Green Energy Times

Headline News:

• “Kentucky Regulators Approve Plan For 900% Increase In Renewable Energy” • The Kentucky PSC approved a plan by Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities to retire several fossil fuel plants and replace them with 877 MW of solar and a 125-MW, 500-MWh of battery system. This will be a 900% increase in renewables. [pv magazine USA]

Solar array in Kentucky (Vesper Energy image)

• “The AI Boom Is Boosting Carbon Emissions – Should Companies Acknowledge Their Climate Share?” • AI uses a lot of electricity because it needs thousands of specialized computer chips. It’s getting clear that the AI boom in the next few years will increase electricity consumption exponentially, increasing the world’s carbon emissions. [CleanTechnica]
• “Low US Gasoline Demand Is Making Gasoline Less Profitable” • Low gasoline demand in combination with the seasonal switch to winter-grade gasoline has made gasoline less profitable to produce, reducing the difference between gasoline blendstock and crude oil prices to multiyear lows of around 17¢/gallon in October 2023. [CleanTechnica]
• “US And China Reach ‘Some Agreements’ On Climate – John Kerry” • The US has reached some agreements with China ahead of the COP28 Summit in Dubai at the end of this month, US climate envoy John Kerry has said. “We felt that our days of talks were very successful. We did come up with some agreements”, he said, adding that details will come soon. [BBC]
• “Volvo Group Acquires Proterra” • Volvo Group announced, “Proterra Inc and Proterra Operating Company Inc are in a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the US. Volvo Group has been selected as the winning bidder in an auction for the business and assets of the Proterra Powered business unit at a purchase price of $210 million.” [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Headline News:

• “Jeep’s Electrification Game Plan: Wrangler, Wagoneer, And More Going Electric!” • Exciting times are coming for Jeep enthusiasts, as Jeep is set to take a giant leap into electrification. Jeep outlined some plans for the next five years, promising to electrify some of its most beloved models, including Wrangler, Wagoneer, and Grand Wagoneer. [CleanTechnica]

Jeep EV (Jeep image)

• “White House Announces New Efforts To Prevent Wildfires, Limit Smoke Hazards” • The White House is announcing an interagency focus to protect communities from wildfire smoke and prevent large fires that put communities at risk. An MOU was signed by the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, along with the EPA and CDC. [ABC News]
• “Oil Companies Shook My House, Hundreds Of Miles From The Oil Fields” • While fracking sometimes causes earthquakes, wastewater disposal from all types of oil production is almost always to blame. Wastewater disposal wells pump large volumes of undrinkable saltwater into the ground in deeper layers. We owe ourselves better than this. [CleanTechnica]
• “How Africa’s First Heat Officer Is Protecting Women In Sierra Leone” • Eugenia Kargbo is the first person in Africa to hold the position of chief heat officer. Her job is to make Freetown, Sierra Leone, a more liveable, greener city and to help its residents cope with rising heat. In 2022, her team installed market shade covers to protect 2,300 street vendors. [BBC]
• “Michigan Senate Votes To Override Local Decisions On Wind, Solar Energy” • Michigan lawmakers approved another major change to the state’s energy policy, passing a two-bill package that would let state regulators override local decisions about where to allow large-scale wind and solar arrays. The bills are headed to the governor. [Bridge Michigan]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Headline News:

• “’Virtually Certain’ That 2023 Will Be Warmest Year After October Record” • This year’s heatwaves, floods, and fires have been deadly. Now it is “virtually certain” that 2023 will be the warmest on record, after October temperatures were 0.4°C above the previous high of October 2019. It was the fifth month in a row of record warmth. [BBC]

November, a bit farther south (Ruvim Noga, Unsplash)

• “Musk Makes The Move To Bring An Affordable Tesla To The European Market” • Finally, Tesla revealed plans to manufacture an affordable EV. It will enter the market as a €25,000 ($26,838) EV produced at Tesla’s gigafactory near Berlin. Elon Musk made the announcement as he visited the Tesla factory in Gruenheide and chatted with staff. [CleanTechnica]
• “Air Force Asks Congress To Protect Nuclear Launch Sites From Wind Turbines” • The Air Force’s underground nuclear missile silos are rarely disturbed by more than the occasional wandering cow. But the service is now asking Congress to help with another unexpected danger: towering wind turbines, which are edging closer to the sites each year. [ABC News]
• “Global Wine Production Falls To 62-Year Low In 2023” • Poor weather globally is likely to cause global wine production to fall to a six-decade low this year. The International Organisation of Vine and Wine says that wine production around the world is likely to be about 7% lower in 2023 than last year. Such a yield would be the worst since 1961. [BBC]
• “Redwood Materials Helps To Recycle Kauai’s Stationary Energy Storage Systems” • In Hawaii, the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative currently has a 4.6-MWh battery storage system that is ready to be decommissioned. So KIUC is getting the help of Redwood Materials for the decommissioning process as well as recycling the batteries. [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Headline News:

• “Dominion Sees Cheaper Wind Power At Massive Offshore Project” • Dominion Energy Inc expects to deliver power at a cheaper price than originally expected from the largest approved offshore wind project in the US, a rare win for a wider wind sector recently beleaguered by bad news. The shares soared the most in almost a year. [Supply Chain Brain]

Block Island Offshore Wind Farm (Ionna22, CC-BU-SA 4.0)

• “Study Reveals Effects Of Fast Charging On Electric Car Battery Health” • Recurrent Auto published a report on DC fast charging and battery degradation. “We compared cars that fast charge at least 90% of the time to cars that fast charge less than 10% of the time. … The results show no statistically significant difference in range degradation. [CleanTechnica]
• “China, Japan And South Korea Reaffirm Pledges For Climate Action” • The environment ministers of China, Japan, and South Korea reaffirmed their commitments to tackle climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental pollution. The countries said they remain committed to multilateralism and are willing to encourage close collaboration. [China Daily]
• “Solar Mini-Grids Offer Clean-Power Hope To Rural Africa” • Mini-grids, small power systems usually supplying rural villages, are not new. But the drop in cost of solar PVs has driven growth in clean energy mini-grids, with rural Africa poised to benefit the most. The village of Sabon Gida has more reliable power than Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital. [Forbes India]
• “NREL Study Finds Rapid Adoption Of ZEVs Will Move To US To 80% Or More Drop In GHG Emissions By 2050” • The rapid adoption of zero-emission EVs will move the US close to an 80% drop in transportation greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 from the 2019 level according to researchers from the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. [Green Car Congress]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Headline News:

• “Wind Farms Push Spain’s Renewables Share To 50.7% In Oct” • Renewabl sources accounted for 50.7% of Spain’s total electricity production in October, up from 42.1% a month earlier. The large increase is thanks to a sharp rise in wind power output, according to preliminary figures released by the Spanish grid operator, Red Electrica de Espana. [Renewables Now]

Wind farm in Spain (José Ibáñez, CC-BY-SA 3.0)

• “Community-Battery Applications Swamp Renewable Energy Authority” • The Australian Renewable Energy Agency says it has received 140 eligible applications for its Community Batteries Funding Program, with a total grant request of $1.3 billion. This is over 10 times the $120 million available under the program’s first round of funding. [The New Daily]
• “Climate Scientists Are Working With Indigenous Tribes” • For many of us, climate science brings to mind satellite observations, temperature records or the analysis of ice cores. But there is plenty more data besides that. Indigenous communities that have long lived close to the land often hold their own records and recollections. [BBC]
• “Cover Crops Help Fight Climate Change, But Farmers Fear Losing Money” • Cover crops top the list of tasks U.S. farmers are told will build healthy soil, help the environment and fight climate change. Yet after years of incentives and encouragement, Midwest farmers planted cover crops on only about 7 percent of their land in 2021. [CGTN]
• “Clean Power Alliance To Serve Southern California With Record Amounts Of Wind Power From Largest Renewable Energy Infrastructure Project In US History” • A 15-year PPA with Pattern Energy will expand CPA’s diverse clean energy portfolio with 575 MW of wind energy from the 3.5-GW SunZia wind farm in central New Mexico. [Yahoo Finance]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.