expanding on STRIPAT model.

Anthropogenic global warming strategies on carbon mitigation are driven by encouraging green innovation and using carbon taxes, yet an empirical model to validate this is non-existing. Moreover, the existing stochastic effects by regression on population, wealth, and technology (STIRPAT) model has been found to lack policy tools on taxes and institutions that cut carbon emissions. This study amends the STIRPAT model with environmental technology, environmental taxes, and strong institutional frameworks to create a new model STIRPART(stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, regulation, and technology) to understand the factors impacting carbon pollution using the emerging 7 economies. Using data from 2000 to 2020, the Driscoll-Kraay fixed effects are employed in this analysis to conduct evidential tests of the impacts of environmental policies, eco-friendly innovations, and strong institutions. The outcomes indicate that environmental technology, environmental taxation, and institution quality decrease E7's carbon emissions by 0.170%, 0.080%, and 0.016%, respectively. It is recommended that E7 policymakers should adopt the STIRPART postulate as the theoretical basis for policies favoring environmental sustainability. The key contribution is the amendment of the STIRPAT model and the enhancement of the market-based mechanisms, such as patents, strong institutions, and carbon taxes, to enable environmental policy to be carried out sustainably and cost-effectively.

Influence of coating type, colour, and deployment timing on biofouling by native and non-native species in a marine renewable energy context.

Biofouling on marine renewable energy devices presents engineering challenges for this developing sector, and has implications for the spread of marine non-native species (NNS) in coastal waters. This is particularly true at sites with abundant energy resource, little existing infrastructure, and few established NNS. Device coatings, such as antifouling paints, could reduce the risk of NNS spread. Settlement on coatings of various types and colours, representing those likely to be used on renewable energy devices, was assessed in the Orkney Islands, northern Scotland. Assemblage composition, but not overall biofouling cover, varied initially among different coloured surfaces, although differences decreased over time. Different coating types (an anticorrosive paint, a biocidal paint and a fouling-release coating) differed in biofouling abundance and composition for the full duration of the experiment. NNS were mostly, but not completely, absent from antifouling surfaces. These results can help informing antifouling strategies for the marine renewable energy industry.

Decision Support System for Emergencies in Microgrids.

The usual operation of a microgrid (MG) may often be challenged by emergencies related to extreme weather conditions and technical issues. As a result, the operator often needs to adapt the MG's management by either: (i) excluding disconnected components, (ii) switching to islanded mode or (iii) performing a black start, which is required in case of a blackout, followed by either direct reconnection to the main grid or islanded operation. The purpose of this paper is to present an optimal Decision Support System (DSS) that assists the MG's operator in all the main possible sorts of emergencies, thus providing an inclusive solution. The objective of the optimizer, developed in Pyomo, is to maximize the autonomy of the MG, prioritizing its renewable production. Therefore, the DSS is in line with the purpose of the ongoing energy transition. Furthermore, it is capable of taking into account multiple sorts of Distributed Energy Resources (DER), including Renewable Energy Sources (RES), Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)-which can only be charged with renewable energy-and local, fuel-based generators. The proposed DSS is applied in a number of emergencies considering grid-forming and grid-following mode, in order to highlight its effectiveness and is verified with the use of PowerFactory, DIgSILENT.

The implicit cost of carbon abatement during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper provides novel estimates of the implicit cost of carbon abatement associated with the COVID-19 crisis. We compare that to the costs from renewable investments that would lead to similar abatement. Focusing on the Spanish economy and its power sector, we combine machine learning and simulation tools to construct a precise counterfactual of market performance in absence of the crisis. Results suggest that power sector CO2 emissions fell by 4.13 Million Tons (about 11.5%) during 2020 due to the pandemic, less than half of the actual year-on-year emissions reductions. Investing in renewables to achieve similar carbon abatement would yield an implicit cost of 60-65 Euro/Ton of CO2. Conversely, the pandemic caused a substantial GDP loss in Spain, relative to the extent of overall carbon abatement. The resulting cost of carbon abatement associated with the pandemic thus exceeded 7 thousand Euro/Ton.

Bottom-up estimates of deep decarbonization of U.S. manufacturing in 2050.

The world needs to rapidly reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission to stave off the risks of disastrous climate change. In particular, decarbonizing U.S. manufacturing industries is particularly challenging due to the specific process requirements. This study estimates the potential for future CO2 emission reductions in this important sector. The analysis is a detailed accounting exercise that relies on estimates of emission-reduction potential from other studies and applies those potentials to the manufacturing sector using a bottom-up approach. The actions are grouped into four "pillars" that support deep decarbonization of manufacturing (DDM): Energy Efficiency, Material Efficiency, Industry-Specific, and Power Grid. Based on this bottom-up approach, the analysis shows that an 86% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from the Reference Case is feasible. No single pillar dominates DDM, although opportunities vary widely by sub-sector. The analysis shows that a strategy incorporating a broad set of elements from each pillar can be effective instead of relying on any single pillar. Some pillars, such as Energy Efficiency and Material Efficiency, have wide applicability; others have key niche roles that are Industry-Specific; the Power Grid pillar requires interaction between grid decarbonization and industry action to switch from fossil fuels to zero-carbon electricity where appropriate.

Engineering of Yolk/Core-Shell Structured Nanoreactors for Thermal Hydrogenations.

Heterogeneous hydrogenation reactions are of great importance for chemical upgrading and synthesis, but still face the challenges of controlling selectivity and long-term stability. To improve the catalytic performance, many hydrogenation reactions utilize special yolk/core-shell nanoreactors (YCSNs) with unique architectures and advantageous properties. This work presents the developmental and technological challenges in the preparation of YCSNs that are potentially useful for hydrogenation reactions, and provides a summary of the properties of these materials. The work also addresses the scientific challenges in applications of these YCSNs in various gas and liquid-phase hydrogenation reactions. The catalyst structures, catalytic performance, structure-performance relationships, reaction mechanisms, and unsolved problems are discussed too. Also, a brief outlook and opportunities for future research in this field are presented. This work on the advancements in YCSNs might inspire the creation of new materials with desired structures for achieving maximal hydrogenation performances.

Avoided external energy costs due to penetration of renewables: Evidence form Baltic States.

European Union (EU) has set ambitious energy and climate targets for the EU Member States. Some EU Member States (MS) confirmed to attain 100% of renewables in power generation by 2050 and implement carbon-free economy target. The purpose of this study is to assess and compare the avoided external costs of electricity generation due to the penetration of renewables in the Baltic States by implementing EU energy and climate targets for 2020, 2030 and 2050. The switching to renewables has significant social benefits for the EU member states, as fossil fuel burning is linked with the climate change and emission of classical air pollutants (SO2, NOx, particulate matter, NH3, NMVOC), which can have various negative impacts on the human health. The analysis and forecasts of external costs of power generation by 2050 in the selected countries, i.e., the Baltic States, has shown that Estonia is able to achieve the highest avoided external costs and highest health benefits from renewable promotion due to the oil shale that is dominating in the power generation structure. The main input of this study performed in the Baltic States is to show how subsidies for renewables correspond to the reduction of external costs of power generation and to provide important policy implications for these countries. Moreover, this can be an example for other countries how to assess the benefits of renewables support.

Addition of formate dehydrogenase increases the production of renewable alkane from an engineered metabolic pathway.

An engineered metabolic pathway consisting of reactions that convert fatty acids to aldehydes and eventually alkanes would provide a means to produce biofuels from renewable energy sources. The enzyme aldehyde-deformylating oxygenase (ADO) catalyzes the conversion of aldehydes and oxygen to alkanes and formic acid and uses oxygen and a cellular reductant such as ferredoxin (Fd) as co-substrates. In this report, we aimed to increase ADO-mediated alkane production by converting an unused by-product, formate, to a reductant that can be used by ADO. We achieved this by including the gene (fdh), encoding formate dehydrogenase from Xanthobacter sp. 91 (XaFDH), into a metabolic pathway expressed in Escherichia coli Using this approach, we could increase bacterial alkane production, resulting in a conversion yield of ∼50%, the highest yield reported to date. Measuring intracellular nicotinamide concentrations, we found that E. coli cells harboring XaFDH have a significantly higher concentration of NADH and a higher NADH/NAD+ ratio than E. coli cells lacking XaFDH. In vitro analysis disclosed that ferredoxin (flavodoxin):NADP+ oxidoreductase could use NADH to reduce Fd and thus facilitate ADO-mediated alkane production. As formic acid can decrease the cellular pH, the addition of formate dehydrogenase could also maintain the cellular pH in the neutral range, which is more suitable for alkane production. We conclude that this simple, dual-pronged approach of increasing NAD(P)H and removing extra formic acid is efficient for increasing the production of renewable alkanes via synthetic biology-based approaches.

The transcription factor ACE3 controls cellulase activities and lactose metabolism via two additional regulators in the fungus Trichoderma reesei.

Fungi of the genus Trichoderma are a rich source of enzymes, such as cellulases and hemicellulases, that can degrade lignocellulosic biomass and are therefore of interest for biotechnological approaches seeking to optimize biofuel production. The essential transcription factor ACE3 is involved in cellulase production in Trichoderma reesei; however, the mechanism by which ACE3 regulates cellulase activities is unknown. Here, we discovered that the nominal ace3 sequence in the T. reesei genome available through the Joint Genome Institute is erroneously annotated. Moreover, we identified the complete ace3 sequence, the ACE3 Zn(II)2Cys6 domain, and the ACE3 DNA-binding sites containing a 5'-CGGAN(T/A)3-3' consensus. We found that in addition to its essential role in cellulase production, ace3 is required for lactose assimilation and metabolism in T. reesei Transcriptional profiling with RNA-Seq revealed that ace3 deletion down-regulates not only the bulk of the major cellulase, hemicellulase, and related transcription factor genes, but also reduces the expression of lactose metabolism-related genes. Additionally, we demonstrate that ACE3 binds the promoters of many cellulase genes, the cellulose response transporter gene crt1, and transcription factor-encoding genes, including xyr1 We also observed that XYR1 dimerizes to facilitate cellulase production and that ACE3 interacts with XYR1. Together, these findings uncover how two essential transcriptional activators mediate cellulase gene expression in T. reesei On the basis of these observations, we propose a model of how the interactions between ACE3, Crt1, and XYR1 control cellulase expression and lactose metabolism in T. reesei.

Towards Higher Moral and Economic Goals in Renewable Energy.

The European Union's (EU) funding of electricity made of biogas that is obtained from purpose-grown plants accelerated the global boom of renewable energy two decades ago. Tens of thousands of biogas plants were built in EU farms soon after. As this specific trend toward renewable energy globally spreads, it has the potential to alter the features of agriculture in the future. Such conceptual changes are related to a variety of socio-economic and environmental implications that manifest itself over a large time scale. Regarding renewables made of purpose-grown plants, a majority of reservations are related to its production economy, particularly since these biofuels are expected to compete with food or feed. So far, little attention has been paid to the fact that the fields of farms that run biogas stations are subject to shortly repeated erosive crops followed by the intensive application of the fermentation residues obtained. The various types of soil on different European farms, which have been operating biogas stations for at least two decades, were analyzed. It was revealed for the first time that such practices cause soil degradation and pose a threat to food production, which has been overlooked until now. The relations between ethical and economical points of view are discussed.

Towards Sustainable Energy-Efficient Communities Based on a Scheduling Algorithm.

The Internet of Things (IoT) and Demand Response (DR) combined have transformed the way Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) contribute to saving energy and reducing costs, while also giving consumers more control over their energy footprint. Unlike current price and incentive based DR strategies, we propose a DR model that promotes consumers reaching coordinated behaviour towards more sustainable (and green) communities. A cooperative DR system is designed not only to bolster energy efficiency management at both home and district levels, but also to integrate the renewable energy resource information into the community's energy management. Initially conceived in a centralised way, a data collector called the "aggregator" will handle the operation scheduling requirements given the consumers' time preferences and the available electricity supply from renewables. Evaluation on the algorithm implementation shows feasible computational cost (CC) in different scenarios of households, communities and consumer behaviour. Number of appliances and timeframe flexibility have the greatest impact on the reallocation cost. A discussion on the communication, security and hardware platforms is included prior to future pilot deployment.

Reaching a 1.5°C target: socio-technical challenges for a rapid transition to low-carbon electricity systems.

A 1.5°C global average target implies that we should no longer focus on merely incremental emissions reductions from the electricity system, but rather on fundamentally re-envisaging a system that, sooner rather than later, becomes carbon free. Many low-carbon technologies are surpassing mainstream predictions for both uptake and cost reduction. Their deployment is beginning to be disruptive within established systems. 'Smart technologies' are being developed to address emerging challenges of system integration, but their rates of future deployment remain uncertain. We argue that transition towards a system that can fully displace carbon generation sources will require expanding the focus of our efforts beyond technical solutions. Recognizing that change has social and technical dimensions, and that these interact strongly, we set out a socio-technical review that covers electricity infrastructure, citizens, business models and governance. It describes some of the socio-technical challenges that need to be addressed for the successful transition of the existing electricity systems. We conclude that a socio-technical understanding of electricity system transitions offers new and better insights into the potential and challenges for rapid decarbonization.This article is part of the theme issue 'The Paris Agreement: understanding the physical and social challenges for a warming world of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels'.

Subsidies to Increase Remote Pollution?

During the last decade, Central Europe became a cynosure for the world for its unparalleled public support for renewable energy. For instance, the production of electricity from purpose-grown biomass received approximately twice the amount in subsidies as that produced from biowaste. Moreover, the guaranteed purchase price of electricity from solar panels was set approximately five times higher than that from conventional sources. This controversial environmental donation policy led to the devastation of large areas of arable land, a worsening of food availability, unprecedented market distortions, and serious threats to national budgets, among other things. Now, the first proposals to donate the purchase price of electric vehicles (and related infrastructure) from national budgets have appeared for public debate. Advocates of these ideas argue that they can solve the issue of electricity overproduction, and that electric vehicles will reduce emissions in cities. However, our analysis reveals that, as a result of previous scandals, environmental issues have become less significant to local citizens. Given that electric cars are not yet affordable for most people, in terms of local purchasing power, this action would further undermine national budgets. Furthermore, while today's electromobiles produce zero pollution when operated, their sum of emissions (i.e. global warming potential) remains much higher than that of conventional combustion engines. Therefore, we conclude that the mass usage of electromobiles could result in the unethical improvement of a city environment at the expense of marginal regions.

Multiple-Pulse Sounds and Seals: Results of a Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) Telemetry Study During Wind Farm Construction.

Offshore construction and survey techniques can produce pulsed sounds with a high sound pressure level. In coastal waters, the areas in which they are produced are often also used by seals, potentially resulting in auditory damage or behavioral avoidance. Here, we describe a study on harbor seals during a wind farm installation off southeast England. The study used GPS/global system for mobile communication tags on 23 harbor seals that provided distribution and activity data; the closest range of individual seals to piling varied from 6.65 to 46.1 km. Furthermore, the maximum predicted received levels (RLs) at individual seals varied between 146.9 and 169.4 dB re 1 µPa peak to peak.

Renewables, Shipping, and Protected Species: A Vanishing Opportunity for Effective Marine Spatial Planning?

Anthropogenic noise is a by-product from human activity that impacts protected species and is increasingly being considered in environmental management decisions. Offshore energy development presents a navigational hazard to existing shipping, making the locations of these two sources of noise mutually exclusive. This fact means that licensing decisions are stepping into the realm of coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP). To be effective, conservation measures must also be considered in the CMSP process to mitigate potential cumulative adverse effects associated with resource development, particularly with multiuse conflicts. Thus managers should consider shipping lane relocation to make environmentally optimal decisions.