Green Tech

Tesla Model X: Electric, all-wheel drive, and crazy folding doors

LOS ANGELES--The highlight of the Model X introduction, Tesla's SUV, was not the electric power train, but what the company calls the falcon-wing doors.

The manufacturer being Tesla, it was a given that the Model X would be an electrically driven vehicle. So during a preview for a small group of journalists at Tesla's design center in Los Angeles, Tesla CEO Elon Musk focused on the innovative side doors.

These doors lift up from the sides, then hinge in the middle before gaining their full height. Unlike gull-wing doors, Tesla's doors can open in much narrower spaces. Musk said they give the Model X the largest door openings of any passenger car. Impressively, he was able to stand in the car, his head underneath the open door, without crouching.… Read more

Solar tower will power Las Vegas at night

SolarReserve has completed the central point of a solar project that uses molten salt storage to deliver power to the grid well after the sun has gone down.

The startup company today said it has completed the 540-foot tower of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project near Tonopah, Nev., which is expected to start delivering 110 megawatts by the end of 2013. When it comes online, it's projected to have 10 hours of storage, the longest full-load storage capacity for a solar plant.

Adding storage turns solar into a continuous power source and allows project developers to earn more … Read more

NASA mission calculates global ice melt and rising sea levels

From 2003 to 2010, NASA satellites systematically measured all of Earth's melting glacial ice--the results added up to 4.3 trillion tons of water and a global sea level rise of half an inch.

Put in perspective, that's enough ice to bury the entire U.S. 1.5-feet deep.

These calculations are detailed in a new study released today by a team of scientists at the University of Colorado. The scientists used satellite measurements from the NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), which launched in 2002 and focused on how melting ice from glaciers and ice caps … Read more

Google and Stanford early adopters of Honda Fit EV

Honda's first all-electric vehicle is hitting the streets a little early.

The Honda Fit EV debuted at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November 2011, and it's expected to be available for lease this summer. However, Honda announced that Google and Stanford University got a special early delivery of the tiny EV this week. … Read more

Nest vows to fight Honeywell thermostat suit

Nest Labs today said it will "vigorously defend" itself from a patent infringement lawsuit filed by thermostat giant Honeywell.

The startup issued a statement two days after it got hit with the suit along with Best Buy, which sells its smart thermostat. The lawsuit seeks damages and an injunction to halt the sales of Nest's Learning Thermostat.

Nest Labs' statement from today is:

"We at Nest are proud of creating products that bring true innovation to home efficiency and we are continuing to innovate and bring products to market. The Nest Learning Thermostat is already making … Read more

Portable camping stove charges gadgets

Charging gadgets out in the wilderness is a challenge, but the BioLite CampStove could change that for the power-hungry. This 2-pound portable device features a USB port that can power or charge devices while you burn biomass.

So how does it work? Well, the thermal energy of the fire delivers power to fans inside the stove through a thermoelectric module. These fans blow air on the fire to improve combustion, which in turn creates excess energy. A USB port delivers the extra energy generated by the fire for charging devices such as smartphones, LED lights, or GPS units.… Read more

Google gets Greenpeace props for work on energy

Google received top accolades from Greenpeace for its work advancing cleaner energy, while Apple and Facebook didn't make the environmental watchdog group's IT industry list of leaders.

Greenpeace released the latest of its periodic Cool IT Leaderboard today and singled out the work of Google on renewable energy technology and policy.

Energy consumption from computing, including large data centers, continues to grow rapidly, one reason why Greenpeace has targeted cloud computing companies. "The IT sector might like to consider itself forward-thinking, but it is keeping far too quiet while the dirty energy industry continues to exert undue … Read more

Startup Soraa lights up with 'LED 2.0'

To build a better light fixture, startup Soraa started right at the foundation with a different kind of LED chip inside.

The Fremont, Calif.-based company tomorrow will come out of stealth mode and launch its first product, a spotlight which uses efficient LEDs (light emitting diodes). The MR 16 bulb replaces a 50-watt halogen and uses 12.5 watts and it offers a better beam and light quality, said Soraa CEO Eric Kim.

The bulb from Soraa, which has raised more than $100 million in venture capital, is the first in a planned line of LEDs for general lighting … Read more

Cree: LEDs aren't just more efficient, they're better

Cree today introduced an LED lighting component that will bring prices down significantly, but the company has come to realize that only cutting prices won't make LED lighting mainstream.

The company said its latest XT-E White LED delivers an industry-best 162 lumens per watt at room temperature. Boosting the price performance of LEDs results in a cost reduction of about 25 percent at the retail level in a year or two, said product marketing manager Paul Scheidt.

That's significant given that LED lighting has a higher upfront cost than more established products, but Scheidt said the industry's … Read more