September 8, 2022 • #
With the ongoing energy crisis happening in Europe, Anton Howes has some interesting ideas on how the Euro nations could convert the short-term pains of fossil fuel shortfall into a long-term surplus based on a mix of renewables and non. In the article he explores why energy commodities globalized, some extremely quickly, creating a global-scale marketplace for resources (Egyptian oil is competing with Venezuelan, for example), but renewables like solar and wind have not. Most energy from, say, solar is consumed very close to where it’s produced, due in...
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January 20, 2020 • #
In the spirit of honesty and “data driven” thinking, this piece from the FEE has some eye-opening numbers on global energy usage, renewables, and the economics of the energy sector. I’d place myself in the category of a skeptic in general about the “new energy” movement, but certainly with an open mind to new (and occasionally radical) solutions to address climate change impacts and global scaling of population.
What these numbers uncover are the maddeningly huge scope of what’s required to make renewable technology work effectively at scale. The problem of energy storage is a particularly acute one, given that...
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September 21, 2019 • #
I enjoyed this interview with author Ted Chiang. It covers his recent short story collection Exhalation: Stories with nice context and background on the ideas behind each one. I just finished the book last week, and would have to say that The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling was my favorite. A story about the fallibility of memory and what it would be like if our memories were recorded...
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July 25, 2019 • #
A French startup company called Glowee is working on being able to produce light using bioluminescence:
Glowee reinvents light production with technology nature has already created to make lighting more sustainable and healthier for both humans and the environment. Having identified the genetic coding that creates bioluminescence, Glowee inserts this code into common, non-toxic, and non-pathogenic bacteria to produce clean, safe, synthetic bioluminescence. Once engineered and grown, the bacteria are encapsulated into a transparent shell, alongside a medium composed of the nutrients they need to live and make light. This lighting solution can indefinitely and...
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November 17, 2018 • #
Ben Hoen from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab gave a lightning talk at Geo2050 about this project, a map and database of the operational wind generation capacity in the US. The map currently reports the country producing around 90 gigawatts of wind power. They also publish the raw dataset for download.
One of my favorite science fiction authors. Talks about his work, industrial design, speculative architecture, and risk models.
November 16, 2018 • #
Another great Geography2050 is in the books. This year’s focus was on energy, and as you might expect much of the panel discussion and subject matter expertise was on renewable energy sources and climate change response issues. It’s a topic I follow loosely, but I learned a lot about the diversity of organizations working on the problem and heard a number of interesting new ideas.
One of the best panel discussions was on energy consumption and economic growth in China — nearly an hour and a half discussion on how China got...
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