@Felix-G We are targeting the 4th quarter of this year but haven't set a fixed date yet.

@CODEX Awesome! Congrats on the launch upvoted

@Kevin-Qi awesome! thanks for linking it

There are more jobs out there than what you'd expect to find. Try paying more attention on the offers you're already getting. My last smart-grid software job was from a chat with a recruiter that didn't understand nor promote the opening as cleantech or climate change fighting, but it had an energy saving impact.

@hodgesrm Have you made a decision on which project to pursue?

@isknapp Do you have any ideas on what the general population can do to push projects like yours forward? What have you seen in terms of effective action to get remote community decarbonization happening at a faster rate?

Sometimes the goal of "eat local" is at odds with the goal of "eat plant-based". This tends to be more often true in the winter, especially as you go farther North! To help resolve this conundrum, this dilemma, I'd like to share an interesting bit of research. Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States (DOI:10.1021/es702969f) We find that although food is transported long distances in general (1640 km delivery and 6760 km life-cycle supply chain on average) the GHG emissions associated with food are dominated by the production phase, contributing 83% of the average U.S. household’s 8.1 t CO2e/yr footprint for food consumption. Transportation as a whole represents only 11% of life-cycle GHG emissions, and final delivery from producer to retail contributes only 4%. Different food groups exhibit a large range in GHG-intensity; on average, red meat is around 150% more GHG-intensive than chicken or fish. Thus, we suggest that dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household’s food-related climate footprint than “buying local.” Shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying all locally sourced food. (emphasis mine)

I, too, have moved to a plant-based diet. I don't say vegan lifestyle because there are still many products in my current environment that I haven't swapped over yet (the amount of stuff that is NOT considered vegan is astounding). Thank you too, for your moderate and considered opinion on why and how you've moved to veganism - I've come across too many "militant vegans" who seem to think that shouting at people trying to give up animal products in their diet, is helpful.

Related to my comment above, I added Square Roots to the projects list. I'm not affiliated with them, I just think they're doing cool stuff https://collective.energy/topic/54/square-roots-hyper-local-farms-in-shipping-containers

Thanks @Pascal-Ramsey! Yes, I after discovering research on UPHS showing that it could be highly feasible, I spent much of the summer working on that feasibility study to summarize and contextualize my findings. Terrament's biggest obstacle at the moment is getting funding. But we're working with civil engineers to flesh out our designs and strengthen our case so we can pitch funders in earnest. We're really just getting started. As far as major obstacles for UPHS in general... The only big obstacle is finding the right partner willing to make a massive, long term, profitable investment. This partner could be a municipality, a Transmission System Operator, a cooperative pool of power generators, or some other entity. UPHS doesn't use any new technology. Everything from the tunnel boring to the hydro mechanics is very well understood stuff. So govs and power industry folks just need to think big, understand this math, and start building this as fast as possible. We need a lot of Li-ion batteries also, but swapping in UPHS for some of largest bulk storage could save us trillions of dollars on our impending energy storage crisis.

@Antonius-Willms Congrats! Looking forward to seeing how things progress for you

@Eric-Chaves I'm asking more out of personal curiosity. I have no relation to them so it might be better coming from you if you're willing

I'm working for Ekoru, a new search engine that is powered by hydroelectricity, and is partnered with Big Blue Ocean Cleanup which cleans coastal areas throughout the world (for now, mostly in Europe). We donate 60% of our revenue to them, so every search = help towards ocean cleanup! https://ekoru.org

@Simon-Shepard have your thoughts or plans progressed on the STES front? I thought this was a really interesting idea and would love to follow any pilot projects that might be happening

@Sam-Hughes Hey Sam! Yes, I work on the Trends team. That particular article was inspired by a small chain of events. Years ago, I remember a classmate of mine at uni founded a cricket protein startup. I think it went under and I never really heard more about insect edibles until a few weeks ago, when I saw a friend post a series of Instagram stories, where they were cooking insect meals (the meal kit mentioned in the article). This got me thinking...I wonder where things are now. Given the very clear focus of many companies "greenwashing" and others with a focus on health, I was even more interested when I realized that insect edibles were more health/environmentally friendly as well. Then I just went down a rabbit hole of reading a few dozen articles.

@Pascal-Ramsey Absolutely - a more permanent wiki section for vetted resources is actually a work in progress feature for this site! Stay tuned

No, dryer balls don't seem to work as advertised, and they don't really reduce energy used by clothes dryers. By dividing the energy used by the liter of water removed from the clothes, we get a number that can easy be compared. My four runs show results between 1.29 and 1.35 kWh needed to remove one liter of water. The average for the use of Dryer balls was 1.31 kWh/l and without was 1.32kWh/l. This is less than 1% difference, and a very clear conclusion that DRYER BALLS SAVE NO ENERGY. Source: https://urge4lessenergy.blogspot.com/2009/03/dryer-balls-save-no-energy.html Based on my results, I conclude that the mean drying time does not depend on whether dryer balls are used. In particular, dryer balls do not “reduce drying time by up to 25%.” The observed difference was about 1%, but that could be due to randomness. The time required to dry clothes depends on the weight of the wet clothes, but using dryer balls does not make any difference in the time it takes to dry the clothes, whether the load is small or large. Source: https://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/2013/08/12/do-dryer-balls-reduce-drying-time.html Both of these results intuitively make sense. An electric clothes dryer removes moisture from clothes by adding heat to evaporate the water. A dryer ball doesn't affect the temperature or amount of the water, so it's unclear how it could have any effect on the latent heat of evaporation. Myth: BUSTED

@Sam-Hughes Hi Sam, the thinking in a nutshell is that if people can anticipate climate extremes (e.g. droughts, floods, warm seasons) they can take actions to mitigate their impacts, more accurate and locally relevant seasonal climate forecasts would help with this ...

@solarcasey Hey there, I actually live in Brooklyn NY, but I'd be interested to check out any projects you're working on!