MIT researchers develop cost-effective battery made of common materials
The environmental benefits of using electricity rather than fossil fuels to power our world goes without saying— however, the process of electrifying everything has its obstacles. One of the greatest obstacles is the limited resources of lithium, nickel, and cobalt which are all used to create Read More...
Germany makes renewable energy cheaper for households and businesses
Good news for German consumers shifting to renewable energy—they will no longer have to pay the renewables surcharge on their power bills as of July 1st, 2022. The renewables surcharge was a necessary action that helped fund the country’s shift to renewable power over the past two decades. Read More...
Want to buy an EV? Make a plan first
As you can probably tell by now, The Optimist Daily is a big fan of electric vehicles. EV’s offer a practical way to lower our personal carbon emissions and hold promise for additional benefits in the near future, such as powering our homes in an emergency. It also feels like EV's have finally Read More...
Automated and eco-friendly! “Green” water taxi launches in Amsterdam
In 2020, The Optimist Daily wrote about a fully automated water cab in development by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions. In October 2021, prototype models of the Roboat were launched and are now navigating Amsterdam’s Read More...
‘Strange metal’ may be the future for a more energy efficient world
Strange metal behavior was first noticed around 30 years ago. These materials are composed of copper-oxides and carry the properties of being high-temperature superconductors. This means they can transfer electricity very efficiently, withstanding much higher temperatures with less energy loss than Read More...
A solution to greener homes could be right underneath our feet
Swiss researchers from the Wood Materials Science Laboratory at the ETH Zürich and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology in Dübendorf are working on an exciting new way to generate energy that requires us to simply move around our own homes and buildings. The Read More...
This start-up has pedestrians generating clean energy in Sierra Leone
If you are reading this article, then chances are that you are in a country with abundant access to electricity. For most people living in Sierra Leone, the opposite is true. In fact, the West African country has one of the lowest access rates for electricity across the globe. Just six percent of Read More...
This seawater-powered lamp is bringing light to coastal communities
Like millions of other people on the planet, inhabitants on the Guajira Peninsula, a coastal desert at the northernmost tip of South America, lack adequate access to electricity. Something they do have in abundance, however, is saltwater — a commodity that is now charging small lanterns used by Read More...
New tech taps into the movement of tree branches to generate electricity
Inspired by the continuous flows of energy found in nature, a recent project has proved that the natural movement of trees may offer a sustainable alternative to power our cities in the future. The concept, called anemokinetics, is based on the first law of thermodynamics, which states that Read More...
3 effective and often-overlooked tips to reduce your home’s energy use
There’s no shortage of earnest advice about all of the ways you can reduce your energy use at home. Beyond the obvious stuff like setting your thermostat wisely, many of the tips, tricks, and optimizations take a lot of effort for a small payoff. From Liam McCabe at the New York Times, the Read More...