Green Tech

Reports: Energy agency to bail from FutureGen carbon capture project

The U.S. Department of Energy plans to pull its support of a $1.8 billion project to build a power plant that captures pollution underground, according to published reports.

The FutureGen project is meant to test cutting-edge carbon capture and storage technology, which is supposed to dramatically reduce emissions from fossil fuel-burning power plants.

Carbon capture and storage is considered an important technology to reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions, but the technology is unproven at a large scale. A study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year called for government funding of carbon capture projects in the United … Read more

V2G: Smart grids meet electric vehicles

In the future, utilities will pay you to plug in your vehicle. Millions will plug in their electric vehicles (EVs), plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) at night when electricity is cheap, then during the day when energy is expensive, sell those extra electrons at a profit. Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) technology is a bi-directional electric grid interface that allows a plug-in to take energy from the grid or put it back on the grid. V2G helps solve the major problem that demand for electricity is high during the day when everything from industrial plants to air conditioning is running … Read more

Is green tech recession-proof?

Discussion of a "clean-tech bubble" has been going on for about two years and as fears of a recession set in, people in the field are starting to ask: how bad will clean-tech companies be hit, if at all, by a slowing economy?

Rob Day, a clean-tech venture capital at @Ventures, appears to have been first out the gate with a blog analyzing the potential impact of a recession, which has already helped take the wind from the sails of public solar companies.

Day lays out the possible scenarios, from increasing investment in clean energy to the floor … Read more

Bush calls for clean-technology fund

President Bush called for the creation of a clean-energy fund for developing countries in his final State of the Union speech on Monday, but energy policy took a back seat to other international and domestic issues.

Bush reiterated many of his previous policy priorities during the speech, including a call for funding of carbon capture technologies, nuclear power, and fuels that reduce the country's reliance on oil. An excerpt from the speech:

"To build a future of energy security, we must trust in the creative genius of American researchers and entrepreneurs and empower them to pioneer a new … Read more

Enphase Energy to bring 'microinverters' to solar panels

Is it time for a "small revolution" in the world of renewable energy electronics?

Start-up Enphase Energy on Tuesday announced that it has landed $6.5 million in funding with the bulk of the money coming from Third Point Ventures.

The company makes a system that uses a microinverter, an electronics device that converts direct current from solar panels to grid-ready alternating current on each individual panel.

Each panel can also relay information on its performance to Enphase Energy's Web site, which customers can view from a browser. The company plans to release the system, aimed at … Read more

Heating your house with cold air

Hallowell International is effectively committing air conditioner fraud.

The Bangor, Maine-based company has figured out a way to get heat pumps--the basis for heating and cooling systems for much of the Southwest U.S.--to work decently in cool climates. For residents in the Northeast and Midwest, that's good news. Electric heat pumps are more efficient than fossil fuel heating systems and double as air conditioners in the summer.

In some northern states, residents can pay up to $4,000 a year to heat and cool their homes with fossil fuels, said Hallowell CEO Duane Hallowell. The company claims … Read more

Second Rotation finds home for old gadgets, raises money

Admit it: somewhere in a drawer or stashed in your closet, you have an old cell phone or digital camera with no practical purpose.

Second Rotation is a Web site designed to find a home for that used and no-longer-loved electronic gear. On Tuesday, the company announced that it has raised $4.4 million in funding led by Venrock to expand its product catalog and ramp up marketing.

The Web site, which launched last July, acts as a broker between consumers and eBay or an electronics recycler.

To unload your old Treo or Canon, you write the product name into … Read more

Solar power plant maker Solel raises more than $100 million

Providing fresh evidence that solar thermal is one of the hottest segments in green tech, Solel said on Monday that Ecofin is investing $105 million into the company.

Solel makes equipment for solar thermal power plants, facilities that use the sun's heat to create steam and turn an electricity generator.

Its specialty is parabolic troughs. Thousands of troughs reflect sunlight to heat a liquid that makes steam. The company's equipment has been in use in the Mojave Desert since 1985.

Solar thermal is one of the most cost-effective forms of renewable power and is best suited for desert … Read more

Harvesting energy from falling raindrops

Scientists at the CEA/Leti-Minatec in Grenoble, France are looking at ways to produce electricity from the vibrations caused by falling raindrops.

It's the latest step toward exploiting piezoelectric principles. In piezoelectrics, bending or otherwise deforming an object can produce power. If you take a tiny wire and bend it, for example, a negative charge gets produced on the stretched side while a positive charge gets created on the compressed side. When the pressure on the wire is relieved, an electrical current can be detected.

Using the CEA's concept, raindrops hitting a flexible surface set off the vibrations … Read more