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...energy in sand to improve the efficiency of power plants and provide energy at night. The technology, developed at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, uses gravity to drain sand from a higher basin into a lower one, heating up the sand grains with solar power during the transition. In the lower basin, the energy can be stored and withdrawn at low cost to...

...energy transfer and explores some of the key processes that occur. It goes on to show how these complex systems can be affected by external influences and harmed by the activities of humans. This material forms part of The Open University course S396 Ecosystems... Ecosystems: living communities A short introduction to this album What is an ecosystem? How the definition of...

...energy from the wind to the water through wind stress. Wind stress has the Greek symbol τ (tau) and is proportional to the square of the wind speed, W: τ = cW2 where c is the constant of proportionality. So if the wind speed increases from 1 m s−1 to 4 m s−1 then wind stress will increase by a factor of 16. This large jump in the wind stress happens because when the...