Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
UMaine center makes more engineered lumber available for buildings
One of the many ways we need to change society to reduce damage to the planet is to replace concrete and steel in buildings with engineered lumber, a.k.a. cross-laminated timber. That's a term for panels or timbers made from layering small pieces of lumber in...
Intriguing “frozen air” energy storage in Vermont gets canned
Alas, the company Highview Power has given up on a plan I wrote about in 2019 to develop a long-term energy storage project in northern Vermont that freezes and unfreezes air. This is the statement I got from the company when I asked for an update: As a UK-based...
Questions about Maine “sink kelp to bury carbon” startup
That intriguing startup in Maine that wants to grow kelp on sea buoys and then sink it as a way to remove carbon (mentioned a year ago) is facing a lot of questions, reports MIT Technology Review (article here). Among them: Several seaweed experts and marine...
Growing crops indoors North of the Notches
A big (by New England standards) hydroponic greenhouse that uses combined heat and power from natural gas to grow lettuce - and later, maybe, tomatoes - is being built on a former landfill site in the city of Berlin, way up North of the Notches. Here's a Union-Leader...
N.H. deep-drilling rock cores still need a forever home
The U.S. Geological Survey recently announced more than $4 million in grants for states to preserve "vital geologic data" but, as I found after checking, it won't help the 19 tons of rock cores drilled beneath Conway i n1975. They are still being prepped and seeking...
A two-state test of how renewables can save power and money
News that came out Tuesday about electricity prices in miserably hot Texas and in delightfully temperate New Hampshire reflected the biggest advantage of renewable energy, one that’s often overlooked: The fuel is free. Texas is sweltering under an unexpectedly early...
Can’t find an electric car to buy? It’s partly our own fault, NH
As the United States belatedly gets on the electric-vehicle bandwagon and people everywhere are scrambling to find cars on dealers’ lots, would-be buyers in New Hampshire are facing a self-imposed obstacle with a clumsy name: ZEV/LEV. That acronym, standing for...
N.H. patents through June 12
By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire from June 5 through June 12. *** Parallel Wireless Assigned Patent for 5G Native Architecture Parallel Wireless, Nashua, New Hampshire, has been assigned a patent (No....
An easier way to see how much rooftop solar is in New England
If you need yet another distraction online, take note that ISO-NE has improved their realtime chart of the 6-state grid's system load, incorporating behind-the-meter solar (i.e., rooftop) directly into the chart. Previously you had to toggle a switch off and on and...
Mysterious black goop covering NH and Maine beaches was …
... bugs. Specifically, the wooly adelgid that's damaging hemlock forests throughout the East. The reports came in around Jun 7 of last year from a series of beaches in southern Maine and N.H. (and one in Mass.) of black stuff at water's edge staining people's feet....
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