RENEWABLES SLIDE INTO NON-RENEWABLE TO SUPPORT AI Google’s emissions climbed nearly 50% in five years due to AI energy demand. Tech giant’s goal of reducing climate footprint at risk as it grows increasingly reliant on energy-hungry data centres. Guardian Don Milmo Tue 2 Jul 2024    Google’s goal of reducing its climate footprint is in jeopardy as it relies on more and more energy-hungry data centres to power its new artificial intelligence products. The tech giant revealed Tuesday that its greenhouse gas emissions have climbed 48% over the past five years. Google said electricity consumption by data centres and supply chain emissions were the primary cause of the increase. It also revealed in its annual environmental report that its emissions in 2023 had risen 13% compared with the previous year, hitting 14.3m metric tons. The tech company, which has invested substantially in AI, said its “extremely ambitious” goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2030 “won’t be easy”. It said “significant uncertainty” around reaching the target included “the uncertainty around the future environmental impact of AI, which is complex and difficult to predict”.   Google’s emissions have risen by nearly 50% since 2019, the base year for Google’s goal of reaching net zero, which requires the company removing as much CO2 as it emits.

The International Energy Agency estimates that data centres’ total electricity consumption could double from 2022 levels to 1,000TWh (terawatt hours) in 2026, approximately Japan’s level of electricity demand. AI will result in data centres using 4.5% of global energy generation by 2030, according to calculations by research firm SemiAnalysis. Data centres play a crucial role in training and operating the models that underpin AI models like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s GPT-4, which powers the ChatGPT chatbot. Microsoft admitted this year that energy use related to its data centres was endangering its “moonshot” target of being carbon negative by 2030. Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president, admitted in May that “the moon has moved” due to the company’s AI strategy.Microsoft’s co-founder, Bill Gates, said last week that AI would help combat the climate crisis because big tech is “seriously willing” to pay extra to use clean electricity sources in order “to say that they’re using green energy”. Big tech companies have become major purchasers of renewable energy in a bid to meet their climate goals.However, pledges to reduce CO2 emissions are now coming up against pledges to invest heavily in AI products that require considerable amounts of energy for training and deployment in data centres, along with carbon emissions associated with manufacturing and transporting the computer servers and chips used in that process. Water usage is another environmental factor in the AI boom, with one study estimating that AI could account for up to 6.6bn cubic metres of water use by 2027 – nearly two-thirds of England’s annual consumption.......read on      https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/02/google-ai-emissions       

Renewable energy passes 30% of world’s electricity supply.. Report says humans may be on brink of cutting fossil fuel generation, even as demand for electricity rises. Guardian Renewable energy accounted for more than 30% of the world’s electricity for the first time last year following a rapid rise in wind and solar power, according to new figures.

A report on the global power system has found that the world may be on the brink of driving down fossil fuel generation, even as overall demand for electricity continues to rise. Clean electricity has already helped to slow the growth in fossil fuels by almost two-thirds in the past 10 years, according to the report by climate thinktank Ember. It found that renewables have grown from 19% of electricity in 2000 to more than 30% of global electricity last year. “The renewables future has arrived,” said Dave Jones, Ember’s director of global insights. “Solar, in particular, is accelerating faster than anyone thought possible.”Solar was the main supplier of electricity growth, according to Ember, adding more than twice as much new electricity generation as coal in 2023. The first comprehensive review of global electricity data covers 80 countries, which represent 92% of the world’s electricity demand, as well as historic data for 215 countries.

The surge in clean electricity is expected to power a 2% decrease in global fossil fuel generation in the year ahead, according to Ember."The decline of power sector emissions is now inevitable,” said Jones. “2023 was likely the pivot point – peak emissions in the power sector – a major turning point in the history of energy. But the pace of emissions falls depends on how fast the renewables revolution continues.” Although fossil fuel use in the world’s electricity system may begin to fall, it continues to play an outsized role in global energy – in transport fuels, heavy industry and heating. A separate study by the Energy Institute found last year that fossil fuels including oil, gas and coal made up 82% of the world’s primary energy.....read on         https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/renewable-energy-passes-30-of-worlds-electricity-supply

Sahara covered with solar panels: The biggest mistake in history and 173 TWh we have lost Econews D. García 06/30/2024 

Environmentalists, and this is something you already know, are at odds with two different positions: some defend the implementation of renewable energies on a large scale, while others condemn the use of natural ecosystems for this purpose. Perhaps both are right, as one of the biggest mistakes of mankind has shown us. The idea was to cover the Sahara with solar panels, but we ended up losing 173 TWh and now only an empty, dark desert remains.......Why don’t we cover the Sahara with solar panels? It is not as simple as it seems......It has been rather encouraging to embrace the usability of the Sahara desert to generate renewable power for the world through the installation of solar panels. But we can now know for sure that if the attempted project were carried out, it would have devastating ramifications for the climate on our planet. Constructing solar panels across the largest desert in the world, better known as the Sahara desert, was initially proposed in the early 2000s. The premise was simple: the Sahara also benefits from high levels of irradiationand, therefore, might facilitate the deployment of utility-scale solar farms. It was estimated that to adequately provide cover for only one percent of the population, a huge amount of money would be required. It only takes a mere 2% of the Sahara desert to produce enough electricity to complement the world’s current consumption rates regarding solar panels. The experts were very clear: the biggest mistake in history had to be stopped The discoveries accomplished showed negative implications for the advancement of the Sahara solar project, which had steadily increased in the years prior to the undertaking of the study. The other plans by international consortia, like the Desertec Industrial Initiative, had been in existence and led to proposals for large solar farms in the Sahara to export electricity to Europe and other places. However, the conclusions made in the study addressed aspects that highlighted the centrality of the global climate system as interconnected. Thus, the paper demonstrated that even if promoting the use of renewable energy resources is a purely noble cause, it is vital to understand the social implications of such activities and make necessary adjustments in strategy and approach. What experts found: Why covering the Sahara with solar panels is not a good idea......read on      https://www.ecoticias.com/en/sahara-covered-solar-panels-mistake/3559/

Industrial Decarbonization......

 Industrial sector greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have steadily increased since the industrial revolution and nearly tripled over the last three decades. U.S. industries account for 30% (including industrial electricity use) of national GHG emissions, on par with transportation, the highest emitting sector, and exceed power sector emissions. Globally, the industrial sector accounts for all GHG emissions. Heavy industries, like chemical production, cement and steel production and oil and gas refining should no longer be dismissed as too ‘hard to abate.’ Options for transitioning these manufacturing processes are rapidly emerging and becoming more cost competitive due to historic public investments in the U.S. 

Transitioning this sector away from fossil fuels by midcentury is possible — if companies, governments, investors and communities work together to make sound and bold decisions in this decade that will be crucial to defining our decarbonization trajectory to meet mid century climate goals. Demand is expected to rise for cement, steel and chemicals in coming years. Options for decarbonizing those facilities and products include switching to non-fossil fuels and feedstocks, energy efficiency, electrification and carbon capture utilization and sequestration as well as transformative emerging technologies such as electrolytic hydrogen, thermal heat batteries, kiln electrification and novel materials. On the other hand, oil and gas demand will be dropping over the next few decades as the world moves to phase out fossil fuels and facilities may simply become non-economic as this transition occurs and the demand for fossil fuels dwindles and disappears. Deciding the fate of these facilities — whether they are retired or repurposed — is an opportunity to consider overall pollution profiles (including air toxics, chemical discharges and pollutants that cause smog and soot) and engage with fence line communities around these facilities to decide what is the best way to make a just transition away from carbon intensive industry. The path toward industrial decarbonizationby midcentury requires comprehensive company strategies and a robust portfolio of federal and state policies to support innovation, investment and deployment.......read on        https://www.wri.org/initiatives/industrial-decarbonization