Homeowner – “..that’s ridiculous. Our lawn will be fried.”
We have so much education to do.
Month: April 2022
Gas as a Weapon: Russia Cuts Supply to Poland, Bulgaria
“Gas markets are global” – and tight supplies will reverberate thru markets around the world, raising prices and underlining need for renewable transition.
Russia will cut off the gas to Poland and Bulgaria on Wednesday in a major escalation in the standoff between Moscow and Europe over energy supplies and the war in Ukraine.
Moscow is making good on a threat to halt gas flows to countries that refuse President Vladimir Putin’s new demand to pay for the fuel in rubles. The European Union has rejected the move in principle but now payment deadlines are starting to fall due, governments across Europe need to decide whether to accept Putin’s terms or lose crucial supplies — and face the prospect of energy rationing.
PBS on “Unusually Early” Wildfires
GM CEO – EV Demand Strong
Above, Mary Barra interview, below, more on the Cadillac Lyriq.
Indian Heat Wave Means a “Year Without Spring”
An unprecedented heatwave in South Asia this month (April 2022) is bringing dangerously high temperatures to over a billion people. Both India and Pakistan are being hit the hardest with widespread record-breaking temperatures above 105 degrees F (40 degrees C). Conditions are expected to worsen this week in those regions, where temperatures approaching 113 degrees F (45 degrees C) are possible.
The heatwave weather began in late March for northern India and Pakistan, and spread into the first weeks of April. Although heatwaves are not uncommon in this region during the pre-monsoon season from April to June, residents and meteorologists have noted that this heatwave was the earliest they could remember.
With no relief in sight, some observers are suggesting this heatwave pattern might become one of the longest-lasting in recent decades. Some are calling this year the year without a spring.
The average temperature in India in March 2022 was about 92 degrees F (33 degrees C), the warmest March ever recorded since records began in 1902.
Forecast models indicate that parts of Pakistan and northwestern India could reach temperatures near 120 degrees F (50 degrees C) on Thursday and Friday. Major cities such as Delhi and Lahore are forecast to reach 113 degrees F (45 degrees C). These temperatures are 18 degrees F (10 degrees C) warmer than the normal high temperatures for April, and would approach the all-time record temperatures for the month. Temperatures in major metropolitan areas can be further exasperated by the urban heat island effect, increasing local temperatures a few degrees higher than the surrounding countryside.
Due to these forecasts, heat wave warnings were issued for 10 major cities in India. Some regional educational systems have shut down all schools for the next five days.
UPDATE below:
Continue reading “Indian Heat Wave Means a “Year Without Spring””Still April, and Water “Emergency” in LA
Above, local TV coverage of unprecedented water restrictions features revealing interviews with some homeowners bitching about the impact on their lawns.
Southern California officials on Tuesday took the unprecedented step of declaring a water shortage emergency and ordering outdoor usage be restricted to just one day a week for about 6 million people in parts of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties.
The outdoor watering restrictions will take effect June 1 under the decision by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and will apply to areas that depend on water from the drought-ravaged State Water Project.
“We are seeing conditions unlike anything we have seen before,” said Adel Hagekhalil, the district’s general manager. “We need serious demand reductions.”
The MWD’s board has never before taken such a step and the resolution adopted by the water wholesaler will bring the first widespread water restrictions imposed in Southern California during the current extreme drought.
California’s drought, now in a third year, has become the driest on record and has been intensified by hotter temperatures unleashed by climate change. With the state’s major reservoirs at low levels, the MWD has been left without enough water in parts of Southern California.
“These areas rely on extremely limited supplies from Northern California, and there is not enough supply available to meet the normal demands in these areas for the remainder of the year,” Hagekhalil said.
Continue reading “Still April, and Water “Emergency” in LA”The MWD board voted unanimously to adopt the emergency measures to “reduce non-essential water use” in certain areas. Cities and smaller water suppliers that get water from the MWD are required to start restricting outdoor watering to one day a week, or to find other ways to cut usage to a new monthly allocation limit.
Renewables Outpaced Gas in Texas in Early 2022
Wind and solar power accounted for a record 34 percent of electricity generation within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, outperforming the state’s fleet of combined-cycle gas turbines as the dominant source of electricity during the first three months of 2022, according to a new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
Wind turbines and solar panels produced about 32.3 million megawatt hours in the quarter, compared to 29.7 million megawatt hours churned out by the combined cycle gas turbines. The pattern is similar to last year, when renewables outproduced combined cycle gas turbines in the first four months of 2021, thanks in part to seasonally lower demand and higher wind output.
Renewables have already outpaced coal-produced power in the state, first edging it out in March 2015. Renewables only did so two other times until 2019, when they out-generated coal for seven months and overall during the entire year.
“The transition that first saw renewables catch and then pass coal-fired generation is now on the horizon for gas,” Wamstead wrote. “As with the coal experience, the shift won’t be immediate. Wind generated more electricity than coal in a month for the first time in 2016 but it wasn’t until 2019 that wind and solar together finally topped coal.”
Renewable power generation, especially solar, is expected to keep growing. Solar doubled its generating capacity in 2021, jumping to 8,274 megawatts at the end of the year. So far this year, it’s climbed nearly 26 percent to 11,190 megawatts, and ERCOT officials estimate it could climb another 54 percent compared to the end of 2021 to 18,000 megawatts by the end of this year.
Continue reading “Renewables Outpaced Gas in Texas in Early 2022”Still, solar made up a small portion of the grid’s power. It accounted for about 5 percent of the power on ERCOT in the first quarter of this year. Wind accounted for more than 29 percent, while combined cycle gas turbines were 31 percent.
Biofuel Wood Pellets Not a Climate Solution
Busting the Anti-Solar Myths
Getting busy around here – again.
I’m spending a lot of time traveling to sites of potential solar projects, to bust the Facebook-fomented myths about solar energy.
The same folks that told you wind turbines cause cancer, are telling folks on social media that solar farms will create all manner of mischief. I’m getting strong feedback from the landowners, mostly farmers, who really want to see solar deployed, and not just because it helps them diversify income. More and more are telling me they understand their obligation to their children, and future generations.
Above, the myth that solar farms are somehow “toxic” or contaminate soil. I asked a panel of experts, including Annick Anctil of Michigan State U, one of the foremost experts in the country on that topic, and Josh Pearce of Michigan Tech.
Below, Patricia McGarr is Chair of the Illinois State Board of Real Estate Appraisal, and the National Director of Valuation at Cohn-Resnick, a top ten accounting firm. She’s worked with an 8 person team evaluating 26 solar sites in 15 states for possible impacts on property values. Her finding? No impact.
These videos and much, much more are available at my Sun101 website, and they are meant to be shared – so don’t be shy. This conversation is taking place on social media, and we won’t win unless those with access to good information are willing to push back on the crazy.
Below, an Iowa TV team looks at the misinformation they are seeing from anti-solar operatives. The formula is: Fossil funded think tank spreads nonsense on Facebook, local groups pick up and amplify in local echo chambers, fearful misinformed locals show up to angrily intimidate local boards into passing restrictive ordinances. Rinse, repeat.
Continue reading “Busting the Anti-Solar Myths”Trailer: Trial Exposes Climate Crimes in”Youth v Gov”
It’s on Netflix.
Description:
YOUTH v GOV is the story of America’s youth taking on the world’s most powerful government. Armed with a wealth of evidence, twenty-one courageous leaders file a ground-breaking lawsuit against the U.S. government, asserting it has willfully acted over six decades to create the climate crisis, thus endangering their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. If these young people are successful, they will not only make history, they will change the future. Thanks to Barrelmaker Productions for their generous offer of this fabulous opportunity.
YOUTH v GOV is the story of the Juliana v. The United States of America constitutional lawsuit and the 21 American youth, ages 14 to 25, who are taking on the world’s most powerful government. Since 2015, the legal non-profit Our Children’s Trust, has been representing these youth in their landmark case against the U.S. government for violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty, personal safety, and property through their willful actions in creating the climate crisis they will inherit.