Spreading awareness would be good. Many people reject the notion that the climate is changing, so there would be value in collating the most persuasive and concrete arguments.
It's important to filter out conjecture and anecdata, though.
It's important to filter out conjecture and anecdata, though.
In response to OP, I have dedicated my career to fighting global warming through software. It is VERY difficult to find good software jobs that accomplish this, but they do exists if you are flexible on pay/location. Some angles that I have found successful:
- Supporting REC markets with technology. The more successful they are the more politicians will support them which starts the cycle of affordable renewables driving more financing for innovative companies driving lower prices...
- Join companies doing efficiency profiling. This has been a huge area of recent growth. Companies doing things like analyzing utility data to show companies where they can reduce usages to have the most impact
- Work in renewables. PV's, inverters, batteries, wind turbines, etc all need to talk to each other! Brush up on your modbus, mqtt, sunspec, etc and start looking for companies.
- Build our scientists better tools! Tons of companies are working to provide researchers with better ways of understanding the environment and the effects of global warming. This may not be the most direct way for you to help, but it is important to understanding climate change. There is tooonnns of room for innovation here, especially in allowing scientists to understand and harness AI and standardizing data/research to open up collaboration.
- Work for the grid. Many giant utility companies are starting to realize that microgrids are real and imminent. How do utilities maintain control over a homeowner's power so that there aren't dangerous power fluctuations on the grid? Check out Kitu or Autogrid for some solutions. Larger utilities will also have R&D labs where they set up and test cutting edge renewable options and control strategies.
TL;DR: Tons of companies are working to drive down the cost of renewables. Save the world!
what are the biggest frustrations you're currently seeing w/ REC markets?
i was surprised at how hard it is to compare REC prices. Like, am I supposed to request a quote from each of these? https://www.green-e.org/certified-resources
It'd be great to snap a pic of my utility bill and get back the best REC pricing... :)
Currently most large scale traders pick up the phone and call brokers like the good old days of the stock market. So to answer your question, yes you need to request a quote from each. There are also bloomberg streams for pricing and some brokering companies publish indexes that they believe reflect the current pricing.
so if I got a quote w/ my utility bill from all those sellers, then got another quote from each next week, or got another quote for a diff utility bill, would the prices returned by each seller vary significantly?
i wonder what the most successful method is to change someone's deeply rooted beliefs.