How is the ATL doing on carbon emssions? (Atlanta, McDonough: buy, schools)

[arjay57]

For the state as whole it looks like we're doing better. However, has anyone seen the numbers for the ATL?

I also several other questions about this:

(1) Are there any projects underway to help with this?

(2) What are the biggest trouble spots?

(3) Wonder what we should be doing about this?

(4) Whose the czar in charge of keeping emissions down?

(5) How do we stack up against comparable cities?


[IMG]

[europe2atlanta]

Check this out: https://www.drawdownga.org/

There are a lot of efforts in GA related to renewable energy technology and electric vehicles. Since the state doesn't have any oil reserves or production, there is a (bipartisan, in fact) push to try to make Georgia a national leader in this space. Just see the new Hyundai EV plant and the whole Rivian debacle. Delta, Coca-Cola, and other companies also have massive decarbonization pledges.

In Atlanta, there are a lot of startups and research related to "green" technologies coming out of Georgia Tech and adjacent schools. I think Georgia will be a national leader in electric vehicle production and sustainability technology in a few years.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by europe2atlanta

Check this out: https://www.drawdownga.org/

There are a lot of efforts in GA related to renewable energy technology and electric vehicles. Since the state doesn't have any oil reserves or production, there is a (bipartisan, in fact) push to try to make Georgia a national leader in this space. Just see the new Hyundai EV plant and the whole Rivian debacle. Delta, Coca-Cola, and other companies also have massive decarbonization pledges.

In Atlanta, there are a lot of startups and research related to "green" technologies coming out of Georgia Tech and adjacent schools. I think Georgia will be a national leader in electric vehicle production and sustainability technology in a few years.

Thanks for this information!

I'd love to see the ATL become a leader on this. Why the Party seems to be against green energy and reducing carbon emissions is beyond me. Not only are you taking care of the planet, there's a ton of money to be made in this area.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Thanks for this information!

I'd love to see the ATL become a leader on this. Why the Party seems to be against green energy and reducing carbon emissions is beyond me. Not only are you taking care of the planet, there's a ton of money to be made in this area.

Team red is typically leery against green energy because it often comes at the cost of reliability and supply where as non-renewables are cheap and reliable…but are Co2 contributors. Nuclear Power is a viable solution to both problems, but they aren’t cheap to build and there is a lot of regulations on operating them to prevent major disaster (which always has a chance of happening) and they’re not entirely clean either as we haven’t figured out a way to dispose of the waste.

For Georgia in general, it’s much more difficult for Solar to produce efficiently than it is in the Midwest and most of the Western states due to the tree canopy being so tall. Wind may be a viable options in the hills but no one is going to agree to canabalizing the views of the Foothills with Wind Turbines

[europe2atlanta]

In terms of renewable (or at least greener) energy, it seems that the best non-nuclear bet for Georgia is electricity generation from biomass. We are the national leader in electricity generation from biomass and we are a major exporter of wood pellets to Europe. See more info here: https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=GA

Biomass is "renewable" in the sense that planting trees captures carbon which is later emitted when the wood is burned. It's a "closed-loop" system. There's a lot of cool work in this space at UGA and GT. This study from some UGA folks goes into detail on the potential of biomass in Georgia.

[Need4Camaro]

Surely we would end up burning more trees for power generation than we could possibly re-grow within a fixed period of time?

[europe2atlanta]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

Surely we would end up burning more trees for power generation than we could possibly re-grow within a fixed period of time?

This is an excellent point and a big focus of existing research and development. My understanding is that "fast-growing" mixed hardwood trees and pines commonly found in GA do grow fast enough to make biomass sustainable. Trees in the Northeast and other regions of the US do not. Here is an interesting article on this debate: https://www.wired.com/story/how-gree...a-fuel-source/

There are companies in Georgia trying to pull this off. One was recently acquired by Enviva: https://www.envivabiomass.com/enviva...duction-plant/

My guess is that the future energy base of Georgia will be a mix of biomass natural gas (which leverages existing infrastructure), hydropower, nuclear, and solar. I doubt wind will be in the mix for our state. While not perfect, this mix can be way greener and less pollutant than our existing energy base. It will also give us energy freedom and independence in the long run. We don't want our energy prices to depend on the whims of the Russians, Saudis, or Iraqis.

[T Block]

There's no hydrogen-fuel-cell city buses. But if so they would only be carbon-free with green-hydrogen or carbon-neutral with blue-hydrogen.

And the natural-gas electricity powerplants don't buy a partial fuel supply of blue-hydrogen like Japan does.

Finally, there is no carbon-neutral ethanol production because cellulose processing was abandoned in Georgia.

Also, there's no hydrogen production at waste-treatment plants.

There are commuter bus systems but they sit in traffic in the HOV lanes.

Atlanta has the MARTA train but it is mostly ignored by the middle-economic-class.

Atlanta with its large amount of trees would be a good place to advocate ground-source-heat-pumps, instead of solar panels, but I don't know of any advocacy projects
.

[T Block]

Well, Plant McDonough finished its conversion to natural-gas in October of 2012. The sky color changed from torquoise to blue
.