Miles Page's Blog (7)

Back in 2006, writing in Science, Daniel Clery discussed “ITER’s $12 billion Gamble”. ITER, from International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, is a massive, multinational government-level collaboration aiming to prove nuclear fusion as a potential commercial power source. Nuclear fusion is the nuclear reaction that powers the sun an… Continue

I planned to write something this week about the relationship between Energy and Climate Change. I thought this would include a few lines about one or more of denial, skepticism, groupthink, errors, modeling and other evocative buzzwords that tend to be thrown around in the climate change debate. A bit of quick reading was in order. Wow. If following any of my links in this article, consider yourself warned. What a simultaneously fascinating and infuriating way to suck up the best part of a day… Continue

Shell caused a stir the other day, when they announced their withdrawal from all their wind and solar projects, in favour of biofuels. This could be good for Australia, according to some including the for… Continue

I’m in the USA this week. On my arrival to New York’s Kennedy Airport, immediately I was struck by two things. First was the abundance of green-oriented advertising. It has been nearly a decade since I was last in the area, but the transformation was really pronounced – everywhere from advertising posters in the New York airport to Chevy ads on Chairlift stanchions in a small Southwest Utah ski resort (interestingly, promoting the… Continue

A good mate of mine Angus, a rev head, recently pointed me to Top Gear's test drive of the new hydrogen fuel cell -powered Honda FCX Clarity. Someone has helpfully posted the segment on YouTube. The rather hysterical YouTube-es… Continue

What is it with photovoltaic (PV*) solar power? When Bell Labs reported the first silicon photovoltaic cell in 1954, the New York Times were quick to broadcast the imminent end of our dependence on fossil fuels – the energy revolution was fast approaching! The original Bell Labs cell reached 6%. Five decades later, the silicon solar cell recently passed the milestone of… Continue

Ex Vice President Al Gore set a target last July: In a landmark Washington speech, he launched a project to "Repower America". (Abridged version here) His goal is to convert America's power supply to 100% renewable, non-carbon-based sources within ten years. I highly recommend a listen to t… Continue