Using hydrogen as a clean, renewable source of energy could free us from fossile fuels. But hydrogen atoms don’t exist alone in nature; they’re always bound to another atom. Think of water, which has hydrogen and oxygen. Splitting hydrogen atoms from the oxygen takes power. And if that electricity comes from a natural gas or…
Increasing production and declining consumption of oil and gas have unexpectedly brought the United States markedly closer to a goal that has tantalized presidents since Richard Nixon: independence from foreign energy sources, a milestone that could reconfigure American foreign policy, the economy and more. In 2011, the country imported just 45 percent of the liquid…
One giant step towards ‘creating a miniature star on Earth’
While plenty of question marks still hang over the prospect of carbon capture and storage, MIT believes it’s ruled out one: the United States, it says, has enough capacity in its deep saline aquifers to store at least a century’s fossil fuel emissions. In the past, estimates of America’s capacity have ranged from enough to…
T. Boone Pickens promotes natural gas for energy security and as a bridge to alternatives in this 2012 TED talk.
The dream of using hydrogen gas as a clean fuel, on a large scale, just got a little bit closer. Chemists have developed a new molecule that can drive chemical reactions to store and release hydrogen under mild temperatures and pressures. No harmful emissions are released when hydrogen is burned; only water and energy are…
Google is stepping up wind-power purchases to reduce emissions, even as it devotes most of its renewable energy investments to sun-related projects, a trade-off aimed at reining in costs as the company seeks higher returns. Google drew 30 percent of the energy it consumed last year from renewable sources, virtually all of it from wind,…
In his Dot Earth blog, Andrew Revkin writes about Jonathan Foley, director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Minnesota, and a scientist on the leading edge of climate change analysis: Foley proposes an end run around paralyzing climate disputes by focusing on energy and forest policies with multiple benefits and on…
Scientists working with electrical components called memristors have found that the components function similarly to brain cells and so the goal of building a computer that works like a human brain appears to be one step closer. With the help of memristors, computers can be developed in a way that they can independently deviate from…
The climate is getting worse for wind-power companies, which are finding it increasingly difficult to attract venture backers. Investment in U.S. turbine farms and wind-energy businesses tumbled 38 percent last year to $9.7 billion, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Venture capitalists have practically left the sector altogether. They invested only $177.6 million…