article thumbnail

An Open Letter: The Texas Energy Transition—The Greentown Labs Community Offers Pathways to a Resilient and Sustainable Energy Future

Greentown Labs

The Texas energy crisis in February 2021 reminded us of the precariousness of energy systems and their high costs of failure. At least 111 deaths are confirmed , over 17M homes lost access to clean wate r , and $200B in damages are projected. The cold weather in February 2021 caused energy demand to skyrocket.

article thumbnail

Your ‘Love Is Blind’ addiction is not heating the planet … yet

Grist

billion — Fortune Magazine published a more-alarming statistic : Streaming the nearly five-minute video that many times required as much computing power “as 40,000 U.S. homes use in a year.”. And all that computational activity takes energy. That’s mainly thanks to improvements in energy efficiency. Curbing energy use.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Trending Sources

article thumbnail

20 C-suite sustainability champions for 2021

GreenBiz

Often working from home themselves, they empathized with employees and other stakeholders, some refusing to issue layoffs. In 2014, the electrical engineer and MBA became the first woman to lead a U.S. As electric vehicles drive toward the mainstream, General Motors has come full circle as well. and globally by 2040.

article thumbnail

Ranked: The 12 best ways to get cars out of cities

Business Green

Despite the (slow) migration to electric-powered cars, consumer trends are making driving even more wasteful and unequal. A recent analysis found the emissions saved from electric cars have been more than cancelled out by the increase in gas-guzzling Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs). Reducing car use in cities.

article thumbnail

5 Startups Working to End Utility-Caused Wildfires

GreenTechMedia

The most notable example is the November 2018 Camp fire in California, caused by a poorly maintained Pacific Gas & Electric power line that ultimately led to the deaths of at least 85 people. But the work is slow and imprecise. The program aims to bring new players into this high-stakes space.

article thumbnail

? The bits and bytes of grid tech

Climate Tech VC

For a 2050 net-zero future, we’ll need an electricity grid large enough that its untangled cables would be long enough to stretch all the way to the sun. As electricity demand rises to meet population growth and the electrification transition, so does the need to expand and strengthen the grid.

article thumbnail

A quiet revolution: Southwest cities learn to thrive amid drought

Grist

In the rolling hills around San Diego and its suburbs, the rumble of bulldozers and the whine of power saws fill the air as a slew of new homes and apartments rise up. Nine cities surveyed in the Colorado River Basin lowered their water demand in the range of 19 to 48 percent between 2000 and 2015. Yale Environment 360.