There is mounting evidence than West-facing solar panels produce more electricity during peak demand, and thus solve solar’s main problem.
For our Economics classes at Pinchot last year, I – with a few friends and classmates – worked on water in California. My part was focusing on the inefficiency and the leaks occuring in the State. The findings are quite unsettling.
It is with a certain excitement that I am announcing you that Pinchot University – where I am starting the second year of my MBA in Sustainable Business and Energy – has been acquired by Presidio Graduate School, San Francisco, CA.
This is important as water scarcity may well concern half of Mankind by the middle of the century according to an MIT study. Here comes the shower of the future. Nebia uses 70 percent less water than the US standard.
2014 was according to the Japan Meteorological Agency the hottest year ever recorded. Other agencies around the world will present the same conclusion in the next days or weeks as records were broken all around the world.
In April I was noting that a study shown that putting solar panels facing West – and not South – had some benefits. Indeed, panels facing this direction generate more power in peak hour.
If you think climate change is a threat only to a distant future, please read on. In California, the situation is critical as to the Weather Channel : ” California’s reservoirs are severely depleted due to the ongoing widespread drought conditions “ ” As of Jan. 21, 2014, 67 percent of California was in extreme drought, … Read more
This was a major setback for me last week, US greenhouse gases emissions related to energy rose two percent in 2013 compared to 2012. To the US EIA this is due to ” a small increase in coal consumption in the electric power sector. “
” Coal has regained some market share from natural gas since a low in April 2012 “ This is explained by decreased coal prices and rising natural gas prices as the Los Angeles Times reported.
Overall, US emissions are still around ten percent lower than in 2005. President Obama goal’s is to have 17 percent lower emissions in 2020.
During my two weeks away in Southern France I didn’t read much news except the ones I had on the Facebook pages of I love climate scientists and 350.org. This allowed me to find some quite interesting stuff.
Each article below could have been the topic of a full post here, but given the fact that I switched for the summer to three articles per week, this is not going to happen. I hope you will like this selection nonetheless.
This selection allows us to travel all around the world and are only good news. More and more countries are becoming serious about climate change. Finally !
Electric vehicles suffer nowadays from two main problems : limited range and expensive price. But both problems could soon be solved if Envia Systems, a California-based company succeeded. To Climate Progress :
” Envia says its new manganese-based cathode design allows lithium cells to store almost three times the amount of energy per charge than today’s commercial lithium-ion battery packs. ”
But there is more :” The cost of cells will be less than half (…) of cells today “. Yes, Envia could bring batteries that would triple the range while being half as cheap as today’s models.
After the quite depressing news from the International Energy Agency yesterday, here is something that might cheer you up. If proven true, this could literally change everything. According to Bloomberg : ” Solar power may be cheaper than electricity generated by fossil fuels and nuclear reactors within three to five years because of innovations, said … Read more
During my daily hours of ride in the trains to go and come back from the job I read books but also newspapers. This allowed me to read a great article in the New York Times about an unexpected problem with solar power plants in California. ” Just weeks after regulators approved the last of … Read more
