What if I told you that I got to see first hand a really interesting nuclear fusion discovery that could impact our lives … today? Before you start dropping frantic comments, just hear me out. If you’re like me, the word “fusion” makes your mind go straight towards the long
Fusion energy is basically just smashing things together to make energy. Grossly oversimplified? Yes, but still accurate. First Light Fusion in the UK has a unique approach to fusion energy that takes that “smashing things together” to another level. I had a chance to see their facility first hand and
“Woah …. Woah! This is massive!” -Matt “Welcome to the JET tokamak” -Fernanda Rimini Getting to see the JET tokamak fusion reactor in person was an eye-opening experience, but not in the way you might expect. What I got to see during my time at the Culham Science Center in the
There’s concerns that homes with solar panels are reducing their utility bills at the expense of their neighbors without solar panels. The phenomenon is referred to as “cost shifting”: the idea that the credits utilities pay to solar homes for the energy they produce ultimately results in higher bills
For years, special kinds of semiconductors called perovskites have promised revolutionary improvements compared to traditional silicon solar cells. Perovskites could hold the key to higher efficiency at lower costs. In some cases perovskites have been shown to offer a 250% performance boost. But scientists have been working on this tech
There’s no shortage of potential solutions to the world’s critical need for renewable energy storage. But there is a shortage of accessible and cheap resources to use for those solutions. With the limitations of materials like lithium and vanadium in mind, it’s logical to look for alternatives
With the recent news of China producing one of the largest wind turbines yet, with a rotor diameter of 260 meters (853 feet) and a rating of 18MW, it got me wondering why they’re so big. They’re almost defying imagination at this point. Bigger is always better in
As our needs for energy and food continue to rise, we’re revisiting the sunny topic of Agrivoltaics – or using land to grow food and host solar panels at the same time. Experiments in this hot space have had some really promising results over the last year, like using new
Last November I published a video about Hotel Marcel and how they went with DC wiring and power instead of the traditional AC wiring we’re all familiar with. When a building has solar and battery storage it can make a lot of sense to go DC instead of AC
Everyone is worried about outdoor air pollution, right? Yet, a poor indoor air quality (IAQ) can be an invisible yet ruthless killer. Even worse than Freddy Krueger. At least, you could see him in your dreams, I mean nightmares. Seriously, pollutants like volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter (PM), and
I’ve been living with solar panels for almost 5 years now here in Massachusetts, and I thought it was time to take a look at how it’s been going. There’s been some twists and turns with solar production and how it’s fared going through the cold
The solar industry has a potentially fatal flaw: its reliance on silver. As a precious metal, silver is costly and difficult to come by, yet critical to pretty much every kind of solar panel.1 Worldwide solar capacity has officially crossed into terawatt territory and silver is putting that continued