Science and Technology:
¶ A key engineering executive at Continental A.G. is predicting car tires could be made of 100-percent renewable raw materials by 2020, but cautions that finding acceptable substitutes for materials used widely today is not a given. [Tire Business]
World:
¶ Germany set a new record in July by providing 5.1 terawatt-hours of electricity from solar. That beat its record production of 5.0 terawatt-hours of electricity from wind in January of this year. [Energy Collective]
¶ South Australia is one the leading regions in the world in the take-up of variable renewable energy sources such as wind energy and rooftop solar PV, and could be the first industrial economy to reach 50% variable generation. [RenewEconomy]
¶ The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has contracted Parsons Brinckerhoff to examine the potential for use of renewable energy by existing fossil fuel power stations through hybridisation in Australia. [Business Spectator]
¶ A subcontractor who was involved in building water storage tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi said late last month that concerns about leaks emerged after workers were told to build the vessels as quickly as possible. [The Japan Times]
¶ Japan’s nuclear regulator said on Monday it may have to think about dumping contaminated cooling water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific. [euronews]
¶ Seismologists agreed there was no active fault line under the Ohi plant, Japan’s sole functioning nuclear station, giving the operator hope it can restart two reactors once they undergo maintenance and safety checks. [Yahoo!7 News]
US:
¶ The US Geological Survey and the Fish and Wildlife Service released a report that cites a fracking wastewater spill as the probable cause of a mass die-off of blackside dace, a federally listed threatened species. [CleanTechnica]
¶ Despite tremendous growth in wind energy capacity in the U.S., the antiquated energy distribution system is preventing wind from reaching its full potential—often forcing wind farms to throttle back on windy days. [AllGov]
¶ The first radioactive ocean plume released by the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster will finally be reaching the shores of the United States sometime in 2014, according to a new study from the University of New South Wales. [CleanTechnica]
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