#clean power

From the article:

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1. Solar-powered lights on fishing nets cut sea turtle entanglement by 63%

“[R]esearchers at Arizona State University collaborated with a team of coastal gillnet fishers to develop solar-powered lights that function as buoys, like any others threaded onto the float line of a fishing net. The LED lights flash on and off to conserve energy and can stay active for over five days with no sunlight. [...S]ea turtle bycatch rates were 63% lower in the solar-powered illuminated nets compared to unlit control nets. And the lighted buoys did not interfere with fishing success.”

2. The liquid air alternative to fossil fuels

“[...T]he first liquid air energy storage facility is finally set to power up in 2026. It's hoping to compete with grid-scale lithium batteries and hydro to store clean power, and reduce the need to fall back on fossil fuels. [...]  The Carrington plant will be able to store 300 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough to plug a short gap in power for as many as 480,000 homes. [...] Liquid air has the advantage that it can store energy for longer than batteries, with minimal losses.”

3. Floating nests and decoys: how fairy terns are being charmed back to Port Phillip Bay

“As a beach-nesting bird, fairy terns often lay their eggs on wide sandy beaches next to clear blue water[... putting] the birds and their offspring at risk from people, cars, foxes and other predators, as well as weather events like storm surges. [...] The floating island, installed at the Avalon coastal reserve on the western side of Port Phillip Bay, features sand and shell grit floorings, and twigs and branches for cozy nooks.”

4. Wind and solar smash grid market share records, even after heavy curtailment, coal at new low

“According to GPE’s Geoff Eldridge, the share of variable renewables – large scale wind and solar and rooftop PV – reached a new peak of 77.1 per cent, beating the previous record of 75.9 per cent in late September. [...] The curtailed wind and solar alone accounted for around one third of underlying demand, meaning that the “potential” share of renewable was more than 113 per cent at the time – also a record."

5. Vaccine Trials Underway in US to Protect Marine Mammals from Avian Flu

“The Marine Mammal Center, the world’s largest marine mammal hospital [... is] taking decisive steps to slow down the [H5N1] virus. [...] Before vaccinating the endangered Hawaiian monk seals, researchers at the Marine Mammal Center needed to understand the vaccine’s safety and efficacy on a similar but non-endangered marine species. [... I]nitial findings [include] that the avian flu vaccine appears to be safely used with the six elephant seals. The next step is to assess levels of antibodies in the animals’ blood.”

Excerpt from this Chicago Tribune story:

In Illinois, a state with one of the nation’s most ambitious climate laws, clean energy’s victorious forward march is often a public — and highly visible — spectacle.

But behind the scenes, there are signs of strain.

Three years after the state passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which aims for 40% renewable energy by 2030, the state isn’t meeting its annual clean energy goals.

Just 7% of the state’s retail electricity came from wind and solar in 2023-2024, far less than a goal of 22% included in CEJA, according to data from the Illinois Power Agency.

Illinois’ climate adviser JC Kibbey, a state employee, said that Illinois was already far behind on its long-standing annual goals when CEJA passed, due to problems including a decade of underfunding, and it was widely understood that it would take time to catch up.

In fact, he said, CEJA softened the language in previous state climate law, by saying the state “shall attempt to meet” the annual goals.

“To me it feels, maybe not demonstrably false, but misleading to say we’re not meeting our CEJA goals, because the (renewable energy) hole was dug before the passage of CEJA, and CEJA was a solution to it,” he said.

None of the outside experts interviewed by the Tribune blamed the climate law, Gov. JB Pritzker or the legislature for the shortfall.

In fact, experts praised Illinois for its strong action on climate change at a time when forces largely outside the state’s control — including long waitlists for new wind and solar projects to connect to the grid — are slowing progress nationwide.

Still, some expressed concerns.

“There’s kind of a pessimistic answer and an optimistic answer to how you want to view that Illinois has significantly missed its early targets,” said Brian Ross, vice president for renewable energy at the Great Plains Institute.

The good news is that clean energy developers are lining up to build wind and solar projects in Illinois, and there’s a lot of demand for that energy, he said.

Illinois has a long history of setting ambitious climate goals — only to miss them by wide margins, due to problems such as underfunding.

In 2007, the state set a goal that 25% of retail electricity would come from renewable energy by 2025.

The same goal was included in the 2016 Future Energy Jobs Act.

The state is currently on track for only about 11% of 2025-2026 retail electricity — the electricity delivered to customers by ComEd, Ameren Illinois and MidAmerican — to come from renewables.

CEJA, a hallmark accomplishment of Pritzker’s first term, was supposed to be different. It included an additional $380 million a year for solar and wind, and brought Illinois back from a “solar cliff” in which underfunded state incentives threatened to upend the state’s burgeoning rooftop solar industry.

Since CEJA passed, the state has awarded contracts for about 5,400 megawatts of renewable energy, according to the Illinois Power Agency. That’s enough to power roughly 930,000 homes.

Among those who point to signs of progress: Illinois Environmental Council Executive Director Jen Walling, who travels across the state for work.

“I’ll spend time in Metro East, in the Shawnee region, I’ll be in Galena, and every time I’m driving to these places or taking the train, I am seeing new utility-scale solar developments,” said Walling.

But if solar is doing well in Illinois, buoyed by the state climate law and the federal Inflation Reduction Act, the state’s other major source of renewable energy is advancing more slowly, both locally and nationally.

designed to be functional and aesthetically pleasing, Joe Doucet's "kinetic wall" is made up of an array of rotary blades that spin individually, driving mini generators that create electricity

From ”San Antonio to End Use of Coal Within Five Years” in the Texas Observer:

In 2010, coal use in the United States was already dropping precipitously in favor of cheaper and more environmentally friendly options, including natural gas and renewables. That year, San Antonio’s electric utility made the anachronistic decision to add a new coal-fired generator to its J. K. Spruce power plant. But soon after, the facility struggled financially to compete with fracked gas, solar, and wind energy. Community members were against heavy pollution generated by burning coal. Clearly, Spruce’s days were numbered.

This week, board members of CPS Energy voted to stop using coal at the power plant, which includes a unit from 1992 as well as the 2010 addition, within five years.

“San Antonio is ending the use of coal,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg, a member of the board, announced.

Although the board’s vote on Monday directly affects just one metro area, San Antonio’s attempts to reduce greenhouse gasses indirectly affect the whole planet. CPS Energy is the country’s largest municipally-owned electric utility. Mayor Nirenberg tries to position San Antonio as a climate leader, and he has a national platform through membership in groups like the EPA’s Local Government Advisory Committee and the Bloomberg-funded American Cities Climate Challenge. So safe to say, other cities and utilities are watching.

But this decision only closed one long chapter of advocacy and debate and opened another. Board members elected to retrofit Spruce’s newer unit to run on gas, as part of an overall plan to diversify the utility’s energy mix.

Stop trying to make see-through #solarpanels happen...wait, what!?

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