The winners in hydropower and other large dam projects are those who gain electricity, domestic water supplies, sanitation, drought relief, sustainable irrigation, flood control, improved water transport, industrial and employment opportunities, food security, better roads, telecommunications, and other benefits. As well, other economic multipliers may arise and whole regions may flourish. This is an impressive list and is the very basis of modernization and liberation from the drudgery of traditional low technology rural life. Electricity, radio, and domestic water supplies completely transform the lives of those who gain these goods, and better health and education are the most obvious outcomes. (more…)
The water levels of most of the world’s rivers fluctuate with seasonal rains, melting snows, or droughts, and in the arid zones ...
Up to around 1980, hydropower research and development (R&D) efforts focused mainly on improving turbine efficiency, reducing c ...
The World Commission on Dams (WCD) was formed in 1998 by a joint initiative of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the Worl ...
Hydropower, also known as hydroelectric power, is the use of water to produce power. Harnessing water to perform work has been ...
The first step in categorizing potential benefits and costs is determining the relevant scope of the analysis. We have concluded th ...
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 ...
Indoor air quality (IAQ) research deals with the presence, levels, health effects, and control of physical, chemical, and biological factors in indoor environments, including homes, workplaces, and vehicles. IAQ research in industrialized countries has examined hundreds of specific factors (e.g., temperature, various chemicals, and mold), sources of pollution environment (e.g., environmental tobacco smoke, occupational factors, consumer cleaning products, and moisture), and control technologies (e.g., ventilation). (more…)
Important research over the past few decades has illustrated that indoor air pollution and indoor smoke from solid fuel poses i ...
In terms of aggregate health effects, household solid fuel use is currently the most important source of indoor air pollution i ...
Exposure to air pollutants and air pollution problem are very high in indoor environments in developing countries. Smith has es ...
Reducing exposure to indoor air pollution from household energy use can be achieved through interventions in of the following a ...
Exposure to indoor air pollution from the combustion of solid fuels has been implicated, with varying degrees of evidence, as a ...
Acid deposition and the associated particulate nitrates and sulfates are implicated in the deterioration of certain sensitive ecosystems, decreased visibility, negative human health effects, and increased degradation of certain stone building materials and cultural resources, especially those made of limestone and marble. Fine particulate nitrate and sulfate particles associated with acid deposition are implicated in aggravating cardiorespiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic bronchitis, especially in urban areas. In many cases estimating the impact of acid deposition on various ecosystems can be a difficult process because acid deposition is only one of many impacts that can effect a response. However, wet and dry acid deposition has been documented as a major factor in the following ecosystem responses. (more…)
The formation of acidic deposition is largely from the combustion of fossil fuels and the smelting of sulfide ores. Minor natur ...
The increased use of fossil energy since the industrial revolution, and especially since 1950, has been the major cause of incr ...
Although underground coal mines operations are not as visible as surface mining, their overall environmental impact can be greater ...
Historically, mining companies have extracted the earth’s resources wherever economics made it feasible, secure in their knowledge ...
Most discussions of energy use in paper production and papermaking are confusing because of a failure to define exactly what is meant by energy. It is important to keep track of the form in which energy is used. The major inputs to a paper mill are wood, purchased energy in the form of electricity and fossil fuels, and water. Some components of the wood are used as a raw material and some as by-product fuel. What the industry generally reports is the process energy use at the mill, which is the sum of the purchased energy and the process by-product energy (part of the energy originally in the wood) that is used. (more…)
More than 48% of the raw material fiber used for paper production (chemical pulp or mechanical pulp) in the United States in 2002 w ...
Agricultural and forestry residues provide the largest proportion of biomass used for the production of biomas bioenergy. Some esti ...
To date, most discussion and research relating to the various of biomass role in mitigating CO2 emissions has been focused around i ...
Another large source of renewable carbon supplies is waste biomass. It consists of a wide range of materials and includes munic ...
In Europe, modern renewable energy sources technologies were explored thoroughly for the first time after the oil embargo/ price cr ...
You must perform some sort of tour and visit of your home and property to find out exactly where it may need in applying insulation. A good rule of thumb is that most heated area or perhaps cooled places needs to be split up from unconditioned places using insulation materials. Regardless of your properties design, you can use this rule to ascertain exactly where insulation installation should be set up. Every location will have its consideration in terms of insulation simplicity and cost-effectiveness and may be examined on the basis of both. (more…)
If your house has no attic (most flat-roof houses don’t), chances are there’s a cockloft, a space between roof and ceiling, at ...
Imprinted on every batt or blanket of insulation or on every bag of loose insulation is its R-Value. The higher Insulation R-Value, ...
You know where to insulate, but there’s still one more thing you need to know about—vapor barriers. Well-insulated attics, craw ...
Using blankets the width of your wall studs, insert the blanket between the studs and staple to the studs. (The job is easier i ...
It is easier and less costly to fit insulation in a new home than to retrofit. However, many existing houses have little or no insu ...
From prehistory until the Industrial Revolution, most energy sources used by humans were localized (i.e., available within 5–10 miles of end users). Energy sources included draft animals, human slaves, and renewable sources such as biomass (wood and wastes), water mills, and wind power. Following the onset of the Industrial Revolution, with advancements in transportation technology and increased rates of deforestation in many regions, societies increasingly relied on long-distance shipments of coal, wood, and eventually oil, natural gas, and electric power. (more…)
Transportation is another sector that has increased its relative share of primary energy use. This sector has serious concerns ...
The global dependence on fossil fuels developed during the Industrial Revolution, two centuries of economic and social development ...
Natural gas and oil are common source energy used to give electricity. How efficient is coal if we compare to these other source of ...
Statistics on national production levels and indicators of environmental pressure have been collected during the past few decad ...
The entire concept of energy independence revolves around using the resources within a country. Simply put, it's "Stay within ...
Because transportation is such a large contributor to global warming, both globally and in the United States, climate and energy experts say finding clean alternatives to gasoline is also key to replacing fossil fuels and slowing global warming. Just as there is debate and competing research about which type of alternative transportation fuel should be developed to produce electricity, however, there is also competition among possible new transportation fuels. So far, in the United States, significant funding has been put into two transportation technologies—ethanol and hydrogen fuel cells. Many energy commentators say cars powered by electric batteries are the technology closest to mass production capability, however. (more…)
Gasoline is used mainly by cars, motorcycles, and light trucks; diesel is used mainly by heavier trucks, buses, and trains. Togethe ...
The increase in the prices of major fuels, like gasoline and diesel fuel products is a major global problems recently. Those pr ...
The French Union of Petroleum Industries (UFIP) announced that from Wednesday 1 April, the French vehicles may use a new fuel cal ...
In 1998, several initiatives were implemented in Brazil, aiming to introduce biodiesel into the Brazilian energy matrix. The in ...
There are different types of vehicle propulsion systems and the transportation fuels that have been studied for their potential ...
Although some scientists and critics still dispute that human caused greenhouse gases are causing climate change, the majority of scientists and climate experts assert that global warming is a serious problem that could have devastating consequences unless action is taken to reduce fossil fuel emissions. In 2007, for example, the Nobel Prize–winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a scientific body charged by the United Nations with summarizing the best climate science, concludes that evidence of the warming of our climate is “unequivocal.” (more…)
Still hotly debated by some, human-induced global warming is now accepted in the scientific community. Earth’s average yearly tempe ...
Since the early 1960s, climate change and air quality have become major and often controversial issues in many countries and am ...
Addressing global warming, however, is a highly complex and daunting endeavor. Many climate experts have urged the world to stabili ...
Earth’s climate is a complex system of interacting natural components. These components include the atmosphere, the ocean, and the ...
Options for dealing with the threats of climate change include both adaptation to inevitable changes and mitigation, or lessening, ...