renewable energy – The News Desk

12Dec

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Entertainment

The U.N. Announces the Hottest Year

When 2023 began, it seemed likely to be just one more year in the ongoing collapse of the world’s climate system. We were at the tail end of a long La Niña cold period in the Pacific, which meant that, although global temperatures had been near record levels for the past few years, they hadn’t quite topped 2016, the period of the last strong El Niño, which brought the hottest year to date—not to mention considerable havoc from Australia to Alaska. Amid signs of that Pacific warm current starting to build anew, climatologists looked ahead to next year as the time when all hell might break loose. Experts said it was possible that in 2024 we could go past 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures—the mark that we had pledged to try to avoid at the Paris climate summit just eight ...

29Nov

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Business

‘Net Zero’ Fails the Cost-Benefit Test

Nov. 29, 2023 12:52 pm ETWorld leaders are gathering in Dubai for another climate conference, which will no doubt yield heady promises along the lines of the 2015 Paris climate agreement to keep the global temperature’s rise “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees. But they’d be wiser not to. New research shows how extravagant climate promises are far more wasteful than useful.A new special issue of the journal Climate Change Economics contains two ground-breaking economic analyses of policies to hold global temperatures to 1.5 degrees and its practical political interpretation, mandates to reach net zero, usually by 2050. Though more than 130 countries, including most of the globe’s big emitters, have passed or are considering laws mandating net-zero ...

Centre announces phased introduction of biogas blending for domestic use

25Nov

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Business

Centre announces phased introduction of biogas blending for domestic use

The steps are aimed at helping India achieve net zero emissions targets by 2070. (Representative)(Photo: Bloomberg) India will start blending compressed biogas with natural gas to boost domestic demand and cut reliance on natural gas imports, the government said in a statement on Saturday. The mandatory phased introduction will start at 1% for use in automobiles and households from April 2025, it said. The share of mandatory blending will then be increased to around 5% by 2028. India, which is one of the world's largest importers of oil and gas, ships in about half of its overall gas consumption and wants to cut its imports cost. The government also aims to have 1% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in aircraft turbine fuel by 2027, doubling to 2% in 2028. The SAF ...

The Next Power Plant Is on the Roof and in the Basement

20Nov

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Entertainment

The Next Power Plant Is on the Roof and in the Basement

On any given Monday in Vermont, Josh Castonguay, the vice-president of innovation at that state’s Green Mountain Power utility, told me, he studies the forecast for the days ahead, asking questions like “What’s it looking like from a temperature standpoint, a potential-of-load standpoint? Is there an extremely hot, humid stretch of a few days coming? A really cold February night?” If there is trouble ahead, Castonguay prepares, among other things, Vermont’s single largest power plant, which isn’t exactly a power plant at all—or, at least, not as we normally think of one. It’s an online network, organized by the utility, of forty-five hundred electric storage batteries (currently, most of them are Tesla Powerwalls), spread out across more than three thousand Vermont homes. The network also...

ONGC wins bid to acquire PTC India’s wind power unit for Rs 925 crore

23Oct

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Business

ONGC wins bid to acquire PTC India’s wind power unit for Rs 925 crore

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has won a bid to acquire PTC India Ltd's wind power unit for Rs 925 crore as the state-owned firm continues to build a renewable energy portfolio to balance its fossil fuel business. In a stock exchange filing, India's top oil and gas producer said it has over the years diversified into the petrochemicals and power business besides growing its core business of finding hydrocarbons. ONGC said it has taken various initiatives for renewable energy power generation and already has 189 megawatt (MW) capacity, including wind and solar PV plants spread across various locations. "With a vision to expand its business in renewable energy, the company had participated in the bidding process for acquisition of 100 per cent equity stak...

What is hydrogen energy, and is it a key to fighting climate change?

21Oct

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Money

What is hydrogen energy, and is it a key to fighting climate change?

President Biden awards $7 billion to create 7 clean hydrogen hubs President Biden awards $7 billion to create 7 clean hydrogen hubs 01:04 Word from the Biden administration that the U.S. will invest $7 billion to create seven regional hydrogen hubs may have left some Americans wondering how such facilities can help in the flight against climate change.The White House calls the development of clean hydrogen "essential" in weaning the country off fossil fuels and achieving the government...

Chinas Export Restrictions Stoke Fears About Battery Supply Chains

21Oct

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Business

Chinas Export Restrictions Stoke Fears About Battery Supply Chains

China has slapped export controls on graphite, a key mineral used to make steel and electric car batteries, ratcheting up a trade fight with the United States over the technologies needed to wean the world’s economy off planet-heating fossil fuels. The measures, announced Friday in a joint declaration from Beijing’s Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs, banned exports of artificial graphite, the natural flake version of the mineral, and products made with them unless the government grants permission. The restrictions take effect on Dec. 1. “Graphite is a key material that holds strategic significance in new-energy industry and global players are fiercely competing with one another in this sector,” Tian Yun, an economist in Beijing, told the Chinese nationalist ne...

Apple CEO Tim Cook on creating a clean energy future

18Sep

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Money

Apple CEO Tim Cook on creating a clean energy future

In Brown County, Texas – flat, dry, near the geographical center of the state – Apple has invested in a joint venture to power 100,000 homes with clean energy. This four-mile-long stretch of solar panels – nearly a million of them – will look to some like a bold step towards a clean-energy future, and to others like marketing disguised as social conscience, what cynics would call "virtue signaling.""I don't do virtue signaling, at all," said Apple CEO Tim Cook. "I don't believe in it. We want to do hard work." What Cook means by hard work is making sure environmental choices make business sense: "I want to see that it pencils out, because I want other people to copy it. And I know they're not going to copy a decision that's not a good economic decision." Apple CEO Tim ...

The U.A.W. Strike Threat Poses a Tricky Political Challenge for Biden

12Sep

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Entertainment

The U.A.W. Strike Threat Poses a Tricky Political Challenge for Biden

With just three days until their current contract expires, nearly a hundred and fifty thousand members of the United Auto Workers (U.A.W.) union are preparing to walk out from their jobs at the Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (the parent company of Chrysler). Negotiations are ongoing, but in recent days Shawn Fain, the U.A.W. president, dismissed the companies’ initial contract offers as grossly inadequate. “If we don’t get our justice, I can guarantee you one thing—come this Thursday at midnight, there will be action,” Fain said.Recent years have seen a resurgence of labor activism, with strike threats from railway workers, UPS drivers, and other groups seeking to raise their wages and improve their employment conditions. The auto workers have asked for a four-...

Ola to offer e-bikes, cheap e-scooters to phase out petrol two-wheelers

15Aug

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Business

Ola to offer e-bikes, cheap e-scooters to phase out petrol two-wheelers

By Ragini Saxena Ola Electric Mobility Pvt. is expanding its electric two-wheeler lineup – with its first motorbike and cheapest scooter yet – as it seeks to lure buyers away from gasoline-fueled transportation. The Bengaluru-based startup unveiled four premium electric motorbikes, with sales and deliveries starting in December, at an event at its Ola Future Factory in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The company is launching its cheapest battery scooter, the S1 X priced at 89,999 rupees ($1,085), to take on affordable gasoline two-wheelers. It will be available starting in December. “After this, we believe there will be no need for anybody to buy internal combustion engine scooters in the country,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, the company’s founder. “Our goal is th...