Why should we care about our paper usage? For me the key points are that it is an expensive, impermanent storage medium that is made primarily out of those wondrous things we call trees.
Power system performance metrics
Everything has its price. Every form of power production has costs in dollars, time, land, materials, pollutants, greenhouse gas emissions, and human deaths. We look at the most important factors for analyzing the feasibility of a proposed power project. Considering only some of these factors will lead to an incomplete picture of power system costs.
Fusion fast ignition systems
Fusion ‘fast ignition’ systems are some intriguing new possibilities for fusion development. They may make it possible for humanity to achieve functional fusion reactors in a few decades.
Laser implosion fusion reactors
Laser implosion fusion is a proposed method for creating nuclear fusion power plants. It is showing some great promise, being the most likely candidate for the first fusion method to reach net energy gain. Exciting new developments may make fusion power a reality in the coming decades.
Lindsey Simpson of TEDxMcGill on volunteerism and planning major events
Lindsey Simpson, one of the organizers of TEDxMcGill, talks in this interview about why she likes to volunteer and work hard to plan such big events. TEDxMcGill is an externally organized TED event in the city of Montreal, Canada on November 20th, 2010.
Feed-in tariffs: A fitting policy for renewable energy
Here we talk about what a feed in tariff is and how it works. We also conduct an overview of how effective feed in tariffs have been at stimulating the renewable energy industry around the world.
Interview with wind power guru Paul Gipe
Wind power expert Paul Gipe advocates that we deliberately create our green energy future rather than wait around for it to happen. He says that we should aim to democratize our energy production for a more prosperous future.
Lifestyle brands: Selling people a constructed dream
Lifestyle brands are designed to create the impression that their product is part of a way of life that is desirable. They do this through connection to people’s employment, ethnicity, religion, class, region, etc. Lifestyle brands are artificially created value design to allow inferior or average products masquerade as superior ones.
How do we turn nuclear fusion energy into electricity?
How do we turn fusion power into electricity? There are two main methods. We can use heat engines like steam turbines or we can use a very new system called ‘direct conversion’ which has some interesting properties.
The basic realities of fusion reactor design
Issues and difficulties with creating a physical system for nuclear fusion. To succeed, we must face temperatures that vaporize all known materials and other requirements that make this the most difficult technological endeavor of our age.
Fusion fuel cycles: What they are and how they work
There are a number of different fuels that can be used for creating fusion power. Here we look at the useful ones and look at their advantages and disadvantages. Different fuel cycles require very different implementations.
How can renewables deliver dispatchable power on demand?
What does dispatchable mean? Why is it important? How do we currently do this? Can renewable energy fulfill this role? What other tricks can we use?
Helpful tools for understanding nuclear fusion
These are the concepts I found to be very useful during my fusion research. Here we define ignition state, Lawson criterion, fusion performance parameter, and energy gain factor Q.
The science behind fusion power
In order to understand nuclear fusion at a deep level, you must have a strong grasp of a number of areas of physics. I have collected here some resources for learning these skills. The general areas are electromagnetism, nuclear physics, thermodynamics, and plasma physics.
How can we create power from nuclear fusion?
Achieving sustained nuclear fusion for power production is incredibly challenging. Scientists have been working on this problem for decades. This piece is an overview of the basic concepts and technologies needed for nuclear fusion power. One could also view this as a tutorial, or a crash-course, in fusion power.
Science denial: Vaccines, vitamins and GMOs
Michael Specter delivered a clear and powerful message in his talk at TED in 2010. Vaccines save lives, yet people fear them. GMOs are primarily opposed for reasons unrelated to the method of their construction.
Land use of coal vs wind: Still room for debate
Land usage for power systems is a common comparison metric. We demonstrate here that the comparison cannot be conducted meaningfully on such simplistic grounds. Additional factors must be taken into consideration.
How can you deliberately change your society?
How do people try to chance society? Why do these methods work? How can they be resisted? Progressive and regressive change can depend on many of the same basic techniques.
The regulatory battle over coal fly ash heats up
The coal industry has had a history of lobbying against a hazardous waste label for fly ash. Fly ash is toxic enough that the EPA mandated decades ago that it be captured and stored rather than emitted into the atmosphere.
Jeffrey Sachs on the high price of ignoring poverty
We can end poverty in two decades. HIV/AIDS has reached a steady state in the world. Military spending is 25 times aid spending. We can achieve peace through shared prosperity.