Above N-Beyond Energy

01/14/2025

From research to reality in my fair city.
https://www.wcax.com/2025/01/13/burlington-company-launches-new-efficient-solar-panels/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3NuNuCBzYSybUIn4jVKsh6ZQsORE2LR0WuZFkLHGAYLthkn6BTzdpBqQQ_aem_mi73GdxUylibpkEaWIzBXw

A Vermont solar energy company is on the cusp of selling panels they say will transform the game.

10/06/2024

Another post fossil fuels move coming in 2 years.

The project is expected to employ 200 people during construction and 90 people once production begins.

08/30/2024

This surprises me in 2 ways. First that they are dropping prices Before Labor Day. Second, usually prices drop before an election with a Republican in the White House, but not when Democrats hold that place.
And, personally it doesn't affect me much as we are now driving a Prius at 40 mpg about 250 miles a month and a Tesla. My personal "fuel" price for the EV has remained constant at about $6/300 miles since 2020.

Pump prices having been falling all summer, and as Labor Day approaches, they're 47 cents lower than this time last year. Some analysts see $3 gasoline in our future.

08/30/2024

Hokey Smokes, Rocky! That's what I call a commitment to charging. 50 in the next few years in our little city.

“We really want to make sure every part of the community is going to have access,” said the utility's general manager.

07/29/2024

An article about my CEO and Champlain Housing Trust. Good news for your day.

Submitted by tim on Sun, 07/28/2024 - 16:03 Related Company Champlain Housing Trust Michael Monte, CEO of Champlain Housing Trust. Photo: Baldwin Photography. by Joyce Marcel, Vermont Business Magazine Who is Michael Monte, and why does everyone seem to love him? For one thing, over the 46 years tha...

07/12/2024

I can't seem to find the interactive map this year, so you'll have to peer carefully at the colors and the dots. My fair city appears to have received 4-5" over 24 hours, which is a 50 year storm.

06/20/2024

It is one of the earliest times for summer solstice at 4:50 this afternoon. Happy Solstice!

05/29/2024

From Kareem Abdul-Jabaar's letter this morning on Florida's recent move to roll back environmental improvements.:
"SUMMARY: A TV meteorologist condemned the Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s so-called “don’t say climate change” law on air and urged viewers to vote.

Steve MacLaughlin of WTVJ in Miami addressed viewers on Saturday amid rising heat records across the state, saying: “On Thursday, we reported … that the government of Florida was beginning to roll back really important climate-change legislation and really important climate-change language.”

MacLaughin condemned DeSantis’s position on the matter, saying that it came “in spite of the fact that the state of Florida over the last couple of years has seen record heat, record flooding, record rain, record insurance rates, and the corals are dying all around the state”.

He said: “The entire world is looking to Florida to lead in climate change, and our government is saying that climate change is no longer the priority it once was.

“Please keep in mind the most powerful climate change solution is the one you already have in the palm of your hands – the right to vote. And we will never tell you who to vote for, but we will tell you this: we implore you to please do your research and know that there are candidates that believe in climate change and that there are solutions. And there are candidates that don’t.”

McLaughlin delivered his comments after DeSantis recently signed several bills the governor claimed sought to “restore sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots”.

“Radical green zealots want to impose their climate agenda on people through restrictions, regulations and taxes,” a notice posted by DeSantis said.

In addition to prohibiting windfarms offshore and near coastlines, the bill prioritizes the expansion of natural gas and bolsters protections against gas appliance bans and repeals climate policies enacted during Barack Obama’s presidency.

The gas industry has helped drive climate change and its resulting effects, including severe weather becoming more commonplace.

Over the weekend, south Florida saw record temperatures, with Fort Lauderdale and Miami each reaching record highs of 95F (35C) on Sunday. Typical highs for this time of year are about 86F (30C), the Palm Beach Post reported.

MY TAKE: “Radical green zealots want to impose their climate agenda on people through restrictions, regulations and taxes,” says DeSantis. “Radical green zealots” is the common term used by conservative shills on the payroll of coal, oil, and natural gas companies. “Radical” is a word meant to scare people—like Communist or terrorist or groomer or mo**ster. The theory is if I just attach one of those words, the audience becomes too frightened to listen to the specifics of what follows. Maybe we should just say that DeSantis is grooming conservatives to mo**st the Constitution.

I’m torn about this article. I don’t think McLaughlin should have delivered an editorial on-air while performing his duties as a meteorologist. That taints the news show’s objectivity. Editorials should be labeled as such and not seem like he’s speaking for the entire news organization.

At the same time, I applaud what he said. He used his celebrity to get a vital message across: DeSantis is selling out the people of Florida in exchange for money to himself and his party so he can remain in office to continue to push for harmful legislation. The evidence of the devastation in Florida from climate change is everywhere, yet he refuses to acknowledge it because his followers want him to deny it so they feel better. It’s like being in an airplane that is diving toward the ground and demanding that the pilot announce, “Don’t listen to this radical alarmist. We’re just taking a shortcut to the ground.”

05/21/2024

More of this, please.
https://www.wcax.com/2024/05/20/nh-college-boasts-regions-1st-solar-ev-charger-created-by-vt-company/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0U3sw6_67fh4ZwMSgt2El12NkK8iqVWASdj5mO-n6D36FKvd1G5KPUfwg_aem_Adntnfshj7rVh2P4oyVtBldSfgDvtI0jBnas8cSZetnI8ke909OuVj4Xjgst89MAv1tlkzMlKhFnmXP0d-7XK8a6

A Vermont solar company has created the region's first electric vehicle charger run entirely by solar. Our Sophia Thomas finds out how it fits into the growing push for EVs.

05/16/2024

What would you do if your car just uploaded a trial period for you to try their self driving capability?
Yes I know I'm talking to a very small percentage of you, but the latest software update includes a month free trial. I get the updates every month or two. This is a big change.

Autopilot is an advanced driver assistance system that enhances safety and convenience behind the wheel. When used properly, Autopilot reduces your overall workload as a driver. Learn more about Autopilot.

05/16/2024

Checking for energy geeks. Anyone using an IR camera that plugs into your phone that does a photo and the IR image. I used to have one and left it at one of several jobs. All the ones I can find now, 7 years later, only do the IR image.

05/16/2024

From my Building Performance Institute today:
Maine: Clean Energy Jobs Surpass 15,000
Governor Mills announced that the number of clean energy jobs in Maine has surpassed 15,000, increasing faster in Maine than any other New England state. The clean energy sector grew to contribute $2.31 billion to Maine’s economy in 2022, according to an independent report released by the Maine Governor’s Energy Office (GEO)"
Note: This is just Maine. Sim ilar increases in other Northeastern states.

04/09/2024

Vermonters - call or write your state Senators for affordable housing.

SUPPORT H.829, THE LONG-TERM HOUSING SOLUTIONS ACT! Email your senator today! Please reach out to your State Senators and let them know that you support long-term solutions to Vermont’s housing and homelessness crisis! A bill is currently being debated in the Vermont Legislature that would create ...

05/19/2022

From the Wall Street Journal. For me the key point to all of this (and the solution to many of our problems could have been averted by acting in the 1970s when we knew energy was a problem) is
"...and there is political will."

"European Union Unveils Energy Plan BY Matthew Damon & Kim Mackrael
The European Union released a $317 billion plan aimed at ending its dependence on Russian energy within five years, testing the bloc’s political will to overhaul its energy policy and infrastructure in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The plan envisions European countries cooperating in the near term to negotiate gas supply deals from producers in the U.S., the Middle East and Africa to replace energy from Russia. Meantime, the bloc would launch a massive expansion of renewable energy construction by boosting funding for projects and streamlining regulations that slow them down.
The plan, released Wednesday by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, seeks to cut imports of Russian gas by two-thirds this year and end its dependence on them entirely by 2027.
Much of the plan must be approved by European national governments and the European Parliament to become law.
Russia’s invasion has intensified pressure on Europe to shift away from fossil fuels, prompting new ambition from the bloc compared with before the war, when fighting climate change was the dominant concern. Russia supplies 40% of the EU’s natural gas, a quarter of its oil and nearly 50% of its coal.
“It is clear we need to put an end to this dependence as soon as possible, and a lot faster than we had foreseen before this war,” said Frans Timmermans, the commission’s executive vice president.
Wednesday’s plan also calls for relatively small investments in fossil fuel infrastructure such as liquefied natural gas terminals to help replace Russia as a supplier in the next few years. That prompted
criticism from some environmental groups that urged the EU to avoid prolonging its reliance on fossil fuels.
“The EU should be wary of creating more fossil fuel dependencies from autocratic regimes or climate-wrecking fracking projects,” said Patrick ten Brink, deputy secretary general of the European Environment Bureau.
The plan calls for 45% of the EU’s energy to come from wind turbines, solar panels and other renewable sources by 2030, up from the 40% that was proposed last year as part of a plan to curb greenhousegas emissions. It also prioritizes energy savings, with
plans to tighten efficiency requirements for new buildings and other measures. In 2020, 22% of the bloc’s energy came from renewable sources. “It is very ambitious, what they’re trying to do,” said Anastasios Tomtsis,apartner at law firm Clifford Chance. He
said the plan was probably achievable, “because there are significant incentives behind this, and there is political will.”

02/26/2022

A U.S. auction of locations
for offshore wind farms on the
Atlantic coast resulted in a record $4.37 billion in winning
bids, officials said Friday, a
sign of robust interest in developing renewable energy in
federal waters.
Auction winners for parcels
covering nearly a half million
acres off the coast of New
York and New Jersey included
a partnership of Shell PLC and
EDF Renewables Inc., a partnership of U.S.-based firms Invenergy LLC and energyRe,
and a partnership of Engie SA,
EDP Renewables and fund
manager Global Infrastructure Partners.
The sale is the first for the
from the Wall Street Journal: Wind-Farm Auction Attracts Record Bids
by Jennifer Hiller
"Biden administration and marks
a key moment in the president’s bid to help jump-start an
American offshore wind industry as he seeks to decarbonize
the nation’s electricity grid in
response to climate change.
President Biden has said he
wants the U.S. to generate 30
gigawatts of power through
offshore wind by 2030, enough
to power millions of homes.
While the offshore wind industry is well established in
Europe, the U.S. has just two
offshore wind farms, which operate off Rhode Island and Virginia, and another two projects
approved for development.
The sale, located in an area
known as the New York Bight,
was the first lease auction in
federal waters since 2018 and
the start of an ambitious
schedule to parcel out ocean
blocks for new wind farms that
would ring the coastal U.S.
Coming auctions this year
are planned for waters off
North Carolina, California and
in the Gulf of Mexico. More
leasing will follow in waters
that include the central Atlantic,
Oregon and the Gulf of Maine.
“We expected this lease to be
hotly contested. The U.S. market
is maturing,” said James Cotter,
general manager of Americas
offshore wind for Shell.
The steady diet of federal
auctions is expected to help
bolster the U.S. industry and its
suppliers. If a developer doesn’t
succeed in one auction, another
is around the corner.
“What makes the U.S. opportunity much clearer moving forward and more stable
from an investment standpoint
is the fact that you have now
in placeaschedule for lease
sales coming online,” said Erik
Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, an industry trade group
that includes both offshorewind and oil-and-gas firms.
Bidding this week by 14
companies lasted three days
and went 64 rounds, according
to the Interior Department’s
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which handles offshore energy projects. The
auction of just one parcel surpassed $1 billion and by itself
easily eclipsed the previous
record of $405 million in winning bids, set in the 2018 lease
sale of coastal waters off Massachusetts. The government
said it was the highest-grossing competitive offshore energy lease sale in history.
“If there was ever any doubt
about the appetite for offshore
wind in the U.S., the results of
this should put that to rest,”
said analyst Adam Wilson of
S&P Global Market Intelligence.
There are plenty of hurdles
for the new industry. Wind-turbine manufacturers are beset
by pandemic-related challenges
and have proven especially
susceptible to shipping backlogs, component delays and
rising raw-materials prices,
which could pressure project
costs for developers. Offshore
wind in the U.S. already is
more expensive than other
forms of renewable energy.
The projects have encountered opposition from the
commercial fishing industry,
which has raised concerns
about the impact on livelihoods and ecosystems, and
coastal residents who object
to transmission cables and
other infrastructure passing
through their communities.
"

01/11/2022

Amory Lovins for the win again on the myth of rare minerals limiting EV and renewable energy.
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/myth-and-reality-alternatives-rare-minerals-ev-batteries?fbclid=IwAR0XHHIttpfu4M6QeAbGiSNBWxFZAlINNhm9mAlc8hzqUWroDkspRQJDjQc

Greener, friendlier alternatives exist.

10/26/2021

There’s a new study out that found that recycled lithium-ion batteries are as good as and even better than new batteries made with newly mined materials. Yan Wang, a professor of mechanical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and a team of researchers from the US Advanced Battery Conso...

10/15/2021

Around here, we're growing wildflowers and more interesting, sheep and goat at two different installations to keep the grass and weeds down.

In the new scientific (and literal) field of agrivoltaics, researchers are showing how panels can increase yields and reduce water use on a warming planet.