CEP Newsletter

Carbon capture adding decades to oil fields, Victoria building efficiency and plankton to save the planet

In this issue:

Hats off to the Victorian state government that has launched a programme to train construction workers in building more efficient and sustainable homes. The Renewable Homes Construction Program[me] includes free training on designing, building and retrofitting dwellings to make them more energy efficient. There will be training in Efficient Home Design and Construction, Net Zero Homes and a roadshow on Home Efficiency Construction. Philadelphia runs a similar home upgrade training programme. Well done Victoria and Philly and can we have something similar here please?

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By 2027, Victoria will also be the home of the southern hemisphere’s largest wind farm. The Golden Plains Wind Farm has just placed an order for 93 turbines for the second stage of the development. When completed, the 215 turbine site will have a capacity of 1.3GW and generate 4,500GWh of electricity a year, around 8% of the state’s demand.

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That’s the conclusion of a study by Canadian geologist Menhwei Zhao looking at the lifespan of the Weyburn Midale oil pool. The site is the world’s longest running carbon capture and storage facility where CO2 is injected below ground to enhance extraction. Using 22 years worth of data, Zhao concluded the site would have closed in 2016 but, because of the enhanced production, could remain viable until 2100. Apparently, the experience is not a one-off. The Wasson Field (Texas) injection project apparently lead to a nearly seven-fold increase in production.

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While we may be some way off restrictions or guidelines on advertising by high emitters, at least the advertising sector is starting to get its own house in order. This week sees the launch of a framework for measuring the emissions of advertising agencies and media owners. The framework will eventually cover the six media types of digital, TV, print, audio, outdoor and cinema. This week’s announcement was for the launch of the framework for TV, digital and outdoor. Print, audio and cinema are to follow. Pretty much all the major agencies are signed up to the initiative.

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The G7 meeting that concluded last weekend saw virtually no new climate commitments from delegates. While existing commitments such as a doubling of efficiency and tripling of renewables (both by 2030) were reiterated, the only fresh commitment was to have these targets set in NDCs.

g7

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Swiss scientists have designed a more efficient heat pump technology which, they claim, improves efficiency by 25% and is much cheaper to build. The technology is based on using a blend of refrigerants and the ability to adjust the blend instead of having to operate several different heat pumps for different temperature applications. Getting the blend right is where the savings are made.

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The oceans hold 50 times as much CO2 as the atmosphere and there are many innovations trying to exploit the storage potential of the oceans. Not many, though, are looking at the complex interactions of some of the world’s tiniest creatures in storing that CO2. Not so a team from the Universities of Tasmania and Cambridge who are studying the relationship between phytoplankton, which rely on sunlight and CO2 (photosynthesis) and zooplankton, which gobble up the phytoplankton. It seems the amount of CO2 that could be retained by the oceans depends heavily on the appetites of the zooplankton. Understanding the relationship and how it varies by geography and species make-up is an important aspect of ocean storage and how integrity can be maintained for ocean offsets.

ocean carbon cycle

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