Tuesday, December 18, 2012

NextEra Energy Resources commissions its 10,000th megawatt of wind energy - 12/18/12

NextEra Energy Resources commissions its 10,000th megawatt of wind energy - 12/18/12:

NextEra (FPL by an older name) now produces enough Wind Power to run a city the size of Chicago, or it will.

Rather cool is to check out the company's Sustainability Report. http://www.nexteraenergy.com/news/index.shtml

This will give you an indication of what power generation companies should be talking about in terms of their production capacity and their carbon footprint.

For example:
"In 2011, 52 million tons of CO2 avoided
from zero-emitting generation and
customer energy efficiency programs."
And, compared to the industry, FPL -- I mean NextEra -- had:
"90% lower SO2 emissions,
80% lower NOx emissions, and
51% lower CO2 emissions."

This is compared to the industry, so the "industry, may or may not be pretty...
By NextEra is looking pretty pretty, by comparison.

It appears that this will put NextEra firmly in the leadership position of Wind Generation in the USA.

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Monday, December 3, 2012

Better BTU Blog: Global Climate Change Summit Brings Questions of America’s Role in Reversing Carbon Trends

Better BTU Blog: Global Climate Change Summit Brings Questions of America’s Role in Reversing Carbon Trends:

Great article on the point that no government is leading on sustainability, at least in terms of those countries that count, namely the US, China and maybe India.

It is amazing and surprising that conservation and energy efficiency (EE) efforts don't move forward even without any government assistance or encouragement. A kilowatt or gallon never used is one that never had to be produced, distributed, and consumed. At least up to a point, the costs associated with EE can be very small with a ROI in months, not years. Then those efficiency savings can be realized for years to come... (And oh, by the way, it helps out the environment as well, now and in the future.)

Of course we can do some of this stuff later today or tomorrow. The low-lying fruit would be so easy to start picking at.

Getting started with or without government help (involvement) seems to be the first order of business. Savings this year that will be realized each year thereafter...

... This is a (Christmas) gift that keeps on giving...

Keywords: 

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Energy and Ecology: Comparison of global CO2 emissions estimates by GCP, IEA, BP, EDGAR, and US EIA (1990-2012)

Energy and Ecology: Comparison of global CO2 emissions estimates by GCP, IEA, BP, EDGAR, and US EIA (1990-2012):

Here is a cool chart of the estimates for global carbon emissions.

It shows the estimates from various sources and proves an interesting view as to high and low estimates.

So we are probably at about 35B tonnes per year. The increase doesn't look like it is planing off any time soon though, no matter which way you measure it.

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The global energy challenge: Awash with carbon : Nature News & Comment

The global energy challenge: Awash with carbon : Nature News & Comment:

Happy days, all you can eat at the energy banquet.

Or would that be happy daze.:-(

This is a great visual summary from the article in 2-page brochure and graphics of our fuel consumption ways.

Note how much China has passed the USA and how much of Chinese energy is from coal.

Ouch!

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Fracking is unearthing surprise bacteria | Health, Medical, and Science Updates

Fracking is unearthing surprise bacteria | Health, Medical, and Science Updates:

Hmmm....

I'm not sure that many of us have been thinking about this? What is living in the oil and gas before we extract it from the wells?

This study starts to bring that to the (fore)ground. It is interesting that some of these guys do better, much better, related to the fracking process and/or being brought to the surface.

Hmmm... And I always thought the the main risks from fracking were: water contamination and possibly the increased chance for earthquakes.?


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