Millions of people live without access to electricity or modern fuel for cooking and heating, but the problem can seem too daunting to tackle. How much would it cost to bring rural communities or countries with limited infrastructure onto the grid? Read More >>

Norway's capital city has a serious waste management issue—they're way too good at it. Half of Oslo's 1.4 million residents rely on a steady stream of refuse to power their appliances and heat their homes. Problem is, there just isn't enough trash to go around. Read More >>

A newly completed 15-unit apartment building in Hamburg Germany is already turning heads. Though, with a facade covered in sun-tracking algae tanks, it's hard not to stare. Read More >>

Everybody knows about using oil as a fuel source, but London is putting a new spin on the concept. Soon the city will be mining its own sewers to bring up glorious globs of old cooking grease and melting them down into fuel. Delicious. Read More >>

After its third nuclear test in February drew a harsh rebuke from the international community and further tightened economic sanctions against the Hermit Kingdom, North Korea has once again doubled down on its nuclear rhetoric. The country also announced that it will soon restart the Yongbyon reactor, Pyongyang's primary plutonium processing plant. Read More >>

Poop has been around for as long as there have been animals to produce it. It's a constant, brown, smelly presence in all of our lives. But over the long stretch of history, humanity has come up with some brilliant and clever uses for it. Advance apologies for spoiling your lunch. Read More >>

Japan has quite had its fill of nuclear power, thank you very much. As the country rebuilds from the devastating 2011 tsunami and subsequent Daiichi power plant disaster, it's looking toward alternate energy sources. Good call, minna-san. Read More >>

The first commercial offshore wind turbine that Siemens created 30 years ago had 5-metre long blades and produced a paltry 30kW. A lot can change over three decades. The company's newest offshore model isn't just the biggest in the sea; it's the biggest anywhere. Read More >>

You're peering down the main supporting tower of Siemens' latest offshore wind turbine—which just happens to be the biggest of its kind anywhere in the world. Read More >>

It looks like British Gas customers are in for a nasty shock to their gadget funds. Despite an increase in profits, apparently British Gas is about to shove up its gas prices, which could make an extra £100 dent in your wallets. Damn, that's a quarter of a Galaxy S III. [Evening Standard] Read More >>

Nest was not the first smart thermostat to reach the hands of consumers. But it was the first that made our parents (and maybe even some of our grandparents) raise an eyebrow. It's cylindrical form and simple GUI are nothing, if not inviting to use, and it's ability to learn from your usage habits not only offers convenience, but possible savings when it comes to the power bill. Now with the second generation iteration of Nest—one that is slimmer and guaranteed to work with 95 per cent of home heating systems—the product wants to go from being a buzzy new product to a mainstream, must-have home gadget. Read More >>

By now, energy- and cash-conscious people probably know it's a good idea to use compact fluorescent or halogen bulbs instead of incandescents. But Ikea wants to help move the needle further and faster towards energy-efficient lighting: The company says that by 2016 it will only sell LED lights. Read More >>

Anyone who's dropped a mobile in the bath knows that water and microelectronics don't usually mix well. But at IBM's Swiss lab in Zurich, marrying the two is becoming almost commonplace: microprocessors with water coursing through microchannels carved deep inside them are already crunching data in SuperMUC, an IBM supercomputer - with the heat that the water carries away used to warm nearby buildings. Read More >>

There's a lot of data out there, and more and more is being created every day. It takes a lot of resources to keep it around, and make sure that you and everyone else can access what they want, when they want, with minimal downtime. Naturally this takes a lot of energy, but the New York Times looked into exactly how much. It's a ridiculous amount. Read More >>

Streaming is fast becoming the way most of us consume media, whether it's music, TV or film. But caught up by the sheer convenience of it all, it's easy to forget to question its environmental impacts. Could streaming actually be bad for the planet? Read More >>