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![Solar panels need batteries to properly optimize their energy generating capacities. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons / [[User::DDDDDDDDD|:DDDDDDDDDDD]].](https://archinect.imgix.net/uploads/5c/5cce378c228ccc4dcbc6bc7d312fed2c.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&w=514 "Solar panels need batteries to properly optimize their energy generating capacities. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons / [[User::DDDDDDDDD|:DDDDDDDDDDD]].")
manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries is scaling up rapidly to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles and large systems installed in power grids or at solar farms. As prices for lithium-ion batteries drop — they fell by half from 2016 to 2019, according to BloombergNEF — banks are taking another look. — The Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the growing viability for utility-scale battery operations. One stumbling block for municipalities and building operators alike has been finding affordable battery storage options to keep sustainably generated energy flowing when the sun isn't shining... View full entry
Denmark is developing plans to build “energy islands” – areas of reclaimed land that would host vast wind farms able to generate up to 10GW of electricity, 8.8GW more than the largest offshore wind farm now in existence.
The cost of the project or projects has been put at between $20bn and $45bn, most of which is expected to come from the private sector, with the government funding research and development.
— Global Construction Review
With 41% of its national energy mix already generated by wind turbines, Denmark leads the field in Europe in terms of percentage. A recently passed National Climate Act signals further commitment to set bold and legally binding emission reduction goals. View full entry
Scotland will soon be meeting the equivalent of 100% of its electricity needs from clean energy sources.
That’s the prediction made in a new report published by member organisation Scottish Renewables, which suggests renewable energy is providing signficant benefits to almost every aspect of the nation’s economy and is supporting major growth in terms of innovation, jobs, communities, climate progress and the rural economy.
— Energy Live News
The United Kingdom's green energy revolution is continuing apace following record-setting sustainable energy generation initiatives that have nearly eliminated the use of coal-fired energy in the country. According to the Scottish government, Scotland's recent move to double-down... View full entry
The government has decided to move towards achieving 100-percent electrification of railways, as part of efforts to curb carbon footprints, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.
The railways minister also said he has a mission that in next 10 years, Indian Railways will be running on renewable energy.
— The Economic Times
Announcing the plan, India's Union Minister Piyush Goyal said, "We will be the world's first large railway...nearly [75,000 miles] of track, which will be 100-percent electrified. Imagine how much carbon we will reduce from the entire atmosphere." We are aiming to make Indian Railways world's... View full entry
Compressed air energy storage has been used for decades, but only at two facilities in Germany and Alabama, built before solar and wind started creating challenges for power grid operators.
“This is a pretty simple concept,” said Bobby Bailie, director of business development for energy storage at the German industrial firm Siemens. “You’re pushing air into a cavern, storing that energy. And at times when you need it, you pull it back out.”
— The Los Angeles Times
Can a giant underground salt cave in the Utah desert hold a potential answer to Los Angeles’s growing sustainable energy needs? The Los Angeles Times digs into a new-old approach for storing energy in compressed air deposits deep underground. The compressed air, generated with the help of... View full entry
America's coal industry has already been left in the dust by natural gas. Now it's under immense pressure from the renewable energy boom.
The renewable energy sector had slightly more installed capacity than coal in April, according to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission report.
— cnn.com
Surging renewable energy production capabilities have finally overtopped coal-fired power production in the United States in recent months, a historic first. The milestone is the latest development in a decade-long slide for coal-fired energy production, which peaked in 2008. CNN reports that coal... View full entry
General Electric Co said on Friday it plans to demolish a large power plant it owns in California this year after only one-third of its useful life because the plant is no longer economically viable in a state where wind and solar supply a growing share of inexpensive electricity. — reuters.com
GE's Inland Empire Energy Center, a 750-megawatt natural gas-fueled plant located in Riverside County, California, built in 2009 is shutting down 20 years early. The culprit? Affordable wind and solar energy, which are surging in California, and outdated technology. On most days, California... View full entry
On Wednesday during NYC Climate Week, Lego announced they’d be re-releasing the LEGO Creator Expert Vestas Wind Turbine, developed in collaboration with wind company Vestas...This set stands 3 feet tall and contains 826 pieces, including one piece—a spruce tree—that is the first of Lego’s sustainable plant-based plastic pieces. The set also features adjustable and motorized turbine blades and a movable nacelle with aircraft warning lights. — Popular Mechanics
The world’s biggest offshore windfarm has officially opened in the Irish Sea, amid warnings that Brexit could increase costs for future projects.
Walney Extension, off the Cumbrian coast, spans an area the size of 20,000 football pitches and has a capacity of 659 megawatts, enough to power the equivalent of 590,000 homes.
The project is a sign of how dramatically wind technology has progressed in the past five years since the previous biggest, the London Array, was finished.
— The Guardian
The Walney Extension is made up of 87 turbines and has a total capacity of 659 MW, enough to power almost 600,000 homes in the UK. This makes it now the largest operational offshore wind farm, however with wind farm supersizing along the British coastline it may not hold the record for long. ... View full entry
Britain’s homes could be lit and powered by windfarms surrounding an artificial island deep out in the North Sea, under advanced plans by a Dutch energy network.
The radical proposal envisages an island being built to act as a hub for vast offshore windfarms that would eclipse today’s facilities in scale. Dogger Bank, 125km (78 miles) off the East Yorkshire coast, has been identified as a potentially windy and shallow site.
— The Guardian
Plans by TenneT, the Dutch power grid, aim to build a power hub potentially at Dogger Bank, a site in the North Sea, at a scale that far surpasses current offshore sites. A long-distance cable would send energy to the UK and Netherlands, with other countries possibly added later. Early studies... View full entry
Creative studio DFA is proposing a 712-foot public observation tower in Central Park that would double as a sustainable filtration system to clean the hazardous Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir and turn it into a non-toxic, useable freshwater pond. Though meant to be temporary, the prefabricated tower would be the world’s tallest timber structure if completed, featuring a 56-foot-wide viewing platform and a glass oculus that showcases the tower’s functional elements. — 6sqft
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While hard to imagine today, Paris’s most iconic monument was largely reviled when it was first built for the 1889 World’s Fair. On February 14, 1887, as construction was just beginning, a group of some of most notable Parisian artists, writers, architects and intellectuals – including... View full entry
