Over the past week smoke from Canadian wildfires has once again poured into cities across Canada and the northern US. Toronto briefly had the worst air quality of any major city on Earth, Thunder Bay’s readings went off the top of Canada’s air quality health index scale, and unhealthy air alerts stretched from Minneapolis to New York City. Zeke Hausfather demonstrates that these fires are not due to forest (mis)management from fire suppression but that instead they occur where fires have never been managed, are caused by lightning strikes, and are more frequent and larger due to climate induced warming in the Northern Boreal forests.
GREENING
Chinese panel manufacturer LONGi’s newest solar cell has made a breakthrough in increasing the power conversion efficiency of its panels to 35.5%. By contrast, the efficiency by percentage of energy converted to electricity in thin-film solar cells like those the U.S. manufacturer First Solar sells tap out somewhere in the teens. The more popular crystalline silicon cells that China has dominated have efficiency rates of up to 24%.
Peak Energy’s planned battery gigafactory in Sacramento, California, would be the nation’s first facility to produce grid-scale sodium-ion energy storage devices. Sodium is cheaper and safer than lithium so ideal for grid batteries at scale.(Canary Media)
Why haven’t there been major power outages during the recent U.S. heat waves? Lots of new solar and wind farms. (Kathryn Krawczyk, Canary Media)
Improving energy efficiency in buildings, transportation, and industry in the United States could save about $4.8 trillion in energy and related costs in the next decades—equivalent to almost $31,000 per household—a new report finds. The report identified opportunities for progress in eight broad areas: buildings equipment efficiency, zero-emissions new buildings, existing building improvements, industrial energy efficiency and electric heat, reduced industrial materials, efficient and electric vehicles, transportation system efficiency and access, and electricity demand flexibility.
Google has agreed to buy the entire initial output of a sweeping solar project in Arkansas in a bid to offset its fossil fuel emissions. On Tuesday, the it was reported that the tech giant would purchase the full 1.6 gigawatts of solar power and 2 gigawatt-hours of battery storage from the first phase of construction on the Steel River Energy Center, set to be complete in 2029. Google would not use the power itself but claim it as an offset to their emissions.
New Jersey is experimenting with efficiency to get data centers the power they’re looking for. Tech companies that want to get their facilities online faster will be able to pay for households to replace energy-hungry appliances with heat pumps or install rooftop solar and batteries, freeing up much-needed space on the grid, Alison F. Takemura reports.
CLIMATE DESPOLIATION
Wildfire smoke drifting east from Canadian infernos is degrading air quality in New York just as intense heat grips the region for a second day. Smoke from hundreds of fires burning across Canada blanketed parts of the region, turning the sun over New York City and Toronto into a hazy, yellowish orb. Air quality dropped to unhealthy levels in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, as well as Toronto. Chicago will likely see its air quality fall to unhealthy levels Thursday.
Public commenters begin to weigh in on a natural gas import terminal proposed for Hawaiʻi that critics worry will make the state’s clean electricity goal impossible to meet. (Honolulu Civil Beat, Canary Media archive)
The wildfire smoke that turned skies orange and hazy in much of the Northeast this week also caused solar production to plummet in New England. (WBUR)
DARK AGE CLIMATE POLITICS
In California, a judge blocked the state from enforcing its “truth in labeling” law SB 343, which would prohibit packaging from featuring recyclability claims unless it met certain criteria. Read on for how the packaging industry is reacting.
San Francisco Inches Closer to PG&E Acquisition. KQED- San Francisco took a step forward in its quest for public power on Thursday after the city’s planning commission unanimously approved an Environmental Impact Report needed for the proposed acquisition of PG&E’s electric grid. Proponents of the public power push say that the move will save residents millions of dollars. However, it will also concentrate enormous catastrophe risk in the form of fire risk in PG&E’s remaining customer base, further isolating vulnerable and risky areas.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is canceling federal funding for bike lanes, claiming they are “DEI.” No, this is not a joke. (Edith Olmsted, the New Republic)
California bars utilities from cutting off power to customers who fall behind on their bills when it’s dangerously hot outside – a basic safety protection. California regulators concluded more than a year ago that rules protecting delinquent customers from power shutoffs during heat waves weren’t strong enough. They ordered the state’s largest utilities to come up with better safeguards. When the utilities unveiled their plan in December, their proposals barely changed anything, the CPUC concluded on Thursday, finding their proposal “does not offer sufficient health protections for ratepayers.” State regulators rejected utilities’ proposal and ordered broader protections against power shutoffs during dangerous heat, including a 90 degree rather than 100 degree trigger.
The federal Bureau of Land Management advances its proposal to roll back a 20-year oil and gas leasing ban around Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico, drawing advocates’ and tribal nations’ concerns. (Source NM, news release)
A group of Senate Democrats launched an investigation on Friday into the Trump administration’s deals that have killed offshore wind projects off the West and East coasts. The 14-member coalition, which counts Sen. Alex Padilla and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer among its leaders, sent letters to four companies that have agreed to terminate their offshore wind leases in exchange for government payouts. That included letters to Ocean Winds and Invenergy, both of which had planned to erect wind turbines off California’s central coast. The lawmakers asked the companies to provide copies of their communications with the Trump administration by Aug. 7
Take Action!
Our joint solidarity meeting with the Climate Action Campaign and Friends of the Eel was successful. We got $76 in donations for Flip the Vote, the grass roots year round canvassing organization we are supporting. If you couldn’t make it, you can check out Flip the Vote and make a donation here.
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