Can Nuclear Fusion Put the Brakes on Climate Change?

Let’s say that you’ve devoted your entire adult life to developing a carbon-free way to power a household for a year on the fuel of a single glass of water, and that you’ve had moments, even years, when you were pretty sure you would succeed. Let’s say also that you’re not crazy. This is a […]

Fusion energy nears Kitty Hawk moment

IN TRYING TO EXPLAIN their recent fusion energy breakthrough, Dennis Whyte of MIT and Bob Mumgaard of Commonwealth Fusion Systems reached back to the dawn of aviation. Fusion could be a life-saver for the planet, producing carbon-free, relatively inexpensive energy with no waste byproducts. It works the same way the sun does, by merging two […]

The coming decline of oil is another excellent reason to make the energy transition

It is the lifeblood of the economy. Few of the objects around us that have not been made or shipped thanks to him. It is oil, which has been exploited since the middle of the 19th century, and which today remains the main source of fossil energy consumed on Earth. For how long before the […]

Fusion experiments break records and explode 10 trillion watts of energy

  Damien Jemison, a photographer at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), captured this image of the NIF laser beamline entering part of the target chamber. Jemison needed five exposures to capture the range of light in dimly lit areas. He also converted the resulting image into a monotonous, saying, “The end result is my artistic […]

Start-Up Hopes to Move a Step Closer to Commercial Fusion

A start-up founded by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says it is nearing a technological milestone that could take the world a step closer to fusion energy, which has eluded scientists for decades. Researchers at M.I.T.’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and engineers at the company, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, have begun testing an […]

‘Blue’ Hydrogen Is Worse For the Climate Than Coal, Study Says

quotes a report from Ars Technica: Most hydrogen today is made by exposing natural gas to high heat, pressure, and steam in a process that creates carbon dioxide as a byproduct. In what’s called “gray” hydrogen, all that carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. In “blue” hydrogen, facilities capture the carbon dioxide and sell […]

Is Hydrogen Just Oil And Gas Greenwashed?

The debate over the position of hydrogen in the new energy revolution has come to the fore again thanks to Japan’s hosting of the Olympic Games. The Olympic buses run on hydrogen, and even the Olympic Cauldron is a hydrogen flame. But rather than showcasing how green this miracle new fuel is, it has highlighted […]

5 Wild New Ways To Generate Energy

With the clean energy shift beginning to gain serious momentum, the prime candidates for a sustainable future have been solar, wind, and–to a lesser extent–geothermal energy and nuclear fission. But with the window for the world to act to avert catastrophic and irreversible climate change rapidly closing down, we are beginning to realize that every […]

‘Generator’ Turns Plastic Trash Into Edible Protein

The 2021 Future Insight Prize went to Ting Lu, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Stephen Techtmann, associate professor of biological sciences at Michigan Technological University, for their project. It uses microbes to degrade plastic waste and convert it into food. The German science and technology company Merck sponsors the […]

Bezos-Backed Fusion Startup Picks UK to Build First Plant

A nuclear fusion startup backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos will build its first pilot power plant outside of London, potentially accelerating a new way of generating clean energy. Canada’s General Fusion Inc. is one of about two dozen startups trying to harness the power that makes stars shine. Rather than splitting atoms like in traditional fission reactors, fusion […]

Over $1 trillion needed by 2030 to put world on track to reach net-zero by 2050

A report earlier this month from the International Energy Agency (IEA) carried out in collaboration with the World Bank and the World Economic Forum has found that the world’s energy and climate futures are increasingly hinged on whether emerging economies manage that transition successfully. The report calls for a complete rethink of global efforts to mobilise and […]

Wyoming To Lead The Coal-To-Nuclear Transition

Coal and natural gas together produce two-thirds of our electricity, almost equally split between them. Nuclear produces 20%, hydro produces 7%, and renewables about 7%. Oil produces even more energy than either coal or gas, but it is used almost entirely for transportation except during Polar Vortexes when coal, gas and wind fail to produce […]

‘Insanely cheap energy’: how solar power continues to shock the world

In the year 2000, the International Energy Agency made a prediction that would come back to haunt it: by 2020, the world would have installed a grand total of 18 gigawatts of photovoltaic solar capacity. Seven years later, the forecast would be proven spectacularly wrong when roughly 18 gigawatts of solar capacity were installed in […]

The Great Unfunded Green-Hydrogen Dream

Europe’s oil refiners have big plans to boost the use of green hydrogen to help them make fuel, an important component of the petroleum industry’s plans to cut its operational carbon emissions. But with the clock ticking in the battle against climate change, the reality of what the industry has committed to remains modest. Green […]

China maintains ‘artificial sun’ at 120 million Celsius for over 100 seconds, setting new world record

Thermo image of inside of the “artificial sun” fusion reactor Photo: screenshot of Xinhua China broke the record by keeping the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) by achieving plasma temperature at 120 million Celsius for 101 seconds and 160 million Celsius for 20 seconds, a major step toward the test run of the fusion reactor. […]

Green apocalypse

For decades, the powers-that-be have been claiming the world would come to an end within a few years (they’ve repeatedly predicted catastrophes that didn’t happen ever since 1970). Their mantra has always been to push wacky ideas they’ve fabricated in their burning desire to control every element of our lives — and they wind up […]

Clean energy minerals shortage: Who knew it could happen?

The race for so-called green energy has spawned another race, one for the minerals needed to make the devices such as solar panels and batteries that produce, store and transmit that energy. A hitherto largely unchallenged economic idea—that we will always have supplies of everything we need at the time we need it at prices […]

Renewables to grow far faster than oil sector

Renewable energy will account for a far larger share of global supply in 2050 than major oil companies or the International Energy Agency (IEA) expect, Oslo-based consultancy Rystad Energy said on Thursday. Its updated models show renewables meeting 74% of total energy demand by 2050, compared to 43%, 45% and 69% in the most aggressive […]

IEA Says Governments Should Consider Stockpiling Battery Metals

Western governments should consider stockpiling critical battery metals such as cobalt and lithium, the International Energy Agency said, in a stark warning of the geopolitical risks that accompany the green-energy transition. That call comes as some policy makers worry the shift from burning fossil fuels to a greener economy will expose the world to new […]

Solar and wind can meet world energy demand 100 times over

Huge falls in the cost of solar and wind power in the last few years have unlocked an energy reserve that can meet world demand 100 times over — and most is already economic compared with fossil fuels, finds a report from the think tank Carbon Tracker published today. Solar and wind are inexhaustible sources […]

The Dark Cloud of Going Green

I was invited by a LinkedIn member to share the following post he read on my page. Having been involved in multiple projects, including the one to assist customers with natural gas availability to convert from electric to get them off the grid, I have becoming acutely aware that there are many fingers in the […]

‘Insanely cheap energy’: how solar power continues to shock the world

Australian smarts and Chinese industrial might made solar power the cheapest power humanity has seen – and no one saw it coming   In the year 2000, the International Energy Agency (IEA) made a prediction that would come back to haunt it: by 2020, the world would have installed a grand total of 18 gigawatts […]

Turning Cow Poop Into Energy Sounds Like a Good Idea — But Not Everyone Is on Board

On days when the air pollution is especially bad, a mother in Tulare County, California – where cows outnumber people 2 to 1 – forbids her children from going outside. The woman, who declined to be named for fear of reprisal from her neighbors in the dairy industry, said that nearly everyone in her family, […]

Saudis Plan Major Solar Development in Bid to Cut Emissions

Saudi Arabia announced a major development plan for solar energy as it looks to slash emissions and cut how much oil it burns for power. The oil-rich state has signed seven agreements to produce electricity from solar power in various parts of the country, Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said at a conference in […]

Is nuclear fusion the answer?

Thermonuclear fusion is the nuclear reaction that powers the sun and all stars. It occurs when two nuclei of a lightweight element such as hydrogen collide at colossal speed, forcing them to fuse. Leftover mass is converted into enormous amounts of energy, according to Einstein’s formula E = mc2. Unlike fission, in which atoms are […]

Can Renewables Power An Entire City?

More than 170 cities across the United States have set goals to power their communities with 100% renewable electricity, according to the Sierra Club. How realistic would it be to generate electricity for an entire city solely with sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower? Based on a sampling of responses from some renewables […]

Advanced nuclear reactors no safer than conventional nuclear plants, says science group

A new generation of so-called “advanced” nuclear power reactors that Washington believes could help fight climate change often present greater proliferation risks than conventional nuclear power, a science advocacy group said on Thursday. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has made curbing climate change a priority and has supported research and development for advanced nuclear technologies. […]

Beyond Oil: Lithium-Ion Battery Minerals and Energy Security

Oil has long dominated concerns about energy security because oil products have fueled nearly all of the world’s transportation for over a century. But that may be changing as vehicles powered by electric motors have become competitive with those powered by internal combustion engines. Should the mass adoption of electric vehicles occur, access to reliable […]

The Pandemic, Peak Oil Demand, and the Oil Industry

Recent months have seen a growing crescendo of claims that a peak in oil demand may be near, or even be past. Pandemic-related changes in behavior such as working from home are predicted to persist after the emergency ends, and advances in technology are said to make oil-fueled vehicles increasingly obsolete. Michael Lynch and Ivan […]

Green technology and growth: a vision we can believe in

James McKenzie believes the UK government’s ambitious 10-point-plan for a “green industrial revolution” can deliver – if we put our collective minds to the problem Visionary thinking The UK’s recent green-energy plan offers great opportunities for physicists. (Courtesy: iStock/ConceptCafe) If 2020 taught us anything, it was that humans are a very adaptable and tenacious species […]

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