This environmental group is launching its own satellite to learn more about greenhouse gas leaks

When the Environmental Defense Fund told commercial space guru Tom Ingersoll that it wanted to launch a satellite to measure methane from oil and gas operations, he says his reaction was “Whoa! You guys want to do what?”

A rendering by the Environmental Defense
Fund of a methane-detecting satellite. 

Yet that’s what the EDF is doing. It is well on its way toward raising about $40 million. It has tapped into the work of Harvard University researchers to fine tune sensors. And it has reached out to Ingersoll and others in the commercial space business to create a device that will be able to measure methane emissions on a 125-mile wide swath with pixel resolution of less than  five-eighths of a mile.

EDF will also get support from TED Talks, which hopes to spur fundraising for a variety of causes through its “Audacious Project.”

Read Steven Mufson’s story from The Washington Post - “This environmental group is launching its own satellite to learn more about greenhouse gas leaks.”

Residents fear over-development in new Anglesea masterplan

Tensions are rising in coastal Anglesea amid a proposal to redevelop sections of unused land for tourist and residential accommodation, in another sign of commercial pressure facing communities on the Great Ocean Road.

Anglesea residents are rallying against development plans for the former Alcoa site. 

The proposed redevelopments were contained in a “concept masterplan” released in late January by Alcoa, which operated a mine and power station in Anglesea until 2015.

Read the story by Benjamin Preiss in The Age - “Residents fear over-development in new Anglesea masterplan.”

Australia Post installs huge 2.1MW rooftop solar array in Sydney

Australia Post has announced its latest commercial solar investment, this time with a massive installation of more than 2MW of rooftop PV on its Sydney parcel facility in Chullora.

Australia Post has completed a 2.1MW rooftop solar installation
 at the Sydney Parcel Facility in Chullora, a project spanning
 over 11,000 square meters.

The 2.1MW project – one of the biggest single rooftop arrays in the country – was completed last month, and is expected to go live by the end of the year, when it will start saving Australia Post more than $800,000 a year in energy costs.

The $3 million project notches up the organisation’s 49th solar-equipped site, which will soon generate a combined total of 5,000MWh (5GWh) of renewable electricity a year.

Australia Post Group Chief Financial Officer, Janelle Hopkins, said on Monday that the solar panels would directly power the country’s busiest parcel sorting centre.

Read The One step Off The Grid story by Sophie Vorrath - “Australia Post installs huge 2.1MW rooftop solar array in Sydney.”