Perovskites are often hailed as the next big thing for solar panels. They’re more efficient than silicon PVs could ever be, and they have higher yields. However, their fragility and short lifespans have relegated them to the lab...so far. But 2024 is looking to be the year of
If your taste in TV is anything like mine, then most of your familiarity with what analog computing looks like probably comes from the backdrops of Columbo. Since digital took over the world, analog has been sidelined into what seems like a niche interest at best. But this retro approach
Sand. It’s coarse, it's rough, and it can make for a great battery. And as weird as that might sound, it’s just one example of the many earthy materials currently used for thermal energy storage (or TES). A while back, we covered the debut of the
Some of you may have seen Marques Brownlee’s video from a few months back about how he hasn’t paid for electricity in a year because of his Tesla Solar Roof. But…this got me wondering why I’m still not seeing a lot of Tesla Solar Roofs around.
Hydropower is a great source of energy that doesn’t suffer the same intermittency problems as other renewables. But dams fail. A lot. About 95% of the existing hydropower systems in the States were built before 1995, and over half operate using equipment designed over 80 years ago.1 This
Today is a really hot topic: water heaters. No, it’s not sexy, but water heater technology is kind of ingenious with its simplicity. A typical electric water heater has two heating elements; one near the bottom and one near the top, all housed in a very well insulated cylinder.
Airships: the number one sign that you’re in an alternate universe, or a Miyazaki movie. While they may seem like a bad idea, because they’re not as fast as planes or as powerful as freighters, airships actually sit in a goldilocks zone in between them. There are some
The Apple Vision Pro has a lot of hype, a lot of negativity, and a lot of snarky hot takes on social media surrounding it. Depending on who you listen to, it’s either the AR/VR headset that’s going to revolutionize the industry and the way we work,
You’re probably used to solar installations that look like this - solar panels facing up towards the sky, which makes sense. You want a wider area to catch more of that sweet solar energy, right? However, bifacial vertical solar panels have started to gain traction recently. Their more flexible-footprint
This is the biggest solar plant in the United States, located in Kern, California. The Solar Star Plant is over 8 square miles and has a generation capacity of 579 megawatts, powering around 255,000 homes.1 This is impressive, but about 6,500 miles away, in this remote desert,
CES is usually a mixed bag. It’s a great place to see where the tech sector is heading, or at least where it thinks it's heading. There were several trends from previous years that are starting to pay off in big ways, and some showstoppers that have
Whenever I cover wind turbines many of you ask about what’s available for home applications. At the moment, I’ve got both good news and bad news. The bad news is that the current market for residential wind is…less than great. The good news? We have a lot