The shale-gas boom won't do much for climate change. But it will make us richer.
"Yet many of the experts in the Stanford study don't expect carbon emissions to keep falling — at least not without further policy changes. That's because cheap natural gas is also likely to displace even cleaner sources of energy like nuclear, wind, and solar. What's more, low natural-gas prices will discourage efforts to conserve energy and boost efficiency."
When societies as a whole recognize the potential improvement to their quality of life, and are willing to make certain it happens, the economic arguments do not hold water. Our economy reflects our priorities.
Three reasons why Germany is kicking our arsch on solar
"Not only does local ownership flip the notion of energy costs as consumers become producers, it also flips the notion of political ownership. Three-quarters of Germans want to maintain a focus on 'citizen-managed, decentralized renewable energy.'"
It is especially interesting to see this take shape in areas where society used to operate in the exact same way ours does. It shows not only that things can get better, but that they can get significantly better. Note that Amsterdam has a slightly lower population density in the metro region than Chicago, meaning that we should have an easier time making bike friendly infrastructure happen than they can.
What a truly bike-friendly city looks like (and how it got that way)
"All this is theoretically intended to make Chicago a better place to bike. But the best city to bike in the world, or at least one of those widely acknowledged as such, takes a very odd and completely foreign approach that resembles none of the ideas people focus on in American cities: the “anarchic” city of Amsterdam. And Streetsblog has a wonderful short film explaining how it all works."
The more I investigate, write, and advocate, the more often people send me interesting articles about cool technologies that I have never seen or never seen at scale. This is one from my wife about how necessity as the mother of invention...or in this case, resurrection...brought back an old technology to create a more resilient source of energy.
Carbon-negative energy, a reality at last -- and cheap, too
"Gasification, in which dense biomass smoldering -- but not combusting -- in a low-oxygen environment is converted to hydrogen gas, is nothing new. Price said that ancient cultures used it to enrich their soils, and during World War II, a million vehicles utilized the technology. But after the war, it more or less vanished from the planet for reasons unknown. Until Mason needed a way to power his flamethrowers, that is."
The title of the article caught my eye because my first thought was, "I didn't realize it was dirty." Then I immediately noticed that not only did I know the technology, it was an article about a company founded by a friend. The use of the phrase "secret sauce" makes it sound a bit more trivial than it is, but the story is a great one. Innovative technology in the hands of a true entrepreneur, creating good jobs within the community, and all to improve the ability for renewable energy system to gain more foothold through increased stability.
McKinley Park tech firm aims to clean up green energy
"The company’s secret sauce has no moving parts, requires no energy to operate and protects the battery from fire or other damage. It stabilizes batteries that control the electric grid’s voltage, ensuring that nothing on the other end catches fire, and frees the system from needing liquid or refrigerated-air cooling. It’s the only lithium-ion battery system in the nation to use phase-change materials to keep the batteries cool."
Happy Friday!
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