geoharvey

Opinion:

¶ “ExxonMobil’s Dangerous Business Strategy” – Total, ENI, Statoil, and Shell are advocating for a carbon price (such as a tax or permit system) to hasten the transition to low-carbon energy and are beginning to prepare internally for it. However, ExxonMobil’s business model continues to deny reality. [Mareeg Media]

Science and Technology:

¶ New cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries constructed out of vertically aligned sulfur-graphene nanowalls on electrically conductive substrates have been developed by researchers in China. They allow for the fast diffusion of lithium ions and electrons, delivering high-capacity and rate performance. [CleanTechnica]

World:

¶ Many large companies in the UK could save as much as £2.6 billion (~$3.9 billion) via reduced fuel costs by switching the country’s 1.8 million small or medium vans to be electric-powered instead of conventional diesel- or gas-powered, according to recent research from the “Go Ultra Low” campaign. [CleanTechnica]

¶ After the triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, the head of a family Sake brewery founded in 1790 thought Fukushima’s recovery would be long and his business was doomed. Then he decided one way the prefecture could be revived was through renewable energy sources. [Asahi Shimbun]

¶ Pakistan-China Economic Corridor is about to begin in earnest with a visit by China’s premier to Pakistan. During the next 7 years energy projects worth $35-37 billion are scheduled to be completed, many of them based on renewable sources such as solar power and wind, to end Pakistan’s crippling energy crisis. [The Nation]

¶ South Korea will expand economic cooperation with Colombia in the clean and renewable energy sector by launching pilot projects for electric vehicles and energy self-sufficient villages in the South American country, under a memorandum of understanding signed in the Columbian capital, Bogotá, on Friday. [The Korea Herald]

¶ The Hazelwood brown coal power plant is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the Australian state of Victoria. Two Harvard fellows have attempted to find the cost of unseen impacts of the plant’s emissions, based on work by the US National Academy of Science. They estimate it at about $900 million a year. [The Age]

¶ The decommissioning crew at the defunct Fukushima Daiichi power plant is losing 174 members who have reached the legal limit for radiation exposure. The 174 had topped the limit of 100 millisieverts in five years spelled out under the Industrial Safety and Health Act. The plant has 14,000 registered workers. [The Japan Times]

US:

¶ Poseidon Water will open a desalination plant costing $1 billion in Carlsbad, California, this November. The plant will require 35 MW of electricity, of which a tiny fraction will come from solar panels on the roof. The rest will come from the grid, and 70% of the power in San Diego County comes from nonrenewable sources. [OCRegister]

¶ In 2013, computer simulations by the Hawaii Electric Company showed the grid could not handle more distributed solar power, and they put a moratorium on new rooftop solar connections. Then Lyndon Rive, CEO of SolarCity, got HECO to run actual tests, and based on the results, the moratorium was ended. [Reading Eagle]