Alternative Energy

Jan 04, 2012 at 16:56 | Brian Westenhaus

The New Year may well be the breakthrough year for fuel cells.  The astonishing innovation and marketing locomotive of Apple Computers with the i – you name it – product…

Jan 03, 2012 at 21:14 | John Daly

The implosion of the USSR in December 1991 produced massive economic “collateral damage” in its East European allies, as they simultaneously sought both to assert their new-found independence and draw…

Jan 03, 2012 at 21:07 | Tom Murphy

Having now sorted solar, wind, and tidal power into three “boxes,” let’s keep going and investigate another source of non-fossil energy and put it in a box. Today we’ll look…

Jan 03, 2012 at 19:26 | John Daly

First, the bad news.Although Africa has vast fossil and renewable energy sources, only twenty percent of its population has direct access to electricity and in some rural areas,…

Jan 02, 2012 at 17:07 | John Daly

Consider. Australia’s 2,966,140 square-mile landmass is ringed by 16,006 miles of coastline. Most of the population is concentrated along the southeast coast of the country, in an arc running…

Jan 01, 2012 at 20:47 | Llewellyn King

There have been a flurry of antinuclear events in the United States since Christmas. Presumably, those who are opposed to nuclear power want to take advantage of the news lull…

Jan 01, 2012 at 20:42 | Barry Stevens

The answer is: Municipal solid waste (“MSW”) and its conversion into energy!  There are few, if any, energy technologies that can claim to be both renewable and sustainable but also…

Jan 01, 2012 at 20:41 | John Daly

Austrian solar company Activ Solar GmbH has completed the final and fifth 20 megawatt phase of the photovoltaic Perovo Solar Power Park, bringing the facility’s capacity to 100 megawatts. According…

Dec 30, 2011 at 08:30 | John Daly

First, the good news. A fire aboard the Russian Federation’s Ekaterinburg nuclear submarine has apparently been extinguished. The bad news - that’s about all that is certain about…

Dec 30, 2011 at 08:12 | Brian Westenhaus

Most folks don’t realize the depth of the economic problem that fuels cells pose for mass adoption.  Often there are price quotes running in the tens or hundreds of thousands…

Dec 28, 2011 at 10:10 | John Daly

Almost nothing to see here, move along. Eight months after Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s six reactor Daichi Fuskuhima complex was rocked by an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the…

Dec 27, 2011 at 11:25 | John Daly

Researchers have reduced the preparation time of quantum dot solar cells to less than an hour by changing the form to a one-coat quantum dot solar paint.  How?

Dec 26, 2011 at 11:11 | John Daly

Russian state-run Rosatom, has had a successful year, despite worldwide concerns about nuclear energy following the 11 March nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Diachi nuclear power plant. Rosatom’s massive…

Dec 23, 2011 at 20:45 | John Daly

Chinese investment in the U.S. economy up to now has been primarily in the form of U.S. Treasury bills. But, reading the U.S. press and conservative calls for punitive…

Dec 22, 2011 at 20:00 | John Daly

Taiwan imports 99 percent of its energy, which is vital to its rapidly industrializing economy. The island nation’s electricity demand was recently growing at almost 5 percent per year, but…

Dec 21, 2011 at 11:59 | Tyler Hamilton

About seven million tonnes of grain corn was grown in Ontario in 2011, and by year’s end roughly 30 per cent of that is expected to go toward ethanol fuel…

Dec 20, 2011 at 12:47 | RFE/RL staff

Soaring fuel prices; electricity rationing; early snow -- it's enough to send people scurrying for alternative ways to heat their homes and cook their meals. In some parts of Central…

Dec 20, 2011 at 12:46 | James Burgess

According to Dr. Henning Wicht, director and principal analyst for photovoltaics at IHS (a global information and analysis provider), "propelled by residential and institutional investors who support green initiatives as…

Dec 19, 2011 at 19:32 | John Daly

South Korea currently has 21 nuclear power plants (NPPs). According to government statistics, atomic power produces about 40 percent of the country’s total electricity supply, roughly 18.5 gigawatts. South Korea’s…

Dec 19, 2011 at 19:27 | James Burgess

Renewable energy is considered the future. The best way for us to combat climate change, survive the decline of oil and generally provide cheap, safer, secure energy. However the industry…