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Light bulbs have been around since the days of Thomas Edison, but they're not the same old bulbs anymore. Technology is improving rapidly, and with that progress comes new levels of efficiency and sustainability. In his new book 'Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization,' author Lester Brown explains that one of the easiest and quickest ways that we can reduce electricity use......read more
Municipal departments at the City of San Francisco are required to buy products that meet strict environmental standards. Now they're sharing what they know about green vendors. The SF Approved List is like a cheat sheet for buying green. (via NYT Green Blog) When Ali Hewson and her husband Bono launched Edun in 2005, they were among the first to combine fashion with ethics. The......read more
If you're in the market for energy efficient iPhone speakers, you won't find any that use less than the zero-electricity Koostik. Made from solid wood, the setup naturally amplifies the sound from your iPhone speaker, providing louder music without using any additional electricity. The Koostik site notes that the device works better for some types of music than others. So it may not be your cup......read more
You have to spend money to save money. That's the tune being sung by energy industry experts, who this week announced that revamping the national power grid will cost $474 billion over the next 20 years but will save consumers $2 trillion. The new grid would enable two-way communication between power sources, allowing renewable energy projects to operate more effectively. "The average electric......read more
Well, renewable power is not in last place anymore. According to the Monthly Energy Review published by the Energy Information Administration, renewable energy production has passed nuclear energy and is continuing to grow rapidly. By the agency's definition, renewable energy includes biofuels, geothermal, solar, hydroelectric, and wind power. Together, these sources currently......read more
In the Pacific Northwest, wind power has become an important source of income in rural areas, where energy entrepreneurs are eagerly erecting turbines in windy zones like the Columbia River Gorge. But wind is a volatile beast, and all the new turbines have presented utilities with a problem: when it's storming, the turbines create more electricity than the grid can soak up. In the New York......read more
Tech breakthroughs in the solar energy industry continue to roll in. The latest, from a study published last week in Science Daily, may allow photovoltaic solar cells to double their efficiency, meaning panels will produce loads more electrical power from regular sunlight. Until now, solar energy efficiency has been hampered by the fact that much of the energy delivered to photovoltaic......read more
The huge, belching smokestacks of electric power plants have long symbolized air pollution woes. But a shift is under way: More and more electric plants around the nation are being fueled by natural gas, which is far cleaner than coal, the traditional fuel. The most optimistic projections describe an abundant domestic energy source that will create enormous numbers of jobs and lead to cleaner......read more
When you get home and flick the light switch, do you ever wonder where the power comes? Well, I have. Some people who live near a geothermal plant claim their energy is very clean, while others who live near coal plants think the majority of their energy is dirty. Is that actually the case? After some probing, I found the EPA's Power Profiler, which is a great tool that tells you you how......read more
Camping just got greener. Biolite's brilliant, portable Camp Stove rejects petroleum-based gas in favor of twigs and bits of wood. That's cool in and of itself, because it means less oil and less open pit fires (the cause of most forest blazes). But even cooler is the fact that the Camp Stove converts waste heat into electricity, meaning you can charge your gadgets while you're off-the-grid.......read more
