You can consider these the barebone notes on the history of hydraulic fracturing or fracking: The process of hydraulic fracturing for the stimulation of oil and natural gas wells was first developed in the 1940s, with experimentation occurring as early as 1903. It was first used commercially by Halliburton in 1949, and because of its [...]

NASA’s mission to Jupiter just got a bit greener: a solar-powered, wind-mill-shaped spacecraft.  The robotic explorer, Juno, is to become the most distant probe ever powered by the sun. Juno comes equipped with three semi-trailer-size solar panels for its 2 billion-mile journey into the outer solar system. Juno will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida [...]

Researchers at MIT have developed a new approach to the design of batteries, which could provide a lightweight and inexpensive alternative to existing batteries for electric vehicles and the power grid. Some believe that this technology could even make the “refueling” of such batteries as quick and easy as pumping gas into a conventional car. [...]

While turning off the lights when you’re leaving the room and using energy efficient fluorescent light bulbs may help lower the cost of energy bills, it hardly saves anything in your monthly energy bill. Due to higher fuel and energy costs, the average household will spend $2,350 on electricity and gas this year, up from [...]

In the wake of the nuclear crisis in Japan, the German government announced this week that it is accelerating plans to close down its nuclear power plants. Italy is following suit with a one year moratorium. These announcements have shown how quickly political views on nuclear energy have shifted. Italy had planned on pushing nuclear [...]

American companies involved in offshore oil drilling are creating a safety institute modeled after those already established by foreign oil companies and the nuclear power and chemical industries, according to the American Petroleum Institute. The new safety board, soon to be known as the Center for Offshore Safety, will aim at improving the offshore industry’s [...]

Located at 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) above sea level, the village of Chek Kange in Lhoka (Shannan) Prefecture in Tibet will be the new location of Suntech’s newly announced 10-megawatt project. This solar plant will become the highest solar plant in the world. The plant is expected to be completed by the middle of this [...]

During the night of March 16, 2011, four lead lined military helicopters dumped nearly 30 tons of water on the No. 3 and No. 4 reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The seawater is meant to cool off the reactors, while filling the water in the pools of spent fuel rods, which have [...]

Between the social unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, raising concerns over our reliance on foreign fuel, and the earthquake in Japan highlighting the dangers of nuclear power, we are reminded of the need to diversify our energy sources. Hydrogen has been promoted as being one of the most promising replacements for conventional [...]

When it comes to solar energy systems, there are two major weaknesses: they must use a large amount of land in order to be built, and the cost related to the solar cells fabrication and maintenance is relatively high. However, a new technology has emerged which may overcome these and many more challenges: floating solar [...]