At the G20 summit in St. Petersburg, there was some very cool stuff happening. Not necessarily the stuff that grabbed the headlines. It was on climate change as 35 countries and the European Union have decided to take action to curb hydrofluorocarbons, a set of powerful heat-trapping gases used in refrigeration, air conditioning, heat
Utility scale wind turbines have become so technologically advanced that they have improved the cost of energy (COE) of wind enough to compete with today’s conventional energy sources. The ensuing reduction in COE has been the result of two governing forces: public policy and technological innovation.
Tropical forests are important globally in removing carbon from the atmosphere. It has been assumed that the tress were the mechanism that made this work. New research from Princeton University has shed insight on the importance of bacteria that co-exist with the trees have in absorbing atmospheric carbon.
Biogas plant manufacturer Weltec Biopower has teamed up with Domaix Energy in Alsace, in the northeast of France to start rolling out four agricultural biogas plant projects in France. Apart from agricultural substrates, the biogas plants, whose construction has already started, will use sludge and food leftovers. This is in line with a trend in French biogas
In the early hours of Monday Japan’s last nuclear reactor, Reactor 4 at Ohi in western Japan will stop generating electricity. There is no scheduled restart. It is likely that there will not be any nuclear power in the country until perhaps December. This will be the longest time the country has been without nuclear power since the 1960’s.
Residential customers in Hawaii paid an average of 37 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity this past June, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The next closest states, Vermont and Connecticut, paid about 18 cents, placing Hawaii in a league of its own when it comes to energy costs. But help is on the way from the Pentagon.
In the renewable energy sector, solar and wind power have received the most attention, for good reasons. But activity is on the rise in another resource area, geothermal energy. The global market for geothermal power is growing rapidly, according to a recent report from the Geothermal Energy Association.
The average fuel efficiency of new vehicles in the United States rose to 24.9 mpg last month, according to a study released by the University of Michigan this week. The findings confirmed a trend seen in the growing sales numbers for hybrid and electric vehicles, small gasoline cars, and increasingly efficient trucks and SUVs. Thanks in part to higher federal fuel economy
At least 2 appeals have been taken from the vote to adopt LEED v4.
On July 2, 2013, the U.S. Green Building Council announced that its membership had voted to adopt LEED v4, the next update to the world’s most widely utilized third party validated green building rating system. The overall vote was 86% in favor of adopting LEED v4 far exceeding
Clean drinking water is often an overlooked privilege in first world countries. However, in areas such as the rural villages of the Yucatan Peninsula, potable water is at least a day’s drive away and costs more than local residents can afford.
MIT researchers have recognized this problem and
Paying for fuel to power our cars is never fun, especially when the price skyrockets quickly and comes back down oh so slowly. As we scan the different stations looking at the prices, taking in a momentary gasp, and then finally picking a station and filling up, we rarely think about the taxes that we pay on the fuel that are incorporated into the price at the pump.
“2013 was a turning point year for Tal-Ya,” says Founder and CEO Avi Tamir, “And 2014 will be even more so.” After years spent in research, perfecting the Tal-Ya trays and gaining patents in 69 different countries, in 2013 the Company went into commercial production mode and began selling the trays internationally.
California’s much-watched utility rate reform bill cleared its final major hurdle in the Legislature Monday, gaining approval on the Senate floor with a resounding 33-5 vote. This follows months of negotiations and amendments that resulted in the bill – AB 327 (Perea) – including many strong provisions for rooftop solar. If approved on concurrence back in the
With enough solar energy to power almost 12,000 homes and employ 3,200 Texans, deregulation in the state policy since 2002, you might think the Lone Star State is at the forefront of the solar energy industry. However, the sunny state only ranks 13th in the nation for its installed solar capacity, outpaced by even small states New