The first US-built offshore substation is now standing at New York’s South Fork Wind, the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in US federal waters.
South Fork Wind’s 1,500-ton, 60-foot-tall offshore substation was designed and engineered in Kansas and then built near Corpus Christi, Texas, by Kiewit Offshore Services, the largest offshore fabricator in the US. The substation sailed from Texas to New York in May.
Offshore substations collect and stabilize the power generated by wind turbines, preparing the power for transmission to shore.
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SYDNEY, Australia — Throughout South Korea’s Women’s World Cup opener against Colombia on Tuesday, players stayed loose behind the goal. Early in the 78th minute, one player broke away from the group. Casey Phair, at 16 years and 26 days, stepped onto the field and became the youngest player to do so in a World Cup – women’s or men’s.
“Going on, I was really, really nervous,” said Phair, who has an American father and a South Korean mother and was raised in Warren Township, New Jersey. “It was a scary moment, but then going on and running around, I think it just settled in.”
The record previously was held by the late Ifeanyi Chiejine, who was 16 years and 34 days old when she played for Nigeria in the 1999 Women’s World Cup.
In the 17 minutes she spent on the field in South Korea’s 2-0 loss, Phair was near the ball at all times, competing with Colombian players for possession every chance she got.
“She deserved the chance to play,” South Korea’s head coach Collin Bell said. “She trained really well, just as well as anybody. I wanted to throw her on to give her that experience.”
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As America has transformed, so too has its celebrated footpath. Less than half the A.T. remains where it was originally laid.
Robert Weiss of Tewksbury, Mass., left, photographs his brother-in-law, Matthew Ferri of Dracut, Mass., and his wife, Andrea Weiss, just before sunrise from their campsite on the Appalachian Trail in Beans Purchase, N.H., in September 2017. (Robert F. Bukaty/AP)
MCAFEE KNOB, Va. — The morning fog had just begun to clear as the hikers made their way uphill, beckoned by a series of white blazes splashed on the trunks of hardwood and tall pine, the paint cracked where the bark rippled and whorled.
It was a weekday in mid-May on the Appalachian Trail, and their footsteps were muffled by the forest. Away they hiked — from the cramped parking lot glittering with vehicles, from the frenetic buzz of highway traffic, from the busyness and anxiety that compel people to step out of their lives, if only for a few hours, and escape into the wilderness.
Here, on what everyone calls the A.T., it was quieter. The leaves on the oaks were pearled with rain. Mushrooms erupted from softened logs, and in the crepey mass of damp leaves on the ground, roses and purple irises bloomed, sweetening the air.
One woman, a sweatshirt tied around her waist, pulled at the retractable leash of her German shepherd. She passed two brown-haired sisters in oversize T-shirts, hunched beneath the weight of their backpacks. With each step, their cooking pans tinkled like wind chimes. They paused beside a device that counts the hikers passing by on the trail.
“Did you know?” a sign read. “McAfee Knob is considered the most photographed spot on the Appalachian Trail.”
Four more miles uphill was the landmark, where hikers meet the open sky. The rocky ledge — at 3,200 feet — resembles a diving board. In the valley below, creeks slanted through the green. There were pinpricks of farms and shaved fields. The vast ocean of Jefferson National Forest lapped the horizon.
This panorama atop Catawba Mountain draws more than 50,000 people each year, causing a logjam and necessitating a seasonal shuttle to the trailhead on weekends.
“Once at the top, you can’t put words to it,” one hiker wrote on the popular outdoor website AllTrails.
But for almost a decade, McAfee Knob wasn’t part of the A.T. at all.
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Associate Executive Director Joan Dawson McConnon is also leaving. The pair worked for 34 years building the nationally known $52 million operation that has helped thousands experiencing homelessness.
Joan Dawson McConnon (left) and Sister Mary Scullion, co-founders of the anti-homelessness nonprofit Project HOME, are pictured at JBJ Soul Homes in Fairmount.
By Alfred Lubrano, Philadelphia Inquirer, Updated on Jul 27, 2023, 3 p.m.
Sister Mary Scullion, the powerhouse advocate and street angel fueled by enough “bad-ass rebel energy” to minister to multitudes of people experiencing homelessness, will be leaving her job as president and executive director of the nationally renowned Project HOME.
Joan Dawson McConnon, the associate executive director who co-founded the Philadelphia nonprofit with Scullion in 1989, will also be stepping down.
Scullion will remain in her role through December 31, 2024, and will be assisting with the leadership transition through June 30, 2025. McConnon will stay on through June 30, 2024, then will consult through the end of the year.
“We’ve done the best we can. It’s time for someone else to come in,” Scullion, 70, said during an interview earlier this week, occasionally crying softly. “The work has been such a blessing.”
In 34 years, Scullion and McConnon grew Project HOME from a winter shelter in South Philadelphia where volunteers washed dishes in a washing machine, to a formidable institution with 1,000 units of housing in 19 residences across the city. The nonprofit has a $52 million operating budget,1 million square feet of real estate, dozens of programs, and a staff of 450 that’s helped countless people in need find homes, improve their health, become educated, and get jobs.
Throughout, the duo has adhered to their organization’s now familiar motto: “None of us are home until all of us our home.”
Unassuming and self-deprecating, Scullion graduated from St. Joseph’s University in 1976 and Temple University’s School of Social Work in 1987. She’s famous for being tireless and tough.
“Believe me, if she needs to tell you off, she will,” said Sam Santiago, the former Philadelphia police officer who’s long worked on Project HOME’s outreach team. “She don’t take no s—.”
Read the full story here
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $10.9 million for 10 projects across nine states that will advance innovative technologies to extract and convert battery-grade lithium from geothermal brine sources in the United States. This work will increase America’s access to cost-effective, domestic sources of this critical material needed for batteries for stationary storage and electric vehicles to meet the Biden-Harris Administration’s goals of 50% electric vehicle adoption by 2030 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
Currently, the United States has limited capabilities to produce and refine domestically sourced lithium. Direct lithium extraction from geothermal brines represents an opportunity to domestically produce lithium hydroxide—the form of lithium used for advanced batteries—in an efficient and environmentally friendly way.
“A strong, domestic supply chain for lithium is crucial for our nation’s clean energy economy,” said Alejandro Moreno, Acting Assistant Secretary for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). ”This investment will support innovations leading to safe and sustainable production of the lithium we need for batteries for electric vehicles and the grid right here at home.”
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Aiming to revolutionize the US solar industry, Canadian manufacturer Heliene is planning a massive $145 million facility in Minnesota. This landmark expansion, backed by the Orion Infrastructure Capital and motivated by Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, sets the stage for a greener American future.
The company aims to construct a brand-new factory in Minnesota, capable of producing both solar modules and cells, as detailed in an exclusive interview with Reuters by Heliene’s CEO.
Heliene, already possessing solar panel manufacturing operations in both Iron Mountain, Minnesota, and Ontario, Canada, joins a growing list of companies dedicated to boosting U.S. solar production.
This increase in domestic manufacturing commitment is primarily due to President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, introduced last year.
The Act, designed to stimulate the production of clean energy equipment domestically, provides tax incentives to both manufacturers and purchasers.
Heliene’s new factory, projected to cost around $145 million and located in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area will have the capacity to produce roughly one gigawatt of modules and 1.5 gigawatts of cells annually, according to CEO Martin Pochtaruk.
These plans for Heliene’s growth and development, which were previously unreported, are viable due to a substantial investment by the New York-based Orion Infrastructure Capital (OIC).
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