Russian gas monopoly capitalizing on growing Chinese market
Moscow (UPI) May 21, 2013 -
Russia will send natural gas to China as early as 2018, with initial volumes of 1.3 trillion cubic feet per year, Russia's energy minister said Wednesday.
Energy Minister Alexander Novak confirmed from Moscow a bilateral deal between Gazprom and China National Petroleum was signed in Beijing in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Fir ...
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Woodside says it's done trying to grab stake in giant Israeli gas field
Perth, Australia (UPI) May 21, 2013 -
Australian energy company Woodside Petroleum announced its decision to pull out of an agreement to join a partnership at Israel's offshore Leviathan gas field.
"All parties have worked very hard to secure an outcome which would be commercially acceptable, but after many months of negotiations it is time to acknowledge we will not get there under the current proposal," Woodside Chief Exe ...
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Japan court rules against restart of nuclear reactors
Tokyo (AFP) May 21, 2014 -
A Japanese court ruled Wednesday against the restarting of two reactors at a nuclear power plant, acknowledging residents' safety fears and dealing a blow to the government's plan to revive nuclear power.
It was the first court ruling in Japan against the restarting of reactors since a massive earthquake and tsunami sparked meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant in March 2011.
At pres ...
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Erosion leaves pit under production platform in the North Sea
Stavanger, Norway (UPI) May 21, 2013 -
Norwegian energy company Statoil said it will keep operations at the platform tied to its giant Snorre field in the North Sea closed to investigate subsea erosion.
Statoil confirmed Tuesday production from the Snorre B platform closed Saturday after the "discovery of an abnormal erosion of mass under the template [of the platform]."
Snorre is Norway's fourth-largest field. The Sn ...
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Fortum drops Areva-Siemens in favour of Rolls-Royce
Helsinki (AFP) May 21, 2014 -
Finnish power company Fortum said Wednesday it had terminated a contract with Areva and Siemens to modernise a nuclear plant in the southern town of Loviisa, and hired Britain's Rolls Royce instead.
Fortum said in a statement that during the testing of the next phase of the agreement with the French and German companies, "it appeared that the implementation of the current project would have ...
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Business-as-usual model for heavy-duty vehicles in Europe unsustainable
Brussels (UPI) May 21, 2013 -
Emissions from heavy-duty vehicles will be monitored as a first step toward curbing pollutants on course to reach unsustainable levels, the EU said Wednesday.
European Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said heavy-duty vehicles are responsible for about a quarter of the carbon dioxide emissions from the European Union's transportation sector.
"Today we are taking the ne ...
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Polar vortex in part to blame for high energy bills, U.S. says
Washington (UPI) May 21, 2013 -
U.S. consumer bills during the last two quarters were more than 4 percent higher year-on-year because of a harsh winter, the Energy Department said.
The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, said Wednesday consumer expenses during fourth quarter 2013 and first quarter 2014 were 4.4 percent, or about $14 billion, higher than the same time last y ...
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BP to ask US Supreme Court to rule on spill payouts
Washington (AFP) May 21, 2014 -
BP said Wednesday it will appeal to the US Supreme Court over being forced to pay for business losses it says have no link to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
After having lost its argument in the lower courts, BP said it will ask the highest court to review the 2012 settlement in which it agreed to pay out billions of dollars to people and businesses claiming damages from the 2010 Gulf of M ...
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China a serious threat to peace: Vietnam PM
Manila (AFP) May 21, 2014 -
Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Wednesday that China's placing of an oil rig in contested South China Sea waters had "seriously threatened peace".
Speaking in Manila after meeting Philippine President Benigno Aquino, Dung said the leaders agreed that China should be condemned by the international community for the oil rig deployment and many other illegal actions in the sea. ...
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Japan Fukushima operator starts diverting groundwater to sea
Tokyo (AFP) May 21, 2014 -
The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant said Wednesday it has begun a bypass system that diverts groundwater into the sea in a bid to reduce the volume of contaminated water.
The move is an attempt to stop tonnes of unpolluted groundwater flowing under the battered plant and mixing with water already there that is laced with radioactive isotopes.
Coping with the huge - ...
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Main Street Breaks Ground on 5MW Solar Project in Virgin Islands
Boulder CO (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
On May 13, 2014, Main Street Power Company and the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for a 5MW solar project to be built on the island of St. Thomas. The solar project, engineered and built by System 3 Inc., will be the largest in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The 5MW array will be completed by late 2014, and is expected to generate approximately 7 ...
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Greensmith to integrate 4 battery types in 2014 for over 23mW of storage
Rockville MD (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
Greensmith has announced it is on track to successfully integrate an additional 4 new battery types in 2014, bringing the company's total since inception to 12 using its battery-agnostic technology platform, now in its fourth generation.
With over 23mW of energy storage capacity to be deployed in 2014, Greensmith continues its rapid growth by serving an expanding list of strategic customer ...
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New Technique Safely Penetrates Top Coat for Perfect Paint Job
Washington DC (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
To keep your new car looking sleek and shiny for years, factories need to make certain that the coats of paint on it are applied properly. But ensuring that every coat of paint-whether it is on a car or anything else-is of uniform thickness and quality is not easy.
Now researchers have developed a new way to measure the thickness of paint layers and the size of particles embedded inside. U ...
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Computer simulations enable better calculation of interfacial tension
Mainz, Germany (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
Computer simulations play an increasingly important role in the description and development of new materials. Yet, despite major advances in computer technology, the simulations in statistical physics are typically restricted to systems of up to a few 100,000 particles, which is many times smaller than the actual material quantities used in typical experiments.
Researchers therefore use so ...
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Engineers build world's smallest, fastest nanomotor
Austin TX (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have built the smallest, fastest and longest-running tiny synthetic motor to date. The team's nanomotor is an important step toward developing miniature machines that could one day move through the body to administer insulin for diabetics when needed, or target and treat cancer cells without harming good cells ...
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Professors' super waterproof surfaces cause water to bounce like a ball
Provo UT (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
In a basement lab on BYU's campus, mechanical engineering professor Julie Crockett analyzes water as it bounces like a ball and rolls down a ramp. This phenomenon occurs because Crockett and her colleague Dan Maynes have created a sloped channel that is super-hydrophobic, or a surface that is extremely difficult to wet. In layman's terms, it's the most extreme form of water proof.
Engineer ...
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Planting the 'SEEDS' of solar technology in the home
Albuquerque NM (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
In an effort to better understand what persuades people to buy photovoltaic (PV) systems for their homes, researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are gathering data on consumer motivations that can feed sophisticated computer models and thus lead to greater use of solar energy.
A primary goal of the project is to help increase the nation's share of solar energy in the electricity marke ...
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Is there really cash in your company's trash?
Montreal, Canada (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
One company's trash can be another's treasure. Take Marmite. Made from a by-product of commercial beer production, the yeast-based spread has topped toast throughout the Commonwealth for decades. By recuperating the waste product from one company, another was able to thrive.
Environmental concerns are at the forefront of government policy, so the time is right for companies worldwide to ad ...
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New lithium battery created in Japan
Washington DC (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
The long life of lithium ion batteries makes them the rechargeable of choice for everything from implantable medical devices to wearable consumer electronics. But lithium ion batteries rely on liquid chemistries involving lithium salts dissolved in organic solvents, creating flame risks that would be avoided if the cells were completely solid-state.
Now a team of researchers at Tohoku Univ ...
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Water caged in buckyballs
Washington DC (SPX) May 22, 2014 -
In a new paper in the Journal of Chemical Physics, produced by AIP Publishing, a research team in the United Kingdom and the United States describes how water molecules "caged" in fullerene spheres ("buckyballs") are providing a deeper insight into spin isomers - varieties of a molecule that differ in their nuclear spin. The results of this work may one day help enhance the analytical and diagn ...
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