In January the world media widely covered a paper published in Science that looked at the internal Exxon report that predicted the climate change crisis we now all know we are facing. The paper concludes that the Exxon forecasts were very accurate. John Grant at Sheffield Hallam University composes a counterfactual history of what would have happened in Exxon and the world had taken the report seriously and acted immediately. Yes, we’d have … [Read more...]
New thermoplastic blades for coastal Tidal Energy turbines
Large-scale tidal power turbines provide an option for clean energy generation that doesn’t depend on the weather, like wind and solar. Research led by NREL is using, for the first time anywhere, thermoplastic composite blades that will improve fatigue performance over typical epoxy blades, can be manufactured faster and more energy-efficiently, and can be recycled. The test site is located in New York City's East River, installed in Verdant … [Read more...]
Unlocking the potential of Ocean Energy: from megawatts to gigawatts
When you consider the expanse of the world’s oceans no one should be surprised that the theoretical potential for electricity generated from ocean energy is several times total global energy demand. Of course, that potential needs to be harnessed at commercial prices. Francisco Boshell, Roland Roesch, Alessandra Salgado and Judit Hecke at IRENA run through the technologies used to extract energy from tides and waves, the potential near-term … [Read more...]
