green economy
A new series of reports, “Towards Green Growth,” recommends ways in which governments can best make the transition to greener, more sustainable economies. As they were released by the well respected Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the reports will carry some clout in helping the 34 member countries
videos
Invented almost 150 years ago, the Kelvin water dropper (yes, named after that Kelvin) produces electricity directly from two streams of falling water … no turbines or generators required (the explanation takes some time; the actual demonstration starts at around the 47:21 mark):
smart metering
A 1.8-per cent reduction in energy use might not sound like much, but extended across whole cities, regions and countries, even that small percentage adds up to huge benefits. In the US, for example, a 1.8-per cent cut in consumption could save households a little over $3 billion
Smart Grid
Continuing on its quest to grab a share of the future “smart energy” market, GE has decided to buy one of the technology companies it singled out last year as an ecomagination Challenge winner. The $200 million challenge was aimed at identifying and funding innovative firms with “the best ideas
renewables
As society works to transition to a low-carbon future, it might be possible to balance the amounts of energy coming from variable, renewable sources like wind and solar more than we’ve thought. Intermittency — the fact that the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow
electricity transmission
It’s well known that China has been going gangbusters on developing its energy infrastructure, rapidly building everything from not-so-green new coal-fired power to a massive solar photovoltaics manufacturing base to large deployments of wind power. While its energy resources have been growing, though, its transmission capacity has some serious
Energy
With the UK having just set a carbon reduction goal that goes beyond the standard deadline of 2020, the question now is, will other countries follow its lead? The UK recently announced that it aims to cut carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2025. The original 20-20-20 targets set
electricity transmission
With all the looming energy challenges on our plates — peak oil, unstable petro-nations, rising population and consumption levels in oil-producing countries, climate change and so on — is re-designing the electricity transmission tower, also known as a pylon, really a top priority? Officials in the UK, which has just launched a
electricity transmission
As the UK launches a competition to find a new design for electricity pylons, also known as transmission towers, we thought we’d explore what existing pylons around the world look like. Here are some of the more notable ones that can be found across the globe: Australia These towers
concentrating solar power
Nevada could soon be home to the tallest molten salt tower in the world, and it doesn’t want to hear any jokes about possible Vegas-Sodom-Gomorrah-Lot’s wife connections. This is all about energy: clean solar power and cutting-edge energy storage. The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project is on its
energy storage
A new type of energy storage facility in the UK could eventually be deployed across the country to provide backup power generated by wind. ABB’s DynaPeaQ installation in Norfolk takes in wind energy from a local village and stores it in a system of lithium-ion batteries. The stored energy
lighting
Don’t try this at home …
