Two Climate Change News Items – Sen. Feinstein Says No to a Renewable Energy Project; Nitrogen Trifluoride an Increasingly Important GHG

Sen. Feinstein Tells Proposed Solar & Wind Power:  “NIMD!”

More than 500,000 acres in the Mojave Desert would be off-limits to wind or solar energy production under legislation California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) intends to introduce.  California's Mojave Desert may seem ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy.  Nineteen companies have submitted applications to build solar or wind facilities on a parcel of 500,000 desert acres, but Sen. Feinstein said last month such development would violate the spirit of what conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the public.  Feinstein said Friday she intends to push legislation that would turn the land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to continue while preventing future development.

"This is unacceptable," Feinstein said in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "I urge you to direct the BLM to suspend any further consideration of leases to develop former railroad lands for renewable energy or for any other purpose."  Feinstein disputed that she is engaged in a not-in-my-backyard campaign. "I'm a strong supporter of renewable energy and clean technology -- but it is critical that these projects are built on suitable lands," she said.

 

In a speech last year, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger complained about environmental concerns slowing down the approval of solar plants in California.  "If we cannot put solar power plants in the Mojave Desert, I don't know where the hell we can put it," Schwarzenegger said at Yale University. 

 

The California Energy Commission has estimated that the state would need between 100,000 to 160,000 acres of desert lands for construction of wind and solar energy projects, in order to meet its 33 percent renewable energy generation target by the year 2020.

The land in the southeast corner of the state is coveted by companies seeking to develop alternative energy, setting up a potential clash with one of the more powerful members of Congress.  The California Democrat seeks to give the land national monument status.  The land lies in the southeast corner of California, between the existing Mojave National Preserve on the north and Joshua Tree National Park on the south.  

Feinstein's spokesman, Gil Duran, said the Senator looks forward to working with the Governor and the Interior Department on the issue. "There's plenty of room in America's deserts for the bold expansion of renewable energy projects," Duran said.  But apparently not in the Mojave.

Sen. Feinstein may have inadvertently coined the latest environmental acronym, as if we needed another one:  NIMD.  Not in my desert!

 

Nitrogen Trifluoride an Increasingly Important GHG, Emitted from an Ironic Source

In another supremely ironic unintended consequence, an increasingly significant greenhouse gas (GHG), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), is emitted to the atmosphere as a result of the manufacture of thin-film solar photovoltaics, an economical and popular solar power cell component.  NF3 is also increasingly utilized and emitted by the manufacturing of certain LCD flat-panel displays and semiconductors.  Industry had been encouraged to shift away from using perfluorocarbons to NF3, due to concerns over the high greenhouse effect of perfluorocarbons.

 

Nitrogen trifluoride gas has a global warning potential (GWP) that is 17,200 times more potent than an equivalent mass of carbon dioxide (CO2), per the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4), and persists in the atmosphere for an estimated 550 to 740 years.  This makes NF3 among the most potent of the known and commonly emitted anthropogenic GHGs.

 

Additionally, NF3 has been found to be in greater quantities in the atmosphere than previously estimated and is increasing at about 11 percent per annum, according to new research.   The research, led by Ray Weiss of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, shows the actual amount of NF3 in the atmosphere was 4,200 metric tons in 2006 compared to estimates of less than 1,200 metric tons.  In 2008, about 5,400 metric tons of the gas was estimated to be in the atmosphere.  The researchers found concentrations of the gas rose from about 0.02 parts per trillion in 1978 to 0.454 parts per trillion in 2008.

The Kyoto Protocol, which limits a half-dozen greenhouse gases, does not cover NF3.  The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change now lists it among five major new GHGs likely to be included in the next phase of global warming regulation, after 2012.  When Kyoto was being negotiated, NF3 was a niche product of unknown global warming potential.  So NF3 got left out, with no requirement for industry to track emissions or to report how much NF3 is being produced. 

It is also noteworthy that USEPA has recently included NF3 in its March 10, 2009 proposed mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule.

 

The USEPA began actively encouraging use of NF3 in the 1990s, as the best solution to a widespread problem in making various electronic components.  NF3 was to replace perfluorocarbons in certain manufacturing applications, presumably reducing GHG emissions.  Instead NF3 has been found to be a very potent GHG in its own right.

 

Back to the issue of solar panels:  amorphous silicon thin-film solar photovoltaic cells, manufactured using NF3, are slightly less efficient than crystalline silicon solar cells, the dominant technology.  But they are cheaper to produce and expected to supply a rapidly increasing share of the solar market, for both large-scale and domestic applications.  Meaning increased use and emissions of NF3, until the next substitute chemical can be developed.

 

For some basic information on nitrogen trifluoride, see the following web sites:

http://unfccc.int/national_reports/annex_i_ghg_inventories/items/4624.php#Nitrogen

http://www.physorg.com/news157108592.html

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ghgrulemaking.html

 

This article was excerpted from publically available information, and was authored by Rick Wilson, Acacia Environmental Group LLC.  For more information on the author see here.