Is Fusion The Future – It’s what we have been told

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Doug Nicodemus

But will it ever work out? I have no idea but there are still interesting things happening. I know this is kind of the back water from the Russian and the European efforts. Yes – God knows what China is doing. They have their own tokamak but they do not publish much about it. Still I thought this was interesting. How can you argue with Popular Mechanics. They will probably one day get one to work. Plus it has a real cool animation. I am a sucker for those things.

German Nuclear Fusion Experiment Sets Records

The stellarator was largely replaced by the tokamak in the 1960s, but Germany’s Wendelstein 7-X could be bringing the reactor back from the dead.

By Jay Bennett

Jun 26, 2018

Links Here!! Links Here!! – I get asked all the time to post links

Posted on June 23, 2018 by Doug Nicodemus

Over the years I have gotten 100s of requests to post links with other Blogs and Internet Sites that are related to the things that I post about; Sometimes tangentially. Sometimes very tangentially. Below I am going to try to post some of those with the text of the request where applicable or sometimes just the link.

I am only one guy by the way. That is it, Community Energy Systems and Energy Tough Love is just one guy with 900 bucks in the bank….so there is no way I can track down each post of mine and put the link on the page. Did I mention I was 63 years old. I would be dead by the time i did 10 or 20 post. Is some of this sarcastic? Well yah. But I never mean it spitefully. Please laugh with me not at me. Consider this:

Sometimes people even offer to write entire articles –

Hi!

There are more than 3 million teachers within the U.S. public school system. While some may plan on being work-free during summer break, others might enjoy – or need – to find a short-term job during that time.

As a retired teacher, I thought it would be fun to research and write about summer side gigs for teachers. (Side note: Many of these gigs, especially those that take advantage of the growing sharing economy, can also be worked into the school-year schedule.)

Is this something that would be of interest to your readers? If so, I would love the opportunity to write a guest article at no cost to you. Please let me know, and I’ll start writing.

Thanks so much!

Joyce

Joyce Wilson

joyce@teacherspark.org

Teacherspark.org

5 Eco-Conscious Summer Jobs for School Teachers

As a teacher, you need a second job to make ends meet. But as an environmentalist, the idea of driving for Uber or running people’s errands through an on-demand app doesn’t appeal to you. You want to spend less time commuting in your car, not more. So what are the options? Here are five eco-conscious side gigs that teachers can work during the summer and year-round.

Walking Dogs

The school year leaves you sitting inside for most of the day. When summer hits, you want to get outdoors as much as possible. Walking dogs for friends and neighbors is a great excuse to spend time outdoors, and the pay isn’t bad either. According to CostHelper.com, the typical pay for a dog walker is $18 to $22 for a 30-minute walk. Because the gig comes with minimal overhead costs, most of that pay ends up in your pocket. Dog walkers can also offer pet sitting to boost their earning potential.

Building Custom Gardens

Everyone wants a gorgeous edible garden in their yard, but few want to put in the work. Start a business designing, building, and maintaining custom vegetable gardens in local backyards. You’ll help your neighbors eat healthier while reducing their carbon footprint, and you’ll enjoy a paying job that hardly feels like work. The only downside? There’s not much gardening to do during the winter months. However, teachers can offer winter yard maintenance to keep money flowing through the off-season.

Creating an Online Store

According to the Sierra Club, online shopping beats driving to the store when it comes to environmental impact. While boxes and packaging seem wasteful, one delivery truck driving from house to house spends less energy than each household making trips to the store. It’s easy to build an e-commerce website with drag-and-drop website builders, and you don’t have to create a unique product to open an online store. Many online stores earn money by dropshipping popular products like wireless headphones and phone cases from larger retailers. Offer a diversity of products or choose products with staying power so your store remains profitable for the long-term.

Flipping Second-Hand Goods

Our throwaway society has largely moved away from repairing broken goods, choosing instead to replace items the moment they cease to function. The result? Countless lightly used appliances, gadgets, and furniture items headed to the dump when they still have lots of life. If you’re handy and enjoy hunting for treasures, start a side business picking up broken items, repairing them, and reselling for profit. Yard sales and Craigslist are gold mines for free and cheap items in need of repair. Finance Superhero offers tips for getting started.

Blogging

Starting a blog is perfect for teachers who want to explore their interest in energy and environmentalism. Teachers can blog about topics they’re passionate about and generate income through ad revenue. A blog can also be a great platform for sharing information and selling lesson plans on environmentalism with other educators, who can then use the materials in their own classrooms.

Additionally, business ideas such as selling workwear, selfie drones, and electronics online have a smaller environmental impact than driving a rideshare, delivering groceries, or another sharing economy mainstay. They also have minimal start-up costs, so your business doesn’t take months or years to start generating profit like some small businesses. That’s important when your priority is increasing your income, not launching a new career. However, teachers shouldn’t assume their side gig is in the black. Diligent record keeping is key to ensuring you’re meeting your income goals and not putting more into a gig than you’re getting out.

There are many ways to earn an income on top of a full-time job. But if environmentalism is important to you, you may find it difficult to find a job that aligns with your values. While these five side gigs might not change the world, they’re practical ways for eco-conscious teachers to increase their income without increasing their carbon footprint.

More whenever.

Green Energy Saves Lives- Why did no one ever calculate this before

Posted on June 20, 2018 by Doug Nicodemus

All the capitalists care about is the money. So what if somebody dies making the power? So what if making the power kills someone? As long as they get their 100,000K profit or whatever it is. The numbers really have to mount before they even notice. Who cares if a “little person” dies, they were just taking up space anyway.

NOW this is a refreshing perspective.

https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2018-06-19/adding-offshore-wind-power-can-save-lives-benefit-public-health

The Lifesaving Benefits of Offshore Wind Power

Theoretically, offshore wind farms could supply all the electricity the U.S. consumes, according to the Energy Department.

By The Conversation, Contributor?June 19, 2018, at 9:52 a.m.

By Jonathan Buonocore

New plans to build two commercial offshore wind farms near the Massachusetts and Rhode Island coasts have sparked a lot of discussion about the vast potential of this previously untapped source of electricity.

But as an environmental health and climate researcher, I’m intrigued by how this gust of offshore wind power may improve public health. Replacing fossil fuels with wind and solar energy, research shows, can reduce risks of asthma, hospitalizations and heart attacks. In turn, that can save lives.

So my colleagues and I calculated the health impact of generating electricity through offshore wind turbines – which until now the U.S. has barely begun to do.

Greening the Grid

New England gets almost none of its electricity from burning coal and more than three-quarters of it from burning natural gas and operating nuclear reactors. The rest is from hydropower and from renewable energy, including wind and solar power and the burning of wood and refuse.

Go there and read. More next week.

California Demands Solar In New Housing – Only 49 to go

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Doug Nicodemus

I have been at a loss for words for the last month. Things are going so well. I know Dotard is still President and many things are seriously messed up. But on the alternative energy front things just keep getting better and better. Don Blankenship actually made a fool out of himself and lost a primary vote for the Senate in West Virginia. Next week I may even get to report that Yucca Mountain is open for business. But for now, California hits one out of the park.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-solar-panels-20180509-story.html

California regulators approve mandate for solar panels on new houses

Andrew Khouri

May 09, 2018 | 12:10 PM

California regulators on Wednesday mandated that all newly built single family houses have solar panels, part of the state’s aggressive push to combat climate change.

The California Energy Commission voted 5-0 to approve the measure, which also applies to multifamily buildings of three stories or fewer. The mandate is set to take effect in 2020 and does not need the approval of the Legislature.

The requirement is expected to save consumers money in the long run through reduced utility bills, but also make a new house more expensive to purchase at a time many families already struggle to afford a mortgage.

In addition to the solar mandate, the commission approved new insulation and air filter requirements for newly built homes. In all, the new residential requirements are expected to make a single-family house $9,500 more expensive to build on average, but save $19,000 in reduced utility bills over a 30-year period, according to the Energy Commission.

Go there and do a happy dance – I mean read. More next week

Nope, There Is No Global Warming Going On Here – Move along

Posted on May 2, 2018 by Doug Nicodemus

I really have nothing to add here. It is gonna get really hot. Them it is gonna get dangerous. Who knows what fun we can have after that?

https://earther.com/pakistan-may-have-just-set-a-world-heat-record-1825690035

Pakistan May Have Just Set a World Heat Record

Brian Kahn

Yesterday 4:05pm

High temperatures are forecast to reach the mid-80s this week in New York, and I’m dreading it. But I have a plan to stay cool: just thinking of how much hotter it is in Pakistan, which is in the middle of a blistering heat wave.

Temperatures reported to have cracked 50.2 degrees Celsius (122.3 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday in Nawabshah, located about 127 miles northeast of Karachi. If confirmed, that could make the measurement not just the hottest ever recorded for April in Pakistan, but the hottest ever reliably recorded for April anywhere on Earth.

Go there and read. Man 122 degrees. Are you kidding me? More next week.

Life Without Fossil Fuels – This is what it looks like

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Doug Nicodemus

In Florida no less. I could hype this piece up, but why? They do such a good job. The place even has its own website.

Home

So here is one version of the story.

https://www.planetizen.com/news/2018/01/96772-residents-move-americas-first-solar-powered-town

Residents Move Into America’s First Solar Powered Town

Residents will live in solar powered homes and ride around the community in self-driving, solar-powered shuttles. Babcock Ranch outside of Fort Myers, Florida, has been in the making since 2005. A city of 50,000 is forecast.

January 18, 2018, 1pm PST | Irvin Dawid

“Families are starting to move into what is being called America’s first solar-powered town,” announces John Dickerson for CBS This Morning on Jan. 16. “Babcock Ranch, about half an hour northeast of Fort Myers, Florida, is supposed to produce more energy than it consumes once it’s finished.”

Developer Syd Kitson is building 20,000 homes for a projected 50,000 people, states Dickerson in the newscast video accompanying the article.

There are more than 300,000 solar panels spread across 440 acres there, producing enough electricity not only for the town, but also the surrounding areas, reports CBS News’ Manuel Bojorquez.

One critical energy element lacking in the solar-powered community will be adequate energy storage to allow the city to be truly self-powered:

The town doesn’t run on solar power all the time. At night, when the sun is down, it has to draw from the traditional electrical grid. Kitson says the technology for storing all that surplus energy the solar cells generate during the day is still too costly.

Go There. I mean literally go there if you can. If not go there and read. More next week.

Are We Going To Die Of Thirst – Two views presented

Posted on February 14, 2018 by Doug Nicodemus

I do not usually put up two opinions in one post. These are timely articles so I think it is important to hear both sides. One side basically says we are going to die. The other side says we will have to move ourselves or large amounts of water. You decide.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-42982959

The 11 cities most likely to run out of drinking water – like Cape Town

Cape Town is in the unenviable situation of being the first major city in the modern era to face the threat of running out of drinking water.

However, the plight of the drought-hit South African city is just one extreme example of a problem that experts have long been warning about – water scarcity.

Despite covering about 70% of the Earth’s surface, water, especially drinking water, is not as plentiful as one might think. Only 3% of it is fresh.

Over one billion people lack access to water and another 2.7 billion find it scarce for at least one month of the year. A 2014 survey of the world’s 500 largest cities estimates that one in four are in a situation of “water stress”

According to UN-endorsed projections, global demand for fresh water will exceed supply by 40% in 2030, thanks to a combination of climate change, human action and population growth.

http://www.straitstimes.com/world/water-why-the-taps-run-dry

Severe water shortages around the world: Why the taps run dry

Published

Feb 13, 2018, 7:30 pm SGT

PARIS (AFP) – The world has abundant freshwater but it is unevenly distributed and under increasing pressure, UN agencies say, as highlighted by the severe shortages in Cape Town.

WATER, WATER ‘EVERYWHERE’

More than 97 per cent of the planet’s water is salty, most of it in the oceans and seas, but there is also a good supply of freshwater.

Every year around 42.8 trillion cubic metres of renewable freshwater circulates as rain, surface water or groundwater, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

This equals 16,216 litres per person per day – four times the amount required in the United States, for example, for personal and domestic consumption, industry and agriculture.

Depending on diet and lifestyle, a person needs between 2,000 and 5,000 litres of water a day to produce their food and meet their drinking and sanitation requirements, the FAO says.

About 60 per cent of the planet’s freshwater reserves is locked in the Antarctic.

They don’t even agree on how much water we have. Go there and read a lot. More next week.

Elon Musk Had A Big Month – He launched a Tesla and save South Australia millions

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Doug Nicodemus

This is a short article, but when you consider his company launched Heavy Falcon this week as well, it has been a very good year for Elon. It is just getting started.

https://www.techspot.com/news/73140-tesla-massive-100mw-south-australian-battery-putting-big.html

Tesla’s massive 100MW South Australian battery is putting a big dent in ‘gas cartel’ profits

Tesla’s battery is significantly undercutting traditional ‘gas cartel’ energy charges

By Cohen Coberly on Feb 6, 2018, 4:02 PM

Back in March, Tesla boss Elon Musk promised to provide South Australia with a 100MW battery to help the state make the switch to more affordable, renewable energy. At the time, he promised to get the project done in under 100 days or give it to them for free – more than living up to his promise, Tesla finished the battery installation in only 63 days.

After officially being switched on in December, the battery has gone on to save South Australia millions of dollars. It’s accomplished this by easing some of the burden associated with high FCAS costs.

For the unaware, FCAS (frequency control and ancillary services) charges are costs the Australian Energy Market Operator must pay when they ask energy companies to contribute some of their network services to the government in the case of scheduled maintenance or energy system faults.

Go there and read. I did say it was a short article. More next week.

Good News At Fukushima – Looks like they will start removing spent fuel rods

Posted on January 31, 2018 by Doug Nicodemus

I do not believe in always presenting “bad news” about any given subject. Do I post happy news about coal? Not very often. Do I post good things about oil drilling? Not much. How about great stories about Nukes? No. But when a bad situation gets better, especially of the scope of what has gone on in Japan. Hell goods is hard not to report. Few people realize that removing the spent fuel rods from all three reactors is at least half the job.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/world/worst-hit-reactor-at-fukushima-may-be-easiest-to-clean/article_e1bd8254-2e1c-5345-80e3-70b298e6ad86.amp.html

Worst-hit reactor at Fukushima may be easiest to clean up

By MARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press

4 hrs ago

OKUMA, Japan (AP) — High atop Fukushima’s most damaged nuclear reactor, the final pieces of a jelly-roll shaped cover are being put in place to seal in highly radioactive dust.

Blown apart by a hydrogen explosion in 2011 after an earthquake and tsunami hit Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, reactor Unit 3 is undergoing painstaking construction ahead of a milestone that is the first step toward dismantling the plant.

The operating floor — from where new fuel rods used to be lowered into the core — has been rebuilt and if all goes as planned, huge cranes will begin removing 566 sets of still-radioactive fuel rods from a storage pool just below it later this year.

It has taken seven years just to get this far, but now the real work of cleaning up the Tokyo Electric Power Co. plant can begin.

“If you compare it with mountain climbing, we’ve only been preparing to climb. Now, we finally get to actually start climbing,” said Daisuke Hirose, an official at the plant’s decommissioning and decontamination unit.

Go there and read the good news. More next week.

UIS Has A New Student Union – It is Green as all get out

Posted on January 17, 2018 by Doug Nicodemus

I am a graduate of Sangamon State University. What is now University of Illinois Springfield. They just build a Student Union and I am so proud of it. It could be LEED certified and it is student centered. Our Student Union was in a temporary building 0n the temporary campus “down the hill”. This is just so cool.

Strategic Design of the UIS Student Union

This is the part I like:

Environmentally Excellent

UIS is seeking a LEED Gold certificate (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council), both for the sake of the environment and in order to take advantage of energy saving measures. For this reason, the building will have a green, or “living,” roof with vegetation and a growing medium over a sloped membrane. This roof will provide insulation, help to lower air temperatures, and last much longer than other roofs—50 to 60 years rather than the 20 to 30 years most roofs last. The vegetation will most likely include wildflowers that will change throughout the growing season, adding to the building’s beauty.

To reduce storm runoff and eliminate water irrigation, the Student Union will have a rainwater reclamation system that takes advantage of the roof’s slope. Also in consideration of LEED approvals, lighting will be designed to meet the USGBC’s very stringent requirements.