Home/Posts Tagged ‘power’
Posts Tagged ‘power’
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Apr 14th, 2010,
According to EPA and Eurostat figures, Denmark recycles 42% of its waste and burns 54% in heat and power stations. The US, by comparison, recycles 33% while only 13% is used in waste-to-energy incinerators. The majority of US trash – 54% – ends up in landfills, compared to only 4% in Denmark. Denmark’s state-owned garbage burning power plants are also newer and more state-of-the-art than America’s privately owned pay-to-burn incinerators. They burn cleaner and produce more heat and energy, making them attractive additions to even wealthy communities. Quite a contrast from the smelly, smoke-belching eyesores that come to mind when…
Tags: denmark, energy, heat, incinerators, New York Times, plant, power, waste
Climate Change, Politics, Apr 7th, 2010,
Job growth and climate change trump safety concerns amongst most Swedes when it comes to the use of nuclear energy and apparently also the storage of nuclear waste. The Swedish parliament may have (at least until recently) regularly voted to phase out nuclear power in Sweden, but the Swedish public is less steady in their feelings about atomic energy. A poll from 2008 by market research agency Synovate and newspaper Dagens Nyheter showed that 48% supported the construction of new nuclear power stations, with 39% against and 13% undecided. By contrast, only one political party (Folkpartiet or the Liberal Party)…
Tags: atomic, change, climate, economy, Forsmark, nuclear, Östhammar, poll, power, Sweden, Swedes, Swedish, Synovate, waste
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Apr 2nd, 2010,
So-called ‘cloud computing’ – or basically ‘using the Internet’ to people like you and me – is largely dependent on coal-fired power stations. To be more precise, all Internet use isn’t cloud computing, but web-based computing is huge and increasing all the time. It allows access to all sorts of data and entertainment housed in massive servers or data centers, many of which rely on highly polluting coal. “Make IT Green: Cloud Computing and its Contribution to Climate Change”, shows how the launch of quintessential cloud computing devices like the Apple iPad, which offer users access to the “cloud” of…
Tags: Apple, cloud, coal, computing, Facebook, google, Greenpeace, Internet, power, report, Yahoo
Green living, Science & Technology, Mar 31st, 2010,
What, you mean you haven’t been breathless with anticipation regarding the large-scale storage of renewable energy from wind and solar power? Well get with the program. Presidio, a small town on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico, is also on the frontier of energy storage technology. Life in Presidio, Texas is harsh, isolated, hot and stormy. So why would anyone live there? Well, I don’t have the answer to that, but those who do reside in Presidio endure some of the hottest temperatures in the United States as well as frequent electrical storms, which tend to disrupt the…
Tags: battery, electricity, energy, japan, power, Presidio, renewable, Sodium-sulfur, Solar, storage, technology, Texas, wind
Green living, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Mar 14th, 2010,
Solar power is a hot project in sunny Spain. Outside of Seville you’ll find the world’s first commercial solar tower, which appears like a modernist church spire surrounded by an adoring flock of robotic minions. The minions are in fact mirrors – or heliostats – which reflect sunlight onto a receiver located at the top of the monolithic tower. A CNN article explores the PS 10 and forthcoming PS 20 solar power tower projects in Spain: Each heliostat measures 120 square meters, which gives the entire heliostat field an area of 75,000 square meters. On a sunny day this can…
Tags: CNN, Earth's Frontiers, power, Solar, Spain, tower
Green living, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Mar 13th, 2010,
Rural India does not have much infrastructure or development, but it does have plenty of sun. 450 million people in India live without electricity, many in places with no connection to any power grid. Therefore inexpensive photovoltaic solar panels offer a practical solution for those who live off grid and have little money. Independent solar power can provide rural Indians with inexpensive, renewable energy for electricity, light and heat in their homes. It can also power electric water pumps for agricultural irrigation far more cleanly than diesel powered pumps. Check out this video from CNN Eco Solutions to see how…
Tags: electricity, energy, grid, India, panels, power, Solar, solutions
Green living, Politics, Science & Technology, Mar 3rd, 2010,
Several recent articles in the British and international media have dealt with the question of solar power and government schemes that encourage homeowners to install solar panels. One such plan, announced yesterday by UK energy and climate change secretary, Ed Miliband is a Pay As You Save program that provides ‘green loans’ to those who install energy saving eco-measures. The loans are purported to cover installation and purchase costs while money saved in energy bills is meant to outweigh the repayment of said loans. Miliband is quoted in an article from the Press Association: The Warm Homes, Greener Homes strategy…
Tags: emissions, energy, geothermal, government, Green, Monbiot, panels, photovoltaic, power, scheme, Solar, UK
Green living, Science & Technology, Mar 2nd, 2010,
The energy crisis of the 1970s kick started an energy revolution in Denmark. Previously dependent on foreign oil, the Scandinavian country ‘learned the hard way’ about the importance of diversifying its power sources. Government subsidies for wind power, a carbon tax and energy efficiency investments – as well as the discovery of North Sea oil, it must be said – all lead to Denmark’s successful endeavor for energy independence. Denmark is home to the largest offshore wind farm in the world and gets the highest proportion of its energy from wind turbines. Wind power in Denmark is sourced not only…
Tags: CNN, denmark, energy, oil, power, turbines, wind
Green living, Videos & Documentaries, Feb 27th, 2010,
With the help of the U.S. military, a company called Ocean Power Technologies is looking to exploit Hawaii’s massive wave energy potential as a renewable energy source. Ocean Power Technologies’ wave powered energy producing design is a giant buoy that generates electricity by bobbing up and down in the ocean’s waves, working an internal plunger connected to a hydraulic pump. Since so much of the world’s inhabitants live on its coastlines, wave energy presents a potentially convenient and dependable source of power that is in close proximity to many population centers. U.S. military bases plan to be among the first…
Tags: base, buoy, CNN, energy, Hawaii, Military, ocean, power, renewable, source, technologies, U.S., wave
Climate Change, Politics, Feb 9th, 2010,
In some Asian countries clean water is an increasingly scarce and politically charged resource – and climate change will only make things worse. Pakistan and India, both reliant on the shared waters of Indus River for irrigation and hydroelectric power, face problems including floods, water shortages, chronically high levels of unsafe drinking water as well as conflicts between and within both nations. Unsafe drinking water in urban centers remains a huge problem for Kamal Nath and the Indian Urban Development Ministry. The countries of the Amu Darya basin – Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan – experience similar problems and conflicts…
Tags: adaptation, Afghanistan, Asia, central-south Asia, Climate change, glaciers, hydroelectric, India, Indus, Michael, power, Renner, water
Green living, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Feb 8th, 2010,
![]( "<!--:en-->UK")
' src='http://gf1.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/7123.jpg' alt='uks-clean-energy-cashback-scheme-encourages-households-to-generate-own-green-power' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' /> When Germany introduced a similar FIT scheme 10 years ago — but with targets of ten percent — it started a green energy revolution in the country, turning it into a European leader in renewables. – CNN The UK government announced on February 1st that it would pay households that generate renewable energy. The scheme, called Clean Energy Cashback, is a feed in-tariff or ‘FIT’ system similar to those already operating in many European countries and parts of the United States. What it does essentially is provide financial benefits to those households that invest in and use green power sources,…
Tags: clean, Clean Energy Cashback, CNN, Eco Solutions, ecologist, energy, Europe, FIT, generate, Germany, Green, power, renewable, scheme, Solar, UK
Climate Change, Green living, Politics, Feb 1st, 2010,
While the United States and other countries offer incentives for development in the renewable energy industry, China passes laws that require it. A New York Times article highlights the ways in which China is beating the pants off other nations when it comes to making clean energy. For example, China now leads the world in the manufacturing of solar panels and wind turbines. The state funded Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association claims that renewable energy jobs in China increase by around 100,000 a year. These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade…
Tags: China, environment, New York Times, panels, power, renewable energy, Solar, turbine, wind
Climate Change, Green living, Science & Technology, ,
Statkraft, Norway’s state owned electricity company, has opened the world’s first osmotic power station in the Norwegian municipality of Hurum. The process at the plant is conducted by salty seawater drawing fresh water through a permeable membrane which increases pressure on the side with the salt water. According to an article from the website Nordic Energy Solutions, ‘the increased pressure is used to produce power.’ The plant is only a prototype and not yet capable of generating very much power, but Statkraft has high hopes for the future of the technology. It could one day supply up to 10% or…
Tags: electricity, Norway, osmosis, osmotic power, plant, power, salt, sea, Statkraft, water
Green living, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Jan 24th, 2010,
A National Geographic video report from last November offers an inspiring example of one family who are making a serious commitment to energy independence and sustainability. What electricity they don’t use from their turbine can be sold to neighboring families. The family also plans on buying an electric car and charging it with wind power. Family Wind Turbines Gain Momentum Part of a growing trend, a Danish family of seven has installed its own wind turbine to produce all the electricity the family needs while reducing its carbon footprint. Additional resources: US Offers Tax Credit for Homeowners with Wind Turbines…
Tags: Danish, electricity, energy, family, power, turbine, video, wind
Climate Change, Politics, Jan 21st, 2010,
In an unprecedented and audacious move to curb global greenhouse gas emissions, the Federated States of Micronesia – a small nation of islands in the western Pacific Ocean – have appealed against the refitting of a coal plant in far off Prunerov, Czech Republic. Prunerov – owned by the utilities conglomerate CEZ – is one of the largest coal-fired power stations in the EU and the largest single source of CO2 emissions in the Czech Republic. According to the Norwegian environmental NGO Bellona, the Czech plant emits 40 times as much yearly CO2 as the entire Federated States of Micronesia….
Tags: Bellona, Climate change, co2, coal, copenhagen, Czech, Czech Republic, emissions, environment, Federated States of Micronesia, global, island, Micronesia, ocean, Pacific, plant, power, Prunerov, Times
Politics, Dec 28th, 2009,
Chalk another one up for the efficiency of authoritarian rule. According to an article from Reuters, the government of China has passed a law requiring power grid operators to buy ‘all the electricity produced by renewable energy generators’. This will encourage the use of power from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy plants over cheaper electricity from coal plants. The Chinese State Council energy department now has the authority to ‘determine the proportion of renewable energy power generation to the overall generating capacity for a certain period’ according to Xinhua news agency. In addition, the Reuters article mentions…
Tags: China, clean, energy, power, renewable energy
