Crew News and Activity
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Preparing for the Future: Lessons From Hurricane Sandy
Ground floor is not quite the term for it. At a new gallery, classroom and office building under construction in the West Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, the main floor is more than four feet above the ground. This is no mere design conceit. Elevated floors are an imperative in flood-prone areas like the site of the […]
The Solar Singularity
The “solar singularity” is the point where solar becomes so cheap in a majority of countries around the world, that it is established as the default new power source. I’ll cover not only solar, but also battery storage, electric vehicles and self-driving cars, which together constitute the parallel and intertwined revolutions that are set to […]
Rising Waters Threaten China’s Rising Cities
Rushing to catch up after decades of stagnation, China built a gargantuan collection of cities the size of nations with barely a pause to consider their toll on the environment, much less the future impact of global warming. Today, the region is a goliath of industry with a population exceeding 42 million. But while […]
Big Oil Replacing Offshore Rigs with Wind Turbines
Big oil is starting to challenge the biggest utilities in the race to erect wind turbines at sea. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Statoil ASA and Eni SpA are moving into multi-billion-dollar offshore wind farms in the North Sea and beyond. They’re starting to score victories against leading power suppliers including Dong Energy A/S and Vattenfall AB in competitive […]
Little Town Goes Green Without Government Help
Welcome to Ashton Hayes — the small English town that’s casually leading the way toward carbon neutrality. “Carbon neutrality” is a fancy way of saying that Ashton Hayes is working toward reducing its carbon footprint until it produces as much energy as it uses. Members of the community started implementing small changes in their daily […]
Germany Converts Coal Mine Into Giant Battery Storage for Surplus Solar and Wind Power
Germany is embarking on an innovative project to turn a hard coal mine into a giant battery that can store surplus solar and wind energy and release it when supplies are lean. The Prosper-Haniel coal mine in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia will be converted into a 200 megawatt pumped-storage hydroelectric reservoir that acts […]
U.S. Cities Shop for $10 Billion Worth of Electric Vehicles
Dozens of U.S. cities are willing to buy $10 billion of electric cars and trucks to show skeptical automakers there’s demand for low-emission vehicles. Thirty cities including New York and Chicago jointly asked automakers for the cost and feasibility of providing 114,000 electric vehicles, including police cruisers, street sweepers and trash haulers, said Los Angeles Mayor […]
14 American Cities Tackling Climate Change Today
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg boarded a trans-Atlantic flight to meet with Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and French President Francois Hollande. Perhaps in an effort to ease minds across the pond, the group discussed the progress cities are making on climate change, including in the United States. Bloomberg insisted that American cities and businesses have […]
March 22 is World Water Day
This post, written by Planetary Ethicist and This Spaceship Earth co-founder Tim Rumage, can be read in its entirety on Tim’s blog: http://planetaryethicist.com/ I grew up in a family that said grace at dinner. We were thankful for the bounty of food. We never said anything about water. We would go to the water, be it […]
The New Economics of Energy Storage
Energy storage is a favorite technology of the future – for good reasons. Many people see affordable storage as the missing link between intermittent renewable power, such as solar and wind, and 24/7 reliability. Utilities are intrigued by the potential for storage to meet other needs such as relieving congestion and smoothing out the variations in […]
