The US Can Halve Its Emissions by 2030—if It Wants To

The US Can Halve Its Emissions by 2030—if It Wants To

Different teams have modeled how exactly this decarbonization might play out—by rolling out more solar and wind energy, for example, and more electric vehicles —and landed on several paths to cutting emissions in half in the next eight years.

How to Make the Video Game Industry Greener

How to Make the Video Game Industry Greener

(When contacted, Nintendo declined to comment on the discrepancy in reporting and instead pointed to its most recent CSR report which states that its renewable energy usage is now 44 percent.).

The Next Challenge for Solid-State Batteries? Making Lots of Them

The Next Challenge for Solid-State Batteries? Making Lots of Them

Solid Power has designed what he describes as a uniquely manufacturable “flavor” of solid-state design that allows battery makers to reuse existing processes and equipment designed for lithium-ion batteries.Like their liquid-filled cousins, solid-state batteries require an anode , a cathode, and some way for ions to migrate between the two.

Burning Crops to Capture Carbon? Good Luck Finding Water

Burning Crops to Capture Carbon? Good Luck Finding Water

One controversial idea is known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS: You’d grow crops and burn them for energy, then capture the emissions coming out of the facility and pump them underground as liquefied gas.

Everyone Wants to Build Green Energy Projects. What's the Holdup?

Everyone Wants to Build Green Energy Projects. What's the Holdup?

The problem stems from a combination of factors: aging infrastructure, a discombobulated electrical grid that makes it difficult to get renewable energy from where it is produced to where it is needed, and the overwhelmed regulators responsible for approving the projects.

'Vampire Energy' Is Sucking the Life Out of Our Planet

'Vampire Energy' Is Sucking the Life Out of Our Planet

Studies from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have found that more than 100 billion kilowatt-hours are wasted every year because of vampire energy, “costing American consumers over $19 billion—about $165 per US household on average—and 50 large (500-megawatt) power plants’ worth of electricity.”.

The Energy Crisis Is Pushing Solar Adoption—for Those Who Can Pay

The Energy Crisis Is Pushing Solar Adoption—for Those Who Can Pay

“On that very first weekend when the price cap change came in, our inquiries increased by 300 percent,” says Richard Moule, a director at the Sheffield-based solar installers All Seasons Energy.

The Surprising Climate Cost of the Humblest Battery Material

The Surprising Climate Cost of the Humblest Battery Material

But a pair of recent studies suggest that those estimates are woefully out-of-date and undercounted, failing to include the energy-intensive processes required to produce modern, anode-ready graphite.Knowing the approximate carbon intensity of the power supply, he began mapping out the laborious steps for turning that graphite into anodes.

Wikipedia Editors Are Ready to Stop Accepting Crypto Donations

Wikipedia Editors Are Ready to Stop Accepting Crypto Donations

More than 200 longtime Wikipedia editors have requested that the Wikimedia Foundation stop accepting cryptocurrency donations.Earlier this month, the Mozilla Foundation announced it would stop accepting cryptocurrencies that use the energy-intensive proof-of-work consensus process.

Some (Kinda) Good Climate News: 2 Degrees Is Doable

Some (Kinda) Good Climate News: 2 Degrees Is Doable

That shift is clear in a darn near uplifting paper that publishes today in the journal Nature: Modeling by an international team of scientists shows that if nations uphold their recent climate pledges, including those made at COP26, humanity may keep warming under 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, the goal outlined in the Paris Agreement.

Technology Can Fix the Climate Mess—but Not Without Help

Technology Can Fix the Climate Mess—but Not Without Help

“The IPCC tells us that we have the knowledge and the technology to get this done through a rapid shift from fossil fuels to renewable and alternative fuels,” said Inger Andersen, under-secretary-general of the UN and executive director of the UN Environment Program, speaking at the press conference.

Companies May Soon Have to Reveal a Hidden Risk: Carbon Emissions

Companies May Soon Have to Reveal a Hidden Risk: Carbon Emissions

Companies use energy and produce greenhouse gases directly, of course—by operating offices and data centers , making products, and converting carbon-absorbing wilderness into wasteland.

A Bold Idea to Stall the Climate Crisis—by Building Better Trees

A Bold Idea to Stall the Climate Crisis—by Building Better Trees

Of all the potential fixes for the climate crisis, none has captured hearts and minds quite like tree planting.If newly planted forests aren’t properly cared for and monitored, the trees can die and any carbon they stored will be released back into the atmosphere.

Astronomers Tally the Growing Carbon Footprint of Space Science

Astronomers Tally the Growing Carbon Footprint of Space Science

Next-generation ground-based observatories will be enormous, such as the Extremely Large Telescope, which will eclipse the size of the Colosseum in Rome when it is completed in 2024.Now some researchers are thinking about the carbon footprint of modern astronomy and realizing that they, like everyone else, might have to consider alternative ways of doing business in order to keep climate-warming emissions in check.

Coal Threatens a Comeback as the EU Pulls Away From Russian Oil

Coal Threatens a Comeback as the EU Pulls Away From Russian Oil

A spokesperson for the UK’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy told WIRED the government is exploring a range of options, including extending the operation of coal-fired power stations that are due to close in September.

The Nuclear Reactors of the Future Have a Russia Problem

The Nuclear Reactors of the Future Have a Russia Problem

Do this again and again in a series of centrifuges known as a cascade, siphoning off the U-235 each time, and pretty soon you’ll have low-enriched uranium, fuel for a traditional nuclear reactor.

Why You (and the Planet) Really Need a Heat Pump

Why You (and the Planet) Really Need a Heat Pump

Or, in the winter, a heat pump can warm a building by operating as a sort of “reverse refrigerator,” extracting heat from even cold outdoor air and bringing it inside.

The Race to Rescue Ukraine’s Power Grid From Russia

The Race to Rescue Ukraine’s Power Grid From Russia

The test was years in the making, one of the final rituals in a drawn-out courtship between the Ukrainian and European power grids known as “synchronization.” But before it could join with Europe, Ukrenergo first had to prove it could keep the lights on without its connections to Belarus and Russia—in “island mode.” The plan was to reconnect with its neighbors after a few days.

Machines of War Take a Heavy Toll on Ukraine—and the Planet

Machines of War Take a Heavy Toll on Ukraine—and the Planet

But a hidden crisis is unfolding too: The carbon emitted by war machines is helping warm the planet at a critical moment in human history, when every day not spent decarbonizing adds to the compounding misery of climate change.

Offshore Wind Turbines Could Mess With Ships’ Radar Signals

Offshore Wind Turbines Could Mess With Ships’ Radar Signals

It turns out that massive wind turbines may interfere with marine radar systems, making it risky for both big ships passing through shipping channels near offshore wind farms and smaller vessels navigating around them.

Europe Is Scrambling to Turn Its Back on Russian Oil and Gas

Europe Is Scrambling to Turn Its Back on Russian Oil and Gas

While Baerbock said peace and freedom didn’t have a price tag, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev was happier putting a number on the cost of shutting Nord Stream 2 down: “Welcome to the brave new world where Europeans are very soon going to pay €2,000 ($2,225) for 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas,” he tweeted.

All the Things That Drain Your EV Battery

All the Things That Drain Your EV Battery

Heating and cooling power consumption could range from a few hundred watts when the ambient temperature is close to optimal, 1-2 kW when the environment is very hot or cold, or even up to 5+ kW if the vehicle is starting off very cold and the battery needs to be warmed up by a resistive heater.”.

Energy Firms Are Going ‘Green’ by Offloading Dirty Coal Plants

Energy Firms Are Going ‘Green’ by Offloading Dirty Coal Plants

The state-owned company had been under pressure from the Swedish government to lower its carbon footprint by getting rid of the power plants and their coal pits, which sprawl across a vast stretch of eastern Germany close to the Polish border.

Can You Be an NFT Artist and an Environmentalist?

Can You Be an NFT Artist and an Environmentalist?

The Bitcoin and Ethereum platforms operate on a principle called “proof of work” (PoW), in which computers solve complex puzzles to verify a transaction, for which that computer (or “miner”) is then rewarded with some amount of the cryptocurrency.

Can Super-Fast Battery Charging Fix the Electric Car?

Can Super-Fast Battery Charging Fix the Electric Car?

If the goal is to charge up your electrical vehicle in, say, five minutes, that extra current meeting resistance means temperature-related problems inside the battery and out.“I question the wisdom of why we need to have 500-mile range in an electric car and also want fast charging in five minutes,” he says.

Can ‘Green’ Ammonia Be a Climate Fix?

Can ‘Green’ Ammonia Be a Climate Fix?

The wind powers a chemical plant that makes ammonia, which can not only be spread as fertilizer under the turbines, but also fuels an experimental tractor, stores energy for a non-windy day, and—soon—will heat the barns that dry their grains.

What It’ll Take to Get Electric Planes off the Ground

What It’ll Take to Get Electric Planes off the Ground

Last week, along with other battery and aviation experts, Viswanathan published in Nature what he considers a “wake-up call” to the industry to invest in basic science beyond moving around lithium ions.

Maybe Green Energy Needs ‘Information Batteries' Too

Maybe Green Energy Needs ‘Information Batteries' Too

This is digital, more of a timing strategy than a real battery, aimed at getting data-hungry companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, and Netflix to use clean power when it’s plentiful so utilities can avoid burning fossil fuels when it’s not.

Europe Is in the Middle of a Messy Nuclear Slowdown

Europe Is in the Middle of a Messy Nuclear Slowdown

Its neighbor Belgium currently sources nearly 40 percent of its electricity from nuclear power but has committed to closing down its seven remaining reactors by 2025.Critics of Europe’s nuclear shutdowns say losing reliable sources of low-carbon energy is the last thing we should be doing when we need to reduce emissions.

Ultra-Long Battery Life Is Coming … Eventually

Ultra-Long Battery Life Is Coming … Eventually

If there was any product revealed at CES last week that pushed battery life claims to a whole new level—and raised some eyebrows too—it was HyperX’s pair of 300-hour headphones.Srinivasan, like many other technologists these days, is optimistic that relatively new developments in silicon-anode technology will improve battery life.