Latest Articles

By 2015, we could see a new generation of photovoltaic technologies, including 3-D solar cells

Image: Solar3DCross-posted from Climate Progress. Solar photovoltaics (PV) is one of the hottest high-tech areas around. For instance, 3-D technology is all the rage these days. Now, one company thinks it can bring the concept to solar too. Santa Barbara-based Solar3D is working on a silicon “microcell” at the nano scale that uses an optical […]

Cost of adding tons of renewables to U.S. electric grid has been almost zero, say studies

Many states have "renewable portfolio standards" mandating that they produce a certain percentage of their electricity from renewable sources. Libertarian and tea bag-ish critics of these standards have said that they will cause electricity rates to "skyrocket." But the numbers are in, and guess what? Science says the critics are wrong. Utility companies’ experiences vary […]

Sexiest LED lightbulb ever is first true alternative to incandescents

The true successors to incandescent lightbulbs aren't CFLs, but LEDs, which are a totally different technology that, to date, has been a tad too expensive for most consumer. (Think $40 to $50 a bulb.) Switch LED aims to change that, with a bulb technology that's different in a handful of key ways. First, the bulbs […]

Making power lines beautiful with the help of a giant reindeer

Here's the down side of increased renewables: It means an increase in unsightly overhead power lines. And if you can't put them underground (which isn't always feasible), the answer might lie in turning an eyesore into a triumph of design. Germany is abandoning nuclear and embarking on a big renewables push, but to make it […]

TV vs. Computer: The energy use showdown

Given a choice between spending an hour watching TV or surfing the Internet, which should you choose, assuming, of course, that your goal is not entertainment but consuming the least energy possible? This handy graphic provides the answer: It's surfing the Internet: At .09 kilowatt-hours per hour, your computer consumes the least energy of any […]

McCaskill defends vote to hurt sick kids by saying the League of Women Voters are ‘bad guys’

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), after a recent vote to protect coal polluters at the expense of children’s health, is now attacking the League of Women Voters. The 91-year-old good-government organization is running television spots that hold McCaskill and Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) accountable for voting to block enforcement of Clean […]

Socolow reaffirms 2004 ‘wedges’ paper, urges aggressive low-carbon deployment ASAP

This is a wedge issue.In 2004, Princeton professors Robert Socolow and Stephen Pacala published a paper in Science, “Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies” [PDF]. The abstract read: Humanity already possesses the fundamental scientific, technical, and industrial know-how to solve the carbon and climate problem for the […]

Fracking with our food: how gas drilling affects farming

Photo: Gilt Taste This story originally appeared on Gilt Taste. There’s a stunning moment in the Academy Award-nominated documentary Gasland, where a man touches a match to his running faucet — to have it explode in a ball of fire. This is what hydraulic fracturing, a process of drilling for natural gas known as “fracking,” […]

The man who thinks Manhattan isn’t dense enough

New York City may not be the best example of a place that hasn’t lived up to its potential for greater density.Photo: Randy von LiskiCross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. New York County, which comprises all of Manhattan, is the densest county in America at 71,166 people per square mile. It is twice as […]

It’s official: Massey’s negligence killed 29 miners

A year after the deadly blast at the Massey-owned Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, it's official: The disaster was Massey's fault. I'm not sure what the team of independent investigators thought they were going to find — vengeful sprites? A cursed sarcophagus? Workers deliberately blowing themselves up for funsies? — but they found […]