This summer’s hot and sunny days enabled Europe to set a new record for the output of solar PV. In particular, the spike in output in the UK allowed solar to take over from gas as the number-one energy source in the country.
Now, as we all know, making a significant increase against a base of a relatively small number is easier than making one against a larger number, but we should be happy that solar is coming into its own.
I have a Facebook friend who’s constantly “getting into it” with climate change deniers. Exactly why, I’m not sure. I very much doubt these are real people expressing their own candid thoughts; it seems far more likely they’re paid agents of Russia, big oil, or whatever. There are literally thousands of them, and they all seem to be reading from the same script. (more…)
While Nikola Tesla was widely perceived as an eccentric with a phobia of germs who in his later years claimed he communicated telepathically with pigeons, he was also a visionary genius behind an electric motor, polyphase alternating current, the remote control device, the X-rays and nearly 300 patents in 26 countries. (more…)
The subject of high-altitude wind isn’t new. (more…)
Here’s a question for you mechanical engineering types out there: Can you please comment on this energy storage device? I saw this at a conference a few years ago, but forgot about it until just now. (more…)
Here’s a short video on green roofs, a subject which, when properly implemented, can cut summer air conditioning bills by up to 75%.
Interesting, cities like San Francisco and Chicago have mandated green roofs for any construction larger than 25,000 square feet, which, though it sounds cool at first blush, opens up the subject of the proper role of government. (more…)
Here’s a concept in renewable energy that a reader submitted, to which I wrote:
Here’s the problem you’re going to run into: the first and second laws of thermodynamics. (more…)
I understand that the far right wing, with the aid of its think tanks, wants to inflict as much damage as possible to the institutions that keep us healthy, globally competitive, and out of poverty. What I don’t understand is why. Who, regardless of how much money one has, wants to live in a world of ignorance, pollution, and destitution?
Want an eye-opener? Google, as I just did, “cato institute public education.”
You might think that all the new heat that’s melting the arctic is distributed more or less evenly across the region. As shown here, you’d be wrong; for reasons no one seems to be able to understand, it’s actually concentrated in a fairly small patch of previously frozen ocean water between Alaska and the North Pole. The rate of warming up there is more than three times the planetary average.
Sustainable living has become a necessity and we all need to contribute to the betterment of our global biosphere. The symptomatic weather changes, which are happening all around us, have become undeniable. (more…)
