Tag: energy

America is spending trillions of dollars in an effort to make the country stronger, greener and richer. These are the three key things you need to know about the plan and its chances of success.

Grid-scale lithium ion batteries are our current go-to chemical energy storage solution, but they present their own challenges in safety, sustainability, cost, and longevity. However, the competition is … heating up. New forms of thermal energy storage systems built using abundant, cheap materials are on the rise. One company is aiming to sidestep the complications that come with chemical batteries…with a brick battery. And another company’s weapon of choice is a crushed volcanic rock battery. Talk about going back to basics to store massive amounts of energy. But is simple really best?

U.S. emissions fell during the height of the pandemic as people were stuck at home, but that changed as the pandemic eased. Many researchers, scientists and lawmakers argue that Americans need to reduce their use of fossil fuels much sooner than they may have planned. Miles O’Brien reports on an alternative for home heating that could reduce the use and costs of fossil fuels.

Permanent magnets are a critical resource for renewables, because the generators in some wind turbines and motors in electric vehicles rely on them to run. A Floridian high school student has just shown us how to make a better electric motor without rare earth magnets. Another company is using cloud computing to try to improve electric motor performance — also without rare earths. There’s some exciting advances being made when it comes to electric motors, but how much of a difference can they make?

We walk you through some of the most interesting tech aiming at a sustainable future, including new advancements in solar, fusion and wave energy.

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore Lab for the first time produced more energy from a fusion reactor than was put into it. Sort-of. It’s a big deal… Just not THAT big of a deal.

Nuclear power gained a bad reputation following the disasters at Chernobyl, Fukushima and Three Mile Island.

Now, with global energy disruptions caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine and sky-high fuel prices means aging nuclear plants are getting a new lease on life.

And there is new type of nuclear plant is on the horizon- one that could revolutionize the industry.
They are called Small Modular Reactors, or SMRs for short.

Al Jazeera’s Rob Renolds reports from San Luis Obispo California.