GeoLog

Geotalk, featuring short interviews with geoscientists about their research, continues this month with a Q&A with Dr Olivier Galland (University of Oslo), who tells us about his volcanology research and the importance of outreach in promoting the Earth sciences. If you’d like to suggest a scientist for an interview, please contact Bárbara Ferreira.

Olivier Galland at the foot of the Tromen Volcano, northern Patagonian Andes, Argentina, during a field expedition of Nov-Dec 2011. Photograph: Derya Gürer

First, could you introduce yourself and let us know a bit about your research topic(s)?

Becoming a volcanologist was my childhood dream, and my studies have always been oriented towards this goal. I first integrated the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, then I completed my MSc and PhD degrees at the University of Rennes 1. I continued with a postdoc at the Norwegian Centre of Excellence for Physics of Geological Processes, University of Oslo, where I have become Senior Researcher.

My main research topics focus on the mechanics of fluid-rock systems and their implications on volcanic processes. In other words, what is the mechanical behavior of a system where a fluid of given properties flows into a deforming solid matrix? Such a system cannot be understood only from the point of view of the fluid or of the solid, but by the dynamic mechanical interplay between them. This fundamental mechanical loop controls numerous geological processes such as, among others, magma transport and emplacement in the Earth’s crust, hydraulic fracturing, and explosive volcanism. I have mostly addressed these processes through integration of field observations in volcanic systems and quantitative laboratory experiments.

Last year, you received an EGU Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Young Scientists for your “remarkable contribution to the understanding of volcanic and magma emplacement processes”. Could you summarize the research you have done in this area?

Magma transport plays a key role in the Earth’s dynamics, as it accounts for the main mass and heat transport through the crust. Although magmatism has been studied for more than a century, major questions have remained unsolved. For instance, geologists have assumed that volcanism can occur only in extensional tectonic settings, the extension providing space for magma pathways. This generally accepted assumption is contradictory with the occurrence of intense volcanic activity in the Andean Cordillera, where tectonic shortening has been coeval with volcanism. Part of my research work has demonstrated that volcanism can take place in compressional tectonic settings by focusing on a spectacular case study: the Tromen volcano, in the northern Patagonian Andes. Through several field campaigns at Tromen, we collected structural and geochronological evidence, which showed that the volcano built up during the regional tectonic shortening. To explain how magma can rise in such setting, I also designed a novel experimental apparatus that can simulate coeval tectonic deformation and the injection of low viscosity magma. The experimental results show that magma can migrate along thrust faults, strongly modifying our understanding of magma plumbing systems in active margins and volcanic arcs.

In 2008 you embarked on an exciting scientific expedition called the Andean Geotrail: “cycling 10,000 kilometers to discover the Earth and its resources”. Could you tell us about this adventure, including its aims and what you learnt from it?

The Andean Geotrail was a personal outreach project organized together with my partner, Caroline Sassier, also a geologist at the University of Oslo. The project was based on a 9-month cycling adventure in a spectacular geological environment: the Andean Cordillera. The aim was to use the adventure as a pedagogical tool to catch the attention of the young public and to trigger their curiosity through our own observations. This made Earth sciences less theoretical and more dynamic, and our hope was to create scientific vocations by sharing our scientific knowledge through a unique personal experience. Seventeen schools in France and Norway were associated, involving almost 600 pupils from 6 to 18 years of age.

During the expedition, we cycled from Ushuaia, southernmost Argentina, to Cuzco, Peru, and after the theft of our bikes, we walked to Nazca for a last 400 km long crossing of the Andes. We selected and visited more than 30 geological localities along the route to illustrate various implications of Earth sciences in our society (natural resources, natural hazards, geological landscapes). During the visits, we made our own observations and interviewed local geologists or workers. Since our return, we have presented the expedition in the involved schools and during public conferences, and produced an exhibition of our photographs.

By visiting the selected localities we obviously learnt a lot about the applications of Earth sciences in modern society. But overall, we gained an incredible human experience through the numerous encounters with the Andean populations.

You are also a keen photographer, and you were even one of the finalists of the 2012 EGU Photo Competition. How can Earth science photography contribute to promote the importance of geoscientific research among the wider public?

The most difficult challenge to attract the young generations is to overcome their initial reluctance to Earth sciences by catching their attention and triggering their curiosity about the Earth system. Our experience with the pupils during the Andean Geotrail clearly showed that it is a very challenging task without relevant support. During our conferences in the schools, the only way we managed to create a successful link with the pupils was to show them fantastic photographs of spectacular, unusual, strange and/or extreme geological patterns. Once this link has been established with the pupils, very interesting discussions started and it became possible to share our scientific knowledge with them.

Photography also has the potential to associate two communities that often barely interact: scientists and artists. In addition to be a fascinating scientific subject, the Earth and geological patterns are also unlimited sources of inspiration for artists and lovers of natural beauty. Photography of geological patterns is thus a precious way to promote geoscientific research and its associated challenges via artistic contemplation of the esthetic nature of the Earth.

Last but not least, what are your future research plans?

In the near future, I aim to expand my current work. I am leading a field-based project in the northern Patagonian Andes to unravel the structure of exhumed sub-volcanic systems emplaced in relation to thrust faults and folds, to better constrain the processes of magma transport in compressional tectonic settings. This is a good complement of the former project on Tromen volcano.

In addition, I aim to establish a quantitative bridge between volcano geophysics and laboratory models of volcanic processes. I am adapting my experimental apparatus to study the subtle ground deformation induced by the emplacement of magmatic dykes. Combined with new theoretical models, the provisional experimental results are expected to considerably help geophysicists to interpret ground deformation data monitored in active volcanoes with GPS and interferometry Radar (InSAR). In particular, this technique has the potential to provide a new tool to predict the location of forthcoming volcanic eruptions.

The Andean Geotrail project. Caroline Sassier lost in the immensity of the Bolivian Altiplano (4000 MOSL). Photograph: Olivier Galland

“Crater lake” by Michelle Salmon, distributed by the European Geosciences Union under a Creative Commons licence

At the border between the Pacific and Australian plates, crossed by the Pacific Ring of Fire, New Zealand is one of the most geologically active countries in the world. Volcanoes abound in this island-country, which contains the “world’s strongest concentration of youthful rhyolotic volcanoes“, and earthquakes are a frequent presence. Mount Ruapehu, a stratovolcano located in the middle of the North Island, is the largest active volcano in New Zealand, and is also one of the world’s most active. Being the highest point of the North Island, Ruapehu also sees frequent snowfall and hosts the country’s largest ski fields.

It was on a ski trip that Michelle Salmon, from The Australian National University, captured the stunning Crater Lake of Mount Reapehu. “This image was taken near the summit of Mount Ruapehu looking down on the volcanic crater,” she says. “The volcano’s active vent is filled by Crater Lake which varies in temperature from 10 to 50 degrees Celsius. This vent last erupted in 2007. There are three ski fields on this active volcano and this photo was taken on a ski trip a couple of weeks after a small eruption that sent waves from the lake crashing into the wall of the crater. The crack in the snow on the far side of the crater is a result of this eruption.”

New Zealand is home to some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, many of which were captured on film by director Peter Jackson in his The Lord of the Rings movies. Mount Ruapehu featured in the trilogy: it was one of two volcanoes used to represent Mount Doom, a volcano in Middle Earth, the fictional setting of The Lord of the Rings.

Imaggeo is the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press and public for educational purposes and otherwise. If you submit your images to Imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licensed and distributed by the EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

The text of this week’s Imaggeo on Mondays comes from the photographer himself, Brenner Silva.

“Volcano in the tropics” by Brenner Silva, distributed by the European Geosciences Union under a Creative Commons licence

I took this picture from an airliner in September 2010 on my way to the Estación Científica San Francisco, South Ecuador, for field work. The flight route Quito-Loja goes through the two highest volcanoes, Chimborazo and Cotopaxi, of the so-called Avenue of the Volcanos in Ecuador. The pilot, attracted by the good weather, announced an unplanned manoeuvre to get closer to the Cotopaxi volcano.

The picture shows Cotopaxi, a glacier-clad and active strato-volcano at the equator (summit 5897 m a.s.l.; coordinates S 0º40’ W 78º25’). The composition, with an ice-capped cone in the foreground above tropical clouds and páramo vegetation in the background, is unique to the northern Andes.

The Andean mountains strongly affect the regional and mesoscale climate by constantly triggering the formation of clouds in the foothills and by serving as barrier to moist, low-level jets and trade winds blowing from the western Amazon basin. At the same time, the local climate is also affected by El Niño anomalies in the western Pacific — a tendency towards an increase in irradiation and temperature. The opposite holds for La Niña, the ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that was ongoing in September 2010. Consequently, the Cotopaxi glacier is susceptible to rapid changes (~30% lost in 20 years). In addition, permanent glacier receding due to climate change strongly influences plant growth and composition, and severely affects the regional hydrology and landscape.

I am investigating vegetation dynamics using mathematic models, and climate and remote sensing data in South Ecuador. Gaining knowledge through pictures is important for me and my research. I think the picture summarizes all the elements above, which I have learned with the DFG Research Unit 816 in Ecuador and the Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing in Marburg, Germany.

I shot the picture with a Canon EOS 550D, 55-250 mm lens, f-stop f/10, exposure 1/125 sec., ISO-100, and focal length 36mm. The picture is the best of four tries, from 12-9-2010 23:50 ECT/17:50 LST.

By Brenner Silva

Imaggeo is the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press and public for educational purposes and otherwise. If you submit your images to Imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licensed and distributed by the EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

“Keanae coast” by Martin Mergili, distributed by the European Geosciences Union under a Creative Commons licence

Geologically speaking, Hawaii is a very dynamic archipelago. Each of its islands is an exposed peak of a large undersea mountain range formed by volcanic activity starting about 28 million years ago as the Pacific plate moved slowly in northwest direction over a geological hotspot in the Earth’s mantle. Big Island and Maui, the southeastern most islands, are therefore the youngest and geologically most active of the archipelago.

Martin Mergili (BOKU University in Vienna, Austria), the author of today’s stunning photo, says of these two islands: “Whilst Big Island, the main island of the Hawaiian archipelago, is growing through lava flows into the sea, in Maui the waves are slowly eroding the coast. There is still volcanic activity on East Maui which, therefore, maintains its appearance of a shield volcano. However, in a few million of years it will have been reshaped by erosion and rather resemble today’s island of Kauai.”

This photo is a prime example of Hawaiian natural beauty. The lush green vegetation, the dark volcanic rocks and the white and blue of the rough ocean combine to create a colourful yet somber print. “The picture shows the shoreline of the Keanae Peninsula which is part of the rugged, windward northeast coast of Maui. Here, ancient lava flows from the Haleakala volcano (which is visible in the background) meet the roaring Pacific Ocean,” Martin says.

He took this dramatic photograph in Maui in August 2010 during a holiday journey – “as far as a geoscientist can spend real holidays on Hawaiian islands”, he jokes. More of Martin’s pictures of beautiful Hawaiian landscapes can be found at www.mergili.at/worldimages.

Imaggeo is the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press and public for educational purposes and otherwise. If you submit your images to Imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licensed and distributed by the EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

“Patagonian blues” by Agathe Lisé-Pronovost, distributed by the European Geosciences Union under a Creative Commons license.

If you are feeling the Monday blues, this peaceful photograph of a Patagonian lake might be just what you need to light up your day. Patagonia is known for its rich volcanic history and dramatic landscapes, and this scene is no exception. It shows a lake in the Pali-Aike volcanic field on the Argentina-Chile border, located north of the Strait of Magellan: the beautiful Laguna Potrok Aike.

Agathe Lisé-Pronovost was lucky enough to visit the site in the Austral spring of 2008. “As part of my PhD, I was participating in the scientific drilling operations of PASADO, the Potrok Aike maar lake sediment archive drilling project in the framework of ICDP, the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program,” she says.

Potrok Aike is a maar lake, a water-filled volcanic crater that originated from an eruption in which groundwater came into contact with hot lava or magma. “It has a maximum diameter of 3.5 km and, at 200 metres depth, is the deepest crater of the Pali Aike volcanic field,” Agathe explains.

“It is a key site for paleoenvironmental studies because the sediments accumulate rapidly and it is located at 52 degrees of latitude south, on one of the only landmasses in the path of the strong Southern Hemisphere westerly winds.” Being highly susceptible to paleoclimatic changes, the lake is important in understanding the natural phenomena that cause climatic variability.

Imaggeo is the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press and public for educational purposes and otherwise. If you submit your images to Imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licensed and distributed by the EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

This week’s guest post introduces a book recently published by Cambridge University Press.

Written by William I. Newman, a Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Continuum Mechanics in the Earth Sciences provides an introduction to continuum mechanics and essential mathematical and physical approaches in the Earth sciences. It also contains problem sets and worked examples, altogether providing a valuable first step towards understanding continuum mechanics, related tensor notation, and mathematical-background concepts. Clearly structured and merging basic with advanced topics, this textbook will capture the attention of both expert researchers and beginners in the area.

Hardback; ISBN: 9780521562898; Publication date: March 2012; 194 pages; Price: £40 (~€50)

The text is divided into nine main chapters, with the first three covering geometrical definitions of the material body and the response of materials under different forces. These definitions start with a review of essential mathematics for continuum problems, with the purpose of their geometrical descriptions in addition to covering rotation, transformation, and kinematics. The text continues, mainly in Chapter 2, by covering the most important physical quantities in continuum mechanics, like temperature, force, and stress.

The fourth chapter is devoted to fundamental laws and equations. This part of the text starts by introducing new terminology and is followed by the derivation of conservation laws. The following subsections cover some well-known constitutive equations, describing the internal mechanical, thermal, and other properties, of the constitutive quantities of the continuum materials. These parts are followed by thermodynamic considerations, which play a key role in the geosciences, particularly in the context of flows in Earth materials where the temperature can undergo dramatic change.

Chapter 5 is dedicated to linear elastic solids. It defines a body of material as elastic if at each body point the strain is a one-to-one function of stress at that point regardless of its history of loading. This chapter continues with discussions on statics and dynamical equations of isotropic bodies, homogeneous deformation equations, and the role of temperature on body deformation. It ends with a quick review on microscopic structure of crystals and their behaviour.

The next two chapters, on classical fluids and geophysical fluid dynamics, discuss the motion of fluids and their behaviour under stationary and dynamic inertial environments. Examples include the interior of Earth as well as the motion of the oceans and atmospheres.

The book ends with two chapters covering computations in continuum mechanics and nonlinearity in the Earth. The first one deals with partial differential equations used in numerical methods with the purpose of solving complicated real-word problems of continuum bodies rather than using simplified and linearized solutions.

Finally, the last chapter starts with some comments on the role of nonlinearity and its manifestation in the Earth sciences and continues by reviewing both friction, as the oldest mechanical aspect, and fracture, as one of the most challenging aspects of continuum mechanics. The last subsections cover percolation models, used to demonstrate self-organization under specific conditions, as well as fractals, used for the generation of noticeably realistic details of the objects.

Although on the whole an informative volume, this book unfortunately does not provide sufficient rigorous examples to work with, as is common in other continuum mechanics books. In addition, more examples about applications of continuum mechanics into real life Earth science problems could have made the book a little more interesting for student readers even in other fields within engineering.

By Arash Maghsoudloo, Research Assistant at Middle East Technical University

“Flat in the mountains” by Olivier Galland, distributed by the European Geosciences Union under a Creative Commons license.

Electric cars require roughly 1,000 times more lithium than a standard laptop. It is therefore understandable that Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, a unique environment shown here under deep-blue skies, is widely regarded as the ‘Saudi Arabia of lithium’, because it contains over 40% of the planet’s lithium chloride (LiCl) reserves, or more than 5.4 million tons.

The Salar is part of the Altiplano plateau, which formed during the uplift of the Andes mountains roughly 14 million years ago. Tourists from around the world flock to see the parched, white landscape, located at 3,656 m above sea level and lacking in almost any life form. Its salt surface crust ranges in thickness, from tens of centimetres to a few metres, and sits atop mud interbedded with salt and saturated with brine. It is the brine that mining companies are lining up to extract, as it contains a saturated solution of sodium chloride, lithium chloride, and magnesium chloride in water.

Olivier Galland, a senior researcher at the University of Oslo, took this photo during an outreach project called the Andean Geotrail. He describes the salar’s environment, “It is the lowest point of an endorheic basin, meaning that all the rivers of the basin flow toward it and are not connected to the sea. Instead, the water from the rivers accumulates in the salar, which transforms to a lake during Austral Summers, before evaporating, leaving behind the salt, which precipitates and forms this continuous crust. I took this picture during an outreach project, which was based on a cycling adventure through the Andes, from Ushuaia in southern Argentina to Lima, Peru. The aim of this adventure was to visit spectacular geological localities, and share our observations with 600 pupils who followed us through a blog. You can find more information on the Andean Geotrail webpage, and on the blog.”

Galland sees the next few years as vital in shaping the future of the salar. He explains, “The Salar de Uyuni typically represents a fantastic geotouristic locality, as thousands of tourists visit it every year. Unfortunately, none of these tourist have any idea of how it formed. The aim of our outreach project was to give the relevant information to explain the origin of such a scenery, and give another dimension to this lunar landscape. In addition, the Salar de Uyuni has become an economical issue, as it hosts the largest lithium deposit on Earth. Since its discovery, the touristic and mining industry are fighting to decide the future of this unique geological environment.”

Imaggeo is the EGU’s online open access geosciences image repository. All geoscientists (and others) can submit their images to this repository and since it is open access, these photos can be used by scientists for their presentations or publications as well as by the press and public for educational purposes and otherwise. If you submit your images to Imaggeo, you retain full rights of use, since they are licensed and distributed by the EGU under a Creative Commons licence.

EGU’s Science Communications Fellow, Edvard Glücksman, continues to share his thoughts as he takes part in a study tour with other members of the Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy Network (ELEEP), a joint project of the Atlantic Council of the United States and the Ecologic Institute. This is the last post in the series. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Ed by email.

The California leg of our tour, which included meetings in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Silicon Valley, offered us a unique glimpse of the state of the energy sector in the world’s eighth largest economy.

Five days of meetings in Colorado and California offered ELEEP members a chance to understand first-hand some of the challenges of the US energy arena. (Credit: Edvard Glücksman)

Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32)

The development of California’s energy policy is heavily influenced by the Global Warming Solutions Act (Assembly Bill (AB) 32), approved in 2006 by former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. AB32 set the 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction into law, thus fully committing to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. To that end, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) was directed to begin developing its strategy and to prepare a scoping plan describing how to best reach 2020 targets.

The ARB’s scoping plan comprises a number of key strategies which broadly influence the state’s economy. These include reducing emissions and improving efficiency from agriculture, waste treatment, transportation, energy, and industrial sectors. Finally, the plan presents an outline of the carbon cap-and-trade programme, set to kick off this November with the auctioning of carbon allowances to the state’s highest emitting companies.

We visited the ARB in Sacramento at a pivotal time, with years of their work set to culminate in an implementation of the state’s cap-and-trade programme later this year. Based on our meeting with Virgil Welch, Stanley Young, and Edie Chang, among others, all heavily involved in the programme’s development, it was apparent that Californians view the development of their pioneering system not just as important for the state but also as a vital indicator of the viability of market-based emissions reduction mechanisms for the rest of the country.

ELEEP members briefed by the California Air Resources Board in Sacramento. (Credit: Edvard Glücksman)

Interdisciplinary solutions

Despite the major changes promised by AB32, many of our hosts agreed that even more needs to be done to make renewable energy economically competitive, especially in light of the country’s newfound abundance of cheap natural gas.

Dan Reicher and Jeff Ball of Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance are keen to point out that a fully viable renewable energy market could only be triggered by interdisciplinary action and fundamental policy shifts away from current tax break-driven strategies. Reicher, a former Department of Energy Chief of Staff and Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives at Google, claims there is a lack of communication between elements of the ‘policy-technology-finance’ triumvirate that he identifies as comprising the vital features of any potentially competitive renewable energy market.

Dan Reicher (right) of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance addresses ELEEP members at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. (Credit: Edvard Glücksman)

It is precisely with hope of such large-scale changes that the Steyer-Taylor Center was created, with the goal of applying economic rigour to the process of shaping debate around the world’s energy future. Apart from the challenges inherent in dictating policy through tax breaks, Ball emphasises the dangers of our “infatuation with the sexy”, citing policy that erroneously incentivises solar panels, for example, instead of home insulation, even though the latter may make more sense economically.

Although renewable energy does not appear to be the most cost effective solution compared to natural gas, our hosts at the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT) in Sacramento remain confident that renewables are here to stay. For one, a commitment to a 30% renewable energy future is already signed. In addition, the environmental impact of extracting natural gas will be sure to move parts of the population towards renewables, despite slightly higher start-up costs. Likewise, it is precisely just those initial costs that make renewables appear more expensive when, in fact, their lifetime price may be far lower than the ever-fluctuating gas prices.

Improving public transportation is one of the key challenges facing policy makers in California. (Credit: Edvard Glücksman)

Behavioural shifts

At CEERT, and in many of our other meetings, we learned about the importance of understanding the dynamics of human behaviour in order to best guide the state’s energy future. In the most literal of forms, this psychosocial approach to policy is encompassed by OPower, an organisation set up to facilitate interactions between energy providers and customers by improving the accessibility of information and offering advice on how to improve household energy consumption. Currently, OPower works with over 70 utilities around the world, including 14 of the 20 largest in the US. The British company First Utility, which serves over 25,000 households across the UK, is the only European company currently subscribed to the scheme.

OPower’s most widely used tool comes in the form of customised home energy reports, which offer customers a more accessible breakdown of their household consumption. Its most powerful method, and what likely serves as the greatest factor in the on average 2% savings the company currently offers, is by placing customers in the context of their peers – how do households compare against their neighbours?

Jeff Lyng of OPower talks to ELEEP about improving energy efficiency by changing behaviour. (Credit: Edvard Glücksman)

The same behaviourally based approach to effecting change in energy policy can also be implemented more globally, to nations and international organisations. According to Julio Friedmann, Chief Energy Technologist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), conventional “eat your peas” solutions, referring to those based on adherence to principles, are not the most effective. Rather, he claims, more integrative thinking is required, with successful changes potentially stimulated by international convening authorities and novel forms of international partnerships and mechanisms, exemplified by the Energy Partnership in China (EPC Solutions), where company representatives meet regularly to discuss current issues.

Friedmann is also hopeful that the world’s cities may hold answers to some of the currently most pressing energy challenges, in areas where conventional state and federal legislation may previously have failed. In cities, he explains, the mayor or town council holds concentrated power and can therefore stimulate meaningful local level change, sometimes even through very small town planning alterations (‘urban acupuncture’).

Transatlantic challenges

All in all, whether on the global scale proposed by Friedmann’s international partnerships or on the local level, such as with the Sustainable San Mateo project described to us at a town hall meeting in the Silicon Valley town of San Carlos, cross-cultural differences will forever remain an important factor in guiding the development of energy policy.

ELEEP receives a sustainability briefing at San Carlos Town Hall, San Mateo County, California. (Credit: Edvard Glücksman)

Perhaps partly motivated by the transatlantic makeup of our group, the social differences between the US and Europe developed into a major theme throughout our tour of Colorado and California. Our hosts repeatedly referred to Europe’s more vivid memories of moments of suffering as important for guiding social attitudes towards energy and the environment, what Rocky Mountain Farmers Union member Bill Midcap refers to as a “philosophy of finite limitations” as opposed to the US “pioneering unlimited” mindset. Europeans, he explains, are more aware of their surroundings in the global historical context, exemplified by their reluctance to embrace nuclear power after having witnessed first-hand the total devastation of the Second World War.

We return home from our trip cautiously optimistic that solutions for some of our most pressing energy challenges may not be entirely out of reach; perhaps initially developed on the local level, they will invariably have to take the shape of larger-scale socio-behavioural shifts, interdisciplinary solutions within a global context.

By Edvard Glücksman

EGU’s Science Communications Fellow, Edvard Glücksman, continues to share his thoughts as he takes part in a study tour with other members of the Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy Network (ELEEP), a joint project of the Atlantic Council of the United States and the Ecologic Institute. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Ed by email.

With the riches of Colorado’s energy economy still fresh in our minds, we visited the towering California State Capitol in Sacramento to participate in a roundtable discussion on the Golden State’s energy and environmental policy.

The meeting, chaired by Henry Stern, Principal Consultant in Energy & Environmental Policy to State Senator Fran Pavley (D – Agoura Hills), was arranged especially for ELEEP, bringing us together with experts and stakeholders to tease out some of the state’s most important current energy challenges.

ELEEP members gather in front of the State Capitol in Sacramento. (Credit: Daniel Bennett)

Fracking

Like in Colorado, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is one of the most pressing points on California’s energy and environment agenda. Two recently proposed bills to make fracking procedures more transparent have recently been rejected by the California Senate. The first, pushed by Senator Pavley, would have required oil companies to give notice to landowners whose property is on or near a potential site, as well as to local governments and water boards, prior to a fracking operation. The lack of disclosure by oil companies became apparent in California in 2011, when local communities in the County of Santa Barbara found out only after the act that Venoco Inc. was fracking in their vicinity.

The second shelved Senate bill would have placed a moratorium on fracking across the state because of concerns about its potential environmental and public health hazards. Generally, Democrats supported the measures whereas Republicans opposed them, the latter backed by the energy industry, which claims oil companies have used fracking in California for decades without incident.

In our discussion, the stakeholders agreed that decisions regarding Northern California’s fracking future are imminent: if legislation fails to either suspend fracking or to make procedures more transparent, the area will soon be considered as “ripe for the picking” by oil and gas companies, with potentially drastic environmental consequences.

Fracking legislation is a hot topic across the US, not least in North Carolina where, in a remarkable vote earlier this year, Republicans overrode a Democratic veto of a fracking bill under highly controversial circumstances: Rep. Becky Carney (D – Mecklenburg County) opposed fracking but pushed the wrong button on the ballot casting machine, voting instead to override the veto and thus giving her opponents a one-vote margin of victory.

Henry Stern (second from left), Principal Consultant in Energy & Environmental Policy to Senator Fran Pavley, leads the roundtable discussion. (Source: Edvard Glücksman)

Net energy metering (NEM)

Net energy metering (NEM), also in place in 43 other US states, is another major discussion point on California’s energy horizon. The state’s NEM programme allows customers who install small solar, wind, biogas, or fuel cell generation facilities (<1 MW) to pay only for the net amount of electricity they take from their energy supplier; in other words, what is above the amount of electricity generated by their home system. Customers thus receive financial credit, used to offset their electricity bill, for power generated by their onsite system and fed back to the utility.

California established its NEM programme in 1995 and, although it has made the state the nation’s solar power leader, the project has caused considerable controversy. One point of contention pertains to whether there should be a legal cap on how much of the total generating capacity can be made available to customers for net metering, currently at 5% of aggregate customer peak demand.

The interior dome of the California State Capitol. (Credit: Edvard Glücksman)

Interestingly, as was explained to us by Sue Kately, Chief Consultant at the California State Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, Californian law originally did not specify how utility companies should calculate total generating capacity and, therefore, they tended to use a more restrictive methodology, resulting in an allowance of almost half the amount of net metered renewable energy currently allowed.

Kately also highlighted for us some of the challenges inherent in the NEM approach, not least issues of fairness across the energy grid: while some customers may not be paying their fair share for services they receive from the grid, others may not receive the value of the power they are supplying. She also explained an interesting behavioural shift amongst energy customers: whereas NEM is supposed to reduce peak energy demand by feeding energy into the system during peak times, peak times are shifting to later in the day (4-7 pm), when  photovoltaic input is at 50% or less. Finally, she also highlighted some of the issues that arise from having so many different utility companies (California has over 90), all of which contribute to lowering the potential efficacy of NEM programmes.

Despite complications, Stern and the rest of the panel agreed that solar is “here to stay”, despite peaks and crashes inherent in the industry, and that those opposed to it, as well as policy makers, should remain patient and supportive into the future.

A statue entitled ‘Columbus’ Last Appeal to Queen Isabella’ graces the foyer of the California State Capitol (Credit: Edvard Glücksman)

Carbon cap-and-trade programme

We visited California at a pivotal moment, as the state anticipates becoming the nation’s first comprehensive carbon cap-and-trade programme. This would be the first time the market will set a price on carbon, rewarding efficiency and penalising high greenhouse gas emissions.

Under such an arrangement, the state of California would distribute annual carbon allowances to industrial entities that emit large volumes of greenhouse gases, including power plants, oil refineries, factories, and, from 2015, distributors of transportation fuels. The state would set a limit on the amount of greenhouse gases each affected entity is allowed to emit: companies that reduce their emissions below their cap can sell, or ‘trade’, their unused allowances to companies that exceed their limits.

Questions still remain about how to initially hand out the carbon allowances and whether to charge for them or not. An online auction, scheduled for November 14 this year, will allow the over 150 major Californian emitters to bid for a share of the total carbon allowance. However, California’s oil refiners remain keen to start the scheme by having the allowances given away for free.

Yours truly in front of the State Capitol in Sacramento. (Credit: Kristin Deason)

“The rubber is about to meet the road,” explains Stern, in what could be an historic opportunity for California to take a lead on a matter with serious environmental consequences. Despite the auction date set and a trial auction scheduled for later today, Stern is fearful that high pressure from industry to cancel or modify the agreement may still put a damper on the programme’s development, which could generate as much as $10 billion for the state in a time of fiscal hurt.

As November approaches, the eyes of the world will be on California and Stern knows that a failure to implement what would be a pioneering project would have devastating political and environmental consequences. “The reputation of our budget and of the state are riding on this moment,” he professes. Stay tuned.

By Edvard Glücksman

EGU’s Science Communications Fellow, Edvard Glücksman, continues to share his thoughts as he takes part in a study tour with other members of the Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy Network (ELEEP), a joint project of the Atlantic Council of the United States and the Ecologic Institute. If you have any questions or comments, please contact Ed by email.

In my introductory post I mentioned that Colorado is crucial within the context of the US energy economy as a substantial producer of both conventional fossil fuels and renewable energy. Our two-day whirlwind introduction to the state’s energy sector, by way of meetings with politicians, academics, oil industry representatives, and a site visit to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, highlighted the wide range of challenges that Colorado faces as it decides how to power its future.

Renewables undoubtedly hold a place in the energy future of both Europe and North America, yet the complexities inherent in their harvest and distribution became all too apparent as we heard from stakeholders with local- and national-level energy implementation experience.

The University of Colorado-Boulder, where ELEEP members met with Professor Kevin Doran (Source: Edvard Glücksman)

The ‘shale gas revolution’

In order to gain a more important foothold in the US market, energy generated from naturally replenished resources, including solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass, or wind, has to be economically competitive with traditional fossil fuel sources. To that end, the discovery of huge domestic reserves of shale gas, natural gas trapped within sedimentary rock formations, whilst helping the United States towards its goal of energy independence, may represent an insurmountable barrier for the growth of renewable energy.

On our visit to the University of Colorado-Boulder, Professor Kevin Doran walked us through the intricacies of this ‘shale gas revolution’ and highlighted some of the issues covered in his recently published review. Whereas the US has an estimated 92 years of gas remaining, Doran is confident that these reserves will expire faster than predicted as a result of growing demand and more efficient extraction technologies. As an example of the latter, he explains how the proliferation of horizontal drilling, where a single well pad can tap into multiple underground gas reserves, extracts “game changing” volumes of natural gas.

Major sources of conventional and renewable energy in Colorado (source: US Energy Information Administration)

The newfound abundance of natural gas has lowered its price below that of coal and is opening the market for what Doran calls a “full-throttle shift to a gas-dominated electricity system”. On the one hand, a transition from coal to gas would make for cleaner, cheaper, more flexible, and more efficient electricity across the US. When used as a fuel, natural gas emits roughly half the greenhouse gas emissions of coal. However, Doran is weary of the long-term consequences of an all-out reliance on gas, not least that its price is sure to rise as national reserves are tapped.

Furthermore, the extraction of shale gas can have severe detrimental environmental consequences because of the environmental impact of the process of fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a method that uses high-pressure water and materials such as sand and chemicals to break open cracks in rock deep underground. Fracking is controversial because, whereas it increases the accessibility of vast sources of natural gas and petroleum, it may contaminate ground and drinking water supplies, decrease air quality, and destroy or fragment natural wildlife habitats. The oil and gas industry, represented at one of our meetings by Tisha Conoly Shuller, President of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, seems less concerned about what she calls the “bar fracking nonsense”, citing a general fear of fracking amongst local communities based on misinformation, something Shuller hopes to eliminate by holding public outreach meetings.

Professor Kevin Doran of the University of Colorado-Boulder (Source: Edvard Glücksman)

In a slightly more reserved tone, another representative of a gas extraction company admitted to shortcomings in the past but claims her company is becoming increasingly aware and more responsible for the chemicals it uses during the fracking process.

In Europe, fracking is banned in France and Bulgaria and is only carried out in very limited test wells elsewhere. A true test of whether fracking will be more readily adopted in Europe is in Poland, holder of vast shale gas reserves that may hold the answer to its struggle for energy independence.

Adjusting to the market

The US therefore faces a crucial dilemma: to follow the short-term market and fully invest in natural gas or to proceed with caution, moving forward with natural gas at the same time as committing to a healthy investment in the more long-term, sustainable renewable energy sector.

Alas, whereas renewables offer the greener solution, their proliferation in the US remains dependent on the market, including their promotion through government subsidies. A good example of this dynamic is the current debate surrounding the renewal of federal production tax credits for wind power, now the second most economically competitive source of renewable energy behind hydropower. The current wind-power tax credit system is set to expire at the end of this year and, whereas Mitt Romney would rather leave the survival of wind to the market, President Obama is keen to renew the subsidies.

ELEEP members meet with oil and gas industry representatives. (Source: Edvard Glücksman)

The prospect of expiring wind-power tax credits is already influencing the market in Colorado, with Vestas Wind Systems, the world’s biggest wind turbine maker, cutting jobs in anticipation of what it predicts will be a decline in business next year. Interestingly, this move was questioned by Paul Weissman, chief of staff for the state House Democrats, whom we met over lunch at a restaurant he owns as a side project to his political career. Weissman claims that Vestas are scaling down to mitigate their own development mistakes, having built themselves up too fast in Colorado whilst simultaneously failing to build enough transmission lines to move the resulting energy.

The construction of adequate transmission lines remains a fundamental challenge for the development of renewables across Colorado, where energy may be abundant yet geographically isolated from consumers in the most energy-intensive areas. Bill Midcap, of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, was quick to mention solar power as a particularly grid-reliant energy source. He explained that, whereas three counties in Central Colorado see more annual sunlight than all of Germany, delivering the power to customers further away is a major challenge in the face of protests from residents hesitant to let power lines run through their community. Midcap suggests a strategy of compromise, where compliant communities would receive discounted energy.

ELEEP members meet with Colorado energy experts. (Source: Edvard Glücksman)

Energy independence

Our meetings gave us a glimpse of the complexities inherent in predicting Colorado’s energy future. Whereas it is clear that shale gas is sure to feature prominently, so too are renewables in a state rich in natural energy sources. Their adoption depends on the local equivalent of what seems to be a wider goal; namely, to achieve energy independence in a sustainable and profitable manner. Whereas Colorado could make every effort to take a green path, it could also resort to the short-term cheaper option of shale gas or, even more destructively, begin to tap into the vast deposits of oil shale locked into rock throughout the western part of the state.

As Michael Whiting, an independent County Commissioner from the Southern Colorado town of Pagosa Springs, explains, some of the most beautiful parts of the state are often sitting on the best energy and water resources. The energy future of Colorado therefore depends on the ability of its entire population to compromise, from local communities up to Governor John Hickenlooper, a former oil and gas industry geologist, in order to ensure they can light up their homes whilst at the same time preserving the state’s stunning landscape.

By Edvard Glücksman