Situation Report

New solar flow battery with a 14.1 percent efficiency. Photo: David Tenenbaum, UW-Madison

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Chem - 14.1% Efficient Monolithically Integrated Solar Flow Battery

theverge.com - by Angela Chen - September 27, 2018

Solar energy is becoming more and more popular as prices drop, yet a home powered by the Sun isn’t free from the grid because solar panels don’t store energy for later. Now, researchers have refined a device that can both harvest and store solar energy, and they hope it will one day bring electricity to rural and underdeveloped areas.

The problem of energy storage has led to many creative solutions, like giant batteries. For a paper published today in the journal Chem, scientists trying to improve the solar cells themselves developed an integrated battery that works in three different ways.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Solar installers could make a better business case for panels bundled with heat pumps and other electric devices that offset natural-gas use, according to the Rocky Mountain Institute. Here, Luminalt solar installer Pam Quan moves a solar panel during an installation on the roof of a home on May 9, 2018 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - REPORT - Rocky Mountain Institute - The Economics of Electrifying Buildings

forbes.com - by Jeff McMahon - September 2, 2018

Solar installers could offer rooftop customers even more savings by bundling solar panels with heat pumps and other electric appliances, according to a recent study by the Rocky Mountain Institute.

RMI studied the carbon benefits and financial costs  of electrification of home heating in four U.S. cities. The carbon reductions were pronounced in three of the four. The financial costs were harder to overcome—unless the electricity comes not from the grid, but from the rooftop.

A helicopter drops water to a brush fire at the Holy Fire in Lake Elsinore, California, on Saturday. Photograph: Ringo Chiu/AFP/Getty Images

The fires have scorched states from Washington to New Mexico, with California among the hardest hit

theguardian.com - August 12, 2018

Six large new wildfires erupted in the United States, pushing the number of major active blazes nationwide to over 100, with more expected to break out sparked by lightning strikes on bone-dry terrain, authorities said on Saturday.

More than 30,000 personnel, including firefighters from across the United States and nearly 140 from Australia and New Zealand, were battling the blazes that have consumed more than 1.6m acres (648,000 hectares), according to the National Interagency Coordination Center . . .

 . . . The fires have scorched states from Washington to New Mexico, with California among the hardest hit.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

AN EXPANDING LIST OF NEWS AND INFORMATION RESOURCES RELATED TO WILDFIRES IN CALIFORNIA . . . 

CLICK HERE - Cal Fire - California Fire Map - 2018 Statewide Incidents Map

CLICK HERE - Cal Fire - Incident Information - Current Fire Information

CLICK HERE - City of Redding, CA - Carr Fire Activity Map

CLICK HERE - Shasta County Sheriff’s Office - Carr Fire Information

CLICK HERE - ‘Get out with your life’: California’s Carr fire kills 3 more, in addition to 2 firefighters

CLICK HERE - Redding fire claims three more lives as blaze continues to burn out of control