US to see renewable energy boom in wake of historic climate bill

Stephan:  Here is some excellent news about moving out of the carbon energy era. Please remember every single Republican, every one, voted against the recent climate remediation bill.
Wine turbines near Oakland, Maryland. Climate campaigners have welcomed the legislation as a long-overdue breakthrough. Credit: Chip Somodevilla / Getty

Renewable energy is set for an unprecedented boom in the US in the wake of its first ever climate bill, with the capacity of solar and wind projects expected to double by the end of the decade and providing the bulk of total American electricity supply, new analysis has shown.

The passage of the legislation, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), will help propel the US towards the forefront of the clean energy economy, experts predict, helping it compete with China on the manufacturing and installation of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and emerging zero carbon technology.

The tax credits contained in the bill’s $370bn of climate spending should help double the capacity of installed wind and solar by 2030, according to an updated analysis by the research firm Energy Innovation. This extra resource could enable clean electricity to provide anything from 72% to 85% of total US supply by this time, flowing from 795 to 1,053 gigawatts […]

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Wave-riding generators promise the cheapest clean energy ever

Stephan:  I have been following the Sea Wave EWnergy Project since it began, and it is now operational. This is a very interesting and very low cost non-polluting energy generation technology that holds enormous promise and should be getting much more attention. It's good news. -- Stephan
Waveline Magnet in operation Credit: Sea Wave Energy Ltd.

Sea Wave Energy Ltd (SWEL) has been working for more than a decade on a floating wave energy device it calls the Waveline Magnet. With several prototypes tested on- and off-shore, the company claims it delivers “ultra low cost,” with high output.

Solar electricity generation is proliferating globally and becoming a key pillar of the decarbonization era. Lunar energy is taking a lot longer; tidal and wave energy is tantalizingly easy to see; step into the surf in high wave conditions and it’s obvious there’s an enormous amount of power in the ocean, just waiting to be tapped. But it’s also an incredibly harsh and punishing environment, and we’re yet to see tidal or wave energy harnessed on a mass scale.

That doesn’t mean people aren’t trying – we’ve seen many tidal energy ideas and projects over the years, and just as many dedicated to pulling in wave energy for use on land. There are a lot of prototypes and small-scale commercial installations either running or under construction, and the sector […]

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Biden administration nearly doubling number of zero-emission buses with infrastructure funds

Stephan:  Twenty-seven percent of America's greenhouse gas emissions come from internal combustion transportation, and Biden is making a serious attempt to reduce that, as this article describes. So good news.
An AC Transit zero emissions bus moves on the bus deck at the Transbay transit center in San Francisco, Calif. Credit: Lea Suzuki/San Francisco Chronicle / AP

The Biden administration said on Tuesday that it is nearly doubling the number of zero-emission buses on the road through funding from the bipartisan infrastructure law. 

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced $1.66 billion in grants to transit agencies, territories and states that will facilitate the purchase of 1,800 new buses. Of those, 1,100 will be zero-emission vehicles and will nearly double the number of zero-emission buses on the roads, the FTA said in a press release. 

“With today’s awards, we’re helping communities across America – in cities, suburbs, and rural areas alike – purchase more than 1,800 new buses, and most of them are zero-emission,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a written statement. 

“Funded through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this announcement means more good jobs for people across the country, cleaner air in our communities, and more affordable and reliable options to help people get to where they need to go,” […]

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California E.V. Mandate Finds a Receptive Auto Industry

Stephan:  California is taking the lead on ending internal combustion transportation. Bravo California. It will be interesting to see what the Red states do in this regard. I predict they will do nothing.
A charging station in Burbank, Calif. Tesla has been a leader in the transition to electric vehicles, but established automakers are in hot pursuit. Credit: Philip Cheung / The New York Times

For years, as California has moved ahead with ambitious clean-air regulations, the state has had to prod the auto industry to go along. Now, in the push to electrify the nation’s car fleet, it is California that is keeping up with automakers.

Even before state regulators acted Thursday to ban sales of new internal-combustion vehicles by 2035, Detroit’s Big 3 and their international rivals were setting increasingly aggressive targets for exclusively electric product lines.

But while the goals of automakers and regulators are aligned, mass production of affordable electric cars — which requires reconceiving the supply chains and engineering developed for internal-combustion vehicles — will not be easy.

The automakers are hurrying to close deals with mining companies and other suppliers that can meet the escalating demand for battery materials. Some are teaming up with smaller companies to expedite the build-out of a nationwide charging network. And they […]

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