Energy

The average consumer isn't likely to spend much effort managing home energy. Big power users in businesses, on the other hand, will go out of their way cut down on waste.

Start-up company Tenrehte, based near Rochester, New York, launched its PicoWatt smart outlet at CES two years ago, aiming to appeal to green-minded consumers. The idea is that a sub-$100 Wi-Fi-enabled smart outlet would transmit energy data to an online app which would let consumers save money by scheduling things to run at off-peak times.

Now two years later, Tenrehte has changed its focus to industrial and … Read more

Cree is trying to put LED lighting on the same price and performance curve that people are used to with computers.

The company today announced redesigned LED light sources that promise a significant cut in the cost of LED lighting and a quicker pace of technical improvement.

Cree estimates that the new design, which uses smaller LED chips, can cut the cost of the LED components by 50 percent. At retail, that translates to a roughly 25 percent cost reduction, said product marketing manager Paul Scheidt.

"LEDs are at the point where the technology is good enough to get … Read more

An energy project in Austria will use biogas-powered fuel cells at homes and businesses to pump power into the grid.

ClearEdge Power today announced a deal with Austrian energy company Gussing Renewable Energy to supply 50 megawatts worth of fuel cells between now and 2020 for installation in Austria. The deal will be worth $500 million over that time, making it one of the biggest contracts for stationary fuel cells.

In the first phase, ClearEdge Power's large refrigerator-size fuel cells, which each can generate five kilowatts of electric power and heat from gas, will be installed to power groups … Read more

Among the throngs at CES next week there will be a cadre of scientist looking to crack into the consumer electronics world.

There will be 24 companies incubated by the National Science Foundation exhibiting at the Eureka Park TechZone at the event. By creating the zone, the Consumer Electronics Association is looking to highlight innovations from startups.

When it comes to the NSF-affiliated bunch, the technologies are all over the map, touching on electronics, health, and alternative energy. Here's a sampling.

Gamma Dynamics is expected to show off its latest developments in a super-thin, flexible display technology, which could … Read more

Modernizing 150-year-old battery technology may be one of the cheapest routes to hybrid autos.

Axion Power International has a developed an advanced lead-acid battery it hopes will attract automakers and grid storage providers. The basic chemistry and components are the same, but the company has an activated carbon negative electrode, a change that leads to better performance over time, according to the company.

In the auto industry, the company is targeting start-stop hybrids in particular. Also called microhybrids, start-stop systems feature a small battery to run a car's electronics when idle and to aid in accelerating.

Unlike an all-electric … Read more

Do-it-yourself retailer Lowe's later this year will sell three home automation kits designed to plug thermostats and home security gear into a home network.

The company today announced a deal with U.K.-based AlertMe which will provide the equipment and a cloud-based service, called Iris, for home energy management, automation, and monitoring.

The products will be available mid year and be priced for the "mass market," said Kevin Meagher, the vice president and general manager for smart home at Lowe's. All three kits will be self-installable and can be accessed from Internet-connected devices, such as … Read more

I love working at CNET. I get to write about urinal games and singing robot heads and work with smart, talented people who aren't afraid to be trapped inside iPads. I'm sure that sitting in a light-drenched office with giant windows overlooking San Francisco doesn't hurt either.

It's no secret that environmental factors like light can greatly influence mood and workplace productivity. Which is why researchers from the Stuttgart, Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute have crafted a "luminous ceiling" that simulates the lighting conditions of passing clouds. It's like working on Excel spreadsheets in the beautiful outdoors--from your dark, dank basement cubicle.

The Fraunhofer researchers collaborated with LED maker LEiDs to create a ceiling made of tiles measuring approximately 1.6 feet by 1.6 feet. Each tile comprises an LED board with 288 red, blue, green, and white light-emitting diodes that work in concert to produce the full light spectrum--millions of hues.

The boards are mounted on the ceiling, with a matte white diffuser film situated about 12 inches below the LEDs helping to illuminate the whole room. … Read more

Navy researchers are exploring whether lowly bacteria found in soil can help survey the outer reaches of space.

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory yesterday detailed a project to design a "microrover" robot that would be able to explore planetary bodies for long periods of time without human intervention.

To overcome the limitations of today's batteries, researchers intend to use a microbial fuel cell to generate power for a small robot that would weigh about two pounds.

The idea is to have an advanced microbial fuel cell that would generate enough power to maintain the electronics on … Read more

A home full of "smart" devices that can communicate still needs apps to give people a reason to use them.

Grid upstart Tendril today opened up a developer site to encourage the creation of applications that do something interesting with energy-related information. Tendril had already published some of the APIs for its cloud-based platform in a closed beta, but it is now opening up the service to more developers and adding documentation.

The Tendril Connect platform provides some of the plumbing to collect energy consumption data and present it back to consumers on different devices, such as computers, … Read more