QUICK NEWS, May 8: It Was Beauty That Killed The Beast; Windows To The Sun; Wind Obstructions On Dakota Pipeline Lands
"It Was Beauty That Killed The Beast" What caused coal’s decline? It wasn’t Obama’s rules, study says
Bill Estep, May 4, 2017 (Lexington Herald Leader)
“Competition from cheap natural gas accounts for nearly half the decline in domestic U.S. coal consumption in recent years… Lower demand for electricity and growing use of renewable energy such as solar power also took a bite out of coal’s market share… Tougher federal environmental regulations also played a role in coal’s decline, but those rules were a significantly smaller factor than reductions in the cost of natural gas and renewable energy, [according to Can Coal Make A Comeback?] from Columbia University researchers…The researchers said that [President Trump’s promised ‘renaissance in U.S. coal production and employment’ is unlikely. They also concluded that an aggressive effort to roll back the coal-related environmental regulations from the Obama Administration] could help turn around the decline in domestic coal consumption. But that would rely on an increase in natural gas prices, and coal still wouldn’t fully recover…” click here for more
Windows To The Sun Turning Windows Into Solar Panels
Nell London, May 8, 2017 (Colorado Public Radio)
And Generating Electricity with a Flexible Glass Thinner than a Business Card
Colin Payne, February 1, 2017 (Engineering.com)
“If windows were solar panels, then giant glass office towers could soak up the sun's energy and use it to keep the lights on and the copy machines humming. That's the vision of a partnership between…[SolarWindow Technologies and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. SolarWindow says that solar windows installed on a 50-story building could offset 30 to 50 percent of its energy usage. The impact could be especially meaningful because commercial buildings account for about one-third of the nation's electricity consumption…SolarWindow’s scientists developed the new flexible glass product by applying layers of liquid coatings to Corning’s Willow Glass and then laminating them under conditions that simulated the high pressure and temperatures of the manufacturing processes used by commercial glass and window producers…SolarWindow sees them as particularly well-suited for installation over existing skyscraper windows…[They could also] be applied to cars, trucks, buses, planes and boats to turn them into mobile power generators…” click here for more
Wind Obstructions On Dakota Pipeline Lands What's Keeping Tribes From Harnessing Their Wind Energy?
Chris Clarke, May 2, 2017 (KCET)
“The Dakota Access Pipeline goes through some of the windiest parts of the Great Plains, and wind power generation in the Plains States has grown rapidly over the last decade…But in the rush to develop wind power, the Native peoples of the Plains are being left behind…While private landowners have enjoyed nearly a decade of Obama-era incentives to develop wind energy, Plains tribes seeking to harness the wind blowing past their lands must contend with several unique obstacles to development that don’t face their neighbors…Oglala Sioux tribal leaders of the the Rosebud Sioux reservation have been eager to build wind turbines on their lands for more than 20 years…[But plans for the] Owl Feather War Bonnet wind power facility on the Rosebud Reservation were delayed [by mismanagement and bureaucratic complications] for so long that the would-be buyers of the plant’s electricity backed out in 2008…[Despite reforms, proposed] projects remain in limbo…” click here for more
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