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Glasgow solar study: ‘We could put oil back in ground’

By Ken Macdonald, BBC - Researchers in Glasgow are working on a way to remove greenhouse gas from the atmosphere and put oil back under the North Sea. The sun gives its energy away for free. We can harvest it with solar cells and wind turbines to make electricity. That’s the good news. The bad? It’s electricity. It’s difficult stuff to store and sometimes, just when you need some, it’s dark or the wind’s stopped blowing.

That’s why Glasgow University’s Solar Fuels Group want us to make the leap from solar power to solar fuel. It’s a multidisciplinary, multi-million pound effort which aims to convert renewable energy into fuel that’s simple to store. … Continue Reading

Biosolar Breakthrough Promises Cheap, Easy Green Electricity

Biosolar hydrogen production with green algae

Biosolar hydrogen production with green algae

 ScienceDaily — Barry D. Bruce, professor of biochemistry, cellular and molecular biology, at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is turning the term “power plant” on its head. The biochemist and a team of researchers has developed a system that taps into photosynthetic processes to produce efficient and inexpensive energy. … Continue Reading

‘Bicycle pump’ to turn wave power into clean energy

A UK engineer has invented a device that harnesses wave power to pump sea water uphill, from where it can flow downhill to create hydroelectricity, raising hopes of a cheap, abundant source of renewable energy.

A UK engineer has invented a device that harnesses wave power to pump sea water uphill, from where it can flow downhill to create hydroelectricity, raising hopes of a cheap, abundant source of renewable energy.

An aquatic “bicycle pump” is set to take to the seas and turn wave power into clean electricity after being acquired by green energy company Ecotricity. The Searaser device, which pumps saltwater to an onshore generator, has been tested in prototype and praised by ministers. … Continue Reading

PlanetSolar’s solar catamaran – Solar Powered Boat Travels the World

Planet Solar's solar catamaran docks in Abu Dhabi

Planet Solar's solar catamaran docks in Abu Dhabi

In Spring 2004, the seed of an idea a little crazy germinates in the mind of Raphael Domjan. He is 39 years old and Swiss. He was trained as an electronics engineer but he is also ambulance man, jet and glider pilot, and mountain guide. In love with Nature, he is a Jack of all trades and a fervent defender of clean energy. Like others, he feels that we rapidly need to find alternatives to our wild oil consumption but that, at the same time, the huge potential of renewable energy still need to be proven and promoted. … Continue Reading

DOE Researchers Report Breakthrough for Cheaper Biofuels

switchgrass for biomass

New molecular breakthroughs could help in designing E. coli that better digest switchgrass and other plants to help make biofuels. Credit: Todd Johnson

Researchers at DOE’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) announced on December 22 a major breakthrough in engineering systems of RNA molecules using computer-assisted design. The innovation could lead to important improvements across a range of industries, including the development of less-expensive advanced biofuels. Scientists will use these new “RNA machines” to adjust genetic expression in the cells of microorganisms. This will enable scientists to develop new strains of Escherichia coli (E. coli) that are better able to digest switchgrass biomass and convert released sugars to form gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels. JBEI is led by researchers at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. … Continue Reading

ALD to enable novel, high efficiency silicon nanorod solar cells

Georgia Tech scientists' goal has been focused on the optical properties of the fly eye's nanostructure, aiming to understand the visible light, UV light and infrared light transmission through the structures.

Picosun Oy, Finland-based global manufacturer of state-of-the-art Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment, has reported successful final results of the European Union 7th Framework Programme funded research project ROD-SOL. The goal of this multinational, inter-European, three years (2009-2011) project combining the efforts of both scientific and industrial partners has been to dramatically increase the efficiency of solar cells and reduce the costs of their manufacturing. This has been achieved with novel, innovative, silicon nanorod based concept. … Continue Reading

Energy: Storage will make solar power reliable after sunset

These plants are unique because they can generate power when it is needed, day or night, rain or shine.

BY LESLIE BERKMAN

Reliability is the greatest weakness of solar power. The sun provides an abundant, clean source of power to run steam generators that produce electricity. But it is ineffective after the sun sets.

To address that shortcoming, solar plant developers have plans to build facilities in Inland Southern California to store the sun’s power as heat that can be tapped to run steam generators in the late afternoon and evenings when demand for electricity is greatest. … Continue Reading

‘Black silicon’ solar cells – to Increase Solar Cell Efficiency

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced today that Natcore Technology Inc. has been granted a patent license agreement to develop a line of black silicon products.

Natcore and NREL also will enter a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to develop commercial prototypes based on NREL’s black silicon inventions and patents.

“This technology will play and important role in moving forward the availability of solar technologies,” NREL Vice President for Commercialization & Technology Transfer William Farris said. “It is one more step to help bolster the Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative to make solar energy cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade.” … Continue Reading


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Featured Blog

While Trying to Force Tar Sands, Sen. Alexander Says He “Cannot Think of” Extending Tax Credits to Wind Energy

16 Feb 2012

senator Lamar Alexander

by Stephen Lacey – With every passing day, Congress outdoes its own abysmal environmental record. Even as federal policymakers consider a transportation bill that would open up sensitive areas for offshore drilling, encourage use of dirty oil shale, force a decision on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and derail public investments in public transportation, …

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Senators Take Emergency Oil Reserve Hostage to Force Keystone Approval

16 Feb 2012

Senator David Vitter (R-LA)

 In a desperate attempt to force Keystone XL, three Senators are threatening access to a vital economic and natural security safeguard, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Republican Congressional leaders have failed to force President Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. But that’s not stopping them from trying over and over again, taking hostages in the …

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Green Homes Made Up 17% of U.S. Residential Construction Market in 2011, Expected to Grow 5-Fold by 2016

11 Feb 2012

green homes construction

By Stephen Lacey – With the construction industry still recovering in the U.S., companies offering “green” services may be able to set themselves apart and grow business faster, according to a survey conducted by McGraw-Hill Construction. In 2011, green builds in the residential sector made up 17% of construction, totaling $17 billion in economic activity. …

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Why the Energy-Industrial Elite Has It In for the Planet

9 Feb 2012

Basic survival skils at its best

by Bill McKibben – Two Saturdays ago, I was walking with a friend in a park here in New York City.  It was late January, but I was dressed in a light sweater and a thin fall jacket, which I had just taken off and tied around my waist.  We were passing a strip of …

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Featured Blog

White House response: Obama environmental record “historic” on fuel standards, climate change

17 Feb 2012

President Obama SOTU address presses the need for increased Clean and Renewable Energy production

Responding to concerns of leading progressives and donors in the Bay Area about President Obama’s environmental record, the White House says his Administration has achieved “historic fuel economy standards,” while taking unprecedented efforts to supporting development of renewable energies and reduce America’s reliance on foreign oil.

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The Great Carbon Bubble – Why the Fossil Fuel Industry Fights So Hard

9 Feb 2012

If not global warming or affecting the climate change - this cannot possibly be of any good to the planet

By Bill McKibben – If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark. As yet — as we shall see — it’s …

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Cuba on the Road to Clean Energy Development

8 Feb 2012

A tiny Cuban school with two Solar Panels affixed

 HAVANA, – More than a decade ago, solar electricity changed the lives of several mountain communities in Cuba. Now this and other renewable power sources are emerging as the best options available to develop sustainable energy across the island. “If the world’s clean energy potential exceeds our consumption needs, why do we insist on using …

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Jewish Leaders Pledge to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 14% in 2014

6 Feb 2012

50 Jewish Leaders “Renewable energy is a matter of Justice,”

by Catherine Woodiwiss – In a ceremony in Manhattan today to celebrate the Jewish festival of trees, Tu Bishvat, 50 Jewish leaders from across denominations will sign onto to the Jewish Energy Covenant Campaign to protect the environment. “Out of concern for the well-being of all nations, and with a particular concern for the poorest …

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