An entirely new approach to harvesting waste heat — one based on a phenomenon known as the thermogalvanic effect — has been developed by researchers at MIT and Stanford University. The new technique is entirely divorced from the (usually used) thermoelectric effect, which relies on (generally expensive) solid-state materials — … [continued]
I got news of this a couple of days ago and decided to pass on covering the story since we basically already covered it 3 weeks ago, when the news was that 99% of new power capacity added in November would come from renewables. That somehow changed to 100% once … [continued]
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is going to utilize excess heat from subway tunnels and an electric substation in London to supply homes with heat. Substations contain electronics such as transformers through which massive amounts of power travel, and these transformers do generate a great deal of heat because … [continued]
A potential breakthrough has been made with regard to waste heat recovery — potentially boosting vehicle mileage by around 5% and boosting power plant and industrial processing performance by up to 10% — thanks to new research from the University of Houston’s physics department and the Texas Center for Superconductivity. … [continued]
In a move that almost seems calculated to enrage the Right with its Fox- and Rush-driven rage against the Volt, Chevy has announced it will voluntarily buy “8 million tonnes” worth of carbon offsets for $40 million to help it meet “voluntary emission reduction goals” within five years.
Even the spelling in the announcement is sissified. These are not even American tons!
Industry can’t exist without water. Producing anything involves heat. When you’re a manufacturing facility, you’re lucky to be pushing out exhaust heat at less than 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
It costs water to make steel, water to make cement, even water to make solar PV panels and wind turbines. And then it costs water to continue to run things. For example, your average solar parabolic plant sucks up between 760 and 920 gallons for every megawatt hour produced. (Editor’s Note: wind and solar PV use a ton less than other power generation options, though.)
President Obama calls attention to the importance of Nevada and Reno, in particular, in fostering clean energy technologies and new companies.
