The continuing quest for advanced biofuels based off of synthetic biology has made an important advance with researchers at the Joint BioENergy Institute (JBEI) — based at the Lawrence Livermore Lab — announcing that they have bio-engineered a combination of two microbes, a yeast and a bacteria, which working together can produce a viable bio-sourced drop-in replacement for D2 diesel fuel.
Daunted by high up-front costs, U.S. homeowners continue to shy away from residential solar power systems, even as utility-scale solar projects are taking off. But with do-it-yourself kits and other innovative installation approaches now on the market, residential solar is having modest growth.
This post makes the argument that changing the conversation about global warming — a conversation that has become politically charged — into a conversation about energy conservation, which will not cause immediate and sometimes hostile reactions that speaking about climate change does, is a more effective strategy to pursue for those concerned about climate change. […]
Reports on new funding by the DOE and the Department of Interior for various advanced hydro projects, including sustainable run of the river hydro and pumped storage as well. The announced $17 million in funding over the next three years is targeted for research and development projects to advance hydropower technology.
Examines the case for government leadership in promoting the development of distributed grid connected energy storage, arguing that government leadership is necessary in order to kick start this very important component of the robust electric energy infrastructure that is in our nations best interest. The author also argues that doing so will bring down electric vehicle battery costs and help promote EV adoption rates, which are inhibited by high unit costs driven by battery prices.
Makes the case for coupling hydrogen production with wind farms in order to deliver more dispatchable power; lessen the need for transmission capacity; as well as other important bottom line benefits.
Describes how the US military is pushing ahead with a leading edge adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, and how the boost provided may help open up markets for renewable energy. If the military diverts billions of dollars from finite fuels to solar, wind and biomass technologies, it could become a game-changer in the domestic energy market.
In this post Elaine gives some examples of successful sustainability goals and examples of goals that fall short of the mark, arguing that reporting needs to address what companies WILL do not just what they HAVE done. This post seeks to give insight on what is the right way for companies to establish sustainability goals.
This post talks about the difficult transition between marketing to savvy early adopters and achieving penetration in the much wider mass market. There’s a big difference between what companies need to do to effectively sell technology products to early adopters and what they need to do to sell to the early and late majority of the technology adoption lifecycle; and this is what has been aptly and ominously called the chasm.
