03.24.23- Energy Transition Advocates Get A Reality Check
Irina Slav

This week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a new report. Unsurprisingly alarming, the report aimed to turn up the heat on governments, the business world, and every one of us to do more about the energy transition. Decarbonization, the report said, had to move faster and more dramatically. Yet that wasn’t the only document that made the headlines this week. Shell also released a report in which it detailed two different scenarios for the future to 2050. In those scenarios, the supermajor’s analysts pitted energy security against the energy transition – something the IPCC reports have never done. Read More

03.23.23- Oil Prices Under Pressure From Oversupply And Economic Uncertainty
Irina Slav

Crude oil prices moved lower today as the Federal Reserve signaled the U.S. economy is not yet out of the woods and the EIA reported yet another weekly build in crude oil stocks.

Although prices had inched up right after the Fed’s monetary policy meeting, which concluded with a decision for a 25-basis-point interest rate hike, they got pressured by comments made by chair Jerome Powell about credit risks in the banking system of the country. Read More

03.22.23- Lithium Prices Hit Hard
As EV Sales Stumble
Tyler Durden

The price of lithium has experienced a significant decline over recent months, resulting from a deceleration in electric vehicle sales and an increasing supply of the key ingredient used in battery packs. 

Since November, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate in China has plunged from $84,500 per metric ton to $42,500, or about a 50% decline, according to Bloomberg.  Read More

03.21.23- The Evolution of Residential Energy Storage
Fortress Power

In the world of residential energy storage, what’s old is new again.

When solar energy for residential properties first became popular toward the end of the 20th century, an overwhelming majority of systems ran on batteries. 

But in the early 2000s, governmental policies including net metering, tax credits, and other local incentives de-emphasized the importance of batteries during solar installs. Read More

03.20.23- Can The Lithium Price Boom Be Compared To Oil’s Last Supercycle
Robert Rapier

There’s an old adage for commodities that says, “the cure for high prices is high prices.” The inverse is true as well. In fact, I often heard this phrase when I worked in the oil industry.

At the same time, I often heard people say “But this time is different. This time there is no easy cure.” I heard that in 2008 when oil prices first topped $100 a barrel. Many people were predicting $200 a barrel. But a funny thing happened. Those high oil prices caused a recession, which reduced demand, which reduced prices. Read More

03.18.23- The U.S. Is Racing To Revitalize Its Nuclear Industry
Felicity Bradstock

Unlike many other countries around the world, the U.S. has kept its nuclear power up and running, making it the biggest producer of nuclear power today. Nevertheless, after falling out of public favor, nuclear power was little talked about in previous decades, with many power plants going into debt and barely keeping afloat. At present, nuclear power provides around 20 percent of the electricity generated in the United States, and this is largely thanks to government grants helping power plants maintain operations. But now, as countries worldwide consider nuclear power once again, the U.S. is ramping up its investments in the low-carbon energy source in a bid to bring nuclear back from the brink and use it to support a green transition. Read More

03.17.23- The Real Reason Why Automakers Slashed EV Prices
Rystad Energy

The global electric vehicle (EV) market is reeling from one of the most dramatic collapses in monthly sales to date, with Rystad Energy research showing that only 672,000 units were sold in January, almost half of December 2022 sales and a mere 3% year-on-year increase over January 2022. The EV market share among all passenger car sales also tumbled to 14% in January, well down on the 23% seen in December. Read More

03.16.23- Global Oil Production Dropped
To a 7-Month Low In January
Tsvetana Paraskova

Crude oil production worldwide fell to a seven-month low in January, dragged down by lower output in major producers Canada, Iraq, Russia, and Bahrain, data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI) showed on Thursday.

Global oil production declined by 365,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January, which was the third consecutive month of falling output, showed the JODI data shared by the Riyadh-based International Energy Forum (IEF). Read More

03.15.23- Oil Nosedives After SVB Collapse
Irina Slav

Last Friday, the banking regulator of California shut down Silicon Valley Bank and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver of its assets.

The collapse tech and climate startup bank was quickly labeled the biggest bank failure since the 2008 crisis and the second-biggest in history. And as it fell, it took oil prices with it. Read More

03.14.23- America’s Grid Has A Multi-Trillion Dollar Problem
Leonard Hyman and William Tilles

Numbers are out again permitting us to update our US electric grid’s reliability report card. Last year, 2022, was nowhere near as bad as 2021–the worst year of the 24-year record. It was “only” the fourth worst year. Severe storms, fire, floods, snow, hurricanes — many often in the same places. Whether we call it weather or climate, utilities and other infrastructure providers face new challenges. The electric industry’s response to this increasing cycle of weather disruption followed by system repair is to basically reinforce the status quo with a reassuring, “Don’t worry, we’ll fix the grid better than before.” Read More

03.13.23- Can Double-Sided Solar Panels Help Meet Global Energy Demands?
Brian Westenhaus

University of Ottawa’s laboratory in photonics and renewable energy has developed a new method for measuring the solar energy produced by bifacial solar panels. The double-sided solar technology is expected to meet increased global energy demands into the future.

Published in the journal Joule, this study from the SUNLAB team in the Faculties of Engineering and Science proposes a characterization method that will improve the measurement of bifacial panels indoors by considering external effects of ground cover such as snow, grass and soil. This will provide a way to consistently test bifacial solar panel performance indoors that accurately represents how the panels will perform outdoors. Read More

03.11.23- Why Illinois Needs To Reconsider Its Total Moratorium On Nuclear Energy
Tyler Durden

Illinois relies on nuclear energy for over half of its electricity production. The plants producing that power are mostly old and scheduled to be mothballed by 2050.

But Illinois nevertheless maintains a decades-long, total moratorium on new nuclear power plant construction.

Illinois’ shortsightedness is exceeded by its hubris. Federal government safety standards for construction and operation of nuclear plants is extraordinarily strict. Read More

03.10.23- The U.S. Solar Industry Is Set To Rebound In 2023
Tsvetana Paraskova

The U.S. solar market is expected to recover this year from the policy-driven supply constraints which weighed on the sector in 2022, a new report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie showed on Thursday.

Last year, new solar capacity additions in the United States fell by 16% from 2021 for a total of 20.2 gigawatts (GW), according to the report U.S. Solar Market Insight 2022 Year in Review. Read More

03.09.23- When the Economy Gets Squeezed by Too Little Energy
Gail Tverberg

Most people have a simple, but wrong, idea about how the world economy will respond to “not enough energy to go around.” They expect that oil prices will rise. With these higher prices, producers will be able to extract more fossil fuels so the system can go on as before. They also believe that wind turbines, solar panels and other so-called renewables can be made with these fossil fuels, perhaps extending the life of the system further. Read More

03.08.23- Understanding Peak Oil: What It Is And Why It Matters
Michael Kern

This question has been on the minds of many experts in recent years. 

The answer lies in the concept of peak oil - the point at which global petroleum production reaches its maximum potential and begins to decline. Read More

03.07.23- The Six Weirdest Sources Of Energy: A Closer Look
Michael Kern

Renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly important as the world moves towards a more sustainable and green future. While solar, wind, and hydropower are some of the most well-known renewable energy sources, many unconventional and even weird energy sourcescould play a significant role in our transition to a greener future.

Here is a closer look at six of the weirdest sources of energy:Read More

03.06.23- Calls to ban gas stoves are anti-science, anti-freedom, and anti-energy
Alex Epstein

Calls to ban gas stoves are anti-science, anti-freedom, and anti-energy

Instead of informing us with accurate science about gas stoves so we can make better decisions, anti-fossil fuel activists are distorting science to justify forcing their anti-gas agenda on us.

• Early 2023 has featured a carefully orchestrated campaign in which: Read More

03.04.23- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: We’ll Soon Find Out
James Howard Kunstler

The crown of America sits in a gutter begging someone to pick it up before the nation collapses— Auron MacIntyre, The Blaze

In an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier last Tuesday, FBI Director Chris Wray said, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.” Like so much else in America’s tortured, distractible life these days, the meaning larded into that utterance went clear over the collective heads of just about everybody.Read More

03.03.23- Green Hydrogen Will Play A Critical Role In A Net-Zero Future
Michael Kern

The world is rapidly transitioning towards renewable energy sources in order to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change. One of the most promising technologies in this regard is green hydrogen, which has the potential to revolutionize the energy industry.

What is Green Hydrogen? Read More

03.02.23- ‘New Fuels’ Take Over Commodity Markets Of The Future
Alex Kimani

The energy transition and the global energy crisis have triggered deep transformations within international energy trade. To wit, hydrogen and hydrogen-based products, including ammonia and synthetic fuels, are expected to gain the upper hand at the expense of fossil fuels including coal, oil and natural gas in the long-term. If governments across the globe adopt the Announced Pledges Scenarios set out in 2021, energy trade in 2050 will be roughly at current levels but the energy mix will be very different with hydrogen-based fuels and critical minerals gaining significant ground at the expense of oil products.  In the Net Zero Scenario, the value of energy trade would shrink while hydrogen and critical raw materials (CRM) such as rare earth elements, cobalt, lithium, nickel and copper will dominate. Read More

03.01.23- TAE makes world-first readings of magnetically-confined hydrogen-boron fusion
Loz Blain

Most current fusion power projects require tritium – an incredibly scarce and problematic fuel. TAE is targeting cheaper, safer hydrogen-boron (H-B) fusion, and it's just announced a world-first measurement of H-B fusion in magnetically confined plasma. Read More

02.28.23- Inflation Reduction Act: Opening Up Green Hydrogen Possibilities
Rystad Energy

If 2022 turbocharged the green hydrogen economy, then 2023 is the start of a long slog for this nascent sector that is set to be the backbone for decarbonization, transition and energy security strategies. Rystad Energy research has found that electrolyzer capacity is expected to grow by 186% from 2022 to 2023. Attention is therefore turning to the supply chain capacity necessary for electrolyzer production.  Read More

02.27.23- GE installs world's first spiral-welded wind turbine tower
Kurt Nimmo

Denver's Keystone Tower Systems says it can cut the cost of wind energy with tech borrowed from pipemaking. It uses spiral welding techniques to roll sheet steel into huge turbine towers on-site, stronger, faster and cheaper than current techniques. Read More

02.25.23- U.S. Oil Drilling Activity Retreats For Second Week In A Row
Julianne Geiger

The total number of total active drilling rigs in the United States fell by 7 this week, according to new data from Baker Hughes published on Friday.

The total rig count fell to 753 this week—103 rigs higher than the rig count this time in 2022 and 322 rigs lower than the rig count at the beginning of 2019, prior to the pandemic. Read More

02.24.23- Attacks On The U.S. Power Grid Are Surging
Michael Kern

The number of attacks with gunfire or vandalism on the U.S. power grid infrastructure surged last year and is likely to continue rising this year, too, a confidential analysis seen by The Wall Street Journal has shown.

Last year, the number of physical attacks – including intrusion, vandalism, and gunfire – jumped by 71% from 2021, according to the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or E-ISAC, a division of North American Electric Reliability Corporation. Read More

02.23.23- Could Gravity Batteries Win The Energy Storage War?
Felicity Bradstock

As renewable energy operations continue to expand worldwide, governments and energy companies are racing to develop battery storage capacity to ensure that people have access to clean energy at all hours of the day and night. The inconsistency of many renewable energy sources has made the need for battery storage greater than ever, which has spurred a huge amount of investment into new battery technologies around the globe. Now, gravity batteries may help us harness the power of wind and solar farms even when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun’s not shining. Read More

02.22.23- Silver mirror triples efficiency of perovskite solar cells
Michael Irving

An artist's impression of a perovskite (cyan) solar cell with a new layer of material underneath (gray), which boosts efficiency by creating reflections of electron-hole pairs (red and blue)>>

Perovskites are one of the most promising new materials for solar cell technology. Now engineers at the University of Rochester have developed a new way to more than triple the material’s efficiency by adding a layer of reflective silver underneath it. Read More

02.21.23- Electric Vehicles Are Anti-Market and Anti-Environment
Daniel ?terbuleac

On the perfection of the free-market

While I was doing my biweekly commute I couldn’t help myself notice, from time to time, a stranded car leaning on the side of the road. It usually was an older (about twenty-year-old) German car, but sometimes newer cars also. Read More

02.20.23- And Now. for Something Entirely Different: The Offensive Begins Next Week
Vox Day

All of the signs are pointing to the Russian military transforming the Special Military Operation into a full-blown invasion of Ukraine next week. Simplicius goes into considerable detail about the mobilization and positioning of Russian forces and concludes that the invasion will be conducted on very different principles and will begin on the anniversary of the original operation.

Putin is now officially scheduled to give a big State of the Nation address on February 21st, which falls precisely on the anniversary of his pivotal Feb. 21, 2022 speech where he first announced the recognition of LPR/DPR’s independence, leading the way to the big Feb. 24 speech which announced the actual full military launch of the SMO invasion.  Read More

02.18.23- Surging Energy Prices Could Push 141 Million People Into Extreme Poverty
Tsvetana Paraskova

The surge in energy prices over the past year could push another 141 million people globally into extreme poverty, due to the cost-of-living crisis, a new study showed this week.

Total energy costs of households are set to jump by between 62.6% and 112.9%, contributing to a 2.7% to 4.8% increase in household expenditures, researchers said in the study published in the journal Nature Energy. Read More

02.17.23- Puerto Rico Has Big Plans For Renewables, But Can It Deliver?
Haley Zarremba

Puerto Rico’s electrical grid was already woefully under-invested in and poorly maintained when the category 4 Hurricane Maria crashed into the island in September, 2017. The fallout from the storm was enormous, with thousands of casualties and immeasurable damage to the island’s infrastructure. The power grid was almost completely destroyed. The devastation triggered the longest and most sweeping blackout in all of United States history, and the majority of the approximately 3,000 people who died from the storm didn’t die from the hurricane itself, but from issues relating to the lack of electricity powering hospitals and other essential services. Read More

02.16.23- Scientists Use Nano Carbons To Convert Methane Into Hydrogen
Brian Westenhaus

University of Surrey researchers have found that a type of metal-free catalysts could contribute to the development of cost-effective and sustainable hydrogen production technologies.

The results entitled ‘First-Principles Microkinetic Modeling Unraveling the Performance of Edge-Decorated Nanocarbons for Hydrogen Production from Methane’ have been published atACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Read More

02.15.23- The Next Leg Of The Space Race Is All About Solar Power
Haley Zaremba

One of the biggest problems facing solar energy is that it is variable. Solar production waxes and wanes according to variables well outside of human control. The amount of sunlight hitting a solar panel in a given day depends on the weather and the season. Further complicating the issue, the times of day when demand for energy is highest are often opposite of peak production hours. Solar panels are just clocked out when all of us get home and turn on our lights, start cooking, and our heating systems work harder to keep the house warm as the sun goes down. Read More

02.14.23- "Exceptional" new catalyst cheaply splits hydrogen from seawater
Loz Blain

The new catalyst splits seawater and generates hydrogen extremely efficiently in the lab, resisting corrosion and avoiding chlorine production. The research team says it'll be easy to manufacture at scale, and should be cheap enough at commercial scale to help green hydrogen compete with fossil fuels

Green hydrogen can't be viewed as environmentally friendly if it drinks huge amounts of fresh water, or results in the bulk output of toxic chlorine, according to RMIT researchers who say they've come up with a cheap technique that does neither.  Read More

02.13.23- The Future Is Bright
For Pink Hydrogen
Felicity Bradstock

Everyone’s been talking about green hydrogen as a potential gas and fuel replacement as the world transitions away from fossil fuels. But one alternative, pink hydrogen, produced using nuclear power, has been largely overlooked. Governments worldwide are once again discussing nuclear power, with plans to construct several new power plants around the globe. This is largely in response to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and resulting energy insecurity, which has demonstrated the world’s ongoing reliance on a few select powers for their oil and gas needs. Many countries are looking to become more self-sufficient when it comes to energy, with a wider array of renewable energy options now on the table. So, could pink hydrogen be one of the major power sources of the future?  Read More

02.11.23- Researchers Look To Turn Decommissioned Mines Into Batteries
Brian Westenhaus

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) has offered a new technique called Underground Gravity Energy Storage that turns decommissioned mines into long-term energy storage solutions.

Renewable energy sources are central to the energy transition toward a more sustainable future. However, as sources like sunshine and wind are inherently variable and inconsistent, finding ways to store energy in an accessible and efficient way is crucial. While there are many effective solutions for daily energy storage, the most common being batteries, a cost-effective long-term solution is still lacking. Read More

02.10.23- How inverter design contributes to long-term profitability of solar and storage
Larry Pearl

As the up-front costs of clean energy technologies continue to fall, attention is turning to lifetime system costs and how they affect the long-term profitability of large-scale distributed energy resources (DERs). Not surprisingly, these systems drive better financial returns by generating electricity reliably — day in and day out — without costly maintenance or failures. So, the question becomes, what system component is key to owning and operating a profitable system.  Read More

02.09.23- Small Modular Reactors
Struggle With Scalability
Leonard S. Hyman and William I. Tilles

Nuclear power is back in the headlines. Its proponents say, “We need renewables and nuclear. Maybe, though, not the same kind of nuclear as before. Maybe small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs).” Three distinct achievements in modular nuclear reactors made the news recently. Read More

02.08.23- And Now, for Something Entirely Different: ChatGPT... The friendly face
of your AI replacement
Loz Blain

This year may well be remembered as the moment the world woke up to the power, the potential and the world-inverting threat of artificial intelligence. OpenAI's humble, free-to-use chatbot has made it clear: life will never be the same after ChatGPT.

We are witnessing a revolution. After the stunning debut of OpenAI's Dall-E 2 image generatorlast year, the company opened its natural language generator up to the public at the end of November last year. Since then, it's spread like wildfire, amassing more than 100 million users in its first two months, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history and the buzzword of the year. Read More

02.07.23- Tidal Energy To See
Major Expansion This Decade
Felicity Bradstock

Energy companies and governments are picking up the pace of the development of tidal energy operations in 2023, as countries worldwide look to diversify the renewables mix in a response to growing energy insecurity. Tidal power, a long-neglected green energy option, has finally gained greater traction in recent years, as governments look for innovative ways to meet their climate targets over the coming decades. This year, several countries have big plans for new tidal power projects, which will see the world’s tidal energy capacity grow significantly. Read More

02.06.23- South Australia plans world's largest electrolyzer and H2 power plant
Loz Blain

Outstanding renewable energy potential and some lever early moves have positioned South Australia as one of the world's leading renewable energy regions – now it's planning a hydrogen-powered energy storage moonshot

The state that built the world's first grid-level "big battery" is striking out on an even more ambitious green energy project: the world's biggest hydrogen power station, fed by an electrolysis facility 10 times larger than anything running today. Read More

02.04.23- Nuclear Power Is Entering A New Era
Haley Zaremba

The global energy crisis is putting an unprecedented squeeze on the nuclear power industry. The urgent need to shore up energy security in the context of the Russian war in Ukraine has convalesced with the equally urgent need to decarbonize the global energy mix as the line of no return for catastrophic climate change grows ever closer. For many countries, this has meant that public and private sector leaders have been forced to reconsider their attitudes toward nuclear energy, a proven emissions-free technology capable of producing a whole lot of energy reliably and consistently. Read More

02.03.23- Multi-layer "liquid window" tech could help buildings save energy
Ben Coxworth

There are already "smart" windows that can be electronically switched between either letting sunlight through or blocking it. A new multi-layered one, however, can be set to severalenergy-saving light filtration modes.

By adjusting the opacity of the glass on existing photochromic windows, users can control how much sunlight passes through the window and into the room. In most cases, the glass partially blocks the sunlight's visible spectrum – keeping the room from getting too bright – along with its infrared spectrum, keeping the room from getting too warm. Read More

02.02.23- Acid coating converts regular electrolyzers to split seawater
Loz Blain

Green hydrogen is going to demand a lot of water for electrolysis – nine liters of pure water for every kilogram of hydrogen. Researchers say they've found a simple way to use seawater in standard electrolyzers, and that's big news for clean energy. Read More

02.01.23- China’s Low Aluminum Production Worsens Supply Chain Challenges
Jennifer Kary

As with many base metals, aluminum prices rose at the beginning of January. While it is true that China raising aluminum export taxes could have impacted aluminum prices, the market has witnessed somewhat volatile conditions since late September of 2022. And though prices are nowhere near their March 2022 historic rally levels, they still remain at historic highs. Read More

01.31.23- Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Are A Game Changer For Clean Power
Haley Zaremba

For years, small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) have been teased as the next big thing in clean energy. They were promised to be the solution to safely and efficiently scaling nuclear energy and the catalyst that would bring the nuclear energy renaissance into full swing. But then they never arrived. Read More

01.30.23- Are You Really Against Fossil Fuels? Read This Before You Answer
Vijay Jayaraj

It is easy for anyone to say that they are against fossil fuels. Opposition to coal, oil and natural gas is fashionable and will prompt heads to nod and even hands to applaud in most places. 

But are people aware of the extent to which their lives are dependent on fossil fuels? Do they know that more than 90 percent of things used in their everyday lives are derived from fossil fuels? Read More

01.28.23- Sodium-Ion Batteries Just Got More Competitive
Brian Westenhaus

Pusan National University researchers have invented a new sodium ion anode material. They are using a recently developed pyrolyzed quinacridones, new carbonaceous anode materials, that are efficient, easily prepared, and exhibit excellent electrochemical properties, including high sodium-ion storage performance and cycling stability.

Their study paper was made available online on October of 2022 and will be published in Volume 453, Part 1 of the Chemical Engineering Journal on 1 February 2023. Read More

01.27.23- Will Geothermal Energy
Ever Become Scalable?
Haley Zaremba

The most cutting-edge approach for saving the planet from climate disaster doesn’t sound like it’s ripped out of the pages of science fiction. In fact, it doesn’t even sound like it’s ripped from the headlines. Far from new but nonetheless noteworthy, the ancient energy technology of using heat from the Earth’s core is finally ready for its close-up. While geothermal energy is already used around the world in relatively small-scale operations, scientists are working on scaling what could potentially be a clean, abundant, and cost-effective form of energy production suitable for almost anywhere on the planet. Read More

01.26.23- How Environmental Fear-mongering Derailed The Nuclear Energy Boom
Felicity Bradstock

Despite high hopes for nuclear power several decades ago, when the development of many large-scale nuclear plants was underway and numerous projects were already up and running, we are living far from the dream once envisioned by nuclear scientists, who were hoping to deliver vast amounts of clean energy to the world and offer a replacement for fossil fuels. Nuclear energy once presented the idea of a fossil fuel-free future, with power plants providing abundant clean energy to populations around the world. However, following a few prolific nuclear disasters, the world quickly turned its back on nuclear, and environmentalists worldwide made sure we never forgot about the high risks involved with nuclear power. Now, as several countries are putting nuclear power back on the agenda, many are questioning whether this fearmongering was really justified, given the major risks involved with continuing fossil fuel operations. Read More

01.25.23- The Energy Crisis Is Fueling A Nuclear Energy Renaissance
Haley Zaremba

Is this the dawn of a new nuclear era? Across the world, there are rumblings of a new push for nuclear as a solution to decarbonizing global energy production, even from environmentalist groups, representing a stark turnaround for many. Even the most anti-nuclear countries, such as Germany and Japan, have been extending the lives of their existing nuclear plants, flying in the face of their previous pledges to phase out the divisive technology altogether. While nuclear power never died in some key economies, such as China and Russia, more influential world leaders in the West are now getting on board, signaling a potential sea change for the nuclear power industry.  Read More

01.24.23- U.S. Gasoline Prices
Continue To Climb
Julianne Geiger

Gasoline prices continue to climb for the fourth straight week, rising 32.7 cents over the last month as crude oil prices rise, data from AAA showed on Monday.

Gasoline prices are up 11.8 cents over a week ago, and are 9.4 cents higher than they were a year ago, before Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Read More

01.23.23- The Road To Decarbonization: Ammonia-Powered Trucks Take the Lead
Haley Zaremba

This week, the world’s first ammonia-powered, zero-emissions semi truck was unveiled, potentially signaling the dawn of a new era for the shipping and transportation industry. Like Tesla’s semi truck, Brooklyn company Amogy’s ammonia-powered truck holds about 900 kWh of energy. Unlike the Tesla semi, it takes just about eight minutes to refuel. And, according to Amogy, their new model has five times the system-level energy density of batteries. Read More

01.21.23- SpaceX Rocket Sends Solar Power Prototype Into Orbit
Brian Westenhaus

The Caltech Space Solar Power Project (SSPP) prototype launched into orbit, dubbed the Space Solar Power Demonstrator (SSPD), will test several key components of an ambitious plan to harvest solar power in space and beam the energy back to Earth.

Space solar power provides a way to tap into the practically unlimited supply of solar energy in outer space, where the energy is constantly available without being subjected to the cycles of day and night, seasons, and cloud cover.

For more lots more images, gifs and video, here are the links: 1st, Cal Tech’s press release.Then 2nd, the project web site. Read More

01.20.23- How Significant Was The Latest Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough?
Robert Rapier

Last month the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California announced a significant breakthrough in nuclear fusion research. Since then, a number of people have asked me what this breakthrough really means.

First, let’s discuss some basics of nuclear fusion. Today’s nuclear power plants are based on nuclear fission, which is the splitting of a heavy isotope like uranium-235 into two smaller isotopes. (Isotopes are just different forms of an element). Read More

01.19.23- Fur-lined double-barrel generator harvests energy from slow waves
Loz Blain

Magnets hold the inner cylinder in place, stopping it from rotating until it reaches the peak of a wave, where it can be released to create the maximum triboelectric effect

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed an unusual way to harvest wave power, with a gently rolling cylinder designed around the triboelectric effect that causes static shocks after you walk on certain carpets. Read More

01.18.23- IEA: Half Of All Cars Sold In Top Markets Will Be Electric By 2030
Michael Kern

Every other car sold in 2030 in the three largest EV markets – China, Europe, and the United States – will be an electric vehicle, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.

In 2030, every second car sold in Europe, the US, and China, the three largest car markets for electric cars, will be an electric car, the IEA’s Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Read More

01.17.23- Dung-powered tractor drives down agricultural emissions
Loz Blain

New Holland Agriculture has announced a new tractor designed to run on fuel created on-site using cow manure. The T7 Methane Power LNG offers the same power and torque as a diesel tractor, but it's part of a system that can greatly reduce emissions. 

The system, upon which New Holland has partnered with UK company Bennamann, works roughly like this: farmers collect as much cow poop as possible as a slurry, and instead of directly using it as fertilizer, they pump it into large tanks, or covered lagoons. Anaerobic organisms chow down on this lumpy thickshake, and produce a biogas that contains mainly methane. Read More

01.16.23- Biofuel Production Is Set To Soar
In The U.S.
Haley Zaremba

What makes an energy source renewable? This question has been at the center of numerous debates in recent months as government agencies around the world rewrite their energy policies in the wake of the massive energy sector shakeup brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and pushed into overdrive by Russia’s war in Ukraine. We are currently living through a “global energy crisis of unprecedented depth and complexity,” according to the recently released World Energy Outlook 2022, an annual flagship report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). According to the IEA’s analysis, “there is no going back to the way things were.” Read More

01.14.23- Where Are Oil Prices Heading In 2023?
Tsvetana Paraskova

At the beginning of 2023, several factors are at play in determining the short and medium-term trend in oil prices this year. Supply and demand concerns, tightening monetary policy globally, expectations of a material slowdown in economic growth and possible recessions, and China’s reopening with a Covid exit wave are all impacting crude oil prices.  Read More

01.13.23- Why Oil's 7-Month Downturn May Be About To Reverse
Tyler Durden

As OilPrice's Alex Kimani writes, oil prices have kicked off the new year on the back foot, tumbling to large losses in the first week before staging a modest recovery in the second as demand uncertainty continues to weigh on trading. Concerns over the rapid expansion of China’s COVID cases, following the relaxation of strict zero-COVID policies have continued to weigh heavily on oil prices. Read More

01.12.23- Concentrated photosynthesis device promises cheap green hydrogen
Loz Blain

UMich researchers have demonstrated an artificial photosynthesis device 10 times more efficient and one hundredth the size of previous devices of its kind. This green hydrogen production method also improves over time, and can split seawater. Read More

01.11.23- World's new largest wind turbine sweeps 10 football fields per spin
Loz Blain

The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) is upping the ante on offshore wind, announcing it's building the largest and most powerful wind turbine ever, making a peak 18 megawatts with an enormous 260-meter (853-ft) diameter on its three-bladed rotor.

It makes sense for a shipbuilding enterprise to get involved with this project; the blades of much smaller turbines are already a huge pain to transport, so building them right next to a dock in a facility designed for making, handling and launching enormous structures into the water eliminates a ton of problems as you attempt to go bigger. Read More

01.10.23- Form Energy's ultra-cheap
iron-air batteries to get $760M factory
Loz Blain

Boston's Form Energy says its iron-air battery systems will provide hundred hour-plus grid-scale energy storage at a tenth the price of lithium "big battery" installations

One of the most exciting companies in grid-level renewable energy storage – if you're the type to get excited about this kind of thing – is Form Energy, whose innovative iron-air technology promises to outperform lithium "big battery" projects at 10% of the cost. It's preparing to scale up with its first factory. Read More

01.09.23- The LNG Boom Could End With Billions In Stranded Assets
Irina Slav

A few years ago, the notion that the United States could become the largest LNG exporter in the world would have sounded fantastical. And yet last year, it did just that: the U.S. exported as much liquefied natural gas as Qatar in 2022, at over 81 billion cu m. And it’s going to export more this year. But the boom may end sooner than many expect. Most of the gas liquefied at Gulf of Mexico terminals last year went to Europe, which was blown off its course towards a fossil fuel-free future by the war in Ukraine and its own reaction to the Russian invasion, which took the form of sanctions that prompted an unsurprising response from Moscow in the form of lower gas deliveries. Read More

01.07.23- Andurand: Oil Prices Could Exceed $140 If China's Economy Fully Reopens
Julianne Geiger

Crude oil prices could exceed $140 per barrel yet this year if China’s economy fully reopens, hedge fund manager Pierre Andurand said on Friday.

Andurand sees the possibility of crude oil demand growing by more than 4 million barrels per day this year—a 4% increase over last year. This far exceeds crude demand growth set out for 2023 by other oil market forecasters. Read More

01.06.23- What Would It Take To Completely Decarbonize Jet Fuel?
Brian Westenhaus

Arizona State University research shows a pathway toward full decarbonization of U.S. aviation fuel use by substituting conventional jet fuel with sustainably produced biofuels. The study found that planting the grass miscanthus on 23.2 million hectares of existing marginal agricultural lands – land that often lays fallow or is poor in soil quality – across the United States would provide enough biomass feedstock to meet the liquid fuel demands of the U.S. aviation sector fully from biofuels, an amount expected to reach 30 billion gallons/year by 2040.Everyday, 45,000 planes fly across the United States, carrying some 1.7 million passengers. Aviation dominates a frequent traveler’s individual contribution to climate change, and yet is one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonize. Read More

01.05.23- Hong Kong Scientists Unveil Two New Hydrogen Production Catalysts
Brian Westenhaus

City University of Hong Kong researchers have announced two new hydrogen production catalysts based on mineral gel and ‘crystalline-amorphous’ dual-phase nano-aluminum alloy.

In the first topic the researchers’ findings have been published in the scientific journal Nature Communications under the title “Two-dimensional mineral hydrogel-derived single atoms-anchored heterostructures for ultrastable hydrogen evolution”. The first author of the paper is Dr Lyu Fucong from CityU. The corresponding authors are Professor Lu, Dr Li Yangyang, Associate Professor in MSE, and Dr Sun Ligang, Assistant Professor in the School of Science at the Harbin Institute of Technology. Read More

01.04.23- Renewable Energy Jobs On The Rise
Felicity Bradstock

In 2021, global renewable energy jobs reached 12.7 million in a trend that’s set to continue. Despite fears of a severe decrease in fossil fuel jobs worldwide, as we transition to renewable energy, the good news is that opportunities in green energy increasing rapidly.  The number of jobs in renewable energy grew by around 700,000 globally between 2020 and 2021, according to the Renewable Energy and Jobs Annual Review 2022 by IRENA and the ILO. Read More

01.03.23- Will Big Plans For Nuclear Power Work Without Russian Uranium?
Felicity Bradstock

Many world powers have sped-up plans to introduce new nuclear power plants in a bid to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and decarbonise. Due to the high energy demand, many countries around the globe view renewable energy as insufficient in the mid-term to provide enough energy to meet the needs of the growing world population. However, nuclear power could provide a low-carbon alternative, offering abundant energy and low emissions. Read More

01.02.23- The Fall Of Tesla And The Rise of Exxon Amid The Energy Crisis
Alex Kimani

Growth stocks have been thoroughly hammered this year, with high inflation and rising interest rates pinching growth equities of all stripes. But few stocks exemplify the dramatic shake-up at the top, like leading EV maker Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA). TSLA stock has tanked 69.5% in the year-to-date, wiping off a staggering $877 billion from its market cap. In comparison, the S&P 500 has declined a more modest 19.7% over the timeframe. Read More