Our pick of the day’s green news:
Solar-panel factory to close. Australia’s largest solar-panel factory, BP Solar, will close early next year to “cut costs”. Both the Greens and the opposition have criticised the government over the closure, saying it is a sign of the lack of government support for Australia’s solar industry.
Google goes off-shore for cleaner power. They’ve already been fairly good on the green front, and now Google are planning to reduce their carbon footprint even further by creating a water-based data centre, located off-shore on floating barges and powered by the energy of waves. The plan will utilise the high-bandwidth undersea cables in which they have already been investing.
The wind gets more powerful. A start-up in Vancouver has developed a new wind turbine that could increase their power output by 50 per cent. The new turbine can operate efficiently in a wider range of conditions and is more responsive to changing conditions.
Severe water shortages by 2080. “Half the world’s population could face a shortage of clean water by 2080 because of climate change” says MSNBC, with Asia facing the brunt of the shortage. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say that 3.2 billion people people won’t have access to clean water, compared with the 1.1 billion currently going without.
