This April, the hunt is on for researchers looking to confirm the continued existence of the presumed-extinct thylacine, better known as the Tasmanian tiger, following recent reports of sightings of the creature. The last known specimen died in captivity in 1936, at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania. Countless sightings have been reported since, but to date none have been verified.
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Around the world, the renewable energy sector has become a major growth industry: according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), employment in this sector rose by 5 percent in 2015, accounting for 8.1 million jobs around the world. The industry is projected to add another 24 million positions by 2030, as the world’s population clamors for alternatives to fossil fuels.read more
As our culture makes the shift away from carbon-intensive energy sources, alternative sources like solar energy from photovoltaic cells are becoming an attractive option. However, while the cost of producing solar cells has been decreasing steadily in recent years, they still require a great deal of resources to make: the silicon crystals that solar cells use not only require hazardous solvents for their production, they also need to be baked at high temperatures — 1,000ºC (1,832ºF) — to attain the purity required for their use, an energy-intensive process that can increase the final product’s carbon footprint.
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On January 30, Tesla Motors announced the opening of a massive battery storage facility in California, one of three such facilities constructed under what is being called "The Powerpack project", in partnership with electrical utility provider Southern California Edison (SCE). With the addition of the two other facilities, being built by AES Corp. and Altagas Ltd., the three plants will amount to 15 percent of the world’s battery-storage capacity installed last year.
The intent of assembling such a massive amount of electrical storage is to allow electrical utility companies to avoid having to fall back on fossil fuels to generate power during times of peak demand, a necessary step for the successful transition to more carbon-friendly energy sources.
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