First, of let me say I am now cancer free. Second, let me say that taking a break away from posting because of the cancer and the cancer treatment left me fairly lazy, so it is tough getting back to writing these posts. The thought has occurred to me that I might retire at the end of the year. Anyway it is good to be back for now. So without further adieu:

https://springfieldstatejournalregister-il.newsmemory.com/?token=ad88ee2719e187433892376e5ee4084b&cnum=f1ab27f9-ae38-eb11-a0ad-90b11c3d639b&fod=1111111STD-0&selDate=20221001&licenseType=paid_subscriber&for-guid=7b00ad35-cf99-4e2d-8f79-47fcd162e2b9&utm_source=sj-r-DailyBriefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_briefing&utm_term=promo&utm_content=NSJR-ILLINOIS-SPRINGFIELD-NLETTER65

FELDHEIM, Germany (AP) — Europeans are opening their energy bills with trepidation these days, bracing for hefty price hikes as utility companies pass on the surging cost of natural gas, oil and electricity tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Many are trying to conserve by turning down the heat and shutting off lights this winter.

Not so the people of Feldheim, population 130.

Located about an hour and a half south of Berlin, this modest but well-kept village has been energy self-sufficient for more than a decade.

A bold experiment launched in the mid-1990s saw Feldheim erect a handful of wind turbines to provide electricity to the village. Then it built a local grid, solar panels, battery storage and more turbines. A biogas plant put up to keep piglets warm was expanded, providing extra income to the farmers’ cooperative, which pumps hot water through a village-wide central heating system. A hydrogen production facility is also under construction.

Come on! If a little tiny town can do it, we all can.

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Go there and read. More next week.

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The post Energy Independence – It should be every bodies right appeared first on Community Energy Systems.

https://digg.com/video/what-happens-when-islands-makes-way-more-power-than-neededs

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Go there and watch. Its only 6 minutes. More next week.

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The post Grid Regulation With Alternative Power – Its almost as important how you turn alternative power off as how you turn it on appeared first on Community Energy Systems.

https://web.archive.org/web/20221108194553/https://www.oklahoman.com/story/business/energy-resource/2021/06/19/oklahoma-corporation-commission-concerned-panhandle-wind-farm-broken-turbines-poses-safety-threat/7523260002/

Here is a video peek:

So now I will have to post a more desultory post about how to properly maintain a wind farm and what that costs. But they had some cool pictures of things like a Turbine House destroyed at 300 feet. Turbine blades dangling and swinging in the wind. Everyone called it DANGERous. But here is the more mundane side of things. What the bad boys should have been doing.

https://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1010136/breaking-down-cost-wind-turbine-maintenance

OR

http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/21860/the-challenge-of-wind-turbine-blade-repair/

The challenge of wind turbine blade repair

07 November 2011
George Marsh

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Go there and yawn. More next week

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The post Dangerous Oklahoma Wind Farm – That was gonna be the piece that I ran appeared first on Community Energy Systems.

https://www.vox.com/2019/5/22/18628299/green-new-deal-labor-union-2020-democrats

National labor leaders oppose the Green New Deal but some state unions endorse it. That’s a challenge for presidential contenders.

As a statement of principles and goals, the Green New Deal seems to take economic justice and workers’ rights pretty seriously. It calls for a federal jobs guarantee. It says we need workforce retraining, strengthening collective bargaining rights, retirement security, and universal health care.

The resolution decries “antilabor policies” and says it must be fleshed out with input from “frontline and vulnerable communities, labor unions, [and] worker cooperatives,” with the goal of creating “high-quality union jobs.”

Which is why it was so surprising that the leader of the national AFL-CIO — the largest federation of labor unions in the United States, representing more than 12.5 million workers — recently came out against the proposal.

“We weren’t part of the process, so the worker’s interest wasn’t really figured into it,” AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said in April. “We would want a whole bunch of changes made so that workers and our jobs are protected in the process.”

(Disclosure: I was on the bargaining committee of the Vox Media Union. We organized with Writers Guild of America, East, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO.)

But this week, Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed her state’s version of a Green New Deal with the backing of labor unions.

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Go there and read. More next week

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The post Unions And Climate Change – Some of their stances are just bad appeared first on Community Energy Systems.

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/article_5dcee9d2-ceab-11eb-a5d2-4b7bfb73d950.html

Michael Hecht: Wind power generation has a great future in the Gulf of Mexico

This week, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), federal lead agency for offshore wind, is holding the inaugural meeting of the Gulf of Mexico Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force. Although the task force is composed of elected officials from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, it was Louisiana, under the leadership of Gov. John Bel Edwards, who launched the process for the establishment of this regional Task Force — thereby paving the way for the exploration of offshore wind

This is because we can capitalize on wind energy in two related but distinct ways: first, from the manufacturing and servicing of offshore wind structures along the Atlantic coast; and then, from the eventual deployment of offshore wind structures in the Gulf of Mexico.

Many of the assets and skills from Louisiana’s decades as a hub for offshore oil and gas exploration and production translate directly into offshore wind. These include our large port infrastructure; structural manufacturing expertise; world-class engineering; world-class vessel building; extensive offshore marine services; and an unbeatable workforce.

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Go there and read. More next week.

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The post Wind Turbines In The Gulf Is A Great Idea – But appeared first on Community Energy Systems.

https://news.yahoo.com/bill-nye-to-congress-im-scared-too-about-climate-change-205114192.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9sb2dpbi55YWhvby5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMm1u5c7vwGY8bbrr24UhPXel7HWK3P-VSFsYW_Td-hoOHSkcldT4qMeksmSKF0P3nM-08WaNE9ujFXwZr_fFvDQnm9ACKQh2nrSm7JQw6puItFU8VgE8B8J8HT0qYIGQjAXLgmdQaY6gJpTreqfz_ySThTJuAvWJgm1ZFzM3qrH

That is the biggest header I have ever seen.

Bill Nye to Congress: ‘I’m scared too’ about climate change

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Go there and read happy thoughts. More next week.

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We get requests for links all the time, so readers this is a link for Black Owned Businesses:

https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/support-black-owned-businesses/

This one is for people wishing to buy a Husky Dog:

https://yourdogadvisor.com/alaskan-husky/

The post Bill Nye Thinks We Can Beat The Heat – I have never been this upbeat appeared first on Community Energy Systems.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-world-is-stuck-with-decades-of-new-plastic-it-can-t-recycle?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Ants are useful creatures. As the most numerous insects on Earth, they have colonized nearly every habitat on land. So when a researcher wants to understand how far a contaminant has spread, they turn to ants.

In 2012, a group of French researchers found phthalates in the body of every ant they sampled. Ants from France, Hungary, Spain, Morocco, the Greek island Egine, and Burkina Faso all had at least some of the common plastic additive embedded in their skin. In the conclusion to the paper announcing their findings, they added a restless-sounding note: “In an attempt to find ants bearing no phthalate on their cuticle,” they wrote, they would next look farther afield. There had to be ants out there not yet full of plastic.

But there were not. Five years later, the team published their follow-up. They had sampled ants from the most remote forests of Guyana, and the areas in the Amazon rainforest farthest from any urban center. Again, phthalates were embedded in their skin. “These findings suggest that there is no such thing as a ‘pristine’ zone,” they wrote in a 2017 paper.

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Go there and read. More next week.

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The post The Oil Companies Have Poisoned The World – I am not talking about their refined fuels appeared first on Community Energy Systems.

As automakers promise to get rid of internal combustion engines, Heidelberg is trying to get rid of autos.

By Jack Ewing

• Published Feb. 28, 2021Updated March 3, 2021

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Go the read – once you catch your breath. More next week.

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The post Ban Cars! Ban Cars! Ban Cars! – We will try anyway appeared first on Community Energy Systems.

But this a falling Glacier that destroys a Dam. It killed 100s. That is a serious difference in orders of magnitude.

https://news.sky.com/story/northern-india-150-feared-dead-as-glacier-breaks-and-hits-dam-in-12211408

At least 26 people have died and 165 others are missing in northern India after part of a Himalayan glacier broke off, sending a wall of water and debris into two hydroelectric dams.

More than 2,000 members of the military, paramilitary groups and police are carrying out search-and-rescue missions after Sunday’s incident in the state of Uttarakhand.

The deluge destroyed one dam, damaged another and washed homes away downstream.

The focus of teams’ efforts was on saving 37 workers trapped inside a tunnel at the Dhauliganga project, one of the affected hydropower plants, officials said.

A portion of Nanda Devi glacier broke off in the Tapovan area of Uttarakhand state on Sunday, with the subsequent flooding damaging the Rishiganga and Dhauliganga hydropower projects, officials said.

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Go there and shriek. More next week.

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The post Glacier Breaks Dam – In India, what more can I say appeared first on Community Energy Systems.

https://digg.com/video/this-ultramodern-off-the-grid-tiny-house-will-blow-your-mind

It is a 150,000 dollar house with 20,000 dollars worth of solar but it is off the grid. So it is worth every penny. Infrastructure for a lifetime is not cheap.

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Go there an watch for 18 minutes. More next week

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The post Little House Off The Grid – What could be better than that appeared first on Community Energy Systems.