5 German Ideas for Alternative Energy
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According to the first law of thermodynamics, energy can be neither created nor destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. In the case of electrical power, however, this transformation comes at a cost.
The burning of fossil fuels emits greenhouse gases that pollute air and raise global temperatures. Even renewable alternatives are not yet fully practical: wind and solar are only intermittently available, and the storage of transformed energy is difficult and expensive.
Regardless whether originating from a finite or renewable resource, 70-75% of energy is lost before it reaches consumers. This is partly due to science–entropy, or the tendency of a system to move toward greater disorder, makes some energy unavailable for useful work–and partly due to technological inefficiencies.
Our November newsletter features innovations that improve the efficiency and lower the negative impact of energy transformation. Read about startups focusing on energy storage and reconceiving the energy grid, university research on microenergy harvesting and Hamburg’s response to climate change. In an interview we talk with Karyn Stoess, a self-proclaimed “matchmaker for energy startups and investors.”
Read the newsletter here: https://t.co/UhKEvbrwtt