World:
¶ “Climate Change Takes Habitat From Big Fish, The Ocean’s Key Predators” • This year’s marine heat waves and spiking ocean temperatures foretell big changes for some of the largest fish in the sea. Loss of habitat could largely remove some of the most important predators from the ocean, including commercially important seafood species. [ABC News]
Fisherman with albacore tuna (NOAA FishWatch, public domain)
¶ “Libya Turmoil Made Derna Flooding Even More Deadly” • Up to 20,000 people are feared to have died due to raging floods in eastern Libya. Derna, a city emblematic of a breakdown of Lybia law and order in recent years, had most of the deaths. It has had little investment for decades. An official said that one of the dams that burst was not being maintained. [BBC]
¶ “EV Sales Growing Faster Than Forecasted, Oil Demand Peaked In 2019” • RMI shows that the rapid growth of EVs means that global oil demand for cars has already peaked and will be in freefall by 2030. The new driver of change is economics. Because battery costs enjoy learning curves, total cost of ownership price parity has been reached. [CleanTechnica]
Renault Zoe (Renault image)
¶ “€25,000 Small Electric Cars On Track To Be Profitable By 2025!” • Carmakers can make a profit selling small electric cars made in Europe for €25,000, research shows. Falling production costs and battery prices would make mass market B-segment vehicles feasible to electrify by 2025, according to the study by Transport & Environment. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “French-Led Proposal For Australia’s Second-Biggest Battery Storage In Tasmania Will ‘Reduce Energy Costs’” • Tasmania could have a grid-connected battery by 2026 under a proposal from the country’s largest battery operator. Proposed by Neoen, a Paris-based energy company, the battery would add 140 MW of capacity to Tasmania’s energy network. [ABC]
Tasmanian countryside (Matt Palmer, Unsplash)
¶ “Djibouti Inaugurates Red Sea Power, Country’s First Wind Farm” • President Ismail Omar Guelleh inaugurated Djibouti’s first-ever wind farm. The Red Sea Power wind farm, near Lake Goubet, will provide 60 MW of clean energy, averting 252,500 tonnes of CO₂ emissions annually, equivalent to the pollution from over 55,000 buses. [Energy Central]
¶ “Dublin Hotel Signs Wind PPA” • Flogas Enterprise signed a corporate power purchase agreement with Dublin’s Merrion Hotel to supply it with renewable electricity. The 21-month deal will allow the hotel to buy renewable electricity directly from one of Ireland’s first wind farms, Cronalaght Wind Farm in Donegal, which began operations in 1997. [reNews]
Wind turbine in Ireland (Peter Randall-Cook, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
US:
¶ “California Energy Commission Starts $38 Million Project For EV Charging In Low-Income And Disadvantaged Communities” • The California Energy Commission is opening applications for $38 million in equity-focused incentives to fund EV charging stations in low-income and disadvantaged communities in 28 counties. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Rural Puerto Rican Homes To Receive More Low-Cost Solar Power” • Last month, Barrio Electrico began installing more solar power and energy storage in a part of Coamo named Barrio Pasto. The goal is to install enough new solar and energy storage in the first year to provide low-cost electricity to up to 500 households there. [CleanTechnica]
Rooftop solar system (Image by Barrio Electrico)
¶ “California Legislature Approves Plan Allowing The State To Buy Power” • The California Legislature voted to give Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration permission to buy massive amounts of electricity. The move is aimed at avoiding blackouts by shoring up the state’s power supply while jumpstarting the offshore wind industry. [San Diego Union-Tribune]
¶ “Florida Is Now Adding More Solar Power Than Any Other State” • Florida has long ranked a distant third place behind California and Texas in installed solar, but it’s now installing more solar panels than any other state. This is despite its having a policy landscape considerably more challenging than what is found in other states. [Canary Media]
Solar array in Florida (Amer Awwad, US DOE)
¶ “Enel Brings Five New Batteries Online In Texas, Tripling Its Operational Grid Storage Capacity” • Enel North America has more than tripled its operational utility-scale storage capacity this summer by bringing five new battery energy storage systems online in Texas. The batteries add 555 MWh of energy storage to the Texas power grid. [PR Newswire]
¶ “Sunflower Solar Plant Ensures A ‘Bright Future’ For Entergy And Mississippi” • Entergy Mississippi has looked closely at solar technology for over a decade. Its Bright Future initiative kicked off in 2015, helping its engineers learn more about the feasibility of solar technology. Now, it is developing the 100-MW Sunflower Solar Project. [Entergy Newsroom]
Solar farm (Entergy image)
¶ “Air Force Set To Award Contract For Small Nuclear Reactor At Base Near Fairbanks” • The Air Force announced its intent to award a contract for a small nuclear reactor at a base in Alaska pending approval by the NRC. The contract went to Oklo Inc, of Santa Clara, California, for a small reactor at Eielson Air Force Base. [Anchorage Daily News]
¶ “New Files Shed Light On ExxonMobil’s Efforts To Undermine Climate Science ” • ExxonMobil executives privately sought to undermine climate science even after the oil and gas giant publicly acknowledged the link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change, according to previously unreported documents revealed by the Wall Street Journal. [The Guardian]
Have a profoundly amusing day.
geoharvey 