Climate Technology
All Stories
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Direct subsidies to fossil fuels are the tip of the (melting) iceberg
In recent years, energy subsidies have risen to become a first-tier political issue. Lots of folks are thinking and talking about them, which is absolutely a Good Thing. However, the discussion has remained narrow and legalistic in a way that obscures some larger realities. The usual question that gets asked is, who gets more direct […]
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New ‘fish-friendly’ turbine means way more hydro power
Every year, the U.S. forgoes 8,500 megawatts of electricity because operating our hydro power facilities at full capacity would turn an unacceptable number of migratory fish into Li'l Lisa Slurry. (That's the equivalent of almost nine nuclear reactors' worth of lost baseload power.) So scientists and utilities are understandably pumped about the Alden Fish-Friendly Turbine, […]
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Investors representing $20 trillion get behind climate change prevention
It's sort of a no-brainer to realize that we need to invest in clean energy technology and get governments to institute policies that support those investments. Greens have been saying that for ages. But greens, for the most part, do not represent $20 trillion in assets. So when people who do wield that amount of […]
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Wind turbine with Inspector Gadget arms makes twice the power
A simple new idea in wind turbines could increase their power production by 100 percent over the course of a year, and even make it possible to put turbines in places where they were uneconomical before. By giving turbines blades that extend — longer for lower speed winds, shorter for faster winds — researcher Rajnish […]
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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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Energy prices haven’t budged in 50 years — but oil is crazy expensive
Americans pay about the same as they did in 1960 for most forms of energy, says this infographic produced by the home energy audit folks at WellHome. Except for oil, which is now on average even more crazy-expensive than it was during the oil crisis of the 1970's, when people were ready to bash each […]
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Carbon-eating paint could clean air and strengthen buildings
Okay, now this one really sounds fake: Scientists are working on a carbon-eating paint, which would be capable of turning emissions into limestone. In other words, it would let buildings eat carbon and then use that fuel to grow, like a living thing. The secret is synthetic chemicals that behave like microorganisms. Their creator calls […]
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China pours money into smart grid technology
Cross-posted from Center for American Progress. There is no way to get around this fact — China aims to modernize its energy infrastructure at home and dominate clean energy technology markets abroad. At the 2011 Smart Grid World Forum in Beijing late last month, China’s State Grid Corporation announced plans to invest $250 billion in […]
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Solar airship is most efficient way to fly, ever
How can you carry huge amounts of cargo thousands of miles with no fuel and no infrastructure? By combining an airship with an airplane, of course. The resulting wing-shaped blimp requires less helium than a conventional dirigible, but has a shorter takeoff than an airplane. Hybrid Air Vehicles has been proposing this for years, but upstart […]
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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.