With ThinkBlue, the world’s third largest automaker is raising the stakes in its sustainability drive, including allocating $500 million-$600 million for renewable energy investments. VW management recently hosted an energy management workshop and site tour of its green manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. CleanTechnica was there.
Talk about cutting out the middleman! A California company called LightManufacturing has figured out a way to fire up a plastic molding process with a concentrated solar power system, and the kicker is the system has no solar cells to generate electricity. Instead, heliostats (aka mirrors) provide all the … [continued]
One of China’s largest and leading integrated silicon solar PV manufacturers, Trina Solar’s opening a sales and business development office and launching a local supply chain manufacturing partnership in Ontario, the focal point for solar energy in Canada. […]
Vancouver-based Methanex is looking to wind power to enhance its energy security and environmental sustainability in Chile’s natural resource-rich Magallanes region. Having worked with Vestas to build its Cabo Negro Wind Power Plant, the two industry leaders aim to identify and develop a wind energy infrastructure in the southern Chilean region.
Europe’s renewable energy drive is opening up substantial new opportunities for innovative US companies such as Chicago-based smart grid systems provider S&C Electric, which is doubling the size of its factory in Milwaukee as a result of its growing European and overseas business portfolio.
Renewable energy and clean tech present great opportunities to revitalize US manufacturing, potential that’s recognized by a growing group of business and political leaders, including the Obama administration. […]
Support from the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) has been instrumental in GED Integrated Solutions achieving a breakthrough in the manufacturing of energy-efficient residential windows. A worldwide supplier of insulating glass and vinyl window and door manufacturing systems, GED’s Automated Tri-Lite Assembly System (ATLAS) produces a triple pane insulating glass window unit in 20 seconds.
Normally manufacturers must rush their products off the assembly line, but EcovativeDesign has a novel approach. They just wait, up to week, and let mycelium do the manufacturing work to construct everything from insulation to packaging materials.
In a completely new way to make stuff, they let mycelium – a fungal network of threadlike cells – grow the material by combining itself with agricultural byproducts like plant stalks and seed husks. Mycelium is like the “roots” of mushrooms. In 5 – 7 days, in the dark, with no water, and no petrochemical inputs, the mycelium digests the agricultural byproducts.
Once the mycelium has bound the agricultural waste then a quick heat-drying treatment at the end halts the organic growth, resulting in a stable, strong, waterproof structural material.
Over the last ten thousand years, we humans have put many plants and animals to work for our ends, but it is likely that this marks the first manufacturing work by the kingdom of fungi.
