The national solar industry is expected to add 30,000 jobs in 2016, a 14.7% jump from last year. Who are the workers building this new market?

Antwain Nelson held various jobs in the construction field for several years, but the work never felt fulfilling. Then an opportunity to volunteer in low-income neighborhoods introduced him to his current job and, he says, a clear career path.

“The first day, I fell in love with it,” says Nelson, 25, an installer of solar energy systems and a lifelong resident of Washington DC. The people he works with, he says, feel “like another family to me”.

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Source: Guardian Environment

With 5,000 tents abandoned at Glastonbury last year, Comp-a-Tent and KartTent aim to offer more eco-friendly throw-away alternatives

By the end of the summer, hundreds of thousands of people will have made their way to muddy fields up and down the country, partied for several days straight, and inevitably left a trail of rubbish in their wake.

Related: Glastonbury cleanup begins – in pictures

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Source: Guardian Environment

Rosebush, Pembrokeshire Views from this bleak saddle take in the headlands that ruckle the northern coast of Pembrokeshire

Bwlch Gwynt – “wind-pass” – lies between the two westernmost summits of Mynydd Preseli’s moorland ridge. The name fits perfectly with this bleak saddle marred by extensive forestry clearcut. Views distract attention from the ruined immediate landscape. They spread wide, take in Ramsey, the craggy crest of Ynys Bery off its southern tip, isolated rocks of the Bishops and Clerks in the sea beyond, and all the magnificent headlands – Dinas, Strumble, Penmaen Dewi – that ruckle the northern coast of Pembrokeshire.

Stonehenge’s bluestone menhirs were dragged from Preseli millennia ago in a dumbfounding, still-incomprehensible feat of megalithic engineering. But the oriental end of Preseli’s seven-mile whaleback whence they came (they’ve been identified as originating from the spiky outcrop of Carn Goedog) has a different character to its occidental heights. Here the ridge reaches its 536-metre highest point at Foel Cwmcerwyn, two miles distant from and 140 metres above the road that crosses through the bwlch.

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Source: Guardian Environment

Vehicles made before January 1997 banned from streets of French capital from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday

Paris has banned old cars from its streets in a war on air pollution that environmentalists hope will also drive dirty vehicles from the centres of other European cities.

Air pollution, in large part caused by fine particulate fuel emissions, kills 48,000 people each year in France, about 400,000 in Europe and around 3.7 million worldwide, data published by France’s public health agency this month showed.

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Source: Guardian Environment

The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox

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Source: Guardian Environment

Board of EDF, energy project’s key backer, is at risk of fracturing as ex-supporters worry about uncertainty of British government

Britain’s flagship energy project, Hinkley Point C, is hanging by a thread as critics inside key backer EDF use the political turmoil from the Brexit vote to try to derail the already delayed £18bn scheme.

Jean Bernard Levy, the EDF group chief executive, and the French and British governments, have in recent days insisted they are as committed as ever to a positive final investment decision being taken as soon as possible.

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Source: Guardian Environment

A post-Brexit Britain could choose whether to adopt new pollution limits to cut emissions of five key pollutants, including NOx and PM2.5

A post-Brexit UK government should respect a new EU deal designed to halve the number of premature deaths from air pollution, MEPs have said.

The draft directive agreed on Thursday sets national limits for emissions from five pollutants by 2030: sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC), ammonia (NH3) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5).

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Source: Guardian Environment

Every Friday, Circulate rounds up a collection of interesting circular economy related stories and articles. Today, we’re looking at 3D-printed upgrades and replacement parts for your car, a look inside the Solar Impulse, the aircraft powered entirely by solar energy, a new circular economy focused business initiative in Minnesota and much more…

A new initiative in Minnesota that is bringing more than 25 companies from the Twin Cities area into a collaboration focused on the circular economy and new growth opportunities. In a recent interview, Mike Harley, the director of the initiative, told Midwest Energy News that, “the circular economy is fundamentally about growth and return on investment”. The concept has been slower to kick off in the U.S. compared to Europe, but there are signs of an increasing appetite for the new development opportunities that the circular economy can offer.

Live in the cockpit with Solar Impuse 2

We covered the news that Solar Impulse 2 had crossed the Atlantic Ocean earlier this week, becoming the first fully solar powered aircraft to do so. See the fascinating Wired video below which they recorded with pilot Bertrand Piccard while he was flying the craft on that historic voyage.

The potential of 3D-printing in the automotive sector

3D-printing as a potential manufacturing method for printing whole cars has long been talked about with a couple of examples already existing on the market. As a method for prototyping and testing, it is apparently being increasingly used as a cheaper option by most manufacturers. However, a car parts collection on Thingsverse hints towards another opportunity that 3D-printing might offer the repair and maker communities. The collection allows customer to buy custom replacements for a range of car makes and models, either as an option for a cheaper fix, or to upgrade an existing part.

Investors and vertical farming

There are four things that every investor should know about vertical farming, according to entrepreneur and urban agriculture specialist Chris Powers. Reflecting on the vertical farming summit, which took place in Amsterdam earlier this month, Powers argues that the technology and business models are ready and that there is enough experience out there for entrants to the market to learn from past mistakes.

The post Circulate on Fridays: Circular economy in Minnesota, 3D-printed car parts and more… appeared first on Circulate.

Source: Circulate News RSS

Westminster, Tower Hamlets and Southwark have highest number of secondaries in breach of legal limits of NO2, new research for the mayor reveals

Children at nearly 90 secondary schools in London breathe illegal and dangerous levels of air pollution, a report for the mayor reveals.

Former mayor Boris Johnson was accused in May of burying a report that showed hundreds of primary schools were in areas that breached EU pollution limits in 2010, prompting calls for greater action to clean up the capital’s air.

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Source: Guardian Environment