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Renewable Energy
Environmental progress is happening quickly but we must keep pushing for change.
As wind power grows around the world, so does the threat the turbines pose to wildlife. From simple fixes to high-tech solutions, new approaches can help.
Decades ago, a disaster left three million acres of land uninhabitable and killed between 85,600 and 240,000 people. Chernobyl? No. Banqiao dam in China.
A massive nuclear fusion experiment just hit a major milestone, potentially putting us a little closer to a future of limitless clean energy.
McDermitt Caldera, the site of an ancient volcanic eruption, straddles the border of Oregon and Nevada.
Experiments on suborbital rockets are revealing how to make a better iron furnace.
Smarter building materials can control indoor temperatures without external power.
Pain relievers like acetaminophen and ibuprofen are made with chemicals derived from oil. Scientists have shown how to make them from trees.
Ironically, the company did so using technology perfected by the oil industry.
We're separating the facts about EVs from the fiction.
There may be more energy in methane hydrates than in all the world’s oil, coal, and gas combined. It could be the perfect "bridge fuel" to a clean energy future.
The robot can drive heavy steal beams into the ground at a rate of 1 per 73 seconds, which will help expedite solar farm construction.
Old coal mines can be converted into "gravity batteries" by retrofitting them with equipment that raises and lowers giant piles of sand.
Wind farms seem less productive when scientists incorporate more realistic atmospheric models into their output predictions.
Innovative thinking has done away with problems that long dogged the electric devices — and both scientists and environmentalists are excited about the possibilities.
Capacitors, acid batteries, and other methods of storing electric charges all lose energy over time. These gravity-fed batteries won't.
It was a particularly good year for biotech and medical technology. There were also notable advances in energy.
Some solar cells are so lightweight they can sit on a soap bubble.
Lithium-ion batteries pose challenges for our transition toward renewable energy. Sodium-sulfur batteries might be a solution.
"A modern five-day forecast is as accurate as a one-day forecast in 1980."
Once water gets more than about 200 feet deep, building on the sea floor is out of the question.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
Its implications go well beyond the Earth itself, affecting even the future of space travel.
Nuclear fusion has long been seen as the future of energy. As the NIF now passes the breakeven point, how close are we to our ultimate goal?
If you gave me $400 and I gave you $3.15, would you consider yourself wealthier? That's a financial analogy for the supposed fusion power "breakthrough."
They are expected to be cheaper to build and even more reliable than today’s nuclear plants.
It could one day fuel nuclear fusion reactors.
You might think it's impossible to run out of wind, but Europe's "wind drought" proves otherwise. And it's only going to get worse.
Most electric car charging is done at night. A grid powered mostly by renewable energy might not be able to meet demand, but there is a solution.
Short-hop regional flights could be running on batteries in a few years.