Coal and Nuclear are Uneconomic — More Bombshells from Perry’s Draft Grid Study

On Saturday, we reported that a leaked draft of Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s grid study obtained by Bloomberg debunks his attack on renewable energy. ThinkProgress has now obtained a copy of that draft, and it has many more surprises — or, rather, findings that are fairly well known to energy experts but may come as an unpleasant surprise to Perry and […]

NASA Plans to Use Nuclear Reactors on MARS

KiloPower Design – Image Source: Dasari V. Rao, Patrick McClure, Los Alamos National Laboratory as published in R&D Magazine 02/14/17 The reactors would use highly enriched uranium as a fuel to power fission processes. The development of the technology would also require completion of the design and flight qualification of the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator. (ASRG) […]

Fusion energy pushed back beyond 2050

We will have to wait until the second half of the century for fusion reactors to start generating electricity, experts have announced. A new version of a European “road map” lays out the technological hurdles to be overcome if the processes powering the Sun are to be harnessed on Earth. The road map has been […]

Remunicipalisation of Energy Systems

Image: Advertisement for the municipal electricity utility in Hamburg (round 1900) In Germany, there is a strong movement to claim the gas, electricity and heating networks back from private corporations. Initiated by civil organisations, they are pushing the political arena to take action towards a remunicipalisation of the energy system. This is a very interesting […]

China’s ‘artificial sun’ sets world record with 100 second steady-state high performance plasma

Basic parameters of the world’s longest 101.2 s high confinement discharge achieved on EAST (Bt=2.5T, PRF=3.0MW, ne/neGW=0.55, Te=4.0KeV, H98y2=1.1, Upper single null configuration) Credit: EAST Team China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) made an important advance by achieving a stable 101.2-second steady-state high confinement plasma, setting a world record in long-pulse H-mode operation on the […]

Scientists race to create fusion power’s ‘perfect energy’

AS THE world tries to ween itself off fossil fuels, scientists are racing towards one of the biggest breakthroughs in history that could provide virtually unlimited energy. Theoretical physicist Professor Steven Cowley spruiked the immense potential of fusion, which he described as a “perfect energy source”, in a “deliberately provocative” talk at Syndey University on […]

Energy Mixes Shift But Fossils Remain King

By Evan Lund The world’s most valuable company is not Apple, Google, or Amazon. It’s an oil company, and it’s about to go public. Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian state energy goliath, is preparing for an initial public offering in 2018. Depending on who you ask, its valuation will be somewhere between $250 billion and […]

Lightyear One solar car charges itself and will have a 500-mile range

A Dutch startup is planning to bring a completely solar-powered electric car to market, which could theoretically let some drivers go for months without plugging it in. The ne plus ultra of electric cars might be in the works, thanks to a team of alumni from Solar Team Eindhoven, which has been developing prototypes of […]

Fossil Fuels Are Becoming Stranded Assets

Summary We’re seeing big price declines in fossil fuels. Technology is the hero — or culprit, depending on your point of view. EVs will be the death knell for oil. The move away from fossil fuels: Is it just in time? Here are three clean energy stocks to consider. In January, Exxon Mobil (XOM) wrote […]

Are We Headed for a Solar Waste Crisis?

Last November, Japan’s Environment Ministry issued a stark warning: the amount of solar panel waste Japan produces every year will rise from 10,000 to 800,000 tons by 2040, and the nation has no plan for safely disposing of it. Neither does California, a world leader in deploying solar panels. Only Europe requires solar panel makers to collect […]

The Song of ‘Fire Ice’: China Claims Revolution in Energy Extraction

As China celebrates its success in extracting natural gas from ‘fire ice’, it’s still unclear whether Beijing has made a significant technological achievement and revolutionized the energy industry. © AFP 2017/ KAZUHIRO NOGI Seeking Energy Security, China, Japan Race to Tap ‘Fire Ice’ Earlier China proudly announced that the country for the first time managed to successfully […]

13 Year Old Channels Nikola Tesla, Creates Free Energy

Can a teenager teach the world how to run on free energy? Max Loughan is not your typical 13 year old. The Nevada native isn’t making yet another volcano for his middle school science fair. Instead, he has turned the boiler room in his parents’ home into a laboratory, where he invents things. Max’s latest […]

Canada Is Building a 7 Megawatt-Hour Compressed Air Energy Storage Plant

Green energy is a popular topic right now, with many countries signing on to the Paris Climate Accord and planning to move away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy. While most countries are working toward establishing solar and wind power farms, some countries like Canada are looking toward the creation of compressed air storage plants for power […]

MIT Scientist Asserts That We Will Have Fusion Energy by 2030

Fusion on the Horizon In the continuous pursuit of a truly renewable and clean energy source, nothing compares to nuclear fusion. Although scientists have already found ways to harness the energy from the reaction that powers stars, it hasn’t been an easy feat. Despite the advances in research pertaining to nuclear fusion, there still isn’t […]

As Oil & Gas Faces a ‘Last Cycle,’ a Generational Divide Emerges Over Its Future

The oil and gas industry is facing its “last cycle,” according to consultancy Ernst & Young. What does that mean? It’s a “time when energy abundance, driven by technology, creates a permanent oversupply that not only keeps prices low but also allows consumers to make new choices about their energy usage.” In this new world, […]

Fusion Breakthrough: A Half-Century-Old Puzzle Comes Together

The secret is in regulating the speed of runaway electrons. In light of the monumental crisis we’re facing, we’re referring to global warming and climate change, of course, we’ve never had to find a new source of energy as badly as we do right now. And it’s not just any alternative source of energy. What […]

Finally, a Biofuel to Get Excited About

Most biofuels news is bad—our current national program incentivizes the production and consumption of corn-based ethanol that somehow manages to increase food prices, increase gas prices, hurt American refineries, and hurt the environment. It’s a boondoggle, plain and simple. But not all biofuels are terrible. You can distill ethanol from cellulosic crops, an option that’s […]

This Breakthrough Could Solve the Most Dangerous Problem With Nuclear Fusion

Creating Nuclear Fusion could mean unlimited energy, free of any radioactive by-product or greenhouse gases. It has been the goal of physicists since the beginning of the Atomic Era. Unfortunately achieving this goal is difficult and dangerous. But a recent breakthrough could bring us one step closer. An article published in Physical Review Letters explains […]

Three Mile Island is the Latest Nuclear Power Plant to Announce Retirement Plans

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Nuclear power plant data, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and IAEA Power Reactor Information System At the end of May, Exelon, the owner of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in southeastern Pennsylvania, announced its intention to retire the plant in 2019 unless the company is given assistance by the state […]

Fattened, Genetically Engineered Algae Might Fuel the Future

The future of fuel is green, slimy, and reeks of fish. “Fish smell like fish because fish eat algae,” says Imad Ajjawi, a geneticist at the synbio company Synthetic Genomics in La Jolla, CA that grows those smelly photosynthesizers. This algae is also fatty, which probably isn’t a word you’d typically associate with the goopy, […]

The Fall and Rise of Nuclear Power

Westinghouse’s bankruptcy culminates the collapse of potential US strategic leadership in world nuclear energy. The US has faltered in many aspects of nuclear technology, now allowing other nations to become the world leaders in nuclear and energy diplomacy. Regaining the strategic power will be technically straightforward but politically difficult. Nuclear energy importance More important even […]

Solar Power Will Kill Coal Faster Than You Think

Solar power, once so costly it only made economic sense in spaceships, is becoming cheap enough that it will push coal and even natural-gas plants out of business faster than previously forecast. That’s the conclusion of a Bloomberg New Energy Finance outlook for how fuel and electricity markets will evolve by 2040. The research group estimated solar already […]

Technology to bring forward peak energy and renewables tipping point

The world economy stands to hit peak energy by 2025, according to a new study. Exploring the effects of advancing technology on the energy sector, a white paper from McKinsey & Company’s found the acceleration of global technology could mean peak coal is already upon us, while peak oil may arrive as soon as 2020, while […]

Greenie Techno-Cornucopianism

Discuss this article at the Seasteading Table inside the Diner I regularly cross-post the work of Albert Bates here on the Diner.  He’s a true Hero of the Revolution, going back to the 1970s when The Farm was founded as part of the Back to the Land Movement of the era.  The Farm has gone […]

All Dutch trains now run on 100% wind power

Initially, trains in the Netherlands were set to run entirely on renewable energy by 2018. However, it seems officials have been able to beat that goal by an entire year. As of the first of January this year, all public transport trains are being powered by renewable energy, namely from wind power. The historical land […]

Can Renewables Power the World?

  Is the net energy of renewables high enough to actually power human civilization? Or will replacing fossil fuels prove too difficult on an energetic basis? What is the state of the art in net energy analysis, and can biophysical economics yet prove to be policy relevant, and not just an arcane field of study […]

Google, Amazon and Apple ‘set to enter’ energy supply business

Giant tech companies such as Google, Amazon and Apple, along with major car companies, are set to move into the energy supply business over the next decade due to a technological revolution that has already begun. That is the prediction of Dieter Helm, Professor of Energy Policy at University of Oxford. Speaking at a seminar […]

Five dirty truths about clean technology

The planet is changing. The complacency is changing. The energy business is changing. And–after more than two centuries of hydrocarbon use and 150 years of extracting oil–history is changing as a growing number of companies and public-sector entities try to transform the fossil-fuel era in real time. The clock is clearly ticking as we confront […]

In record-breaking weekend, Germany got 85% of its electricity from renewables

Germany is kicking all kinds of sustainable butt when it comes to its use of renewable energy sources. According to recently released figures, for the last weekend of April, the country established a jaw-dropping new national record in this department — with 85 percent of all electricity consumed in Germany being produced through wind, solar, […]

Fusion Power: First Plasma Has Been Achieved

Due to technological advances, what was predicted to be achievable in the year 2025 has already been attained this 2017 — eight years earlier than the initial forecast. International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject. It is the world’s largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment and is also […]

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