biomass

UK Cuts Subsidies for Drax Power Station in Half, Saying It Must Burn 100% Sustainable Biomass

UK Cuts Subsidies for Drax Power Station in Half, Saying It Must Burn 100% Sustainable Biomass

The United Kingdom has announced new reduced subsidies for its controversial Drax power station, which had been previously converted to burning wood biomass from coal. The North Yorkshire plant is an important source of energy for the country, but has received criticism because of sustainability concerns, in addition to Drax Group plc’s enormous profits, reported […]

Join our newsletter

The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!

    Climate Change Denier Scott Pruitt Endorses Burning Trees for Electricity

    Climate Change Denier Scott Pruitt Endorses Burning Trees for Electricity

    By Danna Smith Over the last several years, study after study has documented why burning trees to produce electricity, known as “biomass,” will accelerate climate change. More than 800 scientists from around the world recently signed a letter to the EU government warning that burning trees for electricity releases more carbon into the atmosphere than […]

    Costa Rica Runs Entirely on Renewable Energy for 300 Days

    Costa Rica Runs Entirely on Renewable Energy for 300 Days

    Costa Rica has charted another clean energy accolade. So far this year, the Central American country has run on 300 days of 100 percent power generation from renewable energy sources, according to the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE), which cited figures from the National Center for Energy Control. With six weeks left of 2017 […]

    German Nature Reserves Have Lost More Than 75% of Flying Insects

    German Nature Reserves Have Lost More Than 75% of Flying Insects

    A new study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE adds more evidence that insect populations around the globe are in perilous decline. For the study, researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands, alongside their German and English colleagues, measured the biomass of trapped flying insects at 63 nature preserves in Germany since 1989. They […]

    Biomass More Polluting Than Coal, New Study Finds

    Biomass More Polluting Than Coal, New Study Finds

    By Sami Yassa A pre-eminent think tank in the United Kingdom, Chatham House, issued a seminal report last week challenging a fundamental assumption underlying European renewable energy policy: that burning forest biomass to produce electricity is “carbon neutral.” The report, Woody Biomass for Power and Heat: Impacts on the Global Climate, finds that many forms […]

    Mount Everest Climbers May One Day Climb Ice-Free

    Mount Everest Climbers May One Day Climb Ice-Free

    The Himalayan Mountains and Tibetan Plateau, dubbed the “Third Pole” for having the largest ice mass on Earth after the polar regions, are rapidly losing their glaciers. Eighteen percent of China’s glaciers have vanished in the past 50 years according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Air pollution and rising air temperatures are combining to […]

    What Role Can Biofuels Play in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

    What Role Can Biofuels Play in Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

    The shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy is occurring mainly at the power plant level. But what about transportation? Can we significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by switching to cleaner fuels? Or is this just an attempt to keep 20th century technology chugging along while trading one set of environmental problems for another? Biofuels […]