Solar farms shelved following government contract controversy
News
Solar farms shelved following government contractcontroversy
Two solar projects that recently won support under thegovernment’s Contracts for Difference scheme will now no longer goahead. A register of projects just released confirms Wick FarmSolar Park in Somerset and Royston Solar Farm in Hertfordshire havebeen scrapped, with developers saying they couldn’t operatecommercially with such a low guaranteed price per unit ofelectricity generated. Both projects agreed strike prices of£50/MWh in the first CfD auction last month.
Climate and energy news
Top academics ask world’s universities to divestfrom fossil fuels
Academics Stand Against Poverty (Asap) – a global group ofabout 2,000 researchers who study poverty and development – areurging top universities to follow the lead of Stanford, Syracuseand Glasgow in committing to divesting from fossil fuel holdings.Institutions that seek to educate the young in order to better thefuture while simultaneously profiting from the destruction of saidfuture is “neither tenable nor ethical”, a statement from the groupreads.
‘Climate change has arrived’ warns MarshallIslands foreign minister
Marshall Islands foreign minister, Tony de Blum, has saidintense tropical storms in the Pacific are ‘the new norm’ andevidence of climate change is affecting weather patterns. TyphoonMaysak passed across the North Pacific last week before makinglandfall in the Philippines. A few weeks before, Cyclone Pamtore through the islandnation of Vanuatu.
Norwegian green energy to power UKhomes
Green power from Norway will soon be powering hundreds ofthousands of homes in Britain, National Grid says. The £1.4 billionNorth Sea Network (NSN) interconnector project aims to importenough hydro-power from Norway to provide 14% of yearly householdelectricity needs in the UK.
Climate and energy comment
10 questions Wellcome should answer on theGuardian’s climate campaign
Damian Carrington, The Guardian
The second biggest health charity in the world has sofar declinedto join The Guardian’scampaign to persuade big companies to show leadership on climatechange and divest from fossil fuels. This raises questions aboutthe trust;s investment decisions, says Damian Carrington. He lists10 questions The Guardian has put to director, Jeremy Farrar, whohas so far declined to answer them.
Can the world economy survive without fossilfuels?
After decades of fossil fuel driven growth, those in powerare slowly beginning to understand what is at stake, says TheGuardian’s economics editor, Larry Elliott. But can we imagine afuture that is cleaner, greener and sustainable without abandoningthe idea of growth? The answer is that it will be hellishlydifficult, but it is just about feasible if we make the rightchoices now, he says.
Climatologists to physicists: your planet needsyou
In a bid to get young students turning to climate sciencerather than astronomy or astrophysics, scientists are highlightingone of the biggest unsolved mysteries – the role of clouds inclimate change. Piers Forster, a climate modeller at the Universityof Leeds, says: “The perception that climate science is ‘solved’ isan inadvertent result of pressure on climatologists to convey asimple message to the public…That has made the science “soundsomewhat dull.” In fact, many physical details of climate changeare still poorly understood, say the researchers.
New climate science
Sustainability of Rooftop Technologies in ColdClimates: Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of White Roofs, GreenRoofs, and Photovoltaic Panels
A new study shows that photovoltaic panels (PV) demonstratethe highest environmental performance in a test of sustainablerooftop technologies in cold climates. Green roofs also haveenvironmental benefits, as they are the only rooftop technologythat reduces both heating and cooling energy use, but they are lesssignificant than PV, the researchers say. And although white roofsare the best option in warmer climates, they are less suitable forcold ones.
Modern inhalation anesthetics: Potent greenhousegases in the global atmosphere
Gases used to knock out surgery patients are making a smallcontribution to climate change, a new study finds. Over the pastdecade, concentrations of desflurane, isoflurane and sevofluranehave been rising globally. The gases have a more potent warmingeffect than carbon dioxide, but are much less abundant in theatmosphere, the researchers say. Combined emissions of these gasesin 2014 were equivalent to around three million tonnes of carbondioxide, the study finds.
Virus disease in wheat predicted to increase witha changing climate
Barley yellow dwarf virus, spread by aphids, reduces theyield and quality of important crops such as wheat, barley andoats. A new experiment found that infection of wheat increased by37% under elevated carbon dioxide levels in the air, compared topresent day levels. As carbon emissions continue, the combinedimpact of yield reduction and increased risk of the further spreadof the virus could negatively impact food production worldwide, theresearchers say.
The Frequency and Duration of US HurricaneDroughts
The last major hurricane to make landfall on mainland US wasHurricane Wilma in 2005. Researchers use a tropical cyclone modelto estimate the probability of a major landfall in the next year is39%. They also calculate that a nine-year gap between land-fallinghurricanes would happen every 177 years.
Other stories
- Shell seeks to remove Greenpeace activists fromoil rig (Reuters)
- ‘The UK North Sea is not over… people areunderestimating it’: Amec chief (The Telegraph)
- Climate campaigners losing faith in value ofengaging with fossil fuel firms (The Guardian)
- Are we reaching a positive climate change tippingpoint? (The Guardian)
- Shell in ‘advanced’ talks with BG over £46bndeal (The Financial Times)
- California drought: Will the Golden State turnbrown? (BBC News)