electricity news stories on Newser

Next-Gen Generators Are Viruses

Rob Quinn — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:01:34 CDT

Scientists have unveiled what they say could be the forerunner of many virus-powered gadgets. A team at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has created a tiny generator powered by a benign virus, reports the BBC . When a finger touches an electrode coated with viruses, they converted the...

How Much Does the Internet Weigh?

Mark Russell — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:50:05 CST

How much does the Internet weigh? No, it's not a Zen koan. The answer is about 1.8 ounces, around the same as a single strawberry, reports the Telegraph . How did anyone figure this out? Well, the Internet runs on electricity, and electrons have a tiny amount of weight—so...

New York Cuts Power in Zuccotti Park

Matt Cantor — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:47:05 CDT

Lights out at Zuccotti Park: New York officials seized generators and gas canisters from Occupy Wall Street protesters today, the New York Daily News reports. Police and firefighters arrived at the site this morning to ask protesters for the items, citing safety concerns. “They made an announcement on a bullhorn...

Your Electric Bill Is Going Up

John Johnson — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:40:35 CDT

The Daily Beast delivers some bad news after looking at the regulatory filings of utilities across the country: Electric rates are going up, and they won't be coming back down for a while. The problem is that the utilities have to make badly needed repairs to the nation's creaking power...

Odd Theft Leaves Village in the Dark

Matt Cantor — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:42:44 CDT

A rash of power line thefts is dogging Britain. An entire English village lost electricity for several hours on Friday after thieves stole some 3,000 feet of cable—and it’s the second such theft in that county alone since August, This Is Lincolnshire reports. It’s a running problem on...

Worker 'Moving Equipment' Plunged 6M Into Darkness

Mary Papenfuss — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 06:07:15 CDT

Power company officials believe a worker moving a piece of monitoring equipment in an Arizona utility substation likely turned off the lights yesterday for a massive 6 million customers stretching through southern California and Mexico. "This was not a deliberate act. The employee was just switching out a piece of...

Google Electricity Use: Enough for 200K Homes

John Johnson — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:37:08 CDT

So how much juice does it take for Google to power all its searches and servers, not to mention email and YouTube? Lots, as in 2.3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2010, reports the San Jose Mercury News . That's enough for about 200,000 houses. The company released...

Power Grid Experiment May Confuse Electric Clocks

Sarah Whitmire — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 17:31:48 CDT

If electric clocks seem a little off later this year, there's good reason: A yearlong experiment conducted by the group that manages the nation's power grid is expected to begin, and it could theoretically make electric clocks run up to 20 minutes fast. It's also possible that nothing will happen...

20 Most Toxic States

Sarah Whitmire — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 15:40:05 CDT

Ohio accounts for more air pollution than any other state, according to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council spotted by LiveScience . The state's power plants pumped out 44.5 million pounds of chemicals in 2009, or 12% of all US industrial air pollution. Overall, US power plants...