Climate Technology
All Stories
-
![]()
![]()
'Floatovoltaics' energize otherwise boring bodies of water
'Flotovoltaics,' solar panels that float on existing reservoirs, leads to all kinds of unexpected side benefits. At the Far Niente winery in Napa Valley, which pioneered the technology in the U.S., their floating solar grid reduces evaporation from their irrigation pond and inhibits algae growth. It also saves the winery from giving up valuable grape-growing land, even as it produces more electricity than the winery uses.
-
![]()
![]()
Infographic: What it would take to meet Obama's 2035 clean energy goals?
Obama wants 80 percent of America's energy to come from clean and renewable sources by 2035. But what would that really take? Mostly, it means replacing 2/3 of our coal-fired power plants with power sources that don't depend on fossil fuels. The scale of that ambition is difficult to comprehend — which is why it's […]
-
![]()
![]()
Revival of 117-year-old canal cuts cargo emissions 65 percent
Turns out shipping by barge is crazy efficient. It's also kind of picturesque! (According to this video from CNN there are no mules anymore, but we choose to imagine mules to up the picturesqueness factor.)
-
![]()
![]()
Solar could be as cheap as coal by end of decade
A report from the Chinese government asserts that solar power will be as cheap as coal by 2015. Industry watchers have already predicted that the cost of solar will drop by half by 2020, putting it at parity with coal-fired power. And solar is already competitive on sunny days when utilities pay a premium for "peak" power.
-
![]()
![]()
Mark Ruffalo wants you to fight the tar sands
Actor Mark Ruffalo explains why you should join him and thousands of others in protesting the Keystone XL pipeline in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 20.
-
![]()
![]()
Walmart to go 100 percent renewable … in Canada
As the world's biggest, union-bustingest retailer, gigantic sack of Chinese lead paint chips Walmart has the opportunity to push more money at sustainability than pretty much anybody else on the planet. Which is why the company, like IKEA before it, is committing to getting 100 percent of its power from renewable sources!
-
![]()
![]()
'Carbon recycling' makes fuel directly from air
At Sandia National Laboratories, a giant array of mirrors heats rings of metal oxides to 2,550 degrees F, allowing a beer-keg-size reactor to produce carbon monoxide or hydrogen gas out of CO2 or water. The result is known as syngas, and it can be further processed into the kind of hydrocarbon-based fuels (think gasoline and diesel) upon which our transportation infrastructure depends.
-
![]()
![]()
Solar-powered bulb brings both light and commerce to developing countries
Steve Katsaros, inventor of the Nokero solar-powered lightbulb, recently told CNN that he decided to sell his bulbs rather than give them away even though it runs counter to the traditional model of aid to the developing world.
-
![]()
![]()
Lake Michigan has become unfishable
While lobster fishermen in the Long Island Sound are stubbornly — but just barely — hanging on, people who depended on the fishing stock in the Great Lakes for their livelihood can no longer make it. Lake Michigan is a "liquid desert," reports Dan Egan in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Even the most devoted fishing family Egan can find is sending one of its own up to Alaska, because "he can catch more fish in one day in Alaska than he can catch all winter off Milwaukee."
-
![]()
![]()
Record-breaking electric car gets 1,000 miles to the charge
What's that? Could it be the whip-crack of range anxiety being dragged out back and shot?
