Opinion:
¶ “Farmland And PVs: It Might Not Be What I Expected” • How many acres of land would be needed for enough solar PV to provide the US with all of its energy, including electricity, heat, transportation, industry, and whatever else we use energy for? How many acres are being used for corn for ethanol? How do they compare? [CleanTechnica]
Corn field (Gaspar Uhas, Unsplash)
¶ “Europe Is Leading On Green Hydrogen. The US Will Follow Soon After” • Recent examples of EU hydrogen project activity: BP announced that they are moving forward with their 200-MW project in Castellon, Spain, and a smaller 10-MW project in Aberdeen, Scotland. We’ve seen this before. Europe leads, and the US quickly catches up. [CleanTechnica]
Science and Technology:
¶ “This Hurricane Season Is Confounding Experts And Defying Forecasts.” • Forecasters had predicted this hurricane season was going to be bad. Instead, the Atlantic Ocean is enveloped in a rare and strange calm that has flummoxed forecasters and reset their expectations. It could be a glimpse at what’s to come as the planet gets hotter. [CNN]
Weather (Ish Consul, Unsplash)
World:
¶ “One Of The Year’s Strongest Typhoons Kills Two In Hainan Before Hitting Vietnam” • One of this year’s most powerful storms made landfall in northern Vietnam, after killing at least two and injuring dozens on the Chinese island of Hainan. With wind speeds of 230 km/h (140 mph), Typhoon Yagi was as strong as a Category 4 hurricane. [CNN]
¶ “Tesla GigaTrain Begins Operations In Germany” • The absolute best way to transport people from Point A to Point B at the lowest possible coat per mile is by train. Tesla recently started operating a battery-powered passenger and freight train from Erkner station southeast of Berlin to the Tesla gigafactory in Grünhiede, 6 km to the east. [CleanTechnica]
Tesla GigaTrain (NEB image)
¶ “EVs Take 29.4% Share In The UK” • August’s auto market saw plugin EVs take 29.4% share in the UK, up from 27.8% year on year. Battery EVs grew in volume, whilst plugin hybrids shrank. Overall auto volume was 84,575 units, down 1% YOY and in line with pre-2020 norms. The UK’s leading BEV brand in August was Tesla, with a 16% BEV market share. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Putin Issues Nuclear Power Plant Strike Warning: ‘One Can Only Imagine'” • Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a fresh nuclear warning about an alleged Ukrainian attack on a nuclear power plant in Russia’s border Kursk region. “One can only imagine what will happen if we strike back; what will happen in Europe,” Putin said. [MSN]
Vladimir Putin (kremlin.ru, CC-BY-SA 4.0)
US:
¶ “A Hurricane-Damaged Louisiana Skyscraper Is Set To Be Demolished” • An abandoned, 22-story building in Lake Charles, Louisiana is scheduled to be demolished Saturday after sitting vacant for nearly four years. The Hertz Tower, once an icon in the city, had become instead a symbol of destruction from hurricanes Laura and Delta. [ABC News]
¶ “Offshore Wind Foes Finally Give Up The Ghost … Or Did They?” • The rough-and-tumble world of the Atlantic coast offshore wind industry has been eerily quiet this summer. Projects in three New England states and in Maryland are moving ahead quietly. Blockades by outraged citizens are absent. The silence is deafening. [CleanTechnica]
Offshore wind farm (Maryland Energy Administration image)
¶ “More Than 150,000 EV Chargers Are Now Installed In California” • The State of California has installed more than 150,000 electric vehicle chargers. The total number of US EV chargers is about 192,000, according to the US Transportation Department. It should be no surprise that California has most of the EV chargers in the country. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Massachusetts and Rhode Island To Buy Power From Three New Offshore Wind Farms” • Massachusetts and Rhode Island officials announced that they plan to buy power from three new offshore wind farms, signaling that energy regulators in both states still consider the renewable energy source economically viable in New England. [The Public’s Radio]
Windpower activity at New Bedford (Vineyard Wind image)
¶ “Federal Agency Selects GVEA For Renewable-Energy Grants, Loans” • The Biden-Harris administration said that Golden Valley Electric Association, based in Fairbanks, Alaska, is one of sixteen electric cooperatives around the nation to be selected for funds intended to help co-ops pay to install renewable energy such as wind and solar. [KUAC]
¶ “Maryland Offshore Wind Project To Generate Power For Peninsula” • The US Department of the Interior approved US Wind’s plan for 114 wind turbines that would generate more than 2 GW of clean energy. The wind farm is slated for federal wind lease areas that were created through Maryland legislation back in 2013. [Delaware Business Times]
Rendering of wind farm (US BOEM image)
¶ “Solar Is bigger In Texas” • Texas passed California as the state with the most capacity from big solar projects, new industry data shows. Growth of these utility-scale arrays highlights the wider trend that Texas is a lab for almost every aspect of the energy and climate future. Long the country’s biggest wind producer, Texas is now second in battery storage too. [Axios]
¶ “Sixteen US Rural Electric Co-Ops To Get $7.3 Billion For Clean Energy” • The US government announced more than $7.3 billion in financing for sixteen rural electric cooperatives to build clean energy for rural communities in the country. The funds come from the Inflation Reduction Act’s Empowering Rural America program. [Renewables Now]
Have a gratifyingly peaceful day.
geoharvey 