Happy Monday and welcome back to the Green New Spiel, the newsletter bringing you the latest stories and developments in the world of clean-tech, green energy and other climate related news.
To our UK readers, we hope you had a fantastic long weekend last weekend (hence the reason for our absence last Monday ☀️).
We are back with some fantastic stories for you - one in particular has some great news! As ever do let us know if there are topics you would like us to cover more of.
This week on the Green New Spiel:
✅ Addressing the back log - the Grid is starting to speed things up
🌏 Biomimicry - what’s that all about?
🧩 Green steel in the Rust Belt - could it be a long term solution?
⛔️ Californian insurance shocks - might climate change be starting to hit real estate prices
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✅ Addressing the back log
National Grid is making reforms to accelerate connections to the electricity network, hopefully reducing the waiting time for renewable energy projects. By requesting progress updates and milestones from parties seeking connection, non-viable developments can be identified, allowing ready and able projects to connect more quickly. As a result, some developments are expected to connect up to 10 years earlier.
Additionally, the Grid is supporting changes that enable developers to build their own connections, breaking the logjam hindering projects. These reforms help address a key barrier to achieving net zero emissions.
Great to see that issues that have been raised in the Green New Spiel a number of times are being addressed by regulators (they’re still not subscribers yet sadly…)
🌏 Biomimicry - what’s that all about?
Put simply - biomimicry looks to nature’s processes and designs to find a more sustainable way to produce things. This is becoming increasingly popular, in particular within the construction industry, which is responsible for 40% of global emissions and produces over 50% of global waste.
There are a number of companies looking to take biomimicry and reimagine construction designs. The Mobius Project for example has designed city infrastructure systems rethinking energy generation, waste treatment and the water systems in the hopes of developing closed-loop practices. The Sahara Forest Project on the other hand is attempting to improve agriculture in one of Earth’s most inhospitable environments by studying the niche Namibian fog-basking beetle’s ability to survive in a climate that only receives 1 centimeter of water per year.
We also recently heard Biohm present at Innovation Zero; they are a UK pioneer in this space and have some amazing products already available (no this is not a paid mention).
🧩 Green steel in the Rust Belt
A new study carried out in the US has found that green steel (manufactured using hydrogen generated with renewable energy) could be a climate and economic boom, in particular for areas such as Pittsburgh, which used to produce 60% of the US’ steel. Employment in the tradition steel sector has been steadily dwindling as production moves to cheaper jurisdictions and pressure to reduce emissions increases.
Traditional steel production is hugely energy intensive largely due to the coal powered furnaces it uses. The industry is accountable for a whopping 7.2% of global emissions!
Technological improvements and increasing climate pressure have resulted in the reutilisation of end of life scrap steel, which can be recycled near indefinitely. The scrap is melted in electric arc furnaces and uses hydrogen to process the iron ore, rather than coke; it uses less power than traditional production. It now represents 70% of the US’ steel output however this can only be green steel if it is powered by renewable energy and the hydrogen used is green hydrogen (not grey or blue).
The study claims that a transition to green steel would not only reduce emissions but also help offset the labour losses from traditional steel production.
⛔️ Californian insurance shocks
State Farm, the largest insurance company in the US, has announced that it will no longer accept new homeowner insurance applications in California due to increased risks of natural disasters and rising construction costs. This decision follows similar actions taken by other insurers in the state last year.
The scale of State Farm makes this announcement all the more significant, as it affects the most populous state in the US with nearly 40 million residents. It highlights the worsening impact of extreme weather and serves as a huge wake-up call.
This could have knock on effects for the Californian housing market: while prices in California are high, the lack of insurance availability will make it difficult to obtain mortgages and may lead to continued decline in buyers.
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Ciao,
Carlo and Rob