The division of the U.S. government’s National Security Space Office known as “Dream Works” (no joke) has formulated a vision for a space-based solar system that would capture sunlight with satellite solar arrays and beam it down to Earth.In a report released yesterday, the NSSO recommended laying the groundwork for commercial development of the [...]
In the race to produce cheaper solar cells using new manufacturing methods and materials, solar startups have been requiring more and more money to get their products to market. Over the past few months, Konarka, Miasolé, HelioVolt, and Nanosolar have all raised funding in an effort to reach the large-scale manufacturing stage. Another company made [...]
Perhaps it’s because their conservative base is wary of the environmental issue, or maybe it’s because they don’t want to sound like tax-and-spend liberals, but the Republicans are quieter than the Democrats when it comes to exact figures for funding clean technologies.However, the major Republican candidates have come out and made statements about where greener [...]
Unless you’re as clued in as Ms. Teen South Carolina, you’ve noticed that corporations are increasingly focused on lowering energy consumption, reducing carbon emissions and touting their general eco-friendliness. Less obvious is that the startups that are in the business of enabling this green trend – consulting, selling carbon offsets, etc. — are already making [...]
Biodiesel Plant’s New Tech: Benefuel and Seymour Biofuels will build a biodiesel refinery based on solid catalyst that can convert low-grade fats and vegetable oils into biodiesel — Seattle PI.Shell Shilling for Clean Coal: Shell is looking to license its coal gasification technology — Reuters.The UnJolly Green Chemist: There’s an increasing amount of universities incorporating [...]
We don’t want to kick corn-based ethanol while it’s down, but in another sign that the ethanol boom is coming to an end, Monsanto (MON) CEO Hugh Grant is predicting a slight decline in corn plantings for 2008. This follows a 2007 crop season in which corn acreage leapt 19 percent to a record high.Monsanto, [...]
Where do we tackle the dirty-burning coal dilemma — in the power plant or in the ground? (Or how about neither and we just go with clean energy?) Luca Technologies is betting on the ground, and the Golden, Colo.-based startup that works with naturally-occurring microbes in coal beds to stimulate an increased production of methane [...]
Amidst all the inflated rhetoric about the war in Iraq, health care and new taxes, you’ll be forgiven if you’ve had trouble separating one candidate from the next on environmental technology issues. But one of these people might become the next president, and billions in funding (as well as the fate of the planet) hangs [...]
If you can measure it, you can manage it. When the “it” is temperature, even small differences allow you to manage a host of things. Space Instruments, a small San Diego company, has a high-resolution infrared sensing system that helps fight forest fires, contain oil spills, and map chemical pollution flowing into water sources.One NASA [...]
About half of the electricity Americans consume comes from coal, and China’s economic boom is being fueled by the dirty-burning stuff. So while we’d prefer an end to all coal, technologies to capture and store the carbon emissions from coal plants will just have to help us out in the meantime. The DOE said today [...]
