What’s a Gribble? It’s a tiny marine shrimp found on the southern coast of Britain — and its ability to digest wood may provide a breakthrough in efficient biofuel production. Researchers are studying the gribble’s digestion process at a new UK bioenergy centre in order to s[...]
Archive for the ‘Energy’ Category
March 11th, 2010 - 7:00 am § in Energy
The Wood-Eating Gribble May Hold the Key to Biofuel Production
March 11th, 2010 - 6:15 am § in Energy
Sundrop Fuels Uses Concentrated Solar Heat to Vaporize Biomass
The technology sounds ultra-futuristic: concentrated solar heat that can vaporize biomass (wood, crop waste, etc.) into synthetic fuels. But the process, developed by Sundrop Fuels, is real, and it can produce twice the amount of gasoline or diesel than conventional biomass gasification systems. Re[...]
March 11th, 2010 - 2:02 am § in Energy
The Ins & Outs of the Upcoming Energy & Climate Bill and Why It’s Stalled
Key senators, industry officials, senior advisers and cabinet members met yesterday with President Obama to talk about the upcoming Climate and Energy Bill. The bill has been largely put aside by Congress in favor of passing Healthcare legislation and yesterday’s meetings were an attempt by P[...]
March 10th, 2010 - 7:17 am § in Energy
Nokia Files Patent for Kinetically Charged Cell Phone
Photo: Jurvetson Telecom giant Nokia recently filed a patent for a cell phone powered by kinetic energy (one of our favorite kinds of energy here at Inhabitat!). The conceived phone would charge via built-in piezoelectric generators that will convert the user’s motions into power. Now, we̵[...]
March 10th, 2010 - 4:00 am § in Energy
TAILPIPE POWER: Nanotube Thermocells Harvest Energy From Car Exhaust
Harvesting wasted energy from unexpected places is one of our favorite topics at Inhabitat, however one of the last places we’d look for a “clean” energy source is the tailpipe of a car. Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have announced that they are working on a new[...]
March 9th, 2010 - 3:00 am § in Energy
Texas Breaks U.S. Wind Power Generation Record
Good news on the alternative energy front: Texas managed to break the U.S. wind energy generation record last Friday morning when it produced 6,272 MW of power–19% of the total electricity mix. The state, which is the country’s wind power leader, got just 6.2 percent of its electricity [...]
March 9th, 2010 - 2:13 am § in Energy
Thermopower Waves:MIT Scientists Discover New Way to Produce Electricity
We’ve written about the possibilities that carbon nanotubes can unlock before, and now, an intrepid team of MIT scientists have discovered a never before known phenomenon using the tubes, which are essentially rolled up sheets of graphene. The occurence, which researchers are calling “t[...]
March 9th, 2010 - 12:02 am § in Energy
China to Launch Multi-Billion Dollar Renewable Energy Program
Photograph: Bob Sacha/Corbis China recently announced that it is planning to reduce its carbon intensity by 40-45% (from 2005 levels) and generate 15% of its electricity from renewables by 2020. According to Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Administration, the country will be launching a mu[...]