GHG Emissions, Solar, Sourcing Renewables, Wind  -  October 14, 2023

Weekend Reads: Floating Solar Poised for Domination; What's Next for DAC?

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

What’s next for direct air capture? (E&E News)  The Biden administration is racing to finalize $1.2 billion in grants to spur the development of industrial installations that can pull massive quantities carbon dioxide out of the air. But the Department of Energy’s bid to supercharge the nascent direct air capture industry is just getting started, with the ground rules for a $2.4 billion DAC hub funding competition set for release as soon as next year. The outcome of that competition is expected to lead to the construction of DAC megaprojects in at least two more American communities and could have significant ramifications for the corporations, venture capitalists and environmentalists that are invested in the success of the emerging climate technology. 

U.S. transition to clean energy is happening faster than you think, reporter says (NPR)  Huge swaths of the country are pivoting from fossil fuels toward wind, solar and other renewables. New York Times climate reporter Brad Plumer discusses this progress and roadblocks that lie ahead.

Floating solar poised for world domination, with tracking (CleanTechnica)  The floating solar industry is beginning to take off, as investors are attracted by the opportunity to set solar panels off to sail on the waters of existing human-made reservoirs instead of taking up land for solar development. To gild the green lily, tracking has now entered the mix, enabling floating panels to maximize their output by following the sun throughout the day.

How U.S. hospitals undercut public health (Undark Magazine)  Health care in the United States — the largest industry in the world’s largest economy — is notoriously cost inefficient, consuming substantially more money per capita to deliver far inferior outcomes relative to peer nations. What is less widely recognized is that the health care industry is also remarkably energy inefficient. In an era of tightening connections between environmental destruction and disease, this widely neglected reality is a major cause behind many of the sicknesses our hospitals treat and the poor health outcomes they oversee.

Solar companies and environmentalists say they’re ready to stop fighting. They’d better be (LA Times)  The United States has more than enough sunlight and wind to keep electricity flowing to our homes and businesses and factories most hours of most days — if only we could stop fighting over where to put all the solar panels and wind turbines. A new agreement could be the first step toward bringing some of that fighting to an end.

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