If state lawmakers in Pennsylvania give the go-ahead on certain funding requirements, Pennsylvania State University will soon be making a shift away from burning coal—the dirtiest fossil fuel and biggest contributor to climate change. For more than eighty years, Penn State’s West Campus Steam Plant has burned coal to provide the school with energy. However the university now plans
Tag:
clean energy
The Renewable Electricity Promotion Act would require U.S. to get 15% of electricity from renewable sources by 2021
A bipartisan group of Senators Bingaman (D-NM), Brownback (R-KS), Dorgan (D-ND), Collins (R-ME), Udall (D-NM), and Udall (D-CO) introduced a 15% by 2021 renewable electricity standard (RES) bill. The
The rapid economic transition of China from an undeveloped nation to a country which now derives 50% of its GDP from industrial production created a series of negative side effects that has sown the seeds for China’s next wave of its economic journey; cleantech. In recent years it has been acting with vigor to create a sustainable economy and is now
Pennsylvania knows power. Having pioneered both the nation’s first nuclear power plant and the world’s first commercial oil well, the Keystone State remains a top energy producer in the country. Now there’s a new energy revolution underway based on harnessing the sun, wind and other clean energy resources. There is no reason
Each year, we come across a new set of discussions on the subject of Moore’s Law – the idea that the potency of technology doubles every two years. Intel co-founder Gordon Moore observed that the number of transistors that could be put onto an integrated circuit doubled with that regularity — and that this exponential growth persisted for an astonishingly long period of
The image most people have in their minds when they think of wind turbines are the big, white horizontal-axis wind turbines with their massive blades spinning slowly on a wind-swept plain. But the clean energy revolution–if, in fact, it is a revolution–has room for more than just one design of wind turbine.
But vertical-axis wind turbines (VAWTs) are poised to
Last week was an eventful one in venture capital clean tech funding, especially for California-based Solaria, Solazyme and Calisolar. Here’s a closer look at each of them, and what to look out for in the near future.
Solaria
HQ: Fremont, CA
Gosh, it irks me to have our leaders take advantage on our ignorance – but I guess that what they do for a living.
Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the EPA, said recently that the agency will “issue guidance soon that states and polluters may use to implement the agency’s new greenhouse-gas regulations,” and that
Universities in the United States have led the world in scientific research for a century. Sometimes however, innovators, including universities, struggle to translate research ideas into technologies that satisfy real world needs. Universities across the country have embraced the need to address climate and energy challenges, and now we need to effectively harness the resources and intellectual capital of our world’s leading research institutions. The wealth of ideas originating from our university laboratories will help build innovative cleantech
Some people think our economy can run on white collar and service jobs alone, but they are wrong. We can and must make high quality products in America. We are on the verge of a new Industrial Revolution and I believe it will revolve around the greatest untapped opportunity of our time, clean energy. China and Europe see this opportunity and they are already moving
What two countries lead the world in energy consumption, energy production and greenhouse gas emissions? The United States and China. Can our two countries work together to help lead the world in a transition to clean energy? A recent announcement by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is an important step in that direction.
If you live in Connecticut, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, North Carolina, New Jersey or Ohio your state is doing something right – a lot right – when it comes to energy efficiency.
The ten states deserve kudos, in that order, for policies that encourage energy efficiency, according to a report issued this
Big solar news from Illinois last week. The Wanxiang America Corporation held a ribbon cutting ceremony for a new $12.5 million, 40,000 sq ft solar module plant in the town of Rockford. It’s yet another example of how product follows policy and how manufacturing follows markets. It is yet another example of how strong solar programs beget new jobs. And of how the
Last week I took part in an American tradition: visiting the Wisconsin State Fair. The Wisconsin State Fair and state fairs throughout the country are a cherished summertime experience for rural America – a place where old friends and old traditions go hand-in-hand with the latest innovations. In a solar powered building, I sampled my first cheese curds. I visited Senator Herb