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Archive for the ‘energy’ category: Page 285

Jun 7, 2018

The decline of our oceans is accelerating, but it’s not too late to stop it

Posted by in categories: economics, energy, sustainability

We shouldn’t underestimate the powerful attraction of a ‘sustainable blue economy’, which – I firmly believe – will feed and support the lives of our children and those who come after them. Getting it right – whether through aquaculture, offshore energy, green shipping or ecotourism – is vital not just for SDG14, but for the future of the global commons, and for humankind itself. To do this we must move with purposeful steps. Here are five that could be taken immediately.

Curtail subsidies

Let us stop throwing good money after bad, and resolve to prohibit subsidies that support harmful and illegal fishing. A critical opportunity to eliminate them is looming at the 2019 ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation. It must not be missed.

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Jun 6, 2018

Vela X-1 is plowing its way through the galaxy

Posted by in categories: energy, space

Every now and again you run into an astronomical object where everything about it is mind blowing. And I get to share it with you! Let me introduce you to a binary star that will crush your imagination and make you realize the Universe is way cooler than you knew.

A few million years ago, and 6,000 light years from Earth, two stars were born out of the gas and dust in the galaxy in a cluster with many other stars. These two formed together, so close their mutual and growing gravity bound them together, forcing them to orbit one another. And they grew huge: By the time they switched on and became true stars, they each had more than two dozen times the mass of the Sun.

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Jun 6, 2018

Achieving 15 Million Degrees

Posted by in category: energy

Here, Jonathan Carling explains the significance of Tokamak Energy achieving 15 million degrees, a temperature hotter than the centre of the Sun, in their latest device ST40.

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Jun 1, 2018

Engineers design new solid polymer electrolyte, paving way for safer, smaller batteries and fuel cells

Posted by in categories: energy, satellites

Fuel cells and batteries provide electricity by generating and coaxing positively charged ions from a positive to a negative terminal which frees negatively charged electrons to power cellphones, cars, satellites, or whatever else they are connected to. A critical part of these devices is the barrier between these terminals, which must be separated for electricity to flow.

Improvements to that barrier, known as an electrolyte, are needed to make energy storage devices thinner, more efficient, safer, and faster to recharge. Commonly used liquid electrolytes are bulky and prone to shorts, and can present a fire or explosion risk if they’re punctured.

Research led by University of Pennsylvania engineers suggests a different way forward: a new and versatile kind of (SPE) that has twice the proton conductivity of the current state-of-the-art material. Such SPEs are currently found in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells, but the researchers’ new design could also be adapted to work for the lithium-ion or sodium-ion batteries found in consumer electronics.

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May 31, 2018

Europe is building more wind and solar — without any subsidies

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

In the United States, the energy market dynamics are quite different. There is less top-down pressure to deploy renewables in the US, and the main support comes in the form of tax credits on the back end rather than feed-in tariffs or other subsidies on the customer-facing side. These subsidies are applied across the industry and not through a competitive bidding process. As a result, there isn’t as strong a push to get the industry off the incentives that are available.

But one element of the American renewable energy experience is gaining ground in Europe, namely the use of power purchasing agreements (PPAs) with utilities to buy electricity at a fixed price for years at a time.

PPAs are far less common in Europe than in the United States, but some of these new unsubsidized renewable energy projects are counting on them.

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May 30, 2018

Gravity might be the next big renewable energy source

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

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May 21, 2018

Newly discovered copper and graphite combo could lead to more efficient lithium-ion batteries

Posted by in categories: energy, materials

A first-of-its-kind copper and graphite combination discovered in basic energy research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory could have implications for improving the energy efficiency of lithium-ion batteries, which include these components.

“We’re pretty excited by this, because we didn’t expect it,” said Pat Thiel, an Ames Laboratory scientist and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University. “Copper doesn’t seem to interact strongly or favorably with graphitic materials at all, so this was a big surprise. It really challenges us to understand the reasons and mechanisms involved.”

The scientists bombarded graphite in an ultra-high vacuum environment with ions to create surface defects. Copper was then deposited on the ion-bombarded graphite while holding it at elevated temperature, at 600–800 K. The synthetic route created multilayer copper islands that are completely covered by graphene layer(s).

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May 21, 2018

Advanced biofuels can be produced extremely efficiently

Posted by in categories: energy, finance, sustainability, transportation

A chance to switch to renewable sources for heating, electricity and fuel, while also providing new opportunities for several industries to produce large numbers of renewable products. This is the verdict of researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, who now, after 10 years of energy research into gasification of biomass, see an array of new technological achievements.

“The potential is huge! Using only the already existing Swedish energy plants, we could produce renewable fuels equivalent to 10 percent of the world’s , if such a conversion were fully implemented,” says Henrik Thunman, Professor of Energy Technology at Chalmers.

How to implement a switch from fossil-fuels to renewables is a tricky issue for many industries. For heavy industries, such as oil refineries, or the paper and pulp industry, it is especially urgent to start moving, because investment cycles are so long. At the same time, it is important to get the investment right because you may be forced to replace boilers or facilities in advance, which means major financial costs. Thanks to long-term strategic efforts, researchers at Sweden´s Chalmers University of Technology have now paved the way for radical changes, which could be applied to new installations, as well as be implemented at thousands of existing plants around the globe.

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May 18, 2018

Wind and solar are coming. Grid managers need to get ready

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Yes, I know of a soon to be made public solar company that will totally alter the renewable market. Decentralized microgrids are coming!


The rise in renewable energy will scramble the sector at this rate.

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May 18, 2018

World-class battery storage system helps to power country town

Posted by in categories: energy, government

A new energy storage system developed by University of Adelaide researchers and industry partners is now successfully supporting the electricity network for the country town of Cape Jervis, South Australia.

The new, world-class system is part of a $3.65 million trial led by the University of Adelaide in collaboration with SA Power Networks and system supplier PowerTec. The project is supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) on behalf of the Australian Government with $1.44 million in grant funding.

The mobile battery energy storage system and its specialised control system reduces peak load of the local substation, stabilises the in the area, and supports a number of nearby customers in the event of a power interruption – all without manual intervention.

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