Archive for August, 2009
Bill Gross’s Solar Breakthrough
"We are producing the lowest cost solar electrons in the history of the world," Bill Gross is telling me. "Nobody's ever done it. Nobody's close." Bill Gross is nothing if not an enthusiast, which makes him a great salesman for whatever it is he happens to be selling. A lifelong entrepreneur, a l
Air-fueled Battery for Electric Cars
A normal fossil fuel car (using an internal combustion engine) only needs the battery to start the engine as well as run the air conditioning system and the car stereo. But the scene is quite different with electric cars. Batteries run everything. So when one tries to buy an electric car his/her p
Nanotube Technology Transforms CO2 Into Fuel
Presence of surplus carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has taken center stage in the environmental science. All over the world people are worried about the excess amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because it’s causing undesirable changes in the surroundings such as green house effect, globa
Does Cash for Clunkers Help the Environment? It’s Debatable
Buyer's remorse may be setting in for some who question whether the government's cash for clunkers program is really all it's supposed to be. Sold as an economic stimulus and an environmental salve, the "cash for clunkers" program has succeeded in jump-starting the ailing auto industry. But some
Prairie grouse could hamper wind energy growth
A little prairie grouse could give the wind energy industry big fits. Should the lesser prairie chicken become listed as threatened or endangered — and it's close now — there would be significant restrictions on companies hoping to plant towering turbines across a five-state region believed t
NASCAR Track Puts Solar Power in the Pole Position
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the overlap between NASCAR fans and environmentalists is not large. But now they've got at least one shared topic of conversation: Pennsylvania's Pocono Raceway, which hosts two NASCAR events each year, plans to build a three megawatt solar power pl
Astronauts install solar tower on ISS
Spacewalking astronauts bolted a solar power tower to the international space station on Tuesday, completing an ambitious three-day moving process that ended with elation when the beam's giant solar panels began to unfurl. NASA needs to get the tower up and running to prevent malfunctioning stati
