GEOTHERMAL

ENERGY’S UNSUNG HERO

Imagine if you could turn on a tap of pure heat during the coldest season. The source of the heat wouldn’t be any kind of fossil fuel, and it wouldn’t rely on the sun shining or the wind blowing. No matter what the conditions were outside, you would be comfortable inside. Now imagine that the same tap provided a stream of cool air in the hottest months. As the sun beat down and humidity choked the outside world, your home or business would remain a cool oasis.

Finally… What if I told you that a variation of this miraculous tap could generate electricity?

The reality is, geothermal can do all of these things. Depending on the way that you harness it, the highly predictable temperature of the Earth’s crust and certain persistent hot spots can be utilized to provide effective heating, cooling, and power generation.

All we need to do is build the tap.

The Potential Of Geothermal Energy

In a world that’s trying to become more energy diversified, most countries aren’t trying very hard on the geothermal side of the coin.

Currently geothermal electricity sources only generate half a percent of the world’s power. This isn’t nearly enough to make a dent in our growing energy needs. Experts say that geothermal could potentially generate 10% of the world’s power by 2100. It just needs the same level of tax breaks and government support that every other renewable energy type is getting in the civilized world. Luckily, environmental lobbyists are pushing for that to happen.

How does geothermal energy production work? By drilling into one of the Earth’s hotspots, engineers can take advantage of the potential energy difference between the ground and the surface world. In particularly hot places underground, water is piped down and allowed to boil. The heat creates steam, which turns a turbine, the same way any boiler system works.

Hot spots are formed in many different ways. Friction, pressure, or radioactive decay can all produce zones of incredible heat under the ground. The most intense concentrations will melt the surrounding rock, forming pools of magma. Engineers run their water feed pipes as close to a subsurface heat source as possible while maintaining their operational efficiency.

The benefits of geothermal energy are clear. A geothermal plant produces one sixth the CO2 of natural gas, and almost no nitrous oxide or sulfur dioxide. Applications currently apply to commercial and grid power, but individual or community ‘mini geothermal’ projects might be more common in the future.

The Other Kind Of Geothermal - Heat Pumps That Eliminate Carbon Emissions

But what if we could prevent the use of power via geothermal? And what if that method was available to just about every home and business on the planet?

The other side of geothermal involves …

GREEN HYDROGEN

INTO HEAT … WITH NO COMBUSTION

Is there a new climate hero in town?

Could be, the result of a discovery that takes a very promising energy solution to a new level.

Hydrogen Energy Release Optimiser – HERO – has been patented by Australian company Star Scientific Limited because it does something remarkably unique.

It turns green hydrogen into heat ... without combustion.

Let’s say that again. Energy from hydrogen, without burning.

Why does that matter?

Think of the implications for a safer way to use a proven renewable. Star Scientific is convinced this will allow hydrogen energy to scale up and out, opening up sectors such as home heating, desalination, and electricity produced by steam-driven turbines, and even hard-to-abate industries like cement, long-haul shipping, steel, and petrochemicals. The company says equipment, including coal-fired burners, can be retrofitted.

It certainly looks like a solution for the developing world, offering affordable and reliable off-grid power to help raise remote communities out of poverty and disease.

Also, hydrogen doesn’t burn completely free of emissions. It releases nitric oxide, which oxidizes in the atmosphere to become nitrogen dioxide. It’s a highly corrosive pollutant that is part of photochemical smog – that brown haze that envelopes cities when VOCs and nitrogen oxides react to sunlight.

In the lab, Star Scientific and founder Andrew Horvath were working to advance muon-catalyzed fusion as an alternative to thermonuclear fusion, to create energy at much lower temperatures, even below room temperature. They stumbled on a catalyst that prompts hydrogen and oxygen gases to combine. Ironically, the reaction produces an impressive amount of heat.

So much heat that, within a few minutes, HERO reaches more than 700 degrees Celsius. And yet, nothing is burning. The only byproduct here is truly just pure water.

The process can be scaled by increasing the surface area of the catalyst and feeding it more hydrogen. If it can be done efficiently and effectively across that variety of applications, particularly high-emission industry, hydrogen could leapfrog over other renewables.

Star Scientific recently announced plans to start building a $100 million plant next year in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The multi-building complex will include continued research and development and mirror a facility being built in Australia to develop stand-alone (off-grid) power systems and GHG-free process-heat systems for industry.

Why New Mexico?

The state is committed to being part of the hydrogen success equation. Gov. Lujan Grisham was at the Sustainable Energy Council’s Asia-Pacific Hydrogen Summit and Exhibition in Sydney in October, where a letter of intent was signed, adding the Australian company to a list of clean energy producers from Singapore, Taiwan, and Germany that are heading for those open arms.

Incentives include tax credits and assistance from a job-creation fund that includes training.

“From the very earliest conversations, the officials in New Mexico outlined their long-term commitment to hydrogen and the benefits of their state for a company such as Star Scientific,” Horvath said in a press release. “We were impressed by their whole-of-government approach to manufacturing, logistics, higher education, and research and their vision for the role that hydrogen will play in their future.  We were equally impressed that they had holistically planned important human details such as housing for families that will work at our facility, education incentives for their children, and lifestyle and leisure infrastructure. There is also an infectious ‘can do’ attitude which appeals to we Australians very much.”

NOCTALGIA ON THE SKY

THE FADING STARLIGHT

You hear about a chance to look to the night skies and see a meteor shower, northern lights, or even a comet, or you simply want to show your kids the constellations. You’re stuck wondering where you can go to find a sky dark enough.

You are experiencing “noctalgia.”

Light pollution has become such a thing that scientists coined this new word. It means “sky grief,” stemming from solastalgia, “the lived experience of negatively perceived environmental change.”

This past summer, astronomers Aparna Venkatesan, at the University of San Francisco and John C. Barentine, Dark Sky Consulting, commented on this phenomenon in the journal, Science, proposing their new word, explaining why it’s a problem and what we may be able to do about it.

Lighting up our earthly world is, of course, why we can’t readily stargaze. But there’s another reason. We’ve created a blanket of light in space. Almost all of the satellites in low earth orbit are solar-powered, their reflective panels bouncing the sun’s light right into our eyes. There are upwards of 8,000 of them and counting.

A 2021 NPR report states that light pollution affects 99% of people in Europe and the U.S. In North America, 80% cannot look up and see the Milky Way from where they live. We could travel to remote parts of the world, places with no lights on the ground, and find the sky is about 10% brighter than it was 50 years ago.

Does it matter?

Yes, because gazing up and imagining, telling stories around the constellations, and using the stars to navigate is a rich part of every culture. The sky is the one thing we all share. Survival amidst climate change means a very different future. Meeting the challenges of moving forward in dramatic ways requires maintaining connections to the past. We won’t mentally survive if we have to leave it all behind.

Yes, because of the world’s 28 major observatories, only seven can now effectively scan the night sky.

Yes, because animals are feeling noctalgia with circadian rhythms thrown off by reduced contrast between night and day, making it harder to hunt and making them more vulnerable to prey.

Satellites have become essential to our lives in so many ways, among them, tracking what’s happening down here, like wildfires, sources of pollution, and levels of water bodies. Companies like Planet are mapping the entirety of Earth’s land masses every 24 hours. Beyond commercial, agricultural, and government applications, its mission is to reveal and make environmental issues actionable.

So, what’s the answer?

To start, awareness is important to press for more thoughtful use of lighting on the ground and to reduce pollution from incidental sources, such as satellites, assuring governments and companies take responsibility.

The astronomers say domestic and international policies for the protection of the sky could be expanded, and the United Nations could designate it as an “intangible cultural heritage.”

Here’s how to help;

Tell us your thoughts, share this post, and go to the Dark Sky Association’s Get Involved page.

PLANT-BASED MEATS

POSSIBLY IMPOSSIBLE FOODS

We know that raising animals for food is a climate killer. It’s 65% of nitrous oxide emissions, which have three times the impact of carbon dioxide. Add land and water consumption, related emissions, and disease.

Humans will always crave meat. There’s no taking it out of the equation unless things get dicey, planet-wise. What if we could fake ourselves out?

There are two alternatives out there.

Plant-based – “alt meat” – has long been favored by vegetarians. It is gaining a broader audience as a menu option at chains like Starbucks, Burger King, and Applebee’s. Partnerships with Impossible Foods put it in more than 45,000 locations. CEO Peter McGuiness has been very outspoken about the battle to get people to accept plant-based meat. He has been telling news outlets that his company is thriving, even though he doesn’t like where the sector is right now. It can’t shake the narrative of processed food.

Impossible Beef Lite has been designated by the American Heart Association as a heart-healthy food. The upscale Beyond Steak has earned the same certification, and offers up the tantalizing tagline, “Everything bad is good for me.”

Plant-based is healthier, with more protein, less fat and sodium, and no cholesterol. But it’s still mostly consumed by non-meat-eaters, viewed more as a compromise.

The second option is lab-grown meat, also called cultivated or no-kill meat. This takes “processed” to another level, with a shiver of disgust.

Honestly, though, would you rather eat potentially hormone and disease-ridden meat, or real meat grown in a sterile lab?

This is real meat, starting with animal tissue, cells from a fertilized egg, or stored cells. A nutrient broth coaxes them to grow and divide, in the same type of bioreactor used to make vaccines. Triggered cells turn into muscle, fat, and connective tissue. But there’s a but, which we’ll get to shortly.

In the US this past June, the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration gave the industry the green light to sell products. Singapore has also approved it. But scaling to the point where it will make a real impact is far from foreseeable.

Does meat taste different if it never had a face? Most of us will never know.

A brief rundown of the issues:

• Cost to produce can be as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars ... per ounce. Manufacturers will be eating the loss, while billions are poured into continuing research; a scenario expected to last years or even decades. The only realistic goal for startups is to merge with or sell to major food companies.

• Facilities to house those super-expensive bioreactors can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Investors will need to continue to be motivated.

• There is no current track to this providing an economic/accessibility solution for food insecurity.

• About 80% fewer emissions compared to raising cattle is predicted, but only if renewables are used for the energy-hungry process. Studies show that, if not, climate impact could be as much as 25 times worse.

• Questions remain about health impacts, if cultivated proteins are ultra-processed, as some experts define them.

It sounds like a dead end, but isn’t that how revolutionary things often evolve?

What do you think? Does lab-grown poke your gag reflex? Would you, or do you avoid meat for environmental reasons?

BAOBAB

THE ECO-FRIENDLY SAFARI RESORT

In the intense business of climate change solutions, it can be difficult to drum up resources for marketing. At OwlVoices, we approach innovators all the time, and a clear pattern has emerged. Almost without fail, they either flatly refuse our free and responsible publicity, usually without offering a reason, or they welcome us like long-lost friends. Even those who don’t need to cultivate a customer base understand the importance of building a community and step up to tell their story.

Take a moment and celebrate one that sells itself and raises awareness. It’s an attention-grabber, from first glance to mission statement. Share the heck out of it.

Know that we know your work and solutions are just as spectacular in their own ways, even if you don’t have giraffes and treehouses with swimming pools on top.

It’s marketed (there’s that word) as the world’s first eco-tourism luxury safari resort, and BAOBAB Luxury Safari Resort has a few surprises.

Project designer MASK Architects, Sardinia, Italy, came to this with the goal of more than a vacation destination, although it does serve to refocus on an appreciation for the natural world. It is a model for sustainable communities in Africa. One of its secrets is its air-to-water technology, making it a solution to the continent’s greatest challenge, clean drinking water.

Even now, when tourists are enjoying a safe commune with animals roaming freely in their natural habitat, the resort is collecting enough water for its own needs and the community beyond. Infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, and economies are all expected to be enhanced in a ”wider restorative scheme.”

The idea is that these eco-lodges can be easily replicated using local materials or delivered to the remotest of areas, and become the solution to a particular community’s geological, climatic, and environmental issues. Upping the self-sustaining quotient, the modules can also be used as non-residential spaces like offices, restaurants, schools, and watchtowers, essentially, all the shelter a thriving community needs.

The lodge design is derived from the baobab tree, using local beechwood, and bearing a crown of branches. From a distance, there is little to suggest it is more than teepee-shaped slats of wood, but the tech part starts with transparent solar device-covered curtains to produce electricity. Humidity and optimized dehumidification techniques extract and condense moisture from the air.

The wooden slats cover a passive water collection system of aluminum poles with air intakes and internal air filters. Angled, filament mesh captures water droplets as they travel down the sloping poles and sends them to a tank in the central foundation, and then on to a network supplying the community.

This water will also be used on land set aside for growing produce and raising livestock, and in facilities to make and sell food staples, like bread, milk, cheese, and meat, sustaining the greater community.

The baobab inspiration is poetic. A prehistoric species, it predates the formation of the continents and has survived for more than 200 million years.

DIGGING DEEP

TAPPING INTO EXISTING SOURCES

Nature provides for us in simple and elegant ways.

When you hear about geothermal heating and cooling, and the low-key systems that provide inexpensive and sustainable comfort for homes and businesses, you have to wonder how we ended up drilling for fossil fuels.

There’s really no hindsight involved. Formal climate change predictions date as far back as 1896. We just weren’t paying attention. Now we have renewable energy options, but we’re still making poor choices.

To be fair, renewables had long failed to be affordable for new construction, or as a home modification. People may want to invest in the planet, but budgets advise otherwise, and they look instead to the return-on investment.

Kathy Hannun founded Dandelion Energy in 2017, knowing they would have to find ways to make geothermal more desirable, in terms of cost, trust in its capabilities and the installation process. They would have to innovatively hack the industry to achieve its mission of making renewable geothermal energy accessible and affordable to homeowners across the U.S.

So, they went to Sweden.

About 20% of homes there use geothermal heating and cooling.

“It’s already mainstreamed and scaled there. One of the things we wanted to learn was how they are able to do it much less expensively than here.”

A big difference is industry-specific drilling techniques that significantly reduce costs and are less disruptive to property. Swedish installers were happy to share their techniques, and Dandelion returned ready to adopt a different approach from the usual truck-mounted water well drilling rigs that don’t fit in about 50% of yards, and badly damage others.

Mounted on a continuous track, like tanks and bulldozers, the rig’s weight is spread out, so no ruts, and a tighter turning radius. They are safer, less expensive to buy and require fewer operators; cost savings all around and access to twice as many homes.

Here is how geothermal energy systems work

Most have experienced the basement climate phenomenon. While it’s a constant struggle to maintain optimum temperatures in the living space, just below, it's much warmer, even without heating, and blissfully cool on a hot day.

That’s because just 10 feet below the surface …

F1 TO BE GREEN

CHANGING THE RULES OF THE GAME

If you’re a Formula 1 fan, you’re getting set to enjoy the last couple of races of the season, no matter how anticlimactic.

Fan or not, you may not realize its supercharged open-wheel cars, which reach speeds of about 360kph (220mph) have been hybrids, for a decade now, right about the same time Formula E began competing with all-electric cars.

F1 is on a target to net-zero by 2030, not just in cars, but across operations, events, and logistics.

Take tires; a major aspect of a race and hauled by the truckload. The FIA is working on bio-sourcing and using an increasing amount of recycled materials. Teams are now limited in how many they can bring to a race, reducing shipping impacts. Drivers have to focus more on managing wear, mitigating a degree of microplastics. A ban on tire warmers may be coming, in an effort to further reduce team baggage and because of the crazy amount of electricity they use.

But it’s not just about reducing its own carbon footprint.

F1 has one hand fiercely grasping its daredevil roots. Despite its many rules, race control has famously responded to on-track incidents with “We went car racing.”

The other hand is reaching beyond the edge, and influencing the broader automotive industry’s electric technology. Still brash, yet continuously refined, this extreme sport comes down to the tiniest of margins, in design and results, and that means mountains of collected data.

In Spain, Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo is an on-track lab that has drawn more and more automakers. They now develop their own electric powertrains. Amazing advancements have been made in battery storage, thanks to shared knowledge.

Since the first Formula E season, the number of industry-wide EV models has increased sixfold, and battery capacity and range have improved dramatically.

What it all comes down to is the people, all innovators on that edge. No one understands teamwork better, and the need for a vast mix of solutions. I believe that’s what will take F1 solidly to its climate goals, and put it into another rare league.

I have been privileged to be a part of this world, writing and hanging out at the track with racing greats like Sir Stirling Moss, Paul Newman, Sam Posey, John Fitch, and Skip Barber, whose school has trained some of the very best.

Fitch, for instance, descended from the steamboat inventor, was a fighter pilot and the first American to race successfully in Europe. He designed cars and automotive systems. A 1955 Le Mans crash that killed a driver and more than 80 spectators inspired him to put his engineering degree to work on track and highway safety. He invented the Fitch Driver Capsule and those barrel-design, impact-absorption systems found on American highways. Fitch Barriers are based on the sand-filled fuel cans he used to protect his tent from strafing during WWII. He even crash-tested them himself.

That spirit is evident in champions like Nico Rosberg, now an eco-entrepreneur and angel investor, and Sebastian Vettel, who leaped from retirement last year into sustainability pursuits. Parlaying his popularity into awareness, he even popped up at the Japan Grand Prix in September with his “Buzzin’ Corner” on Turn 2, coaxing current drivers out to build more bee huts in his tiny habitat.

ALTERNATIVE WIND ENERGY

REDESIGNED WIND ENERGY

While people still yell ‘NIMBY!’ when it comes to wind turbines, a more efficient, less obtrusive option is on the horizon. If you thought I was going to say off-shore windfarms, you’d be close, but still half an ocean away. Starting to get the picture?

The best, most sustained winds – about 80% - are in the middle of our seas. Imagine the mega power they offer. Now imagine trying to use fixed-foundation designs in deep water. Not going to happen.

Floating wind. What a great way to describe the technology the Norwegian company, World Wide Wind is developing. It’s off and running with support from the engineering firm AF Gruppen, which will test the first prototype at their yard at Vats on the Vatsfjorgen.

Far from a propellor on a stick design, these striking turbines are aimed at harvesting the most wind power while being less expensive to build, weighing 30% less, having increased energy density and fewer impacts on the environment and wildlife, and the ability to scale to incredible energy generation.

And they float.

CEO Björn Simonsen states that offshore floating wind is poised to be “a significant contributor to the global renewable energy mix,” but needs an entirely new design.

The moving parts here are a contra-rotating, vertical-axis turbine that rises 62 feet (19 meters).

WWW’s design allows for scaling up to 40mW, compared to 2.5 to 3mW for a conventional off-shore turbine, because of a simple, yet ingenious change to a bottom-heavy setup. So, going bigger means more stability, not threatening to tip over.

Its generator, rotor, and stator are at the very bottom, well underwater, where it also provides ballast. Only mooring anchors are required. A pontoon floats at the surface, allowing two turbines, with fixed blades, to bob around and harvest torque from the wind, like a sailboat.

That means the whole thing passively tilts to the best angle to capture the wind. Its turbines rotate in opposite directions, doubling the speed at which the rotor turns the stator.

Inspired by nature, the design is perceived by birds as a natural obstacle and the low speed at the blade tip prevents bird strikes. It also reduces the wake effect, so turbines can be placed closer together.

WWW is aiming at partnerships that create local economies and simplify the supply chain. The design also incorporates recycled materials.

All of that adds up to a major, potential reduction of the Levelized Cost of Energy for offshore wind, to less than half of targets set for horizontal-axis towers. WWW is planning for a commercial launch before the end of this decade.

When we see a new level of innovation like this, ‘Wow!’ is a good initial reaction.

Are we thinking, good for them?

It’s time to start thinking, good for us. Good for the planet.

What can the rest of us do to support you?

GARDEN EDEN

INVENTED BY MODERN ADAM

In the center of the Mediterranean island of Ibiza, a park ringed by forests and mountains is an oasis of natural diversity, where 30,000 different plants reside, some recovered from presumed extinction. The public is welcomed to Botánico Biotecnológico – “Bibo Park” - to marvel in the symbiosis of nature and humans that is at the heart of the biotechnology that Bioo does. A favorite is the “piano,” played by touching rows of succulents.

A 30-minute plane ride west, Barcelona is home to Bioo’s headquarters, where Pablo Vidarte Gordillo spins an ever-widening web of innovation that promises to be game-changing for not just climate impact solutions, but a better quality of life.

Biotech is the next revolution, he says. It will feel as magical as when humankind discovered fire, and be just as lifechanging as it scales. Panel, their biological battery, Switch, where humans and plants connect to create electricity, and Sensor, poised to transform agriculture, are on that edge. A basis in solid science, and a firm nod to ease and cost of use, promise that they are just the beginning.

Electricity from nature. Bioo calls it “a new point of view.” Its solution to climate change and the need for clean energy comes from transforming the spaces that are already green; lawns, gardens, farms, planted roofs and forests. Energy doesn’t get any cleaner than that.

Spiritual Quotient

Vidarte is a rarity and a paradox, having maintained momentum from the start. He is a scientist who has not lost his childlike wonder at what is possible and is enthusiastic about sharing what he’s learned.

At 27, he is not far beyond his childhood vision of being on the frontier, maybe working at NASA. At 16, he started software and hardware companies. By the time he finished studying technology and multimedia engineering at university, he had started several more companies, testing the waters until he found his passion. At 20, he was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 List in Europe.

As cliché as it sounds, his path was revealed when he woke up from a dream at 3:00 a.m., in shock. He was in a “very cool” village, surrounded by mountains. The sky, the architecture and the clothing were not of Earth. He watched a man lift a piece of farm field to reveal wires below. “I understood they were actually generating energy out of nature itself.”

Bioo, launched in 2015 as part of his overarching company, Arkyne Technologies, began as he always does, by assembling a crack team of scientists. Panel and Switch are now full-blown products. Sensor is planned for a 2024 launch.

How will it make an impact?

Laying a smooth surface over the slow and bumpy road to sustainability doesn’t have to mean reinventing the wheel. Right now, Bioo’s starting point of known science combined with low profile tech seems to be exactly what’s needed. Summoning energy from …

CLIMATE MIGRATION

WHEN NATIONS TRAVEL ON PRESSURE

True story. In the mid-20th century, a man living in a coastal city did extensive research to determine the safest place to build his retirement home. He considered crime, culture, weather, natural disaster potential, and weather extremes. And, yes, rising sea levels. He was, in a way, a proactive climate refugee.

It was actually right around that time that people began being forced from their homes due to a changing planet. In the South Pacific, the Marshall Islands were the site of dozens of nuclear bomb tests by the U.S. in the 1940s and 50s. Poisonous fallout forced many to flee, but that’s another story.

It was also the beginning of a mass exodus to escape an encroaching ocean. Inhabitants fled to nearby island nations and Hawaii, and on to the mainland U.S., where about 30,000 now live. Some 42,000 remain, clinging to their shrinking homeland.

Overwhelmingly, those most impacted by climate change are the ones least responsible for impacts. We’ve all heard that. But a fast-growing segment is in places that have lost control over their environmental footprint; China, India, and the Southwest U.S. are standouts.

Across the globe, people are on the move to greener pastures, and at least 22 million have already been displaced. Where are they going? Unlike the wealthy retiree, most will be making desperate decisions.

A prime example is the northward migration from Central America. Climate warning does not bring singular challenges. It is a disruption of nature’s balance. El Nino’s cycle of drought and floods has ramped up, and food shortages are severe. Disease is on the rise. Desperate, they pack what they can carry and begin a grueling journey. For many, it will end in death, detention, or denied entry.

ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine teamed up to model the potential movement of climate refugees across international borders.

The scenarios consider how governments are responding to climate change and immigration. Those decisions may literally determine mankind’s fate. As the potential playbook goes from bad to worse, the numbers are staggering, and we don’t have to look very far ahead to find them.

According to the report;

In 2025, if people are still allowed to move fairly freely around the world, the flow of humanity will be driven by food insecurity from rural areas to big cities. Urbanization will be overwhelming. In the Americas, the wave will push steadily northward. The U.S. will see about 700,000 migrants that year, growing to 1.5 million annually by 2050.

If the U.S. turns people back, and Central America’s economic growth, predictably, slows, people will be forced back to the rural areas where the climate will be even warmer and dryer than now. Birthrates will rise and a surging population will fall into deep poverty and hunger.

It’s a scenario that could easily play out around the world.

What is the answer? It has to be about more than open or closed borders. What are the immigration policies where you live? How do they need to change (they undoubtedly do) and who will lead the way?

MAJIK WATER

ATMOSPHERIC WATER GENERATOR (HYGROSCOPY)

In the invisible humidity in the surrounding air, Beth Koigi saw an overlooked resource; drinking water.

It wasn’t random musing. While studying for a master’s in planning and project management at the University of Nairobi, she was forced to buy contaminated drinking water.

So, she created her own water filter and began selling them across her native Kenya, where more than half of the population has no access to clean water. She eventually teamed up with Clare Sewell, an Oxford economist, Malawi entrepreneur and strategy consultant, and environmental scientist Anastasia Kaschenko to launch Majik Water. Maji, in Swahili, means water. The “k” is for kukaa, which translates to “habiting.”

It was 2017, and Kenya’s now severe drought was just beginning. Koigi became a water security advocate. “We want to see a world where a woman doesn’t have to walk for four hours just to get 30 liters of water.”

At OwlVoices, we’ve been listening to innovators talk about small circles of access, especially when it comes to resources like water. Just as important is energy efficiency, or going off the grid altogether, to overcome a lack of infrastructure issues and provide disaster relief. Majik Water checks all the boxes.

Did you know there is six times as much water in the air as in all the rivers in the world?

In the lab, the three women figured out how to extract it. They took silica, exposed it to the atmosphere, then heated it in a distillation system. When the water came out of the other end, they started working on a product.

The plan was to use existing hardware and minimal energy. A solar panel was connected to a desiccant dehumidifier. They created a charcoal filter. Their first atmospheric water generator was a success, and the basis for a scalable mechanism used in small projects across Kenya, assuring that, “as long as you have air, you have water.”

In our mind’s eye, most of us envision and feel compassion for those struggling in far-flung places. In these moments, we feel lucky. But that “luck” is predicted to run out, soon.

The United Nations estimates that 1.8 billion people will be living with water scarcity by 2025, not just in isolated and undeveloped areas. Large economies like China and India are at great risk, as is much of Africa, the Middle East, and the Southwest US.

Climate change is very literal. Everything is thrown out of whack. Just as rising sea levels are already forcing people to migrate, water scarcity will create up to 700 million drought refugees, by the end of this decade.

Where are they going to go?

By 2050, water scarcity could affect five billion. Take a second and google what percentage that is of the entire world population. 

While Kenyans wait in long lines to pay high prices to have their jugs filled with precious water, the Majik Water founders understand that this is not just a local problem. Their air-to-water technology can be a solution anywhere, and the largest system they have developed, so far, can harvest up to 100,000 liters of pure drinking water in one day.

THE CLIMATE PLEDGE 4/4

AMAZON’S GREEN MISSION

If you’ve been reading the Amazon post series and wondering why drones weren’t mentioned in Air, here you go.

The plan here is to look at energy (Fire, in OwlVoices speak). Drone delivery fits into a lot of categories. Not just as a potential solution to climate impacts, but for the forward-looking vision it inspires. So, energy in every sense of the word.

It’s all up in the air right now, with only theories and limited real-time data to float at the moment. Argonne National Laboratory has been modeling efficiency of drone deliveries systems, battery-electric vehicles and diesel trucks.

Of course, drones use far less energy, that is, unless there’s wind. The lab’s study showed that in “average” wind speeds of 10mph, package-wielding drones needed 15.8% more energy that BEVs, but scored for using 73% less than diesel trucks.

But, the study was conducted in Chicago, the “Windy City,” where winds easily hit 20 miles per hour, and drones sucked up five times more energy than BEVs and 15% more than diesel haulers.

Delivery providers are chomping at the bit to be on this leading edge, probably for the business it will attract. At the moment, it’s not looking to be much of a sustainability goal, cheap or easy-to-implement. In the US, Federal Aviation Administration certification is needed, visual observers are often required and only one drone can be operated at a time.

Those are big clues as to why Amazon currently offers the service in only two cities, and only when the weather is just right.

A renewable energy transition is a bigger priority for Amazon, which is also investing in alternative fuel solutions like green hydrogen and ultra-low carbon electrofuels for delivery and operations.

Amazon’s numbers:

• It ranks #1 in the world in corporate purchasing of renewables

• In 2022, 90% of its electricity consumption came from renewable sources, putting it solidly ahead of its 2030 target of 100%

• It has initiated more than 400 new, global renewable energy projects

Long-term contracts for approaches like purchasing agreements for the same energy grids Amazon uses and participating in green tariff programs with utilities, push these projects forward and promote economic growth in communities.

More Amazon numbers:

• $12.6 billion invested globally in renewables from 2014-2022

• $5.4 billion total GDP globally in that same period

• 39,000 FTE jobs supported in 2022

• 133 new projects in 11 countries last year pushed its renewable energy capacity to more than 20 gigawatts. That is enough to power 5.3 million US homes.

We’ve considered that while Amazon is pushing toward all these targets, its footprint continues to grow. However it all shakes out, we can feel good about targets that are ... targeted.

A few years ago, I bought my first Echo, now one of a home network. Honestly, as careful as I am about energy use, I hadn’t thought about how much these devices use. But now I know that, at about that same time, Amazon committed to clean energy investments to offset the electricity used by all Echo, Fire TV, and Ring devices.

I will dig further into that later. For now, I’m just going to drink the Kool-Aid.

THE CLIMATE PLEDGE 3/4

AMAZON’S GREEN MISSION

Smarter shipping starts with smart packaging decisions. Amazon’s ML algorithms think flexibly to enable custom, right-size packages to fit individual items and optimize that for the infinite number of combinations for millions of products. No more bottles of vitamins rattling around inside a box that can hold a dozen.

It translates to fewer delivery vehicles on the road, essentially saving the air by shipping less air.

Still, that’s 110,000 gas vehicles out there, with countless others doing contracted last-mile deliveries.

In 2019, Amazon signed The Climate Pledge and committed to decarbonizing its delivery fleet. That meant electric vans, but it was “underwhelmed” by what was available or could be produced at scale. So, it invested in Rivian by ordering 100,000 custom-designed vehicles.

At the time, Jeff Bezos announced they would all be on the roads by 2024. Supply chain and other pandemic impacts pushed that ambitious target out to 2030. Still, it is in line with goals to beat global Paris Agreement targets by a decade.

Every little bit, as fast as we can get it, will help. In this case, we’re talking about the elimination of millions of metric tons of carbon per year.

In October, Amazon announced that the rollout that began in summer 2022 had reached 10,000 Rivian vans, on the job in cities across the U.S.

More than 300 were slated for Germany, as part of a fleet of thousands across Europe.

To date, Rivian vans have delivered more than 260 million packages to customers in the US alone.

If you’re hoping for a glimpse of one of the already iconic EVs, you should also keep your eyes peeled for any of the 15 other vehicle types being road-tested in the US, EU, and India. I kid you not about e-cargo bikes and e-rickshaws.

Amazon’s vehicle pickiness is about efficiency and safety, with $200 million spent this year on safety technology across its transportation network.

Not to be overlooked is the incentive electric vans are to retain and attract new drivers.

Thoughtful design allows for driver comfort, safety, and easier package organization. It eliminates the stressful start to their day; loading dozens of packages in as little as 15 allotted minutes. And while Rivians have up to double the cargo space of Amazon’s standard vans, they are small enough to not require a special license.

Driver-aimed cameras, automatic braking, and a steering wheel that shakes when the vehicle gets too close to something are bold safety moves. Cameras all around, integrated software that finds addresses, as well as parking and restrooms, and automatically zooms in as the destination nears are just as impactful. Routing and cargo-handling efficiencies mean drivers don’t have to resort to risky behavior to get their routes done. The number of accidents has already been halved.

Fewer miles logged equals fewer climate impacts because even EVs are not carbon neutral. But it’s a start.

Here’s what to watch for:

Amazon states its massive energy project investments put it on track to source 100% renewables by 2025, five years ahead of target.

FUELING INDUSTRIES

CLEANING IT UP

Where does 5% of global carbon emissions come from? If you guessed garbage, you’re correct. But there’s no prize, because even if you’re recycling, odds are where you live, only a percentage of what you toss in that special bin is actually repurposed. In the US, for instance, it's shockingly less than 10%.

On the other side of the world, Australia can claim nearly half. Still not good enough. Despite our efforts, emissions from rotting garbage are predicted to grow to more than 8% by 2050.

In densely populated areas around the world, the massive amounts of what many call municipal solid waste, or MSW, are typically incinerated. Across suburban and rural areas, where smaller scales make that technology unsuitable, the real problem is festering, in open landfills or hauled away by truck after truck to regional burn facilities.

If only there was a machine where all the recyclables and garbage went in one end and clean energy came out the other...and it was carbon negative.

That’s no exaggeration of the MIHG process – Moving Injection Horizontal Gasification - developed and patented by Wildfire Energy.

Learning from non-renewables

Based in Brisbane, the startup has its genesis in the fossil fuel industry, where its founders realized they could leverage their expertise into a solution to help supply the massive flow of clean energy needed for the net zero transition.

CEO Greg Perkins is quick to credit Denis Doucet, now CTO, with coming up with the idea. Grant Bollaert is leading engineering, bringing his experience in project startups in oil and gas and petrochemicals. All three are engineers who worked in energy production that involves gasification, the basis of the MIHG process.

Perkins was CTO of a company that developed a novel gasification technology, and got a PhD in that process of converting biomass into an energy-rich gas. While later working for Shell in Europe and Malaysia, his job included commercializing …

NUPONIX IN THE LOOP

IS HYDROPONICS A FORGOTTEN TECHNOLOGY?

Not at all, Kevin Wright is quick to say. The technique of growing plants in a water-based nutrient solution has been thriving quietly in the realm of niche applications, such as in-home projects and in laboratories to grow things like bacteria and algae.

But what we’re really talking about here is hydroponics combined with aquaculture, the raising of fish and aquatic plants, to become aquaponics.

Wright is taking the hybrid in new, and intentionally controversial directions.

“In terms of growing vegetables or other food, it’s never taken off because it’s hard to do at a large scale and requires a lot of labor-intensive, daily testing to keep the system healthy. And until now, a lot of the tech was not available to automate the work that goes into it.”

An investment advisor by trade, Wright saw the immense potential in innovatively tweaking a proven, organic process to level it up to a profitable business model.

Gathering experts as consultants, he launched Nuponix in 2019 to move aquaponics into the realm of scalability. These aren’t just any experts. One of his chief science officers is Dr. James Rakocy, who pioneered aquaponics in the late 1970s while working on his PhD at Auburn University. He created a symbiotic ecosystem where waste excreted by fish was absorbed by nitrogen- and phosphorus-loving plants, which resulted in filtered water to send back to tanks, keeping the fish healthy.

Separately, either process is much more intense. Fish farms need to filter water to avoid toxicity. In hydroponic systems, plant roots sit in water, which needs to be supplemented with nutrients they would normally take from soil. Combining them simulates what happens in a healthy ocean or freshwater ecosystem. A controlled environment adds the benefits of higher quality and easy harvesting.

For the past 30 years, Dr. Rakocy has been working with a team to perfect a commercially viable system, and now heads a consultancy, The Aquaponics Doctor.

The goal of data-driven laboratories at Nuponix is to advance aquaponic plant and food production. An ongoing collaboration with Cornell University, which has the largest agricultural program in the U.S., provides solid research on which to base its work in its 40,000-square-foot grow facility in nearby Romulus, New York, and at a 12,000-square foot test lab in Valliant, Oklahoma.

Wright is doing his own pioneering, entering the commercial aquaponics landscape with the most high-profile product he can think of - cannabis.

And not just for medical use.

Across the U.S., a majority of states have legalized medical THC, and about half have added recreational use. Budget crunches have prompted a scramble for the tax income the industry generates and federal legalization is predicted within a couple of years. New York State, for instance, added …

THE CLIMATE PLEDGE 2/4

AMAZON’S GREEN MISSION

Continuing our look at Amazon’s sustainability efforts, remember that we are in a judgment-free zone.

I’m about to present numbers, released by Amazon. Can I prove them? Of course not. None of us can. That’s the crux of the problem when it comes to carbon targets. As an investigative journalist, I need to be an open-minded skeptic. You get it because that’s what you do when surfing the net. You know it’s all about sources and cross-checking, and still not feeling certain.

Numbers tell only part of the tale.

We have power as consumers, and marketing has a lot of power over us. What if misunderstood or malicious information prompted the masses to boycott a company that was actually on an impactful sustainability trajectory?

All I’m saying is to back out and look for unbiased analysis of a company’s progress. Nonprofits like Oceana Inc. provide that, and they hold organizations’ feet to the fire. It notes that accountability and action, in Amazon’s case, have come largely from its employees and shareholders.

Let’s consider the impacts of packaging on the Earth, and since it all overlaps, we can expand on the prior water post to get the big picture.

Oceana estimated Amazon had an 18% increase in plastic packaging from 2020 to 2021, against a 22% increase in sales. If all of those 709 million pounds were air pillows, it could safely wrap the equator 800 times. Another study estimated that 26 million pounds would end up in waterways around the globe.

There is a lot to unwrap, literally, and watchdogs dig deeper to promote transparency, such as third-party seller impact, which passed 8% this year. They make their own decisions about how to ship.

Amazon’s numbers:

• More than 2 million tons of packaging materials avoided since 2015

• Per-shipment weights reduced by an average 41% since 2015

• Since 2020, 37,150 metrics of plastic avoided, globally

Putting the numbers in perspective is hard, and keep in mind that at the same time, sales are growing 11% year-over-year in the U.S. and 16% internationally. It is clearly an uphill battle, and Amazon appears to be throwing a lot of ammunition at it.

Amazon claims a science-based approach to simplifying packaging options, using lab testing, machine learning, materials science, and manufacturing partnerships.

Among the simpler solutions are right-sized packages with materials that are curbside recyclable and partnerships across the supply chain.

That “throwback” brown paper mailer is also fairly simple. The padding is a water-based material designed to easily separate from the paper in the same way that ink and coatings are removed during the paper recycling process.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s BOTTLE Consortium and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory are working on bio-based and biodegradable plastic recycling. Amazon jumped on board last year to lend its materials scientists to the cause developing “technologies and materials that will enable the full life cycle of plastics to be net-zero carbon.”

A sort of no-brainer approach (although an algorithm is thinking) is the SIOC – Ship in Own Container – program, where a manufacturer’s perfectly adequate box is no longer dropped inside another box. For a large-screen TV, that’s nine fewer packaging components, 69% less volume, and an 87% reduction in ... air.

THE CLIMATE PLEDGE 1/4

AMAZON’S GREEN MISSION

Whether or not you are one of Amazon’s 310 million users, you’ve heard the conversations around the commerce behemoth’s innovation in sourcing and logistics, its culture, and persistent accusations of greenwashing.

It’s so hard to make an informed decision. Are any of us checking ESG risk ratings before we shop? What data can we even trust? Researcher Sustainalytics, for instance, rates Amazon a 30.6, high on a scale from 0-40+. The thing is, sustainability targets are just that; future goals and a transition journey. At the same time, we hear the dire warnings. We see climate change impacts. We want business practices to change as fast as an Amazon drone can drop a package in our front yard.

Let’s start a conversation that’s not about ranking the companies we rely on or repeating news stories. Instead, let’s look at how they influence others, because you know who does have the time and resources to check out business practices? The competition.

In 2019, with a big shove from its employees, Amazon initiated The Climate Pledge, with Global Optimism. It committed to being net-zero by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement target, proclaiming its “scale and culture of innovation” would “help create a more sustainable future for all.”

It is also a $2 billion venture investment fund to support sustainable technologies. At the time, Forbes called it “neither a greenwash nor a game-changer,” but an important step in a transition that applies across its operations.

We’ll start with water.

Last year, Amazon committed to being water-positive, returning more water than it uses by 2030 by improving water efficiency; reusing water for cooling data centers, sending spent cooling water to farmers for irrigation, and returning 2.4 billion liters to communities through replenishment projects.

Those projects focus on water-stressed communities, where they restore watersheds to improve access, availability, and quality, and provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene services.

Ocean impacts are being addressed with the reduction of single-use plastic and its shipping carbon footprint.

Plastic is not the worst thing for the environment. It’s the prevalence, inefficient recycling, and irresponsible disposal that send so much of it into our oceans.

You may have noticed those blue and white mailers are MIA, and may be surprised to learn that most recycling programs don’t accept them. Amazon recently upped its commitment to eliminating plastic packaging in its major markets including the U.S., the biggest market by far.

Its 2022 sustainability report shows 99% of mixed-material mailers containing plastic, used in the U.S. and Canada, have been replaced with recyclable paper alternatives. Single-use plastic across its global fulfillment centers dropped by 11.6% from 2021-22.

Here’s another perspective.

That’s more than 11 million metric tons, or 25 million pounds.

Its Global Mile team has contracted with Maersk ECO Delivery, loading shipping containers onto the first methanol-enabled cargo ship for its maiden voyage, with up to 95% lower emissions. Amazon is part of the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), intending to accelerate access to decarbonized ocean shipping.

ENERGY OBSERVER

MEETS SOUTHWESTERN AFRICA, NAMIBIA

On the Southwest coast of Africa, Namibia finds itself in a distinct position. Political stability, since gaining independence from South Africa in 1990, a cool climate, and about 300 long days of sunshine per year add up the potential to not only meet its own energy needs but be a leading exporter of green hydrogen by 2030.

That is not just ambitious. It’s a major evolution from importing nearly 60% of its electricity, at lightning speed.

It was the last stop on the continent for Energy Observer, a journey we began following with our inaugural issue. Plying the seas for seven years, the solar panel-covered, wind turbine-equipped floating laboratory is an ambassador for ecological transition. It is emission-free, running on decarbonized hydrogen it makes onboard from seawater.

EO founder and captain, Victorien Erussard, and his crew were on a mission to check out a massive desalination plant in Erongo, built by French company, Orano.

The country is mineral-rich, so, lots of mining. But lots of sunshine means little rain and scarce freshwater, which the industry monopolizes.

The 20 million cubic meters of desalinated water produced per annum are just meeting the demand of mines and communities. Orano reserves the right to expand to more than double capacity.

A giant reverse osmosis plant raised a red flag. It got us to thinking about NONA Technologies, the Cambridge, Massachusetts company we profiled in our Water issue. It uses solar-powered ion concentration polarization to reduce the complexity and energy consumption of the desalination process.

It is scalable, and in a country perfect for solar energy, is it a better solution?

Maybe, but change can’t always begin on the leading edge. With so many immediate issues to solve, a plan that starts with and evolves from known technology may be the ticket to success. Transformation is never linear.

Remember that 60% imported electricity? It comes from coal-fired power plants in neighboring countries. That’s what’s used for the seawater pumps in Erongo. It sounds like a cringe-worthy future in the making, but Namibia has a lot on the drawing board.

Orano is already building a solar power plant as the first step in decarbonizing operations.

HDF Energy is developing a solar power plant that will use multimegawatt green hydrogen fuel cells to pick up the slack of energy production from photovoltaics.

Cleanergy Solutions Namibia is constructing a 10-hectare solar park and a hydrogen production facility that will include a five-megawatt electrolyzer; a first in Southern Africa. The green hydrogen it produces directly from solar will be available to the public.

Hyphen Energy is working to produce an eventual 350,000 tons of green hydrogen each year, along with up to 6 GW of renewable generation and 3 GW of electrolysis capacity.

Daures Green Hydrogen Village is poised to produce 31 tons of hydrogen and 109 tons of ammonia per year, with the goal of scaling.

At Namibia’s commercial port, located on the South Atlantic shipping lanes, a low-carbon fuels terminal is planned.

Now that’s a much brighter picture. Erussard came away optimistic, noting that with its population of only 2.5 million – and remarkable ambitions - Namibia’s energy autonomy and new hydrogen industry goals appear achievable.

NIKOLA TESLA’S

GAMBIT AT WARDENCLIFFE TOWER

Nikola Tesla’s fortunes may have been built on Niagara Falls, but they were fleeting. When it comes to genius inventors, big dreams require a big bankroll.

Tesla gambled his entire life savings on a new venture. Even though his next great experiment was situated on Long Island Sound, his vision was no longer focused upon the water. Instead, he was intent on harnessing the power of the earth.

Not the power of the entire planetary system, but specifically the power of the soil, stone, and magma that makes up our rocky planet.

What could the Earth’s crust, mantle, and core possibly have to do with electrical power? You’re about to find out!

Wardenclyffe Tower

Bordering upon the Atlantic ocean itself, Long Island Sound is a tidal estuary, and a critical part of New England and New York’s water tables. More importantly: It was isolated and had acce möss to a massive amount of power in the form of a coal fired 200 kW Westinghouse generator.

That was what powered Wardenclyffe Tower in the short term. But if Tesla’s dreams became a reality, there would be no need for coal to be delivered to Long Island ever again. You see, Tesla’s newest invention was meant to facilitate the wireless transmission of energy, with a range that would span the entire globe. Built where the water meets the land, it would be a monument to his genius… if he could get it off the ground, so to speak.

To say that his plans were ‘aggressive’ was an understatement. J. P. Morgan, a former rival during the Niagara Falls hydroelectric project, backed the initial building of the tower. It was a deal with the devil that wouldn’t pay off in the long run, for anyone involved. Still, he used that initial funding to build a massive prototype, breaking ground in 1901.

But the tower was based on unproven theories from the mid and late 1800s. They didn’t work on a small scale.

They’d never even been attempted on a large scale. In short, Wardenclyffe was a giant gamble based on nothing but Tesla’s intuition. How could it possibly pay off?

Using The Earth As A Live Wire

Tesla’s plan was to discover the exact resonant energy of the planet Earth, and send pulses of electricity through the core. The theory was that as long as the pulses of electricity were in sync with the planet’s native frequency, the energy could be transported anywhere on the globe using the planet itself as a conduit.

He believed that …

PANAMA CANAL DROUGHT 3/3

QUADRUPLE TROUBLE DUE TO INCREASING TRUCKING IN THE U.S.

Is the water crisis in the Panama Canal just the beginning of a tale of a swirling vortex of compounding climate change issues? We will be here to tell it?

No apologies for the drama.

Sit rep: The number of ship passages and cargo weights have been reduced, again, as the water supply is rationed at the critical shipping route. Twenty years of drought have taken their toll in one of the wettestplaces on earth. No relief is in sight.

The series of locks that provide the needed control in the narrow passage between two oceans were built more than a century ago to connect Asia with the east coast of the U.S. At the time, the plan was simply to create a shorter, safer route. But cutting thousands of miles from each journey inadvertently curtailed massive amounts of emissions.

It also increased our appetite for global trade. Economies of scale meant inexpensive goods, not just for consumers, but manufacturers across the U.S. who built price points and profit margins on the back of cheap components.

It all worked. About 90% of trade remains over the waves. That’s a good thing for the air.

According to the International Chamber of Shipping, a container ship, stacked high with up to 24,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit), with nearly 50,000 pounds of dry cargo in each, emits an average of 30 grams of CO2/ton. A heavy goods vehicle, or tractor trailer, emits 140 grams of CO2/ton.

That means that a shipping container’s voyage from China to Europe produces the same emissions as a truck hauling that same container only 200 kilometers.

Startling statistics like that offer a clue of the potential impacts of ships diverting from Panama to unload on the U.S.’s Pacific coast, where containers will travel via diesel-powered truck and rail across the country.

Maybe predictions that the drought in Panama will extend into next year, and possibly beyond, will be wrong. Maybe the now-obvious stresses on our planet will shake more of us awake to the threats. Or we’ll stop aiming at preserving life as we know it, and come up with a better plan. So many maybes, and to be fair, most of us are stuck, looking for guidance from vague government policies.

Some of you are doing amazing stuff on the edge that can move us forward. We see you, and we’re here to give you a voice. You are looking for, and finding, solutions in the right places, and that work within the bigger picture. Climate solutions are taking the shape of small circles. Carbon-negative waste-to-energy reactors built where alternative fuels are used, water used twice within a home, boat fuel produced from seawater while underway.

Companies are making bold moves to tighten up their sourcing radius, hedging against future supply chain issues and diplomatic tensions. In the first half of this year, Chinese imports into the U.S. were down 24% from the same period in 2022, indicating a trend toward producing goods closer to customers.

More small circles.