The US military has ambitious plans—$7 billion worth—to install renewable energy at bases and other facilities across the nation. American taxpayers, of course, are footing the bill. But now they can choose to put their money into a military solar project and make a return, thanks to the crowdfunding craze.
On a dreary day for climate change news, here’s a reason for hope: robots.
The world’s largest solar thermal power plant plugged into the California grid this week, the first of what was supposed to be a dozen big solar projects to be built in the desert southwest of the US. It also may be one of the last for a while.
Think China’s coal-fired power plants are dirty? You haven’t seen anything yet.
Embattled Chinese solar panel maker Suntech can’t seem to catch a break. In the latest setback for what was once the world’s biggest solar manufacturer, Suntech said yesterday that an Italian court has seized solar farms operated by customers of a scandal-plagued European venture owned by the company.
That spate of destructive thunderstorms that struck the US last year, killing scores of people and racking up billions of dollars in damages? Get ready for more. A lot more.
No, that’s not Apple’s latest marketing slogan. But scientists hope that some of the hordes of fans queuing up to buy the latest iPhones, which were released today in nine countries, will download a whale-spotting app that will help them plot shipping routes to avoid cetacean collisions in the waters off northern California.
You probably won’t be receiving a utility bill from Google anytime soon, but the search giant is slowly but surely morphing into a literal power broker. Yesterday (Sept. 17), for instance, Google announced that it would buy all the electricity generated by the 240-megawatt Happy Hereford wind farm to be built near Amarillo, Texas.
The newly elected conservative government of Australia, led by incoming prime minister Tony Abbott, has promised to scrap the country’s carbon tax on industrial polluters. That has promoted much teeth-gnashing among environmentalists, but the issue is trivial compared to how much coal Australia exports.
LED company Cree this week pulled the covers off potentially ground-breaking lighting technology that could save billions of dollars annually in electricity costs and slash the average home’s greenhouse gas emissions.
San Francisco hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer has emerged as the antithesis to the Koch brothers, the conservative American industrialists who have bankrolled the Tea Party and other right-wing causes. Steyer has financed ballot initiatives, non-profits and think tanks to promote renewable energy, climate-change activism, and to derail the Keystone XL pipeline. Now he appears to be taking it to the streets.
Californians are snapping up the luxury electric sports sedan like organic dry-farmed tomatoes.
While much of the world has been reeling from catastrophic floods this year, much of the US has been suffering through an extended drought. The US government signaled the severity of the situation on Aug. 16 when it announced it would be curtailing water deliveries from the Colorado River due to record-low water levels in the Lake Powell reservoir in Utah. The move will affect millions of people, farms and businesses in the western United States.
The good news: Global economic losses from climate-related disasters totaled only $56 billion in the first half of 2013, down 16% from the same time last year. The bad news: The North Atlantic hurricane season is just kicking into high gear.
The debut yesterday of Al Jazeera America has prompted plenty of chatter among the chattering classes about whether a nation accustomed to a steady cable news diet of hype, shouting heads and celebrity shenanigans will take to the Qatari television network’s promise of serious journalism.
New oil drilling technologies could increase the world’s petroleum supplies six-fold in the coming years to 10.2 trillion barrels, says a report released today by market research firm Lux Research.
This article has been corrected.
Apparently, the “S” stands for superlative.
Better Place founder Shai Agassi has kept a low profile since he was ousted as chief executive of the electric car infrastructure company that burned through nearly a billion dollars before filing for bankruptcy this year. But he emerged today to offer his thoughts on the lesson automakers should learn from the runaway success of rival electric carmaker Tesla Motors: Study the business model, not the Model S.
Another sign that the center of the solar-power universe is shifting: Solar capital expenditures are expected to jump more than 40% annually over the next four years in the Middle East, South America and Africa, while growing just 5% to 10% in Europe and the US, according to a report released today.
One way to get people to cut their energy consumption by 25%: raise utility bills by 28%.
Finally, some good news for the bees. The US government today said it is restricting the use of some neonicotinoids—a type of agricultural pesticide implicated in the mass die-off of honey bees, which has raised fears about the future of the food supply in the US and Europe.
It turns out the Ford C-Max isn’t quite so max after all.
London is killing bees with kindness.
