ANSELM ELDERGILL recalls the misjudgments, mishaps and moments of farce that shaped his years in legal practice
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Solar sells, but need it cost the earth?
It’s sunny times for the solar industry which is expected to continue to grow rapidly — but there are still major environmental issues with how solar cells are made, explain ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
HOW GREEN IS GREEN? Recycling solar cells safely is a major challenge for the growing industry
The Communist Party of Britain’s Congress last month debated a resolution on ending opposition to all nuclear power in light of technological advances and the climate crisis. RICHARD HEBBERT explains why
Behind the cute names of Scotland’s road gritters lies a workforce underpaid and overlooked – a fitting reflection of a Budget that protected profits, bungled its rollout and offered hardly a glimmer of hope, writes MATT KERR
Commiserations if you failed this year, MAT COWARD offers six points which, if followed religiously, will ensure you succeed next year
In the final part of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY explains how in 2018, after years spent rebuilding the PCS into a leading force against austerity, a damaging rupture emerged from within the union’s own left wing
PRABHAT PATNAIK looks at how the development of capitalism from the start divided the world into unequal segments
SOLAR CELLS became a serious industry around 2000, when an exponential expansion in their installation began. Since then, they have gone on to make up a whopping — or rather, minuscule — 2 per cent of the global energy market.
They are, however, scheduled for continued extreme growth over the coming years, with the most dramatic predictions forecasting that their share of the energy market could increase to 50 per cent by 2050.
If it were possible to satisfy the entire world’s energy needs with solar power, (this is thought impossible because of the ways some energy must be used and stored) an area approximately the size of Spain would need to be totally covered in solar panels.
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Neutrinos are so abundant that 400 trillion pass through your body every second. ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT explain how scientists are seeking to know more about them
Natural hydrogen gas could be a replacement for fossil fuels, but its extraction could see developing nations face familiar patterns of land loss and resource theft, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT