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Daily Personalized Newsletter

Earth Catalyst gathers & hand-filters the most recent updates from over 1,000 green tech and sustainability organizations. Here are all of the updates; if you subscribe to our free newsletter, we'll send you 3 each weekday we think will be meaningful to you.

12/17/24: Battery Loans With Systems Thinking

Writer's picture: Marshall KirkpatrickMarshall Kirkpatrick

The big sustainability news today is the US Department of Energy's announcement of billions of dollars in loans for energy transition.

 

DOE financing requires a Community Benefits Plan and the Ford loan will come with worker training in Tennessee and Kentucky that includes, among other things, systems thinking! (What does that mean? Check out this 10 minute video intro.) This is a great way to advance sustainability. May those training programs be meaningfully implemented and monitored over time.


-Marshall Kirkpatrick

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Today and every day, our system scans over 1,000 green tech and sustainability organizations for updates. Below, you'll find:

  • A Visual of the Day

  • A digest-style Table of Contents for 150 selected updates from around the green tech and sustainability world

  • (If you subscribe by email) 3 personalized selections just for you and your work

 

Did a friend forward you this newsletter? Welcome! You can subscribe here and get your own personal recommendations each day.

 


Visual of the Day

Historical context for Ford's battery loan

These things take time; here's a timeline of events relevant to the Department of Energy's $9.6B loan to Ford for electric battery manufacturing. (Timeline made using Claude, fact-checked using Perplexity)


Today's Updates



Table of Contents

  • Agriculture (11 stories) - CGIAR's 50-year German partnership, East African agrivoltaics success, and global rangeland studies highlight shifting agricultural practices, while new food system metrics and Haryana crop surveys show adaptation to climate pressures

  • Carbon (8 stories) - Federal DAC hubs and NTU's carbon-capturing concrete advance amid methane concerns, Arctic emissions shift, and farm waste storage innovations

  • Circular (2 stories) - Enhanced PLA bioplastic breakthrough and Stuttgart IBA'27's construction material flow study advance circular building materials

  • Climate (1 story) - Music icon Graham Nash observes 460-inch rainfall decline at Hawaii residence over 30 years

  • Ecosystems (9 stories) - Eastern Australian waterbirds drop 50%, Gulf of California faces LNG threat, record Galaxea coral found off Bali, while Persian onagers return to Saudi reserves and Crimean oil spill endangers marine life

  • Efficiency (4 stories) - Ancient Roman aqueduct revival in Athens joins heat pump initiatives from California's Quick Start program and nationwide push, while induction cooking gains celebrity backing

  • Finance (12 stories) - DOE commits $9.63B to Ford's battery plants and $55B total in clean projects, while Convergent secures $150M from MUFG for solar+storage and Adaptation Fund aids vulnerable nations

  • Grid (14 stories) - Major grid auctions and expansions advance with China's $60/kWh battery tender, MISO's $21.8B transmission plan, and Germany's 2GW Baltic HVDC project, while tech giants Exxon, Google pursue data center power solutions and utilities adopt AI/quantum computing innovations

  • Indigenous (14 stories) - Prescribed burn associations, Pomo tribes, and global indigenous communities lead fire management initiatives while Peruvian, Indonesian, and Brazilian groups protect ancestral lands and traditional practices

  • Industry (13 stories) - Supply chain shifts as DOE maps hydrogen future; Crusoe Energy's $600M AI-power integration; rising costs hit concrete, textile decarbonization; STEP fusion advances; China's cobalt dominance grows

  • Policy (34 stories) - DOE reports $54B in clean energy benefits; EPA defends 9μg/m³ soot limits; Supreme Court preserves California emissions authority; Oregon ends gas subsidies; Shell wins UK protest injunctions

  • Renewables (12 stories) - Major wind projects from Apex Clean Energy and Vestas, JA Solar's voltage breakthrough, record tandem cell efficiency in Germany, and Australia's 4.9GW battery storage expansion highlight global renewable momentum

  • Transport (10 stories) - EV workforce surge shows 10x assembly jobs; EPA confirms 140 MPGe efficiency; BYD, Zeekr expand globally while Benzina Zero aids Gaza; Honda plans US hydrogen production amid mixed regional EV adoption rates


Agriculture

CGIAR's 50-year German partnership, East African agrivoltaics success, and global rangeland studies highlight shifting agricultural practices, while new food system metrics and Haryana crop surveys show adaptation to climate pressures



Carbon

Federal DAC hubs and NTU's carbon-capturing concrete advance amid methane concerns, Arctic emissions shift, and farm waste storage innovations



Circular

Enhanced PLA bioplastic breakthrough and Stuttgart IBA'27's construction material flow study advance circular building materials



Climate

Music icon Graham Nash observes 460-inch rainfall decline at Hawaii residence over 30 years


  • Graham Nash has witnessed climate change (YouTube) - Legendary musician Graham Nash reports a stark decline in rainfall at his Hawaii home, where yearly precipitation has dropped from 460 inches over three decades.


Ecosystems

Eastern Australian waterbirds drop 50%, Gulf of California faces LNG threat, record Galaxea coral found off Bali, while Persian onagers return to Saudi reserves and Crimean oil spill endangers marine life



Efficiency

Ancient Roman aqueduct revival in Athens joins heat pump initiatives from California's Quick Start program and nationwide push, while induction cooking gains celebrity backing



Finance

DOE commits $9.63B to Ford's battery plants and $55B total in clean projects, while Convergent secures $150M from MUFG for solar+storage and Adaptation Fund aids vulnerable nations



Grid

Major grid auctions and expansions advance with China's $60/kWh battery tender, MISO's $21.8B transmission plan, and Germany's 2GW Baltic HVDC project, while tech giants Exxon, Google pursue data center power solutions and utilities adopt AI/quantum computing innovations



Indigenous

Prescribed burn associations, Pomo tribes, and global indigenous communities lead fire management initiatives while Peruvian, Indonesian, and Brazilian groups protect ancestral lands and traditional practices



Industry

Supply chain shifts as DOE maps hydrogen future; Crusoe Energy's $600M AI-power integration; rising costs hit concrete, textile decarbonization; STEP fusion advances; China's cobalt dominance grows



Policy

DOE reports $54B in clean energy benefits; EPA defends 9μg/m³ soot limits; Supreme Court preserves California emissions authority; Oregon ends gas subsidies; Shell wins UK protest injunctions



Renewables

Major wind projects from Apex Clean Energy and Vestas, JA Solar's voltage breakthrough, record tandem cell efficiency in Germany, and Australia's 4.9GW battery storage expansion highlight global renewable momentum



Transport

EV workforce surge shows 10x assembly jobs; EPA confirms 140 MPGe efficiency; BYD, Zeekr expand globally while Benzina Zero aids Gaza; Honda plans US hydrogen production amid mixed regional EV adoption rates



And those are today's updates!

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