Energy Production
The greatest need modern civilizations have is energy. Learn about oil, electricity and newer forms of energy like solar and wind power.
It's always sunny in low-Earth orbit, so what better place to look for a source of solar energy?
When it comes to looking to the energy source that will replace fossil fuels, there are no shortage of options.
From corn to solar power, scientists have been searching every crevice of the Earth to find reliable sources of alternative energy. Could lightning be the answer?
It's not news that we're spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere faster than the planet can deal with it. What is news, however, is that the futuristic technologies being tested to deal with all that CO2.
Amid the deadly gusts of wind and chaotic storms signaling an impending tornado, you rush indoors to a safe place to escape harm's way. But is there a way to actually benefit from that destructive power?
Ever since the big quake swarm started in the Vanuatu area yesterday, I've been itching to do some number crunching to see how much energy the Earth is releasing through these underground ruptures.
Debunking The Perpetual Motion Myth: What is zero-point energy?
Imagine an energy source that was infinite, clean, and completely scalable. It would solve many of the world's problems -- and sounds too good to be true ... right?
What many people consider a precious natural treasure and home to rare and endangered plants and animals – also sits atop an unknown amount of petroleum.
Nowadays, geothermal power plants also take advantage of water heated by the Earth's interior to boil water into steam.
Fossil fuels, including coal, oil and natural gas, supply the bulk of the world's energy demand. Wind, the sun and nuclear energy are ascending sources of power worldwide. Could we tap into the power from earthquakes?
A few decades ago, the pursuit of clean energy was "green." Now, it's a necessity. Not only is our power consumption propelling the human race toward a hot, watery, lonely end, but clean energy tends also to be renewable.
In the face of increasing energy demands and increasingly problematic energy sources, the appeal of using the ocean to generate power is obvious: Water covers more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface, and it's not going anywhere any time soon.
You've heard the clean-fuel hype. So what's your role? Homeowners and residents account for 21 percent of all natural gas consumption in the U.S.
Natural gas is a major and essential part of the U.S. energy market, amounting to 25 percent of overall energy use and more than 20 percent of electrical production, according to the New York Times.
Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and Bonnie and Clyde have nothing on carbon. Do you know how carbon capture works?
Imagine blowing up balloons with your car's tailpipe and then burying those balloons where they'll never be seen again. If you can imagine that process, then you pretty much can imagine the processes of carbon capture and carbon sequestration.
Like all offshore drilling, drilling in the Arctic is more costly, complicated, and politically controversial than drilling for oil on land.
When you switch on your furnace or turn on your gas stove and use the heat from that little blue flame, you’re doing what people in 62 million other American homes do every day, too: You're using natural gas.
Our homes, vehicles and technologies require immense amounts of energy, yet fossil fuel supplies are finite. Sunshine, however, isn't disappearing anytime soon.
When the technology in consumer goods like cell phones improves, we all know about it instantly, because we all use these gadgets. But truthfully, technological improvements in specialized equipment like oil rigs, is probably just as important, if not as reported.
Beneath the surface of a large portion of North America, buried in ancient bedrock, is a massive reserve of natural gas.
In any conversation about fuel and resource consumption, you're likely to hear at least a passing reference to natural gas. Some argue it could wean the modern world off of its dependence on oil and coal.
The use of activated carbon is pretty straightforward: it boils down to combining infinitesimal grains of carbon with contaminated things you want decontaminated- water, air, metals or the human body.
When we think of the term "oil reserves," we're actually talking about the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a government-owned stash of oil that's stored in four salt caverns in the Gulf Coast region.
The U.S. consumes 19.1 million barrels of petroleum each day -- almost half of it in the form of gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
