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Archive for the ‘Environment’ Category

More Wind, Less Warming

Wednesday, December 17th, 2014
Figure ES-1. A Path to 30 Percent Wind Electricity

ENVIRONMENT TEXAS
American wind power is already significantly reducing global warming pollution. In 2013 alone, wind power averted 132 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions – as much as would be produced by 34 typical coal-fired power plants. But with the United States and the world needing to move toward a future of 100 percent clean energy in order to prevent the worst impacts of global warming, America must do much more.

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Freeing the Grid: Net Metering & Interconnection Best Practices

Tuesday, December 16th, 2014
definitions

INTERSTATE RENEWABLE ENERGY COUNCIL
VOTE SOLAR
One significant lesson that is apparent upon reviewing the wide variety of existing state standards is that inconsistency is the nemesis of clean energy development. It creates confusion among consumers, undermines the ability of businesses to operate efficiently across utility service territories or state lines,
and increases costs to all program participants — utilities, consumers, businesses and commission staff — by forcing these stakeholders to master the idiosyncrasies of each individual state’s programs.

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The Impacts of EPA’s Clean Power Plan on Electricity Generation and Water Use in Texas

Tuesday, December 9th, 2014
Figure 3. Baseline power generation fuel mix, where coal is gradually replaced by gas and wind power (Units = GWh/yr)

CNA CORPORATION
To determine how Texas could be affected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan (CPP), we applied CNA’s Electricity-Water-Climate power sector model to evaluate the potential impacts. We find that under the CPP, the state will save water and reduce levels of conventional air pollutants. In addition, the state will be able to meet the policy’s targets with modest incremental effort even though electricity demand is expected to increase by 25 percent.

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Boom: North America’s Explosive Oil-By-Rail Problem

Monday, December 8th, 2014

A train hauling two million gallons of crude oil from North Dakota had exploded in the Canadian town of Lac-Megantic, killing 47 people. Now regulators had to assure Americans a similar disaster wouldn’t happen south of the border, where the U.S. oil boom is sending highly volatile crude oil every day over aging, often defective rails in vulnerable railcars.

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Bridges to New Solar Business Models

Friday, December 5th, 2014
Rocky Mountain Institute: Solar Business

ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE
Over the past decade, distributed solar photovoltaics (DPV) have experienced unprecedented growth. DPV is now on track to achieve significant scale in many segments of the U.S. market…Supportive federal, state, and local policies have to date spurred DPV’s development in many U.S. markets. However, many of these policies were designed for early market support of an emerging technology, not as long-term solutions. Thus as the DPV market has grown, so too has conflict around early-market policies. In many states, regulators and policy makers are now reexamining the policy environment as solar adoption reaches net energy metering (NEM) market caps or incentive program funding is exhausted.

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Provo, UT: Documenting Dangerously High Smog Levels

Friday, December 5th, 2014

Through a series of hikes into the mountains, we set out to document through time-lapse, the Haze (CO2 Emissions) that plague our home town of Provo Utah.

A video by Jesse Myrick (USA) – Age Group 18-35

-Connect4Climate on Vimeo

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Transporting Crude Oil in New York State

Thursday, December 4th, 2014
Table 1: Progress on Recommended Federal Actions

NEW YORK STATE ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (NYSERDNA)
In recognition of the increased risk of accidents and public concerns associated with the significant volume of crude oil transported through New York State, on January 28, 2014, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo issued Executive Order 125 (EO 125), directing state agencies to immediately conduct a coordinated review of New York State’s crude oil incident prevention and response capacity.

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Practicing Risk-Aware Electricity Regulation

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014
2014 UPDATE RANKING: RELATIVE COST VS. RELATIVE RISK OF NEW GENERATION RESOURCES

CERES

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Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College’s Impressive Solar Array

Wednesday, November 26th, 2014

Bowdoin’s new solar panel complex — which includes a field of panels at the former Navy base and panels atop the Watson, Farley and Greason athletic buildings — went online in October. More than six times the size of the next largest existing solar project in Maine, this system will provide about 8% of the College’s electricity. SolarCity will install an additional 12-kW system on the new residence hall at 52 Harpswell Road later this year.

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Green Highway Snow and Ice Control Cuts the Chemicals

Monday, November 24th, 2014
Xianming Shi with the industrial size mixer he uses to concoct green deicers and ice-free pavement. (Photo by Rebecca Phillips, University Communications)

By Rebecca Phillips, University Communications, Washington State University PULLMAN, Wash. – Ice-free pavement. “Smart snowplows.” Vegetable juice ice-melt. Cold-climate researchers at Washington State University are clearing the road with green alternatives to the salt, sand and chemicals typically used for highway snow and ice control. As a nation, “we are kind of salt addicted, like […]

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