PITTSBURGH—Transitioning to clean energy, particularly in a city built on steel and surrounded by defunct coal mines, is always politically tricky. But Pittsburgh is trying to create its own equitable, bipartisan approach to what’s traditionally been a far-left ideal: decarbonization and emissions reductions.
Elon Musk, your friendly neighborhood billionaire, has said Tesla has the ability to remake Puerto Rico’s grid if the government is interested. And, well, it sounds like they’re very interested.
Each day, our Sun pours its energy down onto the Earth’s surface, turning vast expanses of open water into vapor. New research shows the surprising degree to which this clean and renewable process could be used to produce electricity—enough, perhaps, to meet 70 percent of US energy needs. But before this energy…
For about three hours on August 21st, power grid operators across the United States will be confronted with a sudden drop in available electricity, owing to the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse in nearly a century. Power disruptions are not expected, but only because measures are being taken to make up for the…
Refueling a destroyer or any other large piece of military hardware is incredibly dangerous because it leaves troops very vulnerable to attack, especially if it requires a huge convoy. U.S. troops have lost their lives trying refuel vessels that are ultra-dependent on oil. The Department of Defense knows this, and as…
A pair of Chinese companies are planning to build a solar plant in one of the scariest places in the world—the exclusion zone around the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor.
Shortly after shareholders approved the acquisition of renewable energy firm SolarCity on Thursday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that his company’s dope new solar shingles could cost less than wack conventional versions of the same thing, even before saved energy costs are accounted for.
Last year, renewable energy accounted for more than half of all new forms of power generation produced worldwide. It’s an unprecedented milestone for our civilization—one that points to a bright future for solar and wind power.
The atomic fallout in Chernobyl, Ukraine was one of the worst nuclear disasters in history and put around 2,600 square kilometers (around 1,000 square miles) of land out of commission. It’s been good for shitty horror films and for the wildlife that has blossomed there following the disaster, but after decades of…
The question on everyone’s mind: What’s going on with Solar Impulse?
They like to do things big in Dubai, including a newly-approved concentrated solar power project that will generate 1,000 megawatts of power by 2020—and a whopping 5,000 megawatts by 2030.
Misaligned mirrors are being blamed for a fire that broke out yesterday at the world’s largest solar power plant, leaving the high-tech facility crippled for the time being. It sounds like the plant’s workers suffered through a real hellscape, too.
Smog-filled days may be a part of life in Beijing for now, but China is cutting coal and growing its wind and solar energy capacity fast, according to figures released yesterday by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics.
Unless required by your reality TV series, you don’t always need to completely disconnect from civilization when you venture into the great outdoors. And BioLite, makers of a compact stove that can keep your gadgets powered, is introducing three new ways to make camping a little more comfortable.
Yesterday, Morocco switched on the first section of its new Ouarzazate solar power plant. The new installation already creates 160 megawatts of power and is expected to grow to cover 6,000 acres by 2018—making it the largest in the world.
This dreamy photo, which looks like a modern take on Through the Looking-Glass, actually shows how German researchers are testing mirrors for solar power plants at DLR, the German Aerospace Center.
The price of wind and solar is steadily dropping, leading researchers to conclude that CO2 emissions from power production in the US could be significantly reduced within 15 years. And to distribute this energy, they’re calling on America to build an “electron superhighway.”
Juno broke the interplanetary distance record for solar-powered spacecraft on Wednesday morning. The Jupiter explorer is close to half a billion miles from the Sun, setting a new standard for using solar power for deep space exploration.
Construction for the first phase of Morocco’s Noor 1 power plant is nearing completion. Once complete in 2020, the solar farm will be the largest of its kind in the world. But even now, the plant’s half-million solar mirrors are already visible from space.
As the world’s top carbon offenders attempt to one-up each other with commitments in Paris this week, one country is quietly snickering from the sidelines. That’d be Uruguay, which already sources a staggering 94.5% of its electricity from renewables.
