Wind energy production has soared in Spain, rising from 6 percent of the country’s electricity generation in 2004 to about 20 percent today. While that is certainly good news for boosters of clean energy, the surge in renewables has come with the challenge of ensuring that electric power is available. Pumped storage facilities are typically equipped with pumps and generators …
Small-scale microgrids show potential to bring electricity to 1.3 billion people worldwide who currently lack it
Plugging into electricity for the first time is a big deal. Ask Peter Okoth. Until late last year, he struggled to make a go of his bar on the main street in Entasopia, a small, dusty town in Kenya’s Rift Valley, five hours from the capital Nairobi and 30 miles from the nearest grid power line. Then, he hooked up …
Epidemic loss of life due to heat and dehydration among sugar cane workers on Pacific coast of Central America
When rural labourers first started turning up at the Rosales National Hospital in the El Salvadorian capital of San Salvador with advanced symptoms of chronic kidney disease (CKD), doctors put the phenomenon down to pesticides. Their latest thinking is simpler: it’s the heat. Sugar cane cutters are dying on a large scale in Central America from chronic kidney disease (CKD) …
Wildfires on tundra burn off protective layer, contribute to permafrost thaw and carbon release from formerly frozen soils and peatlands
Wildfires on Arctic tundra can contribute to widespread permafrost thaw much like blazes in forested areas, according to a study published in the most recent issue of the online journal Scientific Reports. The project, led by the U.S. Geological Survey, examined the effects of the massive Anaktuvuk River fire, which burned roughly 1,000 square kilometers of tundra on Alaska’s North Slope …
This rapidly breaking and melting Greenland ice sheet could raise sea level by nearly 2 feet
Greenland’s glaciers held 75% of the world’s freshwater before humans started pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in high volumes, at the beginning of the Industrial Age. Since then, Greenland has been melting, but the melting has sped up considerably now. The New York times produced an in-depth multi-media report on Greenland’s ice sheets. Now, a massive glacier in Greenland …
Single mine rivals coal emissions of whole countries, plus job and economic benefits much lower than promised and environmental costs much higher
The Carmichael coal mine in Australia will emit 79 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent a year — more than the annual emissions from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and about equal to the average annual emissions from both Malaysia and Austria. The projects will also emit three times as much carbon dioxide equivalent per year as the city of …
New Obama policy that energy, mining, and other development projects on America’s public lands should result in a net benefit — or at minimum no net loss — for the nation’s rivers, lands, and wildlife resources
In what is being hailed as a “landmark” conservation policy, President Obama on Tuesday released a presidential memorandum establishing that energy, mining, and other development projects on America’s public lands should result in a net benefit — or at minimum no net loss — for the nation’s rivers, lands, and wildlife resources. “We all have a moral obligation to …
More Jobs and Economic Growth and Lower Energy Bills with Shift to 50-60% Renewables by 2030. Even better as we shift to over 80% by 2050!
Climate change is our nation’s greatest challenge—left unaddressed, it will have devastating impacts on our economy, our environment, and our communities and families. The good news is that addressing this challenge presents a tremendous opportunity to grow our economy and increase our shared prosperity. Today, NextGen Climate America released a new economic analysis based on data from E3’s Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in …
Carbon in Atmosphere Still Rising Fast – Earth Passing Thresholds
Climate change is set to pass the milestone of 1C of warming since pre-industrial times by the end of 2015, representing “uncharted territory” according to scientists at the UK’s Met Office. 2015 is also set to be the hottest on record, as the temperatures are so far beating past records “by a country mile”, they said. The World Meteorological (Met) …
Researchers Develop Low-Cost Offshore Floating Wind Turbine – 12 euro cents per kilowatt hour
From Josh Hill at Clean Technica Researchers have designed and patented a floating platform for offshore wind turbines that they believe can reduce costs up to 12 euro cents per kilowatt hour. A team of researchers from the the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) developed the new model of a floating structure for offshore wind …