Economic Times: Indian Government to Replace Streetlights With LEDs
The government will replace all streetlights in the country with LED bulbs in the next 24 months, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said, a goal he described as being in line with the ministry's aims of energy efficiency and providing dependable energy in the country.
Quartz: India Has the World’s First Solar-Powered Airport
The southern Indian city of Kochi is now the proud home of the world’s first solar-powered airport.
On Aug. 18, the Cochin International Airport Limited -- India’s fourth-largest international airport in terms of passenger traffic -- commissioned a 12-megawatt solar power project. The airport already had a 1 MW solar power plant, which can produce 4,000 units of electricity daily.
With its new solar plant, the airport can now produce 60,000 units of electricity every day, which is more than enough to meet its daily requirement.
SF Gate: Troubled California Oil Field Regulator Faces Major Overhaul
California’s embattled oil field regulatory agency will undergo a sweeping overhaul following revelations that the office for years let petroleum companies dump their waste water into federally protected aquifers.
The state’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources will reorganize its staff into teams focused on specific technical areas, such as hydraulic fracturing or wastewater disposal. “We have a renewal plan that will put a sharp focus on all the activities we’re doing,” the division’s supervisor, Steven Bohlen, told legislators Tuesday during a hearing in Sacramento. “Our field staff are very, very busy, and I’m holding them to a higher standard.”
Phys.org: As Wind-Turbine Farms Expand, Research Shows They Could Offer Diminishing Returns
As wind turbines proliferate, researchers at the University of Kansas are looking at how these forests of turbines affect the wind itself. What happens to the wind when a larger number of wind turbines removes more and more of the energy of atmospheric motion?
Atmospheric science professors Nate Brunsell and David Mechem in KU's Department of Geography are co-authors of a new study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by an international research group that evaluated the effects of large wind farms on atmospheric flow and its implications for how much renewable energy the turbines can generate.
"Wind turbines generate electricity by removing energy from the wind, so a larger number of wind turbines should result in a slowdown of the winds in the lower atmosphere," Mechem said.
The Hill: Obama Climate Legacy at Risk Over Arctic Drilling
President Obama will visit Alaska on Tuesday in the midst of a fight with environmental groups, who argue he is putting his climate legacy at risk by allowing Royal Dutch Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic waters off the state’s northern coast.
Obama is going to Alaska to inspect the effects of climate change on one of the nation’s most vulnerable ecosystems.
In the final quarter of his presidency, Obama intends to use the dramatic backdrop to highlight his administration’s efforts to combat global warming -- an issue he's looked to address through broad and controversial new regulations and international accords. It’s a legacy Obama has done much to burnish in his second term, but one green groups argue will be jeopardized by the new Alaska drilling.