Kim Smith

Perhaps these resources on geothermal energy might be helpful for you:  https://www.renewableenergyworld.com/geothermal-energy/tech.html and https://www.kidsdiscover.com/teacherresources/whats-good-and-whats-bad-about-geothermal-energy.

Whoo hoo!!! My rooftop solar plant did a great job with all the sun today. 11.2 kWh, almost double the rate of yesterday. It is going to require some serious tree-trimming to keep this rate up though, as the leaves growing in will really block the panels.

I feel so fortunate to have been able to attend PCC's Sustainability Leadership Council meeting.  We learned a great deal about PCC's climate action plan, including our fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

I love Kiva's microloan model, where small investments can help women get their footing in small businesses.  I chose to give to Marta Gloria, in El Salvador, and the Morazon Group in Guatemala, as they are investing in animals.  I hope that these will be longer-lasting businesses which hopefully will keep on giving.  Plus, it is essential to help the people of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in order to address the root causes that are leading to desperation.

There are many different ways that communities are trying to address their production and consumption treadmills, along with limits to carrying capacities.  This was most noticeable last year when I took a leave from PCC to live in Hawaii with my partner (he was transferred there a couple of years ago) and do research and consulting on sustainability practices.  One of the energy production techniques that I am most conflicted about are incinerators.

I just checked out the Hawaii.gov page to see how they are framing their Waste to Energy initiatives and processes and discovered this overview: 

"Through incineration, Oʻahu’s H-POWER facility, working in tandem with recycling, is making a significant impact on the City and County of Honolulu's goal of reducing the amount of waste going to Oahu’s landfill. In 2017, more than 700,000 tons of municipal solid waste was processed through Oʻahu’s H-POWER facility, of which 507,000 tons was converted to electricity, over 22,000 tons of metal were extracted for recycling, and the remaining 170,000 tons consisted of non-combustible material that was sent to the landfill.  H-POWER reduces the weight of waste by 75% and the volume of waste by 90%. This has extended the life of the landfill by saving hundreds of acres of landfill space. Plus, virtually 100% of the ferrous and nonferrous metal mixed with municipal solid waste is recovered for recycling (see below for data on Recovered Metal)."

I really am curious about what they did with the concentrated hazardous wastes from incineration and how this all translates into carbon footprints.

Even with the rain storms, my solar panels appear to be working.  I originally bought my panels through Solar City, which is now owned by Tesla.  Curious how the new company relations are.  https://www.tesla.com/solarpanels 

I really wish that the education I shared today was just about the value of wind energy, but I also had to confirm that it does not cause cancer.  Sheesh!

I installed solar panels a couple of years ago and enjoy following my daily energy production.  As the seasons get longer, the numbers will go up, but I am pleased to see that my panels created 6.4 kWh today, even with the rain and clouds.