Energy

How To Get Renewable Energy Into The Grid- Without Losing Power

There are numerous methods for maintaining electricity supply when renewables are in the grid. Credit: Johan Douma/Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA By Anthony Vassallo, University of Sydney The recent review of the Australian Renewable Energy Target has once again rai ...

Article - The Conversation - Sep 10 2014 - 8:30pm

Environmental Scientists Make The Environmental Case For Fracking

A strange thing happened during climate change policy debates: Advances in hydraulic fracturing- fracking- put trillions of dollars' worth of previously unreachable oil and natural gas within humanity's grasp, and using it led to reductions in C ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 15 2014 - 7:25pm

Using The Knapsack Problem To Cut The Carbon Cost Of The Cloud

"Nobody understands the cloud," shouts a character in a recent comedy about a couple trying to remove a private video from the Internet. In reality, the cloud is completely understandable, and it's one of few areas in climate where the emi ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 14 2014 - 10:00am

Betavoltaics: Water-Based Nuclear Battery Developed

We live in a battery world- just visit any airport and see people huddled around a wall outlet to witness our battery culture. Yet batteries haven't made any real improvements in decades and that holds back electric cars and solar energy and laptop c ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 17 2014 - 11:00am

Why Natural Gas, Including Fracking, Is Better For The Environment Than Wind And Solar

There is nothing inherently superior about natural gas from hydraulic fracturing- fracking- it has the same emissions as regular natural gas. But it is a lot lower than coal and does not have the political baggage of nuclear energy and that is why environm ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 21 2014 - 9:58am

Energy Efficient Buildings – Beware Possible Health Risks

BedZED in Hackbridge, London. Credit: Tom Chance, CC BY-SA By Melissa C. Lott, University College London The primary goal of home energy efficiency initiatives might be to reduce total energy consumption, but these projects could have a negative impact on ...

Article - The Conversation - Sep 23 2014 - 10:00pm

Batteries Included: A Solar Cell That Stores Its Own Power

A new device invented at The Ohio State University is the world's first hybrid solar generator and battery- it solves the problem of finicky solar power generation by having the storage built in. The key is a mesh solar panel, which allows air to ent ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 4 2014 - 1:00pm

Natural Gas Boom Has Caused American CO2 To Plummet- But Not The World's

Natural gas finally fulfilled its environmental promise this century. Long touted by environmentalists for being much cleaner than coal, hydraulic fracturing- fracking- made it economically viable as well. The resulting boom also offset the lingering econ ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 15 2014 - 2:08pm

More Electricity In Developing Nations Had Little Impact On Climate Change

Without question American CO2 emissions have plummeted, even after being driven into more coal usage due to political concerns about nuclear energy. Cleaner natural gas made the difference but environmental critics say the energy emissions burden simply s ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 19 2014 - 10:30pm

Germany’s Green Energy Gamble Could Really Use Some Vorsprung Durch Technik