Josie Garthwaite | posted on December 29, 2008

Cleantech startups were a bright spot in terms of overall venture funding in 2008. But while the sector pulled in record investmentfrom VCs, as BusinessWeek noted recently, shares of cleantech companies fell harder than the rest of the stock market. According to the Wall Street Journal, the WilderHill New Energy Global Innovation Index of clean energy stocks fell 66 percent in the first 11 months of 2008. Solar stocks alone plummeted a dizzying 76 percent. That’s a significantly deeper dive than the benchmark MSCI World Index, which dropped 44 percent.

Despite this year’s plunge, however, industry analysts say today’s market bears little resemblance to the renewables boomlet — and ultimate bust — of the 1970s oil shock. That’s because the industrialization of India and China is likely to keep energy demand outpacing supply for the next several decades, Paul Deninger, vice-chairman of the investment bank Jefferies, told BusinessWeek. For example, with a population of 1.1 billion, India’s government expectsthe country’s energy demand to quadruple within 25 years. …read full discussion

Alexandra Kain | posted on December 17, 2008

Imagine never having to plug your cellphone into the wall again! Now you can just plug it into your bike with Oscar L’Hermitte’s “Watts Maker” cell phone charger. The system consists of a small kinetic generator that provides power to your mobile phone while you take an evening ride around the neighborhood or pedal to work. This model takes about 90 minutes to go from dead to fully charged, and it produces energy as long as the wheels keep turning. …read full discussion

Matt Marshall | posted on December 16, 2008

A new company called Laurus Energy, which recently received $9 million in backing from a Silicon Valley venture firm, claims it has found the cheapest way to deliver clean power in North America.

The Houston-based company says its energy is even better than natural gas as a source, because the gas is generated with a superior method that no one else is using in North America: Underground coal gasification. …read full discussion

Jorge Chapa | posted on December 11, 2008

When the East Japan Railway Company (JR East) decided to invest in alternative energy sources, it only had to look to its users for the perfect source of energy. Recently the company decided to update their Tokyo Station with a revolutionary new piezoelectric energy generating floor. The system will harvest the kinetic energy generated by crowds to power ticket gates and display systems! …read full discussion

Bridgette Steffen | posted on November 26, 2008

Appearing for all the world like a habitable version of Chicago’s Cloud Gate, Lovegrove Studios‘ futuristic Alpine Capsule is designed to blend in with nature, reflecting and complementing its immediate environment. Powered by solar panels and a vertical axis wind turbine, the off-grid alpine retreat features a shimmering glass skin with a reflective coating that allows individuals to sleep under the stars while admiring a 360 degree panorama of the beautiful landscape. …read full discussion

John Timmer | posted on November 24, 2008

Last week, Greentech Media hosted a conference focused on generating and delivering power in efficient and environmentally-friendly ways. Most of those presenting were involved in private companies that had received enough venture capital to develop a functioning product, but they weren’t ready to start widespread sales or deployments of that product. Their presentations should be viewed with a degree of caution—there was no shortage of self-promotion involved—but the fact that these companies generally had working demonstrations of their technology suggests that the self-promotion wasn’t pure hype.

The session on power generation was especially intriguing because it provided three very different takes on ways to produce power without relying on fossil fuels. Although these technologies may not actually make it in the wider market place or may end up occupying only a small niche, they still provide a window into the sort of innovative approaches that are possible in an already crowded field. …read full discussion

Jorge Chapa | posted on November 19, 2008

These sleek solar-powered lofts are part of a stunning adaptive reuse of an old textile warehouse in San Diego. Designed by Jonathan Segal Architecture the 20,000 square foot block receives 50% of its energy from photovoltaic panels and integrates a variety of urban living environments for a mixture of very low income (50% of the median), affordable and market rate units. A paragon of efficient modern minimalism, the Union is a truly beautiful project that recognizes that one of the best ways to build green is to revitalize something old to become new. …read full discussion

Michael Thompson | posted on

Here in the USA, citizens use nearly twice as much electricity per person as the English. Of course, this isn’t really all that surprising, since the cost of electricity here is only two-thirds what it is in the UK. But that doesn’t mean US residents should be unconcerned with energy usage, especially given the current squeeze on household budgets. According to the Nation Resources Defense Council, a new study has revealed that the total amount of electricity used to power game consoles in American households is much more than you might assume, and that this energy turns into lost dollars very quickly.

The report concludes that the power used by consoles each year is roughly equal to the annual amount needed to power San Diego. This massive amount of power usage is due to two factors: a) most modern consoles use far more electricity than other types of consumer electronics, and b) Americans have a habit of simply leaving their consoles turned on even when they’re not in use. …read full discussion

Luke Iseman | posted on November 17, 2008

Image from The Green Microgym in Portland

Seems unlikely, but it’s good to see CNN writing about even the more green-washed ends of the sustainability spectrum: …read full discussion

Chris Morrison | posted on October 21, 2008

Ask nearly any physicist if it’s possible for a hydrogen atom to enter a lower energy state than the ground, or resting state they hold in nature, and you’re likely to get an unequivocal “no.” But a tiny company in New Jersey calledBlacklight Power has been disputing that assumption for over a decade, and of late, making gadfly claims that its founder says will overturn the accepted scientific order.

To a regular person, of course, disputes between physicists are boring at best. But Blacklight’s claims have a special significance: If they’re true, that means there’s a source of cheap, clean energy that can be easily tapped anywhere in the world. And rather than attempt to convince the world with calculations, Blacklight now says that it has physical proof in the form of its energy generator, verified by an independent university lab. …read full discussion