Results: Calendar of Events
December 7, 2009
Test your smarts on the environment with this quiz from the Wall Street Journal. We’ve listed a few questions below. To see them all, click here
1) The debate over how to power the U.S. has been raging since the Nixon years, and was given extra impetus during last year’s presidential campaign. Just how does the U.S. keep the lights on? Match the share of electricity generated this year to the fuel source:
A. Coal
B. Nuclear power
C. Natural gas
D. Hydroelectric
E. Other renewables
1. 3.4%
2. 22%
3. 45%
4. 21%
5. 7.4%
ANSWER: A-3, B-4, C-2, D-5, E-1. Coal is still king, but it’s the one source of power whose share of the electricity mix has fallen this year, to 45% from 49% last year.
2) Speaking of power sources, what country gets the largest share of its electricity from renewable sources?
A. Denmark
B. Norway
C. New Zealand
D. Austria
E. Iceland
ANSWER: E. Iceland’s power is about 75% hydroelectric and 25% geothermal. Geothermal power, or tapping the earth’s underground heat, provides a rare double whammy for clean energy: It’s cheap and always available. Just not everywhere. Norway, a close second in renewable sourcing, gets 99% of its electricity from hydroelectric power.
December 6, 2009
Editor’s note: An excerpt from recent interview U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu did with the Boston Globe
On the dangers of waiting to make the changes we need to become more energy efficient, fuel independent . . .
It will take half a century to fully modernize our grid – a third of a century at best. It took a third of a century to get a national highway system. . . . It takes time to change infrastructure. If you say lets wait 50 years and then we’ll have all the magic wands we need, number one, there’s no incentive to develop the magic wands. If you look at all the energy technologies around the world and ask, where are we the leader? Are we the leader in wind? No. Really, it’s Vestas [a turbine maker out of Denmark]. Nuclear? No, it’s France and Japan.
Europe and Asia are marching in this direction. They are not waiting for the miracle to happen. They’re saying this is part of their economic prosperity. So, if we say we’re not really sure because this is going to cost us money – no. It’s going to cost us a ton of money not to do anything because we will lose industrial leadership.Deny the planet is changing and we will choose to deny that other countries could take technological leadership away from us. Read more
December 6, 2009
This is a report by Sean Cockerham at the Anchorage Daily News on the recently released Regional Integrated Resource Plan(RIRP), which is now being circulated for public comment.
The much touted, multi-billion-dollar Susitna River dam makes less sense for Alaska than a smaller hydro project at Chakachamna Lake across Cook Inlet from Anchorage, a new state-funded study found. The study, however, noted that the far-less-expensive Chakachamna project faces uncertainties and gathering data on Susitna should not be abandoned until its feasibility is resolved. The study has been eagerly anticipated, and the governor and Legislature will use it in weighing policies and spending on Railbelt energy projects. Read more
To download a fully copy of the RIRP report, click here
December 4, 2009
This was part of a Christian Science Monitor editorial today about the upcoming climate conference in Copenhagen, and the burgeoning business of clean energy.
“In Germany, jobs in the renewable-energy sector are approaching the number in auto manufacturing. Japan has a near monopoly on batteries for hybrid cars. Denmark has the largest wind turbine company. Within a few years, China is expected to dominate the global solar industry. And it is investing $88 billion in its electrical transmission grid to
bring solar and wind power to its cities.” Read more
December 4, 2009
From KRBD in Ketchikan: More than 20 years in the making, the Swan-Tyee electrical intertie is officially up and running. As Deanna Garrison reports, the southeast Alaska power agency began testing the new 57-mile transmission line last month and is now using the intertie daily. To hear the full story, click here
December 4, 2009
This is an interesting APRN story given the concerns about having enough gas supply for Southcentral Alaska. Having a storage facility would help with having enough gas to meet winter demand.
APRN: Transcanada has announced plans to construct a natural gas storage facility in the city of Kenai. The company formed Cook Inlet Natural Gas LLC, which has put forward the proposal. The project would need regulatory approval to move ahead, but company officials have been talking with city and borough administration about some of the basics. To hear the full story, click here
December 4, 2009
From Wendy Koch at USA TODAY: The home building industry is struggling, but one sector is booming: green homes. The number of homes winning the government’s Energy Star designation since the program began in 1995 has crossed the 1 million mark. Despite an overall housing slump, 75,000 have been added so far this year for a total of 1,024,200. Last year, Energy Star homes accounted for nearly 17% of all single-family homes built, up from 12% in 2007. The Energy Star label means a house is at least 20% more energy-efficient than other new homes. Read more
December 9, 2009
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
/ENVI293_Spring10_Syllabus.doc’>ENVI293_Spring10_Syllabus
Snow Goose Restaurant, West Banquet Room, 7-9 pm
Wall Street Bailout • Lobbyist Scandals • Lost Pensions • Oil Dependency • Mortgage Foreclosures • Climate Crisis
It’s time to change the rules. It’s time to make human rights and community values count more than corporate profits. It’s time to hold corporations accountable for risky behavior that harms people, communities, and the environment.
Author, scientist, and story-teller Riki Ott, PhD, weaves her evolution from academic to citizen-activist with the nation’s largest oil spill—the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. She offers thought-provoking remedies for the climate crisis, the economic crisis, and the democracy crisis by building sustainable communities and separating corporation and state. Come enjoy a lively discussion!
Presented by Bioneers in Alaska. Suggested donation $5; and 50% of the donations go to Dr. Ott.
December 2, 2009
Ingenuity at work in this article from Reuters and astounding to think that computer data centers such as those run by Google already use around 1 percent of the world’s energy.
In the chill of a massive cave beneath an orthodox Christian cathedral in Helsinki, Finland, a city power firm is preparing what it thinks will be the greenest data center on the planet. Excess heat from hundreds of computer servers to be located in the bedrock beneath Uspenski Cathedral, one of Helsinki’s most popular tourist sites, will be captured and channeled into the district heating network, a system of water-heated pipes used to warm homes in the Finnish capital. Due online in January, the new data center for local information technology services firm Academica is one way of addressing environmental concerns around the rise of the Internet as a central repository for the world’s data and processing–known as “cloud computing.” Read more
December 2, 2009
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory sent out a release today about a just finished report looking at the impact of wind power projects on home values. The report is entitled “The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United States: A Multi-Site Hedonic Analysis.” The release says the research, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, is the most comprehensive and data-rich analysis to date in the U.S. or abroad on the subject. Continue reading ‘Study: Wind power projects have no measurable impact on home value’
