Tagged: clean energy

Climate change – determination over despair - Ariadne

Robert Hickson • Sep 19, 2019 •

• clean energy,
• climate change,
• Economics,
• Environment,
• geoengineering,
• Society,
• Sustainability,
• Technology

  There is much to be despondent about looking ahead to the consequences of a changing climate. But adopting Jonathan Franzen’s defeatism isn’t the best response. Reducing adverse impacts of climate change isn’t as simple as regulating automotive emissions, banning a pesticide of refrigerant, or changing to LED lights. But nor is it as … Read More

Beyond the moon(shot) - Ariadne

Robert Hickson • Jul 17, 2019 •

• Apollo 11,
• clean energy,
• climate change,
• disruptive technologies,
• moon,
• National Science Challenges,
• renewable energy,
• sociotechnical

  There is a lot now being talked and written about the success of Apollo 11, and the Apollo space programme, half a century ago. The BBC podcast 13 minutes to the moon is fantastic. It tells well the story leading up to and during the 13 minutes that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin descended to … Read More

Cheaper solar power and electric vehicles are going to change our world over the next 5 years - Hot Topic

Gareth Renowden • Sep 17, 2017 •

• Batteries,
• clean energy,
• electric vehicles,
• Environment and Ecology,
• solar power

This will be the best hour you’ll spend in front of a screen this week, I promise.     Tony Seba explains how the plunging costs of battery storage and solar power generation, coupled with the rise of electric vehicles and autonomous driving technologies are going to first disrupt and then transform both the transport and power industries worldwide, … Read More

Wind and solar PV have won the race – it’s too late for other clean energy technologies - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jun 28, 2016 •

• clean energy,
• renewables,
• solar PV,
• Wind

By Andrew Blakers, Australian National University Across the world, solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind are the dominant clean energy technologies. This dominance is likely to become overwhelming over the next few years, preventing other clean energy technologies (including carbon capture and storage, nuclear and other renewables) from growing much. As the graph below shows, PV and wind constitute … Read More

Fuel from water? - Ariadne

Robert Hickson • Apr 10, 2014 •

• clean energy,
• fuel,
• Transport

Will we shortly be able to stop drilling oil and get fuels straight from the water around us? That’s been promoted for many decades now, but we may be getting closer. The US Naval Research Lab announced this week that they have a way of converting carbon dioxide and hydrogen from seawater into hydrocarbon fuels. And used it … Read More

Barriers to clean energies - Ariadne

Robert Hickson • Aug 31, 2011 •

• clean energy,
• Economy

Clean energy technologies are being hailed by some as the sixth great technology revolution — an insurrection that will free us from the shackles of fossil fuels, and provide the staging ground for further economic growth without the nasty environmental and military consequences of an addiction to hydrocarbons. However, this revolution will play out over decades. [“Clean” is relative of … Read More