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Partnership to produce sugarcane-based diesel
High corn prices have driven California-based biofuel specialist Amyris to join with a Brazilian company to produce sugarcane-based diesel
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Straw power planned
With more and more companies turning to biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels, a debate has erupted over the food-energy trade-off involved; a Welsh company bypasses this debate by planning to generate energy from straw
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Modernizing the U.S. electrical grid
The U.S. Department of Energy will invest $50 million in demonstration project aiming to improve efficiency in the U.S. electricity grid
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How much water is needed to produce various types of energy?
Most of the energy we consume requires the use of water for its generation; water is a dwindling resource, so researchers wanted to know how much water is required to produce different types of energy
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NTR invests in SES
Irish renewable energy company buys controlling interest in SES; SES is developing two of the world’s largest solar generating projects in the Imperial Valley and Mojave Desert
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Paris airport first in Europe to use geothermal power
Paris-Orly airport sits on a hot water table where the water temperature reaches 74 degrees C (165 degrees F) at a depth of 5,500 feet; management thought it would be a good idea to build a geothermal station to exploit this source of energy
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Ontario invests in harnessing river flow for energy
New York City already has it: A Free Flow Turbine in the East River which will generate 10 MW when the project is completed; now Ontario wants to place a three-blade, horizontal-axis turbine on the floor of the St. Lawrence River
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Energy from vortices
When water flows over an underwater obstacle, whirlpools or vortices form alternately above and below it; the vortices create a tugging effect, so the result is an alternating force that yanks the object up and down; Wolverines researchers want to harness the power of vortices to generate energy
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USGS says Bakken Formation holds large recoverable oil, gas reserves
U.S. Geological Survey assesses Bakken Formation to Hold 3 to 4.3 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil — 25 times more than 1995 estimate; in addition, assessment also identified 1.85 trillion cubic feet of associated/dissolved natural gas, and 148 million barrels of natural gas liquids
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Next-generation nuclear fuel may be too hot to handle: report
It sounded like a good idea: Enrich the uranium used to power nuclear reactors further so that operators will be able to extract more electricity from a given amount of fuel; trouble is, burn-up rates above a certain point would violate U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s safety standards unless new methods were devised for packaging the fuel
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The future of U.K. nuclear power
In the last five years the U.K. government has been vigorously promoting the idea of a U.K. nuclear power revival; John Hutton, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform explains the government’s policy
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Clean Diesel licenses WMF technology to China's Headway
The U.S. EPA gave Clean Diesel’s Wire Mesh Filter technology high marks, and China needs it: At the beginning of the year it signed up to the Euro IV PM emission standards for light and medium duty trucks; a clean diesel technology will allow it to meet the treaty’s standards
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NRG, Toshiba to promote ABWRs
There are serious questions about the security of Boiling-Water Reactor (BWR) design and construction, questions which Advanced Boiling-Water Reactor (ABWR) design was supposed to answer; not everyone is convinced; NRG Energy, Toshiba to promote and build ABWRs in the United States
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Saudis set up special force to protect critical insrastructure
In February 2006 al Qaeda terrorists tried to blow up the world’s largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq; the Saudi government responded by setting up a 15,000-strong special force to protect oil, gas, and water desalination infrastructure
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Sugars to be converted directly into gasoline
Shell, Virent in effort to convert plant sugars directly into gasoline and gasoline blend components; sugars can be sourced from non-food sources such as corn stover, switch grass, wheat straw, and sugarcane pulp, in addition to conventional biofuel feedstock like wheat, corn, and sugarcane
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More headlines
The long view
Georgia’s Vogtle Plant Could Herald the Beginning — or End — of a New Nuclear Era
Few issues are as divisive among American environmentalists as nuclear energy. Concerns about nuclear waste storage and safety, particularly in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Island reactor meltdown in Pennsylvania, helped spur the retirement of nuclear power plants across the country. Nuclear energy’s proponents, however, counter that nuclear power has historically been among the safest forms of power generation, and that the consistent carbon-free energy it generates makes it an essential tool in the fight against global warming. The $35 billion Vogtle nuclear project is an investment in the future or a cautionary tale, depending whom you ask.