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| December 13, 2013 |
 NREL Reports Soft Costs Now Largest Piece of Solar Installation Total Cost Golden CO (SPX) Dec 12, 2013 - Two detailed reports from the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) find that solar financing and other non-hardware costs - often referred to as "soft costs" - now comprise up to 64% of the total price of residential solar energy systems, reflecting how soft costs are becoming an increasingly larger fraction of the cost of installing solar. "The two new reports, ... more |  |
 US Risks Losing Critical Clean Electricity if Nuclear Power Plants Keep Closing at Steady Pace Washington DC (SPX) Dec 12, 2013 - Four nuclear power plants, sources of low-emissions electricity, have announced closings this year. If plants continue to shut down instead of extending operations the nation risks losing 60 percent of its clean electricity starting in 2030, according to a new report, Renewing Licenses for the Nation's Nuclear Power Plant by the American Physical Society. Power plants across the country, i ... more |  |
 Negative resistivity leads to positive resistance in the presence of a magnetic field Atlanta GA (SPX) Dec 12, 2013 - In a paper appearing in Nature's Scientific Reports, Dr. Ramesh Mani, professor of physics and astronomy at Georgia State University, reports that, in the presence of a magnetic field, negative resistivity can produce a positive resistance, along with a sign reversal in the Hall effect, in GaAs/AlGaAs semiconductor devices. The electrical resistance is a basic property of components known ... more |  |
 Less is more with adding graphene to nanofibers Lincoln NB (SPX) Dec 12, 2013 - Figuring that if some is good, more must be better, researchers have been trying to pack more graphene, a supermaterial, into structural composites. Collaborative research led by University of Nebraska-Lincoln materials engineers discovered that, in this case, less is more. The team, led by Yuris Dzenis, McBroom professor of mechanical and materials engineering and a member of UNL's Nebras ... more |  |
Graphene-based nano-antennas may enable networks of tiny machines Atlanta GA (SPX) Dec 13, 2013 - Networks of nanometer-scale machines offer exciting potential applications in medicine, industry, environmental protection and defense, but until now there's been one very small problem: the limited capability of nanoscale antennas fabricated from traditional metallic components. With antennas made from conventional materials like copper, communication between low-power nanomachines would ... more |  |
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Quantum waves at the heart of organic solar cells Cambridge, UK (SPX) Dec 13, 2013 - By using an ultrafast camera, scientists say they have observed the very first instants following the absorption of light into artificial yet organic nanostructures and found that charges not only formed rapidly but also separated very quickly over long distances - phenomena that occur due to the wavelike nature of electrons which are governed by fundamental laws of quantum mechanics. This ... more |  |
Can We Turn Unwanted Carbon Dioxide Into Electricity San Francisco CA (SPX) Dec 13, 2013 - Researchers are developing a new kind of geothermal power plant that will lock away unwanted carbon dioxide (CO2) underground - and use it as a tool to boost electric power generation by at least 10 times compared to existing geothermal energy approaches. The technology to implement this design already exists in different industries, so the researchers are optimistic that their new approac ... more |  |
 Carbon capture technology could be vital for climate targets Laxenburg, Austria (SPX) Dec 12, 2013 - The future availability of carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be pivotal in reaching ambitious climate targets, according to a new comprehensive study of future energy technologies from IIASA, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change, the Stanford Energy Modeling Forum, and researchers worldwide. The study, published in a special issue of the journal Climatic Change, provides an overvie ... more |  |
 YouTube forecast to rake in $5.6 billion from ads San Francisco (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Industry tracker eMarketer forecasts that YouTube will rake in about $5.6 billion from ads this year, pocketing nearly two billion of those dollars as profit. The Google-owned online video sharing venue should net $1.96 billion, after divvying YouTube ad revenue with partners and creators of content, in a 65.5 percent jump from what it netted in 2012, according to eMarketer. YouTube's ex ... more |  |
 Peugeot confirms in talks with Chinese carmaker, GM pulls out Paris (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Peugeot confirmed Thursday it is in talks with Chinese giant Dongfeng about a shareholder tie-up, while GM announced it was dropping its 7 percent stake in the loss-making French carmaker. PSA Peugeot Citroen, the second-biggest carmaker in Europe after Volkswagen of Germany, stressed that there had not been any agreement on a tie-up and that the talks were at a preliminary stage, but GM's s ... more |  |
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Persian Gulf states seek joint military command -- again Kuwait City (UPI) Dec 12, 2013 - On the face of it, the decision by the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf to establish a joint military command indicates the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council are seeking to bolster their collective security against Iran amid signs of a rapprochement between their regional rival and the U.S.-led Western powers. The leaders of those states - Saudi Arabia, the United ... more |  |
Nigeria's leader under fire over missing $50B in oil money Abuja, Nigeria (UPI) Dec 12, 2013 - President Goodluck Jonathan is under growing pressure from top-level corruption in Nigeria's oil industry, with the central bank asking what happened to $50 billion in missing oil revenues and his political mentor, former president Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo complaining about massive fraud in the industry. Meantime, massive oil theft in the Niger Delta, the southern region where Nigeria's o ... more |  |
Instagram unveils private video, photo messaging New York (AFP) Dec 12, 2013 - Instagram on Thursday unveiled a new service allowing its 150 million members to send private photo and video messages to friends and loved ones in an increasingly competitive market. The Instagram Direct launch comes ahead of the holiday season two days after rival Twitter rolled out updated mobile software allowing smartphone users to send pictures in private messages. The founder of t ... more |  |
Another cost blowout for Chevron's Gorgon LNG in Australia Perth, Australia (UPI) Dec 12, 2013 - Oil and gas giant Chevron Corporation has revealed the cost of its massive Gorgon liquefied natural gas project on Western Australia's Barrow Island has increased to $54 billion. The cost blowout comes a year after the cost estimate for Gorgon, the world's largest LNG development, was raised from $37 billion to $52 billion. Chevron said the project, under construction for four ye ... more |  |
 Japan to spend $970 mn on nuclear soil store: report Tokyo (AFP) Dec 11, 2013 - Japan is planning to earmark 100 billion yen ($970 million) for a storage facility for tens of thousands of tonnes of soil contaminated with radiation from the Fukushima disaster, a report said Wednesday. The government will set aside the cash to buy some 3 to 5 square kilometres (1.2 to 2 square miles) of land somewhere near the crippled plant, the Asahi Shimbun reported. But finding a ... more |  |
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 Geoengineering approaches to reduce climate change unlikely to succeed Munich, Germany (SPX) Dec 10, 2013 - Reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the planet's surface by geoengineering may not undo climate change after all. Two German researchers used a simple energy balance analysis to explain how the Earth's water cycle responds differently to heating by sunlight than it does to warming due to a stronger atmospheric greenhouse effect. Further, they show that this difference implies that ref ... more |  |
 US top court examines rules on cross-border air pollution Washington (AFP) Dec 10, 2013 - The US Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments on environmental rules aiming to reduce smog that drifts from one state to another. An appeals court in Washington has blocked the Environmental Protection Agency's "good neighbor" regulations, saying the agency exceeded its authority, after 14 states and several industry groups appealed. But nine states and six cities have asked the top c ... more |  |
Putin orders military to boost Arctic presence Moscow (AFP) Dec 10, 2013 - President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's military on Tuesday to step up its presence in the Arctic after Canada signalled it planned to claim the North Pole and surrounding waters. The tough and rapid response to Canada's announcement reflected Russia's desire to protect its oil and natural gas interests in the pristine but energy-rich region amid competing claims there by countries that al ... more |  |
Canada to claim North Pole: minister Ottawa (AFP) Dec 10, 2013 - Canada signalled intentions to claim the North Pole and surrounding Arctic waters while announcing Monday the filing of a UN application seeking to vastly expand its Atlantic sea boundary. After a decade of surveying the country's eastern and far north seabeds and gathering supporting evidence, a claim was submitted to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf on Friday. Fore ... more |  |
Showdown on Iraqi Kurds' oil, gas is looming Erbil, Iraq (UPI) Dec 11, 2013 - The thorny dispute over Iraqi Kurdistan's oil riches is likely to heat up in the weeks ahead, aggravating tensions in a flashpoint region at a time when al-Qaida bombers are wreaking havoc across the country spurred by the civil war raging in next-door Syria. The semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government in the Kurdish enclave that spans three provinces in northern Iraq wants to expor ... more |  |
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