Climate Technology
All Stories
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Critical List: Oil prices drop; Soros invests in energy efficiency
Oil prices went down -- for about a minute, before they started climbing again -- after the International Energy Agency announced the release of emergency supplies.
The Department of Energy is backing the $2.6 billion Project Amp, which will install 733 megawatts of solar -- as much as was installed in all of 2010 -- in 28 states over four years.
To make it even clearer that the the vast liberal conspiracy has it in for dirty energy: The right wing’s favorite bogeyman George Soros joined forces with Google to invest $25 million in an energy efficiency company called Transphorm. (Don't worry, conspiracy theorists, it's only $25 million! They can't be that serious about this.) -
We should all have plastic money like Canada
Canada has unveiled new polymer bills, which will replace paper $100 bills and, by 2012, paper 50s and 20s. They're super slick and futurey-looking (even though they still feature pictures of the prime minister from 1911). More importantly, they're designed to prevent fraud and will be better for the environment than paper money.
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How better window glass will extend electric cars' range
As you already know if you’ve tried to chug your car up a hill on a really hot day, cranking the AC reduces fuel efficiency. In an electric car with a limited range to begin with, that's a big deal, and can mean shaving dozens of miles off the distance a vehicle can travel on a single charge.
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New solar cells can be printed right onto buildings
The world's largest dye-sensitized solar cell has just made an appearance. These cells have a couple of major advantages over traditional solar cells: one, they're incredibly cheap, and two, they can be printed right onto the materials used to make a building. Right now they’re being incorporated into girders manufactured by Tata steel.
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Solar-powered laptop lets you play outside while you work
What's the best way to piss off a computer scientist? Buy her a laptop that only works when it gets enough sun. It's the perfect gag gift for the basement-dwelling, vitamin D-deprived coder in your life.
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Texas' fracking disclosure law has huge omissions
Yesterday we told you about Texas governor Rick Perry doing something right for once -- he passed of a law forcing drillers to disclose the chemicals used in the controversial and environmentally destructive practice of hydraulic fracturing. Turns out the law has a bunch of loopholes that corporations are duty-bound to exploit in accordance with their legal obligation to maximize shareholder value, even if doing so threatens people’s health. Maybe you've heard this story before?
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Dumpster diver says: Trader Joe’s must stop wasting food
I feed my family food from the dumpster, as explained in my new documentary "Dive!" But we need supermarkets to stop throwing good food in the dumpster in the first place.
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The small-c conservatism of U.S. power companies
The U.S. power sector is biased in favor of the familiar. It's not well-suited to producing the risk-taking and innovation we need in clean electricity
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The Pope is getting a hybrid car
The next popemobile will be a hybrid -- not just a hybrid between a pick-up truck and a dunking booth, like usual, but a gas/electric hybrid car that can go around 16 miles in all-electric mode.
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Small nuclear reactors get their first customer, but are no panacea
Small nuclear reactors are the mobile homes of the the nuclear power universe -- they can be built in factories rather than on-site, then shipped to their destination and hooked up to the local power grid without any expensive upgrades to transmission infrastructure.
