cleaning

The University of Delaware has inched up the record for solar cell efficiency with a new device that can convert 42.8 percent of the light that strikes it into electricity.

That beats the old record of 40.7 percent hit in December. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has been funding research to get efficiency up to 50 percent.

The cell, created by Christina Honsberg and Allan Barnett of UD, splits incoming light into three buckets: high energy, low energy, and medium energy light. The light is then directed to different materials, which then extract electrons out … Read more

For those of you who are big fans of Warning Forever, I've got an awesome treat for you. In fact, I have two truly awesome treats for you. Swedish game developer Jonatan Söderström (otherwise known as "Cactus" on Shmup Dev) has created two of the most addictive free shooters I've seen this side of Kenta Cho.… Read more

Barely a week after it was announced that a California man is suing Honda for the worse-than-advertised fuel economy of his Civic Hybrid, an independent study has found that he is not alone in his disillusionment.

Results from this week's J.D. Power and Associates' second annual Alternative Powertrain Study show that the number of customers considering buying a hybrid has declined over the past year, partly due to a realization of the actual mileage that hybrid cars are likely to achieve. Of the 4,000 participants surveyed, 50 percent said they were considering a hybrid compared with 57 … Read more

Two recent reports raise questions about the long-term impact of the current venture investment boom in clean technologies. Although neither raises any warning signs specifically, they reminded me of the challenges of making clean energy mainstream.

Topline Strategy on Monday published results of an analysis that found venture capitalists steeped in more established industries of life sciences and IT will have a tough go of it in clean tech.

With its heavy emphasis on the energy industry, the clean--or green--tech segment faces numerous challenges, including different financial models and a complex regulatory environment.

A few specialized firms with experiences in … Read more

Perhaps it's not surprising that a company founded on the idea of automation hones in on efficiency when it comes to clean tech.

Over the past year, IBM has started working with a handful of energy efficiency and water conservation start-ups, betting that those technologies will find steady demand.

"So far, we've seen a trickle of the capital needed to make scalable changes. One thought is to see if we can dramatically increase efficiency and reduce waste to free up capital," said Andrew (Drew) Clark, director of strategy at IBM's Venture Capital Group.

Around 10 … Read more

The drive for clean and green stuff/energy, etc. is in part a reaction to the supersized American consumer culture in general. Big houses, big cars, lots of stuff. All requiring more and more energy and fuel to drive around and get it, play with it, go to the show, etc. Browsing the depressing and completely paranoid LATOC site, I came across an interesting tidbit graphic:

Yes you read that right. 20.2 square feet of retail for every man, woman and child in America. 10X the world wide average (assuming it's true). Now the Europeans are small countries … Read more

We're not ashamed to admit that we like toothbrushes here at Crave, as well as anything else that promotes oral hygiene. (Note to co-workers: You know who you are.)

So nothing delights us more than an opportunity to combine technology with our favorite OCD subject. The new "Oral-B Triumph with SmartGuide" is kind of like a remote-controlled cleaning system for the mouth. Using a "sink-top LCD display that wirelessly guides your brushing," according to CrunchGear, "it clocks you to make sure you are moving your bristles long enough and makes sure you get each '… Read more

Recently published research confirms what any venture capital investor would tell you: clean tech is hot.

The Cleantech Network and Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) published a report summary on Tuesday finding that VC investment grew 78 percent in 2006 to $2.9 billion. Most of that money went into energy-related technologies.

That investment growth is anticipated to continue: the report expects numbers to climb to $19 billion by 2010.

The authors cited a few reasons for the investment boom in clean, or green, tech: concerns over global warming, higher energy prices, improved technology and changing public policies.

A lot of the … Read more

Clean tech venture capitalists, known as a sunny, optimistic bunch, are finding a lot to like in solar.

A survey done by legal firm Cooley Godward Kronish found that clean tech investors believe that solar has the most long-term profit potential over the next five years, followed by "energy intelligence," or smart grid technologies. After that came biofuels and wind in terms of economic attractiveness.

Initial public offerings--which have been few and far between in IT for several years--do not appear to be the most common route to cash in.

Only 10 percent of the 75 Silicon Valley … Read more