Microbes in panda feces have shown some promise in making cellulosic biofuel production cheaper and more efficient. “Current methods for breaking down non-food plant material (stalks, stems and cobs) are expensive and require pretreatments that use heat and high pressure or acids…But the bacteria [Mississippi Stat Assistant professor Ashli] Brown and her team discovered do… Keep reading →
CPUC has proposed policies and mechanisms for its landmark energy storage procurement program that sets a 1,325 MW energy storage mandate. On September 3, 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision detailing policies and mechanisms for its energy storage procurement program established under the 2010 Assembly Bill 2514, the first… Keep reading →
Energy fields such as light, heat and sound all around us every day, but can we develop a process by which energy can be derived from these external sources and used to power things? The answer is energy harvesting; a process by which ambient energy can be collected and stored for on-demand, off-grid use, with… Keep reading →
The Obama Administration issued a statement yesterday in support of Senate Bill 1392, the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act of 2013. The Washington Post described the bill as “timid” and “politically palatable”. That’s a good thing. The goal of the legislation is to codify and beef up existing federal government programs that seek to reduce energy… Keep reading →
The US Department of Energy announced yesterday that it had issued a conditional approval for LNG exports to countries with which the US does not have a free trade agreement from Dominion’s Cove Point LNG project. This brings the number of projects with non-FTA export approval to four – Sabine Pass, Freeport, Lake Charles and… Keep reading →
Ever tried to find out who is in charge when it comes to energy policy? With literally hundreds of agencies and regulators at everything from the local level through state and regions to DC-based policy-makers and even the President, the level of complexity when it comes to understanding energy policy isn’t just frustrating, it is… Keep reading →
In this report published by the German Marshall Fund, Washington Institute fellow Simon Henderson discusses ways of surmounting the challenges Israel and Cyprus face as they seek to develop newfound oil and gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. [The Washington Institute for Near East Policy] A bit further to the northeast, the Caspian Sea… Keep reading →
We remember. Courtesy of our Breaking Defense colleagues.
Funding at least 30 cleantech deals and deploying more than $500 million in summer 2013 In case you were unplugged for a while this summer, here are the companies that took in cash from the greentech VC community in the last few months. If we missed any VC funding event since June, let us know… Keep reading →
Some innovative California cities are engaging in assurance planning practices to make their energy supply more resilient during a major disaster such as earthquake, wildfire or landslide that could disrupt the normal supply for weeks. Their forward thinking includes the application of renewable distributed generation, microgrids, demand response, and other smart grid techniques and technologies… Keep reading →
