Emissions

Solar Power Researchers Pile On With Leaves

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One of the keenest areas of solar power research these days is into how nature turns the sun’s rays into energy for growth. While MIT researchers have devised what they call an “artificial solar leaf” – essentially a silicon solar cell with different catalytic materials bonded to each side that allow it to split a water molecule into oxygen and hydrogen – a group of scientists from around the world says that by mimicking natural photosynthesis and using tiny molecular circuits, harvesting and transporting solar power could be made far more efficient.

This theory comes from Graham Fleming at UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory; Gregory Scholes of the University of Toronto; Alexandra Olaya-Castro from London’s University College; and Rienk van Grondelle of the University of Amsterdam. Together they authored “Lessons from nature about solar light harvesting” in the journal Nature Chemistry. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 13, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Cutting Carbon Translated: Natural Gas

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Switching electric generation from coal to natural gas is the only way the US can meet carbon-reduction goals, says a new Deutsche Bank analysis.

Mark Fulton, managing director and global head of research for Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors, told the US Association of Energy Economists conference in Washington DC on October 11 that “renewables alone cannot do the job,” though the study indicates wind and solar will play important roles. The October 2011 report, titled “Natural Gas and Renewables: The Coal to Gas and Renewables Switch is on!” can be downloaded here. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 12, 2011 at 10:00 AM

Sustainable Energy For All

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In some parts of the world, refrigeration is a luxury and children do their homework by candle light.

That reality is unacceptable, the International Energy Agency said in its recent “Energy for All: Financing Access For The Poor” report published on Monday. With increased investment over the next five years, the report claims the world’s energy needs can be fully met by 2030. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 11, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Benevolent Billionaire: Renewables Message Needs A Face Lift

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The renewables industry has an image problem, an influential billionaire investor said this week.

Tom Steyer, who invested $5 million of his own money in last year’s opposition campaign to California’s proposition 23, said “we need the right message but also the right messenger.” Keep reading →

 /  Published September 29, 2011 at 6:00 AM

The ‘Democratization Of Energy’ Will Change Everything

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Rampant unemployment, rising food prices, a collapsed housing market, ballooning debt — to Jeremy Rifkin, the American economist and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, these are not simply symptoms of a temporary economic malaise. Rather, they are signs that the current world order — long infused with and defined by fossil fuels — is collapsing around us. In its place, decentralized systems of advanced, clean-energy production and digital power distribution are already starting to rise, Rifkin suggests, and they will reorder not just the way we turn on our lights, but how whole economies — indeed, whole societies — operate. Why? For the full article on HuffPost Green, see here.

 /  Published September 26, 2011 at 9:20 AM

Meeting of ministers in Beijing hears that CCS is being left behind due to financial crisis and weaking political will

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Meeting of ministers in Beijing hears that CCS is being left behind due to financial crisis & weakening political will http://bit.ly/obLYCp @IEA_OECD

 /  Published September 23, 2011 at 11:30 AM

From Waste, Let There Be Light

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An iconic American company whose trash trucks are part of the landscape is increasingly also a major player in the energy space, currently producing enough electricity to power one million homes and aiming to double that number in the next decade.

Waste Management has been filling landfills and feeding recycling facilities with the famously prodigious output of American trash cans for years, but it has also become a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the US. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 23, 2011 at 6:00 AM

We have to make ordinary people understand that [climate change] is not an economic problem but an economic opportunity. – Bill Clinton

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Today: “We have to make ordinary people understand that [climate change] is not an economic problem but an economic opportunity.” – Bill Clinton @ConservationOrg

 /  Published September 20, 2011 at 12:30 PM

Top Five Electric Vehicle Partnerships

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Less than 16,000 battery electric vehicles and 2,000 plug-in hybrids were produced last year, according to IMS Research. But that figure will soar to 16 million by 2021, thanks in part to government initiatives driving innovation in motor manufacturing.

President Barack Obama wants to see 1 million electric vehicles on US roads by 2015, and his administration has implemented proposals for the US Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE standards) of 54.5 mpg by 2025. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 19, 2011 at 12:15 PM

Top Five DOE Recovery Act Loans

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As the deadline for breaking ground on projects with loan guarantee applications from the Department of Energy’s Loans Program Office (LPO) approaches, there has been a rush of announcements on finalized agreements and conditional commitments over the past few months.

Section 1705 was a temporary program under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 designed to give loan guarantees for renewable energy, power transmission and biofuels projects that start construction by the end of September 2011. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 18, 2011 at 1:00 PM
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