Renewables

We manufacture over 300m tonnes of plastics each year for use in everything from packaging to clothing. Their resilience is great when you want a product to last. But once discarded, plastics linger in the environment, littering streets, fields and oceans alike. Every corner of our planet has been blighted by our addiction to plastic. But now we may have some help to clean up the mess in the form of bacteria that have been found slowly munching a...

Extreme weather events like floods, heat waves and droughts can devastate communities and populations worldwide. Recent scientific advances have enabled researchers to confidently say that the increased intensity and frequency of some, but not all, of these extreme weather events is influenced by human-induced climate change, according to an international National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine report.

Scientists have developed a mathematical model to derive the probability of extreme waves. This model uses multi-point statistics, the joint statistics of multiple points in time or space, to predict how likely extreme waves are. The results, published in the New Journal of Physics, demonstrate that evolution of these probabilities obey a well-known function, greatly reducing the complexity of the results.

Tables are turned on declaring CO2 as one of the key enemies of mankind and the future, at least in one initiative. Scientists there have come up with a twist. While CO2 emissions are notorious contributors to climate change, thinkers working in the realm of renewable energy are seeing CO2 not as either-or clean energy sources, but as an and-and. They are exploring how a CO2-powered "sunrotor" can be used for clean electricity.

First Solar has announced that HopSol AG, a Swiss solar developer, has selected its high performance thin film modules to power the Otjozondjupa Solar Park, which is located near Grootfontein, Namibia. When completed in June 2016, the 5MW AC facility will be Namibia’s largest grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) plant and is expected to account for approximately one percent of the country’s total generation capacity.

Nature has its own economy, with trading as dynamic as that of any stock exchange. To cope with nutrient deficiencies in their respective habitats, certain plants, animals and fungi have evolved partnerships by which they can swap resources. However, according to a new study by UC Santa Barbara researchers Deron Burkepile and Andrew Shantz, excess nutrient input creates an imbalance in the interactions between partner - or mutualistic - species a...

To investigate why the global warming trend varies from decade to decade, scientists from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) will work alongside those from nine other research organisations as part of a major new multidisciplinary research project. Over the last decade a slowdown, or hiatus, has been observed in the global warming of the earth's surface. Although it is important to note that heat is still accumulating in other parts of the cl...

A new type of graphene-based filter could be the key to managing the global water crisis, a study has revealed. The new graphene filter, which has been developed by Monash University and the University of Kentucky, allows water and other liquids to be filtered nine times faster than the current leading commercial filter. According to the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report, lack of access to safe, clean water is the biggest risk to society...

Kokam has announced that it has successfully deployed two Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) Oxide Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) - a 24MW system / 9MWh and a 16 MW / 6 MWh system - for frequency regulation on the South Korean electricity grid. The 24 MW system is the largest capacity Lithium NMC ESS used for frequency regulation in the world.

In a world first, a Flinders University designed wastewater treatment system has been accepted as an alternative to existing passive lagoon systems for use in South Australia. The new system is smaller, faster and more effective at cleaning wastewater and creates the potential to reclaim more water for alternative use, according to Flinders University's Professor Howard Fallowfield.