Energy

It’s also the first time that a massive, next-generation wind turbine called the Haliade-X has come online offshore. Imagine the Washington Monument teetering atop the Statue of Liberty (pedestal included) — that’s about how high this turbine towers above the water at 853 feet (260 meters) tall. Each rotation can power an average British home for two days. The Dogger Bank Wind Farm being built in the North Sea and its first Haliade-X is now sending power to Britain’s national grid. By 2026, when the project is complete, it should be able to power six million UK homes.

Joe Biden and heads of state for many of the top polluting countries — China, India, and Russia, and the UK — were missing at the UN Climate Ambition Summit, where the ticket to participate was a more ambition climate plan. “The rich countries that have historically driven the climate crisis and are continuing to expand fossil fuels were given an opportunity ... to demonstrate their commitment to the 1.5°C global warming limit. Instead, we saw cowardice and a staggering failure of climate leadership,” Romain Ioualalen of Oil Change International said in a statement.

During the UN climate summit today, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced that Brazil will recommit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 48 percent by 2025. The country initially pledged to do that under the Paris agreement, but former president Jair Bolsonaro reversed course.

The Paris agreement, while committing countries to limit global warming, doesn’t actually use the term “fossil fuel.” The world needs a treaty on the non-proliferation of fossil fuels, Lidy Nacpil of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development said during the opening plenary of the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit taking place today. The non-proliferation treaty’s supporters based it on the same principles as the 1970 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Amazon says that all devices it announces today will have their carbon footprint published in product sustainability fact sheets. Almost every device announced today will come in 100% recycled packaging in the US.

The Verge saw NYPD fill at least three police vans with protesters who marched through NYC’s financial district to end fossil fuels. Demonstrators are still blocking entrances to the bank, and there are more arrests going down.

Edward Norton, Jane Fonda, Mark Ruffalo, Rosario Dawson, Alyssa Milano, Marisa Tomei, and Alicia Silverstone are among the actors who joined some 700 activists and organizations that signed a letter urging President Joe Biden to phase out fossil fuels. The letter comes ahead of a ‘March to End Fossil Fuels’ and a United Nations Climate Ambition Summit in New York City next week. “You have the executive authority to stop approving fossil fuel projects, phase out fossil fuel production on federal lands, and halt oil and gas exports,” the letter says.

Exxon kept trying to mislead people on climate change even after finally admitting publicly in 2006 that fossil fuels are to blame, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation. Exxon continued to support research that questioned mainstream climate science after pledging to stop funding climate denial, according to the report. Before that, Exxon had already spent decades studying climate change while sowing doubt about the risks of burning fossil fuels.

The bill would make it mandatory for big companies doing business in California to share how much greenhouse gas emissions they’re creating. The SEC is weighing a similar federal mandate, but has faced steep industry pushback. California could beat the SEC to the punch; its bill is expected to be voted on by September 14th.

Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau authorized grid operator Luma to build the new Virtual Power Plant (VPP), Electrek reports. A VPP harnesses the collective strength of a fleet of batteries, usually from electric vehicles or residential solar setups. Together, they can act as a backup power source during an emergency or energy shortage — problems Puerto Rico is no stranger to, especially after Hurricane Maria decimated its power grid.

Early results are in from attempts to recreate LK-99 and see if it truly is the room-temperature superconductor of people’s dreams.

The deep sea is an untapped source of battery materials. But world leaders missed a July deadline to craft regulations on deep sea mining. Since so little is known about marine life at those depths, Scientists warn that exploiting those resources would be disastrous — especially without international regulations in place. The International Seabed Authority was scheduled to discuss a potential moratorium on deep-sea mining during a meeting last week, but ultimately pushed talks to 2024.

Marques Brownlee got a top-of-the-line Tesla system installed in his home to figure out the costs, benefits, and quirks of it all. He found huge fluctuations season to season, which mostly washed out over the course of the year.

The new Solis Pocket 36B comes standard with an EcoFlow PowerKit I reviewed last year. It starts with a 5kWh battery that can be expandable to 15kWh, which is a ton of LFP storage capacity for a van. It’s available to buy in the US and Canada from August.