In Between Times 3-15-2024
GOP Climate Caucus? Offshore wind begins in the USA, What is advanced recycling?, Solar farming the right way
JOIN US April 22-26 in Dallas Texas!
Earthx2024
One Planet - One Mission
There’s no other sustainability gathering like it.
April 22-26 in Dallas - Save Your Place - CLICK HERE
Earthx2024 Congress of Conferences to feature 80-plus speakers and sessions on global sustainability
(From Dallas Innovates)
The ninth annual event will bring together thousands of people and organizations from around the world to collaborate on actionable solutions for energy, oceans, climate, business, policy, and more.
The five-day conference will feature more than 80 speakers and sessions exploring a wide range of sustainability topics. This year, each day will highlight a unique theme, including “The Future of Energy,” “Circular Economy,” “Money, Power, and Politics,” “Oceans and Philanthropy,” and “Wildlife and Ocean Conservation.”…
…EarthX says the conference will feature a lineup of influential speakers including CNN host Van Jones, entrepreneur and conservative philanthropist Jay Faison, NewsMax CEO Christopher Ruddy, Zimbabwean conservationist Ivan Carter, American Conservation Coalition Founder Benji Backer, Colossal Biosciences Chief Animal Officer Matt James, author Robert Kaplan, and many more.
If you want to meet the people and organizations that are moving global sustainability forward EarthX is for you. There is no other gathering like it anywhere in the world, and in addition to being an unparalleled event for networking on environmental matters it’s just a whole lot of fun. It will be well worth the trip.
See you there.
The world’s largest plane will soon deliver the world’s largest wind turbine blades
It is massive. Far larger than a 747. It will be the length of a football field and looks like something Andre Tupolev came up with in a vodka drenched fever dream. But it’s no dream.
The bigger the wind turbine blade the more efficient the wind turbine. These blades can be delivered by sea currently but the ability to transport the blades by air could change the game. The giant aircraft needs only 6000 feet of dirt runway. Pretty helpful if delivering in Nebraska or Western Australia.
(From Fast Company)
The plane, at 356 feet long, will have 12 times the volume of a 747. Still, the process won’t be particularly efficient: The largest blades are so enormous that the plane can only carry one at a time. The blades can be picked up from factories or ports; right now, manufacturers for the offshore wind industry have factories next to the water, so blades can be transported by ship…
…Radia already has a contract to deliver turbines to a gigawatt-sized wind farm. There isn’t a shortage of demand, Lundstrom says. “The amount of turbines that need to be deployed in the next 25 years to come anywhere close to the Paris goals probably is in the neighborhood of 6 million, 7 million blades,” he says. “Each of them is going on its own 1,000-kilometer journey from a factory to a farm. So there’s a pretty massive logistical challenge and opportunity.”
Click here for the article.
35 miles east of Long Island, the U.S. has its first large offshore wind farm
It ran into some rough waters in November with the Danish wind energy developer Ørsted questioning the economic viability of the effort. But as of this week the project is creating energy and sending it to the mainland.
(From NPR)
With South Fork finished, Ørsted and Eversource are turning their attention to the work they will do offshore beginning this spring for a wind farm more than five times its size. Revolution Wind will be Rhode Island and Connecticut's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, capable of powering more than 350,000 homes next year. The site where the cable will connect in Rhode Island is already under construction.
In New York, the state said last month it would negotiate a contract with Ørsted and Eversource for an even larger wind farm, Sunrise Wind, to power 600,000 homes. The Norwegian company Equinor was picked for its Empire Wind 1 project to power more than 500,000 New York homes. Both aim to start providing power in 2026.
Click here for the article.
Months after $4 billion writedown and calling U.S. ‘most painful part of our portfolio,’ Danish energy giant brings wind farm to New York
One of the topics we will focus on in Dallas is advanced recycling. But what is advanced recycling?
URBAN-X, the technology startup platform by MINI, announced its next crop of startups focused on sustainability
Mini, which is owned by BMW has long been a leader in all sorts of innovation and we are not just saying this because we still miss our Mini Cooper that we had to tearfully say goodbye to two years ago. (Man, that was a great little car.) Mini Cooper has innovation at its very core and has from its first days in the Cooper garage in England.
Urban-X is a startup innovation incubator funded by Mini that focuses on climate solutions and on urban environmental solutions generally.
Businesses pushing innovation forward is absolutely key to reaching environmental goals in the years ahead. URBAN-X is a good example of this.
(From Business Wire)
The complete list of URBAN-X Cohort 14 companies includes:
Vertify Analytics: Providing AI image classification and drone scanning to streamline building facade inspection and energy retrofitting
Lectrium: Offering home EV-charger installation and EV dealer analytical tools to simplify the EV purchasing process
Rego: Automating waste diversion operations for residential buildings, making waste management more efficient
Velo.ai: Keeping cyclists safer with an AI-powered bike camera and light that monitors drivers nearby, preventing crashes before they occur
Popwheels: Empowering bike delivery workers by building a battery swap network for quick swaps and safe charging across the city
Chargely: Helping EV drivers find their ideal charging station based on their vehicle and personal preferences wherever they go
Virtus Solis: Bringing clean, uninterrupted energy to Earth by pioneering the first space-based solar power plant
Click here for the article.
The boom in US solar power continues (It’s being led by Texas and California.)
Solar power occupies a lot of space – here’s how to make it more ecologically beneficial to the land it sits on
This is increasingly an issue in rural Virginia where your editor spends most of his time. Solar panels take up a lot of land and they can do damage to the environment. The good news is that land populated with solar panels can often have a dual or even triple purpose if organized in the proper way. This makes a venture more sustainable and potentially more profitable.
(From The Conversation)
…ideal locations for solar development often overlap with croplands or grasslands used for livestock grazing. Typically, large-scale solar arrays are designed to maximize energy generation, without much consideration for the ecosystems in which they are placed.
For example, grading land and removing vegetation can cause erosion and send runoff into waterways. Solar developers have been fined for such environmental violations in Georgia, Massachusetts, Alabama, Idaho and Illinois…
…A growing alternative to using land solely for solar power generation is called agrivoltaics. As its name suggests, this strategy combines agriculture and solar power on the same piece of land. Agrivoltaic projects can take place on croplands, grazing lands and habitat for agriculturally important pollinators. This dual-use approach to solar development has become popular worldwide
Our personal favorite multiple use idea is ringing solar farms with bee hives and sewing the land under the panels with pollinator friendly pasture flowers. (Panels must be high enough above ground that the sun can shine under the panels when low enough in the sky). Then in the fall when the flowers have died back and pollinators are cozying up in their hives grazing animals can be brought in to clean everything up.
Click here for the article.
WSJ: A Republican climate caucus? Yes, it exists and is growing
Some on the left attack the GOP Climate Caucus
This is understandable but unwise. Sometimes it is hard to accept that finding compromise on a treasured issue with those one has long opposed is the only real way forward. For those accustomed to (what some would call) radical climate activism, the fact that 80 Republicans would sign onto such a caucus is proof enough that the effort is a sham. But this is foolish. The climate equation will not be solved solely by one side of the political spectrum. There is no way this can be true so long as the liberal west continues to embrace democracy. Additionally, people working on an issue, operating in good faith who come out of different ideological traditions is historically key to solving really big problems.
(From C3)
As Curtis told Politico, “We’re not dependent on a standard-bearer outside of the House … I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody that charting the course as a Republican to talk about climate has never been easy, and so if there are headwinds, we’ll keep pushing forward.”
The caucus isn’t looking to pick a fight with Trump, but their success and vision also don’t conform to the left’s favorite narrative that the GOP has been completely taken over “climate change is a hoax” Trumpism. If Trump wants success to be his revenge (and pass legislation), he may well consider what the caucus thinks about policy.
We think that Trump might be much more open on some climate issues than is commonly believed. If Trump was to return to the White House we’ll bet that the GOP Climate Caucus would get a fair hearing, and probably more than that. After many years of being in and around Washington this is our current vibe.
Click here for the article.
Event
Mar 20 - Mar 20
Multarity Thinking and Peacebuilding
Mediators Beyond Borders International
Location: Online
Engage in this exciting webinar, Multarity Thinking and Peacebuilding. This 2-hour conversation event will be on March 20th, 2024, at 1:00 pm ET USA. Please use the Time Zone Converter to determine when this engaging conversation will be in your time zone.
Speaker Bios
Dr. Ginger Carlson is an international speaker, leader, and award-winning author. For the last three decades, Ginger has worked around the world and presented widely on the topics of creativity, communication, growth, and transformation, and how to uniquely and positively nurture each of them in our personal lives and organizations. Dr. Carlson is the co-founder of Möbius Dynamics and CEO of The Multarity Project™.
Chris Jones is a serial entrepreneur with a rare blend of business, technology, and creative vision that has earned the respect of industry leaders across the globe. While his work with organizations like Bain & Company, ExxonMobil, and Schlumberger has been rewarding, his deepest passion is the invitation to live a more examined life. Chris is a public speaker and prolific writer whose work has gained international attention for his unflinching candor, visual storytelling, and unique insight into the human condition.
Through the Multarity Project™, Ginger and Chris work together to visually and emotionally hold space for our many viewpoints (even when we don’t agree) towards a vision to unite us in the human experience. That we may grow: individually, in our communities, and globally.