Solar farm being installed on Lake Wilson Road - News - Hillsdale.net - Hillsdale, MI - Hillsdale, MI

Interesting that conservative Hillsdale County goes solar while Deerfield/Riga are resisting to "destroy prime agricultural land"...

JONESVILLE - Pine Gate Renewables and Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors announced their first wave of solar energy projects into Michigan, with the closest being built near Lake Wilson Road.

Due to interest posed by local residents, Hillsdale Daily News sought answers from both companies involved and the Fayette Township Planning Commission.

Tami von Isakovics, director of communications and marketing for Pine Gate Renewables, said the company is a fully integrated utility-scale solar development company headquartered in Asheville, N.C.

“We operate 480MW of renewable energy in five states and have more than 8GW in development,” von Isakovics said. “As a leader in the industry, Pine Gate focuses on forging partnerships to expand its renewable energy footprint nationwide. It’s mission is to provide renewable power for local communities across the country through project development, financing, construction and environmental preservation.”

Continue reading at: Solar farm being installed on Lake Wilson Road - News - Hillsdale.net - Hillsdale, MI - Hillsdale, MI

Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Solution | Fortum

Good news for getting electric cars to be the standard while reducing the total number of cars.

To achieve a high recycling rate of 80% with a low-CO2 we use hydrometallurgical recycling process. The lithium-ion batteries are first made safe for mechanical treatment, with plastics, aluminium and copper separated and directed to their own recycling processes. And what is left of the battery after these processes are the chemical and mineral components, the ‘black mass’  and in our facility in Harjavalta the ‘black mass’ can be treated on an industrial scale.

The black mass typically consists of a mixture of lithium, manganese, cobalt and nickel in different ratios. Of these, nickel, cobalt and lithium are the most valuable and most difficult to recover. Most of today’s recycling solutions for EV batteries are not able to recover these valuable minerals.

Continue reading at: Lithium-ion Battery Recycling Solution | Fortum

Fantastic Tools for Investigative Journalism: Investigations ← Forensic Architecture

Fantastic tools for investigative journalism.

Forensic Architecture (FA) is a research agency, based at Goldsmiths, University of London, investigating human rights violations including violence committed by states, police forces, militaries, and corporations. FA works in partnership with institutions across civil society, from grassroots activists, to legal teams, to international NGOs and media organisations, to carry out investigations with and on behalf of communities and individuals affected by conflict, police brutality, border regimes and environmental violence.

Our investigations employ pioneering techniques in spatial and architectural analysis, open source investigation, digital modelling, and immersive technologies, as well as documentary research, situated interviews, and academic collaboration. Findings from our investigations have been presented in national and international courtrooms, parliamentary inquiries, and exhibitions at some of the world’s leading cultural institutions and in international media, as well as in citizen’s tribunals and community assemblies.

Continue reading at: Investigations ← Forensic Architecture

Experts: Whitmer has upper hand in Line 5 case, but May shutdown is uncertain | Bridge Michigan

Their rationale was twofold: Michigan should never have granted the easement in the first place, Whitmer and Eichinger wrote, because allowing Enbridge to transport oil through the Straits poses a spill risk that “cannot be reconciled with the public’s right in the Great Lakes and the state’s duty to protect them.” 

It could be months or years before Michiganders know for sure when or whether Enbridge must decommission Line 5, legal experts say. (Shutterstock photo by JHVEPhoto)

Second, state officials determined Enbridge has repeatedly violated the terms of its easement by failing to properly support the pipeline, allowing the pipe to bend in ways that could compromise its structural integrity, and failing to maintain the pipeline’s protective coating, among other issues.

Continue reading at: Experts: Whitmer has upper hand in Line 5 case, but May shutdown is uncertain | Bridge Michigan

UK plans to bring forward ban on fossil fuel vehicles to 2030

Forgot to share this ambitious decision of a conservative government. Definitely not the same as the Trump administration.

The UK is poised to bring forward its ban on new fossil fuel vehicles from 2040 to 2030 to help speed up the rollout of electric vehicles across British roads.

Graeme Cooper, the director in charge of National Grid’s electric vehicle project, told the Guardian that fears over the UK electricity grid’s ability to cope with a boom in vehicle charging are unfounded. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

Boris Johnson is expected to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles this autumn with the announcement, one of a string of new clean energy policies to help trigger a green economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The government had hoped to set out the plans as early as this week, according to sources in the energy and transport industries, but the announcement will be delayed until later this year as it focuses on tackling the rising number of coronavirus cases.

Continue reading at: UK plans to bring forward ban on fossil fuel vehicles to 2030

Governor Whitmer takes legal action to force shut down of Enbridge’s Line 5 | Michigan Radio

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer plans to revoke the easement the state granted in 1953 that allows Enbridge Energy’s Line 5 to cross the Straits of Mackinac.

Enbridge Energy's 67 year old dual pipeline named Line 5 lies on the bottom of the Mackinac Straits connecting Lakes Michigan and Huron. It's near the Mackinac Bridge.

Credit Lester Graham / Michigan Radio

The announcement came as the Department of Natural Resources released a review of Enbridge’s record over the 67 years the Line 5 dual pipelines have sat on the bottom of the Straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The DNR cited the Canadian pipeline company’s “historic failures and current non-compliance” as reasons to revoke the easement.

“The Notice concludes that Enbridge’s Line 5 is a grave and unreasonable risk to the state’s residents and natural resources and requires the pipeline to be shut down 180 days from now, on May 12, 2021,” a release from Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office said.

Continue reading at: Governor Whitmer takes legal action to force shut down of Enbridge’s Line 5 | Michigan Radio

Happy 200th birthday to Eunice Foote, hidden climate science pioneer | NOAA Climate.gov

Eunice Foote described the Climate Crisis more than 200 years ago!

She was the first scientist known to have experimented on the warming effect of sunlight on different gases, and went on to theorize that changing the proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would change its temperature, in her paper Circumstances affecting the heat of the sun's rays at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in 1856.

Continue reading at: Happy 200th birthday to Eunice Foote, hidden climate science pioneer | NOAA Climate.gov