Cornell researchers have figured out a way to make biofuel products from beer broth, and their findings are so exciting that the normally unflappable Royal Society of Chemistry has conferred “hot” status on a paper describing the beer-to-biofuel process. The beer broth in question isn’t suitable for tippling, which makes … [continued]
JinkoSolar is going to provide the solar cells for a new 5.75 megawatt solar array that will be built on the site of a former landfill in Canton, Massachusetts. The site had been derelict for more than 20 years, and struggling towns and cities across the U.S. might want to … [continued]
If federal legislators are in all that much of a hurry to create new jobs, they could hopscotch over the controversial Keystone XL pipeline and lend some more support to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency has just announced a new round of funding for 450 “shovel ready” energy … [continued]
The Navy’s biofuel program has been getting a lot of attention lately, along with biofuel initiatives by the Army and Air Force, and now it’s time for the U.S. Coast Guard to take a turn in the spotlight. The Coast Guard cutter Henry Blake has just taken its maiden voyage … [continued]
Ocean waves could soon be powering thousands of homes and businesses in the Reedsport, Oregon area, and a good part of the credit will be due to the U.S. Navy. The Ocean Power Technologies technology, called PowerBuoy®, underwent two years of development at the Navy’s wave power test facility in … [continued]
Federal researchers have been calling Guayule the biofuel plant of the future for a while now, and it looks like they’re ready to bet the ranch on it. Well, maybe not the whole ranch, but the Department of Energy’s high-tech funding agency, ARPA-E, has just awarded $5.7 million to … [continued]
A futuristic wind powered cargo ship is in the works, and it sports sails modeled after one of the largest luxury yachts in the world, the Maltese Falcon. If it proves successful, the new B9 cargo ship could usher in a new era of fossil fuel–free technology at a critical … [continued]
An international research team has developed a way to manufacture graphene without using any specialized equipment. For an idea of how important this breakthrough could be, consider the difference between today’s smart phones and the stationary touch-tones that represented the peak of telecommunications tech just a generation ago, and translate … [continued]
Carpets and mud don’t usually make a good pairing, but a new energy-harvesting “carpet” takes its inspiration directly from, yes, mud. Currently under study at the University of California, Berkeley, the rug-like device would mimic the ability of muddy sea floors to absorb energy from ocean waves, and it … [continued]
Fossil fuels seem to be running out of places to go. Back in March, officials in Ohio put new restrictions on the natural gas drilling method called fracking after seismologists linked it to earthquakes, and last Friday the National Research Council issued a report detailing the impact of conventional … [continued]
