Latest Articles
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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.
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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.
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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.)
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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.
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Coal energy drink keeps you going — until it all runs out
Brought to you by the comedians at the Renewable Energy Accountability Project.
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How to fork Wall Street over
Where does food fit into the Wall Street occupation? From the pizza deliveries to the impact our banking system has on agricultural policy -- we used Storify to compile the latest!
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Critical List: Green jobs program flounders; India calls Monsanto out on biopiracy
Oof. Only 10 percent of people the Labor Department trained for green jobs have found work.
Using solar energy to extract oil must be the ultimate example of greenwashing.
In Afghanistan, networking generators together can relieve 7,900 fuel trucks of their duties and keep soldiers from risking their lives to bring oil into the country.
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Meet clean energy's smart guy
MacArthur "genius award"-winner Shwetak Patel talks about a future where your house tracks your energy consumption -- and your every move.
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Food Studies: The nose knows
The latest scientific research on smell and taste inspires Erin to brew a beer that is savory, sweet, spicy, and cold.
