green

GreenVolts, which builds utility solar power plants that feature high-performance concentrators, has signed a deal with Pacific Gas & Electric to build a 2-megawatt solar power plant near Tracy, Calif., in 2008.

When built, it will be the largest concentrator solar plant for utilities in the world.

In Germany, utility solar power plants--which essentially are large numbers of solar panels sitting in a field or on top of a roof--are a big deal. That's because the government subsidizes them. Sellers get 45 cents a kilowatt hour for electricity they send to the grid, far higher than the normal price. … Read more

Nobody's going to like this one. Liberals will feel attacked. Libertarians will nod glumly. Conservatives will feel they're being blamed for something that hasn't happened. And those who intend to ignore climate change will continue to accuse others of a conspiracy.

Peter Wells, a researcher in Cardiff, England, has published an article warning that climate change could lead to a global, militaristic totalitarian state. Here's where you can find the article, but it will cost money to see it all. So, a brief summary: Climate change will create severe challenges to numerous nations. It may prove … Read more

BOSTON--At Red Herring East on Wednesday, Nicholas Parker, the chairman and co-founder of the Cleantech Group, gave a keynote address that painted a picture of clean technology as the next industrial revolution.

Parker's mantra: clean technology offers as much potential for profit as it does for global environmental benefit, if you know where to look.

Companies are so concerned about globalization right now, but they need to include clean technology as part of their plan or they will fall behind the rest of the world, according to Parker.

He pointed to IBM's green initiative and other programs from … Read more

When it comes to CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) solar cells, Global Solar has decided not to fight convention.

The Tucson-based company is ramping up for mass production of CIGS like a number of other companies, but the interesting thing about its tack is its manufacturing process. Global will use the vacuum evaporation process, which involves converting the active CIGS materials into a vapor and then letting them condense onto a glass substrate or thin film in a precise pattern.

The evaporation process has been extensively studied at the National Laboratory Research Lab, which has produced experimental CIGS cells that … Read more

Calsunenergy CEO Alex Boyer has a tough schedule. He has to hold meetings at night because he's got science camp in the daytime.

That's because Boyer is pretty young. He goes into the eighth grade in the fall.

For Calsunenergy, however, it's not unusual. The company--which is trying to develop a concentrator for solar cells and come up with a way to convert heat generated by solar cells into usable energy--is founded by kids in grade school and junior high. CTO Shaun Boyer will be in sixth grade in the fall. The VPs of marketing and sales … Read more

Carbon footprint, energy use, green tech: some phrases that won't be going away. From gasoline prices to global warming, we're likely to become more aware of what energy we burn up, just as most of us now have some sense of whether we're eating wisely (or not).

Just today the Live Earth concert folks e-mailed me a link to their carbon calculator. This one walks you through several pages of simple questions about how you live, and especially how you travel. This calculator was built by Earthlab.org. They want to know the size of your dwelling, … Read more

Here's one more reason to give green cards to foreign graduate students.

They are the only ones in school.

U.S. citizens outnumber foreign nationals in undergraduate electrical engineering programs in U.S. universities by a wide margin, according to a report form the Engineering Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies.

U.S. kids accounted for 89 percent of the undergrads in these programs in 2006.

But 51 percent of the students in masters programs in EE in U.S. universities were foreign nationals last year. Only 49 percent come from the states.

In PhD programs, … Read more

As part of its "Be a Better Planet" campaign, Yahoo has named Hastings, Neb., the greenest city in America.

Who woulda guessed?

Hastings, which claimed the $250,000 cash prize, is the birthplace of Kool-Aid. You know, that artificial drink.

It's no wonder the "green-minded" folks of Hastings are eager to conduct such "eco-friendly" mobile searches as "organic food," using Yahoo OneSearch. Other search terms to bolster knowledge about living the "green life" include public transportation, recycling center and bike.

The winner was selected based on the use of … Read more

The U.S. Senate passed a bill Thursday night that would require automakers to sell cars that get significantly better mileage by 2020.

If the bill is also passed by the House of Representatives, Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards will be raised from the current 25 miles per gallon to 35 mpg.

Automakers would still be able to sell trucks and sport utility vehicles that get below the 35 mpg mark in 2020, as long as they have other cars in their lineup to bring up their overall fleet average.

Miles-per-gallon goals for each vehicle class, and a timeline … Read more