Energy
Transitioning to a world powered by renewable energy is key to tackling climate change. Here you can find the latest good news related to our clean energy transition, covering wind, solar, green hydrogen, hydropower, and more.
Noninvasive plants makes biofuels safer for the environment
Discovering the next crop for producing biofuel is difficult. The crop shouldn’t be a foodstuff, and would ideally be able to grow quickly in less nutrient rich soil, and have a natural resistance to diseases and pests—essentially the same characteristics as an invasive species. Because of the Read More...
UK posts record high renewable energy production
The United Kingdom posted a record for renewable energy production in the last quarter. UK renewable energy sources, particularly wind and hydropower, produced 18.1n terawatt-hours (TWh) of energy, or 43% more power than the same time period last year. The UK record comes on the heels of reports Read More...
Germany leads in sustainability and reliability
The story is that dependence of renewable energy makes power less reliable and stable as solar and wind energy are less predictable than conventional sources. But Germany is proving that all wrong. The country is leading the renewable energy charts while at the same time showing that it’s one of Read More...
Stacked solar cells make solar power cheaper than natural gas
New designs and approaches to solar are coming out weekly, but scientists have yet to attain the holy grail of 50 percent efficiency. Solar cells typically convert about 15 to 25 percent of the energy from sunlight into electricity—though 44.7 percent efficiency has been achieved in labs. A Read More...
China has already added enough solar this year to power Australia
China gets continued flack for its polluted cities and its title as the world’s leading emitter of carbon. But China is making great strides in sustainably sourced energy. So far this year China has added 3.3 gigawatts of solar capacity, or enough energy sourced from solar to power all of Read More...
How to win Google’s Million-dollar electricity challenge
Google has announced the Little Box challenge: a contest that will pay you $1 million if you build a 95% energy efficient power inverter, no bigger than a tablet, that’s capable of powering a house. A power inverter is a box that turns direct current that flows from solar panels or batteries, to Read More...
A company that greens your building with no upfront costs
Buildings are one of the largest consumers of energy, and the worst of the worst are commercial offices. Unnecessary heating and cooling of conference rooms and spare offices eat up large amounts of energy and contribute to the overall problem of greenhouse gas emissions. Enlighted is a new Read More...
Innovation makes biofuel competitive energy source
Biofuel crops can reduce or offset greenhouse gas emissions by directly removing carbon dioxide from the air as they grow and store it in crop biomass and soil. Fuels from bioenergy crops are thus considered emission-neutral when burnt. The challenge is to get a good energy yield from the crops. Read More...
Perovskite: paint that turns any surface into a solar panel
The sun shines everywhere. So how can we easily capture the energy the rays of sun bring wherever they hit the earth? The answer is perovskite. What? Perovskite is a mineral composed of calcium titanium oxide that scientists at the University of Sheffield have now turned into a “spray on solar Read More...
Solar sponge turns suns energy into steam
A sponge designed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology converts water into steam by using the sun’s rays. The sponge is made up of a layer of graphite flakes on top and porous carbon foam underneath that acts as an insulator. The sponge floats on top of water and when sun hits the graphite a Read More...