Energy Efficiency, Energy Storage, GHG Emissions, Solar, Sourcing Renewables  -  August 31, 2019

Weekend reads: CDP's global reach; a 40,000% power price spike

It's a long holiday weekend! Kick back and  catch up with these must-read articles from around the web:

How a not-for-profit charity is helping Apple, Goldman Sachs and others to embrace renewables (CNBC)  The CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, is a not-for-profit charity. It operates a “global disclosure system” which allows businesses, states, regions and cities to “measure and manage” their impact on the environment. With offices and partners in 50 countries, the CDP’s reach is global. It says that, through its work, it has managed to create the “most comprehensive collection of self-reported environmental data” on the planet.

Sometimes, a Greener Grid Means a 40,000% Spike in Power Prices (Bloomberg)  The road to a world powered by renewable energy is littered with unintended consequences. Like a 40,000% surge in electricity prices. Texas power prices jumped from less than $15 to as much as $9,000 a megawatt-hour this month as coal plant retirements and weak winds left the region on the brink of blackouts during a heatwave. It’s a phenomenon playing out worldwide. Germany averted three blackouts of its own in June and has seen prices both spike and plunge below zero within days as it swaps out coal and nuclear energy for wind and solar.

In this new solar powered apartment complex, all 600 units have batteries that form a virtual power plant (Fast Company)  If you walk inside this new one-bedroom apartment outside Salt Lake City, you might not recognize the large object around the corner from the fridge. Roughly the size of a refrigerator itself, it’s a battery. The apartment complex, which will include 22 buildings and 600 units when complete, is the first to put batteries inside every apartment, connected to solar power on the roof—so the local utility can use it as a virtual power plant.

Protecting our planet: Sports mega-events (Sportanddev.org)  Between sport mega-events, league finals, and international competitions there’s a major sporting event going on every month – from the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Wimbledon to the African Cup of Nations and the Cricket World Cup. Naturally, these are exciting and a cause for celebration (particularly for the winners), but they also hold the potential to leave a mushroom cloud of damage to the environment through carbon emissions and waste produced. So how can we maximise the environmental sustainability of such major sporting events?

Teen Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Arrives In New York After Sailing The Atlantic (NPR)  After a two-week journey sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived in New York on Wednesday at a marina in Lower Manhattan. Thunberg stepped off the emission-free racing yacht that brought her and held a news conference a few minutes later, saying, "The ground is still shaking for me." Nevertheless, Thunberg says she didn't feel seasick once during the trip, despite rough weather that delayed her arrival one day.

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