electricity
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Offshore wind is finally — finally! — coming to the U.S. Here’s what you need to know.
Grist talks to the CEO of Deepwater Wind, the first company to build an offshore wind farm in the United States.
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East Coast and Gulf Coast power grids are still not ready for a big hurricane
It's been three years since Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast. Our power grids are still awful.
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Baby sharks have superpowers
Brown-banded bamboo shark embryos still in their egg cases can also use an electroreceptive sense to escape predators with by playing dead.
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This bonsai-shaped solar charger is one of the cutest gadgets we’ve seen
Unlike many solar gadgets, it's an object you might actually want in your house. And it can more than handle all your wireless charging needs.
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Used electric-car batteries could end blackouts
It's hard enough to recycle the batteries that power tiny devices. What do you do with those ginormous batteries that store a car's power?
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The Christmas lights of the future will run on firefly juice
Fireflies make light without electricity, and by copying them, scientists have figured out how to do the same thing. Only instead of the yellowish light of fireflies in the night, a team at Syracuse University has figured out how to make green and orange and red light — all out of firefly juice.
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A cell phone charger made out of viruses
Except for the whole Except for the whole “make you sick and can’t be killed” thing, viruses are basically the ultimate renewable resource. They’re natural. They’re numerous. They replicate themselves. And, after some tinkering by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, they can generate electricity. A project at the lab has incorporated genetically modified viruses into […]
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A solar-powered cell phone charging station inspired by Occupy Wall Street
Tommy Mitchell wasn’t an Occupier, but when he visited Occupy Wall Street, he found out that OWSers were charging their cell phones at a hot dog vendor’s gas-guzzling generator, The New York Times reports. “I was like, ‘Well that’s awful,’” he said. That’s when he began thinking about inventing a device that could harness renewable […]
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Good news: Americans are using a lot less coal
Here is a bit of energy-use news to feel good about: Americans are using a lot less coal. In the first quarter of this year, the portion of the country’s electricity that came from coal was almost 20 percent less than in the same period last year. And overall, the Energy Information Administration predicts, coal […]