January 2024 Vol.25

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1.  Using Sunlight to Remove CO2 from the Atmosphere

2.  Giant Hydrogen Islands host 100 GW of Offshore Wind

3.  World's largest Airship Takes Flight in California

4.  Massive Battery Being Built to Store Hydrogen Energy

5.  Space Solar Power Study by NASA

Greetings!

To start things off, we are happy to announce that the massive library of our twelve Conferences on Future Energy (COFE 1-12) Archive Library called “The Key” on a 16 GB flash drive is also on sale along with our bestselling EM Pulser 78 with 10% discount “PC22”. To have such a volume of great presentations in such a small space is a great gift for you or someone you know.

Story #1 reflects an almost twenty (20) year old campaign that IRI started back in 2006 when famed climatologist Dr. Jim Hansen published his revealing temperature, CO2, and sea levels of the past 400,000 years of the earth’s climate showing the tight correlation between the three variables in the graph. Since then IRI has advocated gigaton carbon dioxide removal (CDR) from the atmosphere with about a dozen climate publications in open access journals. In the linked J of Geosci. And Env. Protection article, that has over 13,000 views in only a couple of years, we now find a breakthrough in the “too expensive” barrier to reversing global heat-entrapment. Researchers at ETH Zurich have found that “To slow the pace of global warming, we need to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Among other things, we need to do without fossil fuels and use more energy efficient technologies, the researchers say. However, reducing emissions alone won’t do enough to meet the climate targets. Large quantities of carbon dioxide must be captured from the atmosphere and either stored permanently underground or used as a carbon neutral feed stock in industry. Unfortunately, the carbon capture technologies available today require a lot of energy and are correspondingly expensive. which is why the researchers at ETH Zurich are developing a new method that uses light. In the future, the energy required for carbon capture using this process will come from the sun.” CleanTechnica.com Dec. 2023; Put the sun to work in solving mankind’s biggest problem to date without going broke!

Story #2 is another glimmer of hope for renewable energy implemented on a grand scale. The project called Copenhagen Energy Islands is run by the lead investor, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which cleverly includes reference to floating solar arrays and wave energy devices potentially in play, so future sea level rise won’t be a problem. While most offshore wind farms work in the megawatt range, this group thinks big with gigawatts in the hundreds and wants to impact the normally high cost of producing hydrogen.

Story #3 is certainly exciting by offering the biggest nonflammable airship to date, Pathfinder 1, twice as long as the Airbus A380 but electrically powered and Lighter Than Air (built by LTA Research) with helium bags and backed by Google’s cofounder. LTA Research also has nice graphics to showcase the Pathfinder 1. Furthermore, the nose cone has a titanium dock, Kevlar shield, and carbon fiber reinforced polymer attachment mechanism. After years of development, the airship received a special FAA airworthiness certification earlier this year, allowing LTA to conduct flight testing of the massive flying ship.

Story #4 is another boost for hydrogen, also demonstrating a transitional program for gradually switching a natural gas generation process through a mix of both, into a totally clean and green hydrogen fuel generation by 2045. That utility company is replacing its old coal fired plant with the new power plant being built in Utah, to be completed early next year with 40 large electrolyzers, to be powered by solar and wind energy, so it will be green hydrogen fuel that results from the plant’s use.

Story #5 updates us with the US space solar power (SSP) program. While Japan and also the USAF have ongoing SSP projects, NASA is now catching up with the glory of ten times the solar power intensity in space, along with 24 hour generation, without an atmosphere attenuating the radiant energy input or an earth in the way, by studying the concept first. The NASA Study is available for free here https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/otps-sbsp-report-final-tagged-approved-1-8-24-tagged-v2.pdf?emrc=11be65 in PDF. 

Sincerely,

Tom Valone, Editor

1) ETH Zurich Process Uses Sunlight To Remove Carbon Dioxide From The Atmosphere

CleanTechnica.com January 2024

An ETH Zurich research team led by Maria Lukatskaya, a professor of electrochemical energy systems, has found a way to take advantage of the fact that carbon dioxide when present in acidic aqueous liquids stays in the form of carbon dioxide, but in alkaline aqueous liquids it reacts to form salts of carbonic acid, known as carbonates. This chemical reaction is reversible. Acidity determines whether the liquid contains carbon dioxide or a carbonate.

2) Giant Green Hydrogen Energy Islands To Host 100 Gigawatts Of Offshore Wind

CleanTechna.com January 2024

The offshore wind industry is expected to pick up steam over the next 25 years with 500 gigawatts in the water by 2050. As for where all those gigawatts will go that’s an open question. New onshore facilities and transmission lines will have to suck up all that power and hand it off to somebody, somewhere, and that means a whole new battle over land use. Or not, as the case may be. A new venture has emerged with an ambitious proposal to build uncork the looming bottleneck with a network of 10 offshore green hydrogen plants.

3) The world's largest airship takes flight in California

The Points Guy, January 2024

The Airbus A380 may be the largest commercial jet, but something far larger took to the skies in recent months. Earlier this fall, a California startup embarked on a test flight of its new airship. Flown with the help of 13 helium bags, a dozen electric motors and four fin rudders, "Pathfinder 1" exited its hangar at Moffett Field near Palo Alto in early November. After years of development, it's beginning the next phase of its lifecycle: outdoor flight testing. he airship measures a whopping 408 feet in length. For context, an A380 jet (shown below) is 239 feet long.

4) Massive Underground Battery to Store Hydrogen Energy in Utah

Hydrogen Fuel News December 2023

The project is part of a broader plan to produce a clean form of energy that can be stored in caverns.

The idea is to make it possible to produce carbon-free energy that can be stored in caverns so that it can be cleanly used to generate electricity when it is needed. In essence, it will be a massive battery that will be stored underground. The location has two massive caverns underground, each of which is as tall as the Empire State Building.

5) NASA's Space Solar Power Study

National Space Society January 2024

The National Space Society (NSS) congratulates NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy (OTPS) on the completion of its new report entitled “Space-Based Solar Power” on January 11. The report “evaluates the potential benefits, challenges, and options for NASA to engage with growing global interest in space-based solar power (SBSP), [which] entails in-space collection of solar energy, transmission of that energy to one or more stations on Earth, conversion to electricity, and delivery to the grid or to batteries for storage.