DeepGreen announces massive seabed-to-surface research program, and more

Jay OwenSRI/ESG News, Sustainability News, Resource Efficiency, Greentech, Latest Headlines

“Ethical Markets will continue following this company, DeepGreen, after assessing their very thorough Life Cycle Analysis we reviewed earlier.

Some investors in the shift to fuel cells with green hydrogen (from electrolysis by solar or other non-fossil technologies) see themselves competing with electric vehicles for the global transport market.  We see both technologies taking their share of future transport , rather than wastefully competing!  And batteries in EVs can be limited in size by using solar-powered EV charging stations, like those produced by San Diego-based EnvisionSolar (Nasdaq: EVSI), that are readily available and can be quickly installed in every gas station and motel  parking lot (earning extra cash), thus eliminating so-called “range anxiety“.  Full disclosure, I am personally an investor in EVSI.

 

Some environmentalists are trying to abort DeepGreen’s approaches to seabed collection of multi-metal nodules, citing disturbance of the ocean floor ecosystem.

Since DeepGreen is focusing on a comparatively small section of the Pacific Ocean seafloor, we feel that trying to abort this kind  of approach to making EV batteries vastly  more efficient and sustainable, is short-sighted.  Similar to  efforts to abort wind power generators by citing deaths of birds colliding with their rotor blades, while vastly more birds are actually killed by domestic cats!

 

After all, humans’ exhalations of CO2 are also part of the global emissions causing climate disruption too!  While plants need CO2 in their photosynthesis, they exhale the oxygen we need to  breathe.  So let’s not get too deep in the weeds, or let the perfect be the enemy of the good!

 

~Dr. Hazel Henderson, Editor”


DeepGreen teams up with leading research institutions to understand and minimise impacts of collecting minerals for electric vehicles and clean energy from the deep sea

We are very pleased to announce the stellar partners in our integrated seabed-to-surface research program to understand and minimize the potential environmental impacts of sourcing battery metals from deep-sea nodules. Top experts from the UK National Oceanography Centre, Natural History Museum (London), University of Gothenburg, University of Leeds, Heriot-Watt University, Florida State University, University of Hawaii, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, as well as Texas A&M will join this effort. All partners will maintain their full academic independence and help us contribute massively to humanity’s knowledge of the deep sea.

“This is a collaboration of the best minds in ocean science coming together to answer many important questions about deep-sea ecosystem function and connectivity throughout the water column,” said DeepGreen Chief Ocean Scientist, Dr. Greg Stone. “The program will enable DeepGreen to put forward a rigorous, peer-reviewed environmental impact statement to the International Seabed Authority, setting a high bar for this new industry.”

With society’s demand for battery metals booming due to the transition to clean energy and electric vehicles, DeepGreen believes that polymetallic nodules from the deep sea — a rich, concentrated source of nickel, copper, manganese and cobalt — present significant opportunities to reduce the most serious impacts that arise from mining metals on land.

Deep-sea nodules have never been collected on a commercial scale. The work of the research team that DeepGreen has assembled will help to prepare a body of scientific evidence around potential impacts to enable the international community, through the ISA, to assess the likely environmental impacts of nodule collection in DeepGreen’s NORI area and make evidence-based decisions on granting exploitation contracts to DeepGreen and its sponsoring states.

See Press Release


CEO Of DeepGreen Metals Talks Mining Nickel From The Seafloor

DeepGreen’s CEO, Gerard Barron, had the privilege of being interviewed by Clean Technica’s Johnna Crider. They spoke about everything from sourcing metals with the least impact, to DG’s vision for a circular supply chain for EV battery metals.
“As stewards of these rocks, we have made a couple of important commitments that ensure we leave as little impact as possible: We’re dead set on zero solid processing waste, so we designed a plant that delivers just that. We are dead set on using renewables for processing these rocks onshore, so this is a screening criterion we use to identify suitable sites around the globe. We must understand, avoid, and minimize our ocean impacts, so we have partnered with some of the world’s leading deep-sea scientists and are investing over $60 million into a comprehensive ocean science program. All findings will be peer-reviewed and published.”

Read the Interview


Update on Campaign 4D

Last month we completed our important Environmental Campaign 4D. After a thorough series of COVID-19 mitigation protocols and procedures we set sail to recover one of the world’s most complex and lengthy deep-ocean moorings, which we deployed last year. Data from the many instruments on this array will help scientists to establish a baseline and develop a robust physical and chemical oceanographic model of our NORI–D contract area. During the operations, the crew deployed a small MOB boat to make it easier to ping the mooring’s acoustic release away from the engine noise of the Launcher. Of course, they also had to negotiate with the birds.

We are extremely grateful to our talented crew and partners for putting safety first and working together to get us back into the deep and to keep our research program moving forward.


Opinion: The rise of the
‘Giant Ocean States’By Dr. Greg Stone and Dr. T. Suka Mangisi

For small island developing states, the responsible development of their marine resources presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to diversify economies, making a self-determined development path possible. As the impacts of climate change deepen, this is now inevitable. It falls to us to ensure that it proceeds in the most equitable and sustainable way possible, so that the benefits of our common heritage accrue to all citizens for generations to come.

Read the Article