The Weekly Anthropocene, August 14 2024
Sky islands in Mozambique, beaver kits born in London, China's cleantech boom continues, the Aqueduct of Hadrian, the superb Harris-Walz ticket, Maximo the solar-installing robot, and more!
Mozambique
In recent years, a surge of scientific interest has explored the isolated forest-covered massifs of Mozambique, known as “sky islands” for their Galapagos-like “island biogeography” of wildlife diversity. Endemic species living only on the sky islands of Mozambique include the Mount Mabu chameleon, Mount Mabu horseshoe bat, Namuli apalis songbird, and Mount Mabu bush viper, all pictured above, as well as more than 10 unique species of butterflies.
Now, the Mozambican government is planning to protect the Mount Mabu sky island, one of the largest intact blocks of rainforest in southern Africa, with a new community conservation area. Great news!
United Kingdom
New UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is losing no time in accelerating the British cleantech revolution, with public renewables company GB Energy on the way and a bold new goal set to increase the UK’s biodiversity-boosting offshore wind farm capacity from 15 GW (15,000 MW) today to 55 GW by 2030. Other recent actions include:
British seabed owned by the Crown Estate will now be used to build offshore wind farms.
Three major new solar projects have been approved by the Starmer government after being long-delayed by NIMBY opposition.
A new undersea power line project bringing clean energy from Scotland to England has been approved, likely the first of many.
Excellent work! Keep it up.
In October 2023, a group of five Eurasian beavers were introduced to Ealing in west London. Now, camera footage has revealed the presence of at least two beaver kits, the first baby beavers born in urban London for at least 400 years. In addition to the babies, the beavers have also created six dams and two lodges, helping with flood mitigation and habitat improvement. Another great instance of wildlife-rich Anthropocene cities!
Greece
Greece, on the front lines of wildfires and extreme heat, is also pioneering new forms of climate resilience. The Hellenic Republic is now using anew the Roman Empire-era underground Aqueduct of Hadrian, completed in 140 CE, to help address water shortages in Athens. New non-potable water pipelines will save an estimated 80,000 cubic meters of water per year, making the still-functioning aqueduct’s water available to irrigate more green spaces. Great work!
China
As China’s eye-poppingly gigantic renewables buildout continues to break its own records, and its carbon emissions seem to be beginning to fall, another historic milestone may have been reached.
In July 2024, preliminary data indicates that EVs and plug-in hybrids together accounted for a record-high 51% of all new car sales in China, with fossil fuel-only combustion cars falling to 49%. The cleantech revolution is likely to further accelerate. Amazing news!
Guyana
The endangered red siskin finch (Spinus cucullatus) is beleaguered by illegal trapping for the pet trade and habitat destruction from wildfires, which together drove the Venezuelan populations to local extinction.
Now, in the small South American nation of Guyana1, the Indigenous-led South Rupununi Conservation Society is making great strides in conserving the Guyanese population of the species. They’re establishing an Indigenous-land conservation zone, creating a group to monitor and deter illegal trapping, helping conduct prescribed burns to reduce wildfires, working to build an ecotourism industry, and teaching kids about the red siskin. Great work!
United States
Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic nominee for President, has named Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, finalizing the most environmentally progressive and climate action-friendly ticket in American history. Both Harris and Walz have absolutely extraordinarily excellent records on environmental issues. Ms. Harris held polluting companies accountable as California’s Attorney General, was instrumental in successfully advancing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s electric school bus, drought relief, and lead pipe cleanup provisions as a Senator and Vice President, and, of course, cast the deciding tiebreaker vote that passed the transformative Inflation Reduction Act. (Here’s a great article with more details on her under-reported victories). Mr. Walz led a historically successful legislative session in Minnesota that mandated 100% zero-carbon electricity by 2040, as well as (dear to this newsletter’s heart) signing vital cleantech buildout-accelerating permitting reform legislation. (Here’s more on Walz).
In this newsletter’s opinion, every American who cares about climate change should do all they can to help this incredible ticket win in November! (If you’re wondering how to help, Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood Carry Water newsletter is a great source of actions and enthusiasm). Let’s make this happen.
On August 6th, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $2.2 billion in eight new grants from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL)-funded Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program. These grants will catalyze an additional nearly $10 billion in public and private-sector funding to make possible 8 amazing new projects across 18 states! Together, these eight projects are forecast to upgrade 1,000 miles of power lines and add nearly 13 gigawatts (13,000 MW!) of capacity to the grid. Here are four of the eight:
Power Up New England provides $389 million for New England states to build out a joint grid that can support plugging in 4,800 MW of planned future offshore wind projects. Here’s a whole article all about what a big deal that is!
The North Plains Connector Interregional Innovation project will build a 3,000 MW high-voltage power line across Montana and North Dakota, linking the U.S. Western and Eastern grid interconnections and making possible lots more clean energy.
The TERAS project provides $87 million for four Native American tribes in Northern California to build their own microgrids!
Project RELIEF in Utah will deploy advanced new transmission lines to increase the clean electron carrying capacity of power lines across the American West, increasing reliability for 700,000 consumers and enabling 500 MW of new renewables projects!
“The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in the most crucial component of the nation’s infrastructure, expanding and hardening the grid to allow more resilient, clean power to reach more household, and support the ongoing manufacturing boom—all while creating thousands of local jobs.”
-U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
This is yet another instance of amazingly impactful yet massively under-reported clean energy progress from the Biden-Harris Administration! Absolutely spectacular work.
Renewables developer AES has just unveiled Maximo, the world’s first AI-enabled solar-installing robot, which they claim can reduce solar installation timelines and costs by up to 50%. Maximo automates heavy lifting while using AI-powered computer vision to precisely place each solar panel, and AES reports that it can work around the clock and during extreme weather conditions.
The Maximo model has already installed 10 MW worth of solar panels in a series of previously unpublicized tests, including its first deployment to a grid-scale project when it helped out at the Oak Ridge Solar project in Louisiana. Maximo is now starting work at the under-construction Bellefield project in Kern County, California (set to become another gigawatt-scale solar and battery farm) where the presence of the robot should help minimize the exposure of human work crews to extreme heat.
"Today, the US solar industry is setting an impressive pace, installing about 15,000 modules per hour, weighing one million pounds. Looking ahead, this installation rate is projected to reach 50,000 modules per hour by 2035.
In response to this exponential growth, we are scaling Maximo, deploying fleets of continually improving robots to empower our teams for faster and more competitive installations."
-Chris Shelton, AES Chief Product Officer.
This is pretty amazing stuff! Another new opportunity to help our epic transition to a clean electron-powered civilization happen even faster.
So glad to read about the Harris/Walz environmental record and your enthusiasm for doing all we can to ensure they win!