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BOSTON--Bob Metcalfe thinks we'll solve global warming if we take our cue from the Internet.

Metcalfe, best known as a co-inventor of the Ethernet and now a venture capitalist at Polaris Venture Partners, on Wednesday laid out his vision of the "EnerNet," the concept of applying the lessons of building the Internet to the energy business.

Speaking at the AlwaysOn East conference here, Metcalfe said that, despite concerns of overinvestment, the growing energy technology bubble is a good thing.

"There will be many decades of bubbles ahead," he said. "There are people out there … Read more

Which parts of the United States emit the most global-warming gases? The best view until now came via satellites, which could capture only snapshots at about the state level. Total carbon emissions were known, but their distribution remained a mystery.

That changed on Monday with the release of the most detailed map to date of U.S. carbon emissions from fossil fuels.

The map, by the Vulcan Project, took more than two years to complete and cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars, with backing from NASA and the Department of Energy. The result, named after the Roman god … Read more

Sail power is back.

The MV Beluga SkySails, a cargo ship rigged up with a billowing 160-meter sail from SkySails, used approximately 20 percent less fuel than it would have without the sail during a two-month voyage. Put another way, that's 2.5 tons of fuel, or $1,000 a day, in operating costs. Beluga Shipping ultimately hopes to save $2,000 a day with the technology.

The ship left Bremen, Germany, on the 22nd of January, sailed to Venezuela, and then headed toward the Norwegian port of Mo-I-Rana, docking on March 13. In all, the ship sailed 11,… 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

PALO ALTO, Calif.--Add Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu's name to the ranks of scientists who advocate turning to nuclear power as an alternative energy source.

"Nuclear has to be a necessary part of the portfolio," Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, said during the annual economic summit organized by Stanford University.

Chu, who also is professor of physics and molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley, said nuclear is the preferred choice to coal, pointing out that coal releases 50 percent more radioactivity than nuclear power plants.

"The fear of radiation shouldn'… Read more

Plastic contamination in the world's oceans is worse than previously imagined and no amount of technology can clean it up, according to Charles Moore. The oceanographer returned February 23 from a five-week odyssey in the Pacific Ocean with samples showing 48 parts plastic for every part of plankton.

"We are damned to a future of pollution by plastic," said Moore, who has spent more than a decade investigating Pacific plastic pollution. "There's no evidence it will end in a millennium."

A plastic "graveyard" double the size of Texas swirls in the Pacific … Read more

There's nothing like 200-plus-year-old companies teaming up for the 22nd Century.

Oil giant Chevron and Weyerhauser, which has been in the lumber business since 1900, have formed a 50-50 joint venture called Catchlight Energy that will focus on developing fuels from cellulose-based biomass, like wood chips. Both companies have been working with various universities, such as Georgia Tech, on biofuel research, and this gives them a way to share information.

Chevron's Michael Burnside has been appointed CEO of the venture.

Some will no doubt boo and hiss this deal. Here we have two of the oldest companies focused … Read more

Right now, wave power is in the early experimental stages, but venture capitalists are lining up to be on the ground floor.

Orecon has lined up $24 million in funding from Advent Ventures, Venrock, Wellington Partners and Northzone Ventures to build a full scale prototype of its wave power machine and, if the results are positive, move toward commercial deployment.

The U.K.-based Orecon has devised a large-scale buoy for harvesting power from waves. In a nutshell, waves striking the device create pressure in a chamber, which is used to turn a turbine and create electricity. A single device … Read more

Comments from General Motors Vice Chairman Robert Lutz calling global warming "a total crock" sparked a storm on the Web, prompting Lutz to ask outsiders to judge GM on its actions, not his words.

A report from D Magazine dated January 30 quoted Lutz saying that global warming is a "total crock of ****." And "I'm a skeptic, not a denier. Having said that, my opinion doesn't matter...I'm motivated more by the desire to replace imported oil than by the (carbon dioxide argument)." The statements were later verified by a GM … Read more