By Paul Brown Heating homes and offices without adding to the dangers of climate change is a major challenge for many cities, but re-imagined district heating is now offering an answer. A district heating scheme is a network of insulated pipes used to deliver heat, in the form of hot water or steam, from where […]
By Tim Radford Two Californian scientists have worked out how to achieve a wind-powered world that provides the entire planet with wind energy without spoiling the view with turbines on every hilltop. The answer: take wind farming onto the high seas. The force of the winds sweeping across the open ocean would be enough to […]
By Tim Radford Four U.S. scientists have just introduced one more good reason not to launch a nuclear war. It would not simply guarantee the mutual destruction of the participants. It would also precipitate catastrophic climate change. And, they argue in the journal Environment Magazine, even a single nuclear missile strike could darken the skies, […]
By Tim Radford What’s considered by some to be clean energy could devastate the Amazon, according to new research. A massive increase in hydropower from a series of planned Amazon dams could harm the world’s most important rainforest all the way from the slopes of the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. Altogether, 428 dams are […]
By Kieran Cooke It is the holy grail of the renewable energy sector—a cheap and efficient battery system that can store energy generated by renewables such as wind and solar. These days there are few who doubt the potential of renewables, except those diehards on the extreme of the fossil fuel industry. According to the […]
By Richard Sadler Ambitious plans have been drawn up for a network of “tidal lagoons” around the UK coast that could provide up to a quarter of the country’s electricity—and there is potential to roll out the technology in many parts of the world. Tidal lagoons work by using a wall to capture a body […]
By Tim Radford Even supposing the world does make dramatic reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, the fate of the small island states remains uncertain. New research suggests that other, more short-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could drive the thermal expansion of the oceans for centuries to come. This is grim news for those low-lying […]
By Kieran Cooke It was the worst nuclear accident in history, directly causing the deaths of 50 people, with at least an additional 4,000 fatalities believed to be caused by exposure to radiation. The 1986 explosion at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine also resulted in vast areas of land being contaminated by nuclear fallout, […]
By Paul Brown The prospects for expansion of the nuclear industry worldwide look worse in 2017 than at any time since the first atom stations were built in the 1950s. Toshiba, the giant Japanese company that owns the American reactor designer Westinghouse, is the latest company to face financial difficulties due to unforeseen cost overruns […]
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