Helping EU cities and regions cut carbon emissions
A series of first-ever maps shows regional-scale differences in carbon footprints in the EU. The maps can help guide local and regional policies designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Energy and environment
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Living with zero-emission technology
How does technology change people, and how do people change in response to technology? Sixteen people volunteered to live in a high-tech, zero-emission house to help researchers answer those exact questions.
Fuel of the future
Heavy-duty trucks will soon be driving around in Trondheim, Norway, fuelled by hydrogen created with solar power, and emitting only pure water vapour as “exhaust”. Not only will hydrogen technology revolutionize road transport, it will also enable ships and trains to run emission-free.
An energy-efficient cleaning robot
State-of-the-art solar cells are efficient – but are even more so when they are kept clean. A cleaning robot developed by Norwegian researchers enables solar panels to deliver at full capacity.
Climate change, ocean diversity and women in science
Science has made great strides since Svante Arrhenius, the Swedish Nobel Laureate who in 1896 first determined that carbon dioxide from human activity could warm the planet. The same progress hasn’t been made in increasing the number of women in the sciences.
Stinky city air as climate art
Imagine breathing polluted New Delhi air. It’s a scorching 40 degrees and the humidity is high. But you’re not in New Delhi – you’re in an art installation, during the Starmus festival in Trondheim in June.
Norwegian to lead energy research in Europe
Nils Røkke, Director of Sustainability at SINTEF, is the new Chairman of the European Energy Research Alliance.
Floating cities will soon be a reality
Researchers from Norway and Singapore are working together to build cities floating at sea and underground universities.
Finding life — and farming minerals — deep under the sea
Japanese researchers have access to the largest scientific vessel ever constructed, one that has a 120 metre tall derrick capable of drilling to 7500 metres below the seafloor. They’re using it to hunt for life deep under the seafloor and explore for mineral deposits at the bottom of the ocean — topics that are of great interest to Norwegian researchers.
Does ‘green energy’ have hidden health and environmental costs?
Production of electricity is responsible for about a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions, and demand is poised to rise as underserved populations connect to the grid, and electronics and electric vehicles proliferate. So stopping global warming will require a transformation of electricity production. But it is important to avoid various environmental pitfalls in this transition, researchers say.
Creating systems that understand the Arctic
How can ships travelling in the Arctic maintain their position when ice pushes them in different directions?
Super microscopes help make greener batteries
Researchers rely on super microscopes to develop more efficient next-generation batteries.
Norway’s oldest ice found in Jotunheimen
Some of the ice in the Juvfonne glacier in Jotunheimen National Park in central Norway has been dated to be 7600 years old, currently the oldest dated ice on mainland Norway.
Air could be the world’s next battery
Storing compressed air in sealed tunnels and mines could be a way of storing energy in the future – if an EU project in which Norway is a partner is successful.
Inside the ice caves on Svalbard
Svalbard’s cold climate means that its glaciers are solid and frozen to the ground. This allows for winter travel into unique ice caves that contain plants and material that froze into the glacial ice as it formed.
Going deep to learn the secrets of Japan’s earthquakes
The 11 March 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake was the largest and most destructive in the history of Japan. Japanese researchers — and Norwegian partners — are hard at work trying to understand just what made it so devastating.
European researchers want to extend funding for renewables
An international team of researchers has concluded that operational funding should continue to be provided for the production of renewable energy in Europe, provided that such support is progressively reduced over time.
Crushing ice to save platforms
It’s been a warm winter on Svalbard this year. But this doesn’t apply to the laboratory where Niek Heijkoop works. There it’s a stable -10° Celsius
Svalbard’s electric power could come from hydrogen
Longyearbyen, the world’s most northerly city, could save more than 100 million kroner (11.5 million US dollars) a year in the cost of electricity, if a completely green hydrogen-fuelled power station is built in preference to laying a cable from the mainland, according to calculations made by SINTEF scientists.
A future for skiing in a warmer world
As the world struggles to make progress to limit climate change, researchers are finding ways to adapt to warmer winter temperatures — by developing environmentally friendly ways of producing artificial snow.
Finding ways to fix the climate before it’s too late
Scientists and policymakers rely on complex computer simulations called Integrated Assessment Models to figure out how to address climate change. But these models need tinkering to make them more accurate.
Making a car workshop into an attractive, energy-efficient urban residence
Combining old and new to achieve reduced energy consumption, a better living environment and architectural success. It’s definitely possible and researchers will show you how.
One radiator to heat a whole floor
What happens to people’s comfort level when the heating system in a super-insulated building is simplified by installing only one radiator per floor?
Big data shows how what we buy affects endangered species
We don’t have to snuff out species when we eat a hamburger or buy a tee-shirt— if we know how our consumption affects endangered and threatened species.