Cleantech and Environmental News – Latest Headlines

Rise and fall of the Maya in response to climate change

An international and interdisciplinary team of scientists including Norbert Marwan from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) presents a precisely dated, high resolution regional climate record for the past 2000 years that for the first time shows how the Maya political systems developed and disintegrated in response to climate change.

November 9, 2012 Read more

Stealing nature's photosynthetic secrets

The prospect of creating clean, renewable hydrogen fuel is closer than ever after a breakthrough in our understanding of photosynthesis.

November 9, 2012 Read more

Integrating electric vehicles into power grids

Europe is paving the way for a transition from fossil fuels toward sustainable forms of energy. EU-funded scientists are developing technology and tools to facilitate integration of electric vehicles (EVs) into electricity grids.

November 9, 2012 Read more

Uniting the EU and China on fuel cell research

An EU-funded consortium of European and Chinese research centres and industrial partners have advanced fuel cell (FC) technology. Such collaborations help foster common goals and ways of achieving them benefiting all involved.

November 9, 2012 Read more

Researchers develop effective thermal energy storage system

Engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a thermal energy storage system that will work as a viable alternative to current methods used for storing energy collected from solar panels. Incorporating the researchers? design into the operation of a concentrated solar power plant will dramatically increase annual energy production while significantly decreasing production costs.

November 9, 2012 Read more

Sustainable land-use concept for South America

Intensive farming with a climate-friendly touch: Farming/woodland mix increases yields.

November 9, 2012 Read more

Second anniversary of green energy research reveals solar panels "do what they say on the tin" (w/video)

A solar energy project at the University of Sheffield which is celebrating its second anniversary has shown almost all of the 2,000 systems in the scheme are "doing what they say on the tin".

November 8, 2012 Read more

Cool pavements, warm buildings, rising electricity bills

A push to replace old, heat-trapping paving materials with new, cooler materials could actually lead to higher electricity bills for surrounding buildings, engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have found.

November 8, 2012 Read more

More bang for the biofuel buck

Berkeley Lab researchers combine old fermentation process for making explosives with new chemical catalysis to boost biofuel production.

November 8, 2012 Read more

First solely-biofuel jet flight raises clean travel hopes

The world's first flight powered entirely by bio jet fuel has raised hopes for cleaner air travel and upped the prospects of a boon for farmers whose oilseed crops could supplant kerosene.

November 8, 2012 Read more

Environmentally friendly chemistry important for manufacturing pharmaceuticals

Limiting the quantity of catalysts - substances that trigger a chemical reaction - used in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals is important, and research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, has now demonstrated that small quantities of copper work well in this respect.

November 8, 2012 Read more

Energy storage developer LightSail Energy raises $37.3 million

LightSail Energy, a developer of breakthrough energy storage technology, announced today that it has raised $37.3 million in Series D funding led by San Francisco investor Peter Thiel. Khosla Ventures, which incubated the company and led LightSail?s earlier rounds, Bill Gates, Innovacorp, and several other investors also participated in the round.

November 8, 2012 Read more

Ben-Gurion University develops side-illuminated ultra-efficient solar cell designs

New cell architecture can exceed 40 percent conversion efficiency at intensities up to 10,000 suns.

November 8, 2012 Read more

SSRL experiments to focus on solar technologies

SLAC's Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource will play a central role in three research projects that seek cheaper materials and manufacturing techniques for solar panels, with support from a Department of Energy program called the SunShot Initiative.

November 7, 2012 Read more

Capturing carbon with clever trapdoors

A team of Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) researchers based at the University of Melbourne have developed a novel method of capturing carbon dioxide that will reduce the cost of separating and storing the gas.

November 7, 2012 Read more

New tool to assess regional risks of climate change

MIT researchers develop tool to assess regional risks of climate change, potential impacts on local infrastructure and planning.

November 7, 2012 Read more

Synthetic biofilter removes estrogens from drinking water

Conventional methods of filtering waste water in sewage treatment plants are unable to completely remove medicine residues such as the estrogens in birth control pills. Students from the Bielefeld University's Center for Biotechnology have now developed a biological filter in which specific enzymes (so-called laccases) break down these medicine residues.

November 7, 2012 Read more

Pacific islands drop diesel for 100 percent solar power

The island nation of Tokelau switched on the third and final installment of its new solar energy grid last week, earning praise around the world as the first country to become entirely solar-powered - except it's not a country.

November 7, 2012 Read more