Opinion:
¶ “Rooftop Solar In California Is Ready To Take The Next Step” • California leads the nation in fighting climate change because of state policies that have accelerated clean energy investment. As clean energy blooms in California, these policies need to mature and evolve to continue to be effective. That includes the case of solar net metering. [CleanTechnica]
Rooftop solar system (Angie Warren, Unsplash)
¶ “Why The West Is Worried About China’s Renewable Energy Dominance” • The 2020 BP Statistical Review of World Energy says installed PV capacity grew at an average annual rate of over 42% over the past 10 years, doubling the global capacity about every 1.7 years. It is a market dominated by China. And it is used for gathering intelligence. [OilPrice.com]
Science and Technology:
¶ “From Wet Waste To Flight: Scientists Announce Fast-Track Solution For Net-Zero-Carbon Sustainable Aviation Fuel” • The aircraft sector has been seen as difficult to decarbonize. That task just got a burst of energy with the publication of a new paper on carbon-negative sustainable aviation fuel in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [CleanTechnica]
NREL laboratory (Dennis Schroeder, NREL)
¶ “To Save The Planet, Tide Wants You To Quit Using Warm Water For Laundry” • Doing your laundry with cold water can help save the planet, according to Tide. If North Americans do three out of every four loads of laundry with cold water it will have the same impact on greenhouse gas emissions as taking about a million cars off the road for a year. [CNN]
¶ “February’s Extreme Cold and Unusual Warming Highlights New ‘Climate Norms’, Say Experts” • NOAA confirmed that the Earth just had its coldest February in seven years, mainly due to the extremely cold temperatures in North America and northern Asia. What’s worrisome is that even so, it was the eighth warmest winter in the last 142 years. [The Weather Channel]
Snow in Texas (Thomas Park, Unsplash)
World:
¶ “BMW IX And BMW I4 – BMW’s Next-Gen Electric Offerings” • BMW has made a couple of electric vehicle announcements, showing us that it’s still alive even after the massive electric vehicle offensive Volkswagen rolled out this week. In particular, the company unveiled its two next-gen electric vehicles, the BMW i4 and the BMW iX. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “A 5,000-Mile Living Wall Could Hold Back The World’s Largest Desert” • Because the Sahara Desert is expanding, the African Union launched an ambitious plan to hold it back and protect the Sahel area in 2007. The Great Green Wall initiative now hopes to restore 100 million hectares of land with a mosaic vegetation types over the next decade. [CNN]
Building the Great Green Wall (MAKE Waves image)
¶ “Spain, SEAT, And Iberdrola Will Use EU Funds For EV Battery Factory” • Spain plans to use funding from the EU to create a public-private consortium with Volkswagen Group’s SEAT, based in Spain, and the power company Iberdrola to build Spain’s first EV battery factory, according to Reyes Maroto, Spain’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Audi Gives Up On Combustion Engine Development – This Is Awesome” • Audi is abandoning its development of combustion engines, Electrive reported. The article cited an interview that CEO Markus Duesmann held with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, in which he confirmed that Audi is no longer developing internal combustion engines. [CleanTechnica]
Audi e-tron (Audi courtesy image)
¶ “Renewable Returns Tripled Versus Fossil Fuels In Last Decade” • Investing in renewable power stocks beat a fossil fuel-focused strategy by more than threefold in the last decade. Superior returns from green power could help push investors to provide the capital necessary to scale up low-carbon power sources in the coming years, an analysis shows. [Financial Post]
¶ “Acciona To Develop 923-MW Wind Project In Australia” • Acciona and international metals group Korea Zinc have reached an agreement to jointly develop the 923MW MacIntyre Wind Farm in Queensland, Australia. MacIntyre is one of the largest renewable energy projects in Australia, and the largest energy project in Acciona’s portfolio. [reNEWS]
Acciona wind farm (Image courtesy of Acciona)
US:
¶ “EV Connect Pilots Large US V2G Project” • EV Connect is partnering with Indiana’s Battery Innovation Center and Energy Systems Network to create a large scale vehicle to grid system for school bus and heavy duty truck fleets. Data from the project will help answer questions about the impacts V2G systems will have on battery packs. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “BLM rebukes Trump, advances large-scale California solar project” • The Biden administration will study what could be the first solar power project inside a California renewable energy zone, just a week after nixing a Trump-era proposal that critics say would have undermined the intent of the zone to balance development and wildlife protection. [E&E News]
Solar panels (Tom Brewster Photography, BLM)
¶ “Blue Bird Delivers Its 400th Electric School Bus” • Blue Bird has delivered its 400th electric school bus in North America. The next 400 will come much quicker than the first 400. Blue Bird expects to have 1,000 electric school buses delivered some time in 2022. It was just in December that we reported on Blue Bird selling its 300th electric school bus. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Rhode Island To Reach All-Renewable Electricity By 2030 Under Proposed Law” • A bill before the Rhode Island Senate would speed up the state’s transition to renewable electricity. Its announcement comes just one day after the Senate voted in favor of a bill that would step up the state’s carbon reduction effort, reaching net-zero by 2050. [Patch.com]
Have a thoroughly enjoyable day.
geoharvey 