“If you are going to be using electricity as your primary energy source, then you have to be really wise about how you’re using it.”

There’s a plan to build the world’s biggest in the State of Maine, a government-funded iron-air, 85 MW / 8,500 MWh battery. Its greatest feature: 100-hour duration storage! Lithium-ion provides only 4 – 5 hours.

Bill Gates has highlighted this technology. Iron-air batteries are made with one of the most abundant materials on earth, iron. And they are non flammable, nontoxic, inexpensive, and thus scalable. The leading developer of iron-air batteries, Form Energy, has been supported by “an array of tycoons” from Bill Gates to Jeff Bezos, to Richard Branson, all part of Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Started 2017, testing began in 2018 in a 45,000 square foot facility in Somerville, Massachusetts. Form selected iron-air for its first product, and it made bold claims. In 2021, it claimed that its batteries will cost one-tenth that of any other form of storage available today. Today, Form Energy has facilities in four locations: Somerville (R&D), Berkeley, CA (engineering), Pittsburgh (pilot manufacturing), and Weirton, West Virginia for high-volume manufacturing. Form received a California Energy Commission grant for safety testing and field verification. Time Magazine selected Form Energy’s iron-air batteries as one of the best inventions of 2023.

Forms batteries are about the size of a washer/dryer set, taking in oxygen to convert iron to rust, harnessing the resulting electrons and their energy. To make the batteries, Form crushes a particularly inexpensive, and beneficially porous form of iron. It then reforms the iron into sheets of electrodes, to be paired in a wash of electrolyte, with air electrodes. Each battery cell is about four-feet high and a few inches thick, housed in plastic material.

The batteries are designed for utility grid support. Form has five pilot projects in the works including 10 MW facilities in Minnesota and Colorado. The Minnesota project for Xcel Energy is 10 MW/1,000 MWh and planned to come on line in 2025, located near Excel’s Sherco Solar Plant… helping Xcel to maximize its use of renewables. Form’s biggest project is now planned for Maine.

The U.S. Department of Energy has pledged $389 million in grant funding to shore up the New England power grid. The money will be used in large part to support the development of terminals to collect power from new and planned offshore wind farms and to distribute renewable power across the region. A big part of the grant total – $147 million – is for the Form Energy battery. It will be located to support one of the most congested parts of the New England grid.

The Maine battery will be located at the site of a former pulp and paper mill in Lincoln, off Interstate 95 between Bangor and Mount Katahdin. It will be capable of injecting 85 MW of power onto the grid for up to 100 hours, capable of delivering 8,500 MWh of energy storage. The battery will store renewable power at times of abundance, when offshore wind farms are cranking, and then discharge their valuable capacity and energy when the grid calls for it.

Image Courtesy of Johan Cruijff ArenA

PV Magazine reports that a second battery has been installed at the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam. The second battery increases the stadium’s storage capacity up to 8.6 MWh. That’s enough to run a soccer match entirely on sustainable energy.

Johan Cruyff is the largest stadium in the Netherlands, home of the Ajax soccer team. The arena features soccer and concerts. In 2018 its management installed a 3 MW storage system to serve emergency back-up power. Now the expanded project allows the venue to run entirely on green power so that events can be zero emission. The stadium’s CEO is proud, calling it a major step in making soccer matches sustainable. Now the stadium has the audacious ambition to be net positive by 2030, making a positive contribution to society and the climate.

The site also has a unique distinction: In 2018, it was reportedly Europe’s largest project to use second-hand batteries and batteries from electric vehicles in a commercial building. Today, the onsite batteries store energy from 4,200 solar panels, on the stadium’s roof (~2 dc MW of capacity), as well as a wind turbine in the village of Oudendijk, and a local solar park. The project was funded by the European Union and the European Regional Development Fund.

In used-battery related news, German carmaker Porsche AG has developed a 5 MW energy storage system from used vehicle batteries. Located at the sports carmaker’s plant in Leipzig, Germany, the battery energy storage system is made up of 4,400 battery modules.

Image Courtesy of Porsche Newsroom

The Clean Energy Investment monitor, a joint project between Rhodium Group and the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, found that in the first six months of 2024, U.S. clean tech investment reached $147 billion. That’s a record level and a 30% jump from the same period last year. The report measures actual investments from both public and private sources.

A Canary Media article correlates the record investment and the Inflation Reduction Act. In 2021, there was $141 billion invested in clean tech; in 2020 it was $115 billion. In the first half of this year alone, these annual levels have been eclipsed, with 2023 and 2024 levels wiping out the past records. Good news.

The largest segment of investment falls into the Retail category, clean energy purchases by households and businesses. That group was responsible for $64 billion of investment to outfit buildings with heat pumps and solar panels and more, and to purchase EVs. Retail was followed by Energy and Industry, including support for new wind turbine installations and green hydrogen projects accounting for $47 billion. The smallest, but fastest-growing sector, is Clean Energy Manufacturing at $36 billion, with investments in new factories for clean technologies, battery factories in particular.

Yes, the clean energy revolution is moving ahead, full-steam ahead. It is exciting and growing in momentum. Good technologies are taking advantage of the Earth’s abundant renewable energy, notably the sun and the wind. The public’s sentiments are driving policies that are accelerating the transition. In the U.S. solar and wind production have just eclipsed coal… a major milestone.

Yet there is still considerable work to be done cleaning up our power supply. The United States still gets nearly a fifth of our power from coal. In 2022, 19.5% of electricity generation was coal, down from 38.6% in 2014 and 51% in 2001. In the U.S., coal consumption peaked between 2005 and 2008 when over a billion short tons were used each year. In the U.S., natural gas was promoted as a bridge fuel to a clean energy future.

The Sierra Club continues to be at the forefront of the movement to end coal in the United States. Huge progress has been made, and we are reminded to keep the focus on the prize… the end of coal-fired generation in the United States. Once the dominant form of generation, it is now going down. But there are still 146 operating coal plants in the United States. The Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign has a goal of retiring 15 of them by the end of this year, after successfully closing seven already this year.

Overall, the Beyond Coal campaign has helped to retire 384 facilities since 2010. But many of the remaining coal plants are more entrenched, they are newer and they are bigger. And in many cases, they are located in states where the governments are pro fossil fuels and hostile to clean energy efforts. Thus the need for continued, even accelerated, U.S. action, commitment, and speed is imperative.

Why? The rest of the world needs leadership. Globally, coal is on the rise. It is used for about a third of total electricity production. In 2022, global coal consumption reached an all-time high, rising 4% to 8.42 billion tonnes. It likely hit a new record in 2023. According to the International Energy Agency, global coal use continues to grow each year. China’s growth rate of coal use is 5%; in India there is an 8% annual growth rate. And coal is also rising in Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Together, these growth countries represent more than 70% of coal demand. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Europe’s use of coal is declining with annual declines of around 20%.

There are 146 U.S. coal plants while China has 1,142. India is next with 282 operational coal plants. Then the U.S. is followed in their number of coal plants by Japan, Indonesia, Russia, Germany, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the Philippines. Another metric is total installed coal capacity by country: China has 1,108 GW of coal, India 236 GW, compared to the U.S. at 205 GW. Yes, there is lots of hard and meaningful work to be done to get well beyond coal. We salute those that demonstrate viable alternatives.

Image Courtesy of The Passive House Network

The Passive House Network is a network of professionals and owners working to build healthier, more comfortable and resilient buildings. Passive House represents a design and construction standard that produces dramatic reductions in building energy use and carbon emissions. Some say that it’s the best tool to drive down building emissions, as much as 75%. It’s a high performance building literacy program.

Passive House, when coupled with solar, puts zero net energy within easy reach. It’s a proven standard that’s been applied to over 100,000 buildings. Some say that it is today’s highest energy standard for building performance, delivering up to a 90% reduction in heating and cooling demand. The marginal costs of its construction are recovered in lower utility bills forever.

Passive House is Based on Five Core Principles

1. Air tightness
2. Climate-Specific Insulation
3. Thermal Bridge Free Design
4. High Performance Windows and Doors
5. Continuous Ventilation with Heat Recovery

The Passive House Network is a 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 2011 that provides education and community to professionals across the U.S. building industry. It is focused on the rapid implementation of the Passive House building standards to robustly address the climate and social justice crises. Passive Houses have a number of benefits: Sound insulation, fresh air, and the buildings stand up better in extreme weather conditions like wind, heat, and cold.

There are over 1,860 certified Passive Houses in New York City and this number is expected to grow. Well-insulated homes use less energy and have lower utility bills. This is especially important when electrifying homes. Since electricity costs more than gas, it makes sense and saves dollars to use it efficiently.

Sendero Verde is in New York City. It’s a 709-unit apartment complex that is the largest certified passive house building in the United States. (Its name means “green path” in Spanish.) It is made up of two mid-rise buildings, the first built in 2022 and the 34-story tower completed in early 2024. They are all-electric, feature Energy Star appliances and heating/cooling systems, and they are built with toxin-free finishes. Other amenities include community gardens and shared terraces with native plants. There’s a fitness center. Thanks to government incentives and mandates, Sendero Verde uses about half the energy of similar buildings.

Image Courtesy of The Passive House Network

Image Courtesy of Ocean Sovereign

Years ago I had the privilege to serve as an intern at The New Alchemy Institute on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It is now defunct but its new-age notion of turning lead into gold lives on. So many bioneers are transforming our society in ways that are sustainable, and that provide for a rich quality of life. Collectively, we are turning crisis into opportunity.

New Alchemy developed a unique form of stationary Arks… greenhouses with aquaculture, spaces for families to thrive and grow as prosumers. As an intern, I worked in the Ark on the Cape, composting, managing the gardens, tending the tilapia. So an article about Ocean Arks caught my eye.

Ocean Sovereign is a British start-up that has developed a new concept for fish farming. In partnership with Ocean Ark Tech of Chile, a collaboration of Chilean aquaculture experts and Chilean naval officers, Ocean Sovereign has come up with a new idea for fish farming. It has designed a new special vessel… a 558-foot trimaran… that is 210 feet wide to accommodate massive fish cages.

Each vessel will have either four or eight large cages made of anti-fouling copper-zinc alloy mesh that provides both structure and predator protection. The self-cleaning cages will be served by four cranes. The Arks are mobile fish production platforms that can be out at sea for up to a month and then can cost-effectively deliver up to 4,400 tons of product to markets.

This new form of fish farming has clear advantages. It cut the ties that keeps aquaculture along the coasts. Imagine Ocean Arks drifting with natural currents to serve the fish. It is a fish farming solution that is the closest a fish can be to its natural habit. It’s about bringing fish to where they belong, the ocean… improving fish health and quality. The vessels will stay away from heat waves, algae blooms, and storms – aquaculture’s three Achilles Heels.

Ocean Sovereign has big ambitions. It intends to help feed the world’s growing population in line with the United Nations 2050 Food Security Challenge. It plans to build a fleet of Ocean Arks deployed and capable of producing 132,000 tons of high-grade farmed fish for the U.S. market and the same for the European market. That would require about 50 of these special vessels. Ocean Sovereign plans to use the vessels to fish warm and cold water fish species including salmon, black cod, kanpachi, trout, and tuna.

More on the planned vessels: The Arks are designed to operate in waves up to 23 feet in height. They can store 496 short tons of feed. They can operate without resupply for 25 days. They have a cruising speed of 3 – 4 knots depending on species being farmed. Ocean Sovereign has quotes from shipyards to build the Arks. Each vessel is expected to cost ~$33 million dollars.

Image Courtesy of Orsted

Imagine the efficiency of using drones to provide tools and parts to workers servicing offshore wind turbines. Updating equipment normally would require a vessel to sail from one turbine to another, use a crane to lift each box of equipment to the turbine’s nacelle. Now the drone can make a trip from the supply vessel to each turbine’s nacelle in about four minutes. The use of drones reduces time, increases safety, and minimizes carbon emission from supply vessels that would normally ply the waters moving from ship to ship.

The drones serving wind turbines were tested in the United Kingdom and are now being used by the Danish wind energy giant, Orsted, to transport cargo at its 725 MW Borssele wind project in the North Sea. There, heavy-lift cargo drones – HLCDs – are moving cargo from a vessel and making deliveries to the farm’s 94 wind turbines. The drones being used have a wingspan of 8.5 feet and are capable of carrying a cargo up to 220 pounds in weight. Their use is considered a “pioneering move,” replete with operational efficiency and safety in the offshore wind industry.

Use the links below to check out our recent podcasts. And you can always go to Spotify and type in “Ted Flanigan” to find our library of podcasts.

Recently Released:

• This issue of EcoNet News, Volume 26, Issue #8

In EcoNet News, Volume 26, Issue #8, Ted highlights the Open Streets movement, with a goal to transform streets into public spaces open to all to allow for a range of activities: promoting economic development, supporting schools, facilitating pedestrian and bike mobility, and providing new ways to “enjoy cultural programming” and build community.

He also highlights a plan to build the world’s biggest battery in the State of Maine, Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam’s capability to run a soccer match entirely on sustainable energy, record clean tech investment in the U.S., addressing the coal reality, the Passive House Network and standard, Ocean Ark’s fish farming vision, and heavy-lift cargo drones servicing offshore wind.

• Brian Thurston on Environmental Entrepreneurship

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic, Ted speaks with Brian Thurston, an environmental entrepreneur, currently serving as a Sustainability Solutions Sales Director at APTIM, an environmental solutions firm. He’s also worked as a Senior Advisor for multiple companies and nonprofits in the environmental sector, focusing on business development and strategic partnerships.

He and Ted met when he worked at EcoMedia, where he was hired to be a Program Director, developing and managing public/private partnerships. He then worked for Waste Management as a national business development manager, where he focused on customized and scalable programs for Waste Management’s Fortune 500 customers, leveraging internal assets and technology.

Brian then moved on to consulting with climate tech companies. He and Ted discuss some recent ventures, including the Bluebox energy efficient HVAC solution, Hytch Rewards mobility app, Oceanworks recycled plastic solution, and being a board member of Sustainable Surf. Working with all of these mission-driven companies that tackle big problems, Brian believes that the concept that the environment and profit are at odds is a myth, and that creativity and innovation prove that every day!

• Climate Resolve Series, Part 1, with Catherine Baltazar and Lia Cohen on Creating Cool Communities

In this episode of Flanigan’s Eco-Logic Climate Resolve Series, featuring Catherine Baltazar, a Policy Analyst and Organizer, and Lia Cohen, a Coordinator for Climate Planning and Resilience at Climate Resolve, a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles, building collaborations to champion equitable climate solutions.

Ted, Catherine, and Lia discuss current projects that they are working on at Climate Resolve, both background and front-facing community work. Catherine starts with the Boyle Heights Community Plan Update, a plan that is supportive of environmental quality, economic vitality, and urban design that promotes safe and walkable neighborhoods. The draft plan includes many policies that address climate change and build resilience such as tree planting, cool roof replacement, solar panel installation, sidewalk improvements, resilience hubs, and community engagement.

Lia also discusses coordinating the Sustainable Transportation Equity Project (STEP) grant implementation in the City of Commerce, and helping lead project implementation efforts for the Baldwin Hills Community Resilience and Access Plan, as well as the South LA Eco-Lab Transformative Climate Communities grant. They also discuss tools for displacement avoidance, grassroots environmental justice efforts, and creating vibrant communities with access.