Plants use their leaves to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Human technology can do that, too--only much slower. Scientists around the world are racing to find a way to fully mimic the plants, and now one group has made a big breakthrough.
The sun pours down a lot of energy onto the surface of the ocean every day. Now scientists are figuring out a way to get that energy onto the grid, with only seawater as a waste product. It just requires a really, really long pipe.
Once you're done being scared of the goblins and ghouls, there are some larger issues to be scared about. But unlike the undead, these problems can be defeated with a little ingenuity.
As the clean energy industry emerges from a challenging period caused by the global economic downturn, it is entering a stage of rapid change in which business models are being transformed against a backdrop of regulatory uncertainty.
A new report says the worldwide clean energy sector grew 30% from 2009 to $243 billion worth of finance and investment in technologies like wind, solar, biofuel, and geothermal.