New York Electric Grid
This map shows the major power lines that move electricity through New York State and New England.
Energy
Dogs at Midnight – Underground Coal Miners with Black Lung Disease
A few years ago there was a news report about black lung disease being on an uptick, the highest levels since the early 1970s. It is down somewhat from last year's survey (a five year rolling average), but still close to what it was 50 years ago. You can explore the data here: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/cwhsp/cwhsp-public-data.html
Niagara Mohawk Power | Mesothelioma and Asbestos Jobsites
DG Bethlehem Solar West – A One Megawatt Industrial Solar Facility
This gives you an idea of what a one-megawatt industrial solar facility looks like, this one down by the Selkrirk Railyard. That said, the 1,000 MW number is a bit misleading, as the 18.7% monthly capacity factor as the panels don't generate any electricity during the night and much less during the winter.
Southern U.S. has faced twice the global sea level rise rate since 2010 – Washington Post
Most Common Heating Fuel
This map is based on a very popular Washington Post map of a few years back. Basically for all 84,000 or so US Census Tracts, it compares the method most common for heating.
As New Yorkers, we might think it's odd that electric heating is the most popular way to heat houses in great parts of country, and it's not just in warm climate south -- electricity is popular where electricity is cheap, like in the Northwest and much of Appalachia.
Oil is odd fuel, not widely used outside of the rural areas in the Northeast and Alaska. Propane dominates the rural Midwest, where it is cheap due to farms using to dry corn.
Heating with fuel oil, which is essentially dyed diesel, seems like an odd choice. Oil is expensive, but also is electricity in the Northeast.
In the 1940s through the 1970s, there was a big push to retire both coal power plants and coal heating for reasons of pollution and convenience, and oil seemed like a good drop in replacement, when oil was cheap. But the northeast relying on oil so heavily for power generation, caused electricity to spike in 1970s, which ironically caused some people to swap out electricity for fuel oil. Natural gas supply has traditionally been constrained in New England, which is another reason why the Northeast likes oil so much.
Why solar panels hate shadows ☀
Solar panels are made up of solar cells which are diodes or silicon junctions or check valves that put out 0.5 to 0.6 volts each without load (open circuit). To charge a 12 volt battery, you put 10 solar cells in series to get roughly 20 volts which under load will drop down to closer to 15 volts.
Every solar cell is a diode and not only prevents the backwards flow of current it also prohibits forward flow of current without sunlight to excite the electrons and bridge the junctions.
As solar panels are strings diodes wired in series, if you partially block one diode by providing less light due to a shadow the performance of the entire panel suffers disproportionately. It’s actually bad for the panel to be exposed to shadows continously as when you are blocking flow of current due to shadows you are starting to wear down the silicon junctions in other cells eventually causing permanent damage to the panel.