Enlarge (credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images ) President Joe Biden’s climate ambitions will face a critical test on Monday as a major portion of the $3. 5 trillion reconciliation bill comes up for a vote. If it passes, the sprawling legislation will push the American economic climate to rein in its carbon emissions by spurring advancements […]
Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg / Getty Images) Wind power isn’t the largest part of the United States’ energy mix, but it grew over the last year, according to the Wind Technologies Market Report. The renewable energy source grew to more than 8 percent of the country’s electricity supply—reaching 10 percent in a growing number of states—and […]
Enlarge / See these solar panels in space? They’re way too heavy to economically provide power to Earth. (credit: NASA) “This is an idea that’s older than even the space program,” Caltech’s Harry Atwater told Ars over Zoom. Citing Asimov and Clarke, Atwater conjured an image of gleaming solar panels floating above the Earth on […]
Enlarge (credit: Picture Alliance / Getty Images ) The world seems to be simultaneously on fire and flooding, and the latest expert report indicates that we’ve just about run out of time to avoid even more severe climate change. All of that should leave us in a place where we are looking for ways to […]
Enlarge / A Coradia iLint hydrogen fuel-cell powered prototype railway train, manufactured by Alstom SA, travels in Salzgitter, Germany. (credit: Bloomberg/Getty Images ) If you were paying attention at the start of this century, you might remember the phrase “hydrogen economy, ” which was shorthand for George W. Bush’s single, abortive attempt to take climate […]
Enlarge / Cooling water is only one factor that limits the productivity of nuclear power plants. (credit: Getty Images) With extreme weather causing power failures in California and Texas, it’s increasingly clear that the existing power infrastructure isn’t designed for these new conditions. Past research has shown that nuclear power plants are no exception, with […]
Enlarge / New Jersey hopes to be the home of scenes like this, where French workers are building the foundations for offshore wind turbines. (credit: Bloomberg/Getty Images) By the end of the decade, New Jersey’s beaches are set to have a view of something other than crashing waves. The state is pushing for aggressive development […]
Enlarge / An offshore wind farm in the UK. (credit: Dave Hughes) After years of delays, the federal government has approved what will be the third offshore wind project in the US—and the largest by far. Vineyard Wind, situated off the coast of Massachusetts, will have a generating capacity of 800 Megawatts, dwarfing Block Island […]
Enlarge (credit: Photo by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images) Texas’ deep freeze didn’t just disrupt natural gas supplies throughout Lone Star country—its effects rippled across the country, extending as far north as Minnesota. There, gas utilities had to pay $800 million more than they anticipated during the event, and Minnesota regulators are furious. “The ineptness and disregard […]
Enlarge (credit: VCG / Getty Images) On Monday, the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Lab released a report entitled “Halfway to Zero,” referring to a goal of a zero-emission US electric grid. The report’s headline claim is a bit bogus, in that we’ve not cut our emissions in half relative to any point in […]