19 stories
A geothermal heat pump doesn't tap into volcanic heat. It works because the ground a few feet down holds a steady temperature year-round, and installed systems for a typical home run $15,000 to $40,000.
A geothermal power plant makes electricity by pulling heat out of the ground and using it to spin a turbine, the same basic principle behind a coal or gas plant, minus the fuel and the smokestack.
Ethanol, biodiesel and renewable diesel are three different products made three different ways. Ethanol comes from fermenting starch or sugar. Biodiesel comes from a chemical swap called transesterification, and renewable diesel comes from a refinery process called hydrotreating that produces a fuel nearly identical to petroleum diesel.
Biomass energy can be carbon neutral, or it can be worse than coal. Which one you get depends mostly on what you're burning and how long you're willing to wait for the atmosphere to break even.
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Japan's coast triggered a tsunami that knocked out power and cooling at Fukushima Daiichi, and the fuel in three reactors melted down within days.
Germany shut down its last three nuclear reactors on April 15, 2023, and for most of the decade after Fukushima, the power nuclear used to supply went mostly to coal, not to wind and solar.
Measured by deaths per unit of electricity produced, nuclear power is one of the safest sources there is, well below coal, oil, gas, and large hydropower. That holds even with Chernobyl and Fukushima counted in.
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In Philadelphia rowhomes and Baltimore apartments, the pain of summer electricity bills is still fresh. For many families, the spikes weren’t just a nuisance, they forced…
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In the wind energy world, there’s a saying: “Anyone can build a turbine. Not everyone can make it sing.” Back in 2011, on a bitterly cold…
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Just off the Goto Islands, slim white turbines rise from the Pacific. They look almost serene, but their presence signals a major gamble: Japan’s first commercial-scale…