Windy problems
Turbine blades have piled up in landfills. By 2050, globally, turbine blades will generate more than 43 million tons of landfill waste. New, plant-based blades would make them recyclable, but investors are unlikely to support their increased cost.
Max Wilbert raises 120 Questions about Offshore Wind Energy and inspired my 21 questions for solar PV explorers.
Battery Energy Storage Systems
Power generated by solar panels or wind turbines needs somewhere to go-- either to the grid or to battery storage. On September 5th, six days after AES Corporation applied to build a 700-acre solar facility with battery energy storage (BESS) in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, a thermal runaway fire started at AES's BESS in Escondido, California. For two days, nearby residents could not open doors or windows or use ventilation systems. Schools and businesses also kept closed to avoid the highly toxic air. Electric Power Research Institute lists other recent BESS fires.
Will Santa Fe county commissioners abide by the principle that no technology is safe until proven safe-- and require AES' application to include a professional engineer's certified report that all hazards at its proposed facility have been evaluated and mitigated?
A.I.
Some researchers have begun integrating synthetic biology (replicating substances like lemon flavor, saffron and breastmilk in a lab) with artificial intelligence to generate new proteins and DNA sequences-- and create new medicines and solve like climate change. Alas, there's no regulation for such stuff. See Jim Thomas's report, 'Black Box' Biotechnology.
U.S. data centers will soon hit size limits. A.I.'s data centers suck ginormous power from the grid and cover acres of floor space. Google, for one, is building a 750,000 square foot center on 187 acres in Mesa, Arizona. Since one large center could consume multiple gigawatts of power (enough to power hundreds of thousands of homes) and overwhelm the grid (already overwhelmed on hot days), operators might instead build multiple smaller centers"or modular nuclear reactors.
Two Harvard students installed facial recognition software in Meta's "smart" Ray-Ban glasses-- and then could bring up a stranger's name, address, biography and other info available online"just by looking at their face while wearing Meta's "smart" glasses.
Mining
Here's an 18-minute documentary about deep sea mining, "In Too Deep." Manufacturers of solar PVs, electric vehicles and other technologies have begun digging up the ocean for their products' elements. Here's the Sustainable Ocean Alliance's call to say NO to Deep-Sea Mining.
Check out Joshua Frank's report in Counterpunch, "Robbing Africa's riches to save the climate (and power A.I.)."
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