Hanover debuted a new solar array on Thursday that will produce enough energy to power almost all of the municipality’s electrical needs.
The array, which is on 8 acres, is made up of 4,560 solar panels that will generate 2 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year. That makes it the largest municipal solar farm in the state, according to ReVision Energy, the solar company that installed it.
This solar array is one step Hanover is taking to meet its goal of switching to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030.
“In battling the impacts of climate change, communities need to be in a leadership role” said Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin. “One very important component of that is solarizing the heck out of every possible rooftop, and to pursue at the Town level large ground-mounted solar arrays.”
The Town of Sandwich, N.H., recently revived its Energy Committee as an outgrowth of a warrant article passed in 2019 “to commit to a goal of 100% reliance on renewable sources of electricity by 2030 and for all other energy needs, including heating and transportation, by 2050.”
Its members include: Katherine Thorndike, Chair; Tim Miner, Vice Chair; Wharton Sinkler, Secretary; Hollis Heichemer and Leonard Witt.
Goals under consideration include:
Pursue Cost-Effective Energy Efficiency Projects Early and Often
Transition to Renewable Energy Sources for Electricity
Transition to Clean Energy Transportation and Alternatives
A coalition of more than 220 of the planet’s leading medical and public health journals issued an urgent rallying cry to address climate change …, saying the greatest threat to global health was the planet’s ongoing failure to rein in carbon emissions.
The editors of the journals wrote the impassioned joint plea, warning humanity was already facing irreversible threats to public health just weeks before the United Nations is set to meet for its general assembly later this month. The threat was so urgent, they wrote, that countries can’t wait for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic to begin reducing emmissions.
The journals’ editorial ends saying:
The greatest threat to global public health is the continued failure of world leaders to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5° C and to restore nature. Urgent, society-wide changes must be made and will lead to a fairer and healthier world. We, as editors of health journals, call for governments and other leaders to act, marking 2021 as the year that the world finally changes course.
They add:
… governments must make fundamental changes to how our societies and economies are organized and how we live. The current strategy of encouraging markets to swap dirty for cleaner technologies is not enough. Governments must intervene to support the redesign of transport systems, cities, production and distribution of food, markets for financial investments, health systems, and much more. Global coordination is needed to ensure that the rush for cleaner technologies does not come at the cost of more environmental destruction and human exploitation.
Towards the end of the podcast The Times reporter says in November she will be covering a crucial international climate summit in Glasgow.
The world saving goal is to halve the world’s carbon pollution by 2030. She says this is the most important decade, the most important year to address climate change. The major countries are not on track now. She adds:
I’ve really been wondering the last few days is whether these world leaders feel the heat at home themselves, literally feel the heat and whether they feel the political heat from their citizens to take swift action.
That’s a call for all of us to apply that political heat. Ours and our children’s future demands it. These next few months leading up that conference is the time to demand action to save our world as we know it.
Below is The Times summary of the show:
Extreme weather across Europe, North America and Asia is highlighting a harsh reality of science and history: The world as a whole is neither prepared to slow down climate change nor live with it.
European officials are trying to change that. The European Commission, the E.U.’s executive arm, recently introduced ambitious legislation aimed at sharply cutting emissions to slow down climate change within the next decade, specifically by weaning one of the world’s biggest and most polluting economies off fossil fuels. But can it generate the political will to see it through?
The Wall Street Journal gives an excellent overview of how most everything we use from the vehicles we drive to the homes and businesses we heat will be powered by electricity as the era of fossil fuels ends.
A main thrust of the article is: “The electrification of (almost) everything is coming, and we’re just not ready for it.”
We have to build a secure and reliable infrastructure to accommodate the increased demand for electricity, but if we pull it off, the environment and all of us will be better off.
a transition to mostly renewable energy is possible, but will require households and businesses to be flexible in how they consume electricity.
Ella Zhou, a senior modeling engineer at NREL and a co-author of the report, told Inside Climate News:
The transformation to a highly electrified economy is an opportunity for consumers and businesses because of the potential for cost-savings and for developing and selling new generations of products.
“This offers useful information literally for everyone, because electricity touches all of our lives.”
Here are some highlights from the four-year project:
The United States already has the technologies it needs for the power system to reliably operate with high levels of electrification and high levels of wind and solar…
One of the keys to making the power system work will be flexibility in electricity demand, encouraging owners of electric vehicles to recharge them at times of low demand and offering incentives for households and businesses to reduce their power use whenever demand gets uncomfortably close to outstripping supply. Much of this flexibility can be run by software in ways that are barely noticeable to consumers.
A power system that is more flexible costs a lot less to operate than one that isn’t because it can avoid short-term spikes in demand that lead to high prices, and it can avoid big ramp-ups of electricity generation that put severe strain on equipment.
The Inside Climate News author Dan Gearino points out:
The growth in electricity consumption would require a massive build-out of solar arrays, along with onshore and offshore wind farms, with those resources providing about two-thirds of the country’s electricity generation. The remaining one-third would come from hydroelectric, natural gas, nuclear and other resources.
He adds:
Considering that many wind and solar projects face local backlash from residents, building on such a large scale would require some way of getting local people on board or overcoming their opposition.
So ultimately the success of reaching a nearly 100 percent renewable goal by 2050 will depend not just on politics, but also on everyday people like the residents of Sandwich, N.H.
For the wonks among us, the NREL will host a deep dive, final report webinar from noon to 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, June 17, 2021 with report authors Ella Zhou and Trieu Mai.
Its short answer is: Very green. But plug-in cars still have environmental effects.
Here are some of the Times suggestions to ensure fully green EVs:
“Electric grids still need to get much, much cleaner before electric vehicles are truly emissions free…” Eliminating coal powered electricity from the grid makes for the greenest choice.
Electric vehicles rely on raw materials — like cobalt, lithium and rare earth elements. Now mining methods are unsafe for miners and the surrounding environments. Mickaël Daudin of Pact, a nonprofit organization that works with mining communities in Africa, told the Times:
If companies acted responsibly, the rise of electric vehicles would be a great opportunity for countries like Congo, he said. But if they don’t, “they will put the environment, and many, many miners’ lives at risk.”
3. Recycle lithium batteries. “99 percent of lead-acid batteries are recycled in the United States, estimated recycling rates for lithium-ion batteries are about 5 percent.” Recycling lithium batteries right now is problematic for the environment. However, another solution is reusing the batteries for electrical storage after their efficiency for running EVs has declined.
If done properly, though, used car batteries could continue to be used for a decade or more as backup storage for solar power, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found in a study last year.
Shareholders of Exxon Mobil dealt the company’s management a defeat on Wednesday by electing at least two of four candidates activist investors had nominated to its board — the first time that has happened, according to analysts who follow the company.
It adds:
A coalition of investors concerned about the environment had argued that Exxon had not invested enough in cleaner energy, which will hurt its profits in the future. And a majority of the company’s shareholders appeared to at least partly agree with that position, according to the preliminary results.
Exxon has lagged other oil majors in its response to climate change concerns, forecasting many more years of oil and gas demand growth and doubling down on investments to boost its output – in contrast to global rivals that have scaled back fossil fuel investments.
That approach boosted the company’s debt load by billions of dollars in recent years, leading to a record $22 billion loss in 2020 after years of underperformance.
“Keene has become the first New Hampshire municipality to adopt a community power program since the state began allowing them in 2019,” according to the Keene Sentinel. In the story Keene’s mayor praised it as a citizen based, grassroots effort.
The story adds:
The City Council voted unanimously Thursday night to approve a plan for the program, which would allow Keene to purchase electricity on behalf of consumers. This would give the city more say over where the power used in Keene comes from.
Now the plan has to be approved by the N.H. Public Utilities Commission, which has a history, as one commentator put it, of “sitting on their hands.”
The Keene Community Power website says:
Keene Community Power (CP) is a City-operated group purchasing program that pools the electric use of residents, businesses, non-profits, and property owners to provide competitively priced electricity options. The program offers Keene electricity customers with a City-vetted alternative to Eversource’s default service and other third party electricity suppliers.
Eversource continues to deliver electricity and manage all billing. The only change will be the source and cost of electricity supply, chosen by the City of Keene through a competitive bidding process. The program is part of a larger effort to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050.
Learn how the Biden administration’s clean energy, infrastructure and jobs initiatives affect New Hampshire and what can we do to help move the process forward. Watch the YouTube video here.
Please share with your friends interested in climate issues.
Right now New Hampshire’s Gov. Chris Sununu and the Republican majority legislature are slowing progress and the state could be left behind as this inevitable clean energy revolution unfolds. So it will be up to individuals like us to push the issue and, if needed, work to elect more enlightened leadership.
Please enjoy Earth Day, this year could be one of the most important in slowing global warming and we can be part of making that happen. Thank you so much for the important work each of you do.
businesses we heat will be powered by electricity as the era of fossil fuels ends.
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