s far as energy solutions go, nuclear fusion seems to have it all. Like the current nuclear fission power process, nuclear fusion doesn’t use fossil fuels and produces zero greenhouse gas emissions. However, fusion is a cleaner alternative to current fission plants, which run on uranium. Nuclear fusion plants, in contrast, would be able to fuel themselves using hydrogen isotopes, which are both more plentiful and better for the environment, generating less of the harmful radioactive waste that’s produced at fission plants. The amount of energy created during a fusion process is also greater, meaning that fusion plants could potentially produce “more bang for the buck” than traditional fission facilities. Additionally, fusion plants would be incapable of producing the dangerous chain reactions that sometimes lead to nuclear meltdowns at fission plants.
Eager to pursue fusion’s benefits, several companies think they’re getting close to developing the world’s first nuclear fusion reactor. A company called Sparc, working with researchers at both MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, is planning to start building its compact version of a nuclear fusion reactor next spring. The ITER project, an international fusion energy collaboration proposed in 1985 by Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, is finally scheduled to begin operations at its French facility in 2025.
However, though nuclear fusion is often hailed as the power source that could save the world from climate change, nuclear power has historically had a rough time taking off as a popular energy source. Though nuclear fission power plants are currently the safest way to make energy, the historic government responses to well-known nuclear power failures such as Chernobyl and Fukushima have left the public with the impression that nuclear power is dangerous. This stigma could very well impact public acceptance of nuclear fusion plants in the future.
Further, nuclear fusion comes with its own challenges independent of nuclear stigma. A tokamak, or nuclear fusion machine, must create and control a fusion plasma, which is basically a volatile cloud of super-hot atoms that can destroy anything it touches. Since the plasma must be held in place using strong electromagnetic fields (it’s too hot to touch the material walls of the tokamak), successfully building a nuclear fusion machine presents engineering challenges. Additionally, certain experts think that fusion reactors might not even hold the theoretical benefits they’ve been praised for. Daniel Jassby, a former physics researcher at Princeton, notes that while a fusion reaction with pure hydrogen elements wouldn’t produce any nuclear waste, the fusion reactions produced in a reactor would require heavy hydrogen isotopes that would still produce radioactive waste as reaction biproducts.
The potential benefits and challenges that accompany the development of nuclear fusion reactors are just a small taste of the experiments energy researchers will conduct in their furious efforts to combat climate change. Climate change threatens humanity’s very existence. As sea levels rise, coastal regions could slip under water, creating millions of climate refugees. Food insecurity can also increase with warming global temperatures, which will decrease the value of staple crops such as rice and wheat. Additionally, if left unchecked, climate change could lead to drought across 40% of all land on the planet. Clearly, finding energy solutions which can help reduce the combustion of fossil fuels which are warming the planet is an imperative global goal.
Fortunately, other green solutions in addition to nuclear fusion reactors have been proposed. Floating wind farms promise to harness powerful offshore winds to generate massive amounts of energy. Cloud seeding can be used to replenish barren lands with artificially produced rains and potentially mitigate drought. And environmental engineers are working to develop innovative energy solutions the world hasn’t yet dreamed of to tackle the climate crisis. Climate change might offer the world frightening future scenarios, but energy technology is one way states can work to improve an uncertain future.
Though nuclear fusion is often hailed as the power source that could save the world from climate change, nuclear power has historically had a rough time taking off as a popular energy source.
Though nuclear fusion is often hailed as the power source that could save the world from climate change, nuclear power has historically had a rough time taking off as a popular energy source.
Wind Power That Floats
Floating wind farms are another future energy solution which might promise potential climate change solutions. Current offshore windfarms are formed of turbines bolted into the seabed in shallow ocean waters. Floating wind farms are located several miles offshore to take advantage of ocean wind speeds, which are typically faster than those experienced on land. Additionally, ocean wind speeds are more consistent than land wind speeds. Promising wind speeds that are both faster and more consistent, floating windfarms have the opportunity to generate more wind energy in a more reliable way.
Additionally, floating windfarms have many of the same environmental advantages as those on land. Floating wind farms are a renewable energy source that does not release greenhouse gases or environmental pollutants. They also can serve as a domestic energy source, which can help create jobs within a given country.
However, floating wind farms are not without their disadvantages. For one, the impact of offshore windfarms on marine wildlife is not yet fully understood (though it’s worth noting that floating farms might interact with a thinner distribution of wildlife than those closer to the shore). Further, installing any structure offshore is incredibly expensive. To install and commission a standard offshore windfarm in shallow ocean waters costs approximately £650 million (about $856 million). However, floating wind farms demand an even higher level of investment. Additionally, consumers pay more for energy produced by floating windfarms. Though consumers paid between £36 and £45 per MWh of electricity in 2019 (between approximately $47 and $59 per MWh), electricity from floating windfarms currently sells for over double that amount.
Despite their challenges, floating wind farms could potentially play a big role in the larger future of energy. Europe has been trying to increase its use of renewable energy since signing the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and the EU is expected to increase its use of renewables from 17% to 34% as a share of total energy by 2030. The world’s first floating windfarm (the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park) is actually located in Europe, 15 miles off the Aberdeenshire Coast in Scotland.
Hywind’s floating turbines operated at 65% maximum theoretical capacity during their first winter, outperforming non-floating offshore wind turbines by 5-20%. In 2019, a Danish company offered to buy all of the power created at Hywind for the next 20 years, indicating that floating windfarms are worth an investment.
Ultimately, it will be difficult to construct the floating windfarms that will power our future cities. However, ocean wind power may still offer an enticing (and greener) energy source. Experts note that much like with wind power on land, costs are expected to decline substantially over time. If that is the case, governments might be more willing to make the heavy investment into floating windfarms.
The world’s first floating windfarm (the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park) is actually located in Europe, 15 miles off the Aberdeenshire Coast in Scotland.
The world’s first floating windfarm (the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park) is actually located in Europe, 15 miles off the Aberdeenshire Coast in Scotland.
Cloud Seeding Combats Drought
Cloud seeding offers states another inventive renewable energy option as they combat climate change. Clouds are made up of tiny droplets of water; when enough water droplets are gathered closely together, they become dense enough to fall to the ground as precipitation. However, water doesn’t always travel to where it’s needed most. Cloud seeding involves increasing a cloud’s chance of precipitation by adding particles to clouds, usually in the form of silver iodide particles, to increase the cloud’s density and spark precipitation.
Cloud seeding is currently being touted as a potential solution to the worsening droughts which have been linked to climate change. Though ski resorts have been cloud seeding since the 1970s, the technology is now thought to provide the potential to hydrate dryer regions. In the United States, for example, cloud seeding could provide more water to those living along the Colorado River—a region where people are promised more water than is available. In Nevada, for example, its cloud seeding program at the Desert Research Institute could potentially increase the state’s snowpack by up to 10%—enough water to sustain 150,000 households. And the technology could bear widespread benefits outside of the United States. The UN estimates that half of the world’s population will be living in a water-stressed area by 2030.
However, when it comes to cloud seeding, there’s just one tiny catch: the method has never been statistically proven to work. The first studies testing the technology 70 years ago claimed that the method increased precipitation by 10%, but couldn’t back up their claims with statistical rigor. Clouds, to be fair, present a difficult control group. Once a cloud has been modified using cloud seeding, researchers do not have any way of estimating how much precipitation the cloud would have produced on its own.
Additionally, when cloud seeding is done with silver iodide, the process comes with its own environmental risks. Silver iodide is harmful to aquatic life. However, scientists have responded to this issue, and are testing materials that might enhance precipitation as well as silver iodide. Calcium chloride is one material that has proven itself to be effective and in low doses is unlikely to harm the environment.
Ultimately, cloud seeding’s potential as a future contributor to the fight against climate change is mixed. On one hand, it might provide water to the drought-ridden regions which are becoming more common as the planet warms. However, some point out that if not well regulated, cloud seeding could create an excessive of water in dry areas, potentially leading to flooding and more environmental damage. In addition to the method’s statistical unpredictability and potential damage to marine life, cloud seeding is one method that will definitely need additional study for future use.
The UN estimates that half of the world’s population will be living in a water-stressed area by 2030.
The UN estimates that half of the world’s population will be living in a water-stressed area by 2030.
Engineering New Energy Possibilities
Cloud seeding, floating wind farms, and nuclear fusion all offer potential solutions to the energy crisis states are facing—but all with significant downfalls. Environmental engineers are one group of professionals working to imagine what other solutions to the future of energy might look like. Environmental engineers develop solutions to environmental problems, including identifying sources of renewable energy. Engineers working in this sector innovate energy solutions from renewable energy sources such as solar power or wind power.
Renewable energy engineers can be those working in mechanical, chemical, industrial, and electrical engineering. These engineers can advise as researchers or consultants to make energy extraction initiatives more environmentally friendly. Mechanical engineers in this sector can build machines which harness energy more efficiently. Industrial engineers working in renewably energy might work to make sure the cells of solar panels function efficiently within industrial applications.
So far, environmental engineers have thought up many innovative methods of harness renewable energy to power the future. Some environmental engineers are working to launch kites or tethered drones high into the sky to harness the energy from the winds that blow consistently hundreds of meters above ground. Others are working to engineer technologies more affordable than batteries to help manage renewable energy stores, which are crucial, since many forms of renewably energy depend on varying weather conditions. Additionally, environmental engineers will be crucial in reforming and tinkering existing renewable technologies such as floating wind farms. The future still holds an infinite number of possibilities for those hoping to engineer greener modes of accessing energy.
a global affairs media network
Technologies for a More Climate-Conscious Future
December 23, 2020
As humanity’s impact on the biosphere becomes increasingly profound, the focus on alternative forms of energy intensifies. Simultaneously, scientists and innovators are working to engineer Earth’s weather and modify the environment to recreate the biosphere in a planned, precise way.
A
s far as energy solutions go, nuclear fusion seems to have it all. Like the current nuclear fission power process, nuclear fusion doesn’t use fossil fuels and produces zero greenhouse gas emissions. However, fusion is a cleaner alternative to current fission plants, which run on uranium. Nuclear fusion plants, in contrast, would be able to fuel themselves using hydrogen isotopes, which are both more plentiful and better for the environment, generating less of the harmful radioactive waste that’s produced at fission plants. The amount of energy created during a fusion process is also greater, meaning that fusion plants could potentially produce “more bang for the buck” than traditional fission facilities. Additionally, fusion plants would be incapable of producing the dangerous chain reactions that sometimes lead to nuclear meltdowns at fission plants.
Eager to pursue fusion’s benefits, several companies think they’re getting close to developing the world’s first nuclear fusion reactor. A company called Sparc, working with researchers at both MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, is planning to start building its compact version of a nuclear fusion reactor next spring. The ITER project, an international fusion energy collaboration proposed in 1985 by Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, is finally scheduled to begin operations at its French facility in 2025.
However, though nuclear fusion is often hailed as the power source that could save the world from climate change, nuclear power has historically had a rough time taking off as a popular energy source. Though nuclear fission power plants are currently the safest way to make energy, the historic government responses to well-known nuclear power failures such as Chernobyl and Fukushima have left the public with the impression that nuclear power is dangerous. This stigma could very well impact public acceptance of nuclear fusion plants in the future.
Further, nuclear fusion comes with its own challenges independent of nuclear stigma. A tokamak, or nuclear fusion machine, must create and control a fusion plasma, which is basically a volatile cloud of super-hot atoms that can destroy anything it touches. Since the plasma must be held in place using strong electromagnetic fields (it’s too hot to touch the material walls of the tokamak), successfully building a nuclear fusion machine presents engineering challenges. Additionally, certain experts think that fusion reactors might not even hold the theoretical benefits they’ve been praised for. Daniel Jassby, a former physics researcher at Princeton, notes that while a fusion reaction with pure hydrogen elements wouldn’t produce any nuclear waste, the fusion reactions produced in a reactor would require heavy hydrogen isotopes that would still produce radioactive waste as reaction biproducts.
The potential benefits and challenges that accompany the development of nuclear fusion reactors are just a small taste of the experiments energy researchers will conduct in their furious efforts to combat climate change. Climate change threatens humanity’s very existence. As sea levels rise, coastal regions could slip under water, creating millions of climate refugees. Food insecurity can also increase with warming global temperatures, which will decrease the value of staple crops such as rice and wheat. Additionally, if left unchecked, climate change could lead to drought across 40% of all land on the planet. Clearly, finding energy solutions which can help reduce the combustion of fossil fuels which are warming the planet is an imperative global goal.
Fortunately, other green solutions in addition to nuclear fusion reactors have been proposed. Floating wind farms promise to harness powerful offshore winds to generate massive amounts of energy. Cloud seeding can be used to replenish barren lands with artificially produced rains and potentially mitigate drought. And environmental engineers are working to develop innovative energy solutions the world hasn’t yet dreamed of to tackle the climate crisis. Climate change might offer the world frightening future scenarios, but energy technology is one way states can work to improve an uncertain future.
Though nuclear fusion is often hailed as the power source that could save the world from climate change, nuclear power has historically had a rough time taking off as a popular energy source.
Though nuclear fusion is often hailed as the power source that could save the world from climate change, nuclear power has historically had a rough time taking off as a popular energy source.
Wind Power That Floats
Floating wind farms are another future energy solution which might promise potential climate change solutions. Current offshore windfarms are formed of turbines bolted into the seabed in shallow ocean waters. Floating wind farms are located several miles offshore to take advantage of ocean wind speeds, which are typically faster than those experienced on land. Additionally, ocean wind speeds are more consistent than land wind speeds. Promising wind speeds that are both faster and more consistent, floating windfarms have the opportunity to generate more wind energy in a more reliable way.
Additionally, floating windfarms have many of the same environmental advantages as those on land. Floating wind farms are a renewable energy source that does not release greenhouse gases or environmental pollutants. They also can serve as a domestic energy source, which can help create jobs within a given country.
However, floating wind farms are not without their disadvantages. For one, the impact of offshore windfarms on marine wildlife is not yet fully understood (though it’s worth noting that floating farms might interact with a thinner distribution of wildlife than those closer to the shore). Further, installing any structure offshore is incredibly expensive. To install and commission a standard offshore windfarm in shallow ocean waters costs approximately £650 million (about $856 million). However, floating wind farms demand an even higher level of investment. Additionally, consumers pay more for energy produced by floating windfarms. Though consumers paid between £36 and £45 per MWh of electricity in 2019 (between approximately $47 and $59 per MWh), electricity from floating windfarms currently sells for over double that amount.
Despite their challenges, floating wind farms could potentially play a big role in the larger future of energy. Europe has been trying to increase its use of renewable energy since signing the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and the EU is expected to increase its use of renewables from 17% to 34% as a share of total energy by 2030. The world’s first floating windfarm (the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park) is actually located in Europe, 15 miles off the Aberdeenshire Coast in Scotland.
Hywind’s floating turbines operated at 65% maximum theoretical capacity during their first winter, outperforming non-floating offshore wind turbines by 5-20%. In 2019, a Danish company offered to buy all of the power created at Hywind for the next 20 years, indicating that floating windfarms are worth an investment.
Ultimately, it will be difficult to construct the floating windfarms that will power our future cities. However, ocean wind power may still offer an enticing (and greener) energy source. Experts note that much like with wind power on land, costs are expected to decline substantially over time. If that is the case, governments might be more willing to make the heavy investment into floating windfarms.
The world’s first floating windfarm (the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park) is actually located in Europe, 15 miles off the Aberdeenshire Coast in Scotland.
The world’s first floating windfarm (the Hywind Scotland Pilot Park) is actually located in Europe, 15 miles off the Aberdeenshire Coast in Scotland.
Cloud Seeding Combats Drought
Cloud seeding offers states another inventive renewable energy option as they combat climate change. Clouds are made up of tiny droplets of water; when enough water droplets are gathered closely together, they become dense enough to fall to the ground as precipitation. However, water doesn’t always travel to where it’s needed most. Cloud seeding involves increasing a cloud’s chance of precipitation by adding particles to clouds, usually in the form of silver iodide particles, to increase the cloud’s density and spark precipitation.
Cloud seeding is currently being touted as a potential solution to the worsening droughts which have been linked to climate change. Though ski resorts have been cloud seeding since the 1970s, the technology is now thought to provide the potential to hydrate dryer regions. In the United States, for example, cloud seeding could provide more water to those living along the Colorado River—a region where people are promised more water than is available. In Nevada, for example, its cloud seeding program at the Desert Research Institute could potentially increase the state’s snowpack by up to 10%—enough water to sustain 150,000 households. And the technology could bear widespread benefits outside of the United States. The UN estimates that half of the world’s population will be living in a water-stressed area by 2030.
However, when it comes to cloud seeding, there’s just one tiny catch: the method has never been statistically proven to work. The first studies testing the technology 70 years ago claimed that the method increased precipitation by 10%, but couldn’t back up their claims with statistical rigor. Clouds, to be fair, present a difficult control group. Once a cloud has been modified using cloud seeding, researchers do not have any way of estimating how much precipitation the cloud would have produced on its own.
Additionally, when cloud seeding is done with silver iodide, the process comes with its own environmental risks. Silver iodide is harmful to aquatic life. However, scientists have responded to this issue, and are testing materials that might enhance precipitation as well as silver iodide. Calcium chloride is one material that has proven itself to be effective and in low doses is unlikely to harm the environment.
Ultimately, cloud seeding’s potential as a future contributor to the fight against climate change is mixed. On one hand, it might provide water to the drought-ridden regions which are becoming more common as the planet warms. However, some point out that if not well regulated, cloud seeding could create an excessive of water in dry areas, potentially leading to flooding and more environmental damage. In addition to the method’s statistical unpredictability and potential damage to marine life, cloud seeding is one method that will definitely need additional study for future use.
The UN estimates that half of the world’s population will be living in a water-stressed area by 2030.
The UN estimates that half of the world’s population will be living in a water-stressed area by 2030.
Engineering New Energy Possibilities
Cloud seeding, floating wind farms, and nuclear fusion all offer potential solutions to the energy crisis states are facing—but all with significant downfalls. Environmental engineers are one group of professionals working to imagine what other solutions to the future of energy might look like. Environmental engineers develop solutions to environmental problems, including identifying sources of renewable energy. Engineers working in this sector innovate energy solutions from renewable energy sources such as solar power or wind power.
Renewable energy engineers can be those working in mechanical, chemical, industrial, and electrical engineering. These engineers can advise as researchers or consultants to make energy extraction initiatives more environmentally friendly. Mechanical engineers in this sector can build machines which harness energy more efficiently. Industrial engineers working in renewably energy might work to make sure the cells of solar panels function efficiently within industrial applications.
So far, environmental engineers have thought up many innovative methods of harness renewable energy to power the future. Some environmental engineers are working to launch kites or tethered drones high into the sky to harness the energy from the winds that blow consistently hundreds of meters above ground. Others are working to engineer technologies more affordable than batteries to help manage renewable energy stores, which are crucial, since many forms of renewably energy depend on varying weather conditions. Additionally, environmental engineers will be crucial in reforming and tinkering existing renewable technologies such as floating wind farms. The future still holds an infinite number of possibilities for those hoping to engineer greener modes of accessing energy.
