hokayhereitis:

THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT- LOOK AT IT.

good:

Infographic: From Energy Production to Electricity Consumption
- GOOD Partnerships and Focus the Nation and Oliver Munday contributed in Environment, Energy and News

It’s Energy month at GOOD, so we’ve teamed up with Portland, Oregon’s Focus the Nation, an organization that’s empowering youth to make smart environmental choices in their communities. This infographic is part of a series exploring our use of energy resources.

Powering on your computer is more than just pressing a button. The flow of electricity is made possible from multiple energy sources, whether they’re imported and exported fossil fuels, like natural gas, petroleum, and coal, or domestically-produced nuclear electric power and renewable energy. Check out our latest infographic above that shows how the electricity around us flows from source to consumption. You can follow the U.S. electricity flow from production on the left to consumption on the right, with energy’s measured in quadrillion British ton units (Btu). With all this electricity wasted, it is clear we need to conserve our energy sources.

What is primarily fueling the activities of our modern economy today are the fossil fuels which have stored the sun’s energy over more than a millenium, coupled with nuclear power, which has been around for only the last five decades. If the United States is to prepare for a more sustainable future, it must start turning to renewable energy to meet our energy needs, using sources like hydroelectric power, biomass, geothermal, solar-photovoltaic, and wind.

To learn more about the Energy discussion on GOOD, visit our Energy hub and follow Focus the Nation.

sciencesoup:

Using Nanoparticles to turn Solar Energy into Steam

90% of the world’s electricity is produced from steam, and most industrial steam is generated in large boilers—but researchers at Rice University have recently developed a method to convert solar energy into steam using nanoparticles, allowing energy-creation on a smaller, greener, more economical scale. The team created metallic nanoparticles designed to absorb a wide spectrum of solar energy and therefore heat up. When billions of these nanoparticles are submerged in water and then exposed to sunlight, their temperatures rise quickly to above the boiling point of water, and after 5–20 seconds, they vaporise the water around them and create steam. They can even produce steam from icy cold water. At this unrefined stage, they have an overall energy efficiency of 24%, which is impressive considering the 15% efficiency of photovoltaic solar panels—and this efficiency will only increase as the technology is refined. “This is about a lot more than electricity,” says Naomi Halas, lead researcher. “With this technology, we are beginning to think about solar thermal power in a completely different way.” The method is not initially expected to be used in electricity generation, but rather in sanitation and water-purification applications in developing countries.

Read the Rice University press release

apothecaryrose:

A new chapter of solar energy conversion and storage?

(Phys.org)—Using the power of the sun and ultrathin films of iron oxide (commonly known as rust), Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers have found a novel way to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The breakthrough, published this week in Nature Materials could lead to less expensive, more efficient ways to store solar energy in the form of hydrogen-based fuels. This could be a major step forward in the development of viable replacements for fossil fuels.

(via theapothecarysrose)

greensocietycampaign:

Solar panel breaks “third of a sun” efficiency barrier

greensocietycampaign:

Green Energy & Politics  -  2 0 1 2

climateadaptation:

“The city of Cambridge, Mass has teamed up with MIT to produce a Solar Tool that allows people to type an address into a website and get a detailed account of that roof’s solar electric potential. This is probably the most detailed service now existing and every building in Cambridge is covered. You can learn how much of your roof sees enough sun for a PV installation, how large that PV installation can be, how much it will cost, how high your Federal and state tax rebate will be, how much electricity it will produce in a year, and how much carbon it will displace.”

Solar Tool v.2. Via