by Dallas Kachan

Some latest scuttlebutt from the world of nuclear fusion has all the ingredients of a Hollywood thriller screenplay (and for those who remember Inside Greentech’s Greentech...

That notorious killer bacteria e. coli is making renewable biofuel hand over fist for researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy. Scientists based in DOE’s Joint BioEnergy Institute have tweaked a strain of the bug to munch on tough-to-digest ...

A broad, nonpartisan coalition of 369 members, including manufacturing, farm and business interests, has issued a letter endorsing a four year extension to wind energy’s key federal tax incentive, the Production Tax Credit.

by Geoffrey Styles
It's fairly easy to agree on the desirability of shifting our energy diet away from fossil fuels and toward more renewable or sustainable sources, but it's much harder to agree on the time scale involved. While recognizing the great potential of renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar and geothermal power, along with advanced, non-food-based biofuels, I am convinced that the transition will take much longer than many hope--longer than many will have patience for,...

Is the new General Motors Chevrolet Volt a safe vehicle to ride in, or is it a ball of flame waiting to happen post a bad accident? There’s some questions being asked around this, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Friday it is opening a “formal safety defect investigation to assess...

Nothing speeds up innovation like a little competition (and unbridled imagination). At least that’s the logic behind the Ascent Solar Innovative Design Competition, where college students across the US compete to develop practical applications for Ascent Solar’s lightweight, thin film flexible photovoltaic cells.

After reviewing applications with an initial project idea, budget, timeline, and target market,...

This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project.

While Americans transition their electricity system to the 21st century, they should ask this question: Does it make sense to pursue strategies such as accelerating the development of new high-voltage power lines that...

If even some small portion of the vast offshore wind potential the United States holds is ever accessed, it’s going to need to be integrated into the grid (or, more likely, grids). How’s that going to be pulled off? Where should the development focus in order to ease grid interconnection? What technologies will work best? These are the sort of questions the consultant ABB said it and several...

Ethiopia isn’t a country that comes up often when discussing renewable energy, but the Ethiopian Electric Power Coroporation (EEPCO) this past week announced it’s starting construction of six wind power projects and one geothermal power plant. In total, electricity generation capacity for the renewable energy projects totals more than one gigawatt (1 GW), Ethtiopian news service NewsDire reported.

The renewable energy projects are part of EEPCO’s plans to increase...

A report released last week by the China Council of International Co-operation on Environment and Development found that China could net 9.5 million jobs over the coming 5 years if it gave dirty energy the shaft and replaced it with clean, renewable energy and other “green businesses” instead.

The head of the China Council of International Co-operation on Environment and Development is Li Keqiang, likely to become the next prime...

Google is renowned (and sometimes ridiculed) for its willingness to allow a vast herd of esoteric projects to roam its offices, but inevitably there is a culling. Among several victims announced today: Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal (RE<C), a project largely focused on advancing a type of concentrating solar power technology known as power tower.

...

by Jake Schmidt, November 21, 2011

Nelson Mandela famously said: “I am fundamentally an optimist…Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up...

by James Greenberger

On Thursday, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu had the unenviable task of testifying before a House subcommittee about Solyndra and explaining why that company’s bankruptcy will cause the government to take a $500 million loss.  The subcommittee’s response to Secretary Chu’s testimony was in large part predictably hostile, with some lawmakers...

The U.S. Air Force is the force behind a new energy-efficient, high performance lighting system that also sets a high bar for its focus on lifecycle sustainability, from raw materials to recycling and disposal. If that all sounds a bit touchy-feely, consider the military logistics of supplying and disposing light bulbs...

Solar panel manufacturer SolarWorld’s demand that the U.S. impose duties on Chinese crystalline silicon solar panels is causing a rift in the solar industry, revealing that what may be good for manufacturers is not necessarily good for workers downstream or upstream of the factory. Installers and component manufacturers, whose jobs depend on the price of solar panels continuing to fall, are making a case that a solar trade war with China would be devastating to the U.S. solar industry...

by Scott Edward Anderson, November 17, 2011

China isn’t slowing down when it comes to cleantech venture capital investment. Quite the opposite. With the year not even over, 2011 cleantech VC is “already up 124.95 percent” on 2010′s total, according to the Climate Group, a nonprofit, clean-energy advocacy organization. Citing data from CVSource, a service of the ChinaVenture Investment Consulting, the Climate Group said clean...

Thirty-one percent of U.S. residential electric customers are considered “concerned greens,” people who are highly likely to participate in energy management programs. Those are the findings of SGCC’s Consumer Pulse and Market Segmentation Study. The study was conducted by Market Strategies...

The Tokyo Motor Show will be held from November 30 through to December 11 and Toyota Motor Corporation will be unveiling several concept cars at the show, including a Prius Plug-in Hybrid, a Fuell-cell vehicle, and a compact-class dedicated hybrid.

The company said that it is aiming “to make fresh proposals concerning the dream and joy of motor vehicles under the concept ‘Fun to Drive, Again’.”

Included in the six cars which Toyota will unveil at the show is the Aqua, or the Prius C as it will be labelled outside of Japan. A compact-class car...

A new report has shown that the total storage capacity worldwide will increase a hundred-fold over the next 10 years, pushing the number from 121 megawatts (MW) in 2011 to 12,353 MW in 2021.

That number equates to a growth of just over $122 billion of investment in energy storage projects over the same timeframe.

Traditionally, electricity grids don’t have a lot of room for storage. What is generated is passed through the grid and, if it is not used, it disappears. Including energy storage allows grid operators a new way to manage their grids more effectively, but...

Members of another sector of the U.S. solar power industry are expressing concern about SolarWorld’s demand that the Obama administration place duties on imports of crystalline silicon solar cells from China. Last week, installers came together to form the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE), and now they’ve been joined by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials...

It’s a given to me that renewable energy can power the world. I’ve been studying the matter for years and have looked into the various talking points against it. The technology is here. The technology is tested and proven. The technology will also get better and filler technology will pop in to help out. But anyone who claims that renewable energy isn’t possible or can’t be used to power all of human civilization hasn’t looked into the matter in too much depth.

But, you don’t have to take my word for it. One of the best pieces I’ve read...

Slowly but surely, renewable energy is gaining ground – leading some researchers to warn of “energy sprawl.” Where are we going to put the solar arrays, wind farms, biomass plants without using up valuable greenspace? Here’s one possibility: Superfund, brownfields and former landfill or mining sites.

These sullied lands from a dirtier era of manufacturing and energy production won’t entirely answer the challenge, of course, but the U.S. Environmental Protection...

I don’t know about you, but last week really got crazy as I looked at all that happened.  From questions about Cuba drilling and Interior’s new 5-year plan to the dedication (FINALLY!) of the western MD wind project to the Senate vote on the Congressional Review Petition on EPA Cross State Rule to the DOE advisory panel...

In an article in today's Washington Post an official of the National Wildlife Federation was quoted linking rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline with breaking our addiction to oil. Even with the administration havingdelayed its decision on the project until 2013...

Energy Star, LEED, Earth Advantage, Net Zero Energy–with more and more reports revealing increased consumer preference for green homes, it’s no surprise there are a plethora of certification programs out there. The state of California has its own...

Grant Thornton, known more for accounting and taxation rather than environmental lobbying, recently came out with a report illustrating cleantech as an emerging industry in the globalized 21^st century.

“If you are leading a cleantech business today, you may well be in the right place at the right time,” said the report.

The 24-page report looked at three major...

Coalinga, a small town in California’s Central Valley, is home to the past, present and future of energy. The town was originally called Coaling Station A, and served as a coaling station for the railroads in the late 19th century. The name was later shortened to Coalinga.

Coalinga sits on the aptly named Coalinga Oil Field – one of the largest in California. The oil field was discovered in 1887 and is one of the nation’s oldest producing oil fields. And last month, Coalinga gained another distinction – home to the world’s largest solar-to-steam...

MIT researchers say a hybrid solar-thermoelectric system they’re working on would provide a big advantage over conventional solar cells or solar thermal systems, particularly for household use: the ability to produce heat and electricity simultaneously. They propose accomplishing this mean feat through a clever reconfiguration of the standard parabolic trough.

In a typical parabolic...

The world’s largest coal exporter and per capita emitter of greenhouse gases has just joined the EU, New Zealand, California and the the RGGI states in passing into law legislation that puts a price on carbon emissions. Australian prime ministers have been toppled for a decade in attempting the feat that current Prime Minister Gillard has just barely managed, overcoming the sort of fossil industry stonewalling that has choked sensible climate policy in the US since Al Gore first attempted a BTU tax in 1993.

With the narrow vote in the Senate, Australia will now join in ETS...

A prototype installed on the subsea at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) off the Orkney Islands in Scotland is the first tidal turbine to feed over 100 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electrical power into the national grid. The turbine was installed as part of the Deep-Gen III project, cofunded by the U.K. governmnet-backed Technology Strategy Board. The prototype was...

Friends,

What a busy weekend.  First the Occupy DC protests on Saturday and then the Keystone protest on Sunday.  I didn’t see anyone I knew though as I was surrounding the White House with college students from Vermont who I could tell are truly impacted by the Keystone pipeline.  What a scene though, which has put the White House in a politically tough spot.  Many of you have detailed that issue in your recent coverage. 

The President faces consequences with whatever decision he makes. As...

Here’s one slice of irony from today’s protest against TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline surrounding the White House: actually reducing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere from about 389 parts per million (ppm) currently to the widely-held threshold of 350 ppm is no longer possible.

West Virginia is Coal Country, but wind energy is making inroads there – with cutting-edge energy-storage capabilities, to boot. AES has announced the completion and full-scale commercial operation of its Laurel Mountain wind power plant. The 98-megawatt (MW) plant consists of 61 GE 1.6-MW wind turbine generators situated along a 13-mile stretch of Laurel Mountain near Elkins,...

The home of the future might see the end of power lines coming in from centralized electric utilities. Instead, imagine a combined heat and electric power system that employs a hydrogen fuel cell, generating all of the home’s electric power on the spot in a space not much bigger than what is now taken up by a water heater. The...

Grid-connected photovoltaic installations were a big bright spots in the recently released Annual Updates & Trends Report [...

Western grid operators have been making plans for large-scale renewable energy imports into the California electricity market, prompting the governor’s Senior Advisor for Renewable Energy Facilities to write a “self-reliance...

WSJ. Magazine, a glossy supplement to the Wall Street Journal, recently held its inaugural Innovator of the Year Awards, designed to honor “the most creative, disruptive, and influential individuals in the world today.” The winner in the technology division? None other than Elon Musk, CEO and co-founder of Tesla Motors.

Last week’s first commercial flight of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner potentially marks the beginning of a new era for the aviation industry. Its composite construction and 20% better fuel efficiency (than the 767) continues a long term trend of improvement by Boeing. But the numbers behind this essential global industry are daunting, albeit with impressive strides forward such as the 787.

A nationwide poll conducted by Kelton Research showed that just shy of 9 out of 10 Americans (89 percent) think it’s important for the United States to develop and use solar energy. Breaking the results out along voting lines, 80 percent of Republicans, 90 percent of Independents and 94 percent of Democrats agreed with the above. This is the fourth straight year Kelton’s survey results showed nearly 90% of Americans support developing solar energy.

...

China is still the most aggressive builder of reactors on the planet.

If you haven’t heard of Desertec yet, it’s about time you did. Desertec is a half-a-trillion-dollar renewable energy project (yes, I said trillion) planned for Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. We’ve written about it several times over the years. If built, it is projected to produce 15-20% of Europe’s electricity by 2050, as well as providing the...

Post-Solyndra, Americans still love solar power, according to a new poll from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) that shows just slight declines in the number of people approving of government support for the sector. This was the fourth year in a row the SEIA released the survey, sponsored by Schott Solar and conducted by the independent polling firm Kelton Research between Sept. 29 and...

Tim Greeff, Policy Director at the Clean Economy Network, talks to Planet Forward about the future of energy technology. Learn about a new smart grid idea and why Tim thinks EnergyStar’s model that gets the public and private sectors working together, is the way of the future.

The European Commission recently confirmed that €9.1 billion ($12.7 billion) for transmission networks would be included in the EU’s 2014-2020 budget plans. This is part of a €50-billion ($70-billion)...

Everyone these days, it seems, wants a piece of the home energy management system (HEMS) market, and for good reason: With a compound annual growth rate of nearly 13 percent since 2006, the global market for HEMS products is expected to reach $85 billion by 2015. That’s the word from SBI Energy, which recently published...