Ad: Manage updates with the Download App
ie8 fix

c02

Green news harvest: Tapping electricity in trees, solar-coated steel

A sampling of green-tech news with a quick commentary:

Solar-painted steel could electrify buildings - Renewable Energy WorldA Welsh lab is developing photovoltaic coatings for steel, which could lead to buildings with energy-generating walls. Compact fluorescent bulbs may pollute more than incandescents - Environmental Science & TechnologyCalifornians and others in regions where utilities offer a mix of renewable energy might do better by the environment to keep their incandescent lightbulbs rather than switch to mercury-laced CFLs, suggest Yale researchers. Tiny sensors tap tree power to prevent fires - MSNBCMIT researchers harnessed the electrical currents within trees to … Read more

Drivers can check carbon dioxide 'tire print'

British insurer More Th>n, pronounced "more than," is testing a program that tracks customers' vehicles by satellite to estimate their carbon dioxide emissions.

The program, known as Green Wheels, uses navigation-style technology to transmit data on speed, acceleration, braking, and steering. The data is used to form a picture of a customer's driving style and his likely carbon dioxide "tire print."

Motorists who sign up can compare their monthly carbon dioxide performance with that of others on the Green Wheels Web site. They are graded from A, for excellent, to G (the lowest … Read more

G/km not mpg: Europe's emissions obsession

One thing that struck me at last week's Geneva auto show was the heavy emphasis that the European car market is placing on emissions rather than on fuel economy. In marked contrast to automakers in the United States, which now tend to extol their models' gas mileage at every opportunity, car makers doing business in Europe (even those from Japan and the U.S.) go to great lengths to provide figures on the carbon emissions that their models expel--given in grams per kilometer, or g/km. A good example of this was the launch of the new Ford Fiesta … Read more