Sci/tech tidbits in and around New Hampshire
Mass. utilities eye neighborhood ground-sourced heat pumps
Three pilot projects by utilities in Massachusetts will connect ground-source heat pumps to heat and cool entire neighborhoods: "Massachusetts’ major gas utilities, facing the eventual demise of fossil fuels under the state’s decarbonization mandate, are contemplating...
Why did this really obvious landfill-gas project take 13 years?
Lebanon is installing a system to get electricity from the methane produced by its landfill. It costs more than $5 million but "even conservative estimates show that it will be revenue positive during its first year, earning enough to cover the city’s bond payments...
9% of N.H. deaths have been due to the pandemic
(Note: I put this up on the New Hampshire chapter of reddit, and the barrage of "they were old and sick and would have died anyway!" and "did they die OF covid or WITH covid - what about that?!?!?" denial would have been funny if it wasn't so pathetic.) As we enter...
Maine tribe is testing if hemp plants remove PFAS from soil
When Loring Air Force Base in Maine closed, part of it was taken over by the local MicMac tribe for farming. But years of firefighting and tests has filled the soil with PFAS, as is the case in so many places. Now the tribe is experimenting with using hemp plants to...
N.H. patents through Feb. 27
By Targeted News Service WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 – The following federal patents were assigned in New Hampshire from Feb. 20 to Feb. 27. Magic Leap Assigned Patent for Diagnosing, Treating Presbyopia Magic Leap, Plantation, Florida, has been assigned a patent (No....
Heat pumps (yes, they work here) are the future of heat, and air conditioning
More than 30 years ago I lived in a Merrimack townhouse served by a heat pump and, boy, was I unimpressed. Whenever it got too cold outside, the air from the vents was tepid at best, leaving us shivering. I was delighted when we bought a house with that New Hampshire...
Dartmouth claims breakthrough in long-sought perovskite solar cell production
I've been hearing about the promise of perovskite solar cells for photovoltaic production for a couple years. This particular family of materials with a specific crystal structure works great in the lab at producing more electricity from the same amount of sunlight,...
Flu and COVID-19 have a complicated relationship
This is my "COVID tracker" column in the Monitor for Feb. 21: This column tracks COVID-19 in New Hampshire, but today we’ll look at a related issue: tracking influenza. The annual scourge of the flu, which kills tens of thousands around the globe yearly, almost...
A ton of offshore wind coming here by 2025 or not much, depending on perspective
Eversource Energy, the biggest electric utility in the Northeast, expects 1,760 MW of offshore wind capacity in service off New York and New England by the end of 2025. (Article is here.) That's almost one and a half nuclear power plants worth of capacity (although...
“Biodegradable” is like “recyclable” – a label that too often doesn’t mean anything
The environmental benefits of Concord’s pay-as-you-throw program, which charges home owners for curbside trash collection but not recycling collection, are obvious. The city says the volume of trash it sends to a landfill or incinerator has fallen by over 40% since...
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