Juggling Dynamite

Solar energy bombards the earth every day. And, every day, more and more people passively capture it to lower their power costs and move us away from fossil fuels.

Train tracks, roads, car parks, car roofs, cemeteries, building facades… the list of structures getting a solar makeover goes on and on. Humans can be so innovative when we try to be. Plug-and-play systems are affordable and portable when their owners move. See Solar balconies are booming in Germany:

More than 400,000 plug-in solar systems have been installed in Germany, most of them taking up a seamless spot on people’s balconies.

New data shows at least 50,000 of the PV devices were added in the first quarter of 2024 alone. A boom born from Germany’s “very strong solar culture”, in the words of one expert.

Solar balconies are a piece of the wider energy transition across Europe, explains Jan Osenberg, a policy advisor at the SolarPower Europe association.

“We see them as a subset of rooftop solar, but also as something different,” he tells Euronews Green. “We basically see it as a trend to use all possible artificial infrastructure for solar generation.”

China’s epic property bust has left it with a glut of materials and products that it is now exporting globally. This will help ease inflationary pressures and threaten the viability of competitors.

As construction at home has dried up, Chinese steel exports have risen 33% year over year, and the excess supply goes far beyond steel to textiles, ceramics, semiconductors, electric vehicles and other high-tech equipment like solar panels. See Flood of Chinese Steel Fuels Global Backlash:

Beijing is funnelling investment into factories to rev up growth in an economy beset by restrained consumer spending and real-estate distress. The result is a blast of exports that is bringing back memories of the original China shock of the early 2000s when a torrent of cheap goods brought a bounty for consumers but proved an insurmountable challenge for some U.S. industries exposed to the new competition.

…U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, on a recent trip to Beijing, warned that China is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb its ballooning industrial output, which U.S. officials say is supported by lavish subsidies and state-directed loans.

Danielle was a guest with Jim Goddard on This Week in Money, discussing recent developments in the world economy and markets, as well as the latest Federal Budget. Here is a direct audio link, starting at 11:18 on the playbar.

See Bottled Water Contains More Plastic Particles Than Previously Thought:

Nanoplastics pose a greater threat to human health than microplastics because they’re small enough to penetrate human cells, enter the bloodstream and impact organs. Nanoplastics can also pass through the placenta to the bodies of unborn babies. Scientists have long suspected their presence in bottled water, but lacked the technology to identify individual nanoparticles.