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Sankey diagram for BC's energy needs

May 07, 2020

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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Methane and natural gas

This article was first published in Castanet Tuesday, October 31, 2023 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Methane and natural gas Methane is bad. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential approximately 30 times worse than carbon dioxide. It is, in fact, the second largest contributor to global warming. In order to limit climate change to 1.5 C, we need to make immediate and severe reductions in methane emissions. Natural gas is good. It has the word “natural” in its name. It is a cleaner fossil fuel, creating less air pollution than coal. For every kilowatt hour of electricity, coal emits 1,975 grams of carbon dioxide. Natural gas emits only 700 grams. That’s a 60% reduction. The paradox of these statements is that natural gas is methane—the methane content of natural gas is 85% to 90%. And natural gas contributes to global warming from the well to your kitchen stove. Let’s look closer at points where natural gas contributes to global warming, especially flaring at th

Demand Side Management

Photo by Arthur Lambillotte on Unsplash This article was first published in Castanet Dec 12, 2023 / 6:00 pm It’s not easy being an electrical utility. Electric utilities have to be able to meet the demand every minute of the day, no matter how much electricity we use. To make sure electricity is available around the clock utilities have peaking generators (often a natural gas plant) that they can fire up when demand is really high. As you might expect, building a “just in case” power plant and leaving it idle most of the time is expensive and those expenses are passed on to consumers. Rather than unendingly increasing electricity, we could reduce power during peak times. That is called “demand side management.” A dramatic example of demand side management was the emergency alert California sent to 27 million cell phones on September 6, 2022. The message read “Conserve energy now to protect public health and safety. Extreme heat is straining the state energy grid. Power interruptions

Personal carbon emissions by the numbers

This article was first published in Castanet Mar 19, 2024 Are you interested in reducing your personal carbon footprint? Have you wondered exactly how much recycling reduces global warming? In 2020 a meta-analysis paper was published by Diana Ivanova and coauthors that reviewed studies covering a range of personal consumption options. The researchers started with a dataset of 6990 studies from all over the world and used machine learning to winnow this down to the most relevant 53 studies. This meta analysis is great for two reasons: it gives a reliable average and it shows the uncertainty. The data from this study is publicly available and I focused on two baskets, one with transportation choices and a second which includes common household actions like recycling. Let’s look first at transportation options. The amount of CO₂e saved is measured in tonnes per person per year -- living car-free saves 2.1 tonnes CO₂e per person per year (the average Canadian footprint is 15.2 tonnes CO₂e/

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Sankey diagram for BC's energy needs

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