A sustainable, waste-free solar industry may be cultivated through solar panel recycling. This week, we spoke to Dr. Pablo Dias, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of SOLARCYCLE about how solar panel recycling can play a role in reducing environmental challenges of renewable energy.
At UC Berkeley, electricity and steam are generated by burning natural gas – but a renewable energy future is right around the corner. This week, we spoke to Sally McGarrahan, Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Services, about how the university is advancing towards a carbon free campus through clean energy innovation.
Airplanes are a significant source of emissions and air pollution, but are increasingly critical to many of the functions of our everyday lives. This week, we spoke with Adam Cohen, a researcher from the UC Berkeley Institute of Transportation Studies, who studies Advanced Air Mobility – a set of policies and technologies that work to make air transport cleaner, more sustainable and more equitable.
Typical wind turbines, critical as they are to the renewable energy transition, are wasteful to produce and almost impossible to reuse. We spoke to Ryan Clarke, a materials scientist at Hexion Inc, about new turbines made out of recyclable resin, which not only utilize less energy in production, but also create less waste as they can be recycled.
AquaFreezing is a proposed renewable energy method to slow Arctic ice loss by pumping seawater onto the surface, where it refreezes and thickens ice. This week, we spoke with Simon Woods, co-founder and executive chairman of Real Ice, about how this approach could delay a “blue ocean event” and buy time for emissions cuts, despite high costs and scaling challenges.
Water Batteries, or pumped storage hydropower, offer an innovative way to store and release energy during peak demand periods or when renewable sources are unavailable, ultimately reducing reliance on fossil fuels by enabling renewable energy to be used more efficiently. We spoke with Erik Steimle, the Chief Development Officer of Rye Development, about how pumped storage hydropower can help meet grid decarbonization goals.
As the effects of climate change are increasingly felt around the world, the need to incentivize communities to make lifestyle choices that limit its impact is more necessary than ever. This week, we spoke to Klean Energy Kulture co-founders Michael Hawthorne Jr. and Corey Dennard about using pop culture to raise awareness about climate change and promote sustainable practices.
As EV adoption increases, so does the need to charge them. We spoke with Tiya Gordon, co-founder of It’s Electric, to learn more about curbside charging and how it is an equitable solution towards promoting sustainable transportation through EVs.
The expansion of renewable energy is heightening the need for improved transmission capacity of our electrical grid. Unfortunately, rapid grid expansion to meet this demand faces funding and cost allocation obstacles. Large-scale reconductoring of advanced conductor systems has been proposed as an alternative. We spoke to Umed Paliwal, a researcher from UC Berkeley, to learn more about the process and benefits of reconductoring.
Weather complications have always been a major concern to farmers around the world. Crops’ frequent exposure to freezing temperatures or extreme heat often prevent farms from operating at optimal capacities, with farmers having to devote extra resources in irrigation and sheltering to counter the effects of crop loss. Agrivoltaics, the co-location of solar panels and regenerative agriculture to help maintain crop yields and protect biodiversity while simultaneously increasing solar output, emerges as a promising solution. We invited Byron Kominek, owner and manager of Jack’s Solar Garden in Colorado, to share with us about spearheading sustainability-minded land utilization and agricultural practices.