Author Archive

Matthew Phelan

Matthew Phelan is a former research chemist who worked on developing next-generation lithium-ion batteries before breaking into journalism. He is a contributing editor to Current Science magazine (which runs his recurring educational cartoon "Lab Rats") and a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Chemical Engineering magazine, Anthem, Flak and MTV Iggy.

Corn-Based BioFuels Still Counterproductive

Here comes more dour empirical data.

Ongoing deforestation in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia has been further linked to the rising demand for biofuels, according to speakers at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS):

“If reduced U.S. soybean production results in a parallel increase in Brazilian soybean production, a potential net release of 1,800 to 9,100 Tg (trillion grams) of CO2-equivalents of greenhouse

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Clean Energy From Nuclear Fuel Rods and Oil Rigs [WTF?! FTW!]

The data comparing VIVACE to conventional power sources has to be seen to be believed.

Hot Hot Heat: U.S. Solar Costs Going Down

According to a new study conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, The average installed costs for photovoltaic cells (in real 2007 dollars) went down from $10.50-per-watt in 1998, to $7.60-per-watt in 2007.

What’s most amazing about this report is that it appears to validate a whole slew of state and local solar initiatives. The researchers found that—despite the many, many reported advances to solar cell efficiency—most of the savings during this nine year period came from reductions to installation and external hardware costs.

Can the World’s Worst CD and DVD Manufacturer Do Better with Solar Energy?

Sun Well Solar—a subsidiary of the notoriously poor CD and DVD manufacturer, CMC Magnetics—has announced today that it is one month ahead of schedule in the ramp-up of its new photovoltaic production line.

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