President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney recently stated how each would “get tough” with China. This reminded me of a conversation with economists I had in Vice President Biden’s office several years ago. We discussed how to put together the president’s stimulus proposal and the possibility of using clean tech programs — solar, wind, […]

The blips of a heart monitor, the hum of an MRI, the intense lights of a surgical room: all can bring both comfort and fear — and all require a lot of power. But new hospitals are being filled with natural, calming light and are leveraging energy from the sun and earth to power the […]

For every revolutionary advance in solar, there are countless evolutionary dead-ends — technologies that were well worth exploring, but ones that ultimately failed to live up to the mantra of “cut costs or die.” These are the Solyndras of the world. Their science may have raised the bar, but ultimately they were judged by the […]

Ask most people to describe vanguard energy technology, and they’ll name LED lights, certain forms of solar energy and new electric storage methods. But how about this — generating energy from a living body? The Journal of the American Chemical Society is reporting a “real-life scientific tail of the first electrified snail.” Researchers have placed a fuel cell […]

The WindFi basestation was initially designed to address issues of rural broadband in the mountainous, undulating and remote terrain of the Scottish Highlands & Islands in communities where fibre or xDSL access is not available. Using open source software, GIS tools, and driven by the broadband needs of rural communities, whole new business models are […]

For years, third world ranchers have been using methane from manure to run electrical generators down on the farm. This clean-burning biogas is not only a good local fuel in countries with little or no infrastructure, now even countries like the U.S. are reaping energy from this foul-smelling source. Some 80 percent of the estimated […]

The sun is shining on homeowners in less affluent neighborhoods who are discovering they can afford solar energy after all — by leasing rather than buying the panels on their roofs. Kyle Travis (left) and Jon Jackson (right) of Lighthouse Solar install microcrystalline PV modules on top of Kevin Donovan’s townhome in Arvada, Colorado. The […]

Transmission system operators must assess precisely the supply of electricity from renewable energies for the next day in order to market this electricity on the European Power Exchange (EPEX) as effectively as possible. The sharply fluctuating supply of solar and wind energy makes reliable forecasts even more difficult. For this reason, Fraunhofer researchers, working jointly […]

So, you want to put solar on your roof. You’re part of the 94 percent of Americans who think it’s important for the nation to develop solar energy, as evidenced by the SCHOTT Solar Barometer, a nationally representative survey conducted by independent polling firm Kelton Research. You call several companies for quotes, and come to […]

by Jonathan Cheszes, Navigant The increase in utility scale wind development across North America has and continues to change the energy supply mix in many jurisdictions. Driven primarily by state-level renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requirements and clean air regulation, state and provincial supply mixes once dominated by coal, hydro nuclear and natural gas are now […]