Opinion:
¶ “My Descent Into A Nuclear Waste Grave” • Erika Benke wrote of her experience of Onkalo, where Finland will begin depositing spent nuclear fuel underground in a few years. Onkalo, which lies 450 m (1,480 ft) below the Earth’s surface, is made up of tunnels hewn in living rock to store highly radioactive waste for 100,000 years. [BBC]
Onkalo Deep Repository (Posiva.fi, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Science and Technology:
¶ “A Sustainable Solution: Compostable Wind Turbine Blades” • Polymer composites expert Valeria La Saponara, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC Davis, has a vision to develop compostable, ecologically sound wind turbine blades from bamboo and mycelium, the fungal rootlike system. [CleanTechnica]
World:
¶ “Huge Colonies Of Emperor Penguins Saw No Chicks Survive Last Year As Sea Ice Disappears” • In the Bellingshausen Sea, four out of five emperor penguin colonies analyzed saw no chicks at all survive last year as the area experienced an enormous loss of sea ice, according to a study in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment. [CNN]
Penguins (Michael Van Woert, NOAA NESDIS, ORA)
¶ “Maritime Wind Energy Plot Thickens As UK Startup Applies F1 Know-How” • A time for oceanic wind power is returning. The “hard sail” era is dawning and cargo shippers are already starting to put the ball in motion. They will have one more option to choose from if all goes according to plan for the UK startup GT Green Energy Technologies. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “UK Renewables Industry Rejects Market Reform Proposals” • The cost of electricity will “inevitably rise for consumers” if plans for an overhaul of the market go ahead, say three UK trade associations representing over 800 renewable energy companies. The scheme would mean that the wholesale price of electricity would vary across Great Britain. [reNews]
Solar panels (EDF image)
¶ “Winds of Change” • The Kipeto Wind Power Project is about 30 miles southwest of Nairobi. It has sixty turbines that together generate 100 MW, enough to power tens of thousands of homes. Local vulture populations have been declining due to poisons, but concerns that the wind farm will harm them have been allayed. [The Nature Conservancy]
US:
¶ “Houston Issues Mandatory Water Restrictions Due To Intense Heat, Worsening Drought” • Faced with a fast-spreading, extreme drought and blistering heat, Houston public officials announced that outdoor water restrictions are now mandatory across the city as water pressure drops. Scientists say heat and drought are both linked to climate change. [CNN]
Part of the water supply (Alexander Hatley, CC-BY-SA 2.0, cropped)
¶ “Maui County Sues The Utility Hawaiian Electric Over Wildfire Negligence” • Maui County is suing Hawaiian Electric, saying it failed to turn off electric equipment before wildfires started on the island. If power lines had been switched off for exceptionally high winds and dry conditions, the destruction could have been avoided, the lawsuit said. [BBC]
¶ “Republican Debate: What They Said (And Didn’t Say) About Climate” • One of the Republican debate’s most illuminating moments came 20 minutes in. The reaction to it was swift and – among some young people and scientists – angry. Nikki Haley was the only candidate who said climate change was real, in the short discussion on the subject. [BBC]
Nikki Haley in 2021 (Glenn Youngkin, public domain)
¶ “El Niño Means An Even Floodier Future Is On The Coastal Horizon” • High-tide flooding in the US, which is measured by NOAA tide gauges that continuously record surrounding water levels, occurs nearly three times as often today as it did in 2000, and the frequency is accelerating along most Atlantic and Gulf Coast locations. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “At Last, The Vision Of The Grand Canyon Tribal Coalition Is Realized” • When Grand Canyon National Park was established in 1919, Indigenous Peoples were forced off their land. Since that time, tribes in the region have been working to regain access to and greater protections for their ancestral homes. Now that goal is being achieved. [CleanTechnica]
Grand Canyon (Omer Nezih Gerek, Unsplash)
¶ “For First Time, 50% Of California Diesel Fuel Is Replaced By Clean Fuels” • California hit an important milestone in its shift away from polluting fuels, with clean fuels replacing over 50% of the diesel oil sold in the first quarter of this year. California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard requires fuel producers to reduce the carbon intensity of fuels. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Anchorage Will Likely See Higher Bills With LNG Imports, But Some Say Renewables Could Delay That” • Alaska utilities that use natural gas from Cook Inlet to heat homes and generate electricity will, in the future, need to look elsewhere, as supplies of accessible gas will decline. Conservation and renewable energy could delay that. [Alaska Public Media]
Transmission lines in Anchorage (Chugach Electric)
¶ “Construction Of A Photovoltaic Plant Starts In Texas To Supply Solar Power To Facebook” • Iberdrola’s US subsidiary Avangrid has begun construction of the 240-MW True North PV plant in Falls County, Texas. It will supply electricity to power the operations of Meta, the parent company of the social network Facebook, in the region. [Evwind]
¶ “US Department Of Energy Projects Strong Growth In US Wind Power Sector” • The US DOE released three annual reports showing that wind power is one of the fastest growing and lowest cost sources of electricity in America and is set for rapid growth. Wind power accounted for 22% of generating capacity installed in the US in 2022. [Department of Energy]
Have a wholly meritorious day.
geoharvey 