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Green jobs by the numbers

Cleantech sectors saw explosive growth in 2003-2010, despite the Great Recession.

Without GMO labels, we all eat in the dark [VIDEO]

Two new campaigns suggest that eaters are ready for a more transparent food system.

German state minister: The Kochs are ruining U.S. renewables

Ever wonder why Germany has a robust renewables economy, while the U.S. keeps claiming it's not achievable? Here's a theory from Franz Unterskeller, German state minister for the environment, climate, and energy:

We don't have the situation like you have in the U.S., where you have this Koch brothers.

How climate change denial lets the fuel industry run politics, in one handy chart

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the climate change denial machine.

Wind power: a growing source of green manufacturing jobs the U.S. is trying to botch

Wind provides what everyone wants: high-skill, high-wage jobs with potential for huge growth. Why aren't U.S. policymakers doing more to support it?

U.S. might meet its climate targets — by accident

How bad is the economy? So bad that we might actually meet our greenhouse gas emissions targets, laid out in 2009 at Copenhagen, by accident.

Germany has so much wind energy, they'll pay you to take it

How much will switching to renewables raise your utility bill? How about NEGATIVE ALL OF IT? In Germany, wind and solar projects have regularly been generating so much surplus energy that utilities are paying consumers to take it off the grid. High winds -- although not that high, only 15 mph -- led to negative-price wind energy for nine hours on July 24, bringing Germany's total to 31 hours of below-zero-cost energy this year. 

World's second tallest structure will power 100,000 homes a day with hot air

If a clean energy project in the Arizona desert goes forward, the second tallest structure on Earth will be a 2,600-foot solar updraft tower, which could last 80 years and generate 200 MW of electricity each day -- using only hot air. (Insert your own joke about how we could power Cleveland with Bill O’Reilly.)

The tower works on the principle that hot air rises. In this case, it rises through the tower, turning turbines as it goes. The tower uses no water, and it works pretty much all the time, unlike wind and solar projects. (At night, the ground is still letting off the heat it captured during the day, so there's still hot air available to float upward.)
 

Take a video tour of UMD’s prize-winning Solar Decathlon house

The Chesapeake Bay's sad state has yielded on positive result: the bay ecosystem inspired the  University of Maryland's "WaterShed" house, which won the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon over the weekend.

You can take a tour of the house above. WaterShed features solar panels, a green roof, a rain harvesting system, solar thermal water heating, sink and shower water filtration, "constructed wetlands" instead of gardens, and an indoor waterfall (!) that helps control humidity.

Coal energy drink keeps you going — until it all runs out

Brought to you by the comedians at the Renewable Energy Accountability Project.