Climate Technology
All Stories
-
Levitating houses stay safe during earthquakes
A Japanese company called Air Danshin Systems can make houses fly. Not all the time, and not for particularly long. But when it counts — during an earthquake — the company’s technology can levitate a house more than an inch off its foundation. That means that while the earth shakes, the house stays safe.
-
High gas prices? Whatevs — my phone gets me where I want to go
Given the choice between a car and a smartphone, young people increasingly opt for the phone. Why? Owning a car is sooooo last century. Plus, a phone is increasingly the best way to get around.
-
Myhrvold: 50 simple things won’t fix the climate — but a few complex things might
Nathan Myhrvold responds to follow-up questions about his paper that found that the transition to carbon-free energy must begin immediately.
-
Why your iThings don’t have to be weCruel
Does Apple really have no choice but to build your iPad and iPhone unsustainably, exploiting workers and resources? Not once you realize how the devices' costs break down.
-
Liquid battery electric vehicle could charge in three minutes
“Flow” batteries, i.e. batteries filled with a liquid electrolyte that can be pumped out and replenished, have the potential to transform the process of charging an electric vehicle into something that more closely resembles filling it up with gas.
-
Peel-off solar panels could make solar competitive with coal
Ultra-thin solar cells that can be "peeled off" from larger pieces of silicon like delicious fruit roll-ups could be the key to making solar competitive with coal, say researchers at MIT.
-
Watch Republicans try valiantly to be funny by mocking Chevy Volt
Aw, look, they’re trying to make jokes! I’m going to print this right out and hang it on the fridge in a frame that says My First Satire.
-
How EPA helps big corporations greenwash
EPA's Green Power Partnership, which recognizes companies using renewable energy, makes Walmart look good while ignoring more significant efforts by much smaller entities.
-
A battery large enough to power the U.S. would be the size of 2,200 Walmart SuperCenters
Renewables are intermittent, so they'd have to be backed up by about 80 gigawatts worth of batteries.
-
DOE-funded battery breakthrough to halve cost, triple range
A new breakthrough from California-based Envia Systems will yield lithium-ion batteries that are less than half the cost of current cells, while also having three times the energy density.