Archive for the 'Infrastructure' Category
Elon Musk Is Really Boring
February 17th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: As Musk tells it, the L.A. traffic jam was a breaking point. Screw it, he thought, I’ll do tunnels myself. Within days of his tweetstorm, he acquired a domain name—BoringCompany.com—and appointed a leader for the project, Steve Davis, a senior SpaceX engineer who designed the guidance systems for the company’s first rocket. The […]
U.S. Solar Capacity Nearly Doubles in One Year, Blows Away Previous Records
February 15th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: Green Tech Media: In its biggest year to date, the United States solar market nearly doubled its annual record, topping out at 14,626 megawatts of solar PV installed in 2016. This represents a 95 percent increase over the previous record of 7,493 megawatts installed […]
For the First Time, Wind on the Plains Supplied More Than Half Region’s Power
February 14th, 2017Via: Bloomberg: Wind turbines across the Great Plains states produced, for the first time, more than half the region’s electricity Sunday. The power grid that supplies a corridor stretching from Montana to the Texas Panhandle was getting 52.1 percent of its power from wind at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, Little Rock, Arkansas-based Southwest Power Pool […]
Insane Video of Oroville Dam Main Spillway Damage
February 13th, 2017Via: SacBee:
California: Evacuations Ordered Below Oroville Dam
February 12th, 2017Via: Mercury News: An emergency evacuation was ordered for Oroville-area residents by the state Department of Water Resources, which predicted that the auxiliary spillway at the Oroville Dam could fail Sunday night. Related: Feds and State Officials Ignored Warnings 12 Years Ago
Leaked DHS Report: Trump Border Wall to Cost $21.6 Billion, Take 3.5 Years to Build
February 10th, 2017Via: Reuters: President Donald Trump’s “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct, based on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal report seen by Reuters on Thursday. The report’s estimated price-tag is much […]
Fukushima Reactor Radiation Levels Soaring Unexpectedly
February 4th, 2017Via: ScienceAlert: The radiation levels inside Japan’s damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor No. 2 have soared in recent weeks, reaching a maximum of 530 sieverts per hour, a number experts have called “unimaginable”. Radiation is now by far the highest it has been since the reactor was struck by a tsunami in March 2011 – […]
California Adding Massive Battery Systems to Grid
January 31st, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: Bloomberg: Tesla Motors Inc. is making a huge bet that millions of small batteries can be strung together to help kick fossil fuels off the grid. The idea is a powerful one—one that’s been used to help justify the company’s $5 billion factory near […]
Musk Apparently Not Joking About Tunnel Boring Venture
January 25th, 2017Is this real? Via: Electrek: If you weren’t convinced that Tesla CEO Elon Musk was serious about launching a new company to start digging tunnels, maybe you will be now that he is putting a timeline on the project. He announced early this morning that they have made “exciting progress” and that he expects to […]
U.S. Solar Industry Passes Oil, Coal and Gas for Job Creation
January 24th, 2017Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand. — Via: ComputerWorld: Solar employment now accounts for the largest share of workers in the U.S. power generation field, surpassing coal, gas and oil, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In 2016, the solar workforce increased by 25% over the […]
