QUICK NEWS, June 2: CLIMATE CHANGE AND TEXAS FLOODS; TWO GOOD WIND BETS; SOLAR, ON BALANCE, IS A WINNER

CLIMATE CHANGE AND TEXAS FLOODS In Texas floods, is there a link to climate change?

John Neilsen-Gammon, June 2, 2015 (The Conversation)

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“…Thermodynamically, there’s a limit to how much water vapor can be carried by the air…Studies have shown the odds of very intense rainfall in this part of the country have gone up substantially over last century. The cause and effect with climate change and surface temperature is fairly direct. There’s definitely a connection there…It depends on how you measure drought. The biggest factor driving drought in Texas and the Great Plains in general is rising temperatures. It’s not clear yet whether the rising temperatures are going to outpace the increase in rainfall that’s been observed to lead to more or less drought overall…

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“…[C]limate change is going to make temperatures warmer, make evaporation more intense and increase water demand for plants and agriculture, so it will make that aspect of drought worse. But it remains to be seen whether droughts overall will become worse, because that depends on rainfall…[Y]ou do end up getting more extremes…[T]hey can be extremely damaging…Extremely damaging events are droughts, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes…In the case of heavy local rainfall, trends have been detected and the models predict an increasing trend…[but] event attribution is a still an immature science…” click here for more

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TWO GOOD WIND BETS Top wind energy stocks for renewables investors

Michael McDonald, May 30, 2015 (OilPrice.com via USA Today)

“…[W]ind power is generating roughly 5% of the overall power for the country…States like Minnesota, Kansas, and Iowa are generating 15 to 30% of their power from wind…Texas and California are nearing 10%...Wind power has fully become a mainstream source of electricity…[But new taller towers, longer blades, and bladeless turbines] have the potential to make wind energy even more viable…[I]ndustrial behemoth General Electric announced a new digital system that it says will boost wind farm energy production by up to 20%...There are 50 GW of wind power being installed worldwide…Each GW is worth about $50 million a year, and assuming GE used the product in a Software as a Service (SaaS) format…[so] the technology could yield profits of roughly $250 million annually starting in the first year. Assuming wind power generation grows at 20% per year, in less than eight years, the firm would be generating a billion dollars a year in revenue…Northern Power Systems is a manufacturer of wind turbines and other equipment and represents a purer play on wind energy…” click here for more

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SOLAR, ON BALANCE, IS A WINNER Pros And Cons Of Solar Energy

Matthew Johnston, May 30, 2015 (Investopedia)

“With the growing threat of climate change due to the excessive release of carbon emissions, many nations are looking to clean energy alternatives…Of all the clean energy alternatives, solar has arguably been the most expensive. However, after considering the pros and cons along with the 80% drop in solar panel prices over the last five years, the future of solar energy is looking rather bright…THE PROS…Sustainable…Low Environmental Impact…Energy Independence…THE CONS…Intermittency…Land Use…Scarcity of Materials…THE BOTTOM LINE While solar energy technology has some disadvantages that make it somewhat expensive in certain markets, it is becoming an increasingly cost-competitive alternative…Considering the enormous potential gains of harnessing the sun’s light and heat, it may be worth increasing the incentives…” click here for more

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