Making Waves/The Wave of the Future: Floating Photovoltaic Arrays
Water and solar energy are the building blocks of life—especially in the arid West. An emerging technology takes advantage of both has the potential to provide 50% of the world’s ongoing energy needs through a clean, green new technology: Floating photovoltaics (FPVs). Alternatively known “aquavoltaics”1 (AVs), “floating solar arrays,” or “floatovoltaics,” FPVs can increase sustainable energy production while decreasing the costs and ecological concerns related to terrestrial solar arrays.
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The Hydrogen Rainbow
Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. It is a colorless, odorless gas that has been brought center stage in the debate around renewable energy.
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There’s a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea
“It’s like Dr. Seuss down there,” according to Diva Amon, a scientist who studies the marine floor, describing the incredible sea life and geologic formations in an area known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), which may soon be opened to the first-ever deep sea mining of polymetallic nodules.
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The “Carbon Neutral” Future is Not Emission-Free
It’s no secret that carbon dioxide (CO2), among other greenhouse gases, plays a major part in climate change. The Paris Climate Agreement, a binding international treaty adopted in December 2015, set forth an ambitious goal: “limit the [global] temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
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Electric Vehicles, Are They Really The Future?
It is not a surprise that electric cars have been growing in popularity. Furthermore, both governments and automakers are promoting electric cars as the vehicles of the future and a “key technology to curb oil use and fight climate change.”
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Making Waves: A Look at Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy
Seventy percent of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. 14 of the world’s largest cities sit on coastlines. Fifty percent of all Americans live within 50 miles of a coast.
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CO2 and Direct Air Capture: A Primer
When we hear “climate change” or “global warming,” what we are really hearing about is an overabundance of carbon dioxide, or CO2, and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Climate change, including periods of global warming, has always been part of Earth’s history, but the warming period we are in now is problematic because it is man-made.
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Buildings of the Future Differ from Science Fictions Dreams
In classic science fiction, buildings are imagined as towering skyscrapers made of either glass-like materials or perhaps something that has not yet been developed. A recent push for the…
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Can Offshore Wind Stop Hurricanes in Their Tracks?
Climate change has already made hurricanes stronger. Scientists agree that as carbon dioxide from human activities accumulates in the atmosphere and oceans continue to warm, hurricanes will only…
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