When you think of Facebook and “hot air,” a stream of pointless online chatter might be what comes to mind. But the company will soon be putting its literal hot air — the waste heat pumped out by one of its data centers — to good environmental use. That center, in Odense, Denmark, plans to channel its waste heat to warm nearly 7,000 homes when it opens in 2020.

The cost of building new nuclear power plants is nearly 20 per cent higher than expected due to delays, a new analysis has found.

A new analysis of the history of nuclear power plant projects shows since 2010 delays have contributed 18 per cent the costs.

Imagine being able to power your car partly from the heat that its engine gives off. Or what if you could get a portion of your home’s electricity from the heat that a power plant emits? Such energy-efficient scenarios may one day be possible with improvements in thermoelectric materials — which spontaneously produce electricity when one side of the material is heated.

Fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas supply 80 percent of the world’s energy to warm homes, charge devices and power transportation. They are also the primary human source of greenhouse gas emissions. Stanford scientists broadly agree that curtailing our use of fossil fuels would have significant benefits – like improving health and reducing the number and severity of natural disasters – but it’s not yet clear what can replace them.

Scientists say there was a significant release of radioactive particles during the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident.

Energy saving lightbulbs are harder to find and more expensive in low-income U.S. communities than in more affluent areas, according to a new study from the University of Michigan. The cost for households to upgrade from incandescent to LED bulbs, for example, was two times higher in low-income neighborhoods.

Sandia National Laboratories will receive $10.5 million from the Department of Energy to research and design a cheaper and more efficient solar energy system.

In March 2009, engineer Richard Jenkins broke the world land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle by sailing a bright green sailboat on wheels across a dried lakebed in Nevada at 126 miles per hour. Now, after many engineering developments and an orange paint job, Jenkins’ design autonomously sails the sea gathering ecologic, oceanic, and atmospheric data in the employ of NOAA.

The UK and large parts of northern Europe could become windier if global temperatures reach 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels, according to a new study.

There are more than 57,000 wind turbines across the United States, and a new tool allows you to get up close and personal with each one!