Summaries | Headlines

Steep Sloped Roofs Lasted Through Katrina Better Than Low Sloped Roofs (October 10, 2007) -- A study of roofing damage incurred by Gulf Coast structures following Hurricane Katrina has found that buildings with steep sloped roofs held up better against the high-wind storm damage than ... > full story

Recycling Wind Turbines (September 23, 2007) -- Wind power could become one of the greenest alternative energy resources we have, but only if replacement and recycling of windturbines is taken into account in assessing their environmental impact, ... > full story

Skyray 48 Takes Flight (September 20, 2007) -- Calm excitement filled the ground control station. Engineers stared intently at their computer screens as the pilot, sitting next to them, flexed his fingers on the controls. Ground crew tending the ... > full story

Wind Turbine Has Switch To Move Clear Of Migrating Birds (August 28, 2007) -- The wind turbine off in the distance is flopped over on its side -- the 11-foot blades suspended just above the ground at one end and a 2,000-pound, bulbous, galvanized steel counterbalance pitched ... > full story

Go Solar, Wind Or Geothermal If You Want Renewable Energy With Life-cycle Efficiency (August 18, 2007) -- Do the overall efficiencies of renewable energy sources add up in terms of their complete life cycle from materials sourcing, manufacture, running, and decommissioning? Using these criteria, ... > full story

Renewable Energy Wrecks Environment, According To Researcher (July 25, 2007) -- Renewable does not mean green. That is the claim of Jesse Ausubel of the Rockefeller University in New York. He explains that building enough wind farms, damming enough rivers, and growing enough ... > full story

Rural Communities Revived By Energy (July 20, 2007) -- A study of community renewable energy projects in Britain has found that so far, projects are largely based in the countryside, some quite remote. From wind turbines to shared heating systems, ... > full story

Home Shapes And Roofs That Hold Up Best In Hurricanes (June 21, 2007) -- Certain home shapes and roof types can better resist high winds and hurricanes, according to new research. The researcher spent two years examining the findings of research centers that have studied ... > full story

Huge Wind Machine To Simulate Category Three Hurricanes (June 1, 2007) -- It will huff, and puff, and blow the house in -- but only for research purposes. Wind engineers just unveiled the world's largest portable hurricane wind and rain simulator. Civil and coastal ... > full story

Screaming Coronal Mass Ejections Warn Of Radiation Storms (May 30, 2007) -- Some coronal mass ejections (CMEs) produce violent radiation storms, and some do not. The trick is to identify the ones that can produce dangerous radiation, so that astronauts and satellite ... > full story

Use Of Wind Energy In US Growing, But Planning And Guidelines Are Lacking (May 3, 2007) -- Although the use of wind energy to generate electricity is increasing rapidly in the United States, government guidance to help communities and developers evaluate and plan proposed wind-energy ... > full story

More Efficient Wind Turbine Blade Designed (March 20, 2007) -- A new wind turbine blade design that researchers at Sandia developed in partnership with Knight & Carver of San Diego should significantly reduce the cost-of-energy of wind turbines at low-wind-speed ... > full story

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Automotive aerodynamics -- Automotive aerodynamics is the study of the aerodynamics of road vehicles. The main concerns of automotive aerodynamics are reducing drag, reducing wind noise, and preventing undesired lift forces at ... > full article

Wind turbine -- A wind turbine is a machine for converting the mechanical energy in wind into electrical energy. If the mechanical energy is used directly by machinery, such as a pump or grinding stones, the machine ... > full article

Machine -- A machine is any mechanical or organic device that transmits or modifies energy to perform or assist in the performance of tasks. It normally requires some energy source and accomplishes some sort of ... > full article

Power station -- A power station or power plant is a facility for the generation of electric power. At the centre of nearly all power stations is a generator, a rotating machine that converts mechanical energy into ... > full article

Biomass -- Biomass is organic non-fossil material, collectively. In other words, 'biomass' describes the mass of all biological organisms, dead or alive, excluding biological mass that has been transformed by ... > full article

Aerodynamics -- Aerodynamics (shaping of objects that affect the flow of air, liquid or gas) is a branch of fluid dynamics concerned with the study of forces and gas flows. The solution of an aerodynamic problem ... > full article

Turbulence -- In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a flow regime characterized by chaotic, stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid ... > full article

Water turbine -- A water turbine is a rotary engine that takes energy from moving water. Water turbines were developed in the nineteenth century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. ... > full article

Electricity generation -- Electricity generation is the first process in the delivery of electricity to consumers. The other three processes are electric power transmission, electricity distribution and electricity retailing. ... > full article

Distributed generation -- Distributed generation is a new trend in the generation of heat and electrical power. The concept permits the "consumer", who is generating heat or electricity for their own needs, to send their ... > full article

Renewable energy -- Renewable energy (sources) or RES capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water, biological processes, and geothermal heat ... > full article

Engineering geology -- Engineering Geology is the application of the science of geology to the understanding of geologic phenomena and the engineering solution of geologic hazards and other geologic problems for ... > full article

Hydroelectricity -- Hydroelectricity is electricity obtained from hydropower. Most hydroelectric power comes from the potential energy of dammed water driving a water turbine and generator. Less common variations make ... > full article

Hurricane proof building -- Tornadoes, cyclones, and other strong winds damage or destroy many buildings. Here are some architectural design ... > full article

Drag (physics) -- For a solid object moving through a fluid or gas, drag is the sum of all the aerodynamic or hydrodynamic forces in the direction of the external fluid flow. It therefore acts to oppose the motion of ... > full article

Geothermal power -- Geothermal power is the use of geothermal heat for electricity generation. It is often referred to as a form of renewable energy, but because the heat at any location can eventually be depleted it ... > full article

Solar wind -- A solar wind is a stream of charged particles (i.e., a plasma) which are ejected from the upper atmosphere of a star. When originating from stars other than the Earth's Sun, it is sometimes called a ... > full article

Wind power --

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into more useful forms, such as electricity, using wind turbines. At the end of 2006, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 73.9 gigawatts; ... > full article

Aircraft -- An aircraft is any machine capable of atmospheric flight. A first division by design among aircraft is between lighter-than-air, aerostat, and heavier-than-air aircraft, aerodyne. Examples of ... > full article

Liquid nitrogen economy -- A liquid nitrogen economy is a hypothetical proposal for a future economy in which the primary form of energy storage and transport is liquid nitrogen. It is proposed as an alternative to liquid ... > full article