efficiency
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iPod inventor’s next trick: a smart thermostat
I've said before that the next Steve Jobs would be in energy, not in information technology, but I had no idea that day would arrive quite so soon. As filmmaker and design critic John Pavlus reports at Fast Company, Tony Fadell, who invented the iPod, is working on a thermostat as intuitive and potentially revolutionary as … […]
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Why are all the ‘most efficient states’ blue states?
This year's list of the top 10 most energy-efficient states looks an awful lot like the map of red and blue states from the 2008 election. (Data were compiled by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.) We're not sure why. Got an opinion? Share it in the comments.
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Biomass an important contribution, but not a magic bullet
There is a growing enthusiasm for biomass, as pundits like Arne Jungjohann look at small towns in Europe that are able to get 100% of their energy by burning wood and other biomass. But when these cases are presented out of context, I’m afraid some may draw unwarrantedly optimistic conclusions. Biomass power is not, in itself, […]
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The military's historic embrace of smart energy
The U.S. military's embrace of energy efficiency and renewable energy is going to be one of the great stories of the coming decade.
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Carbon taxes that don't work are a bad idea
There's a perspective that's gaining ground in the energy policy debate: emissions taxes may not be very effective in fighting global warming, but we should support them anyway.
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Gigantic flywheels recover, recycle subway trains' energy
If subway stations could harvest the energy of incoming trains as they hit their brakes, they could re-use that same energy to launch the same train as it leaves the station. That's the idea behind Vycon flywheels, which are gigantic spinning wheels that act as temporary energy storage mechanisms.
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How Gmail saves energy
There are a lot of benefits to cloud computing. For instance, if you believe the commercials, it lets you replace your family’s heads with better heads! Also, it saves you storage space and means you can access your data with multiple devices. But this might be the best argument so far: Switching from local email […]
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The trucks of the future will have skirts, tails, and fins
This month, the White House announced the first-ever fuel efficiency standards for heavy trucks — heavy pick-ups, work vans and trucks (think the Frito-Lay delivery guy), and tractor-trailers. The people who make these behemoths have never had to think about fuel economy before, but now they do. And there's lots of room for improvement.
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Google's open-source, wireless, smartphone-controlled lightbulb
Google continues to roll out new details about its wirelessly-controlled “smart” lightbulb, which gets around all the problems usually associated with making a home energy-aware. The latest: the company is working on open-source software that will run on the lightbulbs themselves.