QUICK NEWS, May 28: When Change Becomes Crisis; Replacing NatGas With Solar – The Math

When Change Becomes Crisis Should We Be Calling Climate Change a 'Climate Crisis'?

Brian Kahn, May 21, 2019 (Gizmodo)

“…[Leading voices say it is time to move from ‘climate change’ to the more accurate ‘climate crisis’ label but some say the new label] has the potential to alienate some readers…Terms like climate crisis and emergency connote a value judgment…[They] are well borne out by the facts. Climate change is creating crises around the world…But the terms still blur the line between subjective and objective, a move that could have unintended consequences…People who don’t share the opinion that climate change is a crisis are, by and large, conservatives, who deny the problem’s existence at higher rates than the general populace…

click to enlarge

Numerous lines of research show that the denial doesn’t stem from a lack of intelligence, but rather from a worldview that climate change—a global problem that requires cooperation and government intervention to solve—directly threatens…[It is not necessary to pander to conservatives but] finding terms that most people can relate to is the key way to building engagement…[There may be] terms that can convey the urgency of the issue without the added value statement…[On the other hand, change may have become a crisis because] a concerted misinformation campaign…Clearly the status quo hasn’t exactly been working…[and the new label is] a step toward being real about the situation humanity is facing.” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet

Replacing NatGas With Solar – The Math How Many L.A. Rooftop Solar Panels to Replace a Natural Gas Power Plant?

Andrew Burger, May 27, 2019 (Solar Magazine)

“…[Market-leading residential solar energy systems installer Sunrun proposes replacing] a Los Angeles natural gas power plant scheduled for retirement by aggregating the power generated by solar-plus-storage systems installed in city homes…[The ‘virtual power plant’ (VPP) could replace peak capacity and] save nearly $60 million…[The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the] largest municipal utility in the U.S….[could deploy battery storage and solar on] roughly 150,000 homes and 5,000 apartment buildings…The ability to generate and manage emissions-free electricity at gigawatt-scale with the reliability, and at a cost that matches, or beats, grid-connected, natural-gas power generation could be a genuine game-changer when it comes to advancing the renewable, zero-carbon energy transition…

[Power utilities could leapfrog and avoid investing in a new generation of natural-gas power plants, thereby avoiding all the carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gas emissions, other types of environmental pollution and water resources use that comes with them…Installed in homes, businesses and government facilities and then networked to create a virtual power plant (VPP), solar-plus-storage systems have the advantage of being modular and quick to deploy with small physical footprints…They offer an unprecedented amount of flexibility when it comes to the range of grid services they can provide, from ancillary grid services, such as frequency or voltage regulation, to primary, spinning and reserve grid generation capacity… Sunrun recently won a bid to provide regional transmission organization (RTO) ISO New England (ISO-NE) with energy capacity at wholesale rates by aggregating electrical power produced by home solar-plus-storage systems distributed across the region…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet