Month: August 2023

Enlarge (credit: Cruise)

The robotaxi companies Waymo and Cruise now have permission to offer around-the-clock driverless rides to fee-paying passengers in San Fransisco. Until now, both autonomous ride-hailing companies have been able to offer restricted service in the city, but on Thursday afternoon the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved a pair of resolutions that remove those restrictions.

California established a pathway to approving robotaxi operations in late 2020 when the CPUC announced a deployment program. Both Waymo and Cruise had been using testing permits to drive around the city, but in 2021 both applied for permission to start operating a commercial service with no safety driver on board and that charged passengers for their rides.

In 2021, the California Department of Motor Vehicles gave both Waymo and Cruise deployment permits for autonomous vehicles, but any commercial services also required CPUC's approval.

Enlarge / In Florida, parts of the Sanibel Causeway to Sanibel Island are washed away, along with sections of the bridge to the island, after Hurricane Ian passed through the area in September 2022. The hurricane brought high winds, storm surge and rain to the area causing severe damage (credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

NOAA forecasters are upping their expectations for the 2023 hurricane season, based on record-warm Atlantic sea surface temperatures.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday that forecasters have increased the likelihood of an above-normal season to 60 percent. The forecasters now expect 14 to 21 named storms, including six to 11 hurricanes and two to five major hurricanes of category 3, 4, or 5 strength, packing sustained winds of 111 miles an hour or more.

In May the forecasters at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center had projected a 30 percent chance of an above-normal season and thought a near-normal season was more likely, with 12 to 17 named storms. They said Thursday the revised forecast, issued routinely in August near the heart of the season, was based on Atlantic sea surface temperatures that have not been seen since record-keeping began in 1950, said Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane season forecaster at the Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service.

Enlarge / The Kariba Dam in Zimbabwe. (credit: Robert Holmes)

One of the big challenges we face regarding climate change is that we have to lower our emissions at a time when energy consumption is likely to grow. Many countries in the Global South will seek some combination of expanding access to the electric grid, increasing grid reliability, and expanding grid capacity to meet rising demand. It's estimated that demand in Africa will increase by roughly five percent a year for some time. Handling that increase while reducing emissions will be a challenge.

As things currently stand, African nations are primarily served by a mix of large hydroelectric plants—a number of smaller nations already have nearly emissions-free grids—and fossil fuels. Most plans for limiting carbon emissions going forward have involved expanding hydropower, and there are plans for adding about 100 GigaWatts of new capacity in the coming decades. But the rapid drop in the cost of wind and solar power raises questions as to whether those plans still make sense.

In many cases, the answer is no, according to a new study. Instead, it suggests that only about half of the hydropower projects make economic sense and that many African countries are better off moving ahead with other renewables. By 2050, it's estimated that half of Africa's electricity could come from wind and solar.