article thumbnail

Heating Buildings With Solar Energy Stored in Sand

Cars That Think

Anthropogenic climate change confronts humanity with a challenge: How can we keep warm now as we try to prevent our world from overheating in the future? A Small Country with Large Heating Needs Big problems demand big solutions, and there is perhaps no bigger 21st-century problem than climate change.

Store 92
article thumbnail

Study measures the effect of regional change in clouds caused by ships’ emissions; masking GHG warming

Green Car Congress

Satellite data over a shipping lane in the south Atlantic show that the ships modify clouds to block an additional 2 Watts of solar energy, on average, from reaching each square meter of ocean surface near the shipping lane. —co-author Hannah Director, a UW doctoral student in statistics. C, or 1.8 ?F,

Emissions 223
article thumbnail

Opinion: Reinventing fuel-based power for a more secure and resilient grid

Green Car Congress

It is, however, a challenge that is being made all the greater as we continue to decentralize power generation with more distributed, variable and inflexible sources, such as wind and solar. Increasingly, wind and solar are replacing fossil fuels as our principle source of energy. 100% wind and solar is not feasible on its own.

Grid 332
article thumbnail

California cap-and-trade spending doubles to $1.4 billion in 2018; xEV rebates, affordable housing, wildfire prevention, public transit

Green Car Congress

An annual ' tracking the progress of California Climate Investments, released by the California Air Resources Board and the California Department of Finance, finds that nearly $1.4 Projects funded to date are achieving the overall goal of California Climate Investments by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by more than 36.5 To date, $9.3

article thumbnail

UCI-led study finds California’s strict air quality regulations have helped farmers

Green Car Congress

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have conducted a statistical analysis of pollution exposure and yields from 1980 to 2015 on a key sector making up about 38% of the state’s total agricultural output: perennial crops such as almonds, grapes, nectarines, peaches, strawberries and walnuts. Mueller, N.D.,

Ozone 186
article thumbnail

California ARB: GHG emissions fell below 1990 levels for first time in 2016; down 13% from 2004 peak; transportation emissions up 2%

Green Car Congress

The state’s latest Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory shows that California emitted 429 million metric tons of climate pollutants in 2016—a drop of 12 million metric tons, or three percent, from 2015. Solar electricity in all forms, including rooftop generation, grew 33%, while natural gas fell more than 15%.

2004 225
article thumbnail

BrineMine Project at KIT: responsible extraction of energy, raw materials, and drinking water from geothermal wells

Green Car Congress

According to statistics from the World Bank, thousands of tons of valuable minerals are imported from the South American country every year, including raw materials for lithium-ion batteries. The German-Chilean research consortium is coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE).

Kits 170