Opinion:
¶ “The Next Front In Fighting Climate Change: Your Home” • The Build Back Better bill, if it ever comes to pass, now seems unlikely to include major climate change provisions. But we can reduce our own carbon emissions, starting with our own homes. About 20% of US greenhouse gases come from homes; about 20% of the problem can be solved by home owners. [CNN]
Home (Jacques Bopp, Unsplash)
¶ “Astonishing Things You Never Knew About Fossil Fuels From Bill McKibben” • In a recent blog post, Bill McKibben celebrated something he discovered recently while surfing the internet: “Forty percent of the world’s shipping consists of just sending fossil fuels around the world to be burned.” We burn fossil fuels so we can move fossil fuels to burn. [CleanTechnica]
Science and Technology:
¶ “Last Seven Years Have Been The Warmest On Record As The Planet Approaches Critical Threshold” • The last seven years are the seven warmest on record for the planet, data shows. Earth’s average temperature is around 1.1°C above average pre-industrial levels, Copernicus reports, 73% of the way to the 1.5° threshold to avoid the worst impacts. [CNN]
Bridge of NOAA Ship Bell Shimada (NOAA, Unsplash)
¶ “First Lithium Carbonate Produced From Mica” • All UK car manufacturing will convert to electric vehicles by 2030 and lithium carbonate is a key component in the batteries required to power them. It turns out that the lithium that is needed can be extracted from mica found in granite. Now there is a pilot plant operating, doing that. [CleanTechnica]
World:
¶ “Antarctica: Invasive Species ‘Hitchhiking’ On Ships” • Species from around the world that are “hitching a lift” on ships threaten Antarctica’s pristine marine ecosystem, according to a study tracking research, fishing, and tourist vessels that routinely visit the protected region. It revealed that ships from 1,500 ports around the globe visit Antarctica. [BBC]
Antarctica (Paul Carroll, Unsplash)
¶ “Vattenfall Is Unleashing A New Drop-In Heat Pump On Unsuspecting Gas Markets” • The humble electric heat pump is emerging as a climate action hero. Vattenfall has just teamed up with the firm Feenstra to introduce a new heat pump that can replace natural gas boilers on a drop-in basis, without the need for expensive retrofits. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Hydrostor Inks $250 Million Investment For Energy Storage Growth” • Hydrostor is getting a boost for its long-term energy storage projects. Goldman Sachs is investing $250 million to help the company build more than 1 GW, 8.7 GWh of its Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage (A-CAES) projects in California and Australia. [Power Engineering]
Gem A-CAES Project (Hydrostor image)
¶ “India May Add 12.5 GW Of Solar In 2022-23” • Ratings agency ICRA expects India to add 16.1 GW of renewable energy capacity in the next fiscal year. The analysts told pv magazine the additions in clean energy will be driven by solar, with 12.5 GW coming in PV projects. Wind projects are expected to contribute 2.2 GW and hybrid plants 1.4 GW. [PV Magazine]
¶ “Lancashire Nuclear Power Plant To Stop Generating Electricity Two Years Early” • The Heysham 2 nuclear power station in Lancashire is set to stop generating electricity two years earlier than expected. In 2016, its life was extended by seven years to 2030 as no new power station projects were in the pipeline, but the plan has changed. [Lancs Live]
Heysham 2 nuclear power station (Mr T, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
US:
¶ “Solar Power Will Account For Nearly Half Of New US Electric Generating Capacity In 2022” • In 2022, the Energy Information Administration expects 46.1 GW of new utility-scale electric generating capacity to be added to the US power grid. Almost half of the planned 2022 capacity additions are solar, followed by natural gas at 21% and wind at 17%. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “‘Off The Charts’: Weather Disasters Have Cost The US $750 Billion Over Past Five Years” • A historic freeze that hit Texas, a deadly hurricane that wreaked havoc from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast, and a record-shattering heat wave and drought in the West are just three of twenty weather disasters that hit the US in 2021, each costing over $1 billion. [CNN]
Weather on the high planes (NOAA image, Unsplash)
¶ “Bill Filed To Crush Solar Choice In The Sunshine State” • Florida Power and Light, the state’s largest power company, has written an anti-rooftop solar bill and is pushing it at the Florida Legislature. If passed, the bill will decimate Florida rooftop solar adoption and take a sledgehammer to solar choice for customers, jobs, and economic development. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Amazon Will Buy Thousands Of Ram ProMaster Electric Delivery Vans Every Year” • The Ram ProMaster, a battery EV, will be the brand’s first ever all-electric model when it debuts in the second half of 2023 as a rival for the Ford E-Transit and the Rivian EDV. It has a ready market with Amazon, whose need for last-mile delivery vans is huge. [CleanTechnica]
Ram ProMaster (Image courtesy of Stellantis)
¶ “RFP Alert: 11.5 GW Of Renewables Mandated By CPUC” • The Diablo Canyon nuclear plant is set to retire in 2025, as California switches to renewable generation. Three community choice aggregators jointly issued a request for proposals as part of a state mandate for 11,500 MW of carbon-emissions-free energy and long-duration energy storage. [pv magazine USA]
¶ “Report: Taxpayers ‘Losing’ On Subsidies For Nuclear Industry” • Nuclear power is making the transition toward smaller reactors. But a report from Taxpayers for Common Sense claims federal subsidies to help that move are a losing bet. The group says the DOE has spent more than $1.2 billion on small modular reactors, and is set to spend more. [Kiowa County Press]
Have an irrepressibly exultant day.
geoharvey 