Inside the Wind Power Industry’s Report: 10 Geeky Facts
Posted by EarthTechling on April 16, 2013 
We’ve known for months that 2012 was a huge year for wind power in the United States, so the headline from the wind industry’s big annual report released last week – that wind power grew by 28 percent – was a little stale. But poring over the 108-page document – provided to us on a…
Wind Energy Trumps The Donald’s Scotland Vistas
Posted by EarthTechling on April 1, 2013 
The Scottish government this week approved plans to build an 11-turbine testing ground a few kilometers off the northeast coast of Scotland, rebuffing American celebrity real estate developer Donald Trump, who railed that the array will spoil the views from his seaside golf resort.
Is U.S. Energy Use Distributed as Unequally as Our Wealth?
Posted by EarthTechling on March 12, 2013 If you’re active on social media, you may have noticed a viral video about U.S. wealth inequality making the rounds. In just a few short days this video was watched and shared by millions, raising awareness about the difference between our perception of how wealth is divided and the reality. According to a report from energy start-up Opower, however,…
Notorious Altamont Wind Area Becomes Safer for Birds
Posted by EarthTechling on February 1, 2013 
There’s good news in the long-running controversy about wind power and birds. A study of the notorious wind turbines in California’s Altamont Pass suggests that efforts to reduce the number of bird deaths from the spinning blades are succeeding.
U.S. Government Pushes for Truly Sustainable Biofuels
Posted by EarthTechling on January 9, 2013 There’s probably no type of renewable energy more polarizing than biofuels. Many economists and other analysts believe that in their present incarnation – food-crop-based fuels – these alternatives to oil fail to deliver the economic or environmental benefits sought. All the more reason, perhaps, to put money into research that can deliver truly sustainable fuels – which…
French Design Firm Gives House of Straw a Modernist Touch
Posted by EarthTechling on December 27, 2012 Perhaps the first Little Pig was right all along. In a demonstration about how to build a simple structure made entirely of recyclable or reusable materials, a small Parisian architecture firm called Studio 1984 chose straw as the main building material, designing a cozy, 15-square-meter “nest” that even the Big Bad Wolf would have to admire. The tiny structure, built earlier this fall…
Heat-Mapping Company Finds Thermal Gaps In Homes
Posted by EarthTechling on December 27, 2012 It’s 10 p.m.—do you know where your insulation gaps are? As the winter months descend and much of the country braces for icy weather, a startup company in the Boston area called Sagewell is taking it to the streets to let homeowners know exactly where their heating dollars are escaping, and provides suggestions about how to make their homes more energy…
Solar From Nevada Indian Reservation to Help Power Los Angeles
Posted by EarthTechling on November 27, 2012 After decades of getting electricity from faraway pollution-and-greenhouse-gas-spewing coal-fired power plants, Los Angeles is looking out of state for less toxic forms of energy. An example: The city council this week approved [PDF] a 25-year power purchase agreement with K Road Moapa Solar for up to 250 megawatts of power from a solar power plant on tribal land of…
Solar Gets Its Due From Energy Number Crunchers
Posted by EarthTechling on November 6, 2012 Solar is getting its due from the Energy Information Administration, which is now reporting customer-sited photovoltaic capacity, in addition to the utility-scale PV total. Earlier this year we reported on research by Michael Mendelsohn, a market and policy impact analyst at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado, that revealed that EIA reports on the state of U.S.…
IKEA Vows All Solar and Wind Power by 2020
Posted by EarthTechling on October 24, 2012 Putting more in than it takes out – across the board, that’s a key aspect of the bold sustainability plan the furniture giant IKEA says it will pursue over the next several years. The company on Tuesday vowed that by 2020 it will produce more renewable energy than it consumes in its stores and buildings. But what…
Wooden Wind Tower Claims Green Edge
Posted by EarthTechling on October 24, 2012 The tens of thousands of massive towers around the world that hold megawatt-plus turbines hundreds of feet high, where the wind blows unimpede,d are fashioned of multiple steel plates rolled into a cylinder or conical shape, welded into sections of tower, and then bolted together onsite. Except for one. In Germany, the company TimberTower announced it had…
In Colorado, A Whole New (Green) Starbucks
Posted by EarthTechling on October 12, 2012 When it comes to sustainability, there’s no denying that Starbucks has been taking some steps in recent years. Some of those steps are small: introducing compostable hot-cup sleeves, for example, and turning old baked goods into plastics at its store in Hong Kong. Some of those steps are bigger, such as mandating that all new stores be built…
MIT Magnets Could Pull Offshore Oil Spills From Water
Posted by EarthTechling on September 20, 2012 Over two years later, the Gulf Coast is still struggling to recover from the 2010 BP oil spill. Perhaps the only silver lining to this deadly event was the fact that it revealed to the world just how unprepared oil companies are to prevent, contain, and clean up offshore spills. Faced with this ugly truth, scientists…
Oregon Eco-Winery Goes Beyond LEED
Posted by EarthTechling on September 17, 2012 In 2002, more than a dozen structures and countless trees were scorched in the course of the Biscuit Fire, which took down roughly 500,000 acres in southern Oregon. Now a Dayton-area winery with a history of green innovation — Stoller Family Estate — has put a number of those trees to use in its new tasting room, along with…
Montana Wind Turbines Give Way to Raptors
Posted by EarthTechling on August 27, 2012 The breezy ridges that are so attractive to wind-power developers are also, quite often, prime raptor nesting territory. That’s the case on Kevin Rim, sandstone cliffs in north central Montana where NaturEner is building a 189-megawatt wind farm that will generate power for San Diego Gas and Electric. If this sounds like a situation that could…
In Brazil, A Sustainable City Sector Under Development
Posted by EarthTechling on August 24, 2012 As the London Olympics have concluded, the world’s attention turns to Rio. The XXXI Games in 2016 will mark the first Olympics for the South American continent; the Olympic flag was officially handed off at this summer’s closing ceremony. And as the world follows the day-by-day progress as Rio moves toward the next installment in 2016, all that green scrutiny directed at this summer’s…
Battery-Swapping Aussie EV Sets 24-Hour Record: 1,170 Miles
Posted by EarthTechling on August 22, 2012 It didn’t go 1,170 miles (1,886 kilometers) in 24 hours without stopping, but for an electric car, it’s still a mighty impressive distance — the equivalent of a mad dash from Seattle to Orange County, Calif. The Aussie consortium that pulled it off saw this unofficial EV world record as confirmation of their homegrown vehicle’s capabilities.…
New U.S. Navy Electric Trucks Sport Solar Panels
Posted by EarthTechling on August 7, 2012 They may not be sexy in a Top Gun kind of way, but the U.S. Navy’s continued investments in clean technologies for use throughout its operations recently extended to Pearl Harbor via 36 new electric vehicles. These new two- and four-passenger trucks and cargo vans are from Vantage Vehicle International out of California, who get the chassis for the vehicles from China…
Alcatraz Solar Isn’t for the Birds, but They Like It
Posted by EarthTechling on August 3, 2012 It was no easy task getting a thousand or so solar panels past preservationists PO’d at the idea of PV on the iconic Alcatraz penitentiary – and now that the modules are up and operating, there’s the challenge of keeping the bird poop off them. A National Renewable Energy Laboratory feature detailed the challenge of locating the…
Photos: A $200,000 Green Home Designed By Frank Gehry
Posted by EarthTechling on July 30, 2012 Buildings designed by Frank Gehry tend to function both as city landmarks and tourist attractions, and they certainly don’t come cheap. His works, which have been cited as among the most important works of contemporary architecture by World Architecture Survey, include include the titanium-covered Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, constructed at a cost of $100 million, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, which came in…
IKEA’s Solar Blitz Adds Up to Massive Power
Posted by EarthTechling on July 27, 2012 Looking for signs that renewable energy is gaining real traction? We present IKEA. Back in the day, every single solar installation from the purveyor of cheap and cheerful home furnishings was news. Now, IKEA solarizing a store is as common as, well, a birch veneer bookshelf. That’s got to be a sign of progress. Already this month, the…
SolarWorld Set to Take China Trade Fight to Europe
Posted by EarthTechling on July 26, 2012 Reports that SolarWorld had formally brought its solar trade fight against China to Europe elicited a fresh round of scorn from critics within the industry this week, but the company said it had not in fact filed a complaint. Yet. “We have always said that we will ask the European Union to take urgent action against unfair competition from…
Hybrid Concept Car Changes Shape While You Drive
Posted by EarthTechling on June 8, 2012 As a child of the ’80s, I have a soft spot in my heart for the Transformers. Those kindhearted robots blew our minds with their ability to go from everyday vehicle to mega-machine in seconds flat. For practical purposes, however, I always thought it would be terrifying to drive a car that might morph into something…
Clean Water Might Be Only a Backpack Away
Posted by EarthTechling on May 11, 2012 How far did you walk to get clean drinking water today? As far as the kitchen sink? Even if you had to walk outside and draw it from a well, you’re still enjoying a privilege that many humans can only imagine. In Africa, millions of people walk miles every day to procure water, often from a contaminated…
Japan Demonstration Home Departs From the Grid
Posted by EarthTechling on May 10, 2012 Slightly more than a year after the March 11, 2011, Fukushima disaster, the automaker Honda unveiled a demonstration home in Saitama, Japan, that is powered by thin-film solar panels, as well as a 92-percent efficient gas-fired generator that contributes both hot water and electricity to the home, and a rechargeable home battery unit. (Related Story: One Year After…
