Green Energy

Because opposing voices tend to dominate these debates, Greenlight America will inform supporters about plans in their communities.

Matt Traldi, CEO and co-founder, said he takes inspiration from the way the labor movement prioritizes local voices and focuses on organizing. He was a co-founder of Indivisible, an advocacy group formed to counter the policy agenda of Donald Trump, and previously he spent a decade working for labor unions.

The ability of local and national groups to collaborate was essential and Greenlight helped to bring the parties together, she said.

“Local folks provide firsthand knowledge of the proposed projects, community concerns and tight-knit relationships with local elected officials,” she said. “The statewide and national groups bring lessons learned from other communities, relationships with the solar industry and legal and policy expertise.”

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Some environmentalists worry the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project could drive a rare wildflower to extinction, highlighting the trade-offs of the energy transition.

But Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said the conservation group plans to challenge the final permit in court. (...) “The Endangered Species Act does not have carve-outs if we really, really want the minerals that are going to drive a species extinct.”

Some environmentalists have also raised alarm about the mine’s water consumption, given a historic drought gripping much of the American West.

The mine is scheduled to become fully operational in 2028;

The Biden administration has taken a flurry of steps to boost domestic mining for lithium and other critical minerals used in green technologies. On Thursday, the Treasury Department also finalized a rule making mines for critical minerals eligible for generous federal tax credits.

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Cross-posted from "US power grid added battery equivalent of 20 nuclear reactors in past four years" by @[email protected] in [email protected]

Pace of growth helps maintain renewable energy when weather conditions interfere with wind and solar

Faced with worsening climate-driven disasters and an electricity grid increasingly supplied by intermittent renewables, the US is rapidly installing huge batteries that are already starting to help prevent power blackouts.

From barely anything just a few years ago, the US is now adding utility-scale batteries at a dizzying pace, having installed more than 20 gigawatts of battery capacity to the electric grid, with 5GW of this occurring just in the first seven months of this year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA).

This means that battery storage equivalent to the output of 20 nuclear reactors has been bolted on to America’s electric grids in barely four years, with the EIA predicting this capacity could double again to 40GW by 2025 if further planned expansions occur.

Solar technology has come a long way since New York inventor Charles Fritts created the first solar cell in 1883.

His device wasn’t very efficient – it was only capable of turning a tiny amount of the sunshine it absorbed into electricity, about 1% to 2%. Today’s solar cells – which are typically silicon-based – can convert an average of around 22% of the sunshine they absorb into power. More efficient solar cells mean each solar panel can generate more electricity, saving on materials and the land needed.

Manufacturing silicon solar cells is also an energy-intensive process. Experts warn that renewable power capacity must triple by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5°C, and solar is predicted to play a major role, so the industry is racing to increase the efficiency of its technology.

Rooftop photovoltaic solar panels warm up and cool down cities in Nature Cities