oil

Solar firm SunPower goes micro

A leading solar manufacturer has decided to offer panels with microinverters for automatically converting electricity from direct current to alternating current.

SunPower, which is partly owned by gas and oil giant Total, announced this week it's adding the E18 and E19 AC Solar Panel series to its line of solar panels. The new solar-panel models will come integrated with SolarBridge Pantheon AC microinverters made by SolarBridge Technologies.

Normally, a solar panel generates electricity in DC (direct current), and needs to be routed to an inverter that converts it to AC (alternating current), the standard used in homes, before it … Read more

Glori, seeking oil with microbes, files to go public

In the quest to get more oil from the ground, Glori Energy is enlisting microbes.

The Houston, Texas-based company today filed to go public on the stock market in a bid to raise $115 million with a biotechnology designed to extract more oil from existing wells.

Well more than half of the oil in oil wells typically stays trapped underground because conventional techniques can't reach it all. About 10 percent to 15 percent of available oil can come out based on pressure. Then drillers flood wells with water in one well to help push the oil out of a … Read more

Algae machine to reduce Australian coal plant CO2

Australia-based MBD Energy is installing an algae system from OriginOil at its coal power station in Tarong, Australia, both companies announced today.

The system will capture flue-gas emitted from the coal-fired power station using a bio-based carbon capture storage device containing micro-algae. The micro-algae uses the captured CO2 to reproduce more algae biomass, which can then be used for fuel or plastics.

The Tarong power station in Queensland will be able to process up to 300 gallons of algae culture per minute, but is only a one-hectare site. The small station will serve as the test site for a larger … Read more

DOE expands partnerships with energy companies and automakers

Tesla Motors and Electric Power Research Institute join U.S. Department of Energy, automaker research teams and energy companies to accelerate the development of new energy-efficient technologies for cars and light trucks and the infrastructure needed to support them.

According to the DOE, the collaborative effort formerly known as FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership, is now U.S. DRIVE--Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle efficiency and Energy sustainability. The goal is to beef up research and development of not only new vehicle technologies, but to also work on a broad range of energy infrastructure technologies.

"Government-industry partnerships like U.… Read more

CNET Roadside Assistance 013: Running on regular (podcast)

On today's show, we give out SUV advice, oil change recommendations, answer the burning question about using regular or premium gasoline, and of course LOL cars.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 013 SHOW NOTES

• LOLcars (photos)

CNET Roadside Assistance 012: LoJack your car. (podcast)

In this week's episode, we answer your questions on car alarms, bluetooth audio streaming, and what is synthetic oil?

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 012 SHOW NOTES

• LOLcars (photos)

• Coasting Prohibited

• Audi MMI

Corel Painter 12 gets 'real'

Major updates to high-end illustration and design tools can be hit or miss, but Corel Painter 12 slams this one way out of the park. The 12th iteration of the program contains significant improvements across the board, from intangible but visible performance gains to enhancements to older tools to a set of new tools that should have any professional artist drooling with desire.

The most impressive new tools bring a hefty dose of "reality" to Painter. The new Real Watercolor and Real Wet Oil paints do an amazing job of mimicking their real-world counterparts. Viscosity, blending, and drying … Read more

Energy Dept: Obama's plug-in autos goal on track

President Barack Obama's goal of having 1 million plug-in vehicles on U.S. roads by 2015 is on its way to being met, a Department of Energy official said today.

"It's looking good," said Assistant Energy Secretary David Sandalow when asked by reporters on the chances of meeting the goal set by Obama.

"If you look at the plans of the major automotive manufacturers, there's a clear pathway to a million vehicles," Sandalow said.

Sandalow spoke to reporters after his keynote address to the Society of Automotive Engineers in Detroit.

Obama's goal … Read more

Agilyx attracts cash for turning plastics to oil

You've heard of turning recycled plastic bottles into floor carpeting or clothing. How about back into oil?

Tigard, Oregon-based Agilyx said that it has raised $22 million in a series B round to further develop a process for converting plastics into a synthetic oil, which can be refined for transportation fuel or used to make plastic or other oil-based goods. The round was led by Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers which joined venture capital firm Chrystalix and corporate investors Waste Management and Total Energy Ventures International.

The company has developed a multi-step process which it says can convert about … Read more