Green Tech

Tel Aviv, Israel-based Pythagoras Solar has raised $10 million in series A financing and has released a scant few details on its solar photovoltaic technology.

"The company is working to combine software models, optic design, semiconductor processes, materials science, and mass manufacturing techniques to build highly durable, cost-effective solar energy products," according to the company's Web site.

Pythagoras also said Monday it will release more information on its products and technologies by early 2009.

The investment was led by Israel Cleantech Ventures and joined by Pitango Venture Capital and Evergreen Venture Partners.

The company was founded in … Read more

Biofuels advocates on Friday tried to debunk a widely reported Science magazine study that found that corn-based ethanol production in the U.S. actually worsens global warming.

The Renewable Fuels Association publicized a paper published by biomass experts at the Argonne National Laboratory's Transportation Technology R&D Center, in which researchers poked holes in the Science study that was published last Friday.

The original study published in Science found that most models that measure the greenhouse gas impact of biofuels do not take into account land use.

The researchers calculated the effect of emissions from converting existing farmland … Read more

Oh, the humanity!

Fuel cell maker Angstrom Power and cell phone maker Motorola have teamed up to create a prototype mobile phone that runs on a hydrogen fuel cell. Hydrogen is produced--by cracking water molecules--with a desktop fueling station and then inserted into a metal hydride storage container on the phone, says Aron Levitz, manager of business development for Angstrom. When the hydrogen molecules pass through a membrane in the fuel cell, electrons are stripped away and get diverted to run the phone.

The two companies are trotting the phone to various trade shows. Start-up Angstrom has received investments from … Read more

The batteries in hybrid cars now get recharged slightly whenever the driver taps the brakes. If research at Honda pans out, heat from the engines could do the same thing.

The Japanese auto giant has released a paper detailing how a Rankine cycle co-generation unit could help recharge the battery in a hybrid and thereby increase gas mileage, according to Green Car Congress. Honda put the Rankine unit in a test car (a Honda Stream) and found that the unit generated more electricity than regenerative braking. However, the unit isn't very efficient so more work will be required before … Read more

Clothes dryers are the second biggest hog of household energy, according to the Department of Energy. Most are so similar in terms of power hunger that the Energy Star label of efficient appliances doesn't even mark dryers.

By this fall, however, consumers could enjoy faster, greener, and safer clothes dryers that draw half the power of conventional models, according to Hydromatic Technologies Corporation.

Its Dryer Miser technology would dry garments 41 percent more quickly without shrinking as much or stinking them up with the odor of burnt lint, said Michael Brown, the inventor and company president.

He plans to … Read more

First Solar, the fast-growing maker of a type of solar panel that's a big source of debate among those in the clean-tech world, surprised investors again by reporting revenues and earnings that far exceeded expectations, capping a year of unusually strong growth.

The Phoenix-based company, which uses a material whose cost effectiveness is up for debate, said revenues came to $200.8 million for the fourth quarter of 2007 while net income came to $62.9 million, or 77 cents per share. Analysts had expected revenue of $180 million and earnings per share of 53 cents. For the fourth … Read more

Cool Earth Solar on Thursday said it has raised at least $21 million to further develop a solar generator that you could mistake for a shiny kiddie pool.

The Livermore, Calif.-based company said the Series A round, from undisclosed investors, could be augmented by other investors in 60 days.

Cool Earth Solar has taken a radical approach to building a solar-power plant using a technique called concentrated solar photovoltaics, in which light is magnified onto solar cells to maximize electricity output.

It plans to manufacture plastic balloons, which will be suspended on metal and wire structures. These round balloons … Read more

Prominent environmental author Lester Brown predicted on Thursday that coal-fired power plants will be banned in the United States because of climate change concerns and the financial liabilities of greenhouse gas emissions.

In a conference call and paper, Lester, president of the Earth Policy Institute, compiled a number of setbacks for coal projects in the past year from governments, local opposition, and financiers.

A cheap but dirty power source, coal supplies about half of the electricity in the United States and is growing rapidly in China, India, and other developing countries.

The most recent investment barrier came from Bank of … Read more

MENLO PARK, Calif.--The global rise in power consumption isn't bad for all species, it turns out.

Sun Microsystems is seeing increased customer interest in its Sun Ray, a thin desktop client, as electricity prices climb, said Subodh Bapat, vice president and chief engineer in the Eco Responsibility office at Sun. Bapat's comments came in a presentation during Sun's global media day taking place Wednesday.

Thin clients like the Sun Ray consume far less electricity than conventional desktops, he said. A Sun Ray on a desktop might consume 4 to 8 watts of power. That's because … Read more