As renewable energy revolution hits full stride in US, researchers seek to limit environmental hazards

An energy revolution is underway in the United States. There is a shift from coal, natural gas and nuclear energy to renewable energy.

Since 1997, global cumulative installed solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power have increased from less than 8 gigawatts (GW) to nearly 800 GW, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

Renewable energy sources are energy resources that are replaced rapidly by a natural process, such as power generated from the sun or from the wind. Most renewable forms of energy, other than geothermal and tidal power, ultimately come from the sun.

Most renewable energy sources produce little to no harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, even when including “life cycle” emissions of clean energy, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Therefore, renewable energy helps to combat climate change, as it produces less harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere than other forms of energy.

Renewable sources now account for most new U.S. power capacity, according to Forbes.

Renewable power sources accounted for nearly half, 49.9 percent of the 24.6 GW of new U.S. electrical generating capacity placed into service in 2017. Nearly all of the rest was natural gas capacity, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) "Energy Infrastructure Update" (EIU).

Renewable sources accounted for 17.6 percent of total electrical generation in 2017, compared to 15.3 percent in 2016.

With an increase in renewable energy, as with any human development, there starts to be a concern of the adverse effects of these sources on the environment.

For example, some types of wind turbines and wind projects cause bird and bat deaths, while hydropower turbines kill and injure some of the fish that pass through the turbine, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

All energy sources have some impact on the environment, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Life-cycle assessments (LCAs) are used to reduce uncertainty around estimates for environmental impacts of electricity generation technologies.

An LCA is a technique used to assess the environmental impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life, from materials acquisition to manufacturing, use and final disposition, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) reviewed and harmonized LCAs of electricity generation technologies. Hundreds of LCAs have been published, with considerable variability in results.

The NREL harmonized this data "to reduce uncertainty around estimates for environmental impacts and increase the value of these assessments to the policymaking and research communities," the NREL website states.

The data showed that life cycle GHG emissions from technologies powered by renewable sources are generally less than from those powered by fossil fuel-based resources, according to NREL.

The production of renewable sources is often multi-stepped. These steps have "lifecycle impacts," according to the Senior Director of Technology Innovation and Market Adoption at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Lenae Shirley.

For example, solar power essentially starts with sand. This sand often comes from a mine, and the mining often has an impact on the environment. That sand then goes to a manufacturing facility, which also has an impact, according to Shirley.

"What are the impacts of all those processes on it? There are some things that aren't necessarily clean, plus they use energy to do that. Is the energy clean that you're using or not? There’s a whole bunch that can go into assessments," Shirley said.

There are many developments in technology with renewable energy. Researchers are working on ways to make these sources cleaner, cheaper and more efficient, according to Shirley.

For example, there are organizations that are working to develop ways to warn birds and bats to stay away from wind turbines.

There have also been advancements in tidal and wave power. Tidal power has been under research for 10 years, but it is not yet commercial. U.S. states, such as Oregon, announced an investment in tidal power research, according to Shirley.

There is also research going into materials that will potentially double and triple the efficiency of solar power, according to Shirley.

There are also breakthroughs happening in other facets of clean energy that are not necessarily renewable energy.

Researchers are looking at ways to use old infrastructure for clean energy. For example, a company in Texas is taking an old natural gas well and figuring out how to do a pumped hydro system using the gravity through the well to create energy.

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