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"Renewable Energy"
With China becoming the world’s leader of solar cells and panels, it was hoped that their mass production would help bring down global prices. However, in order to aid domestic manufacturing, the US has hampered such progress by imposing tariffs of as much as 250 percent on Chinese-made solar cells. While the decision was made to protect US solar production against foreign competition, it is expected that it will ultimately raise PV cell prices and hurt the domestic renewable energy industry.
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Post tags: china pv cells, china solar power, chinese solar panels, Solar Power, solar tariffs, solar tariffs china, SolarWorld, us commerce department china, us solar power
The world’s first Solar-Geothermal Hybrid power plant has been inaugurated in the town of Fallon, Nevada. Just ten months ago Nevada Senator Harry Reid announced that the addition of solar panels to the existing Stillwater geothermal plant would create the pioneering hybrid renewable energy facility, which can now produce 59MW of clean power, enough to power thousands of homes.
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Post tags: enel, energy secretary chu, Geothermal power, geothermal solar plant, harry reid, hybrid plant, nevada geothermal, nevada solar, Solar Power, solar-geothermal hybrid plant, stillwater geothermal solar plant
Since Japan shut down all its nuclear power stations in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the country has been exploring ways to replace the 30 percent of national power which was generated by nuclear energy. Ideas to diversify the national power grid range from tapping into local geothermal springs to investing in tidal power. At present however, the country faces blackouts, and as a result the government is urging businesses and households to cut electricity usage by up to 15%.
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Post tags: Fukushima Chernobyl, fukushima earthquake, fukushima heating up, fukushima nuclear disaster chernobyl, fukushima reactor 2, japan blackouts, japan nuclear power, japan nuclear power plant, japan power cuts, japan renewable energy, japan tsunami, nuclear power plant construction, nuclear power plants, seismic areas, seismic nuclear power plant
Tidal farms, which use underwater turbines to harness the power of the planet’s oceans and convert it into electricity, are something that we frequently mention here at Inhabitat. While there are plans to build them all over the world, Scotland achieved a major milestone this week by successfully installing a 10MW tidal power array in the Sound of Islay, off the coast of Orkney.
Read the rest of 100-Foot Subsea Turbine Successfully Installed at World’s First Tidal Farm Off the Coast of Scotland
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Post tags: cheap clean electricity, ecotricity, hammerfest strom hs1000, hs1000 tidal turbine, searaser, searaser ecotricity, searaser project, tidal ecotricity, tidal energy, tidal power, tidal turbine orkney
Dr. Steven Chu, head of the US Department of Energy, gave an information-packed, 50-minute speech at the World Renewable Energy Forum in Denver on Wednesday. Speaking to a crowd of renewable energy leaders, Dr. Chu patted the industry on its head but didn’t have many bones to feed a hungry audience. The talk felt more like a college lecture than a political stump speech, with the energy secretary discussing the economics of renewable energy without addressing the cost of carbon.
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Post tags: DOE, energy policy, green energy policy, steven chu, WREF
Yesterday Africa’s first bio-ethanol cooking fuel plant opened in central Mozambique. The partnership between Novozymes and CleanStar Mozambique, NDZiLO, will provide cleaner, safer and cheaper cooking biofuel for families in Mozambique who generally rely on charcoal for cooking. At full capacity the plant will produce 8000 gallons of ethanol a week, which the company will then transport from the province of Dondo to a neighborhood in the capital of Maputo.
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Post tags: Africa, agroforest, bio ethanol, biofuels, cassava, charcoal, cleanstar mozambique, cook stoves, dondo, ETHANOL, mozambique, NDZiLO, novozymes, permaculture
According to a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change, Americans are willing to pay for slightly higher electricity bills for clean energy. The survey, led by researchers from Yale and Harvard, asked this question: would consumers be interested in a law requiring utilities to source 80 percent of their power from sources including nuclear, solar and wind by 2035? The results indicated that on average, Americans are willing to pay an extra $162 more a year for an energy policy that mandated 80 percent of electricity is generated from renewables by 2035.
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Post tags: "clean energy", "wind power", Andrew Leiserowitz, clean energy policy, congress, Joseph Aldy, Matthew Kotchen, national clean energy standard, NCES, renewable energy, solar
Wind energy is one of the cleanest, most reliable sources of renewable energy out there, but there’s one strike against it: Most wind turbines aren’t exactly the most attractive sight. But for anyone who says that wind energy can’t match form to function, feast your eyes on the Enessere Hercules wind generator, which was designed by Terry Glenn Phipps. With curved wooden blades, the 23-foot-tall wind turbine looks more like a sculpture than other more utilitarian wind turbines, and because of its clever design, it can harness the power of wind coming from any direction.
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Post tags: "clean energy", "wind power", "wind turbine", Enessere, Hercules, renewable energy, wind energy, wind generator, wind turbine design, windmill, wooden wind turbine
While solar energy has long been touted as the key to solving the planet’s energy demands, the problem of efficiency has always hampered it. However, a team of engineers from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow believe that the key to solar energy isn’t here on Earth, but out in space.
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Post tags: "solar energy", solar energy beam, solar power space, solar satellite rays, solar satellites, solar satellites space, sun rays, university of Strathclyde
Here at Inhabitat, we are huge fans of any technology that can improve the lives of disabled people, such as exoskeletons and robotic suits. However, Brown University, working with the Department of Veteran Affairs, the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, have developed a robotic arm that allows disabled people to use their thoughts to grab objects thanks to a computer-brain interface.
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Post tags: BrainGate neural interface system, BrainGate robotic arm, brown university, brown university robotic arm, ekso bionics, ekso bionics 2012, ekso bionics exoskeleton, exoskeleton paraplegics, exosuit ekso bionics, mind controlled neural interface robotic arm, paralysis, paraplegics 2012, paraplegics ekso bionics, paraplegics ekso skeleton, paraplegics ekso suit, robotic arm mind controlled
“Wij krijgen Kippen,” which roughly translates from the Dutch to ”we pick up chickens,” has an unusual educational tool for informing the public about energy usage — their giant egg wanders through the streets of Amsterdam, and nests itself everywhere that local energy is generated. The group’s objective is to help the borough of Amsterdam Zuid transition from traditional energy sources to new, locally produced green energy. Supported by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, Wij krijgen kippen is comprised of a growing group of civilians, entrepreneurs and civil servants. As for their giant wandering egg, it serves as a public meeting point where individuals can learn about the non-profit and their green energy goals, while at night it is transformed into a large-scale projection unit for outdoor movie screenings.
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Post tags: dutch energy, energy amsterdam, giant egg, green energy, non-profit activism, public art, public space, renewable energy, we get chickens, wij krijgen kippen
Star Trek might be just a TV show for many of us, but some believe that such high-tech space exploration might soon become a reality. An engineer known simply as “BTE Dan” believes that with the technology currently available, it would be possible to create a full-size replica of the USS Enterprise, but instead of dilithium crystals, it would be powered by nuclear power.
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Post tags: barry shields, barry shields uss enterprise coffee table, BTE Dan buildtheenterprise, buildtheenterprise.org, ncc 1701-A, nuclear power uss enterprise, star trek coffee table, star trek enterprise coffee table, USS enterprise, uss enterprise A, uss enterprise coffee table, uss enterprise coffee table ash, uss enterprise coffee table barry shields, uss enterprise coffee table for sale, uss enterprise coffee table ncc-1701-c
Could what’s in this little container keep our planet healthy? The simple reality is we need to find a way to put carbon back into the soil, and making something called ‘biochar’ is perhaps the best way to do that. While attending the World Renewable Energy Forum in Denver, it was hard not to be attracted to what could be the lowest tech solution to our carbon problem — simply stabilize it and put it back into the ground from where it came. Biochar is a valuable soil amenity and fuel source, so its potential is just being tapped. The net-carbon negative process is being taken very seriously as the best, and thus far, only proven way to store carbon for the long term in large quantities.
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Post tags: bio-gas, biochar, climate change technology, Cool Planet, fixing carbon, soil amenity, WREF
Food waste has long been a problem, but it seems a particular foodstuff is more harmful than others. According to a team from Edinburgh University, wasted milk that is poured down the drain can create a carbon footprint that is equivalent to the exhaust fumes of 20,000 cars per year.
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Post tags: food waste, food waste inefficient farming, global waste, greenhouse gases, meat industry emissions, milk waste, milk waste emissions, uk emissions, uk food emissions, university of edinburgh milk waste
Saudi Arabia has long been a wealthy country because of its enormous oil reserves. But the kingdom also is rich in sunlight, and it now promises to invest over $100 billion to develop 41 gigawatts of solar electricity by 2032. The plan could eventually transform Saudi Arabia from the world’s largest oil exporter to a leading innovator of solar energy and technologies.
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Post tags: "clean energy", "solar energy", carbon emissions, Middle East, oil and gas, renewable energy, saudi arabia, solar, Solar Power, solar thermal
China’s economy is growing at unprecedented rates, and the superpower has been doing everything it can to generate enough power to support it. So far the nation has invested in everything from alternative energy to harnessing the country’s natural resources. Today the country took a major step towards upgrading its energy infrastructure by announcing the construction of the world’s largest transmission line – a massive 800 kilovolt (kv) ultra-high voltage power line that is capable of transmitting a whopping 37 billion kWh per year.
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Post tags: china, Chinese Power, ChinesePower, Hami Prefecture, HamiPrefecture, power, Power Line, power plant, PowerLine, PowerPlant, SGCC, State Grid Corporation of China, StateGridCorporationOfChina, Zhengzhou
We’ve seen scientists use viruses to generate electricity in car batteries before, however a team from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) believes that they can use harmless viruses to convert mechanical or kinetic energy into electricity. In principle, a generator in the sole of your shoe could charge assorted gadgets on your person.
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Post tags: berkeley piezoelectric battery, electricity generating virus, kinetic energy, kinetic piezoelectric gadgets, piezoelectric energy, piezoelectric virus, piezoelectric virus generator, piezoelectric viruses electricity, U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
According to a group of American youths, the US government is failing to uphold the preamble to the constitution —specifically, the government has failed “promote the general Welfare” of the people by “failing to protect the atmosphere.” And, despite being too young to vote, the group—a non-profit called Kids vs. Global Warming— is trying to sue the US government in a case which is to go before the U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.
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Post tags: climate change evidence, climate change richest nations, copenhagen climate change, developing nations climate change, energy global, g20 climate change, global climate change, global waste, guardian climate change, IEA climate change, imattermarch.org, Janez Potočnik, Janez Potočnik resources, kyoto agreement, our children's trust, waste resources
Yesterday legislation dubbed the “End Polluter Welfare Act” was announced in Congress by Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and U.S. Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN). The bill will put an end to as much as $113 billion in taxpayer subsidies from which oil, gas and coal companies would otherwise benefit in the coming decade. The money will instead go towards green energy investment, while ending such loopholes as allowing oil companies to deduct the costs they incur cleaning up their own spills and other environmental damage.
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Post tags: "clean energy", bernie sanders, Climate Change, coal, congress, end polluter welfare act, energy industry, fossil fuel companies, fossil fuel subsidies, keith ellison, loopholes, office of fossil energy, oil and gas, renewable energy, taxpayer subsidies
Going to the gym is of course great for your health, but there are at least two things that we dislike about traditional fitness clubs: you have to exercise inside (which feels particularly silly in the spring and summer), and the machines waste energy when they ought to be producing it. The Great Outdoor Gym Company, a British fitness company, offers a solution to both of those problems with gyms that are located outside and use human-generated energy to power light installations.
Read the rest of Finally, an Outdoor Gym that Generates Energy Instead of Wasting It
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Post tags: "clean energy", England, exercise, fitness, great britain, Great Outdoor Gym Company, human generated power, human power, kinetic energy, Outdoor gym, renewable energy
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