[GWSG] Signs; lost $; SolarCity; new cell; no-till; news down; peak oil & cc; lake methane; breeder silicon

[Tilley, Al]

1.  The weather extremes of 2010 may, as instances of instability, indicate a transition to a new state of the climate.  http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20101231/ARTICLE/12311018/2055/NEWS?Title=2010-set-world-records-for-weather-extremes&tc=ar  Munich Re warns that climate related disasters are likely to continue increasing.  http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/1934684/munich-warns-soaring-climate-change-costs   Food prices are at a record high, and could go much higher if the unstable weather lowers grain production.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12119539  Rice is so far unaffected.  http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/05/extreme-weather-sends-food-prices-soaring/?partner=rss&emc=rss

2.  The recent federal tax bill severely cut the support for home energy efficiency improvements.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/30/AR2010123002116.html  I hope that the Recovery Through Retrofit program, now in test mode, will step up to remedy the loss.  It will need to add direct support to its loan program to replace the lost impetus, though.

3.  SolarCity is among the firms leasing solar systems with no upfront costs to homeowners in Oregon, California, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas, where state support is favorable.  Lease costs are less than the savings on the utility bills.  http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/01/oregon_homeowners_can_now_go_s.html

4.  Caltech has developed a new kind of solar cell, 2% silicon and 98% polymer, which traps 85% of collectible sunlight and converts over 90% of those photons into electrical energy.  If the research team succeeds in producing commercially sized cells, they should be substantially cheaper and more efficient than existing pv cells.  A report on the project, funded in part by BP, will appear in the Feb. 14 Nature Materials.  http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13325

5.   No-till farming releases significantly less nitrous oxide than conventional farming, except where the fertilizer is applied on top of the soil rather than being injected.  Nitrous oxide is a powerful greenhouse gas.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110105/ap_on_re_us/us_food_and_farm_no_till

6.  News stories in English on climate change dropped 30% last year from 2009 levels.  Reuters is in the firm lead among news services, and does a dependably responsible job (though the study does not distinguish for the quality of the stories).  http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2011/01/climate-coverage

7.  Peak Oil and a Changing Climate: An Introduction brings together Noam Chomsky, Bill McKibben, and other activists in a 20 minute tape on the intersection of peak oil and climate change. http://www.truth-out.org/peak-oil-and-a-changing-climate-an-introduction-video66587

8.  A study in Science finds that methane releases from freshwater lakes offset the ability of land to capture CO2 by 25%.  The finding clarifies the conditions under which CO2 builds in the atmosphere.  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70555620110106?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29

9.  The Sahara Solar Breeder Project, led by Japanese universities, intends to build desert factories to produce silicon solar panels from sand, using solar power, and transmit the power through a superconducting supergrid.  Their goal is to supply 50% of the world's energy by 2050.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/01/a-possible-solar-energy-future??cmpid=WNL-Friday-January7-2011