Climate Change

The centralized nature of policymaking in Beijing would enable component standardization to ease the transition from EV to stationary energy storage use, according to Greenpeace East Asia.

A new Princeton University study shows that PV plants in hot, arid parts of the world, such as the Middle East and the U.S. Southwest, will be particularly affected by climate change.

A wide-ranging joint report published by the Democratic presidential candidate and his former rival includes the section: ‘Undoing the harms of the Trump administration and righting the wrongs.’

Researchers in Australia have conducted a ‘cradle to grave’ life cycle assessment (LCA) of the four most widely used PV technologies. The academics say that cadmium telluride solar modules have the lowest life cycle impact, followed by amorphous, multi and monocrystalline silicon products.

Solar forecasting company Solargis says the insight offered by Covid-19 industrial shutdowns into a renewables-driven future serves to emphasize the value of the chief commodity it trades in – data.

“As we suffer through one health and environmental crisis after another, it is clear we can no longer simply solar-panel-and-windmill our way out of this emergency,” say producer Michael Moore and author Jeff Gibbs.

Rio Tinto Chairman Simon Thompson is urging governments across the world to take “urgent” action on climate change despite the twin evils of Covid-19 and economic recession. The call comes amid criticism that Rio Tinto’s own emission reductions schemes are too weak.

Although decried for lacking ambition and as an abdication of responsibility in some quarters, the climate law proposed by the European Commission may be more ambitious than it first appears, as Felicia Jackson, from the center for sustainable finance of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London – considers here.

A minor concern it may be, compared to the tragic loss of life, livelihoods and biodiversity caused by the bushfires still ravaging parts of Australia, but reduced output by PV systems due to smoke haze is an unwelcome bi-product of blazes that have burned at a scale and ferocity never seen before.

The U.S. asset management fund’s plan to cut future investment in coal is reportedly part of a climate-focused initiative to establish sustainability at the center of its business approach. The announcement comes weeks after the investor closed $1 billion of a record $2.5 billion fund focused on PV, wind and energy storage projects.