26 April 2015, Climate News Network: Major changes are in store for electricity industry. As the battle to phase out fossil fuels heats up, finding economically viable ways to store surplus electric power is becoming vital. Inventors are in a race to find the best way of storing electricity to make the most of renewables and cut the use of fossil fuels. Currently, when more power than needed by consumers is produced by sources such as wind turbines or solar panels, some of the electricity is wasted. But that is changing. Governments have realised that one of their biggest challenges in cutting the use of fossil fuels is to store surplus electricity for use at peak times. Read More here
Monthly Archives: April 2015
24 April 2015, SMH: Metgasco wants police help for gas drilling at Bentley after court victory. Energy company Metgasco says it will need police to escort gas drilling equipment onto its site on the NSW north coast following a court victory overturning a suspension imposed on it by the state government. Chief executive Peter Henderson said protesters would return to the site at Bentley once the company seeks to start drilling in about three months’ time. “When we drill now we know there are going to be protesters and we will need police in there to uphold our rights,” he said. “Otherwise NSW will be the state of anarchy…..” Read More here
23 April 2015, Climate News Network: UN special envoy urges a unified approach to global action on tackling the interlinked issues of climate change, sustainable development and human rights. Mary Robinson, the UN Secretary General’s special envoy on climate change, has warned that the whole issue of climate is much too important to be left to governments and their leaders. Robinson, who was the first woman president of Ireland and is now head of the MRFCJ foundation promoting climate justice, said it is a battle for all of us − and that now is the time for action, not for the continuation of business as usual. Read More here
April 21, 2015, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Caltech student fathers breakthrough in green chemistry. ….The baby in this metaphor is a catalyst that, unlike its cousins that pervade modern industry, is based not on precious metals like gold and platinum, but rather on something you can get out of a banana: potassium. The father (or perhaps more accurately if we ignore the gender problem, the mother) is a Caltech grad student named Anton Toutov, who reports that the delivery was long and difficult….This new technology is already capable of manufacturing chemicals used in pharmaceuticals, agriculture and cosmetics in a much more environmentally friendly way than traditional methods. The catalyst requires little or no processing with petrochemicals and operates at much lower temperatures than standard catalytic methods, both of which keep its carbon footprint tiny. It can reduce air pollution from certain kinds of transportation fuels and, unlike the precious-metal processes it replaces, it produces no toxic waste. But like a baby, its ultimate accomplishments may be yet to come. Read More here