Energy

1. German Chancellor Angela Merkel became a green energy hawk after Fukushima. She wants to phase out Nuclear energy and coal, and move quickly to renewables. 2. A team headed by Patrick Pinhero, associate professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has invented a flexible solar sheet that dramatically improves the efficiency of […]

My column is out at Truthdig , on the growing Green Gap between China and the United States with regard to clean energy technologies: “The New Sputnik.”. Excerpt: ‘ In 1957, a United States shocked by the Soviet launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite bounced into action to compete on the world stage. More than […]

Here’s a neat, practical idea: Honolulu is going to draw in sea water for air conditioning. The system “will reduce Hawaii’s consumption of oil by some 178,000 barrels a year and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 84,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually.” These are small sums, but if lots of coastal cities did this all […]

Bloomberg reports that wholesale solar energy costs are falling 8% a year and may already rival coal in sunny climes like the Middle East and Japan. They’re expected to be halved in the next decade. Bloomberg writes, “Installation of solar PV systems will almost double to 32.6 gigawatts by 2013 from 18.6 gigawatts last year, […]