BBC: Carbon Credits Undercut Climate Change Actions, Says Report

The vast majority of carbon credits generated by Russia and Ukraine did not represent cuts in emissions, according to a new study. The authors say that offsets created under a U.N. scheme "significantly undermined" efforts to tackle climate change.

The credits may have increased emissions by 600 million tonnes. In some projects, chemicals known to warm the climate were created and then destroyed to claim cash.

As a result of political horse-trading at U.N. negotiations on climate change, countries like Russia and the Ukraine were allowed to create carbon credits from activities like curbing coal waste fires, or restricting gas emissions from petroleum production.

Guardian: South African Team May Have Solved Solar Puzzle Even Google Couldn't Crack

It is a problem that so far has stumped even Google’s brainy engineers -- how to generate cheap solar electricity using a small-scale array of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s energy.

Now a team at a South African university -- led by a former Intel strategic planner -- believes they have cracked it. Once they have completed a prototype system in October, they have big plans for rolling out the technology.

Their work has already attracted the interest of well-known foreign companies, including a German consortium and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology solar company.

Forbes: Who Says Nuclear Can't Smooth Out an Erratic Wind?

A new study by the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), together with NuScale Power and Energy Northwest, has shown that small modular reactors, a new design for nuclear power, can easily and economically back up wind just fine. With none of the issues that older nuclear power plants conjure up in most people’s minds.

The study describes how the NuScale SMR is actually designed for load-following of wind, and meets all of the new guidelines and specifications relative to optimal load-following in the User Requirements Document from the Electric Power Research Institute.

Energy.gov: South Carolina BMW Plant Converts Landfill Gas to Hydrogen Fuel

Operations at a BMW manufacturing plant in Greer, South Carolina are powered by fuel from a unique source: garbage.

In a first-of-its-kind demonstration, the Energy Department, BMW and project partners Ameresco, Gas Technology Institute and the South Carolina Research Authority, are powering most of the facility’s fuel-cell forklifts with hydrogen produced on-site from biomethane gas at a nearby landfill.

In order to achieve this, project researchers and engineers had to overcome two main obstacles. The first challenge involved converting the biomethane gas into hydrogen. This required the development and testing of multiple tanks with catalysts for removing contaminants. The second was purifying the hydrogen enough so it could be used in fuel cells. To do this, the project team had to purge the gas stream of all non-hydrogen molecules, including nitrogen.

Oilprice: Is the Fed Oil’s Only Hope Right Now?

In the short term, Janet Yellen could be the only hope that oil bulls have left. Oil prices have continued to plummet, except on August 24, they were no longer alone. Stock markets around the world crashed on what is becoming known as “Meltdown Monday.”

Driving the meltdown is the Chinese economy, which has suddenly looked extremely rickety since its main stock exchanges began crashing in June. The Shanghai Composite fell by 8.5 percent on Monday, precipitating a sell-off across the globe.

Oil has been dropping since June, but the crash kicked oil’s decline into a higher gear on Monday, with WTI and Brent crumbling by more than 5 percent and 6 percent, respectively.