“All we need is change”—Serre Chevalier makes skiing more sustainable
Does the climate catastrophe that we find ourselves in herald the end of ski resorts? Visiting the slopes for a weekend of skiing and snowboarding is now tinged with the guilt of all the environmental damage that goes along with it. Between the short-haul, carbon-emitting flights many skiers Read More...
Here’s how offshore wind farms can help capture CO2 from the air
One of the conundrums posed by the increasing expansion of wind power is what to do with the excess energy that renewable technologies produce. Because wind power is intermittent and demand for energy also varies, when wind turbines produce more electricity than is needed, their operations are Read More...
These wind turbine walls let cities harness wind power beautifully
One of the major downfalls of harnessing wind energy is that large-scale wind farms require lots of space, away from urban areas, and wind turbines with bulky poles and huge spinning blades that aren’t just considered an eyesore but are hazardous for birds. Well, what if we could harvest wind Read More...
These bike garages in Denmark are made from recycled wind turbine blades
While wind turbines play an important role in our transition towards a post-carbon world, they do pose a few environmental concerns. For example, most of the wind turbines operating today have a lifespan of about 20 years, which means that a large number of these gigantic pieces of machinery will Read More...
This giant wind turbine can be recycled at the end of its life
While wind turbines are an essential part of our journey towards a fossil fuel-free future, they still leave a footprint on the environment. This is because, though they last as long as 25 years, turbine blades are incredibly difficult to recycle, which means that they’re bound to pile up in Read More...
Placing turbines behind hills may help improve wind power efficiency
Finding ways to increase the efficiency of windmills has been on scientists’ innovation agenda for some time. While some innovators are working on radically different designs to achieve that goal, a recent study yields a rather unexpected finding — placing wind turbines behind hills could Read More...
These floating Windcatchers aim to revolutionize offshore wind power
As our transition towards renewables marches on, engineers and designers around the world are working on redesigning the conventional wind turbine in a bid to harness wind power in a more efficient and aesthetically pleasing way. One of the latest of these solutions comes from Norway’s Wind Read More...
Papilio is a self-powered street lamp designed to reduce light pollution
Human innovation has driven our civilizations forward, but oftentimes at the detriment of other species. For instance, conventional lights and street lamps allow people to work and navigate at night, but they can confuse nocturnal life and attract pollinators, killing them in the process. Tobias Read More...
Sustainable and beautiful "tulip turbines" pop up just in time for spring
Here at The Optimist Daily, we are big fans of wind energy as a renewable and sustainable source of power—but that’s not to say that it doesn’t come with a few downfalls. Wind energy requires wind turbines to convert kinetic energy into electricity. These turbines generate noise pollution, Read More...
Report: US Power sector is halfway to zero emissions
17 states plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have set goals to achieve entirely clean energy power systems by 2050 or sooner. In encouraging news, a new report, titled “Halfway to Zero,” has found that power sector emissions in the US are already half what they would be without the adoption Read More...