Green fuels for aviation
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and the partner institute Empa have started a joint initiative called SynFuels. The goal is to develop a process for producing kerosene from renewable resources. Over the...
Category: Energy
Innovative Flowconverter to energise Dutch province
GES first partnership project launched in Drenthe The province of Drenthe in the Netherlands has installed an innovative, environmentally friendly water turbine called Flowconverter near the Ossesluis locks in Hoogeveen. The test phase will...
Swiss Energy and Climate Summit 2015
On the opening day of the SwissECS, keynote speaker Tony Blair emphasised the importance of a globally coordinated climate policy. “Unlock the Potential” was the theme of this year’s event, where around 700 participants...
Air conditioners make cities hotter
An Arizona State University (ASU) research team has found that the excess heat released from air conditioners running during the night raises outside temperatures. This worsens the urban heat island effect and increases cooling...
World’s first 100 per cent renewable energy island
It may be the smallest of Spain’s Canary Islands, but it has huge ambitions: El Hierro will become the world’s first land mass to be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy when its...
Car company builds smart home
Japanese automaker Honda has built a zero-net energy home on the campus of the University of California, Davis. Capable of producing more energy from renewable sources than it consumes, it will even have enough...
Milestone or dinosaur?
The world’s largest solar power plant opened in the United States last week. It is expected to supply electricity to 140,000 households. But as John Dyer in Boston reports, critics believe that it will...
Car batteries used to store solar energy
Japan is launching an innovative project this month using old EV batteries to store solar energy. The project has the support of the Ministry of the Environment. The project is being run by the...
U.S. mayors unite to fight building emissions
Mayors from 10 major cities across the United States are joining forces to boost energy efficiency in buildings. The City Energy Project could lower energy bills by nearly 1 billion dollars and cut emissions...
Shell shelves Arctic drilling plans
Good news for Arctic environmentalists: Royal Dutch Shell has announced that it will suspend its controversial drilling in the Arctic as part of a measure to cut back on major expenditures. Just recently, the...
The solar era is only now beginning
The solar energy industry in Switzerland has a future, says Swiss photovoltaics specialists Christophe Ballif. In particular, the former Oerlikon Solar, which is now being sold by its parent company TEL, developed unique solutions....
Label your light bulbs for a green planet
Consumers are more willing to buy energy efficient light bulbs when the energy costs are clearly labelled, a new study has found. Wändi Bruine de Bruin, Professor of Behavioural Decision-making at Leeds University Business...
Polluters should pay environmental cost of fracking
Based on the polluter-pays principle, researchers from Cambridge University argue that fracking companies should pay up to 6 billion British pounds per year to compensate for future climate change. Chris Hope, from the Cambridge...
WWF loves its cities
What do Seoul (South Korea), São Paolo (Brazil), Surrey (Canada) and Stockholm (Sweden) have in common other than the obvious? They are among the thirty-four cities around the globe that have received special recognition...
Denmark is going fully renewable
When it comes to the energy revolution, wind energy pioneer Denmark is far ahead of all other European countries. By 2050 the country will be completely weaned off all fossil fuels. The energy revolution...
Using the sun’s energy at night
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) have built a system that converts the sun’s energy not into electricity but hydrogen fuel and stores it for later use, allowing us...
Strong winds cause energy prices to fall in Europe
Electricity prices in Europe dipped in December as mild temperatures, strong winds and stormy weather produced wind power records in Germany, France and the U.K. According to Platts, a global energy information provider, energy...
Fracking opponents just got a boost
Environmentalists have long claimed that fracking pollutes water supplies. A new report shows that they may be right, raising the stakes in an already charged battle. Heather McMicken is not alone. The homeowner in...
Suburban sprawl cancels out benefit of low-carbon urban centres
According to a new study by UC Berkeley researchers, population-dense cities contribute less greenhouse gas emissions per person than other areas of the country, but the suburban sprawl around these cities essentially wipe out...
Empa wants to build methanation plant
“Power to gas” is a key concept when it comes to storing alternative energy. Researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Materials Science & Technology (Empa) have now succeeded in further optimising this process....
