The current rankings put the US 18th according to GDP (2nd in absolute terms) and the UK is 19th. Australia “squandered an early technical lead in solar energy” and is 28th.
Spain is 4th relative to GDP, Finland is 5th and China 6th.
In absolute terms, the top ten countries are: 1. Germany, 2. the US, 3. Japan, 4. China, 5. Denmark, 6. Brazil, 7. Spain, 8. France, 9. the UK, 10. Korea.
New energy efficiency standards for home water heaters being proposed by the US Administration do not go far enough, says the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
The new standards will cover the nine million residential water heaters sold every year that account for an estimated 20% of a typical homes’ energy consumption. Savings on the order of 2.6 quads of energy over 30 years will result, says the Department of Energy (DOE), reducing customers bills by around $15.6 billion and emissions by 154 million metric tons.
Engineers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at the Florida State University are closer than ever to launching a new generation of high-field magnet, being 3,000 times stronger than an ordinary refrigerator magnet and will be able to generate a field about 45% more powerful than the strongest superconducting magnet currently available.
The new high tech magnet will be made of a high-temperature superconductor that is far less expensive to operate than its conventional counterparts and more energy efficient. According to the researchers, it could mark the beginning of a new generation of super powerful magnets that help lower both the carbon footprint and cost of scientific research.
Construction crews last week prepared a concrete slab to serve as a staging area for the replacement of Limerick's six huge transformers, a $90 million job that will take about two years to complete.
The improvements to the transformers, which convert electricity for transmission on big power lines, are only one component of a complicated effort to "uprate" the plant's output, adding 170 megawatts of generating capacity to each unit. Along with earlier upgrades, the improvements will expand Limerick's total capacity to 2,600 megawatts - 23 percent more power than it produced when the two units were completed in 1989.
