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MIT, Boston Medical Center, and Post Office Square Redevelopment Corporation have formed an alliance to buy electricity from a large new solar power installation, adding carbon-free energy to the grid and demonstrating a partnership model for other organizations in climate-change mitigation efforts.

The agreement will enable the construction of a roughly 650-acre, 60-megawatt solar farm on farmland in North Carolina. Called Summit Farms, the facility, the largest renewable-energy project ever built in the U.S. through an alliance of diverse buyers, is expected to be completed and to begin delivering power into the grid by the end of this year.

Lignocellulosic biomass—plant matter such as cornstalks, straw, and woody plants—is a sustainable source for production of bio-based fuels and chemicals. However, the deconstruction of biomass is one of the most complex processes in bioenergy technologies. Although researchers at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) had already uncovered information about how woody plants and waste biomass can be converted into biofuel more easily, they have now discovered the chemical details behind that process.

Un nuevo estudio de la NOAA, la National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, le da un nuevo giro a una espinosa pregunta sobre el impacto del aumento en la producción de petróleo y gas sobre las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero. Los científicos han detectado un aumento de las tasas de emisiones de metano a nivel mundial desde 2007. 

Tiny robots have been helping researchers study how cli­mate change affects bio­di­ver­sity. Devel­oped by North­eastern Uni­ver­sity sci­en­tist Brian Hel­muth, the “robo­mus­sels” have the shape, size, and color of actual mus­sels, with minia­ture built-in sen­sors that track tem­per­a­tures inside the mussel beds.

Una encuesta del Instituto de Investigación PEW llamada "Política del Clima", mostró una bolsa con todo tipo de materiales para los observadores de la industria energética, revelando que una parte de los estadounidenses que apoyan el uso de combustibles fósiles se expandió, mientras que casi todos apoyan las energías renovables.