This story originally featured on Hothouse. Subscribe to the climate newsletter on Substack. Renewable energies have long been criticized for their variability. From brewing your morning coffee or tea to binging Netflix at night, demands for residential power tax the grid most ...
Read More »This concept cruise ship will have solar-paneled sails, an AI copilot, and zero emissions
Today’s cruise ships are environmental nightmares. Just one vessel packed with a veritable petri dish of passengers can burn as much as 250 tons of fuel per day, or about the same emissions as 12,000 cars. If the industry is ...
Read More »675 million people still didn’t have access to electricity in 2021
In 2015, the United Nations announced a series of interdependent Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) meant to provide a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.” In the years since, the UN ...
Read More »A new solution could keep old wind turbine blades out of landfills
Wind turbines are integral to our renewable energy future, but they come with a fatal flaw—their massive turbine blades are often relegated to landfills at the end of their lifespans. There, they remain indefinitely. It’s an unfortunately dire scalability conundrum ...
Read More »Electric cars are better for the environment, no matter the power source
These days, it seems like every carmaker—from those focused on luxury options to those with an eye more toward the economical—is getting into electric vehicles. And with new US policies around purchasing incentives and infrastructure improvements, consumers might be more ...
Read More »Hydrogen is supplementing natural gas, but critics remain wary
A public utility is experimenting with blending small amounts of carbon-free hydrogen into natural gas lines in some Minnesota homes, but critics argue the procedure remains largely an exercise in hot air. As first reported last week by Energy News ...
Read More »The next generation of US nuclear plants could be tiny but powerful
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently announced its approval of the designs for a first-of-its-kind small modular reactor (SMR). This could signal a potential shift in the development and integration of next generation power plants in the US. While traditional ...
Read More »The Brilliant 10: The top up-and-coming minds in science
There’s a phrase that rings loudly in the heads of Popular Science editors any time we bring together a new Brilliant 10 class: “They’ve only just begun.” Our annual list of early-career scientists and engineers is as much a celebration ...
Read More »How the Inflation Reduction Act can help you save cash and energy
Government incentives might encourage you to add another goal to your new year’s resolutions in 2023: reducing your carbon footprint. Starting this year, Americans can take advantage of a stream of tax credits to make their homes, cars, and businesses ...
Read More »Scientists just got one step closer to solar-powered recycling plants
Wasting resources is a huge cause of environmental degradation. At our current rate, we’re on track to 3.4 billion metric tons of solid trash by 2050. This route is completely untenable for both civilization and the overall environment, but given ...
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