When opening your phone to check the news or scroll on your favorite social media platform, the doomscrolling spiral is excitedly awaiting its opportunity to burst on the scene. Five minutes of scrolling time turns into 20 and before you know it you’re still in bed and it’s been an hour. The ability to have millions of articles, opinions and apps at our fingertips has taken over our world in a powerful way. 

While these moments are frequently experienced, they can be avoided. Staying informed on what’s happening in our world doesn’t mean falling down the seemingly endless pit of bad news. In fact, breaking the cycle of constant scrolling can provide nourishment to your prefrontal cortex, which has been taken over by the fear processing amygdala, and chemically allow your brain to reset.  

Doomscrolling – a term that came to light in 2020 amidst the COVID pandemic – refers to constant reading of specifically negative news from an online platform. While your mind may jump to solely news outlets as providers of doomscrolling, the group is bigger than that. More recently, apps like Instagram and TikTok have become a source of news for many, especially young people, as well.

Our brains are wired to focus on danger, heavily increasing the stress that we experience on any given internet scroll. After an extended period of time reading articles, this stress can and often does follow us into our lived reality. While this is natural, it doesn’t have to be as constant as it is and escaping into nature is the perfect remedy. 

So the next time you read a bit of news, pair it with putting the phone down and reconnecting with nature and yourself (accessibility to rugged forests or wide beaches not required). Here are some ways to escape the potential of doomscrolling.

Plant Your Newest Passion: A Windowsill Garden Awaits

Getting your hands dirty is one of the most gratifying and easiest ways to connect with nature that can be accomplished from the comfort of your own home. No gardening experience, fancy tools or vast backyard needed to accomplish this goal. A windowsill garden is a phenomenal way to reset your mind and replenish your pantry. Empty jam, pasta sauce or fruit glass jars you haven’t gotten around to cleaning or disposing of? Coincidentally the remedy for both doomscrolling and your jars is one and the same. 

Head down to your local nursery, hardware store or even online and procure: pebbles/decorative rocks, potting mix and starter herbs of your choice. You’re ready to begin. Following online instructions to bring a mini herb garden to life has just created your newest hobby to ring in the spring. 

By physically being away from your phone, doomscrolling will be kept to a minimum here while also reminding you of your power to create something beautiful that helps the ecosystem that lives in your neighborhood (while saving you some money on your next herb or produce purchases). You’re not just helping the neighborhood ecosystem, you’re also helping your internal ecosystem. Gardening – windowsill or other – has shown to reduce stress, increase focus and regain serotonin by being exposed to a natural mood booster, mycobacterium, that lives in soils. 

Books and Libraries are a Brilliant Alternative

If your green thumb is still dormant and 2026 is not your year for it to blossom, not to worry – your doomscrolling can still be solved. In the era of digital media that we live in, it has become habit to do practically everything online, including reading. In doing this, it’s easy to find yourself in the news app when you mean to open your online book app. 

A simple solution to this problem is to hit the books, the physical ones! Research has shown there are several physical and psychological benefits of reading paper books. These range from making the tales come to life in the reader’s head when physically flipping the page to increasing the amount of empathy in one’s heart by reading different experiences. This mental creativity and empathy can reach far beyond what one thinks their mind is capable of and gets us thinking about more than just the information we are fed.

After seeing how affordable and quick it is to access a book online, it could be easy to be dissuaded into producing a physical book. Enter, libraries. Public libraries, of which there are 410,000 internationally, are a blueprint of being an eco-friendly citizen by offering reusable pieces of learning to gain more knowledge and perspective of the world. They share books within the library networks while sharing books in the community, creating a web of learners. They also create an environment of change through workshops and talks that welcome all backgrounds and perspectives. So, consider stopping by your local library (it’s free!), check out a book or check out the vibe in general. You’re bound to learn something.

Take a Hike with a Twist: Absorb the Sounds Around

Often, a hike or walk around the neighborhood is something that is accompanied by a phone, either to track steps or take photos. However, taking a walk without the phone not only removes distractions and the potential for wandering into doomscrolling territory but it also lets you listen to the world around you. 

A walk with minimal disturbance from the outside world provides an opportunity to appreciate nature once again. Listening to the coo of a bird, the croak of a frog, a trill of an insect or the rustling of leaves reminds us of the beauty of the natural world and can reignite the desire to save and nurture the natural world around us. These phoneless, sound conscious walks can also highlight the importance of taking a step back and slowing down. 

Studies have proven that getting outside to take a daily walk, for example, can regulate sleep cycles and improve the quality of at night, as well as reducing risk of depression and anxiety. An excellent mode of combating doomscrolling then can be a 20 minute walk. After reading an anxiety-inducing article, instead of finding the next terrifying thing to look at, take a reset walk outside to lower stress levels and ground yourself. 

Documentaries Over Doomscrolling

Okay, you’ve tried the other methods and they just aren’t calling you like the screens are. An understandable pull. Instead of the phone screen time however, an opportunity to learn and grow awaits in the form of documentaries. 

Countless stories happen everyday from all corners of the world that are never covered. Though documentaries have the power to capture these untold stories and reveal more along the way.

The genre of documentaries hosts a wide range of topics, all of which are waiting to teach you something and get your brain thinking about the world in a new way. Nature documentaries have especially jumped on the scene, with emphases on the natural world, the built environment and/or the animals that reside within them both. The online information can and should still be absorbed, but in documentary form you’ll be uncovering things you may not even think to look up. 

The End of Doomscrolling Doesn’t Mean Staying Uninformed

Even while understanding the impacts of doomscrolling and introducing some ideas to stop it before it starts, an underlying truth still remains: news of all sorts is important and needs to be read.  However, it doesn’t have to be all-consuming or addictive. 
Putting your phone down to take a break and reconnect with the communities around you is directly keeping you informed and fostering growth.

Pillar two of EARTHDAY.ORG’s 2026 Earth Day theme emphasizes the importance of shared interests and interconnected outcomes. This year holds plenty of opportunity to connect your community through shared environmental goals and interests. Host an event in your area and register it through the EARTHDAY map, or join one in a city near you!

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Climate change can feel like an insurmountable issue, but we aren’t as alone in fighting for our planet as we think. Scientists are constantly creating new technology to slow or repair the damage our warming climate causes.

These breakthroughs can happen across disciplines, from engineering to manufacturing, and can be used in locations from space to the ocean. They might seem small on their own, but these innovations push our efforts to protect our planet forward. Here are some of the inventive ways people are fighting against climate change that you might have never suspected.

Protecting the Coral Reefs with Light and Food

As oceans warm and further damage coral reefs, a process called coral bleaching, scientists have found ways to help coral build resistance to the negative effects of warming water. Their solution? Food.

The more food that coral eats, the higher the chance it can survive rising temperatures and bleaching. Coral consumes zooplankton, a microscopic organism found in oceans. In early 2025, scientists created a tool that increases coral’s feeding opportunities, thereby helping its heat resistance.

This device, called the Underwater Zooplankton Enhancement Light Array or UZELA for short, is an autonomous underwater light that draws in nearby zooplankton for coral to eat. The study found that running the device in a location for just one hour a night increased local coral feeding rates by 10 to 50-fold, compared to areas without the device. It helped strengthen both healthy coral and already bleached corals by bringing its food closer.

These efforts are important because coral reefs are vital to keeping erosion at bay, sustaining the fishing industry, and generating tourism. The Great Barrier Reef, for instance, is home to 1,625 species of fish, and even more crustaceans, turtles, rays, and other sea creatures. 

PULLQUOTE: [“The real intent of this project is to inject new technology and energy into coral restoration success. It’s something that can be deployed strategically for high-value reefs, or projects that have already had a lot of investment in them.”] — Andrea Grotti, professor of Earth Sciences at Ohio State University

Battling Deforestation … from Space?

Losing trees affects many aspects of our planet’s health, from losing animals habitats to even contributing to climate change. Trees remove carbon dioxide from the air and since it’s a greenhouse gas that warms the earth, taking trees away limits a natural deterrent against a warming atmosphere. There are ways to fight it though, satellites for instance have long been used to monitor rainforests and identify where illegal deforestation is happening. 

However, traditional satellites can’t take pictures through clouds, which often cover rainforests. This makes it hard to track deforestation in real time, and by the time authorities can get images, sometimes the perpetrators are already gone.

But now satellites are using radio waves that can take pictures through the clouds. 

The European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission consists of two satellites orbiting the Earth. It uses Radar for Detecting Deforestation, called RADD, to capture images that are nine times more detailed than traditional satellites. It’s so specific it can detect changes on an almost tree-by-tree scale. Now, the Global Forest Watch compiles the satellite data so anyone can see data on the world’s tree coverage. Simply click on different countries to get a visual overview of tree cover, biodiversity, and the different types of forests growing around the world.

Solar Power Is Getting Cheaper and Cheaper

If there’s one surefire way to fight against fossil fuels, it’s to make renewable energy sources as cheap and practical as possible. Luckily, solar panel prices have only been dropping, and it’s all thanks to technological advancement.

As engineers improved the design of solar panels, the total cost to make one also dropped. In 1975, a single solar panel watt cost almost $130 in today’s money, while in 2024, that same watt was less than $0.30. By 2023 solar panels had grown so efficient that it only took a year for a solar panel to generate the same amount of energy that was used to create it. 

On top of that, creating solar panels themselves is also becoming more environmentally friendly. While producing aluminum for a solar panel’s frame results in a large carbon footprint, using renewable-generated electricity to power the smelters is one of several ways to decrease that carbon impact.

In the same vein, aluminum is highly recyclable, and the process uses only 5% of the energy required to make new aluminum. Not only is solar a key energy player in battling climate change, but every step of making solar panels is being carefully looked at to reduce its impact on the environment.

Fighting Fire from the Sky

There are roughly 60,000 to 80,000 wildfires each year in the United States, a number that’s stayed steady for the past four decades. Yet, in 2023 fires in the US cost over $23 million in losses, up from $18.8 million the year before. To combat wildfires, firefighters are using new technology to scope out the spreading flames.

The Fire Urgency Estimator from Ground to Orbit, or the FUEGO project, started by Berkeley physicist Carlton Pennypacker, is one of these new types of technology. It has the potential to revolutionize wildfire fighting by providing real-time data on how and where a wildfire is spreading.

FUEGO will rapidly identify wildfires and track their motion across the U.S., specifically scanning high fire-risk Southern California every 30 seconds. This gives firefighters rapid, up-to-date data on its location. Pennypacker’s team has already created a prototype of the technology, which they outfitted on spotter planes as a test run. It cross referenced data on humidity and wind speed to prove its effectiveness in battling wildfires.

PULLQUOTE: [ “The costs associated with research, development, and implementation of FUEGO would likely be paid for many times over (perhaps even in its first year of operation) through the system’s capability to detect wildfires in their incipient stages, report them to the relevant fire agencies, and provide valuable data to responding firefighting systems.”] — Carlton Pennypacker, astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley

There’s a long way to go, but we can all do our part

Researchers at the top of their fields are working constantly in tandem with technology to fight climate change, but there’s ways you as an individual can also help.

Getting active in organizations like EARTHDAY.ORG helps amplify your voice with like-minded individuals concerned on how to prioritize our planet’s health. On top of that, consider using our Climate Education resources to become your own expert in everyday sustainable living, since saving our planet isn’t just a job for scientists. 
Whether that’s making a composting system, learning how to plant a garden for local pollinators, or coming out for Earth Day 2026 in April, it’s also important for you to step up in whatever way you can.

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Pause. Before you continue reading, take a moment to look around and notice the number of electrical devices you have in your home right now. From the phone in your hand to the laptop resting on your desk, chances are you’re surrounded by screens and gadgets you rely on every day. 

Globally, approximately 5.5 billion people used the internet in 2024, connecting through billions of devices, including phones, computers, tablets, and more. In the United States, the average American household with access to the internet has 17 internet-connected devices. In Germany, approximately half of households (49.2%) use more than four internet-connected devices, with 23.5% using more than seven. In India, where internet access is still expanding, the number of internet connections surpassed 970 million by June 2024, reflecting a growing reliance on digital devices.

All the while tech companies continue to churn out newer products that are faster and smarter, making it very enticing for us to keep upgrading and buying yet more gadgets. 

But this relentless drive for convenience comes with a hidden problem: what happens to our old electronics when we’re done with them? Old devices become electronic waste, or e-waste. The Global E-waste Monitor found that 62 billion kilograms of e-waste were discarded worldwide in 2022. Astonishingly, only 22.3% of that was collected and recycled safely. 

What is E-waste?

E-waste refers to discarded electrical products that contain circuitry, a power source, or use a battery. E-waste encompasses a wide range of household appliances, including air fryers, washing machines, microwaves, and internet routers, as well as personal devices such as phones, cameras, and laptops, among many others. 

Our electronics contain a range of over 60 metals, including copper, gold, silver, and aluminum. While these metals can be recycled and reused, they are non-renewable because we cannot create new atoms of them, and the Earth’s supply of all base elements is finite. E-waste can also contain heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and cadmium, which can be toxic to people and the environment. 

The Toxic Reality of our Electronics 

As rain and snow fall on landfills, water seeps through waste, including dumped electronics,  and picks up pollutants, forming what’s known as landfill leachate. This can contain the heavy metals used in old computers and other gadgets and impact everything they come into contact with, from the soil, our groundwater, oceans and rivers, and wildlife. Heavy metal exposure can affect some animals’ growth, body condition, and immune system, making them more susceptible to disease. Researchers have even found heavy metal pollution in wildlife dating back to the European Middle Ages. Ultimately this process can endanger human health too. 

Here’s how. Heavy metals bioaccumulate in living organisms, meaning they build up in their body tissue and enter the food chain. In water systems polluted by heavy metals, fish and plants absorb the metals through their skin. So, if we consume tuna that has been contaminated by mercury, we in turn become contaminated too. 

Heavy metals can also lower the soil’s pH, which affects its fertility and lower soil pH also ironically, allows for more metals to accumulate in vegetables. Again, just as with fish, when we eat these vegetables we are also consuming the heavy metals they have absorbed. Over time, this buildup can lead to serious health problems, like respiratory issues, neurological problems, and cancer. 

People who work on landfill sites, often called trash pickers, and unregulated recycling sites face the greatest risk of exposure to heavy metals. These communities typically live closer to these sorts of  landfills sites, meaning they are often breathing in toxic particles and are much more likely to be ingesting contaminated water and food. Researchers have found traces of these metals in the blood, placenta, and hair of the residents of communities near dumping sites and landfills. Often children work at scavenging on landfills where they too are exposed to hazardous chemicals that can harm them at critical stages of their development. 

Out of Mind, Out of Sight…Right? 

The issue is all of us are part of the problem. In 2022, people threw out an estimated 14 billion kilograms of e-waste in normal waste bins. After collection, a lot of e-waste doesn’t stay local. About 65% of international e-waste shipments go undocumented and unregulated. Many of these illegal exports end up in countries that may lack waste management systems, like Malaysia or Ghana. Because many higher-income countries have strict environmental regulations, and recycling e-waste responsibly is costly, making it more appealing to send the waste elsewhere. 

Shipping waste abroad reflects a “not in my backyard” mindset, where countries push the environmental burden to other nations instead of managing it on their own. The Basel Convention is an international treaty that prohibits developed countries from transporting hazardous waste, such as e-waste, to less developed countries. Unfortunately, the United States has not ratified the treaty, so international authorities cannot legally hold it to those standards. 

In many of these countries, informal recycling is a way for low-income communities to earn a living but workers often burn e-waste to recover the valuable metals, releasing more toxic emissions. 

The Right Thing To Do With Your E-waste

So, what should you do with the electronics you no longer need? 

Before tossing your gadget in the garbage, see if you can repurpose it at home. Some creative people have turned old Macs into aquariums! If you’re not feeling crafty, consider donating your device to someone in need. For example, PCs for People refurbishes and distributes electronics to low-income households.

Whatever you do, don’t throw e-waste in your household trash, even if it’s just an old charging cable or electric toothbrush. When in doubt, a quick search for “e-waste recycling near me” can point you in the right direction. If you’re in Ireland, Italy, Germany, or Slovenia, WEEE4Future lists local drop-off spots for your old electronics. They even provide an e-waste calculator to help you see what materials you’re recycling and how much pollution you’re preventing.

Although the United States lacks federal guidance on e-waste disposal, some corporations, such as Best Buy and Amazon, offer resources for recycling electronic waste. Call2Recycle offers drop-off locations for battery recycling, and Earth911 and Greener Gadgets are also great sources for finding recycling and repair options.

Right to Repair laws allow consumers to fix their own products instead of going back to the original company for service. Also, push for further efforts on extended producer responsibility policies. This places the end-of-life responsibility for electronics on the corporation that originally created the product. The EU has a similar law, which requires companies to finance the collection, treatment, and recycling of their products. 

These choices help prevent waste from being added to landfills, but our own actions can only do so much. The real responsibility lies with corporations that continue to design products with planned obsolescence, use hazardous materials, and knowingly pass on the environmental costs to everybody else. 

The Future Depends On Our Next Steps

We can all make conscious decisions to preserve our resources and prevent further e-waste. Next time you consider upgrading your phone or laptop, consider where your current device might end up and even ask yourself, do I really need an upgrade?

If you found some useful information in this article, consider donating to EARTHDAY.ORG to support further research and awareness, and make sure to sign up for our email list to get the latest news.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at davies@earthday.org or fielder@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

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As we recognize World Teacher Day on October 5th, there can be no single device that most teachers dislike more in their classroom than cell phones!

It was in 1983 that clunky big cell phones first became available to the public, albeit at a steep price, but it was not till 1990 that their popularity and affordability truly soared, and their size shrunk. Today, these insidious devices have become ubiquitous, functioning as pocket computers that many of us can’t seem to put down.

We can use search engines, shop, take riveting photos of our low-carb salad lunch, game, text friends, watch sports, make and post videos, scroll through a seemingly never-ending supply of social media websites from YouTube, TikTok to the Dodo, and pretty much learn anything, anywhere and at any time. Oh, and we can make cell phone calls with them too but that is probably the thing that most of us do the least!

As cell phones become part of our lives they are increasingly becoming part of the classroom too. Cell phone usage in the K-12 classes is soaring with one study by Common Sense Media reporting that 97% of teenagers in the U.S had their own cell phone. Their study discovered that students picked up their phones to look at them while at school, a median of 51 times per day, with some students admitting to doing this 498 times per day. It’s fair to say that our cell phones are addictive but this level of usage in students in school is worrying.

Schools are a place for learning, and technology can and is often successfully incorporated into classroom work, be it via computers or digital whiteboards, but cell phones are unique in that they have become an almost universal disruptor of learning.

Teacher Tribulations

If you’re a teacher, or know a teacher, you will probably hear them complain about their constant need to nag their classes to “put that phone away” while they are midlesson. Cell phones are the thorn in the side of many teachers.

Which is why it has become the topic of conversation globally in educational departments. The Focus on Learning Act, introduced in the U.S Congress aims to study their impact on student performance, engagement, mental health and more. We know that excessive mobile phone usage in general can result in compulsive buying, low mood, and tension.

When students are gazing at their phones and preoccupied in class with their screens instead of focusing on what teacher is doing right in front of them, it takes away from instructional learning. This has been found to be detrimental for memory learning in what is called the “bandwidth effect”  – students are only able to take in so much information and their cell phones draw them away from focusing on class work, to look at kittens or play Pokémon, so that paying attention to chemistry or retaining information in a history class suffers. Currently 72% of teachers say cell phones are a distraction.

It is tough for teachers to force students to learn if they are competing with a wall of cell phones in the class setting which is exactly why we need legislation and policies banning phones during school hours.

Bans and Regulations Are Spreading

As a result, already in the U.S, at state level, Indiana and Minnesota, have banned cell phones in school K – 12 and Governor DeWine of Ohio is asking every school in his state to formulate a cell phone policy to limit usage in school hours by July, 2025.  A few US states have even incentivized backing regulations by offering financial supports for school districts who want to implement regulations.  

As of 2020, almost 80% of U.S schools have prohibited cell phone usage, in some capacity, during school hours. As far back as 2015 there were calls to limit cell phone usage in Jamaican  but more needs to be done to make this a reality, even regulation. Already many schools here have banned student cell phone during school hours.

The rise in cellphone regulations and even outright bans in schools, around the world  comes after two recent advisories from the U.S. Surgeon General on the youth mental health crisis and the harmful impacts of social media use on student.

It is one of the few bipartisan issues that all sides can agree on, and it is not just the U.S acting, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Portugal and China have all restricted cell phone use in schools. UNESCO too has suggested curbing cellphone use in all schools as a priority.

Identifying cell phones as a problem that distracts students during instruction as well as impacting their overall well-being and mental health is increasingly being recognized but it is not the only issue we face with cell phones in classrooms.

Information Overload 

The instant access to information that cell phones afford students has revolutionized learning spaces as well as information gathering, especially for relatively new topics such as climate change. So, it is not surprising that You Tube is where the largest share of teens—60 percent—say they have seen information on the climate crisis.

Graphic images of flooding, storms, drought, wildfires, mud slides and ecosystem loss, litter these platforms. This can spark passionate responses and motivate direct action, but much of the information is factually wrong or very one note. As a result, it can cause serious climate fear.

Transforming Instruction Is Critical

The climate crisis is very real, and students in Jamaica can see the impact of it first-hand but many students have no ‘off’ button, and they cannot look away. Which means cell phones are increasingly triggering climate anxiety.  

That is why we need comprehensive climate education in schools, across all subjects. Be it using carbon emissions as the factors in math class, wildfire realities in English classes and studying greenhouse gas impacts in science. Students need to be placed at the center of learning to improve their climate engagement which in turn will increase agency, resiliency, and retention. Active learning is critical when tackling topics like climate change in the classroom, as this topic directly affect students in the here and now.  

We need to push out all the “cell phone noise” and have a fact based and holistic approach to teaching the one subject no student should be able to skip.  Let’s redefine how we interact with learning. Ban cell phones all school and back universal climate education in every classroom.

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Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, has resulted in a “potentially game-changing solar cell” that removes CO₂ from the air and converts it directly into hydrocarbon fuel. “The new solar cell is not photovoltaic — it’s photosynthetic,’ says Amin Salehi-Khojin, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at UIC and senior author on the study.” The solar cell uses sunlight and metal compound called tungsten diselenide as a catalyst to power a photosynthesis-like process, but instead of producing sugars, like plants do for energy, these “artificial leaves” produces a mixture of hydrogen gas and carbon monoxide, Syngas. The Syngas can be burned directly, or converted into diesel or other hydrocarbon fuels. This process efficiently and cheaply recycles atmospheric carbon to be reused once again as fuel by using relatively inexpensive materials in the cell. Argonne researchers also point out that the process occurs with minimal lost energy, which is crucial to energy efficiency and lowers the energy cost of recycling the CO₂.

Harnessing fuel from atmospheric CO₂ at a cost comparable to the cost of gasoline could potentially leave fossil fuels obsolete. Amin Salehi-Khojin believes that the UIC artificial leaf technology will be adaptable to both large-scale use (like solar farms) and small-scale applications. Solar farms that use this technology would not only be able to produce recycled fuel, but also would remove substantial amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, sequestering carbon like a forest would. This budding technology is diverse enough to actively be fighting global warming by removing green house gasses from the atmosphere and by adding to renewable energy sources, and has the capability to be economically practical.

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Previously, solar power plants had depended on back up energy plants powered by carbon emitting fuels because a solar system’s peak generation hours do not coincide with the utility’s peak load hours after 5 p.m. Low sunlight meant low energy generation, and this challenge scaled back the environmental benefits of solar plants. Building or using a second power plant (powered by fossil fuels) paired with every solar plant, to produce energy for the night energy demand, was not an ideal solution. With the solar thermal technology that issue has been overcome. The Crescent Dunes facility has 10 hours of full load storage that allows for reliable on-demand energy production. It currently produces energy for around 75,000 local homes with more than 500,000 MW-hours of energy that it produces annually.

While this is a great development for the growing demand for clean energy, it’s not perfect. SolarReserve has entered into a 25-year power supply contract with NV Energy supplying power at $135 per MW-hour, but new natural gas plants are able to supply power for less than half that price ($52 per MW-hour). However, this technology would be more economically efficient in areas where natural gas and other conventional fuels are more expensive.  There have also been reports that the project might be dangerous for birds.  In its testing, biologists on site reported seeing multiple birds killed by vaporization when flying near or into the solar flux created by the mirrors aimed at the tower. The birds are attracted to the area supposedly by a “desert mirage,” the false appearance of water caused by the heat and mirrors in the desert basin, but since the vaporization incidents, the mirrors have been re-angled to create a less intense, non-lethal solar flux to mitigate the number of bird casualties.

There are still many ways that solar power can be improved, but this new 24/7 solar thermal plant (and the other two concentrated solar plants SolarReserve is constructing in Africa and Chile) is leading a clean energy revolution, critical progress in the diverse environmental movement.

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Given the need for future production of solar cell to be more sustainable, a game-changing technology may be 3-D printed solar panels. More efficient, less complex, and cheaper, they can capture more sunlight than conventional photovoltaic (PV) models. Furthermore, researchers at the University of Melbourne, using a solar-cell printer, discovered how to print flexible solar panels that can be produced on a huge roll of plastic, giving them the ability to print cells 10 times larger than they could before.

According to Scott Watkins of Kyung-In Synthetic, these 3D printed solar cells have already been used in India. “I’ve witnessed first-hand how the technology has enabled urban poor communities in India to access off-grid electricity,” says Watkins. “Its success is due to its cost effectiveness and simplicity. A 10×10 cm solar cell film is enough to generate as much as 10-50 watts per square meter.” Watkins last year spoke about the technology during the Smart Villages session of the World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul, South Korea.

This technology can dramatically increase the rate of production while decreasing the costs. So far, companies have mostly produced solar cells with industrial printing capacity. However, by owning the means of production and having them produced locally, people will be able to manufacture their own solar panels and customize them to their own needs, in any form, shape or size. This means that there is no need for economies of scale to get a great deal on solar power.

While installation is the dominate cost for solar power, it is estimated that precision 3D printing could drop production costs by 50% by eliminating many of the inefficiencies associating with the waste of costly materials such as glass, polysilicon or even indium. The fact that 3D printing can take place just about anywhere should mitigate the lofty shipping costs.

Of course, just like most other new technologies, the new printed cells are not without their development hurdles.  Bernie Jones, a co-leader of the Smart Villages Initiative, states that although the method of producing the solar film strips at a low cost has been perfected, replicating the process to other production facilities will require a large amount of capital.

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