SolarCity’s solar Gigafactory to produce 10GW, or three large power stations, a year
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The new SolarCity Gigafactory will boost supply of solar products, helping to reduce their cost, which in turn should accelerate the adoption of solar power technologies. While discussing potential improvements in manufacturing efficiency with Tesla investor Ron Baron at his conference in New York...
Iceland drills worlds deepest well to tap energy from rivers of magma
Icelands geothermal project could lead to similar projects in the US that could power the whole continent Iceland, already a juggernaut in the world of sustainability, is about to turn up the heat on its geothermal efforts. Since September, engineers in southwestern Iceland have been slowly drilling into the earth...
Microsoft experiments with underwater datacenters
The oceans are home to coral reefs, ship wrecks and now – datacenters Continuing its long tradition of datacenter experimentation in the name of efficiency, Microsoft announced it has been testing an unusual new datacenter concept – placing servers underwater out in the ocean. Close to half of today’s society...
The end of fossil fuels, Asia and Europe draw up a Global Energy Grid
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As renewable energy becomes more reliable countries around the world are seriously exploring connecting their energy grids together to form a Global Super Grid. Northeast Asia, the region encompassing China, South Korea, and Japan, has not yet gotten around to connecting its electricity grids...
Renewable energy sources power up Scotland and Costa Rica
Countries are increasingly managing to meet all of their energy requirements using renewable energy Hot on the heels of Costa Rica announcing that their state run energy company had managed to provide 100% of the territory’s energy requirements for 113 consecutive days using renewable energy sources last weekend Scotland announced...
Californian sculpture desalinates 1.5 billion gallons of drinking water
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The Pipe is a finalist in the 2016 Land Art Generator Initiative, a competition to combine clean energy production with public art. Is it public art, or is it a power station? This shimmering design for “The Pipe”, a finalist in the 2016 Land Art Generator...
Breakthrough lets researchers turn plants into electric circuits and connect them to the grid
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to turn plants into electric circuits could pave the way for a whole variety of biologically inspired electronics. A team of Swedish botanists and electrical engineers have unveiled a new method for growing and powering conductive wires inside living plants and integrating them with...
Bionic leaf could revolutionise energy and manufacturing
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF A revolution in the making, the Bionic Leaf ushers in a new era of biomanufacturing. Harvard University has created a “bionic leaf” that converts solar energy into a liquid fuel. The work, a proof of concept in an exciting new field called biomanufacturing, is the fruit...
