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A worker installs solar panels containing photovoltaic cells.

Economics

How Battery-Based Storage Systems Are Leading More Germans to Opt for Solar Power

The budding popularity of solar panel and battery systems, driven by a drop in lithium-ion battery prices, has thrown a lifeline to Germany's moribund solar sector.

Paul Hockenos

D.C. Considers a Bill Committing to 100 Percent Renewable Energy

The proposed act would require Washington, D.C., to source 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2032.

Emily Moon

An aerial picture shows the Boudhanath Stupa in Kathmandu on February 1, 2017, during its reopening following renovation after earthquake damage. Boudhanath Stupa was among hundreds of historic monuments damaged during the 7.8-magnitude quake that hit Nepal in April 2015, killing nearly 9,000 people.

Letter From Kathmandu, Nepal: The Omnipresence of Dust

Each time the electricity powers off in Kathmandu, thousands of diesel generators rumble to life, spewing noxious particulate matter, or PM2.5.

Abby Seiff

Environment

A Low-Tech Solution to a Hi-Tech Problem: Trains That Generate Electricity

While others work on improving batteries and turning air compression into an energy-storage solution, the ARES team is re-purposing the simple ideas behind water towers to address a gap in our solar-power infrastructure.

Daina Beth Solomon

Environment

Approaching Peak Capacity

Requests for consumers to shift their electrical usage when the power grid is strained can have "perverse effects."

Tom Jacobs

Environment

With Fewer Electronics, This Is How a City Sleeps

In the age of smartphones and televisions, have Americans lost the ability to properly power down?

Gregory Ferenstein

Environment

Stimulating Your Brain, Wirelessly

A novel approach to deep brain stimulation could lead to a better understanding of the technique and perhaps new treatments as well.

Nathan Collins

Social Justice

Brain Stimulation and Me

In reporting about electrical brain stimulation, Emma Young of course had to try it for herself. Would it change her?

Emma Young

Social Justice

The New Bronze Age

Worries about oil and gas hog the airwaves. But copper is also essential to keep the world running: It threads through your house, your computer, your eco-correct hybrid car. And it's getting just as difficult, expensive, and environmentally menacing as oil to extract. We have entered the era of tough ore.

Tim Heffernan