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In their ongoing effort to make carbon capture more affordable, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have developed a method to convert captured carbon dioxide (CO2) into methane, the primary component of natural gas. By streamlining a longstanding process in which CO2 is converted to methane, the researchers’ new method reduces …

If you’ve already made the switch to an electric vehicle, you’ve probably got your charging routine down to a T and are already seeing the cost benefits, but you may be thinking about the future of servicing and repairing your vehicle. At LV= General Insurance (LV= GI), we’ve been thinking about that too. So, in …

Sandia National Laboratories researchers combined large sets of real-world solar data and advanced machine learning to study the impacts of severe weather on U.S. solar farms, and sort out what factors affect energy generation. Their results were published earlier this month in the scientific journal Applied Energy. Hurricanes, blizzards, hailstorms and wildfires all pose risks …

Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a soft, stretchable device that converts movement into electricity and works in both dry and wet environments. “Mechanical energy — such as the kinetic energy of wind, waves, body movement and vibrations from motors — is abundant,” says Michael Dickey, corresponding author of a paper on the …

Having used fossil fuels for over a century for nearly everything, humanity has triggered a climate crisis. Now, the directive is to achieve net zero emissions or carbon neutrality by 2050. A hydrogen economy is one way in which a carbon neutral world can thrive. At present, the simplest way to produce hydrogen fuel is …

With the addition of sensors and enhanced communication tools, providing lightweight, portable power has become even more challenging. Army-funded research demonstrated a new approach to turning thermal energy into electricity that could provide compact and efficient power for Soldiers on future battlefields. Hot objects radiate light in the form of photons into their surroundings. The …

Pulling heat-trapping carbon dioxide out of the air and turning it into useful products, a concept called carbon capture and utilization, has the potential to offer both environmental and economic benefits. By some optimistic estimates, CCU could generate annual revenues of more than $800 billion by 2030 while reducing climate-altering carbon dioxide emissions by up …

Hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources with the help of electric power is deemed a key to the energy transition: It can be used to chemically store wind and solar energy in a CO2-neutral way. Researchers have studied water electrolysis processes on the surface of an iridium oxide catalyst. Using energy from solar modules and …

As China’s economic development continues, energy demand is rising along with it. Meeting this energy demand via fossil fuels is becoming increasingly undesirable, because it poses environmental and climate risks. One solution is to embrace renewable energy sources, such as wind power, and it has experienced fast growth within China during the past decade. But …

Electricity tariffs designed around EV drivers are making it easier and cheaper to charge up at home. If you have an electric vehicle and charge up at home, it’s likely that you’ll have seen your utility bills increase. Fortunately, new types of smart electricity tariff can help reduce the cost by offering cheaper rates at …

With wind generation one of the fastest-growing renewable energy sectors in the world, Flinders University experts are using machine learning and other signal processing techniques to characterise annoying noise features from wind farms. Two new publications from the ongoing Wind Farm Noise Study take another step towards improving wind turbine noise assessment methods, guidelines and …

Ocean currents, propelled by kinetic energy from the wind, are the great moderators of our climate. By transferring heat from the equator to polar regions, they help make our planet habitable. And yet, the large-scale models used by scientists to study this complex system fail to accurately account for the impact of wind on the …

A patented process for converting alcohol sourced from renewable or industrial waste gases into jet or diesel fuel is being scaled up at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory with the help of partners at Oregon State University and the carbon-recycling experts at LanzaTech. Two key technologies power the energy-efficient fuel production …

A team of international scientists led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has devised a new ‘greener’ method to make a key compound in fertiliser, and that may pave the way to a more sustainable agricultural practice as global food demand rises. Devised by NTU researchers, the method produces a compound known as ‘urea’, …

Researchers have developed prototype technology that can double the power harvested from ocean waves, in an advance that could finally make wave energy a viable renewable alternative. The untapped potential of ocean wave energy is vast — it has been estimated that the power of coastal waves around the world each year is equivalent to …

When people talk about how to eliminate vehicles’ carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, often the conversation often focuses on electrifying cars, trucks and buses. Yet cargo and tanker ships, which are responsible for 3% of all CO2 emissions, are rarely a part of the discussion. Now a Northwestern University research team offers a practical way to …

The optimised Wendelstein 7-X stellarator, which went into operation five years ago, is intended to demonstrate that stellarator-type fusion plants are suitable for power plants. The magnetic field, which encloses the hot plasma and keeps it away from the vessel walls, was planned with great theoretical and computational effort in such a way that the …

“Blue” hydrogen — an energy source that involves a process for making hydrogen by using methane in natural gas — is being lauded as a clean, green energy to help reduce global warming. But Cornell and Stanford University researchers believe it may harm the climate more than burning fossil fuel. The carbon footprint to create …

To find a power source for buoys, look no further than the ocean itself. During the AIP Publishing Horizons — Energy Storage and Conversion virtual conference, which will be held Aug. 4-6, Cátia Rodrigues, from the University of Porto, will discuss the prospects of using power generators in the ocean to address the energy concerns …

Osprey Charging – Gosport There is a common belief: the bigger, the better: more powerful EV chargers are best for drivers and landlords. This belief is based on the simple proposition: that a more powerful charger gives a faster charging time, and that is what all drivers want. The reality, however, is much more complicated. …

A common farm weed could make a “greener” jet fuel with fewer production-related environmental impacts than other biofuels, a new study indicates. Growing the weed, pennycress — often called stinkweed — as a crop requires less fertilizer and fewer pesticides than other plants that can be used to make renewable jet fuel, according to the …

Hydrogen fuel derived from the sea could be an abundant and sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, but the potential power source has been limited by technical challenges, including how to practically harvest it. Researchers at the University of Central Florida have designed for the first time a nanoscale material that can efficiently split seawater into …

Researchers created a global dataset of job footprints in 50 countries and used a model to investigate how trying to meet the Paris Agreement global climate target of staying well below 2°C would affect energy sector jobs. They found that action to reach said target would increase net jobs by about 8 million by 2050, …

In the wind power industry, optimization of yaw, the alignment of a wind turbine’s angle relative to the horizonal plane, has long shown promise for mitigating wake effects that cause a downstream turbine to produce less power than its upstream partner. However, a critical missing puzzle piece in the application of this knowledge has recently …

The largest and most important industry of my country, the German Automotive industry is shrinking. They are shrinking for 3 consecutive years and a 4th is about to follow. Even worse, all information we have today shows us that the process accelerates. My statement is based on hard data and facts and not an opinion. …

The future of Samoa’s electricity system could go green, a University of Otago study has shown. Pacific Island nations are particularly susceptible to climate change and face high costs and energy security issues from imported fossil fuels. For these reasons many Pacific Island nations have developed ambitious 100 per cent renewable energy targets. However, they …

One of the leading thinkers in nano-science has called on the energy materials community to help finally put an end to the world’s reliance on fossil fuels. In a hard-hitting editorial published by Energy and Environmental Materials, Professor Ravi Silva, Director of the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) at the University of Surrey, argues that there …