Most recent 40 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) |
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Oct 25 · 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) |
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Oct 23 · 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) |
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Oct 22 · 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) |
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Oct 22 · 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) |
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Oct 21 · 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) |
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Oct 18 · 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) |
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Oct 15 · 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) |
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Oct 15 · 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 9) |
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Oct 9 · 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 8) |
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Oct 8 · 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 7) |
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Oct 7 · 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 1) |
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Oct 1 · 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) |
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Sep 26 · 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) |
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Sep 23 · 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) |
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Sep 20 · 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) |
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Sep 18 · 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) |
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Sep 18 · 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) |
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Sep 16 · 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) |
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Sep 13 · 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) |
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Sep 11 · 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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Renewable energy is creating jobs in Benin - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 9) |
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Sep 9 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In the locality of Ouèssè, an isolated commune in Benin, a man in his twenties is harnessing renewable energy to create jobs and solve a big problem.
Dieudonné Mahuwêna Setonde was working as an electrical installation technician in rural areas of this West African nation when he saw that many households in his locality lacked access to the conventional power grid, making it difficult to use mobile phones, television, and the internet.
To address these challenges, Setonde founded Technology for Environmental Protection Africa, also known as TEP ... Read more ...
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How mismanagement, not wind and solar energy, causes blackouts - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 4) |
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Sep 4 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In February 2021, several severe storms swept across the United States, culminating with one that the Weather Channel unofficially named Winter Storm Uri. In Texas, Uri knocked out power to over 4.5 million homes and 10 million people. Hundreds of Texans died as a result, and the storm is estimated to have cost the state $130 billion.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, quickly sought to blame the crisis on renewable energy. While the storm and blackouts were still ongoing, Abbott told Sean Hannity of Fox News, “This shows how the Green New Deal ... Read more ...
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In these new Catskills homes, no fossil fuels are allowed - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Aug 15) |
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Aug 15 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
A new all-electric and carbon-neutral housing development in New York State forbids the use of fossil fuels anywhere in the community to heat homes or water, cook food, or dry clothes.
Located about two hours outside of New York City in the Catskill Mountains, the Catskill Project doesn’t have any natural gas or other fossil fuel hookups. Instead, heating and appliances all run on electricity. Power is supplied by on-site solar panels or through a subscription to a community solar farm, and each home is built using passive house standards that reduce ... Read more ...
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Solar developer says renewable energy could transform Native communities - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Aug 15) |
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Aug 15 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
When the Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota installed a big solar farm, the whole tribe had the opportunity to learn about the technology.
Robert Blake of the Red Lake Nation owns Solar Bear, a solar installation company. As part of the Prairie Island project, his company trained people to work on the crew.
Blake: “The all-Native crew that installed these solar panels installed 763 solar panels in one day. … I mean, it’s remarkable!”
But it was not only the installers who learned about solar. His company helped run a six-week ... Read more ...
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Advances in oil and gas drilling technology could boost geothermal energy - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Aug 1) |
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Aug 1 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Below the surface of the Earth, deep reservoirs of steam and hot water provide a vast potential source of geothermal energy. This energy is used to generate electricity at some power plants in Western states.
But in most parts of the U.S., accessing geothermal requires deep drilling. That’s long been a barrier to developing this renewable resource, technologically and financially.
Beard: “But that has changed significantly in the past 10, 15 years. And that is related to the fact that we had a massive technology flourish in the oil and gas shale ... Read more ...
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Upstate New York development features fossil-fuel-free homes - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jul 25) |
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Yale Climate Connections
About two hours north of New York City, amid the lush forests and babbling brooks of the Catskill Mountains, sits a new housing development - where every home is designed to avoid the use of fossil fuels.
Hale: “The whole approach is about reducing emissions from the built environment.”
Greg Hale is one of the founders of the development, called the Catskill Project.
He says the homes are designed to maximize efficiency. They’re tightly insulated with triple-glazed windows to prevent heat loss.
And each comes with a ventilation system ... Read more ...
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Low-income residents buy into solar project at Minneapolis school - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jul 8) |
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Jul 8 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In a low-income neighborhood of Minneapolis, dozens of households will soon buy solar energy produced on the roof of North High School - the local public school.
Staples: “We’re really excited about it because not only do you have the ability to say, 'Hey, I’m subscribing to community solar,’ but 'I’m subscribing to the North High Project.’”
Jamez Staples is CEO of Renewable Energy Partners, a solar developer in North Minneapolis. He grew up in the area and graduated from North High. And he’s passionate about increasing access to solar in his ... Read more ...
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Fossil-fuel-friendly energy policy and isolated infrastructure stifle renewable adoption in Mexico’s sun-filled Baja Peninsula - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 26) |
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Jun 26 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Alejandro Flores Márquez got serious about making energy-saving improvements in his home in La Paz, Mexico. As a professional sustainability consultant, he knew multiple go-to solutions that could both lower his monthly electric bill and benefit the environment.
Solar panels were high on his list of planned improvements.
But as he pursued the option, he encountered troubling, prohibitive regulations in his state of Baja California Sur. Despite being one of Mexico’s sunniest regions, this southern half of the Baja ... Read more ...
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Nonprofit helps bring solar to the Puerto Rican island of Vieques - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 21) |
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Jun 21 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, the small island of Vieques – just off the coast of the main island – went without electric power from the grid for more than a year.
Martin Bras: “The energy loss and the lack of efficient recovery left a lot of people in dire straits, and many people, sadly, died from that.”
Mark Martin Bras is with ViequesLove, a nonprofit. He says that as climate change brings more intense storms, generating solar power locally can help reduce the risk of long, disruptive power outages.
The ... Read more ...
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Is U.S. offshore wind dead in the water - or just poised for the next big gust? - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 20) |
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Jun 20 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In the early 2000s, a long-time Louisiana engineer and entrepreneur thought it would be natural for the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico to expand into offshore wind. The industry could use the same workforce, the same shipyards and possibly even the same platforms to generate renewable power.
With designs, data and offshore leases from Texas, Herman Schellstede and his team planned to build a 62-turbine wind farm off Galveston’s coast - one of the first such proposals in the United States and the first in the Gulf of Mexico.
The team ... Read more ...
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Mountaintop coal mine in Kentucky to become a solar farm - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 20) |
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Jun 20 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Across Appalachia, coal mines are closing. And people are trying to figure out what to do with former mine lands, including mountaintops that were blasted off to get to the coal underneath.
Albrecht: “So you end up with this almost like plateau-like landscape … with hundreds of acres at a time that are almost pancake flat.”
Joseph Albrecht is with BrightNight, a solar developer. He says some reclaimed mine land is well-suited for solar development - both because of that flat wide-open terrain and because it’s already been developed with roads and ... Read more ...
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'We have an obligation’: Grandparents take action to help protect their grandkids’ future - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 14) |
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Jun 14 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Jon Slote of Newton, Massachusetts, is a proud grandfather. And he’s concerned about how climate change will affect his three grandchildren.
Slote: “They didn’t create the world that they’re inheriting. We did. And I feel like we have an obligation to make that world work for them as well as it possibly can.”
So Slote and his wife are committed to reducing the climate impact of their century-old home.
They started by improving the home’s energy efficiency. They weather-sealed cracks and added insulation to the attic and in the ... Read more ...
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Maine college builds climate-friendly dorm out of wood - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 12) |
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Jun 12 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Today, most large buildings are made of steel and concrete. But at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, a new 12,000-square-foot dorm was built almost entirely of wood.
It’s supported by engineered timber beams, sided and paneled in wood, and insulated with wood fiber from timber and paper manufacturing waste.
Collins: “It feels like you’re surrounded by wood, which is part of the remarkable kind of experience about being in the building.”
Darron Collins, outgoing president of the college, says the building was designed ... Read more ...
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Portrait of a Kansas town that went all-in on clean energy after a devastating tornado - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 10) |
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Jun 10 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our newsletters.
Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
When Anita Hohl heard the wind screaming through her windows 17 years ago, she knew this storm was different. It sounded like a high-pitched woman’s shriek, portending the fear so many felt that night.
As the tornado sirens went off, she and her three kids crawled into a small closet underneath the stairs in the basement of a rental house on the south side of Greensburg, Kansas.
Her husband Rick had remained upstairs, transfixed by the incoming storm. But ... Read more ...
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Man converts his home to all-electric dream house - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (May 23, 2024) |
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May 23, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
When Eric Laine of Binghamton, New York, bought his house 15 years ago, it ran almost entirely on fossil fuels.
Laine: “It had propane everything - propane heat, propane hot water, propane stove, propane dryer.”
Burning all that fuel was expensive.
Laine: “Propane is very expensive. The first January we lived here, we used 200 gallons of propane. Back then, that was about $500 worth of propane for a month.”
And beyond the cost, Laine says he was becoming increasingly concerned about climate change.
Laine: “It really became kind ... Read more ...
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The largely untapped energy source beneath our feet - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (May 21, 2024) |
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May 21, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Under the surface of the Earth is a largely untapped source of energy: geothermal heat.
Beard: “The core of our Earth is a molten ball of energy that is the temperature of the surface of the sun … and so underneath the ground, it’s actually incredibly hot.”
Jamie Beard is executive director of Project InnerSpace, a nonprofit working to accelerate the development of geothermal power.
She says underground reservoirs of hot water and steam provide clean heat, which can be used to drive the turbines that create electricity at power plants ... Read more ...
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The silent tragedy of local restrictions on renewable energy - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (May 21, 2024) |
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May 21, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Communities across the United States may soon find themselves facing a grim scenario. By adopted local ordinances that obstruct the development of new renewable energy resources within their borders, they have put themselves at risk of missing out on the next big technology-driven economic revolution: the clean energy transition.
As you read this, rapidly advancing renewable energy technology is transforming how we power the U.S. economy in the 21st century, bringing with it new economic opportunities and social and environmental benefits. Yet the ... Read more ...
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'Turning point in energy history’ as solar, wind start pushing fossil fuels off the grid - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (May 16, 2024) |
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May 16, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Solar and wind energy grew quickly enough in 2023 to push renewables up to 30% of global electricity supply and begin pushing fossil fuels off the power grid, the Ember climate consultancy concludes in a report released May 8.
The report projects that fossil-fueled electricity generation will decline 2% next year, because while demand is expected to grow rapidly, renewables will grow even faster.
“With record construction of solar and wind in 2023, a new era of falling fossil generation is imminent,” the London, U.K.-based think tank writes. ... Read more ...
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A chef’s kiss for induction stoves - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (May 06, 2024) |
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May 06, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
For people who cook on a gas stove, it may be hard to imagine frying an egg or searing a steak without those familiar blue flames.
But acclaimed chef Justin Lee says there’s an alternative worth considering: an electric induction stovetop.
Lee: “There is a learning curve, without question, because there’s no visible fire … but it’s not something you should be afraid of.”
Lee is co-owner of Fat Choy - a Chinese vegan restaurant in Englewood, New Jersey. He says he loves cooking with induction.
Unlike conventional electric stoves, ... Read more ...
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Former school gets new life as an energy-efficient shopping center - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Apr 30, 2024) |
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Apr 30, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
In Colorado Springs, Colorado, an old, closed elementary school has been retrofitted with a new heating system and efficient LED lighting. Now called Lincoln Center, it’s home to a bakery, brewery, barber, coffee shop, and other businesses.
Phillips: “The hallways … are where people sit to have coffee now. It’s just a really neat reuse of this property.”
Tracy Phillips is with the Colorado Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy or C-PACE program, which helped finance the property’s retrofits.
C-PACE programs, which exist in about ... Read more ...
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