Economy-Energy Sector

How the little-known ‘dark roof’ lobby may be making US cities hotter

by Ames Alexander 1/6/25 The Guardian

The Tennessee representative Rusty Grills says the lobbyist proposed a simple idea: repeal the state’s requirement for reflective roofs on many commercial buildings.

Fusion is the power of the future ... and the future isn't as far away as it used to be

by Mark Sumner 28/12/22 DAILY KOS

Here’s a quick primer: Fission is the process in which large atoms are split into smaller ones. Fusion is a process in which small atoms are pushed together into larger atoms. It may seem surprising, but both processes generate a lot of energy. Fission is the process behind every existing nuclear power plant today and was also what powered the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fusion is at the heart of the much more powerful “hydrogen bombs” that have, thank God, never been used in war. It’s also the power behind exactly 0% of the world’s electricity.

It was an accident’: the scientists who have turned humid air into renewable power

by Ned Carter Miles 2/7/23 The Guardian

In the early 20th century, Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla dreamed of pulling limitless free electricity from the air around us. Ever ambitious, Tesla was thinking on a vast scale, effectively looking at the Earth and upper atmosphere as two ends of an enormous battery. Needless to say, his dreams were never realised, but the promise of air-derived electricity – hygroelectricity – is now capturing researchers’ imaginations again. The difference: they’re not thinking big, but very, very small.