Global warming

BrightSource Energy will build 500 megawatts' worth of solar thermal power plants for Pacific Gas & Electric in California, and the contract contains an option for PG&E to order another 400 megawatts on top of that.

The deal is the largest yet in the solar thermal world when the option is added. PG&E earlier inked a deal with Israel's Solel under which Solel will build 533 megawatts' worth of solar power for the utility. Ausra, an Australian start-up that has moved to the U.S., will build a 177-megawatt plant for PG&E. Ausra … Read more

Plug-in hybrids get far better mileage than standard cars or regular hybrids--and emit far less pollution.

But they are also tough to justify economically at the moment with existing technology, according to the first several months of data from RechargeIT.org, which is studying how well plug-in hybrids work in real-world circumstances.

Plug-ins, in fact, only cut gas consumption by about 88 gallons a year over regular Priuses in urban driving. That comes to an annual savings of $158 to $250 (when you factor in the cost of electricity too). With the conversion running around $15,000, the payoff … Read more

Mention hydrogen and a legion of critics will outline the reasons why the gas will likely never be a major energy source.

But it doesn't mean that researchers still aren't working on these problems. And the latest idea comes from Rice University, where scientists have found that buckyballs-- molecular balls made up of 60 or more carbon atoms--can store hydrogen quite well.

The molecules can store around 8 percent of their weight in hydrogen at room temperature, Rice found. The federal government, meanwhile, has set a goal of finding materials that can store 6 percent of its weight … Read more

Plug-in hybrids are coming. General Motors, Tesla Motors, Fisker Automotive and Toyota are all coming out with gas-electric cars that can be charged from a socket.

The question now is can the grid handle it. The latest voice on the debate, Stan Hadley of the Cooling, Heating and Power Technologies Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratories, says it won't be easy. Hadley examined 182 scenarios on how plug-ins might be used in different regions in the U.S. between 2020 and 2030. Hadley assumed a 25 percent penetration of plug-ins by 2020.

In a worst case scenario, Hadley postulated … Read more

North America and Europe are consuming less oil, but worldwide demand is still rising despite increasing prices.

The International Energy Agency came out with its monthly report yesterday and, in some ways, it's business as usual. Demand in Western economies for oil dropped by about 190,000 barrels a day, bringing daily consumption down to 49.3 million barrels. Demand in China, India, and other developing nations, however, rose by 120,000 barrels a day to 38.3 million barrels a day.

In all, that comes to 87.5 million barrels a day of oil being consumed worldwide--close to … Read more

It already makes Office. Now, Microsoft wants a hand in controlling your office.

Like IBM, Microsoft has launched an effort to make itself a major player in the rapidly growing energy-efficiency market. The company is recruiting developers and is eyeing opportunities to produce software itself for building control systems, traffic management systems, or even the software that gets used by water quality management districts.

It's a strategy driven by opportunity and need. Climate change and rising power prices are forcing corporations and individuals to seek out ways to curb energy consumption. Besides costing more, energy is highly inefficiently used. … Read more

Remember how Robert Lutz, vice chairman and design guru at General Motors, a few weeks back called global warming a "crock of s---?" Well, his boss, GM CEO Rick Wagoner, wishes Lutz hadn't made that comment, saying it does not reflect the auto giant's position.

Wagoner on Tuesday spoke to reporters in Washington, where he was lobbying for government policies to promote alternative energy efforts such as ethanol production and research on batteries.

He said he regretted Lutz's remarks, which were widely discussed on the Web. "The comments weren't coming out of our … Read more

We've seen Intel, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and others tout servers and other products that consume less energy than their predecessors. Now the consultants will get into the act.

Green IT consulting will mushroom into a $4.8 billion industry by 2013, according to Forrester Research. The firm polled 130 companies and found that only six used a green IT service provider, but that 6 percent more were planning on it, and another 18 percent were considering it.

Some of the beneficiaries could be firms like Accenture, Deloitte, and EDS, which will start to provide holistic advice on energy efficiency … Read more

WASHINGTON--The world is in the early days of an energy revolution for clean technology, a shift the United States is committed to for economic, political, and environmental reasons, President George Bush said in a speech here Wednesday.

The president spoke to delegates from more than 120 countries at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) 2008, where he described what the United States has done to promote biofuels, fuel efficiency, and renewable power sources like wind.

"America has to change its habits. It has to get off oil. Until we change our habits, we are going to be dependent … Read more