State environmental regulators are proposing permit changes to reduce or avoid killing rare cave bats that may be affected by wind energy projects.
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As a major contributor to global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the transportation sector has immense potential to advance decarbonization. However, a zero-emissions global supply chain requires re-imagining reliance on a heavy-duty trucking industry that emits 810,000 tons of CO2, or 6 percent of the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions, and consumes 29 billion gallons of diesel annually in the U.S. alone.
A new study by MIT researchers, presented at the recent American Society of Mechanical Engineers 2024 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, quantifies the impact of a zero-emission truck’s design range on its energy storage requirements and operational revenue. The multivariable model outlined in the paper allows fleet owners and operators to better understand the design choices that impact the economic feasibility of battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell heavy-duty trucks for commercial application, equipping stakeholders to make informed fleet transition decisions.
“The whole issue [of decarbonizing trucking] is like a very big, messy pie. One of the things we can do, from an academic standpoint, is quantify some of those pieces of pie with modeling, based on information and experience we’ve learned from industry stakeholders,” says ZhiYi Liang, PhD student on the renewable hydrogen team at the MIT K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research Center (GEAR) and lead author of the study. Co-authored by Bryony DuPont, visiting scholar at GEAR, and Amos Winter, the Germeshausen Professor in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, the paper elucidates operational and socioeconomic factors that need to be considered in efforts to decarbonize heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs).
Operational and infrastructure challenges
The team’s model shows that a technical challenge lies in the amount of energy that needs to be stored on the truck to meet the range and towing performance needs of commercial trucking applications. Due to the high energy density and low cost of diesel, existing diesel drivetrains remain more competitive than alternative lithium battery-electric vehicle (Li-BEV) and hydrogen fuel-cell-electric vehicle (H2 FCEV) drivetrains. Although Li-BEV drivetrains have the highest energy efficiency of all three, they are limited to short-to-medium range routes (under 500 miles) with low freight capacity, due to the weight and volume of the onboard energy storage needed. In addition, the authors note that existing electric grid infrastructure will need significant upgrades to support large-scale deployment of Li-BEV HDVs.
While the hydrogen-powered drivetrain has a significant weight advantage that enables higher cargo capacity and routes over 750 miles, the current state of hydrogen fuel networks limits economic viability, especially once operational cost and projected revenue are taken into account. Deployment will most likely require government intervention in the form of incentives and subsidies to reduce the price of hydrogen by more than half, as well as continued investment by corporations to ensure a stable supply. Also, as H2-FCEVs are still a relatively new technology, the ongoing design of conformal onboard hydrogen storage systems — one of which is the subject of Liang’s PhD — is crucial to successful adoption into the HDV market.
The current efficiency of diesel systems is a result of technological developments and manufacturing processes established over many decades, a precedent that suggests similar strides can be made with alternative drivetrains. However, interactions with fleet owners, automotive manufacturers, and refueling network providers reveal another major hurdle in the way that each “slice of the pie” is interrelated — issues must be addressed simultaneously because of how they affect each other, from renewable fuel infrastructure to technological readiness and capital cost of new fleets, among other considerations. And first steps into an uncertain future, where no one sector is fully in control of potential outcomes, is inherently risky.
“Besides infrastructure limitations, we only have prototypes [of alternative HDVs] for fleet operator use, so the cost of procuring them is high, which means there isn’t demand for automakers to build manufacturing lines up to a scale that would make them economical to produce,” says Liang, describing just one step of a vicious cycle that is difficult to disrupt, especially for industry stakeholders trying to be competitive in a free market.
Quantifying a path to feasibility
“Folks in the industry know that some kind of energy transition needs to happen, but they may not necessarily know for certain what the most viable path forward is,” says Liang. Although there is no singular avenue to zero emissions, the new model provides a way to further quantify and assess at least one slice of pie to aid decision-making.
Other MIT-led efforts aimed at helping industry stakeholders navigate decarbonization include an interactive mapping tool developed by Danika MacDonell, Impact Fellow at the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC); alongside Florian Allroggen, executive director of MITs Zero Impact Aviation Alliance; and undergraduate researchers Micah Borrero, Helena De Figueiredo Valente, and Brooke Bao. The MCSC’s Geospatial Decision Support Tool supports strategic decision-making for fleet operators by allowing them to visualize regional freight flow densities, costs, emissions, planned and available infrastructure, and relevant regulations and incentives by region.
While current limitations reveal the need for joint problem-solving across sectors, the authors believe that stakeholders are motivated and ready to tackle climate problems together. Once-competing businesses already appear to be embracing a culture shift toward collaboration, with the recent agreement between General Motors and Hyundai to explore “future collaboration across key strategic areas,” including clean energy.
Liang believes that transitioning the transportation sector to zero emissions is just one part of an “energy revolution” that will require all sectors to work together, because “everything is connected. In order for the whole thing to make sense, we need to consider ourselves part of that pie, and the entire system needs to change,” says Liang. “You can’t make a revolution succeed by yourself.”
The authors acknowledge the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium for connecting them with industry members in the HDV ecosystem; and the MIT K. Lisa Yang Global Engineering and Research Center and MIT Morningside Academy for Design for financial support.
© Photo: Bob Adams/Flickr
EVs could help hasten the ongoing transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy through the end of the decade, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA predicts that more than half of the world's electricity will come from low-emission sources by 2030, and that demand for coal, oil, and gas will have also... 
Rivian Electric Delivery Vehicles (EDV) are seen connected to electric chargers during a launch event between Amazon and Rivian at an Amazon facility on July 21, 2022, in Chicago, Illinois. (Mustafa Hussain | Getty Images)
This is one in a series of States Newsroom reports on the major policy issues in the presidential race.
Highlighted in Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign as one of the major crises facing the country, climate change has received much less attention in the 2024 race for the presidency.
The candidates, Republican former President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, share the twin goals of lowering energy costs and increasing U.S. jobs in the sector, but diverge widely in their plans to get there.
On the campaign trail, each has spent relatively little time detailing their own plans, instead criticizing the other as extreme.
Harris favors an expansion of renewable energy, which supplies power without the carbon emissions that are the primary driver of climate change.
She has touted her tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, the broad domestic policy law Democrats pushed through along party lines that includes hundreds of millions in clean-energy tax credits.
Trump supports fossil fuel production, blaming policies to support renewable energy for rising energy prices. He has called for removing prohibitions on new oil and gas exploration to increase the supply of cheap fuel and reduce costs.
Both candidates promise to lower the cost of energy.
For Trump, that has involved hammering the Biden-Harris administration for encouraging renewable energy production.
Inflation was caused by “stupid spending for the Green New Deal, which was a green new scam, it turned out,” Trump said at a Sept. 26 press conference. “Do you notice that they never mention anything about environment anymore? What happened to the environment?”
The former president said at a Sept. 25 campaign stop he would “cut your energy [costs] in half,” by reducing regulations and cutting taxes.
He has not produced a detailed plan to achieve that goal.
Implicit in Trump’s argument is that the Biden administration’s focus on renewable energy has hampered oil and gas production, limiting supply and driving up prices.
But Harris has presented her support for renewable energy modes as part of a broader portfolio that includes fossil fuels.
Harris has highlighted the Inflation Reduction Act opened up new leases for oil and gas production while providing incentives for wind and solar power.
“I am proud that as vice president over the last four years, we have invested a trillion dollars in a clean energy economy while we have also increased domestic gas production to historic levels,” she said at a Sept. 10 ABC News debate with Trump.
A report this month from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that U.S. fossil fuel production reached an all-time high in 2023.
Harris has also pointed to provisions of the IRA that provide consumers with tax benefits for green technology, such as home heat pumps, as a way to bring down costs.
“Thanks to tax credits on home energy technologies in the Inflation Reduction Act, more than 3.4 million American families saved $8.4 billion in 2023,” her campaign’s 82-page economic plan reads.
Trump also says he supports some climate-conscious technology, including megadonor Elon Musk’s Tesla brand of electric vehicles, but that Democrats have overinvested in non-fossil fuels.
He has called elements of the Inflation Reduction Act “giveaways,” and has singled out spending on electric vehicle charging infrastructure as wasteful.
Biden has long talked about a transition away from fossil fuels as a benefit to U.S. workers, positioning them on the cutting edge of a growing industry.
Harris has similarly framed the issue in economic terms, saying the Inflation Reduction Act and other climate policies have created jobs.
“We have created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs while I have been vice president,” she said at the Sept. 10 debate. “We have invested in clean energy to the point that we are opening up factories around the world.”
At a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this month, Harris said Trump’s focus on fossil fuels would hamper job growth, saying he would “send thousands of good-paying clean energy jobs overseas.”
Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, have said Democrats’ focus on renewable energy sources has limited existing energy jobs.
“We’ve got great energy workers in Ohio and all across our country,” Vance said at an August campaign stop in his home state. “They want to earn a reasonable wage and they want to power the American economy. Why don’t we have a president that lets them do exactly that?
“Unleash American energy,” he said. “Drill, baby, drill and let’s turn the page on this craziness.”
Trump has had harsh words for Democrats’ climate law, blaming its spending for rising inflation.
“To further defeat inflation, my plan will terminate the Green New Deal, which I call the Green New Scam. Greatest scam in history, probably,” he told the Economic Club of New York in a Sept. 5 speech.
He said as president he would redirect any unspent funds in the law.
Trump has sought to distance himself from the policy blueprint Project 2025, written by the Heritage Institute.
But there is some overlap between what the conservative think tank has laid out and what Trump said he plans to do in a second term in the White House.
Project 2025 calls for repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, describing it as a subsidy to special interests.
Harris often mentions her tie-breaking vote for the law and has described her plans as president to expand on the law’s objectives.
Harris’ policy plan said she “proudly cast” the tie-breaking vote for the climate bill and that, as president, she would “continue to invest in a thriving clean energy economy.”
She added she would seek to improve that spending by cutting regulations “so that clean energy projects are completed quickly and efficiently in a manner that protects our environment and public health.”
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A solar energy array. Environmental groups are calling on Microsoft to bypass a planned gas-powered electricity project and instead focus exclusively on solar and wind power for its data center in Racine County. (Photo courtesy of the National Center for Appropriate Technology and the Agrisolar Clearinghouse | USDA)
A coalition of environmental and health groups has called on Microsoft to rely on clean energy generation instead of a proposed expansion of methane-fueled power for its planned Racine County data center — projected to become Wisconsin Electric’s “largest electric load.”
In an open letter to Microsoft, the groups charge that the plan underway by We Energies to build new methane gas power plants “will push our state’s climate goals out of reach, locking us into 30 more years of fossil fuels at a time when we all know we must rapidly transition to clean energy.”
We Energies defended its plan Thursday, calling the gas plants an essential transition step as the company expands its clean energy portfolio.
Microsoft’s decision to build an artificial intelligence data center in Mount Pleasant has been highlighted as a Wisconsin economic development success story, but alongside that has come a growing awareness about the heavy demand that data centers and AI make for electric power.
In testimony to the state Public Service Commission supporting a proposed rate increase to pay for the cost of expanded methane power generation, a Microsoft consultant said the data center is expected “to become the largest electric load” served by Wisconsin Electric, the Milwaukee Business Journal reported. Wisconsin Electric is a subsidiary of We Energies.
The letter distributed Thursday by Clean Wisconsin and signed by a dozen organizations declares that if carried out, the utility’s plan will increase air pollution from nitrogen oxide, particulate matter, lead, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and greenhouse gasses that contribute to climate change.
“It’s time for Wisconsin to leave these dangerous ways to produce energy behind, not double-down on dirty fuels in the name of new technology,” the letter states.
Instead of backing the methane power build-out, the letter urges Microsoft to embrace expanding solar and wind power in Wisconsin to meet the increased demand.
“Microsoft’s recently-announced plan to help fund a currently unspecified 250-megawatt solar project in Wisconsin is a good start, but this represents just a fraction of the data center’s energy needs,” the letter states. “There must be more.”
The letter cites Microsoft’s public claims of commitment to addressing climate change.
“This data center project represents a critical opportunity to help drive change in Wisconsin and put us on a path to clean wind and solar,” the letter states. “Microsoft knows what we all know, that the window to make meaningful progress in the fight against climate change is closing, and the decisions we make right now matter.”
In a statement Thursday responding to the letter, We Energies spokesman Brendan Conway said the new proposed natural gas generation plants were necessary to ensure reliable service as the company continues its move toward cleaner power sources.
“Now more than ever, it is critical for us to have quick-start gas plants available and running in our state for those times when intermittent renewable generation cannot meet customers’ energy needs,” Conway said. He called the gas plants “the cheapest, most reliable and lowest carbon approach to support our customers when solar and wind are not able to provide enough power.”
The proposed plants comply with EPA emission standards, Conway said. He added that We Energies continues to expand its clean energy production, spending more than $7 billion on solar, wind and battery storage capacity by 2028. The utility calculates that with those investments it will be producing four times its current output of non-carbon energy within five years.
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