The recent plummet of the natural gas spot price to a 28-month low has stirred discussion about implications for renewable energy—the majority electrical generating component in RMI’s vision of the 2050 U.S. energy economy.

The Swedish company Hexicon, which has developed an innovative type of floating wind farm or two, may soon supply Malta with 9% of its electricity needs via one of these floating wind farms.

The power consumed by the central processing unit, or CPU, in a computer is significant, and most of it is converted to heat, which is a big design problem, causing a lot more power consumption by the fans and cooling systems. But perhaps not for much longer; Intel recently showed its Claremont chip, a standard Pentium design that was converted to the latest 32 nanometer process.

Lloyd Alter

A new fuel-efficiency-focused app for iPhone, Android and Windows phones called EcoSpeed claims fuel savings of 30 percent of more with its routing technology that also nudges drivers toward more fuel-sipping behavior as they go.

Megan Treacy

Researchers from Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology and Suntech Power Holdings have developed the world’s most efficient broadband nanoplasmonic solar cells for use in thin-film technology. Project scientists report improving the efficiency of existing thin-film cells by up to 8.1 percent through incorporating nucleated gold and silver nanoparticles.

The Queen City could soon be the clean (energy) city

Powering any city with 100 percent renewable energy sources without any significant cost increase for consumers is a no-brainer, right? The answer is definitely “yes” in Cincinnati, Ohio, where city officials are working on a deal that could have only renewable electrons flowing across the city by this summer.

The solar power company Solar Reserve has just announced a major construction milestone for its billion-dollar Crescent Dunes solar thermal project in Nevada, with the completion of the plant’s signature 540-foot central tower. That puts Crescent Dunes on track to begin operating in less than two years, following what has been a decades-long program of development, testing and demonstration for the company’s proprietary solar thermal technology.

Solar and wind energy would probably come to mind first when thinking about renewable energy potential among Caribbean nations, but the region is also home to considerable geothermal energy resources

 
Solar and wind energy would probably come to mind first when thinking about

Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/15wkT)

How much could you save by going solar? How much would it cost to install a solar system? What’s your estimated return on investment (ROI)?

It's 4:45 on a sweltering August afternoon, and the rooftop solar panels are starting to lose juice. The sun's lower angles and that huge cottonwood tree are interfering with the efficient photon-to-electricity transfer.

What is an environmentally conscious — but air-conditioning-loving — homeowner to do?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words — but what happens when what you want to look at is impossible to see?

Alexa McClanahan

The technology to improve access to fuel, electricity and clean water for some of the world’s poorest people may already be in the patent portfolios of the Energy Department’s National Labs. The challenge, however, can be finding dedicated organizations willing to develop the technology and bring it to market, which can mean bringing energy technology to the most remote parts of the world.

Michael Hess

Charis wrote on a market research report the other day that essentially said that electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids need an iCar to really get the public gung-ho about them. In other words, stop giving us the ‘green’ pitch that I (and probably you) love, but that most folks meet with relative indifference, and give us the “YOU NEED THIS OR YOU WILL BE SO UNCOOL” pitch.

As automakers are starting to bring electric vehicle (EV) technology into the mainstream, conservative media outlets have repeatedly misled consumers about electric cars by trying to paint them as environmentally harmful and unsafe, among other false claims.

— J.K.F. & S.T.

Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era offers market-based, actionable solutions integrating transportation, buildings, industry, and electricity.

While on sabbatical from RMIT University in Melbourne, Associate Professor Dr Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, joined MIT Associate Professor Professor Michael Strano’s nanotechnology research group and together accidentally discovered a new way to generate power.

As part of the Roosevelt Island Tidal Energy project, 30 turbines are being installed along the strait that connects the Long Island Sound with the Atlantic Ocean in the New York Harbor. The project, led by Verdant Power, Inc., is the first ever commercially licensed tidal energy project in the United States.

The turbines are scheduled to be fully installed by 2015 and will use the flow of the river and tides to generate 1,050 kilowatts of electricity -- enough to power 9,500 New York homes. 

 One area of intensive research at the nanoscale is the creation of electrically conductive meshes made of metal nanowires.

America’s first commercial-scale concentrating solar power (CSP) facility took a major step forward this week with completion of the project’s 540-foot tower.

When complete, the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, located near Tonopah, Nevada, will feature 110-megawatts of new solar capacity with fully integrated energy storage, and be the largest CSP facility in the world.

(Photo: U.S. Department of Energy)

As the sovereign debt crisis unfolds in Europe, onlookers have questioned whether the region will stay committed to renewable energy. The answer so far is “yes.”

Even with a few countries pulling back on government support of the industry because of fiscal troubles, 2011 was still a huge year for deployment — with wind and solar alone representing almost 70% of new capacity.

Stephen Lacey

A security flaw in web-connected home security cameras made by Trendnet, which distributes in Australia, is allowing internet users to spy on the private video feeds of thousands.

Ben Grubb

(CBS) - Hackers related to the group Anonymous recently attempted to extort $50,000 from the security software company Symantec. The hostage in question was the source code for Symantec's software pcAnywhere and Norton Antivirus.

Chenda Ngak

When times get tough, companies often fall back on an old familiar phrase: “we just need to do more with less.” That usually applies to human resources. But it’s equally important with natural resources.

As it turns out, “green” companies in California that do more with fewer natural resources fared much better than companies in other sectors during the worst of America’s economic troubles — more than doubling the performance of the broader economy.

Stephen Lacey

Boulder City, Nevada is best known as the home of Hoover Dam, once the largest hydroelectric power plant in the country. But the rapid expansion of solar power projects is quickly making a name for the city as the first solar-financed town in America.

(Image:CleanTechnica)

For years now, I have known three things: 1) a ton of people support solar power (government support for it, installing much more, etc.), 2) under 1% of U.S. electricity supply comes from solar, 3) one of the biggest barriers (if not THE biggest barrier) to people going solar is lack of information (not that the information doesn’t exist, just that people aren’t aware of it and often don’t know where to find it).
From cleantechnica.com (share this quote)

Which commercial building sector uses more energy per square foot than all but one other and is more than twice as energy-intensive as office buildings and schools? Grocery stores, second only to food service.

Hawaii is the most oil-dependent state in the nation, with more than 95% of its energy supplied by imported fossil fuels. Gas and electricity prices in Hawaii are also far above the national average. To increase its energy independence, Hawaii is revving up its state electric vehicle program, "EV Ready," thanks to $4.5 million in funding from the DOE's State Energy Program and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today plans to launch a new Energy Innovation Hub for advanced research on batteries and energy storage with an investment of up to $120 million over five years. The hub, which will be funded at up to $20 million in fiscal year 2012, will focus on accelerating research and development of electrochemical energy storage for transportation and the electric grid.  The interdisciplinary research and development through the new Energy Innovation Hub will help advance cutting-edge energy storage and battery technologies that can be used to improve the reliability and the efficiency of the electrical grid, to better integrate clean, renewable energy technologies as part of the electrical system, and for use in electric and hybrid vehicles that will reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil.

Yesterday, I focused a bit small-scale or medium-scale solar  (in the US & UK) here on CleanTechnica. On the flip side, news today from Solarbuzz is that utility-scale photovoltaic solar is growing fast in North America and looking for 2012 to be its top year yet.

Your Mileage May Vary

The plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version of Toyota's best-selling Prius hybrid, which is debuting in the U.S. next month and will be commercially available in 14 states this Spring (national rollout in 2013), was first supposed to be rated at around 87 MPG-equivalent.

Michael Graham Richard

BOSTON — Despite a handful of high-profile setbacks last year, Massachusetts’ clean energy industry is alive and thriving, according to Gov. Deval Patrick’s top environmental official.

Stanford University researchers this week announced they have designed a road-based, high-efficiency wireless charging system for electric vehicles. In theory, the system could help create a network of all-electric highways that charge electric cars and trucks while they drive, reduce the need for point-specific charging infrastructure, and eliminate range anxiety.

In a report published by Scientific Reports, researchers say they’re successfully working toward making low-cost solar cells from plants. While, technically, all plants are some sort of solar cell (photosynthesis takes sunlight, water, and CO2 and turns it into sugar, as you may remember from high school chemistry), the key here is the word “low cost.”

For those eager to overlook words, note the important word “growth” at the end of the title above—India didn’t crush the world in cleantech investment in 2011 (as you know if you’re a regular reader here on CleanTechnica) but a recent report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) shows that India had a tremendous cleantech investment growth rate of 52%. (As I noted in my 2012 solar expectations post, I think India’s going to have an even much better year in 2012.)

 Kyocera and Nichicon are readying the launch of a cleantech residential energy management system that brings together renewable energy electricity production, energy storage and management.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With developers having made their final end-of-year push through the last day of December, the January ritual of announcements concerning new projects entering commercial operation and new PPAs kicking in continued this week.

Gamesa and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are collaborating on next generation wind turbines for the US market.

The public-private partnership will collaborate on three key areas:

• Developing new wind turbine components and rotors for the US market;
• Researching and testing the performance of new control strategies; and
• Devising models that will help advance the development of offshore wind in US coastal waters.

The America’s Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge, a part of the Startup America initiative, makes it easier for start-ups to use inventions and technology developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s 17 National Laboratories and the Y-12 National Security Complex.

The companies highlighted below have signed option agreements allowing them to license valuable, cutting-edge technologies from one of the labs.

Top this, top that—it’s a busy week for solar lists and records. GTM Research recently put together a list of the top residential solar installers in the first three quarters of 2011. With well over 2,000 installers in a market of over $2 billion (in 2011), to top that list is clearly a feat,.. but it’s a feat accomplished without any doubt by one company, a company you must have heard of by now. The company is SolarCity, and it’s gobbled up a pretty astounding 14% of national market share (as a reminder, GTM Research has over 2,000 installers in its database).

In the most rigorous analyses undertaken to date, two recently released resource assessments show that waves and tidal currents off the nation's coasts contain enough energy to provide a significant portion our nation’s total annual electricity usage

Plug-n-play has become so integrated into daily life that most computer users don't give a second thought to hooking up a camera or smart phone to a laptop or tablet. Now, take the same concept and apply it to the nation's complex electrical systems when it comes to "plugging in" renewables or smart grid technologies.

(Image:     The Research Electrical Distri¬bution Bus (REDB) is the electrical back bone interconnecting many of the laboratories at ESIF. This state-of-the-art facility will enable NREL and industry to work together to develop and evaluate their individual technologies on a controlled integrated energy system platform.
Credit: Rendering courtesy of SmithGroupJJR  )

Astrowatt has developed a new manufacturing technique for solar cells that would enable them to attain the comparably high efficiency of traditional silicon wafer solar panels, but while using the silicon raw material much more efficiently.

It’s true—amazing solar tech innovations just keep coming. Some advances come in the form of new handheld devices and applications. Others promise to elevate solar into a mainstream energy source that may one day replace greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels. Here are five recent innovations that have left both solar experts and newbies in a daze.

Warren Buffett’s utility subsidiary, MidAmerican Energy Holdings, has made a number of large investments in renewable energy over the past few years. But the famed investor doesn’t exactly make environmentalists jump for joy.

Stephen Lacey

Last week I wrote about the time-of-use pricing scheme that PG&E offers in San Francisco, and how solar power is worth 14% more compared to a standard flat-rate electricity plan.  In reality, it's 36% or more.

John Farrell

Encouraging news regarding private sector financing for renewable energy continues to flow in. That’s especially good in the midst of a Congress hopelessly divided on key energy and environmental policy goals and legislation, among other critical issues, and the uncertainty surrounding renewal of key clean energy incentives.

At an event today in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the 20 collegiate teams selected to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2013 and unveiled the competition's location, the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, California. The 20 teams from colleges and universities across the United States and from around the world will now begin a two-year process to build solar-powered, highly energy-efficient homes that combine affordability, consumer appeal and design excellence. Throughout the two-year process, the teams will design, construct, and test their homes before reassembling them at the Solar Decathlon 2013 competition site. As part of the Solar Decathlon, teams compete in ten different categories—ranging from best architecture and engineering to energy production for heating and cooling—while gaining invaluable real-world experience in a growing global industry.

This video provides an overview of the principles, applications, and benefits of generating electricity using power towers, a concentrating solar power (CSP) technology. A brief animation explains how the energy from sunlight is converted to clean electricity via either a direct-steam system or molten-salt system.

Mall operators and retailers consider the chargers a good investment, a way to one-up competitors and burnish a green reputation — even though few of their customers own electric vehicles.

By Shan Li

The Military Health System identified Symantec's Veritas Storage Foundation storage software as the cause of a shutdown of the AHLTA clinical data repository, which stores 9.7 million electronic records for active-duty and retired military personnel and their families.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today invited energy efficient product manufacturers, manufactured housing experts, and other home performance industry stakeholders to review and comment on its Standard Work Specifications for Manufactured Housing. Developed under DOE’s Guidelines for Home Energy Professionals project, the specifications are voluntary guidelines that outline minimum requirements for high-quality energy upgrades in manufactured housing. The industry review period will remain open through February 3, 2012.

Debating how the US geothermal industry can best take advantage of California’s superb renewable energy rules, and working for extending the geothermal federal tax credit, were the two hot topics at the fourth annual Geothermal Energy Association Finance Forum in San Francisco, California recently.

A new study has found that being able to purchase a rooftop solar panel system is often a privilege of the affluent, but that leasing rooftop solar panel systems is an increasingly popular option for those who simply don’t have the money to pay up front.

New research could lead to more cost-effective materials for using waste heat for electricity and cooling – opening up innovation in a new class of waste heat conversion technologies.

by Zachary Rybarczyk

A rising attitude of austerity has been sweeping the nation for some time now, with the loudest voices putting near term deficit concerns in front of commitment to long term economic growth. But a temporary spike in government spending might be the most effective way to boost demand for goods, services, and labor in the face of lingering U.S. economic malaise – and at a relatively low cost.

Brazil is planning a major expansion of big dams in the Amazon Basin, a move opposed by many environmental groups

By Julia Pyper and ClimateWire

The structural oversupply of solar modules on the global market has driven down prices for photovoltaic panels at an astonishing pace. And new analysis shows that decline will only continue into 2012.

Stephen Lacey

(MoneyWatch)Lusting for a Lamborghini or Bentley? Not if you grew up listening to the Backstreet Boys and winning trophies for, umm, everything. A new survey finds that most Gen Y consumers (a k a "Millennials") have a high affinity for green, eco-friendly vehicles versus any other type of car.

Farnoosh Torabi

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released two nationwide resource assessments showing that waves and tidal currents off the nation's coasts could contribute significantly to the United States' total annual electricity production, further diversify the nation's energy portfolio, and provide clean, renewable energy to coastal cities and communities

Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and New Zealand agreed to contribute $620 million toward development of a ninth satellite in the U.S. Wideband Global satellite communications system, top U.S. Air Force officials told a press conference at the Canadian Embassy in Washington on Tuesday.

(Air Force illustration)

Rocky Mountain Institute visited the University of California, San Diego to study and document the “microgrid” that controls and integrates electricity supply and demand on the campus. UCSD’s microgrid is one of the best examples of an electricity network that provides local control yet is interconnected with the larger electricity grid.

According to The New York Times, the electric cars on display in Detroit are adopting one of two overriding design philosophies: make it exciting, or make it familiar.

The article posits that certain analysts foresee a time when car buyers will pick from similar-looking cars that offer various types of electric, hybrid and conventional powertrains—much as shoppers now choose among 4-, 6- or 8-cylinder engines.

Figures this week showed that the first mass-produced electric cars in the United States, the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt, had total sales of 17,345 in 2011, the first year in which they were available.

Randy Essex & Ben Holland

Total new investment in clean energy increased 5% to $260bn in 2011, despite the sluggish global economy and a painful squeeze on manufacturers

London and New York, 12 January 2012 – Global investment in clean energy reached a new record of $260bn in 2011, up 5% on 2010 and almost five times the total of $53.6bn in 2004. Investment in solar far outstripped that in wind, and perhaps of most note, US clean energy investment moved back ahead of China for the first time since 2008, according to the latest authoritative data from analysis company Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Last year also saw the one trillionth dollar invested in clean energy globally since the company started compiling data in 2004.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is currently seeking proposals for a portable web-based biometric fingerprint sensor

The high-level goal of RMI’s solar program is to accelerate the deployment of photovoltaic solar systems in the U.S. We’re going about this in three primary ways, all aimed at collaborating with entities throughout the solar ecosystem:

1)Help industry reduce hard and soft balance of system costs
2)Streamline investor access to PV systems
3)Assist utilities with the integration of distributed PV

IBM has invented a lithium-air battery technology that makes it possible to drive electric vehicles (EVs) for 500 miles (804 km) per charge.

Solar grid parity is considered the tipping point for solar power, when installing solar power will cost less than buying electricity from the grid. It’s also a tipping point for the electricity system, when millions of Americans can choose energy production and self-reliance over dependence on their electric utility.

But this simple concept conceals a great deal of complexity. And given the stakes of solar grid parity, it’s worth exploring the details.

More than a decade ago, Denmark built the world’s first offshore wind farm near Copenhagen. Since then offshore wind has been added to the energy portfolio of nine other countries in Europe and Asia.

by Richard W. Caperton, Michael Conathan, Jackie Weidman

The Department of Energy (DOE) today announced two new online tools to assist state and local policymakers, consumers, and stakeholders in evaluating siting and policy issues to help accelerate the use of distributed wind energy systems – such as wind turbines installed at a homes and businesses. DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy funded development of the "Distributed Wind Site Analysis Tool" and "Distributed Wind Policy Comparison Tool" through American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants. The tools are designed to help more people across the country install wind turbines to produce clean, renewable energy.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Solar3D, Inc. (OTCBB: SLTD), the developer of a breakthrough 3-dimensional solar cell technology to maximize the conversion of sunlight into electricity, today announced a design breakthrough that will substantially reduce the mass production cost of its new super-efficient solar cell.

“BP Wind Energy and Sempra U.S. Gas & Power today announced plans to further expand their strategic relationship by jointly developing the Mehoopany Wind Farm in Pennsylvania and the Flat Ridge 2 Wind Farm in Kansas that represent a combined investment of more than $1 billion,” BP & Sempra announced in a press release yesterday.

Looking to diversify its energy mix and economy by increasing use of renewable energy, His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai’s ruler and vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), launched a 12-billion UAE dirham (Dhs) ($3.27 billion) solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) project on January 10.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the release of the third installment in a series of four 50% Advanced Energy Design Guides (AEDGs). This latest guide will help architects, engineers, and contractors design and build highly efficient retail buildings, helping to save energy and cut store operational costs. The 50% AEDG series provides a practical approach for designers and builders of retail stores, and other major commercial building types, to achieve 50% energy savings compared to the building energy code used in many parts of the nation. These commercial building guides support President Obama's goal to reduce energy use in commercial buildings 20% by 2020. The Advanced Energy Design Guide for 50% energy savings in retail buildings is now available for download.

The deadline to apply for a funding opportunity for the SunShot Incubator Program for Soft Cost Reduction is January 16, 2012.

What if all cars cost more than $75,000 today? How many of us would own one? This is exactly the situation your great-grandparents may have faced before Henry Ford changed the world by thinking outside the box. Through innovative assembly line processing, he democratized automobiles, making the Model T something most Americans could own.

Funding: Up to $7M Total

Open Date: 11/15/2011

Close Date: 03/05/2012

Funding Organization: Solar Energy Technologies Program

Lately, much of the press coverage of electric cars has implied that the technology has been a huge letdown. See, for instance, USA Today’s story: “Are electric cars losing their spark?” The angst mostly centers around sales: In 2011, the first year they were available, the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt sold just 17,345 units in the United States — slightly below expectations.

Brad Plumer

Republicans during Tuesday's New Hampshire primary will use a technology recognizable to Washington and Lincoln to make their choices

Voters in the recent Iowa caucuses and Tuesday's New Hampshire primary will rely on paper ballots as they have for generations. In the very next primary on January 21, South Carolinians will vote with backlit touch-screen computers.

By Larry Greenemeier

SportsArt Fitness, a designer and manufacturer of fitness equipment with many “green” credentials, is going beyond self-generating elliptical trainers that require no electricity to operate. It is now offering its “Green System.” The Green System is a suite of specially-engineered exercise machines coupled with a power inverter which promise to harness the human energy that typically dissipates as wasted heat into the atmospheres of gyms around the country.

2011 was, it’s generally agreed, a crappy year. There were tornados in the US, flooding in Asia, an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, and financial turmoil in Europe. Even the Arab Spring, which we’ve all been so excited about, has yet to produce any definitively democratic governments.

by Randy Essex, cross-posted from the Rocky Mountain Institute

With Iran threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, chokepoint for the passage of 17 percent of globally traded oil, this is a good time to introduce myself to Outlet readers. This set of issues—oil addiction and the vehicle-centric, land-abusing society it engenders—has a lot to do with why I joined RMI as editorial director after a 30-year newspaper career.

Randy Essex

The British Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) released new numbers late last week showing that companies have invested £2.5 billion ($3.9 billion) into renewable energy projects across the United Kingdom so far this financial year, an investment which has the potential to create almost 12,000 jobs across the country.

Funding: No funding available; request for information only

Open Date: 01/04/2012

Close Date: 01/31/2012

Funding Organization: SunShot Initiative

Funding Number: DE-FOA-0000634

The first floating offshore wind turbine is undergoing tests more than 200 miles off the coast of Portugal

In the race for bigger offshore wind turbines, what's under the water can be just as much trouble as what's above.

2011 has turned out to be a groundbreaking year for electric vehicles—literally. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) earlier this week chose a shopping center in Bellingham as the first location to break ground on the state’s segment of the West Coast Electric Highway, part of a 444-kilometer stretch of road along Interstate 5 between Washington’s borders with Oregon and Canada.

By Larry Greenemeier

The Village of Oak Park, Illinois, is initiating a 100% green powered community choice program for its residents and small businesses, which is expected to launch in January 2012.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) approved the CleanPowerSF community choice program, which is expected to begin as early as July 2012. Community choice aggregation is a state policy that enables local governments to aggregate electricity demand within their jurisdictions in order to procure alternative energy supplies while maintaining the existing electricity provider for transmission and distribution services.

Cloud Hosting and Colocation Provider Increases their Commitment to Renewable Energy

CHEYENNE, WY – December 16, 2011 – Announced today, Green House Data has increased their purchase of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) by 100% in 2011.  Due to the company’s exceptional growth of cloud hosting and colocation services, paired with their voluntary commitment to 100% renewable energy, Green House Data has expanded their green power purchase to 1.8M kWh.  This annual electricity purchase is equivalent to avoiding 1,303 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, or in other words, eliminating the green house gas emissions of approximately 250 cars each year.

The City of Olympia, Washington has approved five new community solar projects, which will be installed at the Hands on Children's Museum, City Hall, the Olympia Community Center, Fire Station #4, and Fir Street Reservoir.

Approves Interior’s 24th and 25th major renewable energy projects with Arizona’s first solar project and a California wind project; Announces next steps toward offshore wind transmission line

WASHINGTON – Capping three years of efforts to develop renewable energy resources on public lands both onshore and offshore, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced approval of two utility-scale renewable energy projects—one wind and one solar—that, when built, will generate nearly 500 megawatts of power, or enough to power 150,000 homes, and create 700 jobs during peak construction. Secretary Salazar also announced the first major step in developing an offshore wind transmission line on the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf.

Washington D.C. – Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) announced today a major breakthrough in engineering systems of RNA molecules through computer-assisted design, which could lead to important improvements across a range of industries, including the development of cheaper 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 three types of transportation fuels – gasoline, diesel and jet fuels.

In December, Wind for Schools project teams in Arizona and Virginia each installed a new turbine. The Arizona Wind for Schools team announced the installation of a Skystream turbine at the Orme School in Orme.

Just weeks after the solar industry installed the one millionth system in Germany, the country’s solar trade association announced that the technology accounted for 3% of total energy generation in 2011 — increasing 60% over 2010 to 18.6 terawatt-hours (18.6 billion kilowatt-hours.)

--Stephen Lacey

(photo:solarwirtschaft.de)

The Photobiology Group's research goal is to enable transformative technology developments in photobiological systems for producing hydrogen and hydrocarbon-based chemicals and liquid biofuels. Photobiological systems in algae and cyanobacteria are promising on their own as a basis for advanced biofuels production technologies and also as a model from which to understand and develop biohybrid and biomimetic systems.

For years manufacturers have tantalized consumers with the promise of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) televisions capable of delivering more brilliant colors (including deeper blacks), and greater levels of contrast and brightness than any other television screen—all with rapid video response rate. OLEDs are already in regular use to provide crystal-clear screens for smart phones, car stereos and digital cameras.

By Larry Greenemeier

Energy independence, two words that evoke all sorts of questions: What’s "clean"? What’s safe? What’s cheap? What’s sustainable?

By Josh Sternberg

The momentum for electric utilities to achieve high levels of energy efficiency savings has never been greater. Regulation has taken the lead. Utilities operating in seven states, for example, are required to meet more than 20 percent of their load in 2020 with energy efficiency programs.

Researchers have begun to show that a floating axis wind turbine (FAWT) could in fact generate cheaper energy than the more standard offshore horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT).

 A project that involved 1.8 megawatts (MW) of solar power, 500 geothermal wells, and fuel cells could potentially reduce energy consumption at a Cornell University campus by 75%. The campus has the name “NYC Tech Campus” and is a project of Distributed Sun.