Microgrids: So much more than backup energy

(Phys.org)—Most Americans don't have to think much about energy reliability. We plug in a computer and it powers up; we flip a switch and the lights come on.

US carbon emissions in surprise drop

US emissions of carbon dioxide blamed for climate change fell in 2011 and have slipped to a 20-year low this year as the the world's largest economy uses more natural gas and less coal, data shows.

Self-charging battery both generates and stores energy

(Phys.org) -- Renewable energy technologies generally consist of two distinct processes: energy generation (using sources such as coal, solar, wind, etc.) and energy storage (such as batteries). These two processes are always ...

How affordable is alternative energy?

Alternative energy sources that are cost-competitive with fossil fuels may be closer than most people realize. Recent renewable energy research has shown that solar, hydropower, wind and other alternative sources are closing ...

Replacing coal with natural gas would reduce warming: study

A debate has raged in the past couple of years as to whether natural gas is better or worse overall than coal and oil from a global warming perspective. The back- and-forth findings have been due to the timelines taken into ...

New loo turns poo into power

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) have invented a new toilet system that will turn human waste into electricity and fertilisers and also reduce the amount of water needed for flushing by up to 90 per ...

Sea waves as renewable resource in new energy converter design

Sea waves are a renewable and inexhaustible resource found in abundance across the planet. But efficiently converting sea wave motion into electrical energy has been challenging, in part due to the difficulty of compensating ...

No more cloudy days for solar

For a country with so much sunlight, some might think Australia has been slow to adapt its electricity generation mix to include solar power. One of the main reasons for this is solar intermittency.

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