Making The Case for Cleantech Clusters: The Essential Re-Education of the Smartest People on Earth

Making The Case for Cleantech Clusters: The Essential Re-Education of the Smartest People on Earth

This article makes the case for creating cleantech clusters in order to do for cleantech what the silicon valley for example did for IT. Clusters such as Silicon Valley, Boston or Tel Aviv not only enable the technology professionals who live and work in them to “cross-pollinate” their ideas, but they can also pick the […]

Natural Gas as Panacea: Dubious Path to a Green Future

Natural Gas as Panacea: Dubious Path to a Green Future

Many energy experts contend natural gas is the ideal fuel as the world makes the transition to renewable energy. But since much of that gas will come from underground shale, potentially at high environmental cost, it would be far better to skip the natural gas phase and move straight to massive deployment of solar and wind power.

Fellowship Spotlight: Sustainable Energy Fellowship 2010

Fellowship Spotlight: Sustainable Energy Fellowship 2010

The Sustainable Energy Fellowship is a unique learning experience for upper-division undergraduate and graduate students in engineering, business and the sciences who are considering a career involving energy. The program is June 2- 9, 2010 at Cornell University. Deadline for application is March 1, 2010.

Copenhagen: The Gap Between Climate Rhetoric and Reality

As the UN conference moves through its second and decisive week, the calls for strong global action to deal with climate change do not appear to be penetrating inside Copenhagen’s Bella Center.

Four Big Established US Solar PV Companies You Should Know About

Four Big Established US Solar PV Companies You Should Know About

In this survey we are looking at the large US headquartered solar PV manufacturers with a view to examine how they are doing in this difficult economic climate. As basically anyone knows, who has not been cloistered away meditating in some cave, 2009 has been a very tough year for pretty much everyone.

Fracking Geothermal

Fracking Geothermal

Seriously folks you read it right… fracking (an actual technical term for hydraulic fracturing) hot dry rock reservoirs has the potential to open up vast hot dry rock “heat” reservoirs for use as a reliable geothermal energy source. According to a 400 page MIT study The Future of Geothermal Energy sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) and published in 2007 the economically recoverable potential for “Heat Mining” in the US could grow to a cumulative installed generating capacity of 100GW in less than fifty years.

Will Big Oil Become Big Algae? ExxonMobil and Chevron Invest in Synthetic Biology

On August 11, the Financial Times reported on the promise of “synthetic biology,” including the development of algae that generates biofuels. In July, ExxonMobil entered into a $600 million venture with Synthetic Genomics, a firm founded by biotech pioneer Dr. Craig Venter. “Synthetic Genomics has already engineered strains of algae that secrete oil from their cells,” writes the FT’s Clive Cookson. Will oil companies transform themselves into algae companies? Or, a few years from now, could the makers of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” film a sequel about algae?

5 Million Jobs and 5 Billion Tons in CO2 Reductions Can Be Achieved By 2020 Says Gigaton Throwdown

In a presentation before national policymakers and analysts recently, leading clean energy venture capitalists, academics and CEOs unveiled the “Gigaton Throwdown,” an assessment of the nation’s clean energy potential that identifies seven industries capable of creating 5 million clean energy jobs and reducing CO2 emissions by 5-7 gigatons by 2020. The report, a collaborative effort between leading researchers at UC Berkeley, MIT, University of Michigan, Stanford, and Drexel University, and clean tech leaders, challenges Washington policymakers to remove obstacles that keep billions of capital investment dollars sitting on the sidelines.

Geothermal Heats Up With $350M New Stimulus Funding from Government

The Obama administration announced $350 million in stimulus funds to help expand geothermal resources and break down technological barriers. This is a huge jump in funding, dwarfing all previous government commitments and is more than all the funding for geothermal energy put together over the last 20 years. It also represents a dramatic reversal of previous trends of diminishing funding for this often overlooked renewable energy sector.