Energy

Beacon Power, which had received a government loan and then went bankrupt, has found a buyer, in a deal that will recoup some of the loaned money.

The flywheel energy storage company today said it has reached a deal with private equity firm Rockland Capital to buy most of its assets for $30.5 million. That includes Beacon Power's intellectual property around flywheel grid storage and a New York energy storage project partially financed by a Department of Energy loan guarantee.

If the deal is finalized, the Energy Department stands to recover 70 percent of the loan, according to … Read more

If solar startups Alta Devices and Semprius were in the server business, one would be developing a deluxe high-powered server while the other would be stringing thousands of Linux boxes together. Both approaches, though, are showing promise at bringing the cost of solar power down.

Alta Devices today said it set the record for the most efficient solar cell, able to convert 23.5 percent of sunlight into electricity. The University of California at Berkeley spin-out said the efficiency mark, verified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is a step toward commercializing its novel solar technology.

The company is making … Read more

Electric vehicles have floundered into obscurity more than once in U.S. history and now they're staging yet another comeback. Regardless how this latest wave of EVs fares, electrification in its many forms is here to stay.

To give CNET readers some perspective, we've assembled a slideshow of the colorful past, hopeful present, and possible future of electric autos.

Last year was a pivotal year in the history of electrical vehicles because of the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt, which became available in late 2010. Sales of these cars are small in the scheme of overall volume and … Read more

In a mashup of biology and electronics, researchers said they've made progress in making low-cost solar cell from plants.

A paper published in Scientific Reports today describes an improved method for making electricity-producing "biophotovoltaics" without the sophisticated laboratory equipment previously needed. Researchers said custom-designed chemicals could be mixed with green plants, even grass clippings, to create a photovoltaic material by harnessing photosynthesis.

"Take that bag (of chemicals), mix it with anything green and paint it on the roof," said MIT researcher Andreas Mershin, who is one of the paper's co-authors, in a statement. He … Read more

Ever suspect your apartment building's heating was poorly managed because you needed to open the windows in winter? Now New York City residents can prove it with data.

Columbia University yesterday released results from a mapping project that shows, block by block, how much energy buildings consume. Providing the data in a visual format makes it easier to locate buildings that are good candidates for efficiency improvements or potentially on-site energy production.

Buildings represent about two thirds of the energy used in New York City, which is a much higher percentage than other parts of the country where transportation … Read more

Startup SeaMicro first packed lots of low-end Atom processors into servers to save power and space. Now Intel's beefy Xeon server chips are also getting the low-power treatment.

SeaMicro today announced its SM 10000-XE server, which it claims is the most energy-efficient Xeon server ever built. It consumes one half the power of a server with comparable computing muscle, takes one third of the space, and increases the available bandwidth twelve times, the company said.

The company is one of few companies that have taken a radical approach to server design by using arrays of less powerful processors, called &… Read more

SOUTH BOSTON--From this grungy warehouse converted into a startup incubator, Sam White and Sorin Grama plot how to chill milk for poor Indian villagers.

The four-year journey of their startup, Promethean Power, has included several trips to India and dramatic engineering detours. Now finally, their rapid milk chillers, which feature a novel energy-storage technology, will be installed at three milk processing centers in India in the coming months.

The two company co-founders had originally intended to build a solar-powered milk chiller that would improve the lives of Indian farmers and advance renewable energy. But despite engineering some nifty power electronics, … Read more

DOE researchers are going to the nanoscale to pack more energy into fuel cell vehicles.

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab yesterday detailed research plans for a three-year, $2.1 million Department of Energy-funded project to develop materials that would improve hydrogen storage. The basic research will include technical contributions from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and General Motors.

Storage is one of the main technical barriers to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Today hydrogen gas is compressed to very high pressures and pumped into onboard tanks, but that method doesn't match the range of gasoline-powered cars. Also, energy … Read more

Carmakers' pursuit of fuel efficiency and sustainability is moving to auto interiors.

Ford said today that its upcoming Escape SUV will sport door bolsters made of kenaf, a flowering tropical plant. The company estimates using a plant-based material will offset 300,000 pounds of oil-based resins this year.

The door bolsters will be 25 percent lighter and so help improve fuel efficiency as well. They will be a 50-50 mix of kenaf and polypropylene and be made by Indiana-based supplier International Automotive Components.

Kenaf plants grow long stems like bamboo. The fiber can be processed into different materials, such as … Read more