A new Google Glass app for finding EV charging stations just launched this week, via one of the bigger EV charging station companies in North America, SemaConnect. Not that I know anyone who actually uses the Glass, but I guess that this is a good thing. The new app is called “SemaConnect for Glass,” and EV Charging Station App For Google Glass Launched was originally published on CleanTechnica...
Originally published on Renew Economy. The falling cost of renewables is not news to those who have paid attention to analysis from green-focused think tanks, or groups like Bloomberg New Energy Finance. But it is when a major European utility, with equal exposure to fossil fuels, wind, and hydro, says that onshore wind is the Onshore Wind Is The Cheapest Electricity Generation Option In Europe was...
It was just a few days ago that we were reporting on China’s ambitious new solar energy goals — goals which would see China’s installed solar capacity triple in just 3 years, up to 70,000 MW. Impressive ambitions. But those ambitions certainly aren’t reflected in the most recent figures out of the country, figures that show Only 188 MW Of Distributed Solar PV Installed...
Originally published on the ECOreport. The attached videos of the May 14 Settlement Evidentiary hearing, for the closure of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, in California, are shocking. The shortest, posted at the very bottom of the page, is a collection of clips giving some keys points. They leave the impression that Judge Melanie Darling Is California’s Public Utilities Commission Complicit...
Okay, so it ain’t no Egyptian cotton, but a team composed of researchers from MIT, the University of Michigan, and the Indian Institute of Technology has come up with a new way to fabricate a graphene sheet, which overcomes some of the hurdles that have been bedeviling researchers ever since the quirky material was discovered Finally, An Easy Way to Make A Graphene Sheet was originally published...
The US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Lab has been sponsoring a series of workshops designed to continue an ongoing dialogue between utilities and research institutions regarding the resiliency of the electricity grid in the wake of increasing extreme weather events. The latest such workshop in April brought together representatives from government, academia, utilities, vendors and...
Originally published on the ECOreport. California Senate Bill 790 (SB 790) bans utility companies from using ratepayer funds for negative publicity campaigns against local community utilities ( community choice aggregators, or CCA). They are now required to file the details of any anti-CCA marketing with the California Public Utilities Commission. Only PG&E has not filed in Is Pacific Gas &...
For apparently the first time ever, during the first quarter of 2014, electricity generated by non-hydro renewables (i.e., biomass, geothermal, solar, wind) exceeded that provided by conventional hydropower. This is according to data in the latest issue of the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) "Electric Power Monthly," with preliminary data through to March 31, 2014....
IHI Corp., a maker of everything from aircraft jet engines to gas turbines, expects the market for small-scale geothermal projects to take off in Japan as the country seeks cleaner sources of energy....
A panel of German wind energy experts gathered in Hamburg this week for a preview of this fall's WindEnergy expo being held here, discussing everything from the debate over Energiewende policy to promising markets for offshore wind....
Back in May, I had the opportunity to catch a presentation by Paul De Martini of the Newport Consulting Group and the California Institute of Technology, at a CleanTech OC smart grid event in Irvine, California. De Martini previously served as chief technology officer for Cisco’s Global Energy Networks Group, and also as vice president of Advanced...
The Department of Energy announced Wednesday it has awarded $10 million to be split between six research and development projects that will focus on thermochemical storage technologies for concentrating solar power (CSP) systems....
Siemens AG, Europe’s largest engineering company, said it’s concerned that Australia’s plans to scrap its renewable energy agency may hurt efforts to bring wind turbines to remote mines....
Water buses. Not something you’re all that likely to have thought of before, huh? But now that you’ve heard of them, they make perfect sense, don’t they? A new study from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology’s Department of Aeronautical and Vehicle Engineering recently explored the concept — finding that it could be quite an Water Buses — Could Maritime Complement...
Originally published on EV Obsession. Not completely clear on the present state of Tesla’s war with the dealership associations? Not sure in which states Tesla sales are legal, and in which states Tesla is barred from direct sales? Don’t worry, Mojo Motors has you covered with its nice new infographic on the subject (Thanks to @MaxKats88 for Tesla Wars — Where Can Tesla Sell Direct...
In an important advance in the drive towards the unlocking of graphene’s noted potential, researchers have developed a technique that allows for the electronic properties of graphene boron nitride (GBN) heterostructures to be modified using nothing but light. GBN heterostructures have been noted for their potential use in electronics (and other things) owing to their Graphene Boron Nitride Heterostructures...
The US energy world was rocked yesterday by a new Energy Information Agency report that significantly cut the projection of recoverable oil from the massive Monterey Shale formation in California. That’s “cut” as in chopped, shredded, and mashed to a bloody pulp. How bad is the damage? Well, just a few years ago in 2011 Monterey Shale: Fracking’s Great Moment Of Derp was originally...
While some may just offhand assume that, owing to the relatively small size of mopeds, there’s no way that they produce more air pollution than a car (during an equivalent trip), that’s not always true, according to new research from the Paul Scherrer Institute. Despite making up just a fraction of total traffic-volume in most Mopeds Cause Significantly More Air Pollution Than Cars In...
Not exactly clear what the numbers and figures put out there by various scientific bodies actually mean? Want to get a more visceral sense of the scale of modern anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions? Then I recommend that you take a look at the Carbon Quilt — a visualization resource created for just such a purpose. As Carbon Quilt — Want A More Visceral Sense Of The Scale Of Greenhouse...
Vast amounts of excess heat are generated by industrial processes and by electric power plants; researchers around the world have spent decades seeking ways to harness some of this wasted energy. Most such efforts have focused on thermoelectric devices, solid-state materials that can produce electricity from a temperature gradient, but the efficiency of such devices is limited by the availability...