News – Page 68 – Alternative Energies

Suzanne Jacobs
article
atmosphere
January 12, 2016
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Are we alone in the universe because all the aliens went extinct?

If we’re alone in the universe, then the big question is: Why? There are billions upon billions of Earth-like planets out there. Surely, life would have evolved many times over. But lo, Jody Foster couldn’t find any back in 1997, and today, almost 20 years later, we’re still searching. This conundrum is known as the Fermi Paradox, named after physicist Enrico Fermi, who famously asked “Where is everybody?” one day while eating lunch with his colleagues (note to self: nix the sad desk lunch; you’ll never get a paradox named after you this way), and scientists have been scratching their heads over it for decades. But in a new paper published this week in the journal Astrobiology, two researchers from the Australian…

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berlin
development
January 12, 2016
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Can you actually hear ‘inaudible’ sound?

Are wind farms harmful to humans? This controversial topic makes emotions run high. To give the debate more objectivity, an international team of experts dealt with the fundamentals of hearing in the lower limit range of the audible frequency range (i.e., infrasound), but also in the upper limit range (i.e., ultrasound).

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china
copyright
January 12, 2016
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Global PV installations soared 34{f24b02adee2102ff0c5f5079c50862fc8ba5fa53f8615b567037555463da2377} in 2015, GTM says

Led by China and the US, the world added 59GW of PV generation capacity in 2015, a 34{f24b02adee2102ff0c5f5079c50862fc8ba5fa53f8615b567037555463da2377} year on year surge, according to new figures from GTM Research.

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catalyst
development
January 12, 2016
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Solar water splitting: Putting an extra ‘eye’ on surface reactions that store sunlight as fuel

Water-splitting cells absorb sunlight and produce fuel. Creating such cells means pairing a material to absorb sunlight and generate electrons with the one that uses those electrons to produce fuel. Scientists introduced a novel way to study the flow of electrons where the materials meet.

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chemical
formation
January 12, 2016
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Physicists come up with a way to make cleaner fuel cells

An international group of scientists has developed ion-exchange synthetic membranes based on amphiphilic compounds that are able to convert the energy of chemical reactions into electrical current. The new development could potentially be used in fuel cells, and in separation and purification processes.

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brazil
Energy
January 12, 2016
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NJ governor deals setback to Fishermen’s offshore pilot

Governor Chris Christie exercised a “pocket veto” to effectively kill Senate Bill 2711 which would have required the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) to allow Fishermen’s Energy to re-apply for a public subsidy for its 24MW pilot offshore project.

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board
carbon
January 12, 2016
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New interactive map compares carbon footprints of San Francisco Bay area neighborhoods

The Paris climate summit ended last year with landmark national commitments for greenhouse gas reductions, but much of the hard work of reducing emissions will fall on cities to change their residents’ behavior.