1 . Google recently announced that it has begun using carbon-free electricity from a geothermal (地热能) project to power data centers in the state of Nevada.

Tim Latimer is chief and co-founder of Fervo Energy based in Houston, Texas. His company is working with Google on its geothermal project. Latimer said that getting electricity on the grid from geothermal resources is an event many new energy companies never reach. He added that he believes geothermal energy will become more well-known than in the past.

The International Energy Agency(IEA) has long suggested geothermal could be an answer to climate change. The IEA said in a 2011 document that geothermal could reach 3.5 percent of global electricity production each year by 2050. The Paris-based international group says geothermal energy could prevent almost 800 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Fervo Energy is using this first test to launch other projects that will provide more electricity to the grid. The company is currently completing some work in southwest Utah for a 400-megawatt project. Google and Fervo Energy started working together in 2021 to develop geothermal power. The plant near Winnemucca, Nevada, is now operating and is sending about 3.5 megawatts to the grid.

Google announced in 2020 that it would use what it calls “carbon-free” energy every hour of every day, wherever it operates, by 2030. Many energy experts believe huge companies like Google can play a part in increasing the use of clean energy.

Terrell noted the company was also an early supporter of wind and solar projects, helping those markets grow to where they are today. “It’s a very similar situation. Now that we’ve set a goal to be 24/7 carbon-free energy, we have found it will take more than just wind, solar and storage,” Terrell said.

The United States leads the world in using heat from the Earth for electricity production. U. S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said earlier this year that advances in new geothermal systems will help introduce this form of energy to areas where it has been thought to be impossible. This makes it possible to find energy in more places.

4 . When the parcel arrives, the remote-controlled car inside is broken. That could easily result in an unhappy child — but not this time.

The package has come from a British start-up that hopes to equip the nation’s youngsters with an endangered skill: the ability to fix gadgets when they fail. The aim is to encourage 10 to 14-year-olds to try fixing electronic devices and learn how they work, by sending them faulty toys that they have to take apart and repair themselves. The company, Team Repair, has been founded by five engineering graduates from Imperial College London. Having begun as a university project, its ultimate goal is to steer children into careers in science and to nurture (培养) a new generation of engineers and inventors.

“Every month, we’ll send children an electronic gadget with a carefully planned fault,” said Patrick McGuckian, 22, the chief operating officer. “The idea is that they learn key repair skills, and that they also learn the science and technology behind how the components inside it work.”

It is estimated that two million tonnes of electrical and electronic items are thrown away in the UK each year. “Meanwhile, the UK has a Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths] skills shortage costing£1.5 billion a year,” McGuckian said. “We wanted to help solve those two problems.”   

The service — currently in a testing phase — will cost £28 a month, with each kit designed to keep a child occupied for several hours. Once a gadget has been mended, you post it back so it can be broken again for somebody else to fix. There is also an app to provide instructions on how to perform the repair, and also mini science lessons. “As a society we’ve been tuned to replace rather than repair,” McGuckian said. “We want to encourage a different mindset in the next generation — and on top of that, we want them to be creative, to be engineers, to be inventors that solve the biggest problems.”

With the     1     (economy) development, how to balance progress and the protection of cultural heritage can be a big challenge. Great solutions,     2    , tend to arise from the challenges.

In the 1950s, in order to control the flooding and to get electricity from the flow of the Nile River, the Egyptian government made a proposal     3     (build) a new dam across the Nile. It would cause the water levels to rise high enough to flood a number of ancient temples,     4     were among Egypt’s cultural heritage. Therefore, the government turned     5     the United Nations for help.

Later, an international committee     6     (establish) to help Egypt to find a solution. Finally, they made a decision that all cultural relics should be removed. With the international effort, the government     7     (successful) moved the temples and other cultural sites to a new     8     (locate) on higher ground.

The project was considered a greatly successful example by UNESCO to prevent world heritage from     9     (disappear). More importantly, its success shows that if a problem seems too challenging for a single nation, the global community can make     10     big difference.

7 . A British energy supplier has apologized for the “poorly judged and unhelpful” advice sent to customers which suggested they could snuggle(依偎) up to their pets and exercise to cut back on their heating bills.

SSE,which is owned by OVO Energy, suggested 10 “simple and cost effective ways to keep warm this winter,” according to the Financial Times. Eating bowls of oatmeal, doing star jumps and cuddling pets were among the recommendations on the now-deleted web page.

In a statement sent to CNN Tuesday, a spokesperson for OVO Energy said, “Recently a link to a blog containing energy saving tips was sent to customers. We understand how difficult the situation will be for many of our customers this year.” The spokesperson added, “We are working hard to find meaningful solutions as we approach this energy crisis, and we recognize that the content of this blog was poorly judged and unhelpful.We are embarrassed and sincerely apologize.”

Some British businesses and households have seen their energy bills rise in recent months, as suppliers deal with a sharp rise in wholesale gas prices. British consumers will pay roughly f790 more to heat and light their homes this year, according to Bank of America. Wholesale European gas prices have jumped by 400% over the previous year and electricity prices have increased by 300%, the bank’s analysts said last week. The increases have been driven by cold weather, nuclear plant outages in France and reduced gas flow from Russia.

According to National Energy Action, more than 4 million UK households are facing fuel poverty—a figure which the charity believes could rise by 2 million in April when a cap(上限) on energy prices is expected to increase.

OVO Energy removed its advice after a wave of angry responses from lawmakers and campaigners. Following the apology, British lawmaker Darren Jones, who chairs Parliament’s business select committee, tweeted: “Good, I’m glad they apologized. I’m not sure who signed off a marketing campaign telling people to wear a jumper and eat porridge instead of turning on the heating if you can’t afford it.”

8 . Downing Street will receive a special delivery from postmasters this afternoon, the country’s biggest ever petition(请愿书) in modern times, Four million people have backed a campaign, urging the government to save Britain’s post offices. More than four thousand post offices have closed since 1999 for financial reasons; the rest are losing up to a quarter of a billion pounds a year.

The Saint Levan Valley Post Office near Plymouth faces closure. It is one of thousands that are not commercially practical and cost taxpayers over a hundred and fifty million pounds a year in subsidies. And yet the customers here don’t care if the post office makes money, they say it’s a social lifeline for the community.

“We’ve had people moved to tears here at the very thought of losing their post office. It s such a vital part of the community.” That’s why hundreds of postmasters have arrived in London this morning to remonstrate with what they call a death by a thousand cuts. The government has removed so many services from branches that many would be forced to close.

This afternoon they’ll hand in a petition signed by four million people which they hope would preempt (先发制人) any government announcement on cuts.

And at the top of the list of complaints: the planned withdrawal of the Post Office card account, used by millions to access pensions and benefits. There are many, many people who still want, and who budget on being able to get their money from their pension and other benefits each week in cash at post office, and that is the bottom line.

This industry wants reform and modernization, but not the ill-planned destruction of the network. “They have to be practical. What we wanna do is make sure that they can be practical. So in the same way as a pub used to be tied to one brewery, we want to free up post offices to have lots of products, so they can have a much better income flow, and therefore, stay open.”

9 . Just seven weeks after setting up a carsharing club, Emily Kerr and her husband decided to sell their own car. The couple waved goodbye to their 2013 model Honda CRV in October. “I started by wanting to share it and then realised that we could share everybody else’s car instead,” she said. After that small step, she has now set herself the target of persuading one million other motorists to follow their example by 2025.

It’s understandable that many people are deeply attached to their car, and do not want to share it with a stranger. Her venture(经营项目), Share Our Cars, only allows other members of a trusted group to drive it—your neighbours. It has attracted interest from 40 community groups in locations ranging from Edinburgh to the London suburbs. They think she may have hit on a formula(方案) that will allow car sharing to go mainstream.

Unlike other neighbourhood groups, bookings and insurance are handled by Hiyacar, a commercial platform, sparing participants administrative headaches and worries about liability in the event of accidents. Participants all know each other and can be confident a car is available when they want it.

Before each rental, the driver receives a quote on the Hiyacar app, which covers the insurance, booking fee, plus and the hourly fee paid to the owner. The driver collects the keys, or has them dropped through their letterbox, and takes pictures of the car before use. The owner is expected to keep the car clean, and the driver only refuels it if they drive more than 10 miles. Demand has been so great that Kerr is about to launch 10 more projects in Oxford.

10 . While some feel that bookstores are fading away, one Chinese bookstore has found new life by marching into rural areas in China to bring colorful cultural life and higher incomes lo local residents.

By absorbing local rural characteristics, the village branches of the Librairie Avantgarde Bookstore (LAB) chain have transformed into important platforms to display local history, culture and folk traditions. Not just bookstores, they are foundations helping to relieve spiritual poverty (贫困) and centers for gathering and displaying rural culture.

To better fit in the lives of local residents, earth village branch has its own characteristics, like the branch in Shaxi, southwest China’s Yunnan province. Many of nearly 20,000 books in the store are associated with the history, geography and folk customs of Yunnan and the Bai people.

“Turning in profits is not our only aim. Our bookstore has become a public gathering space for villagers. Not only young people, but many elderly residents come here. They do not buy books, but pass the time by reading or chatting with each other in our store.” Liu Xia, the bookstore owner explained.

She added that this is a cultural atmosphere that bookstores offer the area. Some residents have grown accustomed to turning to the books of the store to find answers to the troubles they face, such as operating a business or controlling tourists from urban areas. The biggest benefit of opening bookstores in villages is that it helps provide a healthy environment for children’s growth. “My kids often come to the store. They love reading books here. They gain knowledge and curiosity about outside world.” one villager said.

The arrival of the bookstore menus a lot to the village when young residents have been leaving for urban areas in recent years. During the 2020 May Day and National Day holidays, the daily number of tourists traveling to the village reached 5,000, a record high. Visitors were attracted by the bookstore. Surrounding it, several restaurants and holds have opened.