This week’s news: US NRC freezes decisions on new reactor, license renewal applications “The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted unanimously Tuesday not to issue final decisions on granting licenses to build new nuclear power reactors and 20-year license renewals to existing ones, pending resolution of the agency’s waste confidence rule overturned by a court in June. [...]
Glass has been made for thousands of years, and innovators have always been tinkering to improve the basic product. Over the years, these improvements have mainly been in terms of color, strength, weight, quality. The cleantech imperative of the past few decades is now pushing glass innovations on two more dimensions, energy efficiency and power [...]
We all know energy is global, and as much policy driven as technology driven. We have a quote, in energy, there are no disruptive technologies, just disruptive policies and economic shocks that make some technologies look disruptive after the fact. In reality, there is disruptive technology in energy, it just takes a long long time. [...]
5 watt-seconds. That’s the miniscule amount of energy released mid-stride upon the ground when the average person is walking. At least, so it was reported in a business plan I recently read from a college student group to pursue a new technology concept to harvest the otherwise-wasted energy created by foot traffic in dense pedestrian areas such as airports. [...]
I recently got an email entitled “Trojan Tips”. Hmmmm, wonder what that could be about? Alas, upon scrolling down from the subject line, I found the message provided advice from the battery manufacturer Trojan about proper battery management practices. The more you get into cleantech, the more you realize how central a role is played by [...]
By Guest Blogger Charles Waitman I spent a day at Intersolar North America in San Francisco, considered by some to be North America’s premier exhibition and conference for the solar industry. My career, to date has been in the oil industry. This was my second Intersolar conference. These are my observations. PV dominated the conference. [...]
So far, the summer of 2012 has been a scorcher for most of the U.S., following hot on the heels of a much warmer than usual winter. Last week, as reported by the Washington Post, the National Climatic Data Center released its State of the Climate report for June, in which NCDC noted that not only were the last [...]
by Neal Dikeman The other night I answered an ad on Craigslist. Not surprising, since buying and selling things on craigslist is kind of my hobby. But this one was for solar panels. 180 Wp panels from a wholesaler. Offering for $190 ea if I bought one, or $180 if I bought 20 or more, [...]
By Tao Zheng, with David Anthony, an active cleantech venture capitalist, who passed away in April 2012. The sun is the champion of all energy sources, in terms of capacity and environmental impact. The sun provides earth with 120,000 terawatt (TW) energy, compared to technical potential energy capacity of single digit TWs from other renewable sources, [...]
It really wasn’t that long ago that the environment was an issue with about equal bipartisan support in the United States. Americans under the age of 30 might not even realize that the Republican party used to actually have very solid environmental credentials. Theodore Roosevelt launched the National Park System, Richard Nixon spearheaded the creation of the [...]
As most of you readers know, the lighting industry is undergoing a revolution, stemming from the phase-out of inefficient incandescent bulbs as directed by the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. A recent article in Distributed Energy by David Engle entitled “Quest for Light” provides a succinct overview of the domino effect on technological [...]
The energy sector is pretty well-known for being resistant to change, risk-averse, conservative. One segment of the energy technology landscape that especially favors “tried-and-true” over “new-and-better” involves on-site generators, typically for standby or emergency purposes. Scanning the most recent issue of Powerline – the periodical published by the on-site generator industry’s trade group, the Electrical Generating Systems Association — it looks pretty [...]
Cleveland-based Eaton Corporation (NYSE: ETN) is rapidly becoming one of the major players in the smart-grid arena. The big recent news, announced on May 21, was that Eaton is acquiring Cooper Industries (NYSE: CBE), one of the leading suppliers of electrical equipment. While the largest acquisition, it’s only one of several in the last five years [...]
For many observers, the bloom is off cleantech venture investing. The challenges are numerous and increasingly well-known: capital requirements are too large, the non-market (i.e., regulatory/political) forces are too influential, the incumbents are too strong, the sales cycles among risk-averse customers are too long, the technological issues are too profound. As reported in this posting, [...]
In recent months, I’ve come across more work being done in flow batteries than I’ve seen in the prior decade. I’ve been known in the past to say that fuel cells are kinda like fueled batteries. Well, flow batteries really are fueled-batteries. A traditional chemical battery is one sealed system that charges and discharges chemical [...]
As previously reported by GigaOm and others, one of our bloggers, cleantech venture capital investor, David Anthony, of VC firm 21 Ventures, took his own life last month. We are saddened he is no longer with us. For those who are able to attend, there is a Facebook announcement of his memorial service on the [...]
When Home Performance with Energy Star launched in Maine in 2006, we defined the energy improvement process as test-in, upgrade, test-out. The parenthetical testing was part and parcel of the process, similar to a physician talking with a patient and running diagnostics to glean what’s going on – before prescribing remedies or lifting a scalpel. [...]
Here’s a musical experiment for you: play a song such as ”Penny Lane” from The Beatles (or, if you prefer classic rock, “Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin will do nicely) on your sound system…but with the balance set all the way to one side or the other. There will be enough recognizable content for you to still recognize the song, but [...]
Another year, another wringing of the hands over tax credits and incentives for clean technology. Lobbyists and vendors in the U.S. are once again singing the blues, calling for continued and expanding government investments in clean technology. At the same time, political challengers continue their Solyndra hootenanny, raking the current administration for how it spent hundreds of [...]
