Skip to main content

Home/ Energy Articles for SGLI/ Group items tagged climate change

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Chai Reddy

The Future of Nuclear Energy - Andrew Winston - Harvard Business Review - 1 views

blogs.hbr.org/...future-of-nuclear-energy.html

nuclear energy harvard

shared by Chai Reddy on 15 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Chai Reddy on 15 Mar 11
     
    " * The Future of Nuclear Energy 3:13 PM Monday March 14, 2011 | Comments (11) * Email * Tweet This * Post to Facebook * Share on LinkedIn * Print FEATURED PRODUCTS Guide to Persuasive Presentations Guide to Persuasive Presentations by John Clayton, John Daly, Isa Engleberg, et al. $19.95 Buy it now » Harvard Business Review on Finding & Keeping the Best People Harvard Business Review on Finding & Keeping the Best People by Harvard Business Review $22.00 Buy it now » HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials HBR's 10 Must Reads: The Essentials by Clayton Christensen, Thomas Davenport, Peter Drucker, et al. $24.95 Buy it now » It's way too soon to say anything definitive about what's going on in Japan. Who really knows what the outcome might be from the frightening breakdown of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant (the radioactive releases could go on for months)? But the speculation about what this means for a much-touted nuclear "renaissance" in the U.S. has begun. As the New York Times reported Monday, "U.S. Nuclear Industry Faces New Uncertainty." Some quick background: For years, no new nuclear plants were built in the U.S. But nuclear power is now being taken seriously again. Roughly 30 to 40 applications for new plants or expansions to existing facilities are moving through the process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). One of the main reasons nuclear is "back" is that it satisfies two very distinct interest groups: (1) pro-energy lobbyists and companies that usually sit on the right (although President Obama has adopted the rallying cry of "all-of-the-above" as an energy independence strategy as well), and (2) those who want to aggressively fight climate change, who usually camp out on the left. In the past, being an "environmentalist" of any stripe meant being anti-nuclear. More recently, however, some high-profile environmentally-minded people, such as Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand, have been promoting nucle
Chai Reddy

With Eye on Climate Change, Chicago Prepares for a Warmer Future - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...23adaptation.html

chicago nytimes.com climate change urban planning

shared by Chai Reddy on 23 May 11 - No Cached
  • Public alleyways are being repaved with materials that are permeable to water. The white oak, the state tree of Illinois, has been banned from city planting lists, and swamp oaks and sweet gum trees from the South have been given new priority. Thermal radar is being used to map the city’s hottest spots, which are then targets for pavement removal and the addition of vegetation to roofs. And air-conditioners are being considered for all 750 public schools, which until now have been heated but rarely cooled.
  • Cities adapt or they go away,” said Aaron N. Durnbaugh, deputy commissioner of Chicago’s Department of Environment.
  • Insurance companies are applying pressure in high-risk areas, essentially saying adapt or pay higher premiums — especially in urban and commercial areas.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Civic Consulting Alliance, a nonprofit organization that builds pro bono teams of business experts. In this case, the alliance convinced consulting firms to donate $14 million worth of hours to projects like designing an electric car infrastructure and planning how to move the city toward zero waste.
  • The city’s 13,000 concrete alleyways were originally built without drainage and are a nightmare every time it rains. Storm water pours off the hard surfaces and routinely floods basements and renders low-lying roads and underpasses unusable.
  • Chicago spends over $10 million a year planting roughly 2,200 trees. From 1991 to 2008, the city added so many that officials estimate tree cover increased to 17.6 percent from 11 percent. The goal is to exceed 23 percent this decade.
Chai Reddy

Renewable Energy Could Account For 80 Percent Of World's Needs By 2050: UN - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...c-climate-change_n_859329.html

energy renewable UN IPCC wind solar

shared by Chai Reddy on 11 May 11 - No Cached
  • Renewable sources such as solar and wind could supply up to 80 percent of the world's energy needs by 2050
  • U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that to achieve that level, governments would have to spend significantly more money and introduce policies that integrate renewables into existing power grids and promote their benefits in terms of reducing air pollution and improving public health.
  • use of renewables is on the rise, their prices are declining
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The report reviewed bioenergy, solar energy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean energy and wind. It did not consider nuclear
  • From 2009 to 2010, Amin said investment in renewables has gone from $186 billion to $243 billion with China alone seeing a 30 percent increase.
Chai Reddy

U.S. Said to Be Falling Behind in 'Green' Technologies - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...09subsidies.html

NYTimes.com u s green china japan korea

shared by Chai Reddy on 09 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • “The United States was a nearly untouched market with 120 million homes, most of them very energy-inefficient — it was a massive opportunity
  • Many European countries — along with China, Japan and South Korea — have pushed commercial development of carbon-reducing technologies with a robust policy mix of direct government investment, tax breaks, loans, regulation and laws that cap or tax emissions. Incentives have fostered rapid entrepreneurial growth in new industries like solar and wind power, as well as in traditional fields like home building and food processing, with a focus on energy efficiency.
  • A recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that while the clean technology sector was booming in Europe, Asia and Latin America, its competitive position was “at risk” in the United States because of “uncertainties surrounding key policies and incentives.”
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The aggressive entry of Britain into the field over the last few years shows the power of government inducements to redesign a nation’s energy economy away from traditional fuel. The country’s Green Deal, as it is called, is currently being spearheaded by the Conservative-led coalition government. In Britain, reducing carbon dioxide emissions was one of the few policies supported by political parties of both the right and left, which both accepted that climate change was a serious problem and saw clean technology investment as a growth opportunity rather than an onerous obligation.
  • Dr. Arun Majumdar, senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, said that the department’s $5 billion budget for research should be tripled as it currently financed less than 5 percent of proposed projects. He said the country needed better low-cost financing methods to bring companies into the market, as well as stricter energy-efficiency standards to stimulate customer demand.
1 - 4 of 4
Showing 20▼ items per page