Research notes by Aiden Castaneda

Citation #1

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-18 16:55:35 UTC

Hirtenstein A. (2023, April 29) Europe Struggles on Green Push. Wall Street Journal, retrieved March 3, 2025. https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2821073640?

Citation #2

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-18 17:07:12 UTC

Rubin, R. (2023, May 1) GOP Embraces Boosting Taxes on Clean Energy. Wall Street Journal, retrieved March 3, 2025 . https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2811314706?

Citation #3

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-18 17:11:27 UTC

Loveday M. (2023, January 8) Establishing Wind Energy in Germany Hasn't Been a Breeze. Washington Post, retrieved March 3, 2025. https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2780209068?

Citation #4- counter argument

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-18 17:15:06 UTC

McGeehan, P. ( 2023, February 22) New York’s Wind Power Future Is Taking Shape. In Rhode Island." New York Times, Retrieved March 3, 2025. https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2784946415?

Citation #5

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-18 17:21:38 UTC

Zambito, T. (2023, March 19) Billing Issues Hurt Push for Solar Energy. Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Retrieved March 3, 2025. https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2800319502?

Citation #6

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-18 17:23:38 UTC

Hua, Sha, and Dvorak P. (2023, January 31) New China Rule Threatens to Disrupt U.S. Solar Ambitions. Wall Street Journal Online, retrieved March 3, 2025. https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2780209097?

Citation #7

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-18 17:37:20 UTC

Joyce, S. (1997, October) Is It Worth a Dam? Environmental health perspectives, 1997 retrieved March 3, 2025 https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2265640941?.

Citation #8

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-18 17:41:11 UTC

Lawrence S. (2023, June 9) Ontario's Energy Transition Should Be to Nuclear. National Post, Retrieved March 3, 2025. https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2833279069?

Citation #9

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-18 18:08:59 UTC

Rebecca T. (2022, November 17) Indonesia Tries to Go Green, but It Just Can't Quit Coal. Washington Post, retrieved March 5, 2025. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2755956997/6BC652AF8A9E4753PQ/1?

Citation #10

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-18 18:10:14 UTC

(2023, April 26) World Coal Association: Coal's Future Assured Through Abated Coal Stewardship. Targeted News Service. Retrieved March 3, 2025. https://explore.proquest.com/sirsissuesresearcher/document/2819072124?

Quotes 1

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-23 16:06:30 UTC

1- "Soaring costs are also creating particular challenges for offshore wind power. That is being felt in both the U.S.and Europe" (Hirtenstein 1).

Quotes 2

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-23 16:14:11 UTC

1- "The CBO found that the House GOP bill would cut projected government deficits by $4.8 trillion over 10 years, before a few minor last-minute revisions" (Rubin 1).

Quote 3

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-23 16:16:09 UTC

1- "costs for making wind turbines have jumped by about 40 percent, making it practically
impossible to secure financing for new projects" (Morris 1).
2- "experts say Germany would need to add about 1,500 wind turbines each year - a challenging feat under current conditions" (Morris 1).
3- "'In eight years, we have to build more than what we have in the last 22,' Moser-Abt said. 'This is beyond ambitious'"(Morris 1).
4- "Frauen said he was only able to participate in bidding to develop a new turbine last year because he bought materials before the war in Ukraine sent prices soaring. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to convince banks that his project would be profitable and worthy of financing" (Morris 2).

quote 5

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-23 16:21:50 UTC

1- "solar company owners and state and town officials reveal the program, officially known as Community Distributed Generation, is struggling to hold onto customers frustrated with overcharges" ( Zambito 1)
2- "The PSC (Professional Service Counsil) is contemplating a series of fines and penalties to force utilities to improve their solar billing issues" (Zambito 3)

quotes 6

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-23 17:03:21 UTC

1- "Chinese companies control an estimated 80% of the global supply chain for solar manufacturing and produce nearly half of all the
equipment needed to manufacture solar panels and their components" (Hua 1).
2- Dan Wang, an analyst at the consulting firm Gavekal Dragonomics, clearly states that "Inability to access manufacturing technology for these large-size modules would likely further drive up production costs in the U.S." (Hua 2).

quotes 7

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-23 17:13:21 UTC

1- "hydropower constitutes 13% of electrical power in the United States, 99% in Norway, 75% in New Zealand, and 70% overall in Latin America" (Joyce 4).
2- "large, shallow reservoirs, especially in the tropics, can generate large amounts of greenhouse gases
from the decay of biomass" (Joyce 5).
3- "McCully estimates that 30 million people have been ousted by dams. Most often, "oustees" are poor or indigenous people who often leave behind productive farms and ancestral homes" (Joyce 5)
4- "the planned Three Gorges Dam in China, a 600-foot-thick, mile-wide project so large it will be visible from outer space, will expel 1.3 million people from the area" (Joyce 6).

quotes 8

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-23 17:22:36 UTC

1- "Relying on a system dominated by nuclear reactors has its challenges, apart from the panic that the myths associated with their safety can engender. Because reactors can't be efficiently turned off or dialed down, they will produce power even when it's not needed" (Solomon 2).
2- "Unlike wind and solar, which operate just 33 per cent and 25 percent of the time, respectively, and not necessarily when they're needed, nuclear plants run flat out, 24/7. On average, they are available 82 percent of the time worldwide" (Solomon 2).
3- "In 2021 in Texas, the inability of wind turbines to perform over four days in extreme winter weather led the power grid to fail, leaving millions without electricity, water and heat" (Solomon 1)

quotes 9

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-23 17:30:06 UTC

1- The country Indonesia "it had secured a $20billion climate financing deal from wealthy nations" (Tan 1).
2- "After a decade-long "solar boom," Vietnam's installed solar capacity is nearly 80 times that of Indonesia despite having a third of the potential" (Tan 1).
3- "Renewable energy accounts for less than 2 percent of electricity generation" (Tan 2).

quote 10

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-23 17:41:29 UTC

1- "coal has continued to deliver 37 per cent of global power generation, 70 per cent of global steel production, and 90 per cent of world cement" (SIRS 1).
2- "Technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage, Coal to Hydrogen and Coal to Gasification are changing coal's footprint in perpetuity. We have built the zero-emissions coal plant, now we need to abate coal across all forms and types. (SIRS 1).

Intro Info.

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-24 02:12:52 UTC

From the oldest source clean energy (The waterwheel) to the most recent development of tidal energy they all have one thing that is similar, they are all renewable resources. The first source of renewable energy was at least 2,000 years ago in Europe, which Greek farmers more commonly used. it was the simplest form of power. Nowadays, various new sources of power have been invented. Dams, solar panels, and wind turbines are the most well known; however, are these renewable sources actually as reliable as people say they are, and are they completely decimating the competition with non-renewable energy? Overall, I must say it is not. The renewable energies today will not completely overtake non-renewable energies for quite a while.

paraphrase 1

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-24 02:25:52 UTC

1- Because of rising costs for these renewable energies a lot of companies, especially Vitol, will likely spend most of their budget for this energy transition (Hirtenstein 1).
2- Since the budget increases and all the other setbacks, like licencing, their proposal targeting of 45% completion by 2030 are going to prove insufficient (Hirtenstein 1).

Citation #11

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-24 02:44:17 UTC

Darwis D. (2024, March 28) Backgrounder on the Three Mile Island Accident. NRC Web, retrieved 3 March, 2025. www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html.

Quote 11

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-24 02:46:53 UTC

1- "Quartz sand or also known as silica sand is a material that can be developed for the manufacture of
solar panel materials. Quartz sand has a complex compound formed between SiO2 silica crystals and
impurities containing iron oxides, aluminum, titanium, calcium, magnesium and others" (Darwis 1).

paraphrase 11

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-24 02:59:01 UTC

1- In order to make the silica to be at it's most functional state, it needs to be between 98-99% purity.
2- silicone is almost never found with this kind of purity so they have to super heat quartz sand to achieve this, which requires coal.

China resources abundance

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-24 03:04:56 UTC

Poyang lake ~ silica sand

Quote 4

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-24 16:31:36 UTC

1- "The 132 megawatts of electricity it is expected to produce — enough to power about 70,000 homes — will run through 60 miles of cables under the sea to a substation in East Hampton" (McGeehan 1).
2- "The authority estimates that offshore wind will produce 10,000 jobs in New York by 2035" (McGeehan 2).

Paraphrase 4

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-24 16:35:34 UTC

1- over all this sounds like it can be very useful; however, the first of the four Wind plants still needs to be built (McGeehan 2).
2- The offshore wind industry is planning on shifting most of its focus to New York City (McGeehan 3).
3- if the company, General Electric, receives more orders then they're going to have to build a couple factories south of Albany, one for building the blades for the turbines and the other to make room for producing components (McGeehan 3).

Summary 1

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-24 17:51:39 UTC

Due to rising costs and other setbacks, it is becoming very difficult for Europe to achieve the goals they wanted to. permit delays and lack of policy support have set back Europe by a few years. Their 45 percent net-zero goal by 2030 will likely be pushed back by a few years due to the rising problems.

paraphrase

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-24 17:55:07 UTC

1- The Inflation Reduction act, more commonly known as the health and tax law, was passed last year with no republican votes. The democratic party thinks that this will prevent tax cheating (Rubin 2).

Summary 2

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-25 16:16:55 UTC

Talk of raising the debt ceiling has also raised questions of increasing tax for renewable energies. The Inflation act is supposed to provide a way to prevent the IRS and GOP from cheating people from taxes.

Paraphrase 3

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-25 16:55:02 UTC

1- when planning to build the turbines, you first need paperwork for about 50 different agencies just to start building. Every agency has the ability to delay the construction (Morris 2).
2- Germany's legal issues for building these are becoming less of an issue because the government is becoming leanient on them to be able to build. This could be a problem because it allows them to build closer to ATC towers and be placed closer than what they should be to each other (Morris 3).

Summary 3

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-25 17:09:21 UTC

As Germany tries to make it to a 80% green country; the cost and the amount they have to make proposes a huge problem for their planned deadline by 2030. The amount of turbines they would have to create would be around 1,500 per year to reach their goal.

summary 4

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-25 17:15:43 UTC

Based on the amount of power this is supposed to create and the amount of jobs it can help with this sounds like a perfect alternative to the usual coal generators, but they still need to be built

Paraphrase 5

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-25 17:19:46 UTC

1- After interviews with some customers for the solar companies reports suggest that it's billing is more complicated than it should be (Zambito 1).
2- Utilities are about to face fines and penalties for not fixing these issues (Zambito 3).

Summary 11

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-25 17:22:19 UTC

building the solar panels require more than just heating up sand. It need a specific type of sand, Quartz sand or silica, and it needs to be heated up until the silica reaches 98 to 99.99% purity.

Summary 5

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-25 17:30:57 UTC

Even though customers are excited to be going green, they find it more of an annoyance due to its billing issue. This means that sometimes they get unchoreographed schedules.

Paraphrase 6

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-25 17:33:04 UTC

1- as beijing refuses to comment on this change, which became a possible issue for plenty of countries. If China decides to change this then the solar manufacturers would need a license to export their technologies (Hua 2)

Summary 6

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 01:22:17 UTC

China is contemplating preventing china solar manufacturing companies to sell to other countries. This could be devestating for their economy and increase the price of getting solar panels in other countries since most of the solar panels are made there because of the amount of coal and quartz sand in China.

paraphrase 7

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 01:40:10 UTC

1- World wide their are over 840,000 dams; each serves the purpose of either power generation or to hold water for things such as irrigation, and allowing flood control to the nearby area

(Joyce 2).

2- dams in less water rich areas could actually harm the surrounding area. For example in a dry area where it never rains, water could build up and actually prevent growth and kill crops due to over-irrigation. (Joyce 6).

summary 7

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 02:00:18 UTC

Building dams can be very useful. There are some flaws with creating them though because of too much biomass buildup to the relocation of millions, but they work very efficiently and are Norway's most reliable source of power generation reported at 99%.

Paraphrase 8

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 02:05:47 UTC

1- If people only rely on solar and wind power it could lead to massive problems long term, like black-outs (Solomon 1).

summary 8

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 02:18:06 UTC

While Nuclear power sounds very dangerous (I wont lie it is if not properly taken care of) it's actually a very reliable source of power. 33 countries have it; in which, America and France are the top producers. With the unreliabilty of solar panels and wind power you're at a much higher risk of black-outs. it's always good to have some kind of back up power.

Paraphrase 9

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 02:32:39 UTC

1- Even as Indonesia try to go green they can't because of how much they need coal for power generation. So far they've tried banning the creation of new coal plants but started adding exceptions to the ban.

(Tan 2).

summary 9

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 02:37:24 UTC

as the government of Indonesia try to make a push for green energy, problems strike the country. This makes the bans which they then made into not exactly a ban, as well as creating problems for after green energy is built- who's going to maintain it?

parapharse 10

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 02:40:46 UTC

1- Many coal producing companies have taken into effect of coal stewardship that imploy various new technologies (SIRS 1).

summary 10

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 02:43:40 UTC

Coal production still serves as a huge reliance throughout the world even as production of supposidly more eco-friendly sources are being built (some with coal).

side note

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 02:48:11 UTC

in america there are 54 power plants, each one producing on average 1 gigawatt of energy; however, in one day one can produce about 13 gigawatts of energy at max capacity.

other info...

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 02:56:02 UTC

The Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor, near Middletown, Pa., partially melted down on March 28, 1979. since then there hasn't been any potentialy threatening meltdowns. This particular, more serious, meltdown wasn't very life altering either. no one was actually affected enough to bother. No injuries, no deaths. very little radiation was released.

citation #12

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 03:01:46 UTC

https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html

quote 12

aidcastaneda — 2023-10-26 16:10:41 UTC

1- "The reactor coolant system is fully drained and the radioactive water decontaminated and evaporated. The accident’s radioactive waste was shipped off site to an appropriate disposal area, and the reactor fuel and core debris was shipped to the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory" ( Gov...?).

citation 13

aidcastaneda — 2025-02-25 18:16:36 UTC

Nikiforuk, A. (2018, January 24) Megadams Not Clean or Green, Says Expert. The Tyee, Retrieved March 3, 2025. thetyee.ca/News/2018/01/24/Megadams-Not-Clean-Green/.