Most recent 40 articles: Yale Climate Connections - Energy
 |
Donald Trump is wrong about the cost of wind energy - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 18) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
What to ask when you’re hiring a solar company - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 18) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Old apartment building in Santa Monica transformed into all-electric affordable housing - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 16) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Wanted: Better housing to help people stay cool on a hotter planet - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 13) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Will Harris go after Big Oil? - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 11) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Renewable energy is creating jobs in Benin - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 9) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
How mismanagement, not wind and solar energy, causes blackouts - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Sep 4) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
In these new Catskills homes, no fossil fuels are allowed - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Aug 15) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Solar developer says renewable energy could transform Native communities - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Aug 15) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Advances in oil and gas drilling technology could boost geothermal energy - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Aug 1) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Upstate New York development features fossil-fuel-free homes - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jul 25) |
|
Jul 25 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Low-income residents buy into solar project at Minneapolis school - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jul 8) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Fossil-fuel-friendly energy policy and isolated infrastructure stifle renewable adoption in Mexico’s sun-filled Baja Peninsula - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 26) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Nonprofit helps bring solar to the Puerto Rican island of Vieques - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 21) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Is U.S. offshore wind dead in the water - or just poised for the next big gust? - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 20) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Mountaintop coal mine in Kentucky to become a solar farm - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 20) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
'We have an obligation’: Grandparents take action to help protect their grandkids’ future - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 14) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Maine college builds climate-friendly dorm out of wood - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 12) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Portrait of a Kansas town that went all-in on clean energy after a devastating tornado - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Jun 10) |
|
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 ...
|
|
|
|
Man converts his home to all-electric dream house - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (May 23) |
|
May 23 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
The largely untapped energy source beneath our feet - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (May 21) |
|
May 21 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
The silent tragedy of local restrictions on renewable energy - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (May 21) |
|
May 21 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
'Turning point in energy history’ as solar, wind start pushing fossil fuels off the grid - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (May 16) |
|
May 16 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
A chef’s kiss for induction stoves - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (May 6) |
|
May 6 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
Former school gets new life as an energy-efficient shopping center - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Apr 30) |
|
Apr 30 · 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 ...
|
|
|
|
Some anglers say Rhode Island’s Block Island wind farm has improved fishing - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Apr 26) |
|
Apr 26 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Off the coast of Rhode Island, anglers fish for striped bass, fluke, and mahi-mahi.
Smythe: “Recreational angling is a prominent, very important use of our coastal waters. It is an economically, socially, culturally important activity.”
So Tiffany Smythe of the United States Coast Guard Academy says it’s important to know how anglers feel about fishing near offshore wind turbines.
Her team surveyed about 200 recreational anglers about the Block Island Wind Farm - the nation’s first offshore wind farm.
Smythe: “We found, overall, a ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
'Just do it!’ Wisconsin couple built a net-zero home - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Apr 25) |
|
Apr 25 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
A few years ago, Jacqueline Freidel and her husband built their new home near Madison, Wisconsin, complete with four bedrooms and an open-concept floor plan.
But the couple’s house has a hidden feature - it runs entirely on electricity and is net-zero, meaning it produces just as much energy as it uses every year.
Freidel: “If you were walking by and didn’t know anything about the house, you might not even guess that it is net-zero energy and all-electric.”
Freidel is an energy efficiency consultant. But she says anyone can build a net-zero ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
What are virtual power plants? - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Apr 22) |
|
Apr 22 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
For decades, electricity has been produced at large power plants and then sent to homes and businesses.
But as rooftop solar and other renewable sources expand, energy can be generated all over.
Nemtzow: “For the first time, we can take distributed energy resources, which have been around for many years, but we can organize them to act like power plants.”
David Nemtzow is with the U.S. Department of Energy.
A so-called virtual power plant can be operated by a traditional utility. It can include solar panels, car batteries, ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
What is a passive house? - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Apr 17) |
|
Apr 17 · In a webinar on April 19, we'll explore how climate organizations are currently using storytelling in their work, the impacts of these stories, and lessons learned from other movements.
Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
A well-insulated, airtight thermos or cooler can keep your coffee warm - or your water cold - all day. So-called passive houses are not all that different.
Like a thermos, they’re designed to keep heat from entering or escaping. So their design focuses on what’s called a building’s envelope - the walls, windows, roof, and foundation that separate the inside from ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Schools in coal country are going solar - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Apr 16) |
|
Apr 16 · In a webinar on April 19, we'll explore how climate organizations are currently using storytelling in their work, the impacts of these stories, and lessons learned from other movements.
Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Deep in the heart of coal country, schools in Wayne County, West Virginia, are going solar.
Conant: “The schools, they don’t have to pay for the equipment. They don’t have to pay for the panels, the labor. Instead, Solar Holler pays for all of that up front.”
Dan Conant is the founder and CEO of Solar Holler. The West Virginia-based solar ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Want a climate-friendly home? You might need a new breaker box. - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Apr 5) |
|
Apr 5 · In a webinar on April 19, we'll explore how climate organizations are currently using storytelling in their work, the impacts of these stories, and lessons learned from other movements.
Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Many people are replacing their old, fossil-fuel-powered furnaces and gas stoves with new electric heat pumps and induction stoves.
But some hit a snag when they find out that their home’s electrical panel, or breaker box, cannot handle all the extra electricity they’ll need.
Fowler: “That’s when you realize, oh, I need a little more juice.”
Eric ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
A blizzard put a hyper-efficient home to the test. It passed. - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Apr 2) |
|
Apr 2 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
When the power goes out on a cold winter night, some people head to a hotel. Others huddle around a fireplace bundled up in hats and blankets.
But after a blizzard knocked out the power at Katrin Klingenberg’s home in Illinois, her house stayed warm and comfortable.
Klingenberg: “I was sitting in my living room in a T-shirt, and outside it was negative 40 windchill. And that’s kind of cool.”
She lives in a so-called passive house she designed herself. And she’s co-founder of Passive House Institute U.S., a nonprofit that works to increase ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Yes, heat pumps slash emissions even if powered by a dirty grid - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Apr 1) |
|
Apr 1 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Do you plan to take advantage of clean energy tax credits?
Tell us about it in this brief survey.
You might consider heat pumps to be a tantalizing climate solution (they are) and one you could adopt yourself (plenty have). But perhaps you’ve held off on getting one, wondering how much of a difference they really make if a dirty grid is supplying the electricity you’re using to power them - that is, a grid whose electricity is generated at least in part by fossil gas, coal or oil.
That’s certainly the case for most U.S. households: While ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
What is solar thermal? - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Mar 25) |
|
Mar 25 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
When people talk about solar panels, they’re usually referring to solar photovoltaic panels, which convert the sun’s energy to electricity. But solar PV is just one way to harness the power of the sun.
Gasco: “Solar thermal is, I’d say, the simpler and kind of overshadowed little brother almost to solar PV. … I think it’s a really great technology in the simplicity and the efficiency of it.”
Gwe Gasco is with Eighth Fire Solar, an Indigenous-led initiative in Northern Minnesota.
The group manufactures and installs solar thermal panels, ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Wind farm radar system reduces nighttime light pollution in Iowa - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Mar 22, 2024) |
|
Mar 22, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
If you drive across Iowa at night, you might encounter a series of coordinated red lights flashing in the sky.
Greenwood: “It looks like a whole bunch of fireflies lighting up at the same time.”
Geoff Greenwood is with MidAmerican Energy, which operates 3,400 wind turbines across the state.
Red lights are placed on top of the turbines to prevent pilots from crashing into the structures, which can be more than 200 feet tall.
But that flashing lights up the night sky, which some people find annoying - so at three of its wind farms, ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
You can start applying for the American Climate Corps next month - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Mar 21, 2024) |
|
Mar 21, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Do you plan to take advantage of clean energy tax credits?
Tell us about it in this brief survey.
The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively with Grist.
The program is modeled after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, launched in 1933 to help the country make it through the Great Depression. The positions with the new corps could range across a number of fields including energy-efficiency ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Do wind farms hurt home values? When they do, it’s usually temporary. - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Mar 20, 2024) |
|
Mar 20, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Some homeowners wonder if having a wind farm nearby will affect their property values.
A recent study finds that although wind farms can reduce nearby home prices, the drop is usually limited and only temporary.
Hoen: “We hope that this allows people to have greater confidence into what are the likely effects from building a wind project in the future and when those effects are likely to occur.”
That’s Ben Hoen of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He and his colleagues found that, on average, wind farms had no impact on property values in ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Want clean electricity? These are the overlooked elected officials who get to decide. - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Mar 13, 2024) |
|
Mar 13, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
On a Tuesday morning in January, college student Aurora Gray stepped up to the podium in a windowless room in Atlanta, around the corner from the state capitol building. In front of her sat a five-member panel of elected officials that oversees how and where nearly every Georgia resident gets their power.
“The generation of energy … using fossil fuels has become an existential threat to our safety due to the undisputed impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on our planet,” Gray told the commission. “We must act now, as later is way too late.”
More ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Solar project at Fort Lauderdale park keeps basketball players cool - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Mar 08, 2024) |
|
Mar 08, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
At Reverend Samuel Delevoe Memorial Park in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, teens can practice jump shots under the shade of a new open-air pavilion covered with solar panels.
Jennifer Jurado is chief resilience officer for Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale.
She says the city is hot and getting hotter as the climate warms. So it’s important to help protect people from the scorching sun.
Jurado: “So being able to provide a shaded area for play at a site that’s so heavily utilized and valued by the community, it really provides ... Read more ...
|
|
|
|
Heat pumps are keeping homes warm in Maine - Yale Climate Connections - Energy (Mar 06, 2024) |
|
Mar 06, 2024 · Stay in the know about climate impacts and solutions. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
Yale Climate Connections
Manufactured - or mobile - homes make up about 8% of the housing in Maine. Most of them are heated with oil, kerosene, or propane.
Mistro: “And all of these are relatively expensive heating fuels.”
Dan Mistro is with Efficiency Maine, an agency that runs the state’s energy efficiency programs.
He says electric air source heat pumps can provide a cheaper - and cleaner - alternative.
So his group has been running a pilot program to show that heat pumps can heat homes even during Maine’s cold winters.
Casagranda: “We had two days ... Read more ...
|
|
|