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[social_buttons] The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) released figures yesterday showing that the global solar photovoltaic industry had a record year in 2009. But it is expecting a lot from 2010 as well. … Read More
This is a lesson to all weeds: dream big. Camelina is a scrawny looking plant that also goes by the unflattering moniker “false flax,” yet it may turn out to be the biofuel of choice for U.S. military aircraft. The U.S. Air Force has just announced the successful flight of an A-10C Thunderbolt II using a blend of half camelina and half conventional jet fuel, and it plans to test the blend on additional aircraft … Read More
Because of healthy European solar PV demand and the fact that there are a growing number of new entrants to the sector, the solar solar inverter industry supply chain is fluid and a bit unstable.
Read MoreSo who knew? The manufacture of cooking oil involves hexane, a solvent that separates the oil from crushed seeds. Hexane is a volatile organic compound found in gasoline. Hexane is also a degreaser used in the printing industry. It dissolves glues, varnishes, and inks. Aside from the ick factor of having the same compound used to dissolve glues and inks pop up in the production of your bake sale items, hexane is a pollutant that … Read More
It looks like our energy future is at least partly in the hands of cows, now that agribusiness giant Cargill has joined the manure-to-biogas gold rush. The company has just announced that its second biogas project is up and running at the Bettencourt Dairy B6 Farm in Jerome, Idaho. Using manure produced by the farm’s 6,000 cows, the biogas project is generating enough renewable methane to make electricity for about 1,100 typical homes. That’s just … Read More
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency seems to be making up for lost time when it comes to enforcing the Clean Water Act. That includes closing the door on mountaintop coal mining, also known rather delicately as mountaintop removal. In reality there is nothing delicate about it. The practice involves blowing hundreds of mountains to smithereens in Appalachia, one of the richest ecosystems in North America, not to mention burying hundreds of miles of pristine streams … Read More
While much of the EnergyStar® program is sound, and has led to real quantifiable energy savings over time, over the last four years, alarm bells have been sounding on the increasingly lax certification process. Just how lax? [social_buttons] A gasoline-powered alarm clock the size of a microwave was one of the more ridiculous items able to get an automated label in a year-long undercover sting operation by the General Accounting Office. Alarms had been sounding … Read More
NTPC Ltd., formerly known as National Thermal Power Corporation, is planning to develop 500MW wind and solar energy projects in the Indian state of Orissa. NTPC is India’s largest power generation company and generates a big majority of power from coal-fired power plants. However, the company is now foraying into renewable energy and low carbon intensive generation technologies like hydro, nuclear and renewables. [social_buttons] The company recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Orissa government … Read More
People in California’s hinterlands pay a very high price for electricity. They use three times more power than the average; trying to stay cool, and they now pay more than four times the base rate for it. They think that’s not fair, and PG&E agrees with them. PG&E is applying for a rate change to reduce the top tier rate, and spread the cost of that higher energy use amongst the rest of their ratepayers. … Read More
