Life today in Mueller—an innovative suburb of Austin, Tex., seems like something out of the distant future. New homes wired with the latest smart gadgets cluster together around shared park spaces. Blue-black panels that transform sunshine into electricity grace a majority of roofs. Electric cars or hybrids glide silently to rest in garages. Continue reading… “Is it possible for the U.S. to go all-electric?”
Fossil fuels have provided the vast, vast majority of the world’s energy for many decades. But cleaner sources, like wind and solar have been growing at an astonishingly rate in recent years. Continue reading… “Clean energy growing fast, but still behind in the race against fossil fuels”
University of Sheffield researchers have found a novel use for tampons, they have begun employing them in the fight against pollution, as a method for identifying where wastewater is leaking into streams and rivers. Continue reading… “Researchers locate river pollution using fluorescent tampons”
Costa Rica has managed to produce all of its electricity from renewables for 75 days straight. The country hasn’t had to burn fossil fuels to supply the grid with electricity so far in 2015, a stretch that has never been previously attained by any nation, according to the state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE). Continue reading… “Costa Rica has run on only renewable energy so far this year”
From the demise of lecture halls to the awesomeness of the patent system, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has thoughts on a lot of things. Continue reading… “Bill Gates’ thoughts on the future of education, programming and more”
The University of the West of England has developed a prototype toilet that can convert human urine into electricity. They hope this technology can be useful is refugee camps. Continue reading… “UK university unveils electricity generating toilet”
Electric-car-range anxiety is a real thing. No one wants to be stranded with an empty battery. A new tire concept by Goodyear tries to help the problem, a way to charge an electric car while going down the road. Continue reading… “Charging electric cars on the go with heat-gathering concept tire”
The next time your smartphone is running low on power, recharge it with this new fuel cell that weighs about the same as a cup of sugar. Continue reading… “New pocket sized fuel cell”
As its production costs have fallen far enough in some regions to compete economically with fossil fuels, companies like Apple are now buying mass quantities of solar power. Continue reading… “Solar business employs more Americans than coal mining”
The hurricane season passed off relatively quietly last year. Category 2 hurricane Gonzalo hit Bermuda in October 2014, briefly making the world’s headlines, but it did relatively little damage, apart from uprooting trees and knocking out power temporarily to most of the island’s inhabitants. Continue reading… “Where are all the Hurricanes?”
Yi Cui of Stanford and his students have used a material commonly used in surgical gloves into a low-cost, highly efficient air filter that could be used to improve facemasks, window screens, and could even reduce the exhaust from power plants. Continue reading… “New air-filter design may help Beijing and L.A. breathe easier”
Despite Tesla not shipping nearly as many cars this quarter as they had projected, CEO Elon Musk remained upbeat during last week’s earnings call as he let some details slip about a brand new product. Musk says that the company is working on a consumer battery back for the home. Continue reading… “Elon Musk and Tesla to unveil a new battery to power your home”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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