Solar Cell Breakthrough

A little known fact about solar cells is that they become increasingly inefficient the hotter they get. So sticking them out in a desert doesn't get as much energy as you might expect.

Now though, scientists have worked out a way to use both the light and heat from the Sun at the same time, more than doubling the efficiency of solar energy production. This, and the fact that the new technology uses cheap materials, means it could compete on even terms with oil based energy. More here.

Largest Tidal Power Device Due For Orkney

The world's largest tidal power machine will be installed off the coast of Orkney, Scotland. This experimental device will use the ebb and flow of the tides off the island to generate a megawatt of electricity a year, enough to power 1000 homes. More here.

Britain hopes to be world leaders in the development of tidal and wave energy technology. It has a number of wave related projects going on around our coast including one off Cornwall which should be plugged into the national grid sometime next year.

Toyota Add The Auris To Their Hybrid Range

It looks like Toyota are hoping to build on their dominance of the hybrid car market by giving the Auris the same system as the Prius.

A new one can be yours for less than £15000, about £4000 less than the Prius.

However, it looks like the Auris hybrid makes hard work of hills due to the extra weight of the batteries. Oops.

July 2010 NOT the hottest on record!

You read that heading right. July failed to follow the trend of the 4 previous months this year by being the hottest across the world since records began.

In fact, it was only the second hottest on record.

Oz Trip Part 1

We've just returned from a 3 week holiday in Australia. It was great. We managed to cram in a lot of sightseeing and even got to meet several of our relatives. We loved it....except for those interminable plane flights there and back! Urghh!! Why do people think of air travel as quick and convenient?! Hours spent driving to the airport, sitting around waiting for the flight, the flight itself, and all that mucking about with baggage, passports and security. Door-to-door from our Sydney motel to our home was 32 boring, sleep deprived, hours. Hoorah for modern living...

Anyway, to the point of this posting: What am I going to do about our carbon footprint? 4 people on a return trip to Oz equals a 23.5 tonne footprint. Or, about 3 times our normal annual footprint.

So I've decided to 'offset' the flights i.e. Pay to have the footprint balanced out by stuff like tree planting. It'll cost about £180 but that's just a fraction of the total cost of the holiday. So why not?

Blue Sky Thinking

The problem with wind power is that it stops generating when the wind drops.

If only you could find a consistent, strong source....well, actually, there is such a source: The higher you go, the better it gets.

So-called high altitude winds are the next target for wind turbine designers. No, they're not planning on building even taller turbines, they're looking at ones on mountains and even airbourne versions.

The latter is pretty interesting. They're still just concepts, but the idea is to send up giant kites with turbines mounted on them (see picture above). Weird, but at least one company (Joby) thinks they can do it. More here.

UK Government Cuts Investment In Renewables

The Tories came to power a few weeks ago promising to be the greenest government yet. Now they've announced they're cutting investment in green energy by £34m! Nice work, Cameron, where are your green credentials now? It'll take a few more miles on that poser bike of yours to make up for that lot.

This is the time to invest for the future: Green industry will provide jobs and contribute big bucks to our economy; oh, and, by the way, reduce carbon emissions.

More here.

2009: Strong Growth in Green Energy

60% of electricity capacity added in Europe last year was renewable. In the U.S. it was over half. And renewables could outstrip fossil fuels worldwide in 2011.

Green energy finally seems to be gathering momentum inspite of the global recession, failure of Copenhagen and (temporarily) falling oil prices. Looks like we've finally turned the corner on this front. See here for some great background detail.

The next area to see progress may be green cars. I see major change there soon. We just need more choice and there could be a rapid take-up.

Hottest June Ever

Yes, that's right, June 2010 was the hottest June worldwide since records began. By my reckoning that makes 5 out of the last 6 months this year to do that. See here for more.

Climate scientists predicted that 2010 would turn into the hottest year on record and, at this rate, it's going to do that with ease.

Still, an even more sobering thought is that we haven't had a month with temperatures below the 20th century average since 1985....

Nuclear Fusion Anyone?

When we think of nuclear energy, we usually think of nuclear reactors like Sizewell, Dungeness, Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island.

These reactors are often touted as part of the way to reduce carbon emissions by replacing coal, oil and gas powered stations (I believe the UK government is considering them for example).

However, we all know the problem with nuclear plants: Nuclear waste.

Or, at least, that's the problem with the plants so far, which all use nuclear fission.

Now, however, they're working on a fusion reactor in southern France which could pave the way to limitless, clean energy.

The reactor, called Iter, uses the fact that, when you push together atoms lighter than iron, and 'fuse' them, energy is released. No radioactive material is used in the process, so there's no radioactive waste.

Nuclear fission, on the other hand, splits heavy atoms apart to produce the same sort of energy. This involves the use of materials like uranium and plutonium, so the waste is radiactive.

Iter is the first of it's kind in the world and is a joint project between the EU, South Korea, the US, Russia, Japan, China, and India. It's not finished yet, will cost about £12 billion, and it's not even certain that fusion will produce enough energy to justify the enormous costs!

Still, there's obviously a great deal of interest, and with good reason: Limitless, clean, and reliable energy is the holy grail of our times.

The project will probably start producing around 2016.