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posted by CoolHand on Thursday May 21 2015, @05:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the mother-nature-strikes-back dept.

Climate Central reports

The ravages of climate change could severely hurt the ability of utilities in the 11 Western states to generate power unless they "climate proof" their power grid using renewables and energy efficiency, something they are not prepared for, according to a new study[1] [by researchers at Arizona State University, published May 18 in the journal Nature Climate Change].

[...]Higher temperatures and low stream flow reduce coal-fired power plants' ability to use water for cooling, preventing them from operating at full capacity. The most vulnerable power plants could see a reduction in power generation capacity by up to 8.8 percent, the study says.

Renewables take a hit too, but are much less vulnerable to climate change.

[...]The Arizona State study recommends Western states invest in wind, solar, and other "resilient" renewable energy sources while upgrading the power grid and encouraging conservation as ways to overcome some of the challenges climate change poses to the region's power supply.

[1] Link in TFA redirects to the URL that I included.

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2015, @06:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 22 2015, @06:08PM (#186576)

    If you or any group doesn't want a coal company to basically level a mountain you could buy the damn mountain, the mineral rights, or what ever is needed to prevent it.

    Because normal people just happen to have billions of dollars lying around. The problem with money being the only power is that the game is automatically rigged against 99.9% of the people on earth.