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It’s no surprise that Germany is just giving lessons in terms of managing renewable energy sources – year after year, the country features more and more cities and now, even villages, which harness most of their energy from renewable sources. Wildpoldsried, a municipality in the district of Oberallgäu in Bavaria has a population of only […]
You often hear discussions about how much oil there is still left in the world’s underground. Listen to oil companies they’ll tell you there’s plenty to go around, absolutely no need to worry; listen to fanatic environmentalists and they’ll tell you that in two decades, we’re pretty much screwed. So why not listen to someone […]
Australia seems poised to become one of the global leaders in terms of renewable energy; after a study showed that the country could realistically go 100% renewable energy in just 10 years, now, a different study concluded that wind energy is already cheaper than fossil fuels. The research was led by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, […]
Water and energy are two of the things we pretty much take for granted – but we shouldn’t. Water is not infinite, and if you consume it at a high enough rate, it will run out; meanwhile, there’s a tight connection between living standard and energy consumption – and as the population continues to increase […]
I recently came across a great article discussing solar photovoltaic (PV) efficiency. You can read it in its entirety on this website – here’s the gist. When people hear that the typical efficiency for solar power is somewhere around 15%, or even as low as 12% for organic photvoltaics, they scoff and start to mumble that […]
The only thing that stands between Australia and a future led entirely by renewable energy is the political will to make the change, a new report claims. Australia could be powered entirely by renewable energy in no more than 10 years, using solar and wind energy – two resources which Australia has a lot of. […]
This has the potential to be the holy graal of solar energy – UCLA researchers have developed a new organic polymer that produces electricity, is nearly transparent and much more resistant than silicone. If you think about solar cells, usually, the blacker the better – the blacker they are, the less energy is lost. But […]
Most people perceive China as a greatly polluted, overcrowded country, with little to no interest in renewable energy and a sustainable future. But that legacy is changing. Chicago-based architects Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill have unveiled plans for Chengdu Tianfu District Great City, a self sustainable satellite city which offers insightful solutions to the crowded […]
I’m not necessarily a big fan of Ikea, but you have to admire this kind of initiative. The Swedish corporation announced they will go for a sustainable business model, one which features €1.5 billion investments in solar and wind power. The furniture company has remained true to its initial model, which involved doing things as […]
Saudi Arabia is by far the most oil-blessed country in the world – only Russia coming even close to it, but they want to transition to a more eco friendly, renewable energy-based system. Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, a member of the Saudi Arabia royal family, spoke to journalists at the Global Economic Symposium […]
According to their own statements, the US Naval Research Laboratory is working to extract the carbon dioxide and produce hydrogen gas from the seawater; if everything works out fine for them, they will be able to convert the CO2 and hydrogen into hydrocarbons which will be used as jet fuel. Of course, the main interest […]
Tokelau is a small island near Samoa, not far from New Zealand; at a first glance, it wouldn’t seem significantly different from other beautiful atolls in that part of the world, but Tokelau has something very special: they are on track to become the first territory entirely powered by solar energy. The Diesel dependent country […]
A recent study of gargantuan proportions estimated that the technical potential of photovoltaic cells and concentrated solar power (CSP) in the United States, at today’s level of research and with today’s possibilities, is enough to generate about 400,000 TWh of energy annually, significantly more than any other renewable energy source. The study The National Energy […]
According to a recently publicized rapport by the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), renewable energy sources could account for as much as 80% of the US’s electricity demand by 2050. The rapport signals the various difficulties that need to be overcome to reach this goal, and note that while 80% might be very challenging […]
Large wind farms might have a warming effect on the local climate, a research conducted in the US claims, casting a shadow on the long term sustainability of this type of renewable energy. Wind farms and warming Wind farms have quite an unusual way of heating the surrounding environment: by drawing the hotter air from […]
Germany keeps setting a right example of how renewable energy should be treated by the authorities, as opposed to the US, for example. In Germany, one of the world’s leading countries in this field, 51% of all renewable energy is owned by citizens and farmers, who use it for themselves or even sell it back […]
Amid all the talk about Asia’s economic growth and their stable financial future, two major problem arise to cloud their bright dawn: climate change and pollution. With way more than half of the world’s population, Asia has more to lose than any other continent; and considering the ways adopted by some of the most developed […]
A new massive research from SMU’s Geothermal Laboratory, funded by a grant from Google.org has documented significant geothermal resources across the US (especially in the West), a resource that has the potential, with today’s technology, to produce over three million megawatts of green power – that’s 10 times more than coal plants currently produce. Sophisticated […]
We all know coal energy is bad, but at least if you ask me, I would say that it’s used because it’s cheap. However, economists from the prestigious American Economic Review claim that coal plants cause twice as much damage than the coal they produce. After doing the math, they concluded that coal-fired electrical plants […]
Japan shows us yet again that they are leading the world in terms of renewable energy, in taking a plan that would make solar panels mandatory for all buildings no later than 2030. The plan, expected to be unveiled at the upcoming G8 Summit in France, aims to show Japan’s resolve to encourage technological innovation […]
Iceland is definitely one weird country; it is extremely rich in geothermal and volcanic energy, and has access to a significant quantity of fish, but other than that, resources are extremely scarce. At the end of 2008, the economy collapsed, with all major banks going bankrupt. Since then, they have been desperately trying to rise […]
Yes, you’ve read that right. There are over 50 billion planets in our galaxy alone, according to the Kepler telescope, scientists now estimate that not only there are over 500 bilion planets in the galaxy, but that there are over 500 million life-cable planets out there as well. These numbers obviously come from Nasa’s own […]
In the ever developing struggle for alternative energy, Rhode Island made a significant step towards achieving their goal of fifteen percent offshore energy when they awarded Deepwater Wind the right to build a wind farm that will cost more than 1 billion dollars. This will also give the state more green jobs, as well as […]
The quality of the place of your residence is defined by many characteristics, which include natural and man-made factors, and more or less obvious consequences of those. The thing is if you care about the food you’re eating, the air you’re breathing and the water you’re drinking, Denmark is the place to be at the […]
