Energy

Bitcoin’s energy consumption could ben the real problem for Nature

The exploding price of the cryptocurrency, bitcoin, in recent months has triggered doubts not only about the financial sustainability of the rally, but also about the environmental sustainability of the currency itself.

One alarmist article in Newsweek said that bitcoin computer operations could consume "all of the world’s energy by 2020". The website Digiconomist claims that bitcoin operations use as much energy as Denmark, or enough to power 3,071,823 US households.

Continue reading

OPEC meeting: Russia and its decisive key role

A reluctant Russia is expected to agree with OPEC and other producers to continue to curb global oil production, but the deal may have more caveats than initially expected by the market.

The somewhat rocky road to reaching an agreement by Thursday’s OPEC meeting has also exposed some cracks in the new world order of oil – where Saudi Arabia and Russia use their combined heft to influence prices and global supply. The cause of those "cracks" in the new ‘R-OPEC’ appears to be U.S. shale oil.

Continue reading

OPEC: Russia could discuss deal cuts extension

Russia is ready to discuss an extension of a global deal between OPEC and other countries to cut oil output in Vienna on November 30, TASS news agency quoted the Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying on Friday. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia and several other major producers cut their combined output by about 1.8 million barrels per day since January to reduce bloated inventories and boost oil prices.

Continue reading

OPEC forecasts more global oil demand in case of electric cars boom

The use of oil in the road transportation sector will increase even as the sale of electric vehicles is expected to rise, according to the annual long-term outlook from OPEC. If a quarter of the world’s cars have batteries, global oil demand would reach a plateau of about 109 million barrels a day during the second half of the 2030s, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its annual World Oil Outlook.

Continue reading

Swiss students team wins International Solar contest

Four Swiss universities came together to build the US Department of Energy’s 2017 Solar Decathlon overall winner. Eleven teams competed over the course of two years to build a home taking into account modern global demands of “reliability, resilience, and security.”

The Swiss schools – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, School of Engineering and Architecture Fribourg, Geneva University of Art and Design, and the University of Fribourg – scored perfect 100’s in energy, architecture and engineering categories.

Continue reading