Experiments in SINTEF’s climate lab demonstrate that solar cells work very effectively in Norway in spite of the rain and cold. But there is one thing that owners should be aware of if they want to get the most from the sun’s energy.
Plastic trash is a rapidly growing environmental problem. But a biodegradable and natural material could replace plastic packaging and eliminate this problem.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Researchers have established a technique that will help ensure a stable supply of electricity even as new renewable energy sources come on line. The trick is helping all of the subsystems to work in concert.
Planning on cooking something at your hut? Today, you still need a gas stove to do so. But soon, stoves and ovens containing rechargeable heat batteries may be readily available for any cabin or home.
Policymakers, industry and government officials will have to invest US $2.5 trillion for electricity generation over the next 20 years. A new report presents the environmental costs and benefits linked to different renewable energy sources, and makes one thing abundantly clear: anything is better than coal.
NTNU was given only two admission tickets to the UN climate talks in Paris later this month. The tickets will be used in part by two researchers from the university’s Industrial Ecology Programme to give a workshop about carbon accounting.
Norway’s wealth and prosperity over the last four decades has been built on oil, but Jeremy Rifkin, a futurist and social and economic thinker, says it’s time for the country to change. The Third Industrial Revolution is coming, and Norway needs to abandon fossil fuels and move towards a greener future that relies on renewable energy, shared transport and ultra-efficient housing.
The countries of the world wrapped up preliminary climate talks in Lima, Peru this weekend with an agreement on how the UN’s 194 countries will tackle climate change. The agreement comes in advance of major negotiations scheduled for Paris next year to designed to curb the world’s production of greenhouse gases. In a publication from earlier this year, researchers at NTNU’s Industrial Ecology Programme report that the low-carbon future that would result from curbing greenhouse gas emissions is both feasible from a practical standpoint, and will also substantially reduce air pollution.
Climate talks in New York this week have offered a glimmer of hope that the world’s political leaders finally understand the need to act to curb global warming. An NTNU researcher says that these actions will have a beneficial side effect: cleaner air in some of the most polluted places on the planet.
According to a Norwegian study, ‘likes’ on Facebook are providing a new type of humanitarian support and social responsibility.
When the forestry machines have finished extracting timber, what is left are tops and branches – waste which cannot be used. However, according to researchers, it is possible to turn these heaps of lopwood into high-quality charcoal.
By controlling the sex life of algae, scientists can promote the properties they want.
Mobile phones that bend, self-powered nanodevices, new and improved solar cell technology and windows that generate electricity are but a few of the potential products from the union of semiconductors and graphene.