Renewable Energy
Krishnan graphic banner-01

Can something be made of nothing? According to the research of 16-year-old Ajay Krishnan, the answer is yes. A research enthusiast since the sixth grade, Krishnan — now a junior at Oregon Episcopal School — found a way to produce hydrogen gas from wastewater utilizing microbial electrolysis cells. For his work in renewable energy, Krishnan [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
BakkenIMAGE1-590

Energy is becoming a thirstier resource, the report states.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 
DTP signing 2

The long-term goal: a project with a power capacity greater than the world’s second-largest hydropower dam.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

Oil and Water Ahead of the worldwide Global Frackdown planned for September 22, Food and Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter blogs about fracking “apologists,” stating: you’re hurting renewables and you’re greenwashing too. The only answer is a fracking ban, says Hauter. A blog post from Amy Mall of the National Resources Defense Council takes [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

U.S. Drought Continues The drought has literally hit home in the rural Midwestern United States, where some citizens are turning on their faucets to find their wells have dried up, The Associated Press reported. The Missouri government will subsidize the drilling of new wells for more than 3,700 farmers and ranchers hit by extreme drought, [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
nrel

A massive U.S. government study shows what an electrical grid powered largely by renewable sources looks like, but not the path to get there.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

Australian state and federal water ministers have agreed for new modeling to be done on returning more environmental flows to the ailing Murray-Darling river system, ABC Radio Australia reported. As Circle of Blue has reported previously, the process to adopt new water use regulations for the basin has pitted states against states and environmentalists against [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
The NRDC report contains statistics and predictions about renewable energy use in G20 countries.

The NRDC predicts that the G20 will produce less than 4 percent from renewables by 2015 and 6 percent by 2020, up from only 2.6 percent currently and 0.86 percent in 2002.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

Renewable energy consumption increases, but King Coal is tenacious.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

Agriculture Groundwater depletion in major food-producing areas of the United States could threaten food security, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that maps where and when groundwater is being used, PhysOrg reported. A new, interactive data portal released by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Chile A glacial lake in Chile’s Patagonia region drained for the eleventh time since 2008, releasing a flood of 200 million cubic liters of water through a hole in the temperature-weakened glacier wall, AFP reported. The Inter Press Service reports on why Chile relies so heavily on hydropower, despite its potential for developing non-conventional renewable [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Energy and Climate The world’s top scientists are urging governments to look at water and energy as a single, linked issue and say that growing demands for both resources is one of three major global dilemmas, the Guardian reported. How dirty are Canada’s oil sands? Reuters looks at Europe and Canada’s battle over how to [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

On World Water Day, we look at: Water Innovation Hindustan Times features examples of grassroots water innovation in India. With 1.2 billion people, India is teeming with innovators and places to try out ingenious ideas in energy, water, banking, and health care, according to Fast Company. What makes a country ideal for innovation? Israel could [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 

Droughts and Floods Today’s must-read: Paul Salopek’s beautiful, poignant, thought-provoking account for Foreign Policy of his journey with the Daasanach nomads through the hunger zone in northern Kenya. Prolonged dry spells and droughts have threatened parts of China, Russia, Australia, France, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, the United Kingdom, East Africa and the United States in recent [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
President Obama spoke to students at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Va., on Monday, the day he submitted his fiscal year 2013 budget to Congress. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

The president throws more clean-energy money at the Energy Department, while cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget come at the expense of water and sewer infrastructure.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 
Suns River Solar Still

At a U.S. desalination research facility this month, a 2,500-year-old technology will be put to the test. The company in charge of the project hopes to increase productivity, reduce the energy needed to purify water and maybe even make desert agriculture viable.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

The U.S. government will require natural gas companies to disclose the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing on public lands, according to draft rules crafted by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Reuters reported. The eastern line of China’s South-North Water Diversion Project, which will transfer water from the Yangtze River Basin to the drought-prone [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
 
blm-map

The falling price of photovoltaic panels and public concerns about aquifers and rivers in the western United States are boosting solar energy technologies that save water.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 
Solar array from Iberdrola Renewables

The U.S. government is in the process of designating more than 6,000 hectacres of federal land for solar energy development. As companies line up to submit projects, some valley residents are questioning the centralized model of energy generation and are, instead, trying to shape an independent energy future.

Help share our stories: submit to reddit
 
 
Read more ...
 

Solar Review The deadline for submitting public comments on the Bureau of Land Management’s broad environmental review of solar energy development in six western U.S. states is Friday. The review will result in changes to the agency’s resource management plans, allowing it to concentrate solar energy projects on the most suitable parcels of land. Comments [...]

Help share our stories: submit to reddit