LightNews LightNews
ron-in-nyc.bsky.social
@ron-in-nyc.bsky.social
160 followers 460 following 60 posts
Climate change, social justice, opera, jazz, avid walker all over New York City.
Posts Replies Media Videos
ron-in-nyc.bsky.social
Running the rails: Brooklyn man finishes quest to jog along every NYC subway line - Gothamist

Quite a feat!
November 29, 2025 at 4:20 AM
Reposted
frwildflowers.bsky.social
Iris missouriensis, our Rocky Mountain Iris, blooming with a ladybug on Goshawk Ridge #nativeplants

#FallBackFlowers #FallBack to May 26 🌿
Iris and ladybug. The iris is white, lavender and blue the ladybug is orange and has pollen on it.
November 26, 2025 at 4:18 PM
ron-in-nyc.bsky.social
Great episode! As an apartment dweller in NYC, I'm looking forward to the day I can plug my panel in--and it sounds like that may be sooner rather than later!
volts.wtf David Roberts @volts.wtf · 5d
Today on Volts: I've had more requests to cover this than almost any other topic in the pod's history, so now, at long last, balcony solar! We dig into how "plug-in solar" took off in Europe & how it's making its way to the US, starting in Utah. Backyard DIY types rejoice!
What's the deal with balcony solar?
Cora Stryker joins me to explain how "plug-in" solar took Europe by storm and is finally, via Utah (?), making its way to America.
www.volts.wtf
November 26, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted
gwagner.com
Little beats the solitude of a rainy ride down the Hudson Greenway. Nary a soul down half the length of Manhattan. 🚲🌕
November 26, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Reposted
actfortransit.bsky.social
Bike lanes are for turkeys.
gravelinfluencer.bsky.social Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 6d
I thought turkeys were our allies in The War on Cars!
November 25, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted
pipedreaming.bsky.social
Ventilation was one of the original public health measures featured in early building codes in London and New York City. While contaminated water supplies were the real cause of cholera and typhoid outbreaks, airborne disease spread and high CO2 levels continue to plague modern buildings today.
Highlighted section from the 1855 Municipal Building Act: Open Spaces near Dwelling Houses. Construction of Public Buildings. XXIX. Every Building used or intended to be used as a Dwelling House, unless all the Rooms can be lighted and ventilated from a Street or Alley ndjoining, shall have in the Rear or on the Side thereof an open Space exclusively belonging thereto of the Extent at least of One hundred Square Feet. Sec. 2. Every house, building or portion thereof in Ventilation the cities of New York and Brooklyn, designed to be and win- dows. 2 used, occupied, leased or rented, or which is used, oc-cupied, leased or rented, for a tenement or lodging house, shall have in every room which is occupied as a sleeping room, and which does not communicate directly with the external air, a ventilating or transom window, having an opening or area of three square feet, over the door leading into and connected with the adjoining room, if such adjoining room communicates with the external air; and also a ventilating or transom window of the same opening or area, communicating with the entry or hall of the house, or, where this is, from the relative situation of the rooms, impracticable, such last-mentioned ventilating or transom window shall communicate with an adjoin-ointil, top ing room that itself communicates with the entry or hall. Every such house or building shall have in the tilator. roof, at the top of the hall, an adequate and proper ventilator, of a form approved in New York by the inspector of public buildings, and in Brooklyn by the assistant sanitary superintendent of the Metropolitan Board of, Health. Volume 76: debated on Tuesday 16 July 1844 on the Metropolitan Buildings Act in London "The advanced state of medical enquiry has led to a conviction of the vast evils consequent upon breathing vitiated air.....it is now well ascertained that living in such impure atmospheres induces consumption, renders the constitution more prone to, and less able to resist, the attacks of diseases of various kinds, especially fever, and by depressing the physical energies causes a resort to stimulants, resulting in habits of intemperance. A minute examination of the circumstances of the case has assured us that no field of improvement holds out a more promising result than that which may be anticipated in future from the more successful ventilation, even of the humblest dwellings" (128). 46 They dwelt on the balance of warm air against the replacement of vitiated air, without causing draughts - "The poor are particularly sensitive to currents of air". Methods of warming and ventilating should, they argued, be properly incorporated in the original design of a building, "not merely applied, as is too often the case at present, to buildings already constructed or designed". (129) They called the attention of architects to this problem and discussed several patent inventions designed to secure adequate ventilation, many based on the idea of flues with apertures at the top of the room, warmed by adjacent chimney flues, so causing the vitiated air to be raised and extracted. The Professor of Architecture at King's College London, William Hosking, was one of the many ingenious inventors.
November 23, 2025 at 2:49 AM
Reposted
jessedjenkins.com
First Solar just opened a $1.1 billion integrated solar PV manufacturing plant in Louisiana capable of producing 3.5 gigawatts of panels each year. The plant will employ >700 people electrek.co/2025/11/21/f... 🔌💡
First Solar opens a Louisiana factory that’s 11 Superdomes big
First Solar opens a massive $1.1 billion solar factory in Louisiana, adding 3.5 GW of new US capacity and more than 800 well-paid jobs.
electrek.co
November 22, 2025 at 7:31 PM
ron-in-nyc.bsky.social
KYC and ACE-✔️ DERs and VPPs-✔️David super-geeked and excited-✔️Piclo transforming energy marketplaces-✔️ Great podcast you should listen to-✔️✔️
volts.wtf David Roberts @volts.wtf · 19d
Today on Volts: markets for distributed energy resources (DERs) are usually fragmented & opaque, making it difficult to scale up. A UK startup called Piclo is setting up a marketplace where buyers & sellers of grid flexibility can meet, compare terms, & sign contracts. Much needed, long overdue!
How to make a market for distributed energy flexibility
Piclo has created a marketplace where buyers of grid flexibility can find sellers.
www.volts.wtf
November 12, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Reposted
volts.wtf
Today on Volts: as you may have heard, there were some elections last week. How did they go for climate world? To find out, I did my annual check-in with @spears.bsky.social of @climatecabinet.org. I don't want to spoil anything, but folks ... they went well. Really well.
So, there were some elections. How'd they go?
I talk with Caroline Spears about the stunning results in key state and local races and the lessons for 2026.
www.volts.wtf
November 10, 2025 at 5:22 PM
ron-in-nyc.bsky.social
41 of 45 races won!
spears.bsky.social Caroline Spears @spears.bsky.social · 21d
Last week’s election was big: from Georgia to Allegheny County, Dave Roberts and I broke it down on @volts.wtf. 3 big themes: 📊 Turnout: who showed up & who didn't 💸 Affordability (we have real solutions, folks) and 🍃Tea Leaves on what this means for 2026
transcripts.volts.wtf/so-there-wer...
So, there were some elections. How'd they go? | Volts
A conversation with Caroline Spears of Climate Cabinet.
transcripts.volts.wtf
November 10, 2025 at 7:17 PM
ron-in-nyc.bsky.social
This is a great episode--don't miss out.
volts.wtf David Roberts @volts.wtf · 24d
Today on Volts: Octopus Energy came out of nowhere to become the biggest retail energy provider in the UK by focusing on smart home-energy management & good customer service. Now it's coming to the US (& figuring out how to work with vertically integrated utilities). I talk with the CEO.
Octopus extends its tentacles into America
Nick Chaset of Octopus Energy US joins me to discuss how the UK's biggest electricity supplier plans to conquer the American market.
www.volts.wtf
November 7, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted
billmckibben.bsky.social
If I were running in next year's midterms, I'd be saying: Aussies are getting free electricity, and we're getting huge price spikes.

Because they built solar, and Trump is blocking it.
open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...
Free Electricity. Like, at no cost. For everyone. Now.
Let's talk about affordability, abundance, and Australia--and why thanks to Trump we can't have nice things
open.substack.com
November 5, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Reposted
chrisbaraniuk.com
Paper here: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
Discovery of Late Intermediates in Methylenomycin Biosynthesis Active against Drug-Resistant Gram-Positive Bacterial Pathogens
The methylenomycins are highly functionalized cyclopentanone antibiotics produced by Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). A biosynthetic pathway to the methylenomycins has been proposed based on sequence an...
pubs.acs.org
November 3, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Reposted
aukehoekstra.bsky.social
Fully electric dike construction project in the Netherlands. Pretty cool!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIFa...
Inside the World’s First Electric Construction Project!
YouTube video by Aaron Witt
www.youtube.com
November 1, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Reposted
actfortransit.bsky.social
Subways are for people*

*wearing costumes.
grammar-girl.bsky.social Melanie @grammar-girl.bsky.social · Oct 31
The music cuts off awkwardly before the end, but this is an incredible NYC Halloween costume compilation.
November 1, 2025 at 1:16 AM
ron-in-nyc.bsky.social
Wow--NY MTA goes big on Halloween!
feloniousbunk.bsky.social FeloniousBunk @feloniousbunk.bsky.social · Oct 31
MTA arrival signs have little ghosts haunting the screens
MTA arrival sign in a subway station with little animated ghosts on the screen
October 31, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Reposted
canarymedia.com
When the coal mine where Matt Cooper works closes this year, he plans to keep digging for another form of energy: geothermal.
Meet the coal miner who just started a geothermal drilling business
A Colorado entrepreneur is going all in on a renewable energy source that will keep him digging — and could be a model for other miners looking beyond…
www.canarymedia.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted
bslotterback.bsky.social
I think because of new data center demand, this issue is now white hot.

Protocol committees, building code councils, zoning boards, permitting offices, PUCs: @volts.wtf is always working to make bureaucracy sexy, which we need a lot more of
October 30, 2025 at 4:26 PM
ron-in-nyc.bsky.social
Grand Central subway-station upgrades finally done after years of construction - Gothamist
October 29, 2025 at 1:57 PM
ron-in-nyc.bsky.social
From Knowable Magazine: After Covid-19, can mRNA vaccines help with cancer as well? | Knowable Magazine knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...
After Covid-19, can mRNA vaccines help with cancer as well?
The pandemic put the technology, long in development, to the test. Here’s a look at the status of its application to cancer and when it might reach patients.
knowablemagazine.org
October 27, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted
iea.org
Explore our Renewables 2025 report 👇

Executive summary → iea.li/46RSkXZ
Electricity → iea.li/48jcyMJ
Transport → iea.li/4nxiSoC
Heat → iea.li/3KwfImD
October 24, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted
justinmikulka.bsky.social
Distributed energy working its magic. One more area of the world that won't be burdened with a network of pipes of methane (natural gas).

"Figures published by the ministry say the electrification program has already built 350 solar plants, bringing electricity access to 27,500 households."
Cameroon, Zambia electrify villages with solar
Cameroon and Zambia are implementing government programs that bring solar minigrids to communities without stable electricity access. Cameroon recently switched on two solar installations to power two...
www.pv-magazine.com
October 20, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Reposted
iea.org
Global electricity investment has shifted significantly over the last decade:

✅ Spending on low-emissions power generation & batteries has more than doubled since 2015

✅ Investment in solar PV is set to be over 3 times higher in 2025 than a decade ago

iea.li/40JSiPX
October 20, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted
waiterich.bsky.social
It’s apple picking season so I am required to share this incorrect but humorous review of Stayman Winesap apples with you
waiterich.bsky.social Richard Waite @waiterich.bsky.social · Apr 24
Me: Stayman Winesap apples are so good, can’t wait to pick them again in the fall 🍎 💕

Apple Rankings:
Wrap a damp tee ball in an old t-shirt and you will begin to experience the masochistic horror that is the Stayman Winesap Apple. Each jaw-breaking bite is taken on the chin like a punch from Apollo Creed, and then followed by an interesting wine-like flavor that is most likely comprised of 40% tooth blood. The semi-tart wallop bellowing forth from this tank-fruit is absorbed by a hardened cloth-like skin that drapes down your neck like a swallowed roll of used medical gauze. Discovered in Leavenworth County, Kansas in 1866 by Dr. Joseph Stayman as a seedling of the Winesap Apple, for some reason the apple world (helmed by the Stark Bros.) quickly deemed this new cultivar as worthy of national attention. It must be assumed that anything outside of the murder fields of Gettysburg was welcome in this troublesome post Civil War era. 🏅 #5 RANKED CIDER APPLE
October 16, 2025 at 2:03 AM
Reposted
christianonre.bsky.social
India installs record 29.5 GW of solar in first nine months of 2025 www.pv-magazine.com/2025/10/14/i... - good news from #India. ... and much more to come: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
India installs record 29.5 GW of solar in first nine months of 2025
India’s solar additions surged 70% year on year to 29.5 GW in the first three quarters of 2025, driven by rapid utility-scale and rooftop deployment, according to JMK Research.
www.pv-magazine.com
October 14, 2025 at 7:19 PM