Henry Harrell"s Blog: December 12 Green Energy News

Headline News:

Birds are increasingly threatened. Overfishing and changing sea temperatures are pushing seabirds to the brink of extinction, new data on the world’s birds shows. Birds that are now globally threatened include the kittiwake and the Atlantic puffin. And on land, the Snowy Owl is struggling to find prey as Arctic ice melts, say conservation groups. [BBC]

Black-legged kittiwake (Photo: Ed Marshall)

A joint study by the highly respected Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research finds that plug-in hybrid cars with at least 36 miles of electric-only range (eg Chevy Volt) are just as good at keeping carbon emissions out of the atmosphere as pure battery electric cars (eg Chevy Bolt). [CleanTechnica]
Here’s another good news item that will certainly bother EV critics. Though most people seem not to know it, the batteries that power EVs keep getting cheaper. The average price of a lithium-ion battery pack is down to $209/kWh and the prices are set to fall below $100/kWh by 2025, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance survey. [CleanTechnica]
German offshore wind farms put power on the country’s grid 363 days a year, a Fraunhofer IWES report said. The authors of the report, which was commissioned by the German Offshore Wind Foundation, said that if Germany wants to achieve the acting government’s zero-carbon emissions target, it needs 25 GW of offshore wind by 2030. [reNews]
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is highlighting how greenhouse-gas emissions in Iowa dropped for the second year in a row, primarily with decreasing power plant emissions. This includes notable increases in windpower and decreases in the use of coal. GHG emissions statewide decreased 9% from their peak in 2007. [North American Windpower]

Henry Harrell"s Blog