Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns as it is a significant source of CO2 emissions and other airborne pollutants, and it is almost totally based on oil as its energy source. An important aspect of future changes in transportation depends on what happens to the available oil resources, production and prices. At present, 95% of all energy for transportation comes from oil. (more…)
Under both former President Bush and new President Obama, the U.S. government has vowed to reduce reliance on imported oil. The ...
Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next ...
From prehistory until the Industrial Revolution, most energy sources used by humans were localized (i.e., available within 5–10 mil ...
Do we have the resources? Rudolf Diesel developed the diesel engine which ran on biodiesel vegetable oil in the late 1800s. At the ...
One study that does address the peak-oil scenario directly is a 2005 report conducted for the National Energy Technology Labora ...
Global energy consumption in the last half century has increased very rapidly and is expected to continue to grow over the next 50 years. However, we expect to see significant differences between the last 50 years and the next. The past increase was stimulated by relatively “cheap” fossil fuels and increased rates of industrialization in North America, Europe, and Japan; yet while energy consumption in these countries continues to increase, additional factors are making the picture for the next 50 years more complex. These additional complicating factors include the very rapid increase fuel economy in energy use in China and India (countries representing about a third of the world’s population); the expected depletion of oil resources in the not-too-distant future; and the effect of human activities on global climate change. (more…)
The relationship of gross national product per capita to energy consumption per capita for most countries of the world correlat ...
The long-term prospects for the U.K. economy are inevitably uncertain, and the most recent Department of Energy long-term proje ...
Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns ...
The development of the ‘‘new’’ wind and solar technologies is of great importance for the future contribution of RESs to energy sup ...
To determine the effects of past climate trends on global energy consumption, the econometric equations providing the degree day el ...
Addressing global warming, however, is a highly complex and daunting endeavor. Many climate experts have urged the world to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere around 450 to 550 parts per million (ppm)—that is, no more than 450 to 550 units of greenhouse gases for every million units of air in the earth’s atmosphere. This approach, experts say, could keep average global temperatures at no more than 3.6° Fahrenheit (2° Celsius) above preindustrial levels, which could avoid some of the worst, irreversible consequences of climate change. (more…)
Although some scientists and critics still dispute that human caused greenhouse gases are causing climate change, the majority of s ...
Climate change caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect is one of the most significant global environmental issues. Increased emiss ...
Options for dealing with the threats of climate change include both adaptation to inevitable changes and mitigation, or lessening, ...
Scientists study Earth’s climate not just from observation but also from a theoretical perspective. Modern-day climate models succe ...
Earth’s climate is a complex system of interacting natural components. These components include the atmosphere, the ocean, and the ...
As a reaction to these historical perspectives, the building industry has witnessed a certain rise in design responses to regional climatic conditions, as part of a powerful efficiency and energy conservation push since the 1970s. More recently, the zero green house gas emsission and office building has become a design concept as part of strategies to introduce urban renewable energy as an increasing contributor to managing urban energy supplies. (more…)
Hydrogen has many applications when it comes to fuel. It can be used both in internal combustion engines and hydrogen fuel cells. ...
The age of industrialization came into full force through the modern exploration and use of fossil fuels. As one of its most striki ...
The commercialization prospects for fuel cell vehicles depend not only on their performance and cost, but also on how well th ...
All of today’s hydrogen conversion products, demonstration models, and prototypes possess some deficiencies; they cannot yet pr ...
The Solar City approach originally emerged from a new generation of International Energy Agency (IEA) energy research and developme ...
The age of industrialization came into full force through the modern exploration and use of fossil fuels. As one of its most striking phenomena, the rapid expansion of cities throughout the late 19th and the 20th centuries was a direct outcome of the fossil fuel energy economy as well. (more…)
The aim is to work with cities in advancing renewable energy technologies and systems and to help promote the renewable energy indu ...
The Solar City approach originally emerged from a new generation of International Energy Agency (IEA) energy research and developme ...
In the absence of useful and established patterns of practice, a search is under way for new means of reconciling local government’ ...
As a reaction to these historical perspectives, the building industry has witnessed a certain rise in design responses to regio ...
Climate change caused by the enhanced greenhouse effect is one of the most significant global environmental issues. Increased emiss ...
Do we have the resources? Rudolf Diesel developed the diesel engine which ran on biodiesel vegetable oil in the late 1800s. At the time, he speculated that his discovery seemed insignificant, but later could prove to be as important as mankind’s uncovering of future energy uses for petroleum and coal tar. Given the U.S.’ rapid expansion into biofuels, it would appear his vision was correct due to the drawbacks of biofuels. But widespread adoption of biomass-based fuels is not a foregone conclusion. Two questions haunt its progress. First, will it truly reduce U.S. reliance on fossil fuels? And second, is there enough farmland to accommodate widespread production, without jeopardizing food supplies? (more…)
Biofuels are made from living matter, plant or animal, and are strongly favored by agricultural interests because of the large ...
We had expressed our disagreement with Biofuels and tell them also that the European Union also wants to distance themselves from t ...
At present, in the United States and worldwide, motor vehicles are fueled almost exclusively by petroleum based gasoline (or re ...
One of the main benefits from future use of biofuels would be the reduction of greenhouse gases compared to the use of fossil f ...
Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns ...
The tourism sector is taking an active role in environmental protection. They are becoming aware of the impact generated by the activity and recognizing that their actions affect the social, economic and environmental fate. Moreover, the culture of social responsibility, conducted increasingly by decision makers of different tourist areas, is becoming a new (more…)
As energy prices increase, industries are more and more aware that energy is an expensive commodity that has to be used effic ...
The pace of innovations in batteries has not matched the remarkably fast evolution in the development of portable electronic techno ...
Prior to the Clean Air Act of 1990, environmental issues regulations were aimed at reducing emissions as they left the exhaust ...
The convention aims not only at stabilizing CO2 emissions in developed countries but also at ultimately reducing man-made CO2 e ...
There are several options that, ultimately, must be integrated when attempting to realize a change in corporate culture: the legal ...
One of the main benefits from future use of biofuels would be the reduction of greenhouse gases compared to the use of fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming, is released into the air from combustion. Twenty-four percent of worldwide energy-related carbon emissions in 1997 were from the United States. Carbon and due to rising energy consumption, are expected to increase 1.3 percent per year through 2015. (more…)
The future development of energy crops, to the level at which they would replace residues as the major bioenergy fuel source, will ...
In Bonn met world leaders at the UN Conference on Biodiversity. As we here at The Green Blog world's biodiversity is seriously ...
Advances in biomass feedstock production are extremely important. These advances have the potential for reducing the final cost ...
We had expressed our disagreement with Biofuels and tell them also that the European Union also wants to distance themselves from t ...
Estimation of the future technical potential of biomass as an energy source is dependent on assumptions with respect to land av ...
The internal combustion engine has dominated the car and light-truck market for over 100 years. Although remarkable improvements have been made over the past 30 years to reduce air pollution problems to nearly zero and to almost double vehicle efficiency, increasing concerns about global warming and energy security are pushing vehicles toward even greater energy efficiency improvements. (more…)
Fuel cell vehicles are being developed because they promise to meet the requirements expected of automobiles in a market increa ...
The leading automotive brands are being focused to produce electric vehicles because they believe they represent a harmony to the e ...
The primary electric drivetrain components for fuel cell vehicles are the same as those for any electric vehicle: traction motors, ...
Mercedes-Benz presented at Geneva Style F800 Concept (the F stands for Mercedes: technology, design and art), a prototype that ...
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that directly converts a fuel to electricity by means of reactions on the surfaces of ...