Weird environmental stories

Air pollution

I found this story extremely interesting. There are photos of air pollution at HCMC bus stops, funded by the German Embassy with the support of the Center of Public Transport under the HCMC Department of Transport.

I think it’s great to improve public understanding of air pollution, but public anger around the subject is already happening (see my post from late October, and this story). People know there’s an issue. Maybe more knowledge is better, but I want to see more action.

Floating solar panels

In that vein of viable actions, here is a story about floating solar panels on rivers and reservoirs. One thing I found enlightening is that it is actually quite easy to put floating panels in reservoirs of hydropower dams. These panels can take advantage of the already-existing power infrastructure.

Plus, these floating panels could provide electricity so that more dams won’t be needed. The issues around water in the Mekong are already severe. This year it looks like there is going to be a major drought.

The center's data shows that between June and October this year rainfall in the upper Mekong region was 35-40 percent less than normal. As a result the water level in the upper part of the Mekong is now about 0.4-0.7 meters lower than normal.

This will not only hurt crops this year, but it will also worsen saltwater incursion which will hurt future crops. Adding dams to this is just not going to be great. But you already know my feelings on this (see this post).

Smart grids

The HCMC Power Corporation has implemented a smart grid system for the city. It allows the company to quickly reroute electricity if there is an outage, which can cut down time from 2 hours to minutes. Also,

The System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) in November 2019 was 0.72, a decrease of 51.3 percent compared to this time last year.

This is great, because over time it should allow for better energy management, including greater efficiency. Also, the company hopes that it will be better able to handle renewable power generation. .

Grass straws

A Vietnamese entrepreneur is now making grass straws that can last 6 months! Not sure if that is 6 months of use, or just 6 months total. Let’s hope it is the latter.

The story says that he is making $400 in profit a month, while making 3,000 straws a day. That equates to a profit of around VND120 per straw. I would assume each straw is priced at around $.01 and costs about half a cent to make. I assume plastic straws are even cheaper, given that the article talks about how labor intensive the process is. Maybe he can add some machinery, dominate the grass straw market, and then: riches!

There is limited grass in Vietnam, so maybe the riches are just a little bit more money. But good for him.

I am somewhat anti-plastic, so this sounds like a perfect business: jobs, profit, growth, sustainability. Too bad it is so small.