Rainwater From The Road To The Garden

Most small-scale, residential rainwater harvesting systems we’ve seen rely on using an existing roof and downspout to collect water that would otherwise be diverted out into the environment. …

Uncle Sam Wants You To Recover Energy Materials From Wastewater

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) was founded to support moonshot projects in the realm of energy, with a portfolio that ranges from the edge o…

The Many Reasons For Putting Microphones In Rainforests

If a tree falls in a forest with nobody around, does it make a noise? In the case of the rainforests equipped with the Rainforest Connection’s Guardian system someone most assuredly will. Ori…

Hacking Trees To Bring Back The American Chestnut

“Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” is playing on the radio now in the Northern Hemisphere which begs the question, “What happened to the American chestnut?” Would you be s…

US Is Getting Its First Onshore Wave Power Plant

Renewables let you have a more diverse set of energy inputs so you aren’t putting all your generation eggs in one basket. One type of renewable that doesn’t see a lot of love, despite 8…

Hacking The Soil To Combat Desertification

While the Sahara Desert is an important ecosystem in its own right, its human neighbors in the Sahel would like it to stop encroaching on their environment. [Andrew Millison] took a look at how the…

Enhiker Helps You Decide If Its A Good Day To Hike

Many of us check the weather before heading out for the day — we want to know if we’re dressed (or equipped) properly to handle what Mother Nature has planned for us. This is even more …

Nebraskan Farmers Were Using Wind Turbines Before Environmentalism Was Invented

To a casual observer of public discourse here in 2024 it seem extremely odd that the issue of replacing coal fired power stations with wind turbines is a matter of controversy, whether in America o…

Help Wanted: Keep The World’s Oldest Windmills Turning

While the Netherlands is the country most known for its windmills, they were originally invented by the Persians. More surprisingly, some of them are still turning after 1,000 years. The ancient wo…

LEAF Mission Seeks To Grow Plants On The Moon

We have seen a recent surge of interest in whether it’s possible to grow potatoes and other plants in Martian soil, but what is the likelihood that a future (manned) lunar base could do somet…

Singapore’s 4300 Km Undersea Transmission Line With Australia Clears Regulatory Hurdle

Recently Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA)  granted Sun Cable conditional approval for its transmission line with Australia. Singapore has been faced for years now with the dilemma th…

For Desalination, Follow The Sun

It’s easy to use electricity — solar-generated or otherwise — to desalinate water. However, traditional systems require a steady source of power. Since solar panels don’t al…

Pac-Man Ghost Helps With Air Quality Sensing

In the past, building construction methods generally didn’t worry much about air quality. There were enough gaps around windows, doors, siding, and flooring that a house could naturally &#822…

COBB Tuning Hit With $2.9 Million Fine Over Emissions Defeat Devices

Recently, the EPA and COBB Tuning have settled after the latter was sued for providing emissions control defeating equipment. As per the EPA’s settlement details document, COBB Tuning have si…

Mothbox Watches Bugs, So You — Or Your Grad Students — Don’t Have To

To the extent that one has strong feelings about insects, they tend toward the extremes of a spectrum that runs from a complete fascination with their diversity and the specializations they’v…

Trees Turned Into Wind Turbines, Non-Destructively

Trees and forests are an incredibly important natural resource not only for lumber and agricultural products, but also maintain a huge amount of biodiversity in the various types of forests across …

Mowing The Lawn With Lasers, For Science

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could cut the grass with lasers? Everyone knows that lasers are basically magic, and if you strap a diode laser or two to a lawn mower, it should slice through thos…

3D Printed Homes Are All The Hype, But What Is Their Real Impact?

Additive manufacturing (AM) has been getting a lot of attention over the years, with its use in construction a recurring theme. Generally this brings to mind massive 3D printers that are carted to …

Swiss Researchers May Have Solved Hydrogen Storage

If you follow the world of clean energy, you will probably have read all about the so-called hydrogen future and the hydrogen economy. The gas can easily be made from water by electrolysis from gre…

Open Source Residential Energy Storage

Battery news typically covers the latest, greatest laboratory or industry breakthroughs to push modern devices further and faster. Could you build your own flow battery stationary storage for home-…