Renewable Energy

100% Local, Clean, Cheap Power is Possible Using Renewable Energy

I’ve written in the past about the fact that 100% of the world could be powered from clean, renewable energy. But to get to that 100% target, you need a lot of small 100% targets (i.e. 100% renewable energy for Scotland, for Tokelau, etc.). A report just out yesterday from the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research finds that Minnesota could easily go 100% renewable. Not only that, though — it could use 100% local clean power from solar and wind energy. That’s exciting.

Help Fund DIY Global Village Construction Set

Help Fund DIY Global Village Construction Set

Back in May, I wrote about Open Source Ecology’s DIY Global Village Construction Set. It’s a wicked cool idea of a handful of DIYers, farmers, and engineers, led by Marcin Jakubowski, to help create:

“A world where every community has access to an open source Fab[rication] Lab which can produce all the things that one currently finds at a Walmart cost-effectively, quickly, on demand from local resources.”

10 Most Climate-Ready Cities in the U.S.?

Boyd Cohen, Ph.D. recently came up with a methodology to rank large cities in the U.S. based on how much they are preparing for or trying to counter climate change. He then went on to create and publish a top 10 list of the most “climate-ready” cities. While I think the term “climate-ready” is sort of a mistake, since he focuses more on efforts to stop climate change not adapt to it (which is what I would assume “climate-readiness” would be about), I think the overall idea and methodology looks great.