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Shine on: 2011 Solar Decathlon shoots for the stars [SLIDESHOW]

Eat it, Dwell. The kids who designed the sun-fired homes for the 2011 Solar Decathlon came up with some remarkably innovative designs, each engineered to meet the challenges of the local climate and/or economy. Read our Decathlon review here. Winners will be announced Saturday.

Can the wind industry survive without federal tax credits?

The wind production tax credit, a key incentive for new wind energy projects, is set to expire at the end of 2012.

Economists say coal is incredibly costly

An analysis compares the "gross external damages" of six major pollutants with their value added to the economy, and coal comes out the biggest loser.

Come and get your Endangered Species Condoms [SLIDESHOW]

The Center for Biological Diversity wants to give away 100,000 Endangered Species Condoms this fall. Wanna help? Sign up and you’ll always have a good pick-up line. The condoms are part of the 7 Billion and Counting campaign highlighting how population growth threatens diversity.

Come and get your Endangered Species Condoms

The Center for Biological Diversity wants to give away 100,000 Endangered Species Condoms this fall. Wanna help?

Big Oil's mountain of cash

Oil companies cling to tax breaks while hoarding tens of billions.

Does energy storage compensate for water-thirsty concentrating solar thermal power?

This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Concentrating solar thermal power has promised big additions to renewable energy production with the additional benefit of energy storage.  But with significant water consumption in desert locations, is the energy storage benefit of concentrating solar enough […]

Germany's phaseout reveals the true costs of nuclear power

Bad news for nuclear advocates: Nuclear power turns out even more expensive than we thought.

Change GDP, change the world

What if social and political change -- changes in government policy, cultural norms -- can do for demand what technological change can do for supply?

Economists: Every $1 of electricity from coal does $2 in damage to U.S.

We all knew coal is harmful -- we figured people just ignored that harm because of their profit margins. But according to the prestigious American Economic Review, harm from coal-fired electrical plants costs more than twice as much as the electricity they generate. All told, coal plants cause $53 billion in damage every year. And none of that even takes climate impacts into account.