Cleantech and Environmental News – Latest Headlines

Cleantech investment: A decade of California's evolving portfolio

A new analysis of the last decade of investment in California's clean technology sector shows that although venture capitalists remain key players, different types of investors are becoming ever more important to the growth of the sector.

September 26, 2013 Read more

New center to prepare national transportation for extreme weather, climate change

The University of California, Davis, has been selected in a national competition this week to lead a two-year, $11.2 million research consortium for the U.S. Department of Transportation, focused on addressing and preparing for climate change.

September 26, 2013 Read more

Blue-green algae a five-tool player in converting waste to fuel

There is a current superstar species of blue-green algae that, through its powers of photosynthesis and carbon dioxide fixation, or uptake, can produce ethanol, hydrogen, butanol, isobutanol and potentially biodiesel. Now that's some five-tool player.

September 25, 2013 Read more

Breaking the 0-100km/h acceleration world record for electric cars - 2.15 seconds

The DUT Racing team from TU Delft has broken the world record for acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h for electric cars. The previous record stood at 2.68 seconds, but as of today the record is now held by the TU Delft students with 2.15 seconds.

September 25, 2013 Read more

China's synthetic gas plants would be greenhouse giants

Huge scale of gas-from-coal plants 'an environmental disaster in the making'.

September 25, 2013 Read more

New algal species for biofuel production

Cultivating microalgae for use in the production of biofuels is an attractive alternative to traditional sources of biomass. The latest research in this area has identified important new species and processes that could become indispensable for microalgal production of biofuel.

September 25, 2013 Read more

Developing zinc-air batteries for renewable energy

Renewable energies such as solar and wind power need reliable storage technologies if they are to supply energy when consumers need it. A research project is working to develop a new class of small, low-cost batteries based on zinc-air flow technologies.

September 25, 2013 Read more

World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin jointly announced today having achieved a new world record for the conversion of sunlight into electricity using a new solar cell structure with four solar subcells.

September 25, 2013 Read more

Sustainable future dependent on energy industry support, warns World Energy Council

The global energy industry must play a greater role in the transition to sustainable energy systems if United Nations development goals are to be met, warns a report launched today by the World Energy Council (WEC).

September 25, 2013 Read more

Durable plastic doubles as a CO2 cleaner

Chemists transform an inexpensive household plastic into a high-capacity sorbent for carbon dioxide capture and separation.

September 25, 2013 Read more

NREL calculates emissions and costs of power plant cycling necessary for increased wind and solar

New research from the Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) quantifies the potential impacts of increasing wind and solar power generation on the operators of fossil-fueled power plants in the West. To accommodate higher amounts of wind and solar power on the electric grid, utilities must ramp down and ramp up or stop and start conventional generators more frequently to provide reliable power for their customers - a practice called cycling.

September 24, 2013 Read more

Time to rethink misguided policies that promote biofuels to protect climate

Policymakers need to rethink the idea of promoting biofuels to protect the climate because the methods used to justify such policies are inherently flawed, according to a University of Michigan energy researcher.

September 24, 2013 Read more

Fusion, anyone?

Not quite yet, but researchers from National Ignition Facility show just how close we've come.

September 24, 2013 Read more

How do we talk about climate change? The need for strategic conversations

With media bias polarising the conversation about climate change into 'catastrophic' and 'sceptical' camps, new research exposes just how important the ways in which environmental educators talk about climate change is in influencing public engagement.

September 24, 2013 Read more

Sun, water, CO2 and algae - a recipe for biofuel?

The nine-partner team behind the EU-funded project DIRECTFUEL ('Direct biological conversion of solar energy to volatile hydrocarbon fuels by engineered cyanobacteria') is developing photosynthetic microorganisms able to catalyse the conversion of solar energy and CO2 into engine-ready fuels.

September 24, 2013 Read more

New methods increases food and bioenergy production from cassava

New ways to utilize starch from cassava can provide food to an additional 30 million people without taking more arable land than today. By 2030 the figure will be 100 million. In addition, the same land can also contribute to an increased production of bioenergy.

September 24, 2013 Read more

Spinning old music CDs to clean sewage water

Scientists find a potential new use for old music CDs: coating disks in photocatalytic compounds and spinning them to clean water.

September 23, 2013 Read more

Berkeley Lab releases most comprehensive databook on China's energy and environment

In the five years since the China Energy Group of the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released its last edition of the China Energy Databook, China has achieved two dubious distinctions: it surpassed the United States in energy consumption and it surpassed the United States in energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide, becoming the world leader on both scores.

September 23, 2013 Read more