Electricity

All the colors of the Hydrogen rainbow…and what they mean

Chrystal Electricity, Emissions, Energy Consumption, Energy Footprint, Energy Usage, Fossil Fuels, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Technology December 21, 2021December 20, 2021black hydrogen, blue hydrogen, Climate Science, gray hydrogen, green hydrogen, hydrogen, hydrogen colors, pink hydrogen, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, yellow hydrogen

Hydrogen element symbol attached to icons to denote powering industry and transport

I’m sure you’ve heard ‘hydrogen energy’ being proffered as the best way for us to decarbonize our energy production and transportation systems, and hence save the planet. But there are various types of hydrogen energy. You’ve probably

Dreaming Big of a Tiny House?

Chrystal Carbon Footprint, Electricity, Emissions, Energy Footprint, Energy Usage, Sustainability September 21, 2021September 20, 2021400 square feet, mobile home, mortgage, tiny house, zoning laws

There’s no doubt that Tiny House Movement is, well, growing. So we’re exploring what a tiny house is, why might you want one, and why it might not be the best choice, or even possible, for you.

How sustainable is solar, really?

Chrystal Climate Change, Electricity, Recycling, Solar Energy, Sustainability June 15, 2021June 15, 2021Ecoactiv, First Solar, IEA, International Energy Agency, Lotus Energy, Photovoltaic Power Systems program, PV cells, PV Cycle, PV Industries, Reclaim PV, Recycle PV Solar, silicon cells, solar module recycling, Solar Panels, solar recycling

close up of solar cells installed under sun

This isn’t a question of the sustainability of the power source, ie., the sun. Obviously, there’s no concerns there. But the sun’s radiative energy doesn’t spontaneously provide power to switch on the lights, it requires some pretty

Solar Farms in the desert are a good thing, right?

Chrystal Climate Change, Electricity, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Sustainability, Wind March 30, 2021June 14, 2021Amazon, Amazon Rainforest, desert solar farms, Dweep, El-Niño, Offshore solar, Sahara Desert, Sahara low pressure, Solar-at-Sea, Sungrow Solar Farm, Zon-op-Zee

There can be no question that the human population are hesitant, to say the least, about dramatically changing our ways to consume less power. So it is with increasing fervor that we are looking for ways to

Want to know how to succeed at New Year’s Resolutions?

Chrystal Current Events, Electricity, Energy Consumption, Environment, Fashion, Sustainability January 4, 2021January 5, 2021350.org, Alliance for Climte Education, banking, Carbon Footprint, climate community groups, Climate Health Now, Community Climate Collaborative, compost, doughnut economics, Earth Justice, energy supplier, Environmental Voter, Land Institute, New Year's Resolution, Our Climate Our Future, Rebranding, Renewable Energy, reusable, Reusable Coffee Cup, reusable tote, reusable water bottle, Sierra Club, Sunrise Movement, thrift shopping

Blanks notepad beside coffee and smartphone

Don’t make any. There…I said it. And it feels good to even say that out loud!! Let alone walk into 2021 without any resolutions on my brain. And you betcha…if you don’t make any, you won’t fail!

The Truth about EV’s

Chrystal Carbon Footprint, Electricity, Emissions, Energy Usage, Transportation October 14, 2020October 14, 2020Cobalt, Combustion engine emissions, Electric Vehicles, EVs, lithium, MPGe

Electric vehicle being charged with love heart in the cable

It’s not surprising that there’s currently pretty hard working campaigning going on to discredit the energy efficiency and environmental benefits from introducing EV’s (Electric Vehicles). The smear campaigns focus on questioning the energy consumption and carbon footprint for the EV manufacturing process Vs the potential and hypothetical emissions savings by then driving such a vehicle. Talk to almost anyone on the street about their opinion on EVs and they’ll usually spruik concern about the precious metals required and manufacturing emissions. Not to say those concerns aren’t based on some sort of reality – but the naysayers have somewhat exaggerated the cons, and tried to hide to pros. Even the Union of Concerned Scientists have to acknowledge that manufacturing an EV will emit between 15% and 68% more carbon than producing a petroleum car of the equivalent size. But that’s only half the story. How do lifetime emissions differ?

5 New Clean Tech Innovations

Chrystal Carbon Footprint, Electricity, Emissions, Energy Consumption, Energy Footprint, Fossil Fuels, Nuclear Energy, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Sustainability August 11, 2020August 14, 2020brine lithium, carbon capture, electro-swing adsorption, Gen IV modular nuclear reactor, heliofuel, heliogen, lithium, nuclear energy, oklo, Opus12, verdox

Woman in lab with clean tech battery. Clean tech innovations

There is no doubt in my mind that the human species can figure out a way to slow, or perhaps even stop, the Earth’s rapid descent into an uninhabitable, hot mess of a wasteland. Humans were the

5 Big Businesses Turning Green

Chrystal Carbon Footprint, Carbon Neutral, Carbon Offsetting, Carbon Sequestration, Electricity, Emissions, Energy Usage, Sustainability August 4, 2020August 4, 2020Ambition 2030, Apple, carbon engineering, Carbon removal, Cornell University, Huvudroll, IKEA, Loop reusable packaging, Microsoft, Natura &Co, P&G, perovskite, Procter & Gamble, Project Gigaton, Starbucks, Terracycle, Transform to Net Zero, Unilever, Walmart

There is no shortage of companies who are suddenly using phrases like carbon neutral, net zero, climate positive, and carbon negative in their marketing and communications. But how much of that is buzz and how much is backed by action? As consumers, we have to get smarter. We have to understand that simply throwing a ‘green’ or ‘eco’ phrase onto some packaging does not make the product, nor the company, an environmental or sustainability warrior. We have to dig deeper than that, to look beneath the words to see that there’s substance. And happily we can report that plenty of companies aren’t just paying the climate lip service – 23% of Fortune 500 companies have actual, robust and ambitious climate goals. This is largely due to the fact that we, the consumer, ARE digging deeper, and ARE expecting more from the companies we hand over our cash to. Great work, swrmers! So dive in to find out what some of the biggest global corporations are doing.

Renewed Drive On Renewables

Chrystal Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, Electricity, Emissions, Energy Usage, Renewable Energy, Solar Energy, Wind July 31, 2020July 31, 2020Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, Electricity, Electricity Grid, emissions, Energy Source, Energy Usage, Renewable Energy, solar energy

It would be easy to get lost in the barrage of negativity and bad news right now. But fear not, I have some good news for you today! We’ve done a round up of some of the places from across the globe who are holding steady on their course to a more sustainable future, even in these tumultuous times, by harnessing renewable energies. There are good, important and powerful (ahem) things happening in the renewable energy sector. Let’s take a quick trip round the world to see who’s doing what!

The Power of Water

Meghan Electricity, Renewable Energy, Water March 3, 2020March 3, 2020clean energy, dam, Electricity, fish elevator, fish ladder, flood control, Hoover Dam, hydroelectric power, Hydroelectricity, hydropower, irrigation, Renewable Energy, renewables, turbines, Water, water management

Recently, we’ve talked about the sun, the wind, and even fossil fuels as renewable sources of energy. Today, we’re talking about the power of water.