Climate Climate & Energy
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A potentially game-changing development in concentrated solar PV
In the Toronto Star, Tyler Hamilton takes a close look at a cool new company, Morgan Solar, which has developed a potentially revolutionary form of "concentrating photovoltaic" solar technology. It’s intended to be simple and cheap enough to make solar ubiquitous, particularly for the developing world. Here’s the nut: Morgan Solar has come up with […]
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IEA forecasts boom in renewables through 2030
The influential International Energy Agency has released its annual report on world energy demand, predicting that renewables will make big gains worldwide, increasing their overall market share 5 percent to meet 23 percent of the world’s total energy needs by 2030. However, coal consumption is also predicted to increase, eventually providing some 44 percent of […]
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Japan’s emissions hit record levels
Last year, Japan’s greenhouse-gas emissions reached record levels, hitting 1.5 billion tons of CO2 equivalent — an increase of some 2.3 percent. Much of the rise was due to an earthquake shutting down the world’s largest nuclear plant in northwestern Japan, which pushed utilities to rely more on fossil fuels. But critics have also said […]
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New report suggests that half of U.S. states could meet their energy needs with in-state resources
The New Rules Project just released a comprehensive new report containing some interesting results: The data in this report, while preliminary, suggest that at least half of the fifty states could meet all their internal energy needs from renewable energy generated inside their borders, and the vast majority could meet a significant percentage. And these […]
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Wisconsin doesn’t want no stinkin’ coal plant
Wisconsin regulators on Tuesday unanimously rejected Alliant Energy’s proposal to build a new coal-fired power plant, in large part due to concerns over — you betcha — climate change.
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What’s the best way to phase out the huge fleet of aging coal plants?
The anti-coal movement has a lot to celebrate right now. Of the 151 coal plants on the drawing boards as of the May 2007 report by the Energy Department, 82 have now been abandoned, blocked, or placed on hold. In September, Juliette Jowitt of the UK’s Manchester Guardian wrote: In a few years, the backlash […]
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The Economist blows it on the Green New Deal
The Economist is probably the smartest newsweekly going, so it’s pretty stunning how bad this editorial is. It shows an almost willful disengagement with Obama’s proposals. The editorial argues that the newly popular idea of a Green New Deal is misguided. Yes, we need to address climate change. Yes, we need public spending to stimulate […]
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Fossil-fuel power plants in U.S. to test using some solar energy
A utility group in the United States said it plans to test coupling solar thermal power with natural-gas and coal-fired power plants in an apparent bid to reduce fuel costs and greenhouse-gas emissions.
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Brother, can you spare a country?
“We do not want to leave the Maldives, but we also do not want to be climate refugees living in tents for decades.” — Mohamed Nasheed, newly elected president of the Maldives, on a plan to use tourism revenue to buy a new homeland, since climate change-driven sea-level rise is expected to swallow the current […]
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It’s getting out there
Newsweek: But there are also powerful voices being raised amid the din of despair, saying that now is precisely the time to seize the initiative and launch the “global revolution” the IEA is calling for. And not just because it will stave off disasters two or three decades away, but also because it can provide […]
