Study Finds Power Grid Emissions 24,000x More Potent than CO2
By Sarah Wagner – April 9, 2024
A study from MIT found that sulfur hexafluoride, a gas more than 24,000x more potent than carbon dioxide, is released through electric power grids.
“Greenhouse gases differ widely in their global warming potential (GWP), or ability to absorb radiative energy and thereby warm the Earth’s surface. For example, measured over a 100-year period, the GWP of methane is about 28 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2), and the GWP of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is 24,300 times that of CO2,” MIT wrote, using data from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report.
“Used primarily in high-voltage electrical switchgear in electric power grids, SF6 is one of the most potent greenhouse gases on Earth,” MIT continued.
Atmospheric concentrations of sulfur hexafluoride have increased amid the demand for electric power.
According to the study, SF6 emissions from China “substantially increased” and pose a threat to so-called “climate change” mitigation efforts.
“[C]ontinuous use of SF6 in electrical equipment, if not controlled, will offset some of the benefits of applying renewable energy in power generation and might lead to uncertainties and difficulties in achieving China’s carbon neutrality goal,” the study read. “Furthermore, considering the long lifetime of SF6 (more than ~1000 years), any additional SF6 emissions in this century will result in a near-permanent alteration to the global radiative budget that will persist well beyond the timeframe of the current climate policies, including China’s carbon neutrality goal by 2060.”
Although carbon dioxide is not nearly as potent as sulfur hexafluoride, the Biden administration announced last year that it would provide “up to $1.2 billion to advance the development of two commercial-scale direct air capture facilities in Texas and Louisiana,” according to a press release from the Department of Energy (DOE).
“These projects—the first of this scale in the United States—represent the initial selections from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded Regional Direct Air Capture (DAC) Hubs program, which aims to kickstart a nationwide network of large-scale carbon removal sites to address legacy carbon dioxide pollution and complement rapid emissions reductions,” the statement continued. “These emissions are already in the atmosphere, fueling climate change and extreme weather and jeopardizing public health and ecosystems across the globe.”
While officials race to reduce carbon emissions and fulfill net-zero desires, the alleged climate emergency is “fiction,” according to many scientists.
“Climate science should be less political, while climate policies should be more scientific,” reads the Global Climate Intelligence Group’s “World Climate Declaration,” which is signed by 1,609 scientists and professionals.
Retired physicist and author of the website, “Science Under Attack,” Ralph Alexander, told The Epoch Times, “The earth has warmed about 2 degrees F since the end of the Little Ice Age around 1850, but that hardly constitutes an emergency—or even a crisis—since the planet has been warmer yet over the last few millennia.”
“There is plenty of evidence that average temperatures were higher during the so-called Medieval Warm Period (centered around the year 1000), the Roman Warm Period (when grapes and citrus fruits were grown in now much colder Britain), and in the early Holocene (after the last regular Ice Age ended).”
Alexander noted that the climate emergency is a work of “fiction.”
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