Storage. Solar. Biofuels. Wind. Energievoorziening. How Fast Can We Transition to a Low-Carbon Energy System? By Bill Gates: Why I’m investing $1 billion of my own money into clean energy research. Geography is hard.
Even for those of us who grew up eating every meal over a Rand McNally world map placemat, there are a lot of terms to remember. And confuse. Often, it seems people may not be aware they are using a specific term incorrectly—hence the overwhelmingly positive reception to Terry Blas’s recent illustration explaining the difference between “Hispanic” and “Latino.” As such, Quartz has compiled this handy dictionary of commonly misused and mixed-up geographical terms. Never get caught confusing “Guyana” and “Guinea” again!
Hispanic vs. “Hispanic” refers to anyone with ancestors originating in a Spanish-speaking country. England vs. England is a constituent country of the United Kingdom, homeland of the English language and seat of the Anglican Church. Persian vs. “Persian” refers to the majority-ethnicity of Iran. Chinese vs. Mandarin is the most-spoken language in the People’s Republic of China. Arab vs. The Midwest vs. American Indians vs. The Netherlands vs. America vs. Bill Gates Expected to Create Billion-Dollar Fund for Clean Energy. Photo WASHINGTON — Bill Gates will announce the creation of a multibillion-dollar clean energy fund on Monday at the opening of a Paris summit meeting intended to forge a global accord to cut planet-warming emissions, according to people with knowledge of the plans.
The fund, which one of the people described as the largest such effort in history, is meant to pay for research and development of new clean-energy technologies. It will include contributions from other billionaires and philanthropies, as well as a commitment by the United States and other participating nations to double their budget for clean energy research and development, according to the people with knowledge of the plans, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the fund. The announcement of the fund, which has the joint backing of the governments of the United States, China, India and other countries, the people said, is intended to give momentum to the two-week Paris climate talks.
Mr. It Only Took Four Months For China To Achieve A Jaw-Dropping Reduction In Carbon Emissions. By Ari Phillips Posted on Share this: "It Only Took Four Months For China To Achieve A Jaw-Dropping Reduction In Carbon Emissions" Share: CREDIT: shutterstock China is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, so small decreases in its emissions seem like monumental feats when compared to other countries.
The analysis, published by Greenpeace and Energydesk China, reviewed data from a number of sources, including China’s industrial output, and found that China had reduced its coal output by 6.1 percent in the first four months of 2015. Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst who worked on the Greenpeace report, told RTCC that the report shows that China’s industrial output and thermal power generation are falling while renewable energy sources like hydro, wind, and solar are growing fast. In 2014, China cut domestic consumption of coal by 2.9 percent, the first drop in more than a decade, with coal production also falling 2.5 percent. World’s first grid-connected wave power station switched on in Australia. The world’s first grid-connected wave power station has been activated off the coast of Western Australia (WA).
After more than a decade of testing and demonstrations, Australian company Carnegie Wave Energy has switched on a pilot project that has begun feeding wave-generated electricity into a local WA grid. “This is the first array of wave power generators to be connected to an electricity grid in Australia and worldwide,” said Ivor Frischknecht, CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, in a statement. The Agency has provided $13 million of the $32 million project. Scientists predict green energy revolution after incredible new graphene discoveries - Science - News. A recently discovered form of carbon graphite – the material in pencil lead – has turned out to have a completely unexpected property which could revolutionise the development of green energy and electric cars.
Researchers have discovered that graphene allows positively charged hydrogen atoms or protons to pass through it despite being completely impermeable to all other gases, including hydrogen itself. The implications of the discovery are immense as it could dramatically increase the efficiency of fuel cells, which generate electricity directly from hydrogen, the scientists said. Professor Sir Andrei Geim received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 (Getty) Poor Countries Tap Renewables at Twice the Pace of Rich. Emerging markets are installing renewable energy projects at almost twice the rate of developed nations, a report concluded.
A study of 55 nations -- including China, Brazil, South Africa, Uruguay and Kenya -- found that they’ve installed a combined 142 gigawatts from 2008 to 2013. The 143 percent growth in renewables in those markets compares with an 84 percent rate in wealthier nations, which installed 213 megawatts, according to a report released today by Climatescope. The boom in renewables is often made for economic reasons, Ethan Zindler, a Washington-based Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst, said in an interview. An island nation like Jamaica, where wholesale power costs about $300 a megawatt-hour, could generate electricity from solar panels for about half as much.
Similarly, wind power in Nicaragua may be half as expensive as traditional energy. “Clean energy is the low-cost option in a lot of these countries,” Zindler said by telephone. Scale Model WWII Craft Takes Flight With Fuel From the Sea Concept. Navy researchers at the U.S.
13 Unexpected Sources of Energy that Could Save the World. CU-Boulder team develops new water splitting technique that could produce hydrogen fuel. A University of Colorado Boulder team has developed a radically new technique that uses the power of sunlight to efficiently split water into its components of hydrogen and oxygen, paving the way for the broad use of hydrogen as a clean, green fuel.
The CU-Boulder team has devised a solar-thermal system in which sunlight could be concentrated by a vast array of mirrors onto a single point atop a central tower up to several hundred feet tall. The tower would gather heat generated by the mirror system to roughly 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,350 Celsius), then deliver it into a reactor containing chemical compounds known as metal oxides, said CU-Boulder Professor Alan Weimer, research group leader. As a metal oxide compound heats up, it releases oxygen atoms, changing its material composition and causing the newly formed compound to seek out new oxygen atoms, said Weimer.
A paper on the subject was published in the Aug. 2 issue of Science. Timeline Photos. Iceland taps the ultimate renewable energy source: Earth's magma. News January 31, 2014 03:32 PM ET.
Billionaire Peter Thiel funds Positron Dynamics who are developing a 10 microgram per week antimatter factory. Plastic flying carpet is kept afloat by ripple power. A Princeton grad student named Noah Jafferis has invented a flying carpet, of sorts.
Rather than a magic lamp (or one’s imagination) this flying carpet is kept afloat using ripple power, something similar to how a skate or ray travels through the water. As a movement system the flying carpet design is interesting because it has no moving parts, which makes it ideal for use in adverse environments. Right now the flying carpet is simply a prototype that is just four inches across. How Cold Fusion Works. ISIS Report 23/10/07 Many ways for atomic nuclei to come close coherently and fuse together in condensed matter.
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho A fully referenced version of this article is posted on ISIS members’ website. Details here.