Tag Archives: green technology
Cool: Kyocera’s Green Curtains
Kyocera’s Green Curtains are a big hit and now the company is planting them every spring at offices in Japan and various parts of the world. Foliage plants and vegetables are planted on trellises along walls, providing shade and reducing heat gain. Just having plants outside on walls lowers the indoor temperature inside about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit during summer. They are not [...]
NASA’s Sustainability Base: Open for Business
NASA’s “Sustainability Base” is open for business, setting the bar for green federal buildings by exceeding LEED-Platinum and making use of the same closed loop processes used in space travel. Designed by pre-eminent green architect Bill McDonough, known for cradle-to-cradle solutions, the new building is designed to showcase NASA’s culture of innovation by adapting many of its technologies to [...]
Cloud Computing: A Green Move
Looking for ways to help the planet? While cloud computing may not seem all that eco-friendly at first glance, a closer look reveals a number of green benefits. Here are some of the ways that the cloud can help your organization cut its carbon footprint down to size: Fewer Machines Thanks to virtualization and server [...]
Australian Scientists Printing Solar Cells Down Under
Scientists have produced the largest flexible, plastic solar cells in Australia—10 times the size of what they were previously able to—thanks to a new solar cell printer that has been installed at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). The printer is relatively cheap, uses common industrial chemicals and the resulting solar cells have a [...]
12 Misleading Myths About Solar Power
Solar energy is a dynamic and continuous energy source that many believe will one day provide most of our energy needs. Unfortunately, conventional energy industries like big oil have giant backers with deep pockets and have successfully leveraged their money to smear renewable technologies. Their main target seems to be solar. It’s important to know [...]
Bloom Energy Raises Another $130M
Fuel cell “startup” Bloom Energy just raised $130 million more in venture capital, according to a scoop from Fortune. That takes the VC funding to beyond $1.1 billion for this firm and makes it one of the all-time leaders in VC funding. Along with Fisker and Solyndra — not exactly great company. According to [...]
In Focus: Green Data Center Benefits
Today, there are millions of servers running worldwide on a daily basis. Often these are being upgraded and managed, but they are not always being used. It is estimated that these unused servers cost billions every year. This could be a major waste of money, as well as a waste of precious energy. Green data [...]
Habitat for Humanity Goes Solar in California
The East Bay Silicon Valley Habit for Humanity is about to build its 101th energy efficient home powered with solar. The organization celebrated the start of a new 12-home development in Oakland, Calif. this week. The project is made possible through a partnership between Habitat for Humanity and Pacific Gas and Electric, the largest electric [...]
Solar Venture Capital Funding Falls Off A Cliff
A new report from Mercom Capital Group, llc, found that solar venture capital (VC) funding fell to $72 million in the third-quarter of 2012. And at 14 deals in the quarter, that’s the lowest level since 2008, the report found. That’s also down quarter over quarter from $376 million in 32 deals in the second [...]
Google’s Data Center Powered by Oklahoma Wind Farm
Green data centers have become all the rage among the big tech companies like Apple and Facebook. In fact, the New York Times is running a series this past week detailing data center operations. Google has now made a significant statement by announcing this week that it has entered into a wind energy agreement with [...]
Europe Accounts for 70% of Global PV
The solar power sector is a topsy-turvy one, with companies, subsidies and technologies rising and falling. But there’s no question about what region has been driving a market that, overall, continues to grow: It’s Europe. As of the end of 2011, the European Union accounted for 70 percent of the cumulative solar photovoltaic capacity installed [...]
Solar WILL be the Cheapest Form of Energy in America
SolarChat friend and participant Rhone Resch, the president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industry Association, was recently a guest speaker on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show speaking about America’s Energy Future Beyond Oil and Gas, and something he said really caught my attention. I may be paraphrasing a bit, but Rhone described that within the [...]