Energy and the Environment-A Coastal Perspective

Vancouver city strives for 100% clean energy, including electricity, heating and cooling, and potentially hydroelectric transportation. Attaining 100% renewable energy is finally possible.   “We spent 10 years arguing over whether climate change was happening and then we spent another 10 years arguing over what we should do if it is happening; now we’re getting down […]

Northwest Energy Innovations (NWEI) designed a 20kW wave energy converter, the Azura, which began producing electricity to the grid last month off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii. (Gahran) The Azura’s innovative design captures energy from the waves vertical and horizontal motions with its 360 degree rotating buoy. (843 Digital) “As the first grid connected wave […]

What is CETO La Reunion? CETO La Reunion is a submerged point absorber technology invented, installed, and operated by Carnegie Wave Energy, an Australian developer (Carnegie Wave Energy 2011). The CETO La Reunion project is a three stage project, with the stage 1 currently operational as a 1 unit prototype (Carnegie Wave Energy 2015). Stage […]

In my first post, I discussed the future of lithium and it’s role as a catalyst towards the changing global power dynamic surrounding renewable energy. In this post, I hope to continue this trend in discussing the role of rare earth metals in the renewable energy industry and how they may serve as a limiting […]

An article in Popular Mechanics titled “The Ethanol Fallacy: Op-Ed” brings into question the promise of reduced dependence on foreign oil through good old American grown corn. The author argues that this idea is just way too good to be true. I would say that his argument is relatively sound. He quotes a figure that […]

In response to our discussion around the Cape Wind controversy this Thursday, the topic of local politics was brought up, for obvious reasons. The Cape Wind project controversy was fueled by much opposition in the form of wealth and political prowess, and shortly blew out of proportion from local politics to a national dilemma, even […]

Lithium: Fuel of the Future From Tesla Roadsters to iPhones, laptops to golf carts lithium-ion batteries are an essential component of 21st century society. Current estimates project that by 2020, there will be over 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads, spurred by the rapidly decreasing costs of lithium-ion batteries which are becoming 6- […]

In this class we have mainly focused on the ability to conserve and harness energy from renewable sources that have previously been untapped (at least on a large scale). In most cases, this includes things like wind energy, salinity gradients, oceanic currents, etc., i.e. natural phenomena that we should then be able to extract energy […]

This past week, construction for North Carolina’s first commercial wind farm received approval from state officials. Spanning across 22,000 acres of rural farm land in Pasquotank and Perquimans County, it will be the largest and only terrestrial wind farm in  the Southeast after its completion (Dearen, 2015). The renewable energy project is the result of […]

Many complications arise when it comes to the installation of renewable energy systems. Where their installation can occur is difficult to determine and there is the necessity of a power source. That being said, what if one of North Carolina’s largest problems could become a solution to the state’s energy production? The use of swine […]