energy
Behavioral efforts, not money, will drive energy efficiency
When it comes to reducing carbon emissions, most of the attention has focused on new technologies like renewable power and electric vehicles, as well as their associated costs. But study after study shows that we can save both energy and a significant amount of cash through the use of energy efficiency technology that’s already on the market. A Policy Forum in today’s issue of Science suggests that the bottleneck isn’t so much technological or economic as it is behavioral, and argues that the US needs to start performing tests of behavior-oriented programs.
Continue reading »US DOE readies $8.33 billion nuclear loan guarantee
Earlier today, the US Department of Energy announced that it was ready to guarantee $8.33 billion in loans for the first nuclear power plant to be constructed under its auspices in decades. The project, a planned expansion of the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia, would involve building two additional reactors that generate a total of 2.2GW of power.
Continue reading »Wind turbines to power phone masts
Cold Green calling? Forget mobile phone covers made of recycled plastic bottles or handsets powered by sunlight. If you really want to make a green phone call then move to California, where some phone masts will soon run on wind energy.…
Continue reading »Smart grids drag utilities into the swamp of online privacy
The smart grid is rapidly becoming a reality in the US, as utilities have been installing networked monitoring and control equipment, both in their own facilities and in their customers’ homes. The pace of these installations should accelerate due to recent initiatives from the Department of Energy and the state of California; across the border, the Province of Ontario will see smart meters installed in every home by the end of next year. Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner has now worked with members of the Future of Privacy Forum to analyze the privacy implications of these initiatives.
Continue reading »Energy Agency: financial crisis an unprecedented opportunity
Each year, the International Energy Agency prepares a report on the current state and likely future of the global energy economy. In recent decades, there’s been a bit of monotony: energy use has grown and, as large areas of the developing world are developing rapidly, future energy demand is likely to stretch our abilities to obtain new sources of fossil fuels. This year has turned out to be a significant exception, with the economic crisis having cut into both the amount of energy used around the globe and the carbon dioxide emissions associated with them.
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