#solutions

[peppermintsolarpunk]

If wooden blades allows for taller towers, that could increase safety for birds and bats on its own! There are also a number of other strategies that can be used to help increase the safety for wildlife, like painting one of the blades black to increase contrast and visibility!

Image via this article.

A company making wooden wind turbine blades has successfully tested a 50-meter-long prototype that’s set to debut soon in the Indian and European markets.

Last year, the German firm Voodin successfully demonstrated that their laminated-veneer timber blades could be fabricated, adapted, and installed at a lower cost than existing blades, while maintaining performance.

Now, Voodin has announced a partnership with the Indian wind company Senvion to supply its 4.2-megawatt turbines with these wooden blades for another trial run.

Wind power has accumulated more than a few demerit points for several shortfalls in the overall industry of this fossil-fuel alternative.

Some of these, such as the impact on bird life, are justified, but none more so than the fact that the turbine blades are impossible or nearly impossible to recycle, and that they need to be changed every 25 years.

Wind turbine blades are made from a mixture of glass and carbon fiber heated together with sticky epoxy resin, and these materials can’t be separated once combined, which means they go into landfills or are incinerated when they become too battered to safely operate.

GNN has reported that folks will occasionally find second-life value in these giant panels, for example in Denmark where they are turned into bike shelters. In another instance, they’re being used as pedestrian bridges.

But there are way more wind turbine blades being made every year than pedestrian bridges and bike shelters, making the overall environmental impact of wind power not all green.

“At the end of their lifecycle, most blades are buried in the ground or incinerated. This means that—at this pace—we will end up with 50 million tonnes of blade material waste by 2050,” Voodin Blade Technology’s CEO. Mr. Siekmann said recently. “With our solution, we want to help green energy truly become as green as possible.”

The last 15 years have seen rapid growth in another industry called mass timber. This state-of-the-art manufacturing technique sees panels of lumber heat-pressed, cross-laminated, and glued into a finished product that’s being used to make skyscrapers, airports, and more.

At the end of the day though, mass timber products are still wood, and can be recycled in a variety of ways.

“The blades are not only an innovative technological advancement but a significant leap toward sustainable wind production,” said Siekmann, adding that this isn’t a case of pay more to waste less; the blades cost around 20% less than carbon fiber.

Additionally, the added flexibility of wooden blades should allow for taller towers and longer blades, potentially boosting the output of turbine by accessing higher wind speeds.

Now partnered with Voodin, Senvion will begin feasibility analysis in the next few months, before official testing begins around 2027.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

It’s solar and wind and tidal and geothermal and hydropower.

It’s plant-based diets and regenerative livestock farming and insect protein and lab-grown meat.

It’s electric cars and reliable public transit and decreasing how far and how often we travel.

It’s growing your own vegetables and community gardens and vertical farms and supporting local producers.

It’s rewilding the countryside and greening cities.

It’s getting people active and improving disabled access.

It’s making your own clothes and buying or swapping sustainable stuff with your neighbours.

It’s the right to repair and reducing consumption in the first place.

It’s greater land rights for the commons and indigenous peoples and creating protected areas.

It’s radical, drastic change and community consensus.

It’s labour rights and less work.

It’s science and arts.

It’s theoretical academic thought and concrete practical action.

It’s signing petitions and campaigning and protesting and civil disobedience.

It’s sailboats and zeppelins.

It’s the speculative and the possible.

It’s raising living standards and curbing consumerism.

It’s global and local.

It’s me and you.

Climate solutions look different for everyone, and we all have something to offer.

[fortuneaday]

[theoverboardgaygirl]

[hope-for-the-planet]

From the article:

“We really kind of refer to this as our third aqueduct,” says John Bednarski, an interim assistant general manager at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — a powerful agency, as the largest wholesale provider of water in the nation and owner of the Colorado River Aqueduct. The “third aqueduct” Bednarski is referring to is not another man-made appendage stretching to the Colorado River Basin or into Northern California but rather a project that’s designed to stay local — and sustainable: Pure Water Southern California would recycle wastewater, treat it and produce 150 million gallons of water each day, accounting for about 10 percent of the agency’s local water demands, according to Bednarski. “So it’s going to be a major contributor,” he says. [...] The L.A. Department of Water and Power is pursuing a similar recycling project. And in 2022, 26 cities and wholesale water providers that pull from the Colorado River wrote a memorandum of understanding committing to focusing on water recycling and reuse. The signatories, including Metropolitan, often point to Las Vegas as a model for recycling wastewater to reduce its total Colorado River use and increase the amount of water available for use. Nevada has long faced scarcity; of all the states, it receives the smallest share of the river: just 1.8 percent of all the water rights. By treating and reusing nearly all of its indoor water, the Las Vegas water purveyor effectively uses the same water over and over, expanding its supply. Now Las Vegas officials, along with Arizona water managers, are looking to the Pure Water project to further shore up supplies on the Colorado River. Their thinking: If Metropolitan can reduce its Colorado River use, its unused water could flow to Nevada and Arizona, providing a needed boost in an era when there is little to spare.  In that way, water recycling projects in one area can have consequences across watersheds."

[wearepeace]

“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.” ― Neil Armstrong

[reality-detective]

There have been many times people have solved the energy issue. Then their labs were ransacked and they were murdered 🤔

[thatsbelievable]

[civanticism]

[pratchettquotes]

"Yes, wizards are good at getting you out of the sort of trouble that only wizards can get you into," said Creosote. "Then they expect you to thank them."

Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

[microgeneration]

Storage Solutions (1985)

[wachinyeya]

Millions of Birds Now Migrating Safely Through Darkened Texas Cities After Successful Lights Out Campaign https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/millions-of-birds-now-migrating-safely-through-darkened-texas-cities-after-successful-lights-out-campaign/

[missiongd]

Hello 👋

A new website similar to the Pi method might be useful to you. You mine every day according to the website's instructions. Each person is responsible for their own decisions.

There is no payment for mining yet.

https://network.tcc-coin.com/?r=missiongd

[notetakers-blog-of-holding]

Tips For First Time DM's

Have a Session 0 where you explain to them the vibe of the game and build your characters together. Make sure everyone has built a character that will want to engage with the story. Hash out any ground rules you'd like to have.

Being a DM is like any performance - Things will go wrong, but only you know how things are meant to go. No one else will realise when things have gone off track, so don't panic (it happens to every DM) . Just roll with it, I'm my experience things get back on track eventually.

You're meant to be having fun too! (I'm serious) If you're not, then that's a good time to check in with your players and problem solve how y'all can contribute to a great table

Everyone at the table is a team (unless you've clearly set out it's DM vs players in session 0, which may be a simpler dynamic for your first campaign). With this in mind, everyone should be contributing to things running smoothly.

Getting into the role play side of things will probably not happen immediately. It's hard to focus on being your character while you're still learning the ropes. This is fine! You'll all find your rhythm as you work together to build the world

Combat will probably be unbalanced for a bit. The Challenge Rating system is a useful guide but how things turn out will definitely depend on your players. It'll take you a bit to adjust to your tables' dynamics.

If you don't want PCs to die, have a plan (no I'm serious). Have a TPK plan as well. It doesn't have to be elaborate, could be a local healer or a character's god. Many new DMs accidentally kill characters. Tell your players about this plan so they're not afraid to take risks; Learn and experiment!

Encourage feedback. At the end of the day, these are your friends. You should all feel comfortable communicating with each other if things are going wrong or you think they could be better. Encourage feedback on things that are going well also! Sometimes it feels like you're DMing into the void, so knowing they're enjoying sessions is very useful.

Ultimately it's your table. You can prepare and look at heaps of advice online but it's up to you what you use. You'll discover your own unique style of running things - don't fight it to fit into what you think a DM "should be". There's not one right answer. There's you, your table, and how you all enjoy playing!

[dk-thrive]

Don't get involved in partial problems, but always take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem, even if this view is still not a clear one.

— Ludwig Wittgenstein, Journal entry, November 1914; tr. Anscombe, 1961. Titled "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus", which was first published in 1921 by Kant Verlag in Germany.(via Thoughts)