• Eco-Friendly Tips We All Need To Know! | Modern Eco Homes

  US-centric view on how to use less hazardous materials in the home and how to safely rid yourself of such materials if you have already used them. Before you launch into a weekend of cleaning out your cabinets or the garage, stop for a refresher course on disposing of all that leftover paint, used motor oil, expired medications, dead batteries and other items considered “hazardous household waste”. You may realize you have more hazardous junk then you thought.

  tags: hazardous household waste, disposal

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• Climate Progress » Blog Archive » Hansen et al: We must phase-out coal emissions by 2030 and stabilize at or below 350 ppm

  Humanity must find a path to reduced atmospheric carbon dioxide, to less than the amount in the air today, if climate disasters are to be averted, according to a study to be published in Open Atmospheric Science Journal by a group of ten scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and France. They argue that such a path is feasible, but requires a prompt moratorium on new coal use that does not capture CO2 and phase-out of existing coal emissions by 2030….

  tags: co2, carbon dioxide, carbon capture, clean coal, Hansen

• Cool Earth Solar eyes rural power with balloons | Green Tech – CNET News

  Cool Earth Solar has one of those radical green-tech ideas that may actually make a real commercial impact.

  In the next two weeks, the company plans to start testing a prototype solar plant built around rows of reflective balloons hung on poles. The solar balloons, which are eight feet in diameter, look something like a tube for sledding or laying around the pool, but each one can generate 1 kilowatt of electricity.

  tags: photovoltaic, solar, concentrating photovoltaic, balloon

• Record deal for boosted solar panels | Green Tech – CNET News

  SolFocus, a maker of concentrator photovoltaic systems, has signed a $103 million (80 euro) deal with Empe Solar, a Spanish group that promotes solar energy use.

  tags: pv, photovoltaic, concentrator, photovoltaic solar

• Rainforest fungus makes diesel

  A unique fungus that makes diesel compounds has been discovered living in trees in the rainforest, according to a paper published in the November issue of Microbiology. The fungus is potentially a totally new source of green energy and scientists are now working to develop its fuel producing potential.

  tags: mycodiesel, biofuels, fungus

• Rainforest fungus could fuel the future – The INQUIRER

  A tree fungus found in the Patagonian rainforest naturally produces a concoction of chemicals and hydrocarbons which are remarkably similar to diesel, and could be pumped directly into vehicle tank.

  This research was led by one, Gary Strobel, a plant boffin from Montana State University, who said, “This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances.”

  tags: mycodiesel, fungus, biodiesel, biofuel

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• EETimes.com – Living viruses create flexible battery film

  Battery technology has historically lagged far behind semiconductor technology. While chips double their capacity every 18 months or so, batteries are lucky to double capacities in a decade.

  But now, say materials scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bioengineering has broken the bottleneck

  tags: batteries, battery life, bioengineering

• Energy from the waves at the bottom of the sea

  Alan Burns made a fortune in the oil business. But as oil wanes, he’s convinced that clean energy will be—must be—the next big thing. And so this inventor has poured his fortune into a challenge far greater than finding new oil deposits: extracting energy from the ocean

  tags: wave energy, renewable energy

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• Earth 3.0: Solutions for Sustainable Progress: In-Depth Reports

  Solutions to environmental problems ranging from global warming to peak oil–and how the environment is playing a role in this year’s elections

  tags: scientific american, sustainability, sustainable behaviour, peak oil

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Ben & Jerry’s: Chilling ice cream without heating the planet – Oct. 22, 2008

  environmentalists at Greenpeace have been working with some of the world’s biggest food makers – among them Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500), McDonald’s (MCD, Fortune 500) and Unilever – to deploy refrigerators in supermarkets and convenience stores that are free of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are potent greenhouse gases.

  tags: hfc, hcfc, refrigerant, ben & jerrys

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• WattHead: A Sick Parting Gift: Bush Administration Gutting Protections Against Mountain Top Removal

  In a particularly sick parting gift to the people of Appalachia, the Bush Administration is attempting to gut a critical protection against the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining that is decimating mountains, watersheds and communities across the region.

  tags: mountain top removal, bush, coal mining

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• The Edison of our Age: Stan Ovshinsky and the Future of Energy [Video Interview Part 1]

  Two years ago, the Economist asked if Ovshinsky wasn’t the Edison of our age.

  Ovshinsky holds patents on NiMH batteries, those ubiquitous rechargeable cells. His solar cells powered the MIR space station and, as you’ll hear in the interview, he created a battery for the GM EV1 that had a range of 200 miles.

  tags: nimh, stan ovshinsky, solar, electric car

• Philips Designs the ‘Light Blossom,’ an Intelligent Street Light Concept

  Light Blossom is an intelligent LED lighting system that can provide bright light when it senses people walking nearby, and decrease its luminosity when people aren’t around. The technology is also energy-efficient and operates off the grid, gathering solar and wind energy during the day to use for light at night.

  tags: philips electronics, led lighting, energy efficient, solar energy, wind energy

• Report says Arctic temperatures at record highs

  Autumn temperatures in the Arctic are at record levels, the Arctic Ocean is getting warmer and less salty as sea ice melts, and reindeer herds appear to be declining, researchers reported Thursday.

  tags: arctic thaw, arctic ocean, global warming, climate change

• ecobee – Programmable Thermostats and Other Green Living Products – Overview

  The ecobee Smart Thermostat, designed to help you conserve energy, save money and reduce your environmental impact.

  * Created with the help of homeowners, just like you, who told us what they wanted in a programmable thermostat
  * A clear and easy to read full color touch screen
  * Simple programming that provides ease and flexibility
  * Automatically takes into account the specifics of your home and recommends the best energy saving settings
  * Anywhere, anytime access to your thermsotat
  * Smart features such as Quick Save and Weather Forecasts

  tags: ecobee, demand response, smart thermostat

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• How IT can cut carbon emissions – The McKinsey Quarterly – How IT can cut carbon emissions – Information Technology – Management

  The rapidly growing carbon footprint associated with information and communications technologies, including laptops and PCs, data centers and computing networks, mobile phones, and telecommunications networks, could make them among the biggest greenhouse gas emitters by 2020. However, our research also suggests that there are opportunities to use these technologies to make the world economy more energy and carbon efficient.

  tags: carbon footprint, information technology, mckinsey

• The Energy Roadmap – Could China help the world move beyond the combustion engine?

  Imagine a future in which China is the secret to moving the world’s auto fleet beyond liquid fuels and the combustion engine.

  If they can master electron storage systems of advanced batteries, fuel cells and capacitors- they might surprise the world!

  tags: electric vehicle, electric bike, electrical storage system, battery

• Official Google Blog: Clean energy 2030

  The energy team at Google has been crunching the numbers to see how we could greatly reduce fossil fuel use by 2030. The analysis, led by Jeffery Greenblatt, suggests a potential path to weaning the U.S. off of coal and oil for electricity generation by 2030 (with some remaining use of natural gas as well as nuclear), and cutting oil use for cars by 40%

  tags: solar, wind, google, geothermal

• Home energy monitors get wise to solar | Green Tech – CNET News

  Two very different companies are developing ways to track energy usage of homes equipped with solar panels.

  SolarCity, a company which leases solar panels to households, on Wednesday introduced a new version of it SolarGuard software that displays panels’ production alongside a home’s electricity usage.

  Another company, Open Energy is developing a dedicated touch-screen device for tracking solar panel and home energy usage. The solar panel maker on Wednesday also introduced a roofing tile with a solar cell embedded in it.

  tags: solar energy, solarcity, open energy

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• From energy efficiency to war: thinktank sees 2030 climate future

  The challenge posed by climate change could be resolved by a peaceful switch to a low-carbon economy, or alternatively inflict stresses that could include war and desertification of swathes of the US and Australia, a thinktank said on Monday.

  tags: climate change, forum for the future

• The Energy Roadmap – Glass free solar collectors power SkyFuel’s future

  Now SkyFuels, Inc, an emerging start up has unveiled its SkyTrough™ system as ‘the highest performance,lowest cost utility-scale solar power system of any kind for generating electricity.’

  tags: skyfuels, skytrough, csp, solar, solar energy, solar power

• Konarka Opens World’s Largest Roll-to-Roll Thin Film Solar Manufacturing Facility

  Konarka Technologies, today announced the company has opened the largest roll-to-roll flexible thin film solar manufacturing facility in the world.

  tags: solar, thin film solar

• New Mobile Phone App to Track Carbon Footprint : CleanTechnica

  A new software application will make keeping track of your carbon footprint as easy as having a mobile phone in your pocket. A London-based start-up has developed software for mobile phones that uses global positioning systems (GPS) to automatically figure out whether you are walking, driving or flying and then calculate your impact on the environment.

  tags: carbon footprint, mobile phone, mobile