Green Tech

Results from a year-long study on high-tech electricity meters found smart grid technology performed as intended, saving consumers about 10 percent on their bills while easing strain on the power grid.

The Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest Laboratory on Wednesday released the findings from its GridWise project, which tested the use of Internet-connected thermostats and other controls in 112 homes in the Seattle area.

Consumers also tried out appliances, like water heaters and dryers, that were able to automatically change their settings according to signals sent by the utility over the power grid.

The trial showed that consumers are … Read more

Earth Class Mail, which enables people to manage snail mail online, has closed $13.3 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by Ignition Partners of Bellevue, Wash., with more than half of the money raised by the Keiretsu Forum angel investment group.

The company aims to open a chain of retail stores, starting with one in Manhattan early this year, according to the Portland Business Journal. The storefronts will focus on easing the process of signing up, which requires completing some notarized forms. The Seattle-based service is used currently in 130 countries.

Earth Class Mail is billed … Read more

It's a fact of life in China that just about anything comes in a little plastic bag. That's all about to change: In what all reports are calling a surprise move, the central government has banned (translated) ultra-thin plastic bags and will require regular bags to be sold with a clearly marked price starting June 1.

This demonstrates the way the government can simply declare an end to a technology for environmental reasons, even a 1950s technology like plastic bags. Whether enforcement will actually end plastic bags is not something I care to guess about.

The key here … Read more

After Christmas gifts were exchanged this season, I set out to get what I really wanted from Santa: a solar panel kit that could power up my household electronics.

Options for buying these things are growing fast (see photo gallery below). Solar chargers can be had from several suppliers that juice up cameras, digital music players, phones, or game machines. And at the Consumer Electronics Show, a few companies showed off solar chargers, in tune with the "green theme" of the conference.

I originally set out for a single charger for gadgets and batteries. As I surfed from … Read more

LAS VEGAS--One of the big complaints from consumers who buy General Motors cars that run on E85 ethanol is the lack of places to fill up.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner, in a meeting with reporters at the Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas this week, says he has received hundreds of e-mails from customers who have bought such cars and are frustrated they can't find ethanol stations.

When GM started selling its flex-fuel cars, there were about 600 stations that sold ethanol in the U.S. Now there are about 1,400 stations.

But there are 170,… Read more

Canon printers will soon arrive in stores with a green label flaunting eco-friendly features including energy conservation and recycled materials. The company's "Generation Green" brand will mark Pixma and Selphy photo inkjets as well as the laser ImageClass lines of printers.

"Printers are the one area where you can really improve the environment," said Canon spokesman Justin Joseph. "Their production is a massive undertaking that requires a lot of raw materials, and we've found so many ways to reduce that."

Some inks will be encased in NatureStone biodegradable packs made from limestone … Read more

Jay LeBoff was sick of being left incommunicado when the power went out in his neighborhood in Westchester County, N.Y. So he set out to build a backup power supply that relies on the sun.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, his company, NRG Dock, showed off solar chargers that are designed to run a range of electronics, including cell phones, Blackberrys, gaming machines, and music players. A high-end version will power laptops.

The products have a couple of pieces. In the Home version, there is a weatherproof battery and a solar panel that charges up and connects to a … Read more

A large-scale test on the effectiveness of switchgrass to make ethanol gave the native grass high marks on energy production and greenhouse gases.

Switchgrass is a favorite of politicians and cellulosic ethanol advocates who say that the grass, which can grow to nine feet, is a better feedstock than corn--the source of most ethanol made today.

A study published on Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that switchgrass contains five times more energy than it takes to grow it, which makes it significantly more cost-effective than corn.

The average greenhouse gas emissions from cellulosic … Read more

EnerTech Environmental has attracted $42 million to build out facilities that turn human and industrial wastes into fuel.

The funding, announced on Monday, was co-led by Citi's Sustainable Development Investments (SDI) unit and Masdar Clean Tech Fund, which is financed in part by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company.

EnerTech Environmental's technology takes high-moisture biosolids, including sewage sludge or agricultural wastes, and treats it with heat and pressure to separate water from it.

What comes out the other end of its SlurryCarb process is water that is sent back to wastewater treatment plants and a solid which it … Read more