Solid-state lighting — lightbulbs made from light-emitting diodes — dramatically reduces electricity use and greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s also poised to usher in an era of smart lighting. You’ll eventually be able to control properties of light, such as polarization and color, on-the-fly in indoor lighting, microscopes, computer displays, headlights, telecommunications and greenhouses.
Check out the Department of Energy’s Petroleum Reduction Planning tool (PREP), a nifty calculator that helps you reduce your fuel use.
You set a goal for how much fuel you want to save and choose one or more methods of getting there. The methods are fuel economy, reduced travel, different fuels and fuel blends, and hybrid electric vehicles. It also lets fleet operators calculate truck stop electrification, idling time reduction and onboard idle reduction.
The interface is adequate but we’d like to see it be a little easier to use and it helps to know that VMT stands for vehicle miles traveled, but overall it should help a lot of people cut their fuel use and with it their greenhouse gas emissions. We’ve added the calculator to the “What you can do” section of ERN’s Resources page.
There’s lots going on this week at the Materials Research Society fall meeting here in Boston. One of yesterday’s highlights was the panel discussion on the future of nuclear power moderated by Ira Flato, host of NPR’s Talk of the Nation Science Friday.
The five panelists offered a wide range of opinions (at times loudly and over each other) about whether and how issues like cost and waste management can be addressed and how much of a role nuclear power can play in replacing fossil fuels.
Chaim Braun of Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation argued that government subsidies are necessary to get the industry rolling again in order to work out supply-chain issues and develop the workforce.
Thomas Cochran of the Natural Resources Defense Council argued that instead we need to invest in other energy technologies that will be cheaper, safer and quicker to bring online.
University of Michigan’s Rodney Ewing said the panel was an example of how we’re ill-prepared scientifically to expand nuclear power. “I don’t think nuclear power is something we should rely on if this is the level of our discussion,” he said.