QUICK NEWS, November 12: Directing Smart Money For The Climate Fight; Power Plants All Over

Directing Smart Money For The Climate Fight How should billionaires spend their money to fight climate change? I asked 9 experts. Is it better to invest in developing clean energy technologies, say, or in trying to get a Democrat elected president?

Sigal Samuel, November 12, 2019 (VOX)

“…Some megadonors are already trying to help us avert the climate crisis…[Nine top climate experts — scientists, activists, policy entrepreneurs —proposed] the most effective way to spend…[Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature and co-founder of 350.org, said] spend the money helping build the climate movement…[Jessica Lovering, energy program director, the Breakthrough Institute, said] set up a competitive prize to demonstrate small, factory-produced nuclear reactors…[Ashok Gupta, senior energy economist, Natural Resources Defense Council, said] focus on making the state of Kansas, where I currently live, into a model state for clean energy] over the next five years…[Alan Robock, environmental science professor, Rutgers University, said] it’s more important to change your leaders than to change your lightbulbs…[The fossil fuel industry has captured the Republican Party so I would spend to get] Democrats elected…

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…[Kate Marvel, associate climate research scientist, Columbia University and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said the key is] investing everything in girls’ schools and women’s leadership…[Kerry Emanuel, atmospheric science professor, MIT, said invest heavily in] new high-temperature, fuel-efficient [nuclear] reactors expected to be deployed in the 2030s…[Adrienne Hollis, senior climate justice and health scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists, said focus on] community-building and resiliency opportunities…[Kelly Wanser, principal director, Marine Cloud Brightening Project, proposed spending to] catalyze geoengineering innovation…[Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, North America director, 350.org, proposed investment to back] the Green New Deal…” click here for more

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Power Plants All Over No wind? No sun? This power plant solves renewable energy's biggest problem

Hannah Ziady, November 7, 2019 (CNN)

“…By supplying electricity from renewable sources even when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing, virtual power plant technology could help tackle the climate crisis…[Unlike conventional power plants, New Energy is] weather dependent and therefore much more difficult to control…[Virtual power plants (VPP) resolve that] by connecting disparate sources of renewable production, generation and storage. By pooling those resources, engineers can make them behave like a conventional power plant…[A] virtual power plant might be connected to 10 geographically dispersed wind farms to smooth the variability in output of each one. It could also include an energy storage component, so that if production from the wind farms outstrips demand a fleet of batteries can be charged so they can supply more power later…

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…Norwegian company Statkraft's 12,000 MW VPP, running in Germany since 2011,] uses a cloud-based artificial intelligence platform to connect more than 1,500 wind, solar and hydropower plants across Europe with electricity generation and storage facilities, such as batteries…Power generation forecasts and actual electricity production data are continuously fed into the virtual power plant from the connected plants. This is supplemented with market prices for energy, enabling Statkraft to match demand with supply in real time…” click here for more

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