Archive for the 'Energy' Category
When the Rivers Run Black
March 20th, 2014Via: Medium: The most toxic byproduct of coal-fired power isn’t carbon dioxide. It’s the residue that’s left over. When coal is burned in a plant, just like in a home, it produces two kinds of ash: fly ash, which rises, and bottom ash, which sinks to the floor of the furnace. Together, they comprise coal […]
Navy SEALs Seize Oil Tanker from Libyan Rebels
March 18th, 2014Via: USA Today: A U.S. Navy SEAL raid to seize control of an oil tanker that had been commandeered by Libyan rebels reflects a broad U.S. policy to try and help bolster the country’s weak central government, which has struggled since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. No shots were fired during the operation, […]
The One About Satellites Beaming Power Down to Earth Is Making the Rounds Again
March 17th, 2014*roll eyes* Via: Wired: For decades, the Pentagon has been the world’s largest oil consumer, and as global petroleum prices continue to rise, the military has been searching for feasible energy alternatives. Now they’re looking in space. The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is building technology that will allow the military to capture solar power […]
Forests Around Chernobyl Aren’t Decaying Properly
March 15th, 2014Via: Smithsonian: Nearly 30 years have passed since the Chernobyl plant exploded and caused an unprecedented nuclear disaster. The effects of that catastrophe, however, are still felt today. Although no people live in the extensive exclusion zones around the epicenter, animals and plants still show signs of radiation poisoning. Birds around Chernobyl have significantly smaller […]
Wireless Electricity: “It’s Perfectly Safe”
March 15th, 2014No thanks. Via: CNN: Don’t worry about getting zapped: Hall assures that the magnetic fields used to transfer energy are “perfectly safe” — in fact, they are the same kind of fields used in Wi-Fi routers. In the house of the future, wire-free energy transfer could be as easy as wireless internet. If all goes […]
RUSSIAN FORCES SEIZE GAS FACILITY INSIDE UKRAINE
March 15th, 2014Via: Telegraph: Ukraine’s military mobilised to thwart an apparent Russian advance for the first time on Saturday night as Kiev sent paratroops to defend a gas facility near Crimea with tensions high in the hours leading up to Sunday’s independence referendum. The foreign ministry in Kiev denounced an “invasion” by Russia’s forces into its mainland, […]
“It’s Me Against the Universe”: Developing Nuclear Fusion in a Basement with a Reclusive Gunsmith
March 12th, 2014A friend of mine does highly technical research work from his outlaw dwelling somewhere in the western part of the U.S. I sent him the link below about Doug Coulter and he wrote back: Speaking of open source physics… I don’t know if you’re interested in this. If not, maybe some of you’re readers might […]
MIT’s Liquid Metal Batteries Could Compensate for Intermittent Nature of Renewable Energy
March 7th, 2014Via: Bloomberg: A 40-foot trailer loaded with 25 tons of liquid metals may be the solution to the renewable-energy industry’s biggest challenge: making sure electricity is available whenever it’s needed. A Boston-area startup founded by MIT researchers is working to turn this new concept into a commercially viable product, liquid-metal batteries that will store power […]
Dismantling Fukushima Will Require Robotic Technology That Has Not Been Invented Yet
March 2nd, 2014Via: IEEE: “At Fukushima you have wrecked infrastructure, three melted cores, and you have some core on the floor, ex-vessel,” Barrett says. Nothing like Fukushima, he declares, has ever happened before.
Britain: Perovskite Solar Panels
March 2nd, 2014Via: Guardian: Materials researchers in Oxford, led by Dr Henry Snaith, have recently shown that they can make simple perovskite solar cells with efficiencies pushing 20%. This is big news, because 20% makes them competitive with existing commercial silicon solar cells while being much cheaper to make in high volumes. They are also more suitable […]
