I’m a long time reader and supporter of Volts (1,400 subscriptions generated, according to Substack’s stats) and I run a weekly clean energy and sustainability jobs list. Check it out here: https://edscleanenergysustainabilityjobs.com/. Hopefully this isn’t inappropriate to post here. Apologies if it breaks the rules.
Hi all - I am currently hiring an executive assistant at Cascadia Renewables. We develop community resilience focused microgrids, community solar, and agrivoltaic projects by and for environmental justice communities to own and operate here in Washington State. We are committed to the Justice 40 initiative and are looking for an experienced EA to help our small team grow: https://www.cascadiarenewables.com/executiveassistant
Two Open Positions at Open Environmental Data Project!
1. Civic Science Fellow & Data Inclusion Specialist: will work on our research, pilot, and network-building initiatives around open data and environmental data governance.
2. Data Stewardship Intern: will be responsible for researching and translating environmental data stewardship concepts and topics for our audience of community environmental data users.
Solar United Neighbors is seeking a Nevada Program Director to help us launch a state program there. We are a national nonprofit that helps people go solar and organizes solar owners to fight for better policy and regulation. We're looking for candidates who are in Nevada or willing to relocate there, though the position is remote with the expectation of travel within and beyond Nevada.
Greenlight America, a new organization building a scalable, nationwide model for engaging and mobilizing local residents in support of clean energy projects, is hiring for a slew of great roles right now, including:
I'm on a small town climate commission and we are part of Clean Air Day California ( cleanairday.org ) that happens on October 2, 2024. There is an educational individual pledge I'm hoping all of you will take and share with your networks. We will be holding assemblies at elementary and high schools to teach youth about what they can do to clear the air. California has some of the dirtiest air in the country, especially poorer communities forced to live near freeways and urban centers. Please help us reach a wider audience and take the pledge by going to these english or spanish links:
I've got an energy policy shop in Texas, and am considering expanding it into energy/water nexus and municipal finance. If this sounds interesting, please get in touch.
With Ford basically giving up on EVs, does that change the calculus for tariffs on Chinese vehicles? "Give US automakers time to grow into competence" seemed defensible, but that's when we assumed they'd try to be competent.
In early 2023? there was a big scare about natural gas cooktops causing Asthma, and of course the American Gas Association has a flood of studies released since then asserting no link at all. The initiating article seems to be this (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9819315/) published in Dec 2022. For all that flurry, what has changed? Have we dramatically shifted homes off natural gas? Are drop-in induction ranges everywhere now?
Perhaps most importantly, did we all collectively learn anything from the torrent of publicity for what amounts to <1% of domestic CO₂ emissions (with heating and water heating comprising 99%)? What should we have learned or done with all that publicity and enthusiasm for action to maximize our long term climate and health outcomes?
What do you read for fun and/or inspiration? It occurs to me that you and Neal Stephenson should be reading one another (if you aren't already) as you seem to have complimentary interests and humor. Zodiac and Termination Shock are probably the most relevant Stephenson novels for Climate warriors (the latter was a great uplifting and entertaining read after getting depressed by Markley's The Deluge).
Mailbag Question. What are sane and realistic responses to folks who argue against installing EVERYTHING chargers near building because, you know, those EV’s catch on fire. Living in a small rural community and our fire department is opposed to us getting EV chargers. It’s adding $10K to the installation costs in order to put them at the far end of our municipal parking lot. Maybe this is an episode topic.
Looks like people expect that the upcoming hydrogen tax credit rules will abandon at least some of the pillars recommended by NRDC (which I originally learned about via Volts!) Is this credit simply a pork barrel giveaway now or is subsidizing the hydrogen sector still an imperfect good?
PV roofed parking lots are a reasonably big thing in the southwest - or in Phoenix at least. It seems like such a win-win-win and low-hanging fruit. Would this ever be viable in Seattle? What are the challenges for implementation? Would this be a fruitful area for government subsidy?
Question (or request for an episode) here from a subscriber in Maine: Form Energy has just announced $147 million in federal funding to support installing an 85 MW, 8.5 GWh (!!) battery here in the town of Lincoln to absorb the variability of onshore wind projects in northern Maine. (https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/long-duration-energy-storage/form-energy-set-to-build-worlds-biggest-battery-in-maine) Form Energy uses an iron-air battery, basically rusting and unrusting iron to store and produce energy, but with atrocious 50% loss rates. This tech strikes me either as “unserious” (to quote the VPOTUS) or ground-breaking. What’s your take?
I used to doubt the viability of solar based on land usage alone - leading me to prefer nuclear. However, we already use a lot of land in the midwest to convert sunlight to energy in the form of corn ethanol. Are there any studies or government policy looking at incentivizing the replacement of corn ethanol fields with PV fields?
The Institute for Local Self Reliance recently produced a great report called Upcharge: The Hidden Costs of Electric Utility Monopoly Power (https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/upcharge-report.pdf). It does a good job of explaining the ways that electric utilities convert their monopoly power into political power, to the detriment of DERs, renewables, and ratepayers, and suggests some promising solutions, like setting up independent distribution system operators, performance based ratemaking, limiting the use of ratepayer money for political purposes, etc.
However, all of these items would likely be vigorously opposed by utilities in state legislatures, especially in conservative states where the pro-renewables coalition isn't strong enough to overcome the opposition. So what is the political solution here? Are there examples of influential entrenched industries submitting to substantial reform and restructuring? Is the wave of utility deregulation an example to learn from here?
This is a repeat of a question from the last community thread but I posted it pretty late so re-posting here (apologies if that is frowned upon). Wondering if an episode on the EU Methane Regulations and implications for US oil and gas would be in-store? Seems like these are actually going to involve some work from oil and gas companies. Possibly an interview with one of the tech companies (e.g. Longpath, MiQ) on the methane MRV side of things.
What would you do to help address climate change if you had $5 million to spend? How about $50 or $500 million? (For the record I don't have that kind of money, just curious, and hoping someone who does have that much might listen!)
How do you navigate the attention economy these days? Or more specifically, among an ever-growing ocean of content competing for a finite pool of eyeballs, how do you decide or prioritize which media [journalism, books, podcasts, videos, films, TV, social media, etc.] warrants your attention in your limited free time? Do you think navigating it has gotten easier or harder overtime as a media creator yourself?
Housing density is, in fact, (at least 2 or 3 innings of) the climate ballgame. My SFH sits on a 4000 sq ft lot walking distance to a well-served BART station, along with the intersection of 2+ excellent bus routes, and walking distance to three retail streets. And CA has passed SB 9, which presumably means that my property could hold 4 units by right (without a zoning variance). Great! But I think now the issue is financing it. I'm in my early 60's, I live alone. I SHOULD do this, but the mortgage is almost paid off, and a massive new cost is nerve-wracking. How to get from here to there? I feel like there is work to do on creating financing instruments that incentivize these conversions. What is out there?
Touch grass; don't cut it. For those who still live in places where people have sizable yards of grass, I suggest reducing the size of your lawn. The amount of time and equipment Americans invest in growing and mowing lawns is absurd. Most of the time its grass that no one goes out and does anything on. It just waits another week and then gets mowed again. In recent summers I've reduced my lawn size by about 20-25%. I just let the grass grow into a field and maybe cut it once in the spring and once in the fall. It saves me time and money. Under that field I wish I could bury some pipes and connect to a heat pump -but with hot water baseboards and not air ducts that seems to end the conversation I've had with contractors. Are there/will there be affordable ways of using ground-source heat-pumps in cold-weather climates with buildings that are not air-ducted?
Great rant. Sadly, its so true. I don't like heat absorbing concrete jungles either.
I lived in Brooklyn and summer is hell on earth. Escaped to bucolic countryside in western Mass. If you have farm animals, they eat grass which is one reason for beautiful open fields. But I gave up raising sheep and am sick of being the lord of my manor pushing a mower around instead of interacting with all those people I should want to be around. My nearest neighbor is about .2 mile away. They annoy the hell out of me with their motor noise and recent Trump flag. I planted 40 white pines between us and them this spring so in 30 years there'll be my version of the Wall. Sound American?
Agree ... but easier said than done when living in areas with HOA's. And that is hard to avoid in some areas. I live north of Indianapolis and it is hard to find a subdivision around here without one if not impossible. My HOA requires a certain percentage of my lawn to remain grass. Something I hope to influence to be removed in upcoming meetings.
I'd love to hear an episode focused on multifamily homes and electrification. The IRA doesn't have as many incentives in the space, and sometimes utilities can be a barrier!
I'm in Chicago and a two flat landlord (owner occupied) in our neighborhood tried to get solar and have one meter for the building, so the tenant gets the benefits too, but ComEd said that wasn't allowed, and the solar doesn't pencil out if it's only going towards the energy use of half the building. Plus for net metering reasons you wouldn't want to split the solar and have half of it go into the tenant meter, because any credits would get lost if the tenant changes over. It's a whole headache that goes against the city and state's climate goals, and the same issue comes up if you want a heat pump system with mini splits in the tenant units but billed to a central landlord meter, so that heat is included.
Heads up for National Drive Electric Week, Sept 27-Oct 6. These are events where regular ordinary EV drivers show their cars and will tell you how they charge them, how they drive them and how much they cost to buy and run. Stop reading headlines and get the truth straight from the horses mouth. You will often be pleasantly surprised.
Hi, here at E-axes Forum, an independent nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, we are dedicated to global knowledge sharing to engage economists and decision makers who are working on policies towards achieving a sustainable economy.
Our free webinars host experts, both academics and policymakers, addressing key issues in climate-change and related fiscal and monetary policies.
Bellevue WA: Forest and Friends is coming right up on Thursday the 22nd at 4:30. A small gathering over Pizza and BEvERages to talk climate, startups, and forests.
Happy to announce that I launched a podcast very much inspired by David's (with all humility that it will take years before I come close to his level of knowledge and hosting abilities). The podcast is about all things heat pumps and is called Heat Pump Review, located everywhere podcasts are hosted as well as here: https://heatpump.review
If the community has ideas for people I should interview or angles I should cover, please let me know!
I'm interested in talking with folks about approaches to embedding climate topics in higher education disciplines, to show that every job is a climate job.
I would like to invite you to visit my website, winstonmagnetic.wordpress.com, to learn about my discoveries. I have had a hobby of trying to figure out how to produce clean energy for the past thirty-seven years.. I still haven't accomplished that goal, but along the way I discovered fascinating patterns of compass needle movements that might be useful to others.
I just watched a YouTube video on compressed air storage (here: https://youtu.be/VS05y9mQgbw?si=E_J6QxK87v5EmwZH) and my bias is that it has far too many moving parts, would be a maintenance nightmare, would be a noisy place to work, etc. Is this alternative really needed? Is this just my bias? (Don't respect my priors :-).)
Not really related except for the seemingly relative simplicity, why has the gravity storage alternative failed to take off?
Dave, a story to perhaps find out there is what's happening with the Big Bucks world of making new Oil and Gas facilities. Some of the biggest companies in the States build refineries and so forth: Fluor/Daniel, Bechtel, Halliburton.
And they must be getting low on contracts. You only build a new refinery if you think it'll have 20 years of oil to work with. It's one thing to build short-term infrastructure like a new well, but a new refinery - I'd think the contracts were drying up, and the firms having to face long-term prospects that are not good.
Are they pivoting to green? Civil engineering is civil engineering.
Has anyone seen a vendor selling a solar shed and Power Racks combined as a residential system to avoid the expense and effort of designing a system for the roof? I want this both as an alternate and as a cost comparison to the very high labor and repair cost of roof installations.
California has some of the nation's dirtiest air, particularly in poorer neighborhoods near freeways and urban centers.
Let's do something about that!
October 2 is Clean Air Day California (cleanairday.org ) Take the pledge and learn about what simple and big things we can do to clear the air. It only takes one to two minutes of your time.
California has some of the nation's dirtiest air, particularly in poorer neighborhoods near freeways and urban centers.
Let's do something about that! Take the San Anselmo Climate Action Commission Clean Air Day educational pledge (cleanairday.org) It only take 1-2 minutes of your time.
I too am an Energy Nerd. I am equally enthralled with ground source geothermal. I actually installed a few water source units myself in my office condo. Unfortunately, the water to all units is centrally heated and not Geothermal.
*My question is what do we do with all of the Old Housing Stock which is not amenable to anything near Passive House standards? I own a house built in the later 1800's before electricity. It is huge, made entirely of Cedar and balloon framed and irreplaceable, but difficult to retrofit. What to do??
--- CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES ---
I’m a long time reader and supporter of Volts (1,400 subscriptions generated, according to Substack’s stats) and I run a weekly clean energy and sustainability jobs list. Check it out here: https://edscleanenergysustainabilityjobs.com/. Hopefully this isn’t inappropriate to post here. Apologies if it breaks the rules.
Not inappropriate at all, we’re big fans of your work!
Just popped up on my LinkedIn, PlantWorks is hiring for several operations roles! https://plantworks.teamtailor.com/#jobs
Hi all - I am currently hiring an executive assistant at Cascadia Renewables. We develop community resilience focused microgrids, community solar, and agrivoltaic projects by and for environmental justice communities to own and operate here in Washington State. We are committed to the Justice 40 initiative and are looking for an experienced EA to help our small team grow: https://www.cascadiarenewables.com/executiveassistant
Please share if you are able. Thanks!
Two Open Positions at Open Environmental Data Project!
1. Civic Science Fellow & Data Inclusion Specialist: will work on our research, pilot, and network-building initiatives around open data and environmental data governance.
2. Data Stewardship Intern: will be responsible for researching and translating environmental data stewardship concepts and topics for our audience of community environmental data users.
The full position description for both positions can be found at: https://www.openenvironmentaldata.org/work-with-us
Solar United Neighbors is seeking a Nevada Program Director to help us launch a state program there. We are a national nonprofit that helps people go solar and organizes solar owners to fight for better policy and regulation. We're looking for candidates who are in Nevada or willing to relocate there, though the position is remote with the expectation of travel within and beyond Nevada.
More info and a link to apply here: https://my.career.place/static/jobs/nevada-program-director-20240604-clwgra444iczd0rpn0bfb4csh
Oh and we're also looking for a Go Solar Program Specialist, located anywhere in the US!
https://my.career.place/static/jobs/go-solar-program-specialist-20240820-clzspfshllk3l0pqumkpbj1a8?source=staffreferral
Greenlight America, a new organization building a scalable, nationwide model for engaging and mobilizing local residents in support of clean energy projects, is hiring for a slew of great roles right now, including:
- Research Analyst
- Regional Campaign Manager, South-Central (TX, NM, KS, OK, LA, AR)
- Development Director
- Operations Manager
- more!
Listings all here: https://www.greenlightamerica.org/careers
I'm on a small town climate commission and we are part of Clean Air Day California ( cleanairday.org ) that happens on October 2, 2024. There is an educational individual pledge I'm hoping all of you will take and share with your networks. We will be holding assemblies at elementary and high schools to teach youth about what they can do to clear the air. California has some of the dirtiest air in the country, especially poorer communities forced to live near freeways and urban centers. Please help us reach a wider audience and take the pledge by going to these english or spanish links:
Pledge Link: https://cleanairday.org/pledge/individual/sananselmoclimatecommission/
Spanish pledge Link: https://cleanairday.org/es/pledge/individual/sananselmoclimatecommission/
Hi Sue, thanks for sharing. Can I recommend you share this in the “CLIMATE EVENTS” section? More people are likely to see it there. Here’s the link: https://www.volts.wtf/p/volts-community-thread-09/comment/65990259?r=oq1d&utm_medium=ios
Hi there! Fresh Energy, a Minnesota-based clean energy policy nonprofit is currently hiring for three positions.
- Director or Managing Director, Clean Electricity
- Senior Policy Associate, Electric Vehicles
- Managing Director, Industry
Learn more about the jobs here: https://fresh-energy.org/our-team/job-openings
Learn more about working at Fresh Energy here: https://fresh-energy.org/our-team
I've got an energy policy shop in Texas, and am considering expanding it into energy/water nexus and municipal finance. If this sounds interesting, please get in touch.
--- MAILBAG QUESTIONS ---
Less a question than an episode(s) request. Volts has covered a handful of companies that received DoE funding under the Industrial Decarbonization program (https://www.energy.gov/articles/biden-harris-administration-announces-135-million-reduce-emissions-across-americas). I'd love to see more of them covered. It's basically a roadmap to electrifying all the "hard to abate" sectors.
With Ford basically giving up on EVs, does that change the calculus for tariffs on Chinese vehicles? "Give US automakers time to grow into competence" seemed defensible, but that's when we assumed they'd try to be competent.
In early 2023? there was a big scare about natural gas cooktops causing Asthma, and of course the American Gas Association has a flood of studies released since then asserting no link at all. The initiating article seems to be this (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9819315/) published in Dec 2022. For all that flurry, what has changed? Have we dramatically shifted homes off natural gas? Are drop-in induction ranges everywhere now?
Perhaps most importantly, did we all collectively learn anything from the torrent of publicity for what amounts to <1% of domestic CO₂ emissions (with heating and water heating comprising 99%)? What should we have learned or done with all that publicity and enthusiasm for action to maximize our long term climate and health outcomes?
What do you read for fun and/or inspiration? It occurs to me that you and Neal Stephenson should be reading one another (if you aren't already) as you seem to have complimentary interests and humor. Zodiac and Termination Shock are probably the most relevant Stephenson novels for Climate warriors (the latter was a great uplifting and entertaining read after getting depressed by Markley's The Deluge).
What do you think of the Conservative Energy Network?
Mailbag Question. What are sane and realistic responses to folks who argue against installing EVERYTHING chargers near building because, you know, those EV’s catch on fire. Living in a small rural community and our fire department is opposed to us getting EV chargers. It’s adding $10K to the installation costs in order to put them at the far end of our municipal parking lot. Maybe this is an episode topic.
Sillier question, what's your favorite throwback comedy? movie or tv
Looks like people expect that the upcoming hydrogen tax credit rules will abandon at least some of the pillars recommended by NRDC (which I originally learned about via Volts!) Is this credit simply a pork barrel giveaway now or is subsidizing the hydrogen sector still an imperfect good?
PV roofed parking lots are a reasonably big thing in the southwest - or in Phoenix at least. It seems like such a win-win-win and low-hanging fruit. Would this ever be viable in Seattle? What are the challenges for implementation? Would this be a fruitful area for government subsidy?
Installations like this would be hugely advantaged by the community-scale markets that David discussed with Lorenzo Kristov
Question (or request for an episode) here from a subscriber in Maine: Form Energy has just announced $147 million in federal funding to support installing an 85 MW, 8.5 GWh (!!) battery here in the town of Lincoln to absorb the variability of onshore wind projects in northern Maine. (https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/long-duration-energy-storage/form-energy-set-to-build-worlds-biggest-battery-in-maine) Form Energy uses an iron-air battery, basically rusting and unrusting iron to store and produce energy, but with atrocious 50% loss rates. This tech strikes me either as “unserious” (to quote the VPOTUS) or ground-breaking. What’s your take?
I used to doubt the viability of solar based on land usage alone - leading me to prefer nuclear. However, we already use a lot of land in the midwest to convert sunlight to energy in the form of corn ethanol. Are there any studies or government policy looking at incentivizing the replacement of corn ethanol fields with PV fields?
The Institute for Local Self Reliance recently produced a great report called Upcharge: The Hidden Costs of Electric Utility Monopoly Power (https://ilsr.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/upcharge-report.pdf). It does a good job of explaining the ways that electric utilities convert their monopoly power into political power, to the detriment of DERs, renewables, and ratepayers, and suggests some promising solutions, like setting up independent distribution system operators, performance based ratemaking, limiting the use of ratepayer money for political purposes, etc.
However, all of these items would likely be vigorously opposed by utilities in state legislatures, especially in conservative states where the pro-renewables coalition isn't strong enough to overcome the opposition. So what is the political solution here? Are there examples of influential entrenched industries submitting to substantial reform and restructuring? Is the wave of utility deregulation an example to learn from here?
This is a repeat of a question from the last community thread but I posted it pretty late so re-posting here (apologies if that is frowned upon). Wondering if an episode on the EU Methane Regulations and implications for US oil and gas would be in-store? Seems like these are actually going to involve some work from oil and gas companies. Possibly an interview with one of the tech companies (e.g. Longpath, MiQ) on the methane MRV side of things.
What would you do to help address climate change if you had $5 million to spend? How about $50 or $500 million? (For the record I don't have that kind of money, just curious, and hoping someone who does have that much might listen!)
How do you navigate the attention economy these days? Or more specifically, among an ever-growing ocean of content competing for a finite pool of eyeballs, how do you decide or prioritize which media [journalism, books, podcasts, videos, films, TV, social media, etc.] warrants your attention in your limited free time? Do you think navigating it has gotten easier or harder overtime as a media creator yourself?
--- EVERYTHING ELSE ---
Housing density is, in fact, (at least 2 or 3 innings of) the climate ballgame. My SFH sits on a 4000 sq ft lot walking distance to a well-served BART station, along with the intersection of 2+ excellent bus routes, and walking distance to three retail streets. And CA has passed SB 9, which presumably means that my property could hold 4 units by right (without a zoning variance). Great! But I think now the issue is financing it. I'm in my early 60's, I live alone. I SHOULD do this, but the mortgage is almost paid off, and a massive new cost is nerve-wracking. How to get from here to there? I feel like there is work to do on creating financing instruments that incentivize these conversions. What is out there?
I would like to hear a program on what impact our military has on world climate
Touch grass; don't cut it. For those who still live in places where people have sizable yards of grass, I suggest reducing the size of your lawn. The amount of time and equipment Americans invest in growing and mowing lawns is absurd. Most of the time its grass that no one goes out and does anything on. It just waits another week and then gets mowed again. In recent summers I've reduced my lawn size by about 20-25%. I just let the grass grow into a field and maybe cut it once in the spring and once in the fall. It saves me time and money. Under that field I wish I could bury some pipes and connect to a heat pump -but with hot water baseboards and not air ducts that seems to end the conversation I've had with contractors. Are there/will there be affordable ways of using ground-source heat-pumps in cold-weather climates with buildings that are not air-ducted?
Ha, David, I think you will very much appreciate this older piece of mine!
https://www.volts.wtf/p/a-rant-about-lawns-in-america?utm_source=publication-search
Great rant. Sadly, its so true. I don't like heat absorbing concrete jungles either.
I lived in Brooklyn and summer is hell on earth. Escaped to bucolic countryside in western Mass. If you have farm animals, they eat grass which is one reason for beautiful open fields. But I gave up raising sheep and am sick of being the lord of my manor pushing a mower around instead of interacting with all those people I should want to be around. My nearest neighbor is about .2 mile away. They annoy the hell out of me with their motor noise and recent Trump flag. I planted 40 white pines between us and them this spring so in 30 years there'll be my version of the Wall. Sound American?
Agree ... but easier said than done when living in areas with HOA's. And that is hard to avoid in some areas. I live north of Indianapolis and it is hard to find a subdivision around here without one if not impossible. My HOA requires a certain percentage of my lawn to remain grass. Something I hope to influence to be removed in upcoming meetings.
I'd love to hear an episode focused on multifamily homes and electrification. The IRA doesn't have as many incentives in the space, and sometimes utilities can be a barrier!
I'm in Chicago and a two flat landlord (owner occupied) in our neighborhood tried to get solar and have one meter for the building, so the tenant gets the benefits too, but ComEd said that wasn't allowed, and the solar doesn't pencil out if it's only going towards the energy use of half the building. Plus for net metering reasons you wouldn't want to split the solar and have half of it go into the tenant meter, because any credits would get lost if the tenant changes over. It's a whole headache that goes against the city and state's climate goals, and the same issue comes up if you want a heat pump system with mini splits in the tenant units but billed to a central landlord meter, so that heat is included.
--- CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS ---
Who is going to the Gulf Coast Power Association in Austin or Dervos in Brooklyn?
I'll be at Dervos!
Heads up for National Drive Electric Week, Sept 27-Oct 6. These are events where regular ordinary EV drivers show their cars and will tell you how they charge them, how they drive them and how much they cost to buy and run. Stop reading headlines and get the truth straight from the horses mouth. You will often be pleasantly surprised.
https://driveelectricweek.org/
Hi, here at E-axes Forum, an independent nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, we are dedicated to global knowledge sharing to engage economists and decision makers who are working on policies towards achieving a sustainable economy.
Our free webinars host experts, both academics and policymakers, addressing key issues in climate-change and related fiscal and monetary policies.
To learn more, register or watch previous episodes: https://e-axes.org/webinars/
Bellevue WA: Forest and Friends is coming right up on Thursday the 22nd at 4:30. A small gathering over Pizza and BEvERages to talk climate, startups, and forests.
Details in this new invite link thing: https://lu.ma/y6uefxzn
--- SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS ---
Happy to announce that I launched a podcast very much inspired by David's (with all humility that it will take years before I come close to his level of knowledge and hosting abilities). The podcast is about all things heat pumps and is called Heat Pump Review, located everywhere podcasts are hosted as well as here: https://heatpump.review
If the community has ideas for people I should interview or angles I should cover, please let me know!
I live in Colorado, just listened to your episode #3, and have subscribed. Great information, thanks!
I'm interested in talking with folks about approaches to embedding climate topics in higher education disciplines, to show that every job is a climate job.
I would like to invite you to visit my website, winstonmagnetic.wordpress.com, to learn about my discoveries. I have had a hobby of trying to figure out how to produce clean energy for the past thirty-seven years.. I still haven't accomplished that goal, but along the way I discovered fascinating patterns of compass needle movements that might be useful to others.
I just watched a YouTube video on compressed air storage (here: https://youtu.be/VS05y9mQgbw?si=E_J6QxK87v5EmwZH) and my bias is that it has far too many moving parts, would be a maintenance nightmare, would be a noisy place to work, etc. Is this alternative really needed? Is this just my bias? (Don't respect my priors :-).)
Not really related except for the seemingly relative simplicity, why has the gravity storage alternative failed to take off?
Dave, a story to perhaps find out there is what's happening with the Big Bucks world of making new Oil and Gas facilities. Some of the biggest companies in the States build refineries and so forth: Fluor/Daniel, Bechtel, Halliburton.
And they must be getting low on contracts. You only build a new refinery if you think it'll have 20 years of oil to work with. It's one thing to build short-term infrastructure like a new well, but a new refinery - I'd think the contracts were drying up, and the firms having to face long-term prospects that are not good.
Are they pivoting to green? Civil engineering is civil engineering.
Has anyone seen a vendor selling a solar shed and Power Racks combined as a residential system to avoid the expense and effort of designing a system for the roof? I want this both as an alternate and as a cost comparison to the very high labor and repair cost of roof installations.
How do you like Substack as your publishing platform?
California has some of the nation's dirtiest air, particularly in poorer neighborhoods near freeways and urban centers.
Let's do something about that!
October 2 is Clean Air Day California (cleanairday.org ) Take the pledge and learn about what simple and big things we can do to clear the air. It only takes one to two minutes of your time.
Pledge Link: https://cleanairday.org/pledge/individual/sananselmoclimatecommission/
Spanish pledge Link: https://cleanairday.org/es/pledge/individual/sananselmoclimatecommission/
California has some of the nation's dirtiest air, particularly in poorer neighborhoods near freeways and urban centers.
Let's do something about that! Take the San Anselmo Climate Action Commission Clean Air Day educational pledge (cleanairday.org) It only take 1-2 minutes of your time.
Pledge Link: https://cleanairday.org/pledge/individual/sananselmoclimatecommission/
Spanish pledge Link: https://cleanairday.org/es/pledge/individual/sananselmoclimatecommission/
I'd like to learn more about the soft costs of residential solar. What are good sources of material?
This just came in my podcast feed. Still in my queue.
https://ilsr.org/articles/cities-simplify-rooftop-solar-ler218/
I too am an Energy Nerd. I am equally enthralled with ground source geothermal. I actually installed a few water source units myself in my office condo. Unfortunately, the water to all units is centrally heated and not Geothermal.
*My question is what do we do with all of the Old Housing Stock which is not amenable to anything near Passive House standards? I own a house built in the later 1800's before electricity. It is huge, made entirely of Cedar and balloon framed and irreplaceable, but difficult to retrofit. What to do??
If I may ask, what is a "Climate-Related Event?" A tornado, a hurricane, a ski-trip, a day at the beach. . . .?