Word: thermal
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...populated swath of arid, sunny and relatively cheap land in eastern San Luis Obispo County, where three of the world's largest solar plants ever proposed are under review. Together, the Topaz Solar Farm, California Valley Solar Ranch (both photovoltaic projects) and the Carrizo Energy Solar Farm (a solar thermal operation) would provide energy to nearly 100,000 Golden State homes, but only by covering roughly 16 sq. mi. (41 sq km) of the ecologically sensitive plains with solar panels and industrial development. All three plants have deals with Pacific gas & Electric (PG&E) (which declined to comment for this...
...Katherine Potter, a spokeswoman for Ausra, the company proposing the solar thermal plant, insists that large-scale solar is needed, and soon. "There is certainly a good place for distributed generation, but to ensure the reliability of the grid, you do need large-scale power generation," she says, explaining that solar thermal is the most efficient renewable energy source available in terms of the amount of land used...
...just annoyed neighbors and environmental attack dogs who are worried about these solar plants. John McKenzie is a planner for the County of San Luis Obispo, which is processing the applications for the photovoltaic projects. (The solar thermal project goes through the California Energy Commission.) "There are a couple of pretty serious issues that need to be resolved," he says, pointing specifically to the biological resources, water-supply concerns and agricultural protections that have to be evaluated before the county gives the go-ahead to the applicants. How much experience does he or anyone in the county have with these...
...higher than the estimates put forth in the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) most recent assessment in 2007, which projected a sea-level rise of 18 to 59 cm by 2100. But the IPCC numbers were based on older data and took into account only the thermal expansion of the seas. (Water expands as it heats, so warmer seas rise.) The IPCC did not factor in the potentially far greater impact of melting ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica - Greenland alone has enough ice to raise sea levels by more than 20 ft. At the time...
...like a greatest hits collection of Denmark's successful energy policies. The island features district heating plants fired by waste biomass such as straw. The plants provide heat to homes in lieu of more polluting oil-burning furnaces. When the sun is shining - which, admittedly, is not often - solar thermal panels provide hot water. Wind power is everywhere - on land, where towering turbines shade cows on a dairy farm, and offshore, where 10 turbines greet the incoming ferries like a row of sentinels. Many of the turbines are owned collectively by resident associations, with members chipping...