Kinetic energy harvesters that could power electronic devices simply by walking have been in the hopper for a while now, and it finally seems to be on the verge of breaking into the commercial market. That means, in the near future, anybody with a cell phone, iPAD or any other electronic device will never have to worry about batteries again.
A new fully assembled, plug-and-play modular rooftop solar power system was introduced at the Intersolar North America trade show last month, and it could be a low cost solar power solution for home owners and businesses that want to dip a toe into the clean energy pool. The new photovolaic system, called AC Unison, does not require a separate inverter, which would typically add a significant expense to the cost of a rooftop solar array.
In a twist on the old set a thief to catch a thief ploy, researchers at Michigan Technological University have found that a copper-loving bacteria can help corn suck copper contamination out of soil. The discovery could help clean up highly contaminated abandoned mining sites that have resisted other forms of “green” remediation.
In the latest stage of the historic battle between renewable energy and fossil fuels, the U.S. Army has taken the gloves off: Army Secretary John McHugh announced the launch of the Army’s new Energy Initiatives Office Task Force, at the GovEnergy Conference in Ohio last week.
The giant 290-megawatt Agua Caliente Solar Power Project is one step closer to bringing 400 new green jobs to Arizona, thanks to a $967 million loan guarantee from the Department of Energy that will get the thin-film photovoltaic project off the ground. The new facility, sponsored by solar giant NRG, will deploy two cutting edge technologies that improve the stability of power supply from the plant to the grid.
The algae biofuel company OriginOil has been pulling out all the stops to bring low cost algae biofuel to the market, and Operation Green Stick looks like their biggest move yet. Operation Green Stick is the code name for OriginOil’s network of sensors that automatically control for hundreds of variables in commercial-scale algae biofuel operations.
A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has figured out a way to deliver low cost solar energy at night as well as during the day, by combining a concentrated solar power system with a molten salt heat storage system.
One knock against biodiesel has been the relatively large amount of fossil fuel required to produce it. That’s aside from the contentious issue of using arable land to grow crops for fuel, especially food crops. However, a new study of the energy lifecycle of soybean biodiesel reveals a significant improvement in efficiency over the past 20 years or so.
A national research team headed by the Columbia University Engineering School has found that sewage treatment plants in the U.S. could save $100 million per year in electricity costs with a few simple tweaks to cut down on emissions of nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas.
Solar start-up Semprius is on the verge of generating more than 250 new green jobs over the next five years with a new ultra-small solar cell that is half the size of a pinhead, called a high concentration photovoltaic cell. The company has just announced plans to build a new factory to make the cells in Henderson, NC, which has been struggling with an unemployment rate as high as 13.3 percent this year.
