energy

“Tribo-electric” is a modern term with ancient roots – from the Greek word for “rub.”   Its electricity is created from friction between two substances causing a charge of electrons to be transferred from one to the other.   It…

There’s promising news from the front on efforts to produce fuels through artificial photosynthesis. A new study by Berkeley Lab researchers at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) shows that nearly 90 percent of the electrons generated by a…

Press reports of Texas completing new transmission lines for wind describe an energy boom with a difference—this is carbon-free wind energy.   The grid operator in Texas, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), says agreements are already done for 7,500…

In the fall, PJM, the largest grid operator in the world, serving 60 million customers across 13 Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes states, issued the preliminary results of a major wind integration study. The final results of the study were released…

Dubai aims to cut energy consumption by 20 per cent by 2020, as it enforces an energy-efficient building project, a government executive said yesterday.   Buildings use 70 per cent of the energy that we produce,” said Abdulla Mohammed Rafia,…

Today’s planes are so boring. The Sky Whale, a hybrid plane that can fit 755 people, is a big upgrade. When we picture transportation of the future, we tend to think “sleek.” A Spanish designer has gone in the opposite…

Regardless of debate about the success of Germany’s renewables revolution, there is no denying that a small town in the corner of rural eastern Germany, 40 miles south of Berlin, may be one of the best examples of decentralized self-sufficiency.…

It’s official—the world’s largest solar thermal plant has opened for business.   Located in in the Mojave Desert, 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas, near the California-Nevada border, Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System has begun generating power from three units,…

The U.S. electric sector faces radical change in 2014. From the rise of disruptive technologies to paradigm shifts in policy and regulation, every industry player today is confronting a wholly uncertain future. With that in mind, two of our writers…

As knowledge about climate change increases, so does demand for clean energy. Technologies like solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, tidal and biofuels, along with energy-grid designs that will help us take advantage of renewables, are part of the equation, as is…