Excerpt from NYTimes.com, Feb 2018 “The impact of not considering climate change when planning infrastructure means you end up building the wrong thing, in the wrong place, to the wrong standards,” said Michael Kuby, a professor of geographical sciences and urban planning at Arizona State University and contributing author to the National Climate Assessment, the federal government’s most comprehensive scientific study …
Growing dead zone and associated costs are one more externality from our current ag system and climate change
Excerpt on pollution and climate change externalities from Current Affairs, Jan 2018 It may seem weird to worry about the level of oxygen in the seas—everyone knows you can’t breathe underwater. However, people who are not self-injuring imbeciles may be aware that there is dissolved oxygen in most bodies of water in various amounts, and this of course is how …
“Swirling in the air in Davos at the World Economic Forum was an important discussion of how companies must do far more to benefit the 99 percent, not just the 1 percent
“Swirling in the air here in Davos at the World Economic Forum, along with snowflakes, was an important discussion of how companies must do far more to benefit the 99 percent, not just the 1 percent. Enriching shareholders is not enough. Tycoons always claim to cherish ordinary people’s best interests even as they rip them off. American tobacco executives have killed …
Solar and batteries are edging out gas, and batteries are becoming bigger for Tesla too
Bloomberg, Feb 2018 Natural gas is getting edged out of power markets across the U.S. by two energy sources that, together, are proving to be an unbeatable mix: solar and batteries. In just the latest example, First Solar Inc. won a power contract to supply Arizona’s biggest utility when electricity demand on its system typically peaks, between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. The panel …
50% of Norwegians plan for next car purchase to be electric. Norway plans for 100% by 2025.
February 12th, 2018 by Jesper Berggreen, Clean Technica On behalf of the organization for the Danish energy industry, Dansk Energi, Søren Jakobsen from the alliance of Danish EV promotion Dansk Elbil Alliance reports from the Nordic EV Summit in Oslo, Norway. A new London taxi at the Nordic EV Summit in Oslo in Norwegian colors. Photo: Søren Jakobsen Norway is the world’s electricity laboratory . …
LA City Councilpeople want climate turnaround, emergency action, city department
Jan 18 2018 The La Tuna fire of September 2017 was the biggest Los Angeles had seen for 50 years Pic: By Scott L from Los Angeles, United States of America – 1_E1C9469, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link) By Megan Darby Four Los Angeles city council members are calling for emergency funds to set up a department for climate action. Citing recent devastating wildfires in California, linked to global …
Study: a 100% RE-based system is feasible and a real policy option at a modest cost. Wind, solar, and electric grid interconnections to reduce storage are least cost choices
A Techno-Economic Study of an Entirely Renewable Energy-Based Power Supply for North America for 2030 Conditions Arman Aghahosseini * ID , Dmitrii Bogdanov and Christian Breyer ID Department of Electrical Engineering, School of Energy Systems, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Skinnarilankatu 34, Lappeenranta 53850, Finland; dmitrii.bogdanov@lut.fi (D.B.); christian.breyer@lut.fi (C.B.) * Correspondence: arman.aghahosseini@lut.fi; Tel.: +358-41-3697925 Received: 29 June 2017; Accepted: 3 August …
Solar learning/experience curve is more like 28% and nope, cobalt’s not a problem for EV development. What Elon Musk is trying to transform.
From Jenny Chase, to Zach Shahan on Clean Technica, Feb 2018 Jenny just sent this update: “We have pegged the typical factory-gate module price at the end of 2017 at about 33 cents per W, meaning a price around 37 cents per W in most markets. About 98GW was installed in 2017. Over the past two years we have revised …
Positive unintended consequences of raising building standards
Building code changes can have unintended consequences by Lloyd Alter January 26, 2018 CC BY 2.0 Wikipedia/ California houses weren’t always energy efficient. A study in California shows that changing codes can change a lot more than just their energy consumption. Years ago when I worked in the development industry, I asked another developer what his secret was. He was convinced that …
Sat 27 Jan 2018 The Guardian London’s cycle superhighway squeezes cars on Victoria Embankment. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian Imagine a healthy future. That we need to change radically was shown by a mass study of the health of 300,000 people that was at once entirely shocking and wholly predictable. Newcastle University found obesity and the lack of exercise (the two go …