OCTOBER 16, 2024

Hello!

In this week’s edition:

• Amena Saiyid visits Steelton, Pennsylvania for a look at clean energy in this key swing state ahead of the election.
• In our latest Reporter’s Notebook, she also has a story about her experience at a solar-powered school.
• In a Voices article, two authors reflect on Southeast Asia’s decarbonization journey.
• And in a Data Dive, the International Energy Agency’s annual outlook reality checks AI’s energy use. 

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Send your energy photos, story tips and more to news@ciphernews.com.

Illustration by Nadya Nickels.

Pennsylvania schools turn to solar for a cleaner — cheaper — future

BY: AMENA H. SAIYID

STEELTON, Pennsylvania — White smoke billows from Cleveland-Cliffs, the nation’s oldest operating steel mill and a constant presence over Steelton, a hardscrabble town in south-central Pennsylvania burdened by poverty and unemployment.

Less than a mile uphill from this gritty plant is the cash-strapped Steelton-Highspire School District, which has turned to solar energy to plug its budget hole.

Steelton-Highspire is the smallest of 43 Pennsylvania school districts to run its buildings on 100% solar power, using both innovative financing and federal grants, and the first to transport its children with a fleet of all electric buses.

“It is refreshing to be able to show our students and communities ways to reduce our carbon footprint,” Steelton-Highspire School superintendent Mick Iskric, told Cipher.

Read the full article here. Highlights here:

Pennsylvania is a key battleground in the upcoming United States presidential election. In this politically divided state, the focus is more on the potential cost savings from clean energy than on the politics.

With over a quarter of its residents in poverty and 95% of its students economically disadvantaged, Steelton’s fortunes are closely tied to the Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs steel company. The firm owns the plant in Steelton and is keen to shift toward cleaner technology, provided it can find enough buyers for such products. The school district has also been discussing a possible partnership with the plant to provide apprenticeships for students.

Facing an $11.7 million-a-year budget hole, the school district reached an agreement in 2021 with Harrisburg, PA-based McClure Company to install and run 3,900 solar panels with no upfront costs.

Today, this 1.7 megawatt-solar array sits atop a closed storm-debris landfill spanning nearly nine acres. It powers school buildings, a greenhouse and charges the district’s six electric buses, bought earlier this year with a $2.37 million federal grant. The district expects to save $3.6 million in the next 20 years in energy costs, plus $20,000 annually from using electric buses.

Some community members oppose the growth in clean energy. Among them is Middletown resident Dale Burk, a retired engineer firmly against renewables, saying they are cheap because they are being made in China.

Ray Balliet, the diner’s 35-year-old waitress, who stopped to chat between bussing tables, feels differently:

“Even with my rose-tinted glasses on, I think it would be awesome to know that my kid would grow up in a world with clean energy and that we are not destroying the Earth for her,” said Balliet.

Read the full article on Cipher’s website.

Lunchtime Reads and Hot Takes

Google goes nuclear in new deal to power AI — Axios
Cat’s take: This news from Google is the latest example of how demand for carbon-free, always-on power for the data centers that drive artificial intelligence is providing a market for new nuclear.

Global emissions may begin declining in 2024, thanks to EVs, clean energy — Canary Media
Bill’s take: The frontline strategy of global decarbonization — renewables plus electrification — is starting to curb emissions. Not nearly fast enough, though, as emissions look to drift rather than plunge lower.

America’s AI Leadership Depends on Energy — Foreign Policy (subscription)
Amy’s take: Despite being close to the topic, I learned a lot by reading this article. What a fascinating mix of energy policy, AI/tech fanfare and geopolitics.

Innovative techniques map — European Commission
Anca’s take: The European Commission launched an interactive platform mapping cleantech installations. It also asks industry, tech providers and others to submit their own entries, including demonstration projects, as a way to bring transparency to innovative tech. The goal: EU competitiveness.

Gila River Indian Community solar panel-over-canal project powers up on a hot October day — Cronkite News
Amena’s take: A first-of-a-kind project in the Western Hemisphere, this solar-over-canal project will serve as a blueprint for other communities seeking to conserve energy and water.

Rapid rise of LNG trucking pushes China to peak diesel — Financial Times (subscription)
Bill’s take: For all of China’s gains in clean energy, the country’s energy transition is more about economic security than climate. In any case, this is bad news for oil.
 
To meet US nuclear goals, big reactors need to get built today, DOE says — Canary Media
Cat’s take: The U.S. Energy Department suggests if consortiums order big reactors in groups, costs can come down even further.

More of what we're reading:

• The State of the Transition — Breakthrough Energy
• Drought is parching the world’s largest man-made lake, stripping Zambia of its electricity — AP News
• How Major Companies Can Help Their Suppliers Decarbonize — Time

We denote ‘(subscription)’ when publications don’t provide any complimentary articles, but many others may ultimately allow you to read only a limited number each month before subscribing. We encourage those who can afford it to support the journalism you love most!

A reporter finds hope at a solar-powered school in Pennsylvania

Illustration by Nadya Nickels.

BY: AMENA H. SAIYID

When I agreed to visit the Steelton-Highspire School District campus, I expected to find a field of solar panels connected to the school. I thought I'd take a few photographs, chat with some folks and wrap up the article.

How wrong I was.

This reporting trip turned into a real learning experience for me.

Until now, I had been writing about clean energy adoption in broad terms, relying on national statistics about supply and demand. Hearing about solar adoption in Pennsylvania's schools is one thing, but seeing it firsthand left a lasting impression.

Read the full article on Cipher’s website.

Southeast Asia’s path to universal energy access and net-zero emissions

Aerial view of the Sao Mai solar plant in An Giang province in Vietnam in 2022. Solar power has grown quickly in Vietnam, but the country is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images.

BY: NICOLE ISEPPI & SUNITA DUBEY

Iseppi is the director of global energy innovation at the Bezos Earth Fund. Dubey is the country delivery lead for Vietnam at the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP). You can reach them at Sunita.Dubey@energyalliance.org.

Southeast Asia, one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions, is projected to keep increasing its reliance on carbon-intensive fuels like coal for the next 25 years despite — or perhaps precisely because of — its rapidly growing economy.

We need to slow, and ideally reverse, that fossil dependence.

Read the full article here to learn more about how to do that.

Global electricity demand set to soar, but don’t blame artificial intelligence, IEA finds

Source: International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook 2024 • Global energy data ranges from 1950 to 2023; data projection from 2024 to 2050 uses IEA's "STEPS" scenario, which is based on current policies. Energy is defined in exajoules, the equivalent of 34.12 million metric tons of coal. Clean energy includes renewables, modern bioenergy, nuclear, abated fossil fuels, low-emissions hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels. Other includes traditional use of biomass and non-renewable waste.

BY: AMY HARDER & AMENA H. SAIYID

Global demand for electricity is set to soar in the coming years as the world transitions to cleaner energy that is largely reliant on such power systems, the International Energy Agency (IEA) writes in its flagship report released Wednesday.

IEA executive director Fatih Birol wrote that this was one of the most “striking” findings of the annual report. The equivalent of the electricity use of the world’s 10 largest cities is projected to be added to global demand each year, Birol writes.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the corresponding growth in data centers are universally hot topics, but the IEA writes that their impact on the electricity system is not large compared to other demands, such as air conditioning. What’s more, AI could have positive impacts on energy innovation and management.

“Rising data centre electricity use, linked in part to growing use of AI, is already having some strong local impacts, but the potential implications of AI for energy use are broader and include improved systems coordination in the power sector and shorter innovation cycles,” the agency writes in the report.

A search query finds at least 13 mentions of “artificial intelligence” in this report, compared to zero in last year’s report.

More broadly, the agency reiterated earlier projections that demand for oil, natural gas and coal are poised to all peak by 2030. Additionally, IEA writes that by then the global economy could keep growing without using additional fossil fuels. “This has not been the case in recent years,” the agency notes, referring to how two-thirds of the increase in global energy demand in 2023 was met by fossil fuels.

Given the rapid rate of development, IEA warns, “clean energy has to work harder to displace oil, gas and coal in emerging market and developing economies than in advanced economies.”

China, technically classified as an emerging economy, is the world’s leading consumer of both fossil fuels and renewable energy. China’s economic engine has driven the global growth in energy demand and now is driving the push toward electrification.

“We are now in a world where almost every energy story is essentially a China story,” said Birol in a statement accompanying the report.

The agency always notes how uncertainty affects its projections, and this year perhaps even more so with elections affecting 72 countries, which collectively account for half of global energy demand, IEA writes.

Such political “uncertainty may deter energy investment,” the agency writes, “particularly in large-scale projects in new or emerging technologies that are particularly sensitive to policy and regulatory changes.”

AND FINALLY...
Sun boat

Anca Gurzu snapped this photo of a solar boat on a hot sunny day during her vacation in Portugal this summer. The solar panels on deck, elegantly integrated into the vessel's design and usually accompanied by storage batteries, help power the boat's electric motor and power usage.

Each week, we feature a photo that is somehow related to energy, the thing we all need but don’t notice until it’s expensive or gone. Email your ideas and photos to news@ciphernews.com.


Editor’s note: In addition to supporting Cipher, Breakthrough Energy also supports and partners with a range of entities working to tackle climate change, including nonprofits, corporations, startups and research firms. For more information on Cipher’s editorial policy, click here.