Published: Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Laptop screen with White House. Photo credits: Claudine Hellmuth/E&E News (graphic); Francis Chung/E&E News (White House); Freepik (laptop)
The White House is still grappling with the fallout from a major hack of IT services provider SolarWinds, which led to cybersecurity breaches at several federal agencies including the Energy Department. Claudine Hellmuth/E&E News (graphic); Francis Chung/E&E News (White House); Freepik (laptop)
As new fallout and revelations emerge from the massive SolarWinds hacking campaign that hit multiple U.S. agencies, a barrage of other online threats is likely to challenge President Biden s pledge to boost cybersecurity.
February 3, 2021
A company called Direct Connect is currently in the development and permitting phase of a privately financed, $2.5 billion project called the SOO Green HVDC Link, a proposed 349-mile, 2.1-gigawatt (!), 525-kilovolt transmission line to run underground along existing railroad from Mason City, Iowa, to the Chicago, Illinois, area. It aims to go into operation in 2024.
Going underground will allow the line to minimize environmental and visual impact. It will be much more resilient than an overhead line against weather, temperature shifts, sabotage, or squirrels.
Two side-by-side cables will run through tubes of Cross-Linked Polyethylene (XLPE) and will be self-contained, lightweight, and easy to handle. They won’t get hot, interfere with signaling equipment (unlike AC lines), or affect rail operations. There are fiber-optic sensors along the lines to monitor sound and heat for any problems.
[co-author: Mostafa Al Khonaizi ]
Hydrogen is not found freely in the atmosphere, and the pathways of producing hydrogen differ significantly in their carbon intensity. These pathways are typically referred to by colors grey, blue, and green based on the various inputs required to produce the hydrogen, with conventional means of producing hydrogen emitting most significant carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Grey Hydrogen
Grey hydrogen is produced using fossil fuel hydrocarbon feedstocks, most typically, natural gas. As such, it is the most carbon-intensive pathway of generating hydrogen. The conventional methods use either steam methane reforming or autothermal reforming processes to separate hydrogen from carbon and make up about 75% of total hydrogen production.
By Galen Barbose, Eric O’Shaughnessy and Ryan Wiser, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Until recently, rooftop solar panels were a clean energy technology that only wealthy Americans could afford. But prices have dropped, thanks mostly to falling costs for hardware, as well as price declines for installation and other “soft” costs.
Today hundreds of thousands of middle-class households across the U.S. are turning to solar power. But households with incomes below the median for their areas remain less likely to go solar. These low- and moderate-income households face several roadblocks to solar adoption, including cash constraints, low rates of home ownership and language barriers.
Until recently, rooftop solar panels were a clean energy technology that only wealthy Americans could afford. But prices have dropped, thanks mostly to falling costs for hardware, as well as price declines for installation and other “soft” costs.
Today hundreds of thousands of middle-class households across the U.S. are turning to solar power. But households with incomes below the median for their areas remain less likely to go solar. These low- and moderate-income households face several roadblocks to solar adoption, including cash constraints, low rates of home ownership and language barriers.
Our team of researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory examined how various policies and business models could affect the likelihood of people at all income levels adopting solar. In a recently published study, we analyzed five common solar policies and business models to see whether they attracted lower-income households.