There is a low tech way to store electricity that has been around for ages - the mechanical flywheel.

• Read the article

For all you libertarians out there, here's a story about a town in Deutschland (Germany) which took down all the traffic lights and signs. They saw the streets get much safer, and the community become more close because of this.

• the article

This is a very fascinating series of interviews of David Sanborn Scott, who wrote the book "Smelling Land." He is a very earnest advocate for a switch to the use of hydrogen for transportation and industrial fuel - including for airplanes.

• Listen to the interviews (link to webpage - which lists three audio interview segments)

One cutting edge of research in the field of medicine is into the art of regrowing organs, and spurring the body to regenerate tissues. This film shows the laboratories where this is happening... and there is one interview with a man who regrew his fingertip with the help of a powder made from pig bladder.

This is an experimental power generation solar tower in Spain. It works by a very simple system that relies on the fact that hot air rises. Other countries around the world have also gotten wind of this technique, such as Namibia, and Australia.

Working towards better efficiency, when it comes to how we use energy in our daily lives will be a very important part of the solution, as north america transitions to different energy sources used for electricity production and vehicles.

One elephant in the room in my opinion, is the amount of energy people use to heat and cool their houses. Do you realize that the temperature of the ground underneath the house is fairly moderate, summer and winter? Simply by running pipes down into the ground, and installing a heat pump or two, you can take care of your heating and cooling needs for a fraction of the cost.

• A technical article about using ground temperature for heating and cooling houses

This is a car that I'm excited to see produced. I'm always watching trends and the things that are happening in cars which run with alternative power are particularly exciting right now. The Prius was only a baby step forward. Regenerative braking is a technology that was important to get out there and test, but the real gains I think will be in all electric motors and in aerodynamics.

I am extremely impressed with the vision, and depth of thought which the creators of the Aptera put into designing their vehicle. It's going to be sold for $20,000-$30,000usd which is a fraction of the cost of a Tesla Roadster. In the design, they focused intently on safety and simplicity. And they weren't too shy to include lots of technological toys.

Tapping the heat in the earth's mantle I believe is a large resource which we should consider when we are looking at sustainable ways to generate electrical power. I have an aquaintance who used to work in the oil business, and he says that in Alaska the oil comes out of the ground white hot. The deeper you drill into the earth's crust, the hotter it gets.

The heat inside the earth is a constant, whereas the sun and the wind are fickle; they can be intermittent sometimes.

Dams for hydroelectric power are also a very important thing to consider. They are also very reliable - you know exactly how much electrical energy potential is piled up behind that dam at any given time. All of Canada is powered by hydroelectric power - and 90% of Washington State is as well. Yes, dams are tough on migrating fish... but given the scope of the ecological disaster that humans are causing globally, I don't think that should be our greatest concern. We will need to really expand electricity generation in north america in order to transition to electric (and hydrogen) powered vehicles. I think that if all the boats in the shipyards and all the cars in the cities were powered by clean energy, there would be a substantial benefit to the ecosystems at the river deltas which flourished so wonderfully before all the big human habitations were built there.

So, without further ado, here's a film about a company in Australia which is making strides in steam geothermal power generation.

• The essay

Dave's essays are always intriguing to read.

Copenhagen Denmark, and Bogota Columbia have built their cities to cater to bicyclists. The fabric of the society changes to where folks are more friendly to eachother. In the usa, a cyclist is ostensibly put in harm's way when she or he is riding the roads.