2017-10-5 Energy Week

Visitors Please Note: This blog is maintained to assist in developing a TV show, Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell. The post is put up in incomplete form, and is updated with news until it is completed, usually on Wednesday. The source is geoharvey.wordpress.com.

Within a few days of the last update, the show may be seen, along with older shows, at this link on the BCTV website: Energy Week Series.

Thursday, September 28:

Rendering of an all-electric airliner

• Major European carrier EasyJet announced that it is teaming up with US startup Wright Electric to build an all-electric airliner. The aircraft they have in mind would handle short routes of 335 miles or less – think New York to Boston or London to Paris. EasyJet said the new aircraft would cover 20% of its passenger journeys. [CNN]
• “US Courts Taking Climate Change Seriously” • Hallelujah! The judicial branch of the federal government is finally getting serious about climate science. No longer can the executive branch and the legislative branches cave in to pressure to avoid the inconvenient truth that climate change adaptations will be hugely expensive. [Hartford Courant]

Hurricane debris (Luke Sharrett, Bloomberg, via Getty Images)

• Extreme weather, made worse by climate change, along with the health impacts of burning fossil fuels, has cost the US economy at least $240 billion a year over the past ten years, a report found. This does not include the recent three major hurricanes or 76 wildfires in Western states, which are estimated to cost over $300 billion. [National Geographic]

Friday, September 29:

• “Trump officials have no clue how to rebuild Puerto Rico’s grid. But we do.” • Microgrids built around cheap renewable power and battery storage are now the fastest and cheapest way to restore power, and they build resilience. Energy Secretary Rick Perry is proposing small modular nuclear reactors, which might come in the mid 2020s. [RenewEconomy]

Domino’s Pizza and Tesla batteries

• A Domino’s Pizza franchise in the western Sydney suburb of Plumpton has laid claim to the world’s largest commercial Tesla Powerwall 2 battery storage system, after installing 10 of the US company’s 13.5-kWh units – and not to store rooftop solar power, but to get around the expense of fixing an existing network supply problem. [One Step Off The Grid]
• The National Weather Service reported on the heat wave in the Midwest and Northeast, calling it “the only occurrence on record of 7+ consecutive 90°[F] days entirely within September” on record. It may have happened because the behavior of the jet stream was impacted by climate change, causing increasing numbers of long-lasting events. [CleanTechnica]

Saturday, September 30:

Old San Juan in better days (flickr image, Wikimedia Commons)

• “A Call For Help For Puerto Rico” • Since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on September 20, the island is entirely without grid power. It faces the prospect of remaining without grid power for months. It is appalling that citizens of the US are so exposed to hardship. But we could crowdfund microgrids in large numbers and get them up quickly. [CleanTechnica]
• In a blatant money-grab for the coal industry, Rick Perry’s Energy Department is pushing for direct subsidies to dirty, un-economical coal-fired power plants. So much for “The government shouldn’t pick winners and losers.” So much for “Let market forces decide.” According to Rick Perry, dirty plants are needed as for “security.” [CleanTechnica]
• The US DOE said it has offered conditional loan guarantees worth $3.7 billion to help save efforts to build two nuclear reactors in Georgia, bringing the total federal backing for the delayed and over-budget project to $12 billion. The guarantees will go to three of the four owners of the plan to add two 1,150-MW reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia. [Platts]

Sunday, October 1:

Hurricane Irma from space

• The fossil fuel industry has cost the US around $240 billion per year over the last decade through the effects of extreme weather and air pollution, according to a new study from the non-profit Universal Ecological Fund. But that figure represents an average. This year, the bill for damage is estimated to be approaching $300 billion already. [CleanTechnica]
• A storm of scientific information about sea-level rise threatens the most lucrative, commission-boosting real estate properties along US coastlines. But some real estate lobbyists are teaming up with climate change skeptics to block public release of sea-level rise predictions and ensure that coastal planning is not based on science. [Houma Courier]

Belted Galloway (Amanda Slater, Wikimedia Commons)

• The US Department of Agriculture, the Joint Global Change Research Institute, and the US Department of Energy have just completed a study that shows the problem of methane emissions coming from cattle is worse than previously thought. There may be two possible solutions – feeding cows seaweed or stop eating beef. [CleanTechnica]

Monday, October 2:

• DONG Energy, an oil and gas operator that shed its assets to focus on green projects, said its name does not “fit the company anymore.” The name stands for Danish Oil and Natural Gas. The new name, Ørsted, references the innovative Danish scientist Hans Christian Ørsted, who discovered electromagnetism in 1820. [Energy Voice]

Fire in California (Watchara Phomicinda | Associated Press)

• “What the Trump administration doesn’t understand about wildfires” • The major fires erupting across the West this year have burned through over 8 million acres and $2 billion. It seems the right time to carefully assess wildland fire, its climate drivers and forest-health consequences. But the administration blames “radical environmentalists.” [Los Angeles Times]
• In a humanitarian effort to help Puerto Rico’s devastated population, one of the companies stepping in to help is Tesla. Tesla is sending hundreds of its Powerwall battery systems to be paired with solar panels, Bloomberg reports. The joint systems will help the battered island territory restore electric power. Some systems are already there. [CleanTechnica]
• “What civilians can learn from military investments in solar” • Without electricity from civilian power plants, the US military could be crippled. In January, the US DOE begged for new authority to defend against weaknesses in the grid in a nearly 500-page study warning that it’s only a matter of time before a massive grid failure. [GreenBiz]

Tuesday, October 3:

University of Utah (Photo: flickr | Edgar Zuniga Jr, creative commons)

• The University of Utah is finalizing agreements to supply 50% of its electricity from renewable energy sources. A joint proposal from Cyrq Energy and Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables is to provide 20 MW of geothermal energy and 10 MW of solar energy, reducing the university’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. [ThinkGeoEnergy]
• Tesla has promised to send hundreds of battery storage packs to help Puerto Rico, which is almost entirely without power after Hurricane Maria devastated the island two weeks ago, according to Bloomberg. About 5% of the grid is currently operating, The New York Times reports, it could be as long as six months before power is fully restored. [Utility Dive]
• New York State has asked the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to consider identifying and leasing at least four new Wind Energy Areas off New York’s Atlantic Coast, and it submitted an Area for Consideration to locate the new Wind Energy Areas. Each would be able to accommodate at least 800 MW of offshore wind. [North American Windpower]

Wednesday, October 4:

Offshore wind power (reNews image)

• On October 2, European windfarms set a production record. According to data from WindEurope, offshore windfarms generated 265 GWh, and onshore windfarm provided 1235 GWh. The combined 1499 GWh covered 18.2% of electricity demand. It was enough electricity to provide for 151 million homes or 51% of average industrial demand. [reNews]
• Metropolis Farms has constructed a 500-kW solar array made up of 2003 solar panels on the roof of a building in Philadelphia. On the fourth floor, it is constructing a vertical farm that will be powered entirely by electricity from the roof. It plans to grow the equivalent of 660 outdoor acres worth of crops in less than 100,000 sq feet. [CleanTechnica]
• The Scottish Energy Minister confirmed that the government will ban fracking in Scotland, adding that the government must make decisions in the best interests of Scotland as a whole. The decision follows extensive consultation and consideration of its potential impact. Scotland has had a moratorium on fracking since January 2015. [Aberdeen Evening Express]

 

2017-09-28 Energy Week

Visitors Please Note: This blog is maintained to assist in developing a TV show, Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell. The post is put up in incomplete form, and is updated with news until it is completed, usually on Wednesday. The source is geoharvey.wordpress.com.

Within a few days of the last update, the show may be seen, along with older shows, at this link on the BCTV website: Energy Week Series.

Thursday, September 21:

Wind farm

• Every General Motors manufacturing plant in Ohio and Indiana will now be completely powered by wind energy thanks to a 200-MW power purchase agreement. The automaker is now the sole user of the 100-MW Northwest Ohio Wind Farm, and another 100 MW will come from the HillTopper Wind Project in Illinois. [Power Engineering Magazine]
• Reports from Nicaragua say that President Daniel Ortega has confirmed his country will finally sign the Paris Climate Agreement. This means the US and Syria would be the only two countries in the world that are not active parties to it. The Nicaraguan position had been that the Paris Climate Agreement it did not go far enough. [CleanTechnica]
• The US Climate Alliance, a coalition of states backing the Paris Climate Accord, announced that North Carolina had joined in defiance of President Trump’s decision to exit the United Nations pact. Washington Gov Jay Inslee said, “If we were a country, we would be the third-largest economy of any nation in the world.” [Washington Examiner]

Friday, September 22:

San Francisco (Photo: Cicerone, Wikimedia Commons)

• The cities of San Francisco and Oakland have filed separate lawsuits against five of the largest oil companies in the world, public documents show. They are suing Chevron Corp, BP, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp, and Royal Dutch Shell, for the roles played by those companies in anthropogenic climate warming and rising sea levels. [CleanTechnica]
• Georgetown University partnered with Origis Energy USA to build a solar power system to provide nearly 50% of the campus’s electricity by the 2019-20 academic year. Origis will install 105,000 solar panels on a 518-acre property in Maryland. The panels are expected to produce 75,000 MWh of power each year. [Georgetown University The Hoya]

San Juan after Hurricane Maria (Alex Wroblewski | Getty Images)

• Hurricane Maria has dealt a new blow to Puerto Rico’s bankrupt electric company – causing widespread power outages and imposing costly repairs on a utility that was already struggling with more than $9 billion in debt, poor service and sky-high rates. Puerto Rico’s electric rates are already more than twice the national average. [Chicago Tribune]

Saturday, September 23:

• “Are Hurricanes Winds of Change for Insurers’ Climate Risk?” • The insurance industry faces a long-term challenge as climate change makes natural disasters more severe. The Trump administration’s push to ax some of the tools insurers need to prepare for disasters could force companies to take a more public position on climate change. [Bloomberg BNA]

Solar array

• “US Solar Industry Could Be Devastated By Today’s Tariffs Ruling – May Lead To Crushing Tariffs” • The US International Trade Commission granted a petition for relief from cheaper imported solar panels by two bankrupt US manufacturers. But the remedy will likely mean tariffs that are job-crushing for solar installers. [CleanTechnica]
• A professor of agricultural and biological engineering at the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State, has developed a solution for about half the plastic waste that goes to American landfills. After 10 years of research, he says he has found a biodegradable material that can be used in place of the plastic used to wrap and preserve food. [CleanTechnica]

Sunday, September 24:

Drunken forest, the effect of supporting permafrost melting (Jon Ranson, NASA Science blog, Wikimedia Commons)

• The world’s periglacial zones, home to nearly all of the world’s permafrost, will “almost completely disappear” by the year 2100 even in the most optimistic of scenarios about greenhouse gas emissions reductions, a study says. As all that permafrost melts, vast quantities of methane and carbon dioxide will be released. [CleanTechnica]
• “They Voted For Trump. Obama’s Solar Panels Saved Them From Irma’s Wrath.” • Hurricane Irma knocked out the power while residents Titusville, Florida, sheltered in the Apollo Elementary School. But Classroom 408 had electricity, thanks to an economic stimulus program set in motion by President Barack Obama. [Daily Beast]
• Two years ago, 85% of the electricity in Aztec, California, came from fossil fuels. Now, hydropower supplies 37% of its electricity and 6% comes from a solar farm. Last month, officials from Guzman Energy, which sells power to the city, told the City Commission that Aztec could get 40% of its power from wind in the near future. [Farmington Daily Times]

Monday, September 25:

Tamar natural gas rig (Credit: AP)

• Israel’s supply of natural gas has been halted after a crack was discovered in the single pipeline linking the Tamar field to Israeli users. The fault in a pipe at a processing platform forced the Tamar partners to stop supplies of natural gas, which is used to generate more than half of Israel’s electric power, until repairs are completed this week. [Haaretz]
• The University of Hawaii Maui College is on track to reach a goal of 100% renewable portfolio standard for the electricity by 2020 at the latest. Thanks to a tremendous effort, both on campus and in the community, it is actually aiming to reach that goal in 2018. Doing so, it may be the first college campus in the US to reach net zero. [Maui News]

Ameren microgrid in Champaign, Illinois (Ameren photo)

• When Hurricane Sandy slammed the East Coast in 2012, Princeton University was kept going by a microgrid. The resilience afforded by microgrids has captured attention even in areas shielded from hurricanes, such as Illinois, where the St. Louis-based utility, Ameren, is testing applications of the technology. [STLtoday.com]

Tuesday, September 26:

BYD electric car

• BYD, an auto and battery manufacturer based in China, is expecting that China’s shift to “new energy vehicles” – battery electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, etc – will be completed by the year 2030, according to recent reports. It will take slightly more than a decade to end reliance on internal combustion engines. [CleanTechnica]
• “Wholesale market crisis” • Sustained low wholesale power prices are driving coal, nuclear and even gas plant retirements, pushing independent power producers into the red, and spurring reforms of wholesale market structures. But even PV is not immune to these trends. pv magazine looks at the implications for the solar industry. [pv magazine USA]

North Sea oil rig

• Only around 10% of the UK’s original offshore recoverable oil and gas reserves remain, according to a new study from the University of Edinburgh. At current rates of extraction, the UK’s reserves will last another decade or so. Once they run out, it will be necessary for the UK to import essentially all of the fossil fuels it uses. [CleanTechnica]

Wednesday, September 27:

• British renewable energy developer Anesco has officially unveiled the UK’s first subsidy-free solar farm. Located in the southern English county of Bedfordshire, the 10-MW Clayhill solar farm is the UK’s first ground-mounted installation to operate without any form of government support. Notably, it has a 6-MW battery unit onsite. [RenewEconomy]

Launch of a Japanese weather satellite (Getty Images)

• Record hurricanes and rains have struck throughout the world, bringing chaos to many places. There are many indications that more storms and persistent rainfall events are coming with climate change. But more accurate data, supercomputer modelling, and machine learning are giving us a clearer picture of which areas are likely to be most affected. [BBC]
• According to the Greenfield, Massachusetts, mayor’s office, residents and businesses enrolled in the Greenfield Light and Power program have saved a total of $208,000 in the first half of 2017, and municipal electricity accounts have saved $35,000. It is noteworthy that the savings all come while customers are using 100% “green” electricity. [Recorder]

2017-09-21 Energy Week

Visitors Please Note: This blog is maintained to assist in developing a TV show, Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell. The post is put up in incomplete form, and is updated with news until it is completed, usually on Wednesday. The source is geoharvey.wordpress.com.

Within a few days of the last update, the show may be seen, along with older shows, at this link on the BCTV website: Energy Week Series.

Thursday, September 14:

Sailboat in Georgia (Credit: Luke Sharrett | The New York Times)

• “Harrowing Storms May Move Climate Debate, if Not GOP Leaders” • For years, climate change activists have faced a dilemma: how to persuade people to care about a grave but seemingly far-off problem and win their support for policies that might cost them in utility bills and at the pump. Now, people can see the problem for themselves. [New York Times]
• The bristlecone pine tree, famous for its wind-beaten, gnarly limbs and having the longest lifespan on Earth, is losing a race to the top of mountains throughout the Western United States, putting future generations in peril, researchers said. Climate change is warming its territory, giving a competitive edge to another species. [The Columbian]

Tropical Storm Harvey (Image: Randy Bresnik | NASA)

• “Will Hurricane Harvey Launch a New Kind of Climate Lawsuit?” • Scientists can now link “acts of God” to climate change. Researchers are getting good at determining how much humans have weighted the dice. The field of “extreme event attribution” could give victims the power to hold someone accountable, say lawyers. [Inside Science News Service]

Friday, September 15:

• Donald Trump has indicated that Hurricanes Irma and Harvey have not changed his view on climate change. When a reporter asked for his thoughts on the hurricanes and climate change, he said, “We’ve had bigger storms than this.” But he had earlier said of Hurricane Harvey, “There’s probably never been anything like this.” [Independent.ie]

Oil and agriculture

• “Is Oil Industry Threatened By More Than Electric Vehicles?” • Execs at a number of top fossil fuel companies have suggested that even after demand for oil and natural gas peaks, demand for petrochemical feedstocks for plastics, fertilizers, and other chemicals will stay strong. But plastics pose a serious problems that have to be addressed. [CleanTechnica]
• Drax, a UK power company, announced that it is seeking planning permission to install a 200-MW battery onsite. If approved and commissioned, the storage facility would be the biggest in the world, dwarfing the 129-MW lithium-ion battery project that is currently being built in Australia by Tesla and Neoen. [RenewEconomy]

Saturday, September 16:

Turbines on Kodiak Island (Photo: Eric Keto | Alaska’s Energy Desk)

• “What can Kodiak teach the world about renewable energy? A lot.” • Since 2007, Kodiak Island has transformed its grid so that it now generates almost 100% of its power with renewable energy. The electric rates are stable and have actually dropped slightly since 2000. It is a model with lessons for remote communities from the Arctic to the equator. [KTOO]
• MetStat is a company that provides analysis on precipitation and weather event frequency to industries like utility companies that need to know where to put their infrastructure so it won’t be damaged by extreme weather events. It has now released an analysis of Hurricane Harvey. It found that the storm was a once in 25,000 year event. [CleanTechnica]
• “Sachs: Big Oil will have to pay up, like Big Tobacco” • Here is a message to investors in the oil industry, whether pension and insurance funds, university endowments, hedge funds or other asset managers: Your investments are going to sour. The growing devastation caused by climate change is going to blow a hole in your fossil-fuel portfolio. [CNN]

Sunday, September 17:

St Lawrence beluga (Nick Caloyianis, National Geographic Creative | WWF-Canada)

• A survey of 903 Canadian vertebrate species spanning over four decades has found that half are in serious population decline. Declining species lost a total of 83% of their numbers between 1970 and 2014, says the report from the World Wildlife Fund. Causes include pollution, climate change, habitat loss, and invasive species. [The Weather Channel]
• Following a meeting of environment ministers, the EU climate commissioner said Trump officials had indicated the US would either stay in the 2015 accord or review its terms. But the White House had insisted it will leave the Paris climate accord, and despite reports to the contrary, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that its position was unchanged. [BBC]
• On Thursday morning, Florida Power and Light tweeted that all substations and 1,000 main power lines have been restored in Florida in the wake of Irma. And the process of allowing people to return to homes was underway in most areas outside the storm-ravaged lower Florida Keys. FPL is working to fix over 12,000 cases of damage. [ExpressNewsline]

Monday, September 18:

Evacuation ahead of Irma (Photo: Stephen M. Dowell | AP)

• “Scientific models saved lives from Harvey and Irma. They can from climate change too.” • The impacts of hurricanes Harvey and Irma were blunted because weather models accurately predicted the hurricane paths days in advance. Scientific models for climate change use the same core physics as those for weather prediction. [The Guardian]
• Scientists have learned that urban trees  –  even just a single tree  –  can help homes and office buildings save energy by blunting the wind’s chilling power. Trees keep pedestrians more comfortable as they walk down the street, and they help lower building heating costs by cutting the wind. Even trees without leaves can slow the wind down. [CleanTechnica]
• Last week, the US Energy Department was gushing about its latest report on solar costs, with a record-breaking 29% decline in utility-scale solar leading the charge. Enjoy it while you can. A big tariff decision is coming down the pike as early as next week, and that could throw a Hoover Dam’s worth of cold water on the US solar industry. [CleanTechnica]

Tuesday, September 19:

Painting LA’s streets white (Twitter | LA Street Services)

• While politicians elsewhere waffle on climate change, officials in Los Angeles are tackling the problem head on with a radical plan to lower the temperature of the city. Mayor Eric Garcetti intends to cut the average temperature in LA by 3° F over the next two decades. As part of that effort, LA streets are getting a new coat of white paint. [CleanTechnica]
• “What Hurricane Harvey Taught Us About Risk, Climate & Resilience” • People know the climate is changing, but they don’t know how serious it is. Over 70% of Americans agree that the climate is changing, but less than half of us believe it will affect us personally. Why? Perhaps because the when we imagine it, it is always far off. [CleanTechnica]

• Early this year, the Mail on Sunday ran a hyperbolic article on climate change, claiming that world leaders had been “duped” by manipulated climate data. But the Mail on Sunday belongs to the Independent Press Standards Organization, which ruled that the article violated its code of ethics. The paper has been ordered to display the article’s inaccuracies. [Ars Technica UK]

Wednesday, September 20:

 

Conversion process (Image: Clarissa Towle | Berkeley Lab)

• A team of scientists from the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has figured out a way to convert CO2 directly into ethanol and ethylene, using a process powered by solar energy. The team made ethanol, skipping all the steps that involve planting corn, growing it, harvesting it, and processing it into biofuel. [CleanTechnica]
• Renewable electricity is close to reaching a tipping point almost everywhere in the world and “nobody is going to make coal great again,” BNEF founder Michael Liebreich told a clean energy industry event in London. He said solar and onshore wind power had surpassed all orthodox expectations over the past two decades. [www.businessgreen.com]

Proven clean energy solutions (Photo: istock)

• “Clean Energy Is America’s Next Frontier & Path to a Safer Climate” • A new report from the NRDC shows how the United States can meet our short- and long-term climate goals relying primarily on today’s proven clean energy solutions – and with tremendous climate and health benefits that far surpass the cost. [Common Dreams]

2017-09-14 Energy Week

Visitors Please Note: This blog is maintained to assist in developing a TV show, Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell. The post is put up in incomplete form, and is updated with news until it is completed, usually on Wednesday. The source is geoharvey.wordpress.com.

Within a few days of the last update, the show may be seen, along with older shows, at this link on the BCTV website: Energy Week Series.

Thursday, September 7:

Indonesian power plant (Image: peggydavis66, CC BY-SA 2.0)

• A recent report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis warns that Indonesia’s coal-based electricity strategy risks wasting $76 billion over the next 25 years. New generating technology and changing energy markets are making it easier and cheaper to supply electricity with small distributed power stations. [eco-business.com]
• France plans to pass legislation by the end of 2017 to phase out all oil and gas exploration and production on its mainland and overseas territories by 2040, according to a draft bill. It will no longer issue exploration permits and the extension of current concessions will be gradually limited until they are phased out by 2040. [Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide]
• “Our Hurricane Risk Models Are Dangerously Out-of-Date” • More than half of the deluge associated with Tropical Storm Harvey happened “outside of any mapped flood zone,” even including 500-year events, in areas with only “minimal flood hazard.” The Houston area suffered from something more than random bad luck. [MIT Technology Review]

Friday, September 8:

Princes Street, Edinburgh

• The government of Scotland is now planning to phase out the sale of new petrol/gasoline and diesel cars by the year 2032, a full 8 years earlier than the current plans of the UK government. The plan was revealed by Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. Scotland currently accounts for roughly 10% of the UK’s total auto market. [CleanTechnica]
• Solar roof tile production at Tesla’s “Gigafactory 2” production plant in Buffalo, New York, has now begun, as of the end of August, according to the company’s Chief Technical Officer. Up to this point, for development reasons, Tesla’s new solar roof tiles have only been produced on a small scale in a plant in Fremont, California. [CleanTechnica]
• A study from Denver’s Department of Environmental Health shows that moving to 100% clean energy by 2030 or earlier is an achievable strategy that Denver can pursue to meet its 80% by 2050 carbon-reduction goal. The report comes just weeks after the mayor issued a vision for powering all of Denver with renewable energy. [North American Windpower]

Saturday, September 9:

Mill at Old Sturbridge Village (Keitei, Wikimedia Commons)

• A living-history museum depicting a rural New England town from the 1830s, is now powered by a 1.8-MW solar ground mount, owned and operated by Green Street Power Partners, LLC. The solar system will provide power at a discounted rate for 25 years to Old Sturbridge Village, which welcomes more than 250,000 visitors annually. [Broadway World]
• New documents show that Connecticut-based Freepoint Solar has plans to develop three arrays, each capable of generating 20 MW of power, in Vernon, Shaftsbury, and Fair Haven, Vermont. Only one array of that size has been approved in Vermont at this point. Large photovoltaic projects have spurred debates about siting and transmission capacity. [vtdigger.org]

Hurricane Irma (NOAA photo)

• “How Hurricane Irma Became So Huge and Destructive” • As Hurricane Irma barrels dangerously toward Florida, scientists say that a perfect mix of meteorological conditions has conspired over the past week to make the storm unusually large and powerful. In a season expected to have powerful hurricanes, Irma stands out. [New York Times]

Sunday, September 10:

• The Nebraska State Board of Education approved new science standards that challenge kids to think and act like scientists. Under the new standards, students will “analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate and scale of global or regional climate changes.” [Omaha World-Herald]

Tampa in 2003 (Christopher Hollis, Wikimedia Commons)

• “Irma takes aim at America’s most vulnerable, unprepared city: Tampa” • Hurricane Irma appears to have Tampa in its cross-hairs, potentially hitting the city as a Category 3 storm Monday morning. Unfortunately, Tampa is unprepared. Climate science denial has thwarted efforts to plan for rising seas and worsening storms. [ThinkProgress]
• JP Morgan Cazenove has joined the ranks of those who believe the electric vehicle revolution will happen sooner rather than later. JP Morgan noted that the price differential between legacy vehicles and EVs is gradually narrowing as battery prices fall, but that once a certain tipping point is reached, things could start happening quickly. [CleanTechnica]

Monday, September 11:

Irma at Boynton Beach (Jim Rassol | South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

• As Hurricane Irma swept through South Florida, power utility officials warned Sunday that restoring electricity to more than 2 million homes and businesses will be a slow, dangerous, and time-consuming process. A Florida Power & Light spokesman said that he expects full power restoration after the storm to take “multi-weeks.” [The Recorder]
• “Good news! Energy demand will peak for the first time in human history” • Global energy demand will plateau from 2030, oil demand will flatten from 2020 and then decline significantly, the shift to renewable energy will be quicker and more massive than most people realize, according to findings of DNV GL’s Energy Transition Outlook. [HuffPost]
• Offshore wind is now cheaper than nuclear and gas in the UK. The second Contracts for Difference subsidy auction that saw two developers win the rights to build offshore wind farms for just £57.50/MWh ($75.83/MWh). This compares to the rate of £92.50/MWh agreed for the nuclear power station at Hinkley Point. [pv magazine International]

Tuesday, September 12:

Damage done by Hurricane Irma

• The ongoing natural disasters ravaging the western and gulf coasts of the US should serve as a dire warning about climate change, according to Washington Gov Jay Inslee. He said the damage of hurricanes wildfires show that “we are seeing, in real time, a slow-motion disaster movie that we are now living through that is not hypothetical.” [CNN]
• A Lawrence Berkeley National Lab study published in Nature Energy finds that wind power in the United States is responsible for saving tens of billions to hundreds of billions of dollars from prevented health care costs and saved lives from 2007–2015. The savings come from reduced pollution that causes asthma attacks and other diseases. [CleanTechnica]
• “Hurricane Irma: Climate change deniers’ chickens come home to roost” • Recently, US right-wing media personality Rush Limbaugh was still enthusiastically pushing the climate change denial barrow. Two days later, he was evacuated from his Palm Beach residence along with his neighbours at Mar-a-Lago. He has not been heard from since. [Independent Australia]

Wednesday, September 13:

The Broderie Room (Cbaile19, Wikimedia Commons)

• Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions per square foot by 56%. This significantly exceeds the Paris Climate Agreement goal of a 26% to 28% reduction by 2025. Phipps reduced its carbon footprint through the use of renewable energy and sustainable, building designs. [InvestorIdeas.com]
• It’s official. The solar industry has met the 2020 utility-scale solar cost target set by the Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative – three years early. The DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory released new research today that shows the average price of utility-scale solar is now under $1 per watt and below 6¢/kWh. [Greentech Media]
• Vermont Gas Systems will begin offering renewable natural gas – methane produced from landfills, cow manure, and other organic sources – this heating season, regulators said. The company was required to develop a plan to do so as part of the approval for its recently completed 41-mile natural gas pipeline into Addison County. [vtdigger.org]