electricity
Solar Towers and Their “Spatial Byproducts”
We read on infranetlab.org about the the solar updraft tower, “a combination of a solar chimney, greenhouse and wind turbine.” Yet another example of an old technology made new, this particular kind of solar machine was first dreamt up in 1903 “by Spanish Colonel Isidoro Cabanyes in the magazine La Energia Electrica.”
The solar tower exploits [...]
Chinese Power Generation Growth 2002-2008
The non-2008 growth rates are why people like Michael Shellenberger tell a certain tech magazine things like, “”If China burns all the coal that it is set to burn between now and 2050, we are super-deeply fucked.” The 2008 growth rate is why people like the environmental economist, Alan Randall, say things like, [...]
A Brief Pictorial History of Electrified Christmas Trees
The lit-up Christmas tree is one of those traditions that seems like it should stretch back to the beginning of time. Its twinkling lights are now ubiquitous and certainly predate my birth. But I’ve never seen a good exposition of where and how and when the industries that surround it — Christmas tree farms, distributors, [...]
Inventing Green by Alexis Madrigal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
