Tag: Climate Strike

Climate Action, Climate Change September 16, 2019January 7, 2020

Energy-Storage Batteries | A Whole New Industry

Washington (Gallant Gold Media Hill Report | Analysis | September 16, 2019)
by Noreen Wise

With the global climate crisis focus upon us, which begins Friday September 20, 2019 with a massive worldwide #ClimateStrike, and continues for a full week of events, the entire globe will be fixated on how we can quickly find and execute the cure and save millions of lives, and in certain regions, entire populations.

This year has seen an unprecedented uptick in the switch to solar energy, with California leading the way. EV car sales are leaping tall buildings. The increase in clean energy is so significant, that the new big industry mushrooming overnight is that of storing excess clean energy, to be used after the sun goes down, or when supply runs out. There are investors and innovators popping up in many countries, looking to produce the highest quality energy storage batteries — small ones for homeowners, and massive ones known as “utility scale” for corporations, towns, cities, etc.

It would be very smart if fossil fuel communities jumped in quick to seize the opportunity and transition coal and oil workers into clean energy storage careers.

Batteries are very important in enabling energy companies to store the excess energy generated by a sunny or windy day, to then be used at night, or on a very still day, when there’s no strong wind force. Critical requirements for high quality energy storage batteries include the following:

Capacity & Power – measured in kilowatt hours (kWh), we should get stackable kind so we can easily increase capacity as need grows
Depth of Discharge (DoD) – the amount of the battery that has been used, a battery’s use level has a floor; the higher the DoD (ie 80%), the more the battery can be used before needing to be recharged
Round trip efficiency – it takes a certain amount of energy to store energy, so the higher the efficiency, the more energy you’ll receive from your battery; the efficiency rate is measured as a percent, the higher the percent, the higher the efficiency (30% is bad, 80% is good)
Battery life & warranty – clean energy storage batteries have a “cycle” of charging and draining; battery life is listed as a specific number of cycles, ie 4,000; a warranty will read something to the effect: 4,000 cycles or 8 years at 65% of it’s capacity… meaning at the end of the warranty the battery will have only lost 35% of it’s initial capacity.
Manufacturer – there are no so many different brands that it’s difficult to determine which is the best, so it’s important to compare using the above four critical features

Companies around the world hoping to become the top clean energy storage producers. Here are 7 to keep your eye on:

Tesla
Vivint Solar
LG Chem
Eos Energy Storage
Sonnen
Nissan
Sunverge

Climate Action, Climate Change, National Security, Politics September 9, 2019December 22, 2019

What? Why so many life-threatening new gas plants opening?

Washington (Gallant Gold Media Hill Report | Analysis | September 9, 2019)
by Noreen Wise

The climate crisis keeps growing more alarming as climate change inflicts serious consequences. The out of control fires in the Amazon rain forest last month, devastated hundreds of millions of trees. Trees sequester carbon, lowering the worlds’s
atmospheric carbon levels. And although there’s been significant global effort to lower the PPM carbon level by transitioning quickly to clean energy, and we’ve been trending lower in 2019 — moving from 415 PPM to 411 PPM (YAY!) — the goal is to actually reach 350, so we still have a long way to go.

And then disaster struck… again. We now must transition to clean energy that much faster. Thankfully we can do this. Solar energy is much less expensive than building new power plants, cost consumers less per moth, and can actually earn households money if they invest in a battery that stores excess solar energy. With this clear vision in place, and with a united purpose of saving lives, which may be our own, what is the point in initiating a plan that’s the opposite of this? It seems ludicrous and life-threatening.

With headlines like that of this morning’s, “As Earth faces climate catastrophe, US set to open nearly 200 (dirty) power plants“, climate deniers are doing an excellent job at undermining America’s influence in the world. Gas power plants are expensive, dirty, and will kill innocent people across the globe. We see this now. We see innocent Bahamians, with one entire Bahama island demolished, 70,000 people without homes, no sanitation, completely reliant on the kindness of others, yet dozens of evacuees on one humanitarian cruise ship were removed.

The US is behind the majority of other nations in the world on transitioning to clean energy. This makes us look indifferent to the suffering of others, backwards and greedy. In fact, in opening 200 new dirty power plants, we actually are all of these terrible things.

US is world LEADER in carbon emissions from power plants “emitting 2.70 billion tons” of carbon, followed by China who emits 2.66 billion (China has a population of 1.43 billion though, while US population is only 329 million). So US carbon output at this level almost seems criminal, at the very least negligent.
Texas has the most power plants and oil reserves and emits 12% of US carbon, that’s an incredibly irresponsible number. There are 50 states. California emits 7% of US’s carbon emissions but has a population of 39.75 millions, while Texas only has 29.09 million.
It’s far less expensive to install solar panels than to build a gas power plant, even though gas is less expensive than coal power plants.
Clicking through the EnergySage link to get a Solar quote is just like scrolling through Expedia or kayak for a travel quote.

So what’s the point here? Natural gas power plants do not make economic sense. They pollute the air, undermine health, and do indeed kill innocent people through climate change events. There is no economical or moral justification for 200 new gas power plants. Wong choices like this one, reinforce the world’s perception that the US is idifferent to the suffering of others (that we inflict ). That we’re driven by the blind greed of a few, no matter what the climate and human consequences are to the 99%. And the few that are mapping out this nonsensical strategy, only have scream “climate denier” to gt away with it.

We need to hold these executives accountable. Denying climate change, and thus furthering the crisis, is the equivalent of admitting guilt.

Climate Change March 12, 2019August 20, 2019

Climate Strike | Young Voices That Haunt

Washington (Gallant Gold Media Hill Report | Perspective | March 12, 2019)
by Noreen Wise

Children are often far more intuitive than adults. They have natural child’s intuition, similar to our pet’s intuition. Children are excellent at reading body language, with an uncanny ability to accurately deduce what kind of day we’re having without us saying a word.

Further, children are observant, typically hyper observant. When walking along a sidewalk, or driving the familiar route to school, a child will notice if the Lopez’s tulips have suddenly blossomed, or if the Wilsons’ painted their front door, whereas we adults may not. Young children are that much closer to the ground and thus silently absorb any number of signals from nature about its well being. Their memories are extremely sharp, recollecting with great accuracy if the water level along the river bank is higher this year than it was several years ago.

Children are idealists. We teach them what’s right. Provide for them a strong moral code to live by. They trust it. They believe that we live by the same code. They expect adults to practice what we preach.

The Climate Strike, led by alarmed children reaching out to adults and demanding that we please “panic” about their Climate Change plight, the same way they are, intuitively projects that the point of no return will land squarely on their shoulders. Doomsday will arrive when they’re graduating from college, launching into their young adult lives. Do we remember our blissful 20’s? Instead, these terrified Americans will have to suffer the consequences of our indifference, of our blind eye. They’re profound Climate Strike message arrives at the right time and in the tone. An urgent plea for help. If only our president could stand up with the rest of us and do something noble.

In a New York Times article, the founder of Climate Strike, 16 year old Greta Thunberg of Sweden, had a very poignant message for adults:

“‘Adults keep saying, “We owe it to the young people to give them hope,’ she said. ‘But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.’”

No adult with a conscience wants children to endure this type of fear, and yet so many do. In the United States, children and teens already feel terrified with Active Shooter Lock Down Drills in their schools. If our action will help alleviate their young troubled minds, then let’s get to it. This forward path should be a very simple daily roadmap that will become a powerful force for curbing global warming and brightening the future outlook of today’s youth.