Into The Light
World's Largest Solar Plant - 550 MW - Goes Online In California
The world’s largest solar power plant has gone online in California, with enough power to supply 160,000 homes. Spanning a huge 9.5 square miles (25 square km) - a third of the size of Manhattan - the Topaz Solar Farm consists of nine million solar panels and has a capacity of 550 megawatts. And it is a major step towards the state's goals of supplying 33 per cent of electricity to homes from renewable sources by 2020.
Watch the world's largest solar farm being built:
What Can A Wind Farm Do For A Small Town In America?
Denton, Texas, a bustling community near Lewisville Lake 30 miles northwest of Dallas, is known for its festivals and eclectic music scene, often compared to the Austin of 20 years ago. But Denton (pop. 113,000) is also a leader in clean energy, boasting more wind power per capita than any other city in the nation.
Denton’s electric utility company, Denton Municipal Electric (DME), has been municipally owned since 1905. Up until 2008, DME provided Denton with energy from a mix of equal shares gas and coal. But the advantage of being owned by its 48,000 customers means DME does what its customers want, which was more green energy.
EVs Save More Than $770 Per Year On Fuel Costs
EVs are becoming more affordable to purchase, especially after federal and state incentives are applied. However, barriers remain. The future of the federal income tax credit for EVs is in doubt and policies are needed to ensure that all drivers have the ability to choose an EV. This includes improving charging infrastructure and ensuring access to cost-competitive electric rates for recharging.
We make recommendations for EV drivers to maximize savings; and for policy-makers, electricity providers and automakers to advance policy that promotes EV adoption, and broadens access to charging infrastructure.
ECOWATCH FINDINGS
The annual savings range from $440 to over $1,070 per year, depending on the electricity provider, the choice of electricity rate plan, and the local cost of gasoline. Many electricity companies offer affordable off-peak, time-of-use plans that benefit EV drivers. EV owners mostly charge their cars parked at home, overnight, which often matches times of lower overall electricity demand. Many utilities offer lower rates during these times. Off-peak, time-of-use rates vary from $.03 per kWh to $0.21 per kWh, resulting in gasoline equivalent costs ranging from $0.25 per gallon to $1.78 per gallon. ..
Protecting Tigers & Their Habitats
Trees and tigers go hand-in-hand. A majority of tigers’ natural habitats are made up of forests. Tropical, evergreen, temperate and snow-covered hardwood forests, along with mangrove swamps, are all home to various species of tiger.
1. In the last century alone, tigers have lost 93% of their historic range.
2. Continued large-scale habitat destruction and decimation of prey populations are the major long-term threats to the continued existence of tigers in the wild.3. Tiger habitat decreased by 45% in the last 10 years.
4. All tigers need dense vegetation, the presence of large ungulate prey, and access to water to be able to survive.
5. Tigers are found in a wide range of habitats in Asia and the Russian Far East, in increasingly fragmented and isolated populations.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Coe Roberts is an Electronic Communication Specialist at the Arbor Day Foundation.
A GOOD PLACE TO DUMP AS MUCH SOIL CONTAMINATED WITH PLUTONIUM AS POSSIBLE..?
The Enewetak Atoll is halfway between Australia and Hawaii, home to a small indigenous population that has seen their way of life eroded by decisions far outside of their control.
For more than half a century, the atoll, which is part of the Marshall Islands, has been contaminated by nuclear explosions and waste, according to ABC Australia. The decades ahead could leave it submerged by rising sea levels.
In this way, Enewetak "is at the intersection of two of the biggest problems of the last century and this century, nuclear weapons and sea level rise," Michael Gerrard, the chair of Columbia University's Earth Institute in New York who has studied the atoll, told Global Citizen. Both of these problems are at risk of converging, ABC Australia reported, because the main holding container for the atoll's nuclear waste is being compromised by rising waters.
The atoll's problems began in the 1940s and 1950s when the U.S. began using it for nuclear bomb tests. The people of Enewetak were evacuated and 67 nuclear bombs were dropped, devastating wildlife, spreading nuclear toxins far and wide, and creating massive craters. One of those craters was on Runit Island. In the late 1970s, the U.S. began to partially clean the nuclear waste from the island. Some of the radioactive chemicals had relatively short half-lives, Michael Gerrard wrote in an op-ed, and were left to naturally decay despite their risks. Another toxin, plutonium-239, has a half-life of 24,000 years and had to be dealt with.
The 100-meter wide crater on Runit Island was deemed a good place to dump as much soil contaminated with plutonium as possible. Chunks of unexploded plutonium-239 were also disposed of in the hole....
The Atomic Cleanup Veterans of Enewetak Atoll
The following are first-hand accounts told by comparatively few survivors of the Enewetak Atoll Atomic Debris Cleanup Mission, Marshall Islands; a mission that took place from 1977-1980. Their stories appear as told to T-M Fitzgerald(published author, veteran, veteran advocate) because theirs are tales needing to be known.
H.R. 5980: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/hr5980
“Where in the World is Enewetak?”
Enewetak is just one of many atolls and islands in the Pacific Ocean’s Marshall Island chain. Located about 2,365 nautical miles SW of Hawaii (just north of the equator), the Marshall Islands were once a major testing ground for nuclear weapons post WWII. This island chain is also home to the project called Cactus Dome, a 350’- wide blast crater located at the northern end of Runit Island that has become known as the ‘Nuclear Trashcan of the Pacific.’
Between 1948-58, forty-three nuclear weapons were detonated over Enewetak and its sister islands. Among these tests were ‘Ivy Mike’ and ‘Castle Bravo’ (a device 1000X as powerful as the bomb ‘Little Boy’ which was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan post Pearl Harbor.) ...
Conservation Goal for the Amazon Exceeded
The World Wildlife Fund announced Friday that the Program for Protected Areas of the Amazon (ARPA), a joint venture with the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, has reached the goal of protecting a network of conservation units of at least 60 million hectares in the Amazon. This effort represents the conservation of 15 percent of the biome's territory in Brazil.
The largest strategy on the planet for conservation and sustainable use of tropical forests, the ARPA program is now present in 117 conservation units, including the categories of national park, state park, ecological station, biological reserve, extractive reserve and sustainable development reserve in the states of Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins.
ARPA works with the local communities and invests in the creation, expansion, strengthening and maintenance of conservation units, by ensuring resources and promoting sustainable development in the region. Conservation units that are part of the program benefit from goods, projects and service contracts, such as the establishment of councils, management plans, land surveys and inspection, as well as integration activities with resident communities (in the case of sustainable use conservation units) and their surrounding environment. Overall, the program has supported the strengthening of communities in thirty protected areas. ...
Next Show Me Solar Blog ---> https://www.showmesolar.org/single-post/2017/11/19/Here-Comes-The-Sun
