Helping the Snow Gods: Cloud Seeding Grows as Weapon Against Global Warming
New research supports seeding efforts to bolster water supplies in drying regions, but some scientists question its effectiveness in addressing climate change.
New research supports seeding efforts to bolster water supplies in drying regions, but some scientists question its effectiveness in addressing climate change.
A new study shows that the abrupt thawing of the Arctic permafrost will double previous estimates of potential carbon emissions — carbon that was once frozen in the permafrost ice. In fact, it is already changing the landscape and ecology of the circumpolar north.
Most of the “extra” heat that’s retained as a result of anthropogenic climate change ends up in the oceans (~90%). To put that another way, the world’s oceans are a giant heat sink, and they work to modulate the world’s air temperatures to a large degree.
You know the saying — “When it rains, it pours.” However, this may actually be the future normal rather than a simple idiom. A recent report suggests extreme rain storms which occur on average once a season may increase 400% by century’s end. The study, published in the Nature Climate Change journal, said storms could increase by 5 times in a season within this century.
If anthropogenic global warming is to be limited to under 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) then technology will need to be developed to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, in addition to the complete ceasing of greenhouse gas emissions by 2085, according to a new study from the National Center for … [continued]
BM has long been known for building some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, but what happens when it applies advanced modeling to solving the intermittency of renewable energy?
The answer is “Hybrid Renewable Energy Forecasting,” a new technology already online in China that produces accurate local weather and renewable energy forecasts as far as one month in advance, down to 15-minute increments.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is adding to its already impressive list of renewable energy innovations with a new two-year plan to develop custom forecasting systems for wind and solar generation.
NCAR scientists and engineers will develop technology to predict sudden changes in wind speed, enable wind farm operators to curtail turbines before potentially damaging icy conditions, and predict the amount of energy generated by small-scale solar panel installations.
Intermittency may be the Achilles Heel of solar energy. Since the Sun doesn’t always shine and utility-scale energy storage isn’t available yet, grid operators have to rely on dispatchable generation like natural gas or when clouds cover up solar farms. But that may be about to change in a big way…
Aside from the cleantech project, cleantech policy, cleantech consumer product round-ups I’m in the midst of finishing, here’s a round-up of some of the latest news on new cleantech technology: 1. Wind Energy Forecasting Technology Saves Millions of Dollars a Year “The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has developed … [continued]