Climate Technology

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  • 10 green ideas that are facing extinction

    Photo: Geek Calendar Clean technology is full of ideas that may or may not work out, for any number of reasons — modular nuclear, distributed power, humanure. Whether it’s economics, physics or simple incompatibility with existing infrastructure, here, via Michael Kanellos (the David Pogue of clean technology) are 10 ideas that could work, but probably […]

    Christopher Mims Technology

  • Silicon Valley solar firm buys East Coast’s biggest photovoltaic installer

    Volunteers install a solar PV array in Brooklyn, N.Y.Photo: 350.orgCalifornia solar companies are continuing their eastward expansion, with Silicon Valley’s SolarCity on Wednesday acquiring the residential operations of one of the East Coast biggest solar installers, groSolar. With the acquisition, SolarCity, California’s largest residential solar installer, will move into Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and […]

    Todd Woody Technology

  • FDA’s crackdown on raw-milk cheese based on flawed data analysis

    Italy’s celebrated Pecorino di Farindola, pictured here, is now and has always been made from raw milk. We can get this right, peopleHas there been a serious jump in illnesses from raw-milk cheese recently? You might think so if you’ve read recent major pieces in The New York Times and The Washington Post — or […]

    David Gumpert Technology

  • Chevron to Ecuador: What’s ‘apologize’?

    A judge in Ecuador has delivered the world’s biggest environmental spanking to pollution giant Chevron, as a judgment for faulty drilling gunking up the country’s rain forests: An Ecuadorian judge on Monday ordered Chevron Corp. to pay $8.6 billion to clean up oil pollution in the country’s rain forest in what is believed to be […]

    Jess Zimmerman Technology

  • Knowing what you spend on energy can cut usage by more than half

    Feedback: It works for robot monkey arms and Scientology auditing, so shouldn’t it work to help you save electricity? Networking company Silver Spring Networks and Oklahoma Gas & Electric think so (and so do we). They’ve teamed up for a year-long experiment in Norman, Okla., to test smart grid solutions, allowing users to get feedback […]

    Jess Zimmerman Technology

  • California to green its grid with energy storage

    With intermittent sources like wind and solar becoming more common, energy storage is increasingly seen as crucial for greening the grid.Photo: mike_tnIn just about every story on renewable energy, there’s a familiar cast of characters: green power developers, utilities, and sundry state and federal regulators. But there’s one key player that often lurks in the […]

    Todd Woody Technology

  • Possible breakthrough: Indonesian palm oil giant pledges zero deforestation

    Oil palm concession in Indonesia. Photo: Hayden Potential good news for orangutans, tigers, and the climate: Indonesian palm oil giant Golden Agri-Resources (GAR), a subsidiary of all-round planet pulper Sinar Mas (palm oil, illegal logging, coal) is promising not to destroy forests and ultra carbon-rich peatlands for palm oil. Photo: Rhett A. Butler, MongaBayHere’s the […]

    Glenn Hurowitz Technology

  • Behind the scenes in the big fight against coal

    Down with coal!The climate fight hasn’t been going well lately. The Copenhagen conference in Dec. 2009 seemed to mark the effective end of international efforts to control carbon. The U.S. Senate couldn’t even bring itself to vote on cap-and-trade last summer. In November, a GOP committed to climate denial won new strength in the Congress. […]

    Bill McKibben Technology

  • Why you don’t want gas to get cheaper

    Image: Grist Americans would like to pay less at the pump. But what would that take? How about another economic crash — or perhaps you’d prefer an ecological one. However the next century shakes out, one thing’s for sure: the ever-growing gap between world oil supplies and demand is making itself felt, and the longer […]

    Christopher Mims Technology

  • Are we in a ‘clean energy race’ with China?

    A popular line among climate hawks these days goes something like this: If the U.S. doesn’t support domestic clean energy, China will beat us in the clean energy race. The message has become quite popular lately, and indeed Obama said something very like it in his State of the Union, what with the “Sputnik Moment” […]

    David Roberts Technology