Weekend Reads: - Smart Energy Decisions

Distributed Energy Resources, Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions, Solar, Wind  -  October 7, 2023

Weekend Reads: 10 Myths About the Energy Transition; Tackling Health Care's Carbon Footprint

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

Health care has a massive carbon footprint. These doctors are trying to change that (NPR)  Hospitals are some of the biggest carbon polluters almost no one thinks about. The American health care system accounts for an estimated 8.5% of the country's carbon footprint. This sector emits climate warming pollution through a variety of sources including energy used to run facilities, transportation, products and what gets disposed of. Two years ago, OB-GYN Noe Woods found a handful of other doctors at UPMC also interested in climate change. They formed Clinicians for Climate Action, which quickly grew to over 500 doctors, nurses and others inside UPMC's 40-hospital system.

Reality Check: The IEA busts 10 myths about the energy transition (CleanTechnica)  The IEA’s latest Net Zero Roadmap finds that the continuity of current growth trends would see electric vehicles account for two-thirds of car sales by 2030 and for solar and wind to be 40% of electricity supply, very similar to the research that RMI just published. Most notably, the IEA busts 10 prominent myths that are misleading society about the energy transition.

U.S. could reach net-zero target through these key steps: Report (Axios)  The U.S. could meet its net-zero-emissions target by 2050 through three key portfolios of actions on electric vehicles, buildings and scaling clean energy, a new report finds. The analysis, made by the ICF Climate Center, offers an optimistic take on what the U.S. can do with available technologies and policy levers to slash emissions. The Climate Center is a research arm within global consulting firm ICF.

The climate culture wars reach British shores (Grist)  Four years ago, the United Kingdom became the world’s first major economy to legally commit to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The unprecedented move came even as the country had already reduced emissions by 42 percent from 1990 levels — mainly by slashing its dependency on coal and oil for electricity generation. It cemented the U.K.’s role as a global climate leader, but that position is now showing cracks.

These 'blue sky' energy technologies might help save the planet (Newsweek)  As the planet heats up and catastrophic extreme weather events continue to increase, the search for new solutions to the climate crisis is growing ever more urgent. Few people are better positioned to find and nurture transformative new approaches than Evelyn Wang, who in January was sworn in as the new director of the the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E). Officially a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, ARPA-E's mandate is to promote and fund the research and development of high-risk, high-reward energy technologies. A key part of that mission is to support the development of cleaner energy sources and new technologies to reduce the level of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.

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