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Small Island Developing States and Their Suitability for Electric Vehicles and Vehicle-to-Grid Services

Gay, Destine & Rogers, Tom & Shirley, Rebekah, 2018. "Small island developing states and their suitability for electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid services," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 69-78.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2018.09.006

sciencedirect.com - 19 September 2018

Abstract

Small Island Developing States (SIDS), while at the forefront of international climate action, face a number of development challenges linked to their historic, geographic and socio-economic characteristics. Small populations and limited energy demand cap the penetration of renewable energy technologies. Electric vehicles (EVs) offer solutions for electricity storage, grid services, reduced fuel imports, and reduced pollution with associated health benefits. This paper provides a comprehensive review of literature on island applications of electric vehicles, making the case for SIDS as an area of opportunity for further exploration, and presenting the southern Caribbean island of Barbados as a case study.

CLICK HERE - Small island developing states and their suitability for electric vehicles and vehicle-to-grid services

 

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Heatwaves Sweeping Oceans ‘Like Wildfires’, Scientists Reveal

           

Ocean heatwaves destroy kelp forests, which provide food and shelter for many other species. Photograph: Thomas Schmitt/Getty Images

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Marine heatwaves threaten global biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services

Extreme temperatures destroy kelp, seagrass and corals – with alarming impacts for humanity

theguardian.com - by Damian Carrington - March 4, 2019

The number of heatwaves affecting the planet’s oceans has increased sharply, scientists have revealed, killing swathes of sea-life like “wildfires that take out huge areas of forest”.

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Hurricanes, Droughts, and Wildfires: How Biopharma is Girding for Climate Change

           

A runner tries to navigate a flooded section of sidewalk underneath the Longfellow Bridge in Cambridge, Mass.  Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe

statnews.com - by Kate Sheridan - February 15, 2019

. . . the potential risks of climate change — and the attendant increase in natural disasters — stand to outstrip any … incremental gains, as the companies described in recent risk assessment reports to the British nonprofit CDP.

Hurricanes and superstorms, power outages and flooding all threaten manufacturing facilities and research sites, particularly when animals are involved. Droughts, too, threaten critical water supplies. Forest fires, even if remote from a given plant or research facility, bring smoke and air pollution that can similarly disrupt the day-to-day work for drug makers and their supply chain . . .

. . . STAT surveyed the risk assessment plans for more than a dozen major pharmaceutical companies and spoke with officials at labs that survived extreme weather events and others who are planning to avoid their repercussions. All emphasized that the risks are already real — and underscored how hard the industry is working to prepare to meet the challenge.

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Most U.S. Companies Say They are Planning to Transition to a Circular Economy

But the definition of circular economy remains unhelpfully broad.

fastcompany.com - by Adele Peters - February 5, 2019

When Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport remodeled a terminal, it didn’t buy light bulbs; instead, the company signed a contract for “light as a service” from Signify, the company formerly known as Philips Lighting. Signify owns the physical lights, giving it the incentive to make products that last as long as possible and that can be easily repaired and recycled if anything breaks.

The service is one example of a shift to a circular economy model. Rather than just mining materials and manufacturing products that ultimately end up in landfills, companies are increasingly trying to figure out how to use resources in closed loops.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

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Kiribati: a Drowning Paradise in the South Pacific

DW Documentary - November 8, 2017

Climate change and rising sea levels mean the island nation of Kiribati in the South Pacific is at risk of disappearing into the sea.

But the island’s inhabitants aren’t giving up. They are doing what they can to save their island from inundation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZ0j6kr4ZJ0

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Unusually Warm Sea Water Boosted 2017's Catastrophic Hurricane Season

                   

A Sept. 7, 2017, satellite image from NOAA shows the eye of Hurricane Irma, left, just north of the island of Hispaniola, with Hurricane Jose, right, in the Atlantic Ocean. Six major hurricanes formed in the Atlantic in 2017, including Harvey, Irma and Maria.  (Photo: AP)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Dominant effect of relative tropical Atlantic warming on major hurricane occurrence

usatoday.com - by Doyle Rice - September 27, 2018

The catastrophic 2017 hurricane season – which included such monsters as Harvey, Irma and Maria – was fueled in part by unusually warm ocean water, a new study suggests.

And because of human-caused global warming, the study said similar favorable conditions for fierce hurricanes will be present in the years and decades to come . . .

 . . . "We show that the increase in 2017 major hurricanes was not primarily caused by La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, but mainly by pronounced warm sea surface conditions in the tropical North Atlantic," the study said.

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How a ‘Solar Battery’ Could Bring Electricity to Rural Areas

           

New solar flow battery with a 14.1 percent efficiency. Photo: David Tenenbaum, UW-Madison

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Chem - 14.1% Efficient Monolithically Integrated Solar Flow Battery

theverge.com - by Angela Chen - September 27, 2018

Solar energy is becoming more and more popular as prices drop, yet a home powered by the Sun isn’t free from the grid because solar panels don’t store energy for later. Now, researchers have refined a device that can both harvest and store solar energy, and they hope it will one day bring electricity to rural and underdeveloped areas.

The problem of energy storage has led to many creative solutions, like giant batteries. For a paper published today in the journal Chem, scientists trying to improve the solar cells themselves developed an integrated battery that works in three different ways.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

 

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Kalinago Residents Gather to Create Action Plan for the 2018 Hurricane Season

           

A section of the Kalinago Territory about a month after Hurricane Maria

dominicanewsonline.com - June 1, 2018

KALINAGO TERRITORY — The largest disaster-preparedness-focused gathering of Dominicans since Maria made landfall will take place 9AM tomorrow, June 2nd, in the Kalinago Territory. Over 60 Kalinago residents and government officials will come together for a day-long workshop to review how emergency management procedures worked and failed in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

Co-led by the Kalinago Council and the Dominica Resilience Systems, this workshop will ask concerned citizens to review how emergency systems performed with respect to 26 core mission critical functions, which consist of everything from water and evacuation routes to emergency shelters and supply chains.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE - Kalinagos to discuss development agenda for Kalinago Territory

 

 

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How Storms, Missteps and an Ailing Grid Left Puerto Rico in the Dark

           

A transmission tower and downed lines in the mountainous terrain of eastern Puerto Rico. Workers from the island and throughout the United States have worked to restore power after Hurricanes Irma and Maria last September.

It took months to restore electricity in Puerto Rico after hurricanes dealt a one-two punch. Many homes are still without power, and the system’s future is far from certain.

nytimes.com - by JAMES GLANZ and FRANCES ROBLES - Photographs by TODD HEISLER - May 6, 2018

 . . . After Maria and the hurricane that preceded it, called Irma, Puerto Rico all but slipped from the modern era . . .

 . . . an examination of the power grid’s reconstruction — based on a review of hundreds of documents and interviews with dozens of public officials, utility experts and citizens across the island — shows how a series of decisions by federal and Puerto Rican authorities together sent the effort reeling on a course that would take months to correct. The human and economic damage wrought by all that time without power may be irreparable.

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