Most recent 20 articles: Yale Climate Connections - Energy
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Minnesota man brings solar power and job training to North Minneapolis - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 25, 2024) |
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Oct 25, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
When Jamez Staples of North Minneapolis started a solar company about 10 years ago, he saw it as a great opportunity to create jobs for others in his low-income neighborhood.
Staples: “I thought this was going to be easy. I figured, you know, just get up, go to work, get people who wanted to work, and we’d be fine.”
But he learned that there was no easy way for people in his community to get trained as solar installers. The only programs were far away or inaccessible by bus.
So Staples bought a big old building in the neighborhood and ... Read more ...
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Wind power goes small with microturbines for homes, public parks, and more - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 23, 2024) |
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Oct 23, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
The phrase 'wind power’ likely conjures images of massive spinning blades. But some companies now make micro wind turbines – tiny devices that can be installed at homes, businesses, and public parks.
Krief: “We can install inside the city, outside the city.”
Luc Eric Krief is CEO of a French startup called New World Wind. His company makes what’s called the Aeroleaf, a tiny turbine that looks like a curled leaf. When the wind blows, it spins and generates energy that can go directly to a nearby building.
The microturbines are installed in ... Read more ...
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How a solar development turned from threat to opportunity for an Illinois farmer - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 22, 2024) |
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Oct 22, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
When farmer Trent Gerlach found out a solar farm would be built on the land he had long worked in northwestern Illinois, he was disappointed.
“As a farmer, seeing that land taken out of production is difficult, when you farmed it for many years, you’ve been stewards to that land, fertilized that land, taken care of it as if it was your own,” he said.
Gerlach’s family had been raising corn, soybeans and livestock since 1968, and like many farmers, they leased farmland in addition to working their own land. And when the owner of one of those leased ... Read more ...
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New Mexico program pays workers to train for clean energy jobs - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 22, 2024) |
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Oct 22, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
At oil and gas drilling sites in New Mexico, people work long hours doing hard, dangerous labor.
Marcela Díaz of Somos un Pueblo Unido, an immigrant-led, workers’ rights nonprofit, says more than 40% of the workforce is Latino.
Díaz: “Most of our members in this industry in this region are not unionized. They don’t have pensions. If they’re undocumented, they won’t have access to their social security benefits. And when there are downturns … they don’t have access to unemployment.”
Díaz says that as the clean energy ... Read more ...
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Vertical solar panels help farmers produce both energy and crops - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 21, 2024) |
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Oct 21, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Producing solar energy on a farm typically means covering a field with panels.
But now some companies make solar panels that stand vertically, so they take up less space and can be more easily integrated into pastures or croplands.
Biernath: “You still can work on the land, and it’s not just a solar farm and that’s it.”
Helge Biernath is the CEO of Sunstall, which makes vertical solar systems called Sunzaun.
At one winery in California, the Sunzaun solar systems snake in between rows of grapevines.
And Rutgers University is ... Read more ...
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What is net metering? - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 18, 2024) |
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Oct 18, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Installing solar panels helps homeowners reduce their use of fossil fuels and their impact on the climate. And going solar can also help homeowners save money on their electricity bills.
In some states, that happens through a system called net metering.
When a solar-powered house needs more electricity than the solar panels can produce, that house can use electricity from the power grid to help keep the lights on.
The homeowner pays for that additional energy, just like anyone else who uses electricity.
But at other times, the solar ... Read more ...
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An early adopter of renewable energy shows off his self-powered home - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 15, 2024) |
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Oct 15, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Losing power can be a minor inconvenience, a life-threatening event, or something in between. For Scott Sklar, it’s an opportunity to invite his neighbors over to charge their phones, store their medications in his fridge, and warm up on a chilly night. Sklar’s home runs entirely on renewables and has battery storage, so he has power even when the grid goes down in his Arlington, Virginia, neighborhood.
Sklar’s passion for renewable energy started decades ago, as a young staffer on Capitol Hill, and then as director of the Solar Energy Industries ... Read more ...
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Owner of eco-friendly home made out of tires shares lessons learned - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 15, 2024) |
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Oct 15, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In the 1990s, Jay Warmke and his wife Annie of Philo, Ohio, started building a house made from tires.
It’s a so-called “earthship,” a type of home designed to have minimal environmental impact.
Its walls are made of old tires filled with compacted earth, stacked like bricks.
The north side of the house is buried in the earth.
Warmke: “You get that cave effect, where in the summertime it’s cooler, in the wintertime it’s warmer.”
And the exposed south side is mostly windows, drawing in the warmth of the sun, so the ... Read more ...
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Solar leasing can make home solar power more accessible - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 09, 2024) |
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Oct 09, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Home solar panels can help people save a lot of money long-term.
But installing new solar panels can cost more than $10,000 upfront. So in many states, homeowners can lease solar panels instead.
Larry Sherwood is president of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council.
Sherwood: “It’s obviously much easier to just pay as you go rather than putting out that large amount of money at the beginning.”
With a solar lease, a homeowner essentially rents the panels and uses the electricity they produce, which lowers their overall energy ... Read more ...
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From waste to watts: How closed landfills can become solar powerhouses - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 08, 2024) |
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Oct 08, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
For decades, the site of an old municipal landfill in Fort Edward, New York, sat empty. Now it’s covered with solar panels.
Colston: “And it’s … now powering 300 homes and 100 small businesses.”
Annika Colston is the founder and CEO of AC Power, which specializes in converting former landfills into solar farms.
Decommissioned landfills need to be capped and then monitored for decades, to make sure the waste is not polluting the air or contaminating groundwater.
Colston: “And so … there is a lot of ongoing care that needs to go into them.” Read more ...
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Energy efficiency job training provides incarcerated people with new career opportunities - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 07, 2024) |
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Oct 07, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
When people are released from prison, they often struggle to find jobs.
Davis: “In a country where we claim justice is for all, people serve their time, but they’re still battered and bruised because opportunities are slim to none for them.”
Scott Alan Davis is with SEEL, a company that provides energy efficiency services.
It’s partnered with the utility Ameren Illinois to offer training in this industry to people at the Peoria Adult Transition Center in Illinois, which houses people who are still incarcerated but participating in a ... Read more ...
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Tampa residents turn food waste into energy - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Oct 01, 2024) |
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Oct 01, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
This year, some residents of Tampa, Florida, have been on the hunt for manure. It’s an unlikely quest for city dwellers, but they need it for their new anaerobic biodigesters.
Lewis: “So it’s basically like a very advanced kind of composting system.”
Shelby Lewis is Tampa’s waste diversion and outreach supervisor. She says the city got a USDA grant to supply 100 residents with these backyard systems.
Each unit takes up about as much space as a picnic table. To set it up, users add manure and water to create a bacterial ... Read more ...
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Daily life in the face of a damaged electricity grid in Puerto Rico - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 26, 2024) |
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Sep 26, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
[Leer en español]
Yale Climate Connections readers in Puerto Rico are taking action to protect themselves from the island’s frequent blackouts.
“Puerto Rico, although it doesn’t seem like it, is prepared to withstand blackouts; it’s the daily life that Puerto Ricans have become accustomed to because of the promises of politicians who come to power,” one resident told us in response to our questionnaire about how readers take care of themselves during blackouts.
“Before coming to power, they [politicians] oppose the current ... Read more ...
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Meet Scott Sklar, a renewable energy enthusiast in Arlington, Virginia - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 23, 2024) |
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Sep 23, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
When the power goes out in Arlington, Virginia, people often gather at Scott Sklar’s house.
Sklar: “I’ve had pictures of, you know, 30 cellphones being charged on my dining room table and 18 bags of medicines in my refrigerator, and my neighbors on a very hot or cold night, sitting in my house.”
That’s because Sklar’s home and detached office never lose power.
He generates clean energy using a mix of several technologies – solar panels, solar roof shingles, a wind turbine, and a hydrogen fuel cell. And he stores excess power in a bank ... Read more ...
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Tofu manufacturer turns waste into energy with a biodigester - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 20, 2024) |
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Sep 20, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
For nearly 50 years, Luke Lukoskie and his team at Island Spring Organics have been making tofu on Vashon Island, near Seattle, Washington.
Lukoskie: “We’ll make a couple of million pounds of tofu this year. We’ll make 15 different varieties.”
And now, they’re using waste from the production process to help power the operation itself.
The company is partnering with the Seattle-based energy company Chomp, which installed what’s called an anaerobic biodigester behind the factory.
Lukoskie: “Imagine it’s like a compost bin, ... Read more ...
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Donald Trump is wrong about the cost of wind energy - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 18, 2024) |
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Sep 18, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
After decades of stable electricity prices, U.S. residents have seen their rates rise by one-third over the past four years.
The fossil fuel lobby and some Republican politicians are exploiting the opportunity to falsely place the blame on clean energy sources.
“We are going to get the energy prices down,” former President Donald Trump said at an August 2024 rally in Wisconsin. “You know, this was caused by their horrible energy – wind.”
In reality, wind is the cheapest source of new power in the United States today.
It’s true that ... Read more ...
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What to ask when you’re hiring a solar company - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 18, 2024) |
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Sep 18, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Many solar companies promise homeowners big savings. But it can be hard to know which claims to believe or which installation company to hire.
Sherwood: “The biggest issue is when companies oversell what the solar can do.”
Larry Sherwood is president and CEO of the nonprofit Interstate Renewable Energy Council.
His group created a checklist of questions to ask when having solar installed.
Sherwood: “ … to help the consumers be as knowledgeable as possible.”
For example, it recommends you compare bids from multiple ... Read more ...
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Old apartment building in Santa Monica transformed into all-electric affordable housing - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 16, 2024) |
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Sep 16, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
On Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica, California, an old apartment building got a full makeover.
The affordable housing complex now has rooftop solar and new insulation, and it runs entirely on electricity, so residents do not use fossil fuels for heating or cooking.
Maggie Messerschmidt of Arup, a consulting firm, says this kind of retrofit reduces climate-warming carbon pollution.
And it can save people money on utility bills, improve indoor air quality, and reduce air leaks and drafts.
Messerschmidt: “Those thermal comfort benefits, ... Read more ...
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Wanted: Better housing to help people stay cool on a hotter planet - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 13, 2024) |
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Sep 13, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
It was 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 C)in Tunisia in July, yet our colleague Manel Ben Khelifa could not turn on the air conditioning “because the electricity grid has been shut down,” she explained.
“The power company is trying to conserve energy during peak periods by doubling electricity prices to discourage people from using air conditioning, but it’s not working,” Ben Khelifa told us during a heat wave in July 2024.
“It’s so hot, people would rather turn off anything but the air conditioning,” she said. “So then the power company turns off the ... Read more ...
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Will Harris go after Big Oil? - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 11, 2024) |
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Sep 11, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
On the campaign trail for the 2020 election, the Democratic candidates for president, including then-U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, outlined in detail their plans to combat climate change - with Joe Biden even vowing to halt oil and gas drilling on federal lands.
Now, Harris has been more vague during her month as her party’s presidential nominee - mentioning climate change only in passing, offering no specific plans yet to reduce climate-altering emissions, and failing to call out the role of fossil fuel production in accelerating the global ... Read more ...
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