In this week's Newsletter: GDL case study featured in GSCQ, small steps for the planet: new cable boxes, carbon capture and storage may be our last best chance to stay under 2 degrees of warming and much more!

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GDL Case Study Featured in Green Schools Catalyst Quarterly

Solar One's Karen Alsen wrote this excellent and comprehensive article about Solar One's Green Design Lab K-12 Education program, explaining the work we do in the schools and how that work is part of the city's OneNYC plan for resiliency, equity and sustainability for the Green Schools Catalyst Quarterly. If youy've ever wanted an in-depth look inside this award-winning program, this is a great place to start.

The article's main focus is the Career and Technical Education (CTE) program offerings. These programs aim to inspire students to explore green careers in environmental engineering, solar development and climate science, while also building environmental and climate literacy as well as an awareness of environmental justice issues in stufdents' own neighborhoods. In the words of one CTE student:

"I would be interested in a career as a solar installer because this industry would help the emnvironment to recover because it is using sunlight. It is a cleaner way to produce power."

Congratulations to Karen and the whole GDL team on a job well done!

Baby Steps for the Climate: Change Your Cable Boxes

We've known for a while that set-top boxes (like cable boxes and DVRs) are huge energy hogs that can never really be turned off entirely. Ten years ago, a single DVR box could consume 275 kilowatt hours per year- more than an Energy Star refrigherator.

So that might be another great reason to cut the cord and use a Roku box or Smart TV- those devices use just a drop of the power that traditional boxes require. But if you're still using cable, consider ordering a new box, because the latest models are a lot more energy efficient than even last year's versions.

You can read more about this as part of the NY Times weekly Climate Forward newsletter here.

Is Carbon Capture & Storage Our Last Best Hope to Stay Under Two Degrees of Global Warming?

David Wallace-Wells has made a career out of scary climate journalism; his piece from a couple of years back, The Uninhabitable Earth, was as controversial as it was popular. Now he's expanded that article into a book of the same name which actually offers some reasons for hope.

By far the most fascinating of these is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), where industrial machines suck the carbon back out of the air and condense it back into, essentially, the coal that it used to be: compressed pellets of carbon that could then be re-buried under the ground.

The article explains (at length) where the obstacles to this idea lie- the machines need to be powered themselves, the technology exists but has never faced a real test of scale, we'd need a LOT of these machines- but also points out that, huge and unwieldy as the climate problem is, this solution is still cheaper than trying to plant forests to reach carbon neutrality. In fact, it's still cheaper, at $3 trillion per year, than any other proposed solution, including a carbon tax.

You can read the entire excerpt at the NYMag.com site here.

Now you can support Solar One when you shop on Amazon.com. Just click here or on the image above!

Upcoming Events at Solar One

There are currently no public events scheduled at Solar 1. We'll see you in the Spring!

Upcoming Events

2/9
Fourth Annual Lighthouses Are for Lovers & Friends
The National Lighthouse Museum, 200 The Promenade at Lighthouse Point, Staten Island, 7-10pm, $75

2/12
Building the Garden: Parks Capital & Your Elected Officials
The Arsenal in Central Park, 830 Fifth Avenue bet E. 64th & E. 65th Sts, Manhattan, 6-8pm, free

Demystifying Steam
Mohawk Group, 12 West 25th Street, 6th Floor, bet 6th & 7th Aves, Manhattan, 6-8pm, $15 general admission/$10 Urban Green members

AirTrain Community Forum
Marriott Hotel, 102-05 Ditmars Boulevard at 23rd Ave, Queens, 7-9pm, free
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2/13
Public Webinar On Status of New York State Off Shore Wind Development
Online, 2-3pm, free

Celebrate NYC: Funding a Lighting Retrofit
Building Energy Exchange, 31 Cxhambers Street, Suite 609, bet Elk & Centre Sts, Manhattan, 9-10:30am, $15 general admnission/$10 partner organizations

2/15
Conquering the Energy Code for Architects & Engineers: Residential
Urban Green Council, 55 Broad Street bet Beaver St & Exchnage Pl, Manhattan, 9am-5pm, $99 includes course manual

Solar One

37 West 26th Street #209

New York, NY 10010

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