Opinion:
¶ “The World Is Mobilizing Against Big Biomass This Week” • In actions around the world, protestors stress that burning forest-based wood pellets for large-scale energy production imperils climate change efforts and harms communities. Governments are urged to prevent carbon-storing forests from being turned into wood chips. [CleanTechnica]
Capitol Building (Jorge Alcala, Unsplash, cropped)
¶ “A Possible Legal And Policy Blitzkrieg Against CleanTech” • An item that kept coming up in the news and getting promptly buried last month was Project 2025. At its core of Project 2025 is a book, of over 900 pages saying what the Heritage Foundation hopes it could do during the first six months of a Republican administration in 2025. [CleanTechnica]
World:
¶ “BYD: The Top Electric Car Maker That Is Not Tesla” • Tesla has a Chinese rival in its rear-view mirror. Shares in BYD, or Build Your Dreams, jumped this week after it said it expected profits in the third quarter to more than double compared with last year. BYD is now ahead of Tesla in quarterly production, and just second to Tesla in global sales. [BBC]
BYD Atto 3 (Alexander Migl, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
¶ “Portugal’s Barroso Lithium Mine Project Faces Villagers’ Ire” • An ancient farming village up in the Portuguese mountains is fighting plans for an opencast lithium mine right on its doorstep. Portugal’s lithium reserves are considered central to Europe’s increasing demand for EVs, but the villagers say that does not justify ruining their way of life. [BBC]
¶ “Partners To Deploy 200,000 Electric Motorcycles And 5,000 Battery Swap Stations In Africa By 2030” • Kofa, a Ghanaian company focusing on battery swap networks, and TAILG are jointly developing a battery swap-enabled electric motorcycle called Jidi. They hope to deploy 200,000 EVs using the Kofa battery swap network by 2030. [CleanTechnica]
TAILG factory (Courtesy of Kofa)
¶ “IAEA Team Gathers Samples Near Fukushima As Treated Radioactive Water Is Released” • An International Atomic Energy Agency team is visiting Fukushima for its first marine sampling since the nuclear plant began releasing treated radioactive water. One team member said he does not expect any rise in radiation levels in the area’s fish. [ABC News]
¶ “Jinkosolar Is To Supply 3.8 GW Of Modules To ACWA Power Solar Farms” • Chinese solar module manufacturer JinkoSolar agreed to supply 3.8 GW of its n-type panels to ACWA Power for use at two solar projects under construction in Saudi Arabia. The panels will be installed at the 2.3-GW Ar Rass 2 project and the 1.5-GW Al Kahfah solar farm. [PV Tech]
Solar farm (Jinkosolar image)
¶ “Australia Needs ‘Drastic’ Renewables Boost As Nuclear Not An Option For Decades, Says Center-Right Thinktank” • A center-right thinktank is calling for “drastically accelerated deployment” of renewable energy, batteries, and transmission infrastructure. It acknowledged there is no prospect of nuclear energy playing a role in Australia before 2040. [The Guardian]
US:
¶ “Atlantic Hurricanes Twice As Likely To Strengthen From Weak To Major Intensity In 24 Hours” • The Atlantic basin’s tropical cyclones may now be more than twice as likely to strengthen from a weak hurricane or tropical storm into a major hurricane in just 24 hours due to climate change, a paper published in Scientific Reports found. [ABC News]
Atlantic hurricanes (NASA, Unsplash)
¶ “Biden Wants To Drag The Creaky, Cranky US Electrical Grid Into The 21st Century” • In some cases, requests to connect to the grid are taking up to five years for approval, which is why the Biden administration announced $3.46 billion in funding to upgrade America’s electric grid. It is the largest single investment in the US grid in history. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “It’s A Hydrogen Fuel Cell Train Party, And California Has Been Invited” • Many slings and arrows have been lobbed at the idea of outfitting EVs with hydrogen fuel cells instead of battery packs, but the vision of fuel cells refuses to die. Now California is to add a fleet of hydrogen fuel cell trains to its stable of alternatives to fossil fuel. [CleanTechnica]
Hydrogen fuel cell train in California (Stadler, California DOT)
¶ “Crops And Solar Intersect As Iowa’s First Agrivoltaics Project Prepares To Power Up” • An Alliant Energy Solar Farm at Iowa State University is not your typical solar array. Come next year, the ground underneath and around the panels will bloom with fruits, vegetables, and pollinator plants. It is called agrivoltaics, farming and solar together. [The Gazette]
¶ “‘A Massive Enterprise’: California’s Offshore Wind Farms Are On A Fast Track” • The areas off California with the strongest winds are far from shore and too deep for traditional platforms, so developers are planning clusters of floating platforms about 20 miles off the coast, in waters more than a half-mile deep and tethered by cables. [The Salinas Californian]
Morro Bay (Morro Bay Tourism Bureau)
¶ “Charting A Clean Energy Future” • In a recent report, The Nature Conservancy found that businesses in five Midwestern states – Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin – have been rising to the challenge of reducing their carbon footprints. They are setting ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets and working to attain their goals. [The Nature Conservancy]
¶ “Our 10-Year Utilities Forecast: Renewable Energy To Triple By 2032” • Morningstar estimates that 45% of US power generation will be renewable energy by 2032. With more aggressive clean energy policies to meet key US climate targets, these numbers could increase even more. Morningstar thinks the renewable energy sector is 12% undervalued. [Morningstar]
Have a highly valued day.
geoharvey 