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 […]
By Claire Salisbury Mega-dam construction is booming around the world, with promoters hyping hydropower as a green, renewable source of energy and a means of curbing climate change. But as these dams are built in the Amazon, Mekong and elsewhere, they’re doing great environmental and social damage and their green credentials are no longer adding […]
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 […]
Taking public transportation already makes a big difference in reducing your carbon footprint. Now, the San Francisco Bay Area’s rapid transit system is reducing its own carbon footprint by committing to 100 percent renewable energy. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (or BART) is likely the first electrified public transit system to make this ambitious goal. […]
A tiny, scenic island lying off Scotland’s west coast is truly a model for sustainable, off-grid living. With no mainland electricity connection, the Isle of Eigg gets its electricity from the water, the wind and the sun. After decades of using diesel generators, in February 2008 the residents of Eigg officially switched to their own […]
Donald Trump finally opened his mouth about dams and hydropower last week. The result is as bad as you can imagine. Daniel Dale, Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star, tweeted what Trump had to say: “Hydropower is great, great, form of power—we don’t even talk about it, because to get the environmental permits are virtually […]
Germany is embarking on an innovative project to turn a hard coal mine into a giant battery that can store surplus solar and wind energy and release it when supplies are lean. The Prosper-Haniel coal mine in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia will be converted into a 200 megawatt pumped-storage hydroelectric reservoir that acts […]
Meet Mr. Trash Wheel and Professor Trash Wheel—a pair of floating, solar and hydro-powered trash interceptors keeping Baltimore’s waters clean. These frankly adorable trash wheels can collect as much as 38,000 pounds of debris in a single day. [facebook https://facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/1462252590454340/ expand=1] Mr. Trash Wheel, located at the mouth of Jones Falls, has stopped more than […]
Wind power overtook hydropower to become the biggest source of renewable electric capacity in the U.S. in 2016 and is now the nation’s fourth-largest energy source overall, according to figures released Thursday by the American Wind Energy Association. New wind installations in 2016 pushed the sector to more than 82 GW total capacity nationwide, enough […]