Anna Nicolle's Page

In the poorer communities surrounding the Senegalese capital of Dakar,
researchers from Canadian-based, International Development Research centre tested the technical and socioeconomic feasibility of
exploiting aquatic plants, like water lettuce, to convert household
wastewater into water fit for irrigating small market gardens. The experiment was successful!

It's August 13, 2020, my birthday. Although I am in my 50s and should have grown out of this by now my birthday remains my favorite day of the year.



It's dusk and I am at my cottage in Nova Scotia with my husband, kids and family. My grandchildren are chasing fireflys in the garden while we, the adults, sit in the screen porch and enjoy the evening breeze. In the distance, out near where the water meets the sky I can just make out the shadow of the windmills that are helping to power… Continue

Every evening the last chore of my day involves I turning on my dishwasher and letting the rushing water scour and scrub the food particles from my pots, pans, dishes, mugs and gla****. Every morning I get up at 6 and the first act of my day is to stumble, half asleep into my kitchen and turn on my coffee maker. What if I could combine these actions, using the energy of one to power the other? My idea is to capture the energy of the water rushing around… Continue

A team of engineers at Cambridge University in England has created a giant gravel battery that can store energy produced by windmills and solar panels so that energy will still be available even when the wind isn't blowing or the sun isn't shining. The gravel-based battery stores the intermittent energy that is produced and the feeds it back as a consistent and reliable energy source. The system consists of two silos filled with gravel that store the energy that has been converted into argon… Continue