Energy

Thank Natural Gas: US Power Plant Emissions Continue To Go Down

America is back at mid-1990s levels of carbon dioxide emissions. Some of that is due to the ongoing recession, of course, but a large chunk is due to the switch from the dirty coal plants that ballooned after America stopped producing emissions-free nucle ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 9 2014 - 1:46pm

Artificial Photosynthesis, The Chromophore Way

Every child learns about photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into energy. It sounds simple but duplicating it elegantly remains one of the biggest challenges for chemists. Currently, the most efficient methods that we have of maki ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 15 2014 - 6:00am

Tidal Power: Pentland Firth Island Channel Could Provide 50% Of Scotland's Electricity

A new estimate has said that tidal power generated by turbines placed in the Pentland Firth, between mainland Scotland and Orkney, could power about half of Scotland- they estimate 1.9 gigawatts could be available. ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 20 2014 - 11:30am

Germany Embraces Natural Gas

When it was fashionable to do so, Germany claimed they were scuttling their nuclear power plants. Their energy companies, bolstered by billions of Euros in government subsidies, rushed to replace nuclear energy with solar and other alternative energy schem ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Jan 20 2014 - 2:20pm

Sweet, Sweet Biofuel Using GMOs

A new biofuel has been created from yeast and ordinary table sugar. The yeast produces oils and fats, known as lipids, that can be used in place of petroleum-derived products.  It has something everyone can love. And hate. It's a biofuel, which envir ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 22 2014 - 1:37pm

IDDP-1: Magma-Enhanced Geothermal System Proof Of Concept

What would you do if you were on a borehole drilling expedition and tapped into 1,000 degree Celcius magma at slightly over a mile deep? Most people would run but the Icelandic Deep Drilling Project at Krafla in 2009 felt a sense of accomplishment. It was ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 23 2014 - 5:39pm

A BitTorrent For Electricity

On a per capita electricity production basis, environmentalists are winning the war on energy Electricity for all, which was once considered the goal of technological progress, is now treated like a giant step on the road to an ecological Apocalypse. As a ...

Article - Hank Campbell - Mar 4 2014 - 11:14am

Wind Farms: Negative Effect On Climate Change Is Overblown

Wind farms are not very good. Yes, politicians embrace them because the unions advocating them donate heavily to campaigns, and environmentalists advocate them because they always advocate something new until it becomes popular (natural gas the 1980s, etha ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 26 2014 - 11:01am

Optimize Agriculture By Optimizing Photosynthesis

Maybe photosynthesis can be improved. That may sound like blasphemy but the easy solution to growing more food is teaching crop plants to concentrate carbon dioxide in their leaves. That could increase photosynthetic efficiency by 60 percent and yields by ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 4 2014 - 4:11pm

Biomass Plants: Go Small And It Could Help Stabilize The National Power Grid

The worldwide love affair with subsidized green energy is fading fast but that shouldn't be taken to mean the science is not solid.  In America, new power plants are difficult to get built and as a result the cost of electricity has gone up while the ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 10 2014 - 4:31pm