Friday, October 23, 2015

More than three in four Americans believe in global warming - UPI.com

More than three in four Americans believe in global warming - UPI.com:

Finally. Even republicans have shifted to a majority accepting climate change. This is not a party thing; this is a human thing.

Once people start to realize that the earth is warming. And that people are generally responsible.

There tends to be a some obvious actions that we all must do, soon or later.

Sustainability is a law of nature that it is hard to break. Ignore it at your own risk, and everyone else's risk at well.

We promote doing smarter things now to bend the curve on the human impact on the earth. It is a compounding (geometric or exponential) kind of thing. Small(er) changes now make a BIG difference over time. Business as usual (BAS) simply compounds the issues and the problems.

Currently, this is a year of El Nino, so the record temperatures for 2015 are on path to exceed last year's record "by a mile".

Related to global warming and El Nino, check out Hurricane Patricia, the strongest hurricane ever recorded. Ouch!..

So lest start a call to action doing those actions that will save consumers, businesses, governments money while simultaneously making us all more sustainable.

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Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Elon Musk and SolarCity Unveil ‘world’s Most Efficient’ Solar Panel

Elon Musk and SolarCity Unveil ‘world’s Most Efficient’ Solar Panel:

Wow. Greater than 22% efficient from solar panels. Far better than the lonely plant with about 5% efficiency from photosynthesis.

This is impressive.

Combine very efficient and affordable power generation with some great battery storage technology and suddenly the solar starts to become an irrefusable option: gotta do it because it is the best available option where the sun shines regularly!

Maybe the batteries should be portable. In your car(s) even!:-)

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Solar and wind just passed another big turning point, Cheaper n Better

Solar and wind just passed another big turning point:

So solar and wind power generation is reaching a threshold where renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuel-based power in Germany and UK. That is before counting the subsidies for renewables, and ignoring the massive externality costs of our historically favorite dirty black fuel.

Note the discussion of the virtuous cycle of renewable fuels. As base load power moves up from 5% renewables the costs of traditional power plants becomes more expensive, essentially they become more peak-power generators and less base-load power.

Solar has the added advantage of offing more distributed power generation, usually at the point of use. So solar starts to really cut down on the massive loss of power over distribution channels.

In the US, really cheap NatGas is a no-brainer decision for converting coal plants. It is so much cleaner in all respects. But new fossil fuel power plants will be harder and harder to justify to shareholders and to the PSC.

In the meanwhile, nuclear sits on the sidelines, leaving fission and fusion as a non option in the foreseeable future.

If momentum builds for homeowners and businesses to move to at-source power generation (say Solar City), the building momentum could be a real game-changer.

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