Hillary Clinton’s Climate Change Plan

Mrs. Clinton, who plans to deliver a climate-focused speech Monday in Des Moines, said in a video released Sunday evening, “it’s hard to believe there are people running for president who still refuse to accept the settled science of climate change.”

Mrs. Clinton’s rollout of a plan to address climate change comes on the heels of billionaire climate-change activist Tom Steyer calling for 2016 candidates to develop concrete plans to increase the share of clean energy in the U.S.’s power generation mix to 50% by 2030.

In a statment, Mr. Steyer praised Mrs. Clinton’s proposal without offering explicit financial support. “Today, Hillary Clinton emerged as a strong leader in solving the climate crisis and ensuring our country’s economic security,” he said.

The Clinton campaign said Sunday that her goal would translate to 33% clean energy by 2027 and that when combined with nuclear energy

 Mrs. Clinton's renewable energy fact sheet sets aggressive goals for solar and renewables as it acknowledges the challenge of climate change.

Clinton announced a goal of boosting U.S. installed solar capacity from its current 20 gigawatts to 140 gigawatts by the end of 2020. 

Clinton also announced a goal of generating renewable energy to "power every home in America" by 2026 from a combination of wind, solar, hydro, geothermal and other renewables. 

Clean Power Project "a crucial tool in our national strategy to reduce carbon pollution, level the playing field for and increase the deployment of renewable energy."

Opening up solar power to low-­income households, expanding renewable energy on public lands and federal buildings and increasing public investment in clean energy R&D.  

 "Reduce the amount of oil consumed in the United States and around the world, guard against energy supply disruptions, and make our communities, our infrastructure, and our financial markets more resilient to climate-­related risks" while making sure "that fossil fuel production taking place today is safe and responsible."

The Final Nail For Green Deal

On Thursday the Department of Energy and Climate Change said it was ceasing financing to the Green Deal Finance Company which issues the loans,and was bailed out by the government last November with a £34m loan.  Today’s move is expected to lead to the company immediately halting the issuing of new loans, although existing ones or loans in progress – known as ‘green deal plans’ – will not be affected.

 The government has no new scheme in place to succeed the green deal, saying simply that it would work with the building industry and consumer groups on energy efficiency policy. Which?, the consumer organisation, said it was right that the government stopped throwing money at a scheme that had not taken off.

 British homes are among some of the least energy efficient in Europe, which can drive up household fuel bills by hundreds of pounds every year.

The government has not yet revealed plans for a replacement scheme to carry out further work to improve household energy efficiency.

 'Zero interest loans to make homes energy efficient would be far more popular and could generate more tax revenue for the Treasury than it costs to subsidise.'

 Greenpeace UK head of energy, said: “The green deal was far from being a success, but coming right after the scrapping of the zero-carbon homes target, this latest move suggests ministers are giving up on efficiency. This would be a false economy. Fixing our heat-leaking homes is a triple-win policy that can bring down bills, cut carbon emissions, and reduce our dependence on energy imports.”

Tesla's home battery pack

The device, which could be in homes by the end of summer, will be able to store electricity when conditions are favorable then discharge it again later in quantities large enough to be useful to homes and businesses.

The Powerwall is around three feet wide and four feet tall, weighs 220lbs, and can be installed either on an outside or inside wall of a home.

The 'daily use' version has a capacity of 7 kilowatt-hours, which is around a quarter of a home's daily usage.

IFTTT connects your home to the web

Just visit IFTTT.com using your iOS device or by using an internet browser to start creating and sharing Recipes with IFTTT.

IFTTT is an amazing new service that puts the internet to work for you. IFTTT lets you create 'Recipes' that connect apps, websites, and devices together to perform all kinds of custom tasks for you.

WeMo Switch

WeMo Switch is one of the basic home automation solutions available today.  It’s a smart plug that allows appliances to be controlled with a mobile device.  Using IFTTT, users can create their own recipes to manage it, or they can choose to use one of the recipes shared by other IFTTT users, such as using the Weather Channel to automatically control the WeMo Switch.

To use this weather-driven recipe, activate both the Weather Channel and the WeMo Switch Channel, then use the recipe created by IFTTT that would turn on the switch at sunset.  Users can plug in their lamp on the WeMo Switch and use this recipe so that lights automatically turn on when the sun sets.