Opinion:
¶ Australia should back calls to end coal and save its drowning neighbours While all of us of will experience the effects of climate change most are not facing the inevitable disappearance of our country. Yet that is the case for the 92,000 inhabitants of Kiribati, as well as other low-lying island states across the planet. [eco-business.com]
Kiribati, with about 92,000 inhabitants, recently bought land in Fiji to relocate its inhabitants as the sea level rises. Image: Shutterstock
¶ The Climate Talks in Paris Might Actually Work This Time • UN climate talks set to begin in Paris next week promise to produce a landmark deal that has eluded diplomats for more than two decades. All of the G20 nations, including the biggest developing countries, China, India and Brazil, have prepared to limit pollution. [Bloomberg]
Science and Technology:
¶ An accelerated transition to renewable energy could limit the global temperature rise to below 2° C, says an International Renewable Energy Agency report. It says if renewable energy accounted for 36% of the world energy mix by 2030, half the emission reductions needed to limit warming to 2° C would already be met. [CleanTechnica]
World:
¶ US-based Envirofit was one of the first social enterprises to provide clean cookstoves, and it’s just recently sold its millionth unit. Rocket stoves are wonders of sustainability. They address dangers to human health posed by open-fire cooking; they also burn very small amounts of wood fuel, with low emissions. [CleanTechnica]
Image credit: Envirofit International via Picasa. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
¶ Ireland could install nearly 4 GW of solar by 2030, adding more than €2 billion to its economy and creating more than 7,000 jobs, with modest policy support, a new report produced by KPMG has claimed. The report was produced on behalf of the Irish Solar Energy Association and says the technology should be supported. [Solar Power Portal]
¶ The government of South Australia released the final report from its Low Carbon Economy Expert Panel, which recommends the state’s greenhouse gas emissions be cut by more than half by 2030 and the state be a net zero emitter by 2050. The panel also recommends an emissions trading scheme linked to California’s. [InDaily]
¶ The 300-MW Cestas solar photovoltaic project, located in the Bordeaux region of France, has now been fully connected to the electric grid, according to recent reports. Full grid connection was achieved with the connection of the last 12-MW portion of the project, which has a total of 25 different 12 MW project portions. [CleanTechnica]
Cestas solar project
US:
¶ The US DOE announced that a company called Dioxide Materials is getting a slice of the agency’s new $125 million round of funding for “transformational” energy projects. Among its areas of expertise, Dioxide Materials is developing a low cost system that uses renewable energy to produce hydrogen fuel from water. [CleanTechnica]
¶ Vestas is to supply an unnamed client with 200 MW of turbines for a wind farm in Oklahoma. The manufacturer will deliver 61 of its V126 3.3-MW units; it is the first order from the US for that model. Delivery will start in the second quarter of 2016, with completion in the second half of year. Oklahoma has been 2-MW territory. [reNews]
¶ Duke Energy, the largest electric power holding company in the US, has repurposed a retired coal-powered operation in New Richmond, Ohio, in a development partnership with LG Chem, Greensmith, and Parker Hannifin, which provided the 2-MW power conversion inverter. The storage capacity of the unit was not disclosed. [CleanTechnica]
Duke Energy’s Walter C. Beckjord retired coal-powered generating station. Image via Cincinnati Business Courier
¶ Las Vegas is planning to run municipal buildings, fire stations, parks, streetlights and other facilities exclusively with renewable energy, under a deal announced Tuesday with the NV Energy, a utility owned by Berkshire Hathaway. The agreement doesn’t cover the famously bright casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
¶ According to the Environmental Defense Fund, 70% of Hoboken’s population lives in flood zones. The city also has a plan to manage flooding and other disasters. Working with EDF’s Climate Corps program, Hoboken is moving toward building a microgrid to keep the power on at 55 buildings during disasters. [Government Technology]
¶ Alaska is a vast wilderness of natural beauty. But it also holds more coal than all the other US states put together. As world leaders prepare to gather for a major climate change summit, plans to build an open coal mine that would cover 78 sq km (30 sq miles) surrounding a valued Alaskan river could be coming to a head. [BBC]
Photo by Pete Niesen
¶ According to the California Air Resources Board, a leak that started October 23 at a Southern California Gas Company well accounted for a quarter of all the methane released by the state since it started. Estimates are that up to 50 metric tons of the potent greenhouse gas leaked into the atmosphere each hour since the leak started. [KCET]
¶ The US is set to become the first nation to decide whether it’s safe to operate nuclear power plants for 80 years, twice as long as initially allowed. The majority of the nation’s 99 reactors already have 20-year extensions to their 40-year operating licenses. Now, operators led by Dominion Resources want even more time. [Bloomberg]
geoharvey 
November 26, 2015 at 2:27 pm
Reblogged this on Antinuclear.