Innovation

Wind’s Midlife Crisis

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As new technologies go, wind has enjoyed three decades of continuous innovation, performance and reliability improvements and falling costs – benefits of economies of scale, technological advancements and learning by doing. The law of diminishing marginal returns, however, appears to have gotten in the way of further cost reductions.

That appears to be the underlying message from a new report, The Past and Future Cost of Wind Energy with contributions of experts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and a number of European collaborators. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 13, 2012 at 2:15 PM

Solar Crowdsourcing: A New Way to Build Community

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Let’s play a quick game of word association. Say the first word that comes to mind when you read the words “solar power.” I bet the first word was “Solyndra” or “market failure” or “the solar industry is a bust.” While you wouldn’t be forgiven for breaking the one-word-rule, you would be forgiven for the general sentiment. The media’s repeated and sustained coverage of Solyndra’s fantastic failure has fueled the public perception that the solar industry is dead. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 15, 2012 at 12:00 PM

Boston High-Rises Could Be Turbine Towers

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Chicago is known as the Windy City, but in truth, Boston is breezier. Beantown has the highest average wind speed of any major city in the United States, at 12.4 mph.

Does it make you wonder how much energy might be generated if wind turbines were placed atop some of its tall buildings? It makes the folks at Eastern Wind Power wonder. A maker of vertical-axis wind turbines, EWP has embarked on a project to gather wind data from 10 high-rises in Boston. It hopes to show that its turbines could be significant power producers for big-city buildings. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 14, 2012 at 3:00 PM

New DC Firm Focuses on Crossroads of Energy and Innovation

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The energy sector is one of the most regulated in the US, and at the same time, one of the most innovative industries in the world.

Amid a tidal wave of change wrought by IT, communications technology, engineering advances and huge economic shifts the energy business has not just managed to keep the lights on and transport moving – it has launched thousands upon thousands of megawatts of new energy generation technologies and changed the outlook for one of the world’s fundamental sources of development and growth. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 6, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Cleanweb Acceleration Blocked by Regulators Stuck in the ‘Industrial Revolution’

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Information technology is the most powerful tool to accelerate cleantech adoption, but is being blocked by energy regulation developed during the industrial revolution, a leading investor told a Silicon Valley conference last week.

Sunil Paul, founding partner of Spring Ventures, which has invested in social networking
company LinkedIn and biofuels startup Solazyme, said: “Our entire regulatory regime is built for the industrial revolution and we have a different way of working today that requires a different code.” Keep reading →

 /  Published May 29, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Open Innovation Key to Smart Grid: US Chief Technology Officer

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Open innovation in information technology is key in developing the smart grid, the recently appointed US Chief Technology Officer said yesterday [22 May]. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 23, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Tidal Electricity Will be Flowing in Maine

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The beta version of the TidGen turbine on its way to installation in Cobscook Bay

Electricity generated with the force of ocean tides will be sold under long-term contracts for the first time in the United States later this year. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 22, 2012 at 8:00 AM

Geothermal, Solar Power Unite In First Of Its Kind Facility

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U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu earlier this month heralded the creation of a new geothermal-solar power plant in Fallon, Nevada, which he said was “the first of its kind in the world.”

The Stillwater facility has 26 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic solar generating capacity and 33 MW of geothermal power. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 16, 2012 at 2:30 PM

An Afternoon With a VC Partner

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Israeli energy management systems company Panoramic Power announced this Monday that its technology was going to market. The company’s self-powered circuit sensor can provide customers with real-time detailed data on an entire building’s energy use through a wireless mesh network.

Among Panoramic Power’s financial backers is Israel Cleantech Ventures (ICV), a five-year old Israeli-based venture capital firm that was founded by three Ivy-League-educated Israeli transplants who moved from the East Coast with vast professional networks in the United States. One of the partners, Jack Levy, met with Breaking Energy in ICV’s offices in the Green Village, a quiet Tel Aviv suburb filled not only with environmental education programs but also with peacocks and chickens that roam the dusty lanes between houses. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 16, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Small Company, Big Ideas: Commercializing Clean Hydrogen Technology

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What do gadget-laden outdoor enthusiasts in the developed world have in common with rural villagers that have no access to electricity in developing nations? They could soon be using the same clean hydrogen generation technology being developed by a small, private US chemical company.

“It’s been a long road and providing hydrogen has been hard to do, we are lucky that we can provide a reliable on/off system,” SiGNa Chemistry’s CEO Michael Lefenfeld recently told Breaking Energy. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 14, 2012 at 9:00 AM
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