Air & Energy-Joshua D. Mosshart MSFS, CHFC, CLU

Co-Chairman at Cleantech Grants, Malia Ventures Inc. & Covenant Energy Consultants LLC, Unity Enterprises SLLC, Mine Direct LLC

Air pollution attributed to energy production and consumption has created a major public health crisis. Over 6 million deaths are attributed each year to poor air pollution, making this the world’s fourth-largest threat to human health, behind high blood-pressure, diet and smoking.

Without the rapid investment and deployment of innovative clean technology solutions the way the world produces and uses energy will take a major toll on human life and future generations.

Energy production and consumption, mostly from unregulated, poorly regulated or inefficient fuel combustion, is the single most destructive man-made source of air pollutant emissions:

85% of particulate matter and almost all of the sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides originates from fuel combustion alone. 

These three toxins are responsible for the biggest impacts of air pollution, either directly or once transformed into other pollutants via chemical reactions in the atmosphere.

They are emitted mainly as a result of:

Poverty: the wood and other solid fuels that more than 2.7 billion people use for cooking, and kerosene used for lighting (and in some countries also for cooking), create smoky environments that are associated with around 3.5 million premature deaths each year.

These effects are felt mostly in developing Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where incomplete burning of biomass accounts for more than half of emissions of particulate matter. Finer particles, whether inhaled indoors or outdoors, are particularly harmful to health as they can penetrate deep into the lungs. 

Fossil Fuel-intensive development and urbanization: coal and oil have powered economic growth in many countries, but their unabated combustion in power plants, industrial facilities and vehicles is the main cause of the outdoor pollution linked to around 3 million premature deaths each year. Coal is responsible for around 60% of global combustion-related sulfur dioxide emissions – a cause of respiratory illnesses and a precursor of acid rain.

Fuels used for transport, first and foremost diesel, generate more than half the nitrogen oxides emitted globally, which can trigger respiratory problems and the formation of other hazardous particles and pollutants, including ozone.

Cities can easily become pollution hot spots, as they concentrate people, energy use, construction activity and traffic. The impact of urban vehicle emissions is heightened by the fact that they are discharged not from the top of tall chimneys but directly into the street-level air that pedestrians breathe.

Some framework for solutions:

Avoid pollutant emissions by providing energy services more efficiently or in a way that does not involve fuel combustion. Measures include higher efficiency standards, increased support to non-combustion renewable energy and alternatives to liquids fuels for transport, and improvements in public transport and urban planning.

Innovate to reduce pollution abatement costs via technology improvements that will also reduce costs for the post-Paris energy transition.

Reduce pollutant emissions to the atmosphere, via stringent emissions limits on combustion plants and vehicles, controls on industrial processes, fuel switching to less polluting fuels and strict regulation of fuel quality.

Joshua D Mosshart MSFS, CHFC, CLU

Source: UN & IEA

Cleantech Grants: Joshua Mosshart Obama and Foundations $2Billion In...

Cleantech Grants: Joshua Mosshart Obama and Foundations $2Billion In...: The Obama Administration launched a Clean Energy Initiative and has a goal to deploy $2 billion into private sector investments. The ta...

Joshua Mosshart Obama and Foundations $2Billion Investment Initiative

The Obama Administration launched a Clean Energy Initiative and has a goal to deploy $2 billion into private sector investments. The target is innovative solutions for climate change, including clean technologies that have potential to reduce carbon pollution, improve energy costs, performance and scalability of low-carbon energy technologies to fight the climate change war. 

The Department of Energy (DOE) will help the Clean Energy Investment Initiative by leading an effort to identify opportunities to mobilize a broad range of philanthropists and impact investors to scale up investments throughout the energy innovation pipeline, from laboratory R&D to startup funding to growth-stage financing supporting a technology innovation.

In Addition, philanthropic and private sector leaders are making initial announcements toward scaling investments in clean energy innovation, including:

The University of California Board of Regents will build on its commitment to allocate at least $1 billion of its endowment and pension over five years for investments in solutions to climate change by developing an innovative vehicle that combines three complementary objectives: 

•  First, to partner with philanthropists interested in de-risking early-stage technologies with high climate related impact potential. 
• Second, to target, through the independently managed vehicle, for-profit investments in technologies with the potential to deliver both significant climate change mitigation and high investment returns.
•  Third, to partner with the world's largest institutional investors in a follow-on facility that will offer proven technologies and companies an "on ramp" to commercial scale.  

The Office of the Chief Investment Officer will engage with foundations, family offices, and institutional investors to strengthen this long-term innovation pipeline.

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation will work to connect investors with early-stage clean energy companies, so that a growing number of foundations and other mission-driven organizations can efficiently and effectively finance innovative technologies with high impact potential. 

• The Foundation has developed deep experience in building and sustaining multi-foundation alliances to limit the risks of climate change and advance clean energy.

The Schmidt Family Foundation has allocated a significant portion of its assets to impact investing, with the aim of filling market gaps to finance solutions that mitigate climate change. To help grow the community of practice alongside other institutions, the Foundation will share its expertise and ongoing findings in sourcing, vetting, and structuring impact investments, especially for pre-market technologies.

Wells Fargo will build on its commitment of $100 million in environmental grants by 2020 to accelerate the transition to a greener economy, which includes the $10 million Innovation Incubator (IN2) program to foster the development of early-stage energy efficiency technologies for commercial buildings. 

Co-administered by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), this first-of-its-kind program will provide startups with grant funding, mentorship, research and testing support at NREL, and real-world field testing in Wells Fargo buildings to de-risk these technologies and accelerate their commercial adoption.  

Having developed this unique expertise in collaborating with a National Laboratory and deploying foundation dollars to support energy startups, Wells Fargo will work to expand investment partnerships for these field-tested technologies and to rally other major companies to build complementary programs that support clean energy innovation.

DOE's ARPA-E has invested approximately $1.1 billion across more than 400 potentially transformational energy technology projects. 

The President’s FY16 Budget also called for $325 million for DOE’S ARPA-E to further support potentially transformative applied energy research.

DOE’s Solar Access to Public Capital working group has assembled over 300 leading organizations working together to increase public capital markets’ financing of solar energy projects.

Joshua Mosshart BIO

Cleantech Grants

The White House

Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary.

Unsolicited Grants- Energy and Water -Grants-Joshua D. Mosshart

 Many of the external pressures that drive the increasing
demands for water also play influential roles in the growing demand for energy.

Both are fundamentally driven by (and drivers of) social
development and economic growth, and both are strongly influenced by economic forces, increasing living standards, technological development and government policy.

Market forces have tended to play a much more important role with respect to energy sector development. 

                            Water is crucial for energy 

Water is used in the extractive industries for producing fuels such as coal, uranium, oil and gas. Water is an input for energy crops such as corn and sugar cane for ethanol and biomass for fuel pellets. 

Water is also crucial for cooling purposes in most power plants

and the driving force for hydroelectric and steam turbines. In some places, water is used for transporting fuels, such as waterways throughout Europe and many parts of Asia that float barges carrying coal from mines to power plants.

In other places water is used to permit coal slurry to be transported from coal mines to power plants through pipelines. Energy accounts for a significant fraction of a country’s water use (both consumptive and non-consumptive). 

In developing countries, 10% to 20% of withdrawals are used
to meet industrial needs, including energy.

In some developed countries, where a smaller fraction is used for agriculture, more than 50% of water withdrawals are used for power plant cooling alone. 

Coal mining uses large volumes of water for various processes , and discharges to natural water bodies may be contaminated, while underground operations may disrupt and contaminate aquifers.

For conventional oil and gas production, water injection (sometimes referred to as water flooding) is used to pressurize fields, increasing productivity. 

Oil and gas extraction yields high volumes of ‘produced water’, which is water that comes out of the well along with the oil and
gas. Produced water usually has very high salinity and is
difficult to treat. 

Underground injection into saline aquifers is one disposal method, although the water can also be treated and reused. In many cases, the volume of produced water far exceeds the volume of fuel

produced.

Water is used as a process input and a feedstock for process steam at refineries to upgrade crude into higher
value products. 

Typical volumes of water needed end-to end
(from extraction through refining) for petroleum based fuels are 7–15 litres water per litre fuel.

For natural gas, the volumes of water are approximately 20–50 litres water per barrel equivalent of oil.

Unconventional oil and gas production is generally more water intensive than conventional oil and gas production. For oil sands production in Canada and heavy oil production in Venezuela, water is used to make steam to reduce the viscosity of the fuel, easing production. 

 Water is also a critical input for hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking"

For hydraulic fracturing, typical water injection volumes
are 8–30 million litres per well. Approximately 250 tonnes of proppant, such as sand, is injected to hold the cracks open to increase the gas flows. 

The typical composition of fracking fluids is 98% sand and water and 2% chemicals (acids, surfactants, becides and scaling inhibitors), which are added to increase productivity. 

As producers become more water efficient, using less water per well, the relative proportion of chemicals increases. A significant
fraction of the injected fluid comes back out of the wells
as waste water (including drilling mud's, flow back water
and produced water). 

The volume of produced water that is returned varies greatly, depending on the geological characteristics of the formation; it can be as low as 15% and as high as 300% of the injected volume.

The water intensive process produces large volumes of waste water with high salinity and potential for containing naturally occurring radioactive materials. 

Further risks to water quality can occur from storage pits that are not properly lined (allowing the waste water to trickle down
into the groundwater), from spills by trucks that carry the waste water, or by injection into waterways from waste water treatment plants that do not adequately treat the produced water.

There is disruptive clean technologies that enhance water efficiency in the oil recovery process. These innovative technologies need to be promoted and implemented because they are emerging.  

One amazing example is: 

Titan Oil Recovery, they utilize a patented state of the art Microbially enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) technology.

Proven: 

Over 100% Average Production Increase for 300 plus well applications on 30 oil fields.

100% Success Rate on Injector Well Applications.

Click: Titan Oil Recovery

Source: United Nations
Click: Cleantech Grants
Joshua Daniel Mosshart BIO

Grants- Water Demands-Unsolicited Grants-Joshua Daniel Mosshart

Demand for water is effected by many external factors  such as technological development,
political, institutional and financial conditions, and climate change.

Global population is projected to reach 9.3 billion in 2050 (UNDESA). Population growth leads to increased water demand, reflecting growing needs for drinking water, health and sanitation, as well as for energy, food and other goods and services that require water for their production and delivery. 

Urban areas of the world, particularly those in developing countries, are expected to absorb all this population growth, at the same time drawing in some of the rural population. This intense urbanization will increase demand for water supply, sanitation services and electricity for domestic purposes

Water of acceptable quality and in adequate quantity is needed to meet food production demands. At the same time, food production and supply have a negative impact on the sustainability and quality of water resources.

Agriculture is the biggest water user, with irrigation accounting for 70% of global water withdrawals. With increasing demand for food, competition for water is rising. Specialized crops and livestock products often require more water (and in most cases more energy) to produce and lead to higher levels of water pollution. 

In the pursuit of food security, technological advancements in the agricultural sector could have significant impacts, both positive and negative, on water demand, supply and quality.

Climate change impacts the hydrological cycle and consequently impacts water resources. It is an additional stressor through its effects on other external pressures and thus acts as an amplifier of the already intense competition for water resources. 

For example, higher temperatures and an increase in the rate of evaporation may affect water supplies directly and potentially increase the water demand for agriculture and energy.

Significant levels of uncertainty exist with respect to climate change projections, and these uncertainties increase greatly when focusing on local scales. 

Water resources management is in a difficult transition phase, trying to accommodate large uncertainties associated with climate change while struggling to implement a difficult set of principles and institutional changes.

Consumer demand and increasing standards of living are driving
increased demand for water, most notably by middle income households in developing and emerging economies through their greater demand for food, energy and other goods, the production
of which can require significant quantities of water (IEA).

According to the OECD, in the absence of new policies (i.e. the Baseline Scenario), freshwater availability will be increasingly strained through 2050, with 2.3 billion more people than today (in total more than 40% of the global population) projected to be living in areas subjected to severe water stress, especially in North and South Africa and South and Central Asia. 

Global water demand in terms of water withdrawals is projected to increase by some 55% due to growing demands from manufacturing (400%), thermal electricity generation (140%) and domestic use (130%) (OECD).

While data on precipitation – which can be measured with relative ease – are generally available for most countries, river runoff and groundwater levels are generally much more difficult and costly to monitor.

As a result, trends regarding changes in the overall availability of freshwater supplies are difficult to determine in all but a few places in the world. However, it is clear that several countries face

varying degrees of water scarcity, stress or vulnerability.

In the absence of flow regulation by artificial storage infrastructure, the availability of surface water varies from place to place across days, seasons, years and decades as a function of climate variability. 

Climate change means past hydrological trends are no longer indicative of future water availability. According to the most recent climate projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), dry regions are to a large extent expected to get drier and wet regions are expected to get wetter, and overall variability will increase. 

There is mounting evidence that this is indeed happening as a
result of an intensification of the water cycle and it is affecting local regional water supplies, including those available for energy production.

There is clear evidence that groundwater supplies are diminishing, with an estimated 20% of the world’s aquifers being over exploited, some massively so. 

Globally, the rate of groundwater abstraction is increasing by 1% to 2% per year (WWAP, 2012), adding to water stress in several areas and compromising the availability of groundwater to serve as
a buffer against local supply shortages.

Water quality is also a key determinant of water availability, although potable water is not required for all purposes. Polluted (or saline) water cannot be used for several crucial purposes such as drinking and hygiene. 

However, for other purposes such as agriculture and certain industries, use of slightly polluted water or partially treated waste water can be considered. This provides an opportunity to use reclaimed waste water and storm water, reducing the cost and energy consumption associated with water treatment.

Although there have been some local successes in improving water quality (mainly in developed countries), there are no data to suggest an overall improvement in water quality at the global scale. Deterioration of wetlands worldwide further contributes to reduced potential in ecosystems’ capacity to purify water. 

It is estimated that more than 80% of used water worldwide – and up to 90% in developing countries – is neither collected nor treated
(WWAP, 2012), threatening human and environmental health.

Joshua Daniel Mosshart BIO
Cleantech Grants
Source: United Nations

Grants- Water & Energy Reform- Unsolicited Grants- Joshua D. Mosshart

The different political economies of water and energy should be recognized, as these affect the scope, speed and direction of change in each domain. 

While energy generally carries great political clout, water most often does not. Partly as a result, there is a marked difference in the pace of change in the domains; a pace which is driven also by the evolution of markets and technologies.

Unless those responsible for water step up their own governance reform efforts, the pressures emanating from developments in the energy sphere will become increasingly restrictive and make the tasks facing water planners, and the objective of a secure water future, much more difficult to achieve. 

Failures in water can lead directly to failures in energy and other sectors critical for development.

Sustainability of water resources is becoming a business risk for some energy managers. Multinationals and other large corporations are increasingly interested in their water footprints and how to minimize them.  

In its 2013 Global Risks Report , the World Economic Forum ranks the ‘water supply crisis’ as the fourth crisis in likelihood and second in impact, a marked elevation from its rank in previous reports (WEF, 2013).

           Climate change adaptation and mitigation

Climate change adaptation is primarily about water, as stated for example by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which identifies water as the fundamental link through which climate change will impact humans and the environment (IPCC, 2008). 

In addition, water is critical for climate change mitigation, as many efforts to reduce carbon emissions such as carbon capture and storage rely on water availability for long-term success. 

Providing sufficient energy for all while radically reducing greenhouse gas emissions will require a paramount shift towards fossil-free energy use, very high energy efficiency, and equity. 

These goals may limit the availability of water resources for communities and ecosystems and result in a reduction of adaptive capacity for future change.

For example, bio-fuels need vast quantities of water to grow the bio-fuel crop and process it into bio-energy, while large hydro-power plants need to store vast quantities of water, especially during dry seasons, which could in certain instances hamper irrigated agriculture as an adaptation measure to combat climate-driven drought. 

In this case adaptation and mitigation measures are competing for water. Another urgent mitigation challenge intimately linked to water is terrestrial carbon sequestration.

Water in vegetation, soils and wetlands is the lock that seals carbon reservoirs, for example in peat lands, and provides necessary water for sustaining or restoring carbon storage by forests.

Climate change mitigation requires effective adaptation to succeed. The water cycle is sensitive to climate change and water is vital to energy generation and carbon storage. Water can also serve as a bridge to support both adaptation and

mitigation. 

For instance, reforestation can reduce or prevent destructive surface runoff and debris flows from intensifying precipitation events by stabilizing hill slopes and promoting recharge. 

Strategic decisions should ideally acknowledge the turnover

periods of technical systems, such as approximately 40 years for energy systems, in order to recognize the risks for technical lock-in in systems that lack robustness in coping with changes in climatic conditions and demand (IEA, 2012a).

Climate change and variability further complicate the situation. 

Major droughts and high temperatures can hinder the ability of the power sector to achieve sufficient cooling, leading to power outages. When the monsoon rains arrived late in 2012, leaving much of northern India in drought and extreme heat, farmers turned to electrical pumps to bring groundwater to the surface for irrigation. Electricity demand peaked at the same time that hydro-power reservoirs were at their lowest, resulting in numerous
blackouts. 

The reverse scenario can also occur: a problem with a power grid far away might become a local power outage that inhibits water production and treatment.

Other examples of water and energy interconnections include policies supporting the development of bio-fuels that have had negative impacts on land, water and food prices. 

Replacing fossil fuels with bio-fuels in transport will measurably reduce the carbon footprint, but will also enlarge the water footprint of transport
(UNEP,). 

Desalination of salt water and pumping of freshwater supplies over large distances may help reduce freshwater scarcity in certain places, but will also increase energy use. 

Conflicts over water between irrigation and hydro-power provide yet another example.

Interconnections, however, need not necessarily have negative repercussions. In France, for example, under the RT 2020 sustainable energy framework all buildings by 2020 will produce more energy than they consume, and they will also purify and recycle water naturally.

Such policies are driving the development of innovative technologies; for example, a system that filters waste water for use as grey water while at the same time harnessing the energy-generating potential of the algae present in the waste water. 

An added benefit of this approach is that it reduces the volume of waste water returning to the treatment plant, ultimately resulting in energy savings.

Source: United Nations
Joshua Daniel Mosshart BIO
Cleantech Grants

Grants-Energy & Water Initiatives 2014-Unsolicited Grants Joshua D. Mosshart

Water and energy are both interlinked and very interdependent. They both have direct and indirect impacts because the energy production being pursued determines the amount of water required to produce the energy.

Freshwater and energy are vital for human existence, well-being and sustainable socio-economic development. More than 1.3 billion people still lack access to electricity, especially rural areas where 2.6 billion people use biomass for cooking leading to major health issues.

The countries with the most rapid economic growth face the greatest risk of water and energy risks. 

Approximately 90% of global power generation is water intensive.

Thermal power plants are responsible for roughly 80% of the global electricity production. Power plant cooling is responsible for 43% of total freshwater withdrawals in Europe and nearly 50% in the United States.

Growing demand for limited water supplies places increasing pressure on water intensive energy producers to seek alternative approaches, especially in areas where energy is competing with other major water users (agriculture, manufacturing, drinking water and sanitation services for cities) and where water uses may be restricted to maintain healthy ecosystems.


In the context of thermal power generation , there is an increasing potential for serious conflict between power, other water users and environmental considerations.

Trade-offs can sometimes be reduced by technological advances, but these advances may carry trade-offs of their own. From a water perspective, solar photovoltaic and wind are clearly the most sustainable sources for power generation. 

Support for the development of renewable energy, which remains far below that for fossil fuels, will need to increase dramatically before it makes a significant change in the global energy mix, and by association, in water demand. 

Use of geothermal energy for power generation is underdeveloped and its potential is greatly under appreciated. It is climate independent, produces minimal or near-zero greenhouse gas emissions, does not consume water, and its availability is infinite at human time scales.

Agriculture is currently the largest user of water at the global level, accounting for some 70% of total withdrawals.

The food production and supply chain accounts for about one-third of total global energy consumption. The demand for agricultural feed stocks for bio fuels is the largest source of new demand for agricultural production in decades, and was a driving factor behind the 2007–2008 spike in world commodity prices. 

As bio fuels also require water for their processing stages, the water requirements of bio fuels produced from irrigated crops can be much larger than for fossil fuels. 


Energy subsidies allowing farmers to pump aquifers at unsustainable rates of extraction have led to the depletion of groundwater reserves.

Applying energy efficiency measures at the farm and at all subsequent stages along the agri-food chain can bring direct savings, through technological and behavioural changes, or indirect savings, through co-benefits derived from the adoption of argo-ecological farming practices.

Knowledge-based precision irrigation can provide flexible, reliable and efficient water application, which can be complemented by deficit irrigation and waste water reuse.

Many rapidly growing  cities in developing countries already face problems related to water and energy and have limited capacity to respond. 

As energy cost is usually the greatest expenditure for water and waste water utilities, audits to identify and reduce water and energy losses and enhance efficiency can result in substantial energy and financial savings. 

The future water and energy consumption of a new or an expanding city can be reduced during the early stages of urban planning through the development of compact settlements and investment in systems for integrated urban water management. 

Such systems and practices include the conservation of water
sources, the use of multiple water sources – including rainwater harvesting, storm water management and waste water reuse – and the treatment of water to the quality needed for its use rather than treating all water to a potable standard. 

The chemically bound energy in waste water can be used for domestic cooking and heating, as fuel for vehicles and power plants, or for operating the treatment plant itself. This bio-gas replaces fossil fuels, reduces the amount of sludge to be disposed of and achieves financial savings for the plant. 

 The availability of adequate quantities of water, of sufficient quality, depends on healthy ecosystems  and can be considered an ecosystem service. The maintenance of environmental flows enables this and other ecosystem services that are fundamental to sustainable economic growth and human well-being. 

Ecosystem services are being compromised worldwide, and energy production is one of the drivers of this process. 

Natural or green infrastructure can complement, augment or replace the services provided by traditional engineered infrastructure, creating additional benefits in terms of cost-effectiveness, risk management and sustainable development overall.


Source: United Nations
Joshua D. Mosshart Bio
Cleantech Grants