September 19th, 2024
Via Sustainability by Numbers, a look at how much energy does desalinisation use? Is it “absurdly cheap”? Elon Musk has said several times recently that desalinisation is “absurdly cheap”.1 This was surprising to me. When I was younger I was taught the mantra that desalinisation “uses lots of energy and is really expensive”. And to be honest, […]
Read more »Amazon Says It’s Going ‘Water Positive’ — But There’s A Problem
August 29th, 2024
Via Grist, a look at how one company’s pledge to conserve water at its data centers doesn’t account for the thirsty power plants that keep them running: Earlier this year, the e-commerce corporation Amazon secured approval to open two new data centers in Santiago, Chile. The $400 million venture is the company’s first foray into locating its data facilities, […]
Read more »August 29th, 2024
Via Water Education.org, a look at the increasing use of solar-powered canopies over canals: A solar-paneled canopy now under construction over the Casa Blanca Canal near Phoenix is on track to be the first project of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Source: Tectonicus Constructs LLC An intensifying but unseen force is stealing precious water […]
Read more »China’s Top Utility Completes World’s Biggest Pumped Hydro Plant
August 14th, 2024
Via Bloomberg, a report on China’s advances in pumped hydro: Fengning station in Hebei province fully operational on Sunday Nation seeking to expand capacity to 120 gigawatts by 2030 State Grid Corp. of China has completed the world’s biggest pumped hydro plant as the nation ramps up its green energy capabilities. The ast of 12 […]
Read more »July 19th, 2024
Via Inside Climate News, a report on the impact that growing exploration for lithium is having upon water resources: Lithium needed for batteries that power electric vehicles and store electricity from renewable energy projects is likely to deplete—and in some cases, contaminate—local water supplies, according to a new paper published this week. From mining the […]
Read more »Rising Fortress In Sinking Land: Massive Sea Wall Around Lousiana Gas Plant
July 6th, 2024
Via The Washington Post, a look at how far the fossil fuel industry will go to protect itself from climate impacts it helped cause: The marshes that blanket this pancake-flat parish south of New Orleans stretch for miles, strewn with small streams that flow into the Gulf of Mexico. A lone four-lane road goes south past […]
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