This is a very exciting project! Connecting agriculture and finance in this new way is cutting edge and you are really breaking ground with this. My one caution for you is that in emphasizing the rejuvenation of the carbon cycle, you are marginalizing the rejuvenation of the hydrological cycle and the nitrogen cycle.
ENERGY
Posts in "Energy"
Chernobyl nuclear power plant transformed into a massive solar plant
AT ground zero of Ukraine’s Chernobyl tragedy, workers in orange vests are busy erecting hundreds of dark-coloured panels as the country gets ready to launch its first solar plant to revive the abandoned territory.
The new one-megawatt power plant is located just a hundred metres from the new “sarcophagus”, a giant metal dome sealing the remains of the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the worst nuclear disaster in the world.
Alien Meteorite Found in the Sahara Is Older Than Our Solar System
2017 was a year of excitement among the asteroid-watching community, as ‘Oumuamua, the first recorded visitor from an another solar system, took a spin around our sun before launching itself off into the inky blackness of space.
According to a team at the University of Johannesburg, though, ‘Oumuamua is far from the first visitor from another solar system that we have available to study. One such alien rock is right here on Earth, making it far easier to study.
Link: https://www.outerplaces.com/science/item/17478-alien-meteorite-found-sahara-older-than-solar-system
World Solar Challenge – the most extreme road race on earth?
The race route notes read like features on a road map from The Hobbit – cross the Tropic of Capricorn, avoid wandering stock, pass the world’s longest fence, and Beware of Aliens.
Competitors in the biennial Bridgestone World Solar Challenge race across one of the least hospitable places on Earth.
Link: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/motorsport/world-solar-challenge-most-extreme-road-race-earth
Former East Burke student travels to Australia for solar challenge
A former Burke County Public Schools student recently helped test a growing and evolving piece of technology by racing it more than 1,000 miles across Australia.
Kali Smith is a junior at Appalachian State University studying environmental economics. She is a former East Burke High School student who transferred to the North Carolina School for Science and Math and recently traveled to Australia with a few other classmates to race a solar-powered vehicle in an international competition called the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge.
World’s cheapest electricity is Mexican solar power
Electricity here in Los Angeles is 17.8 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). Not far away, Mexicans get solar electric for one-tenth the price. And by 2019, the price could drop to 1¢/kWh.
Link: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/17/worlds-cheapest-electricity.html
Germany set to pay customers for electricity usage as renewable energy generation creates huge power surplus
German power producers are poised to pay customers to use electricity this weekend.
Wind generation is forecast to climb to a record on Sunday, creating more output than needed and driving electricity prices below zero, broker data compiled by Bloomberg show. It would be the first time this year that the average price for a whole day is negative, not just for specific hours.
Huge private sector investment puts Paris climate target in reach, says report
Global investment could hold the key to fighting climate change, with one trillion dollars already invested in solutions such as renewables and energy efficiency, says International Finance Corporation.
Transparent solar technology represents ‘wave of the future’
See-through solar materials that can be applied to windows represent a massive source of untapped energy and could harvest as much power as bigger, bulkier rooftop solar units, scientists report in Nature Energy.
Link: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171023123526.htm
First Nations-led renewable energy generation in B.C. offers promising path forward
These are exciting times in British Columbia for those interested in building sustainable, just and climate-friendly energy systems. The recent change in government could mean a shift away from a corporate agenda driven by the needs of a massively energy-intensive fracking and LNG industry towards one that prioritizes action on climate change, First Nations’ self-determination and community-scale economic development.
Google gets green light to provide cell service in Puerto Rico using balloons
The parent company of Google received the green light on Friday to provide emergency cellular service to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico using balloons.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it had granted Alphabet Inc. permission to use solar powered balloons to bring cellular service to the island, which has been left largely without power since Hurricane Maria hit last month.
World Solar Challenge: innovation has outstripped what event founder dreamed possible 30 years ago
Three decades ago, Hans Tholstrup was told it would be impossible to cross Australia using only solar power.
Now, he says, the simple fact is: “We can take a human being across a continent on just sunshine, and that is pure magic.”