Wind turbines require massive structures that are polluting to produce and can harm ecosystems, but these impacts compare favorably with those of fossil alternatives.
No energy source is perfect, but solar and wind have a much lower health and environmental footprint than fossil fuels, a study finds. Biopower, though, is a mixed bag.
Solar jobs now outnumber coal jobs in U.S. Is that reason enough for government policies to promote clean energy?
Will government policy to promote clean energy be disastrous or a boon? A close look at the 2009 stimulus, which plowed $90 billion into energy, can tell us a lot.
Do the holes in the banner carried by these Vietnam veterans during an Anzac Day parade in Canberra make any difference?
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
Attend any ANZAC Day parade and you might see people carrying banners with holes cut in them. They're supposed to cut any drag or wind resistance but do they do any good?
Losing steam? Older power plants are expensive to operate or upgrade.
Montgomery County Planning Commission
Anti-nuclear advocates may cheer the closing of nuclear power plants in the US, but thanks to cheap natural gas, less nuclear power means higher emissions.
Lots of wind blowing – often at night when there’s little demand for power.
Smoothing out variable wind and solar is a growing problem. Instead of storing energy with batteries, utilities can adjust the power of millions of devices in buildings and homes.
Sand blown inland at Bondi Beach.
AAP Image/David Moir
What causes the wild weather that's hit Sydney and central New South Wales over the past 24 hours?
Wind farms like this one probably wouldn’t exist if the government didn’t provide a hefty subsidy.
Congress passed the wind production tax credit (PTC) more than two decades ago to spur development in an industry still in its infancy. The wind sector has since matured into adulthood, prompting thousands…
Aerosols produced by human activity may weaken the strength of cyclones and tropical cyclones, contrary to what scientists…
Breaking through the ice in Antarctica.
Strong winds linked to climate change and the hole in the ozone layer are driving a steady increase in Antarctic sea ice…
Strengthening trade winds have been linked to the stalled warming.
The “pause” in global warming since 2001 can be explained by the discovery of unusually strong winds in the Pacific, climatologists…
Tornadoes are common in the US Great Plains, but still devastating.
Carsten Peter/EPA/World Press Photo
Tornadoes are a part of life for people living in the Great Plains of the United States. In Oklahoma, a state that averages 62 tornadoes a year, people are prepared as best as they can be and are well…
The Australian media might call them ‘mini-tornadoes’, but they’re just as destructive as the real thing.
AAP Image/Paul Beutel
There is a long-standing myth that Australia doesn’t get tornadoes. This simply isn’t true. Just ask residents of Burnett Heads and Bargara, on Queensland’s southeast coast, or the Melburnians who were…
It’s easy to claim “wind turbine syndrome” exists, but where’s the evidence?
Back in July I wrote an article for the The Conversation arguing that wind turbine syndrome was a classic “communicated” disease: it spreads by being talked about, and is therefore a strong candidate for…
Placing wind turbines off the east coast of the US could satisfy the peak-time power demand for one third of the country…