The “Windy City” lives up to its name as Chicago’s newest parking garage becomes the first to generate it’s own energy with spinning vertical wind turbines.

You might generally associate parking garages with the stark cement-c0lored monotony that most people despise about urban life. Thanks to a new design by the (more…)

New Zealand based LanzaTech recently announced that they have successfully produced a necessary component to create polymers, plastics, and fuels from their unique fermentation process.

For those unfamiliar with LanzaTech, it is a company looking to utilize industrial waste gases and waste products like trash to (more…)

If you’ve ever traveled on a U.S. Interstate Highway at night, you’ve likely come across large numbers of trucks idling at rest areas and truck stops. Long-haul truckers are required by law to rest for 10 out of every 24 hour period. But at rest, most trucks will idle their main diesel engine to provide heating and cooling, to keep the engine and fuel warm in winter, and to provide power for (more…)

In 2009, Baltimore passed an amendment to its building code requiring public and private buildings above 10,000 gross square feet to "be equivalent to a LEED “Silver” level."  Obviously, the goal was to get buildings in Baltimore to be more environmentally friendly. Fast forward a year, and a controversy is brewing over whether a proposed Big Box project, including a (more…)

From a technological point of view, India is an excellent place for the development of solar energy. It gets plenty of sunshine for most parts of the year, with the summer temperatures well in excess of 100⁰ F in most parts of the country. To the northwest, India has the Thar Desert that has been identified as a feasible spot for the development of solar power, since the area is mostly an arid land and gets plenty of sunlight.

Apart from the solar power generation potential at a large scale, there is plenty of scope for household solar harvesting. (more…)

European renewable energy targets are driving widespread conversion of African lands for agrofuels, threatening to exacerbate hunger in poor regions and increase carbon emissions across the continent, according to a new report. National governments and private companies are increasingly acquiring agricultural land in Africa to grow crops to (more…)

The biggest deterrent for retail consumers to install solar panels on their rooftops is the upfront cost, which may vary depending on the country and state incentives. The cost of repair is on the owner of the panels (most panels are insured for 20 years or more and since they have no moving parts are pretty stable). The inverter that coverts the current to a usable form needs to be (more…)

Of all the lousy things fossil fuels do to our health, finances and national security, add one more: Ideological blindness.

How else can we explain why some otherwise sensible proponents of free markets support huge government subsidies for coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power? (more…)

The Obama administration is frustrating environmentalists by urging the US Supreme Court to vacate a decision by Federal Court of Appeals that Climate Change is a public nuisance. In a brief filed on Tuesday, by Solicitor General Neal Katyal on behalf of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the administration asked the court to vacate the decision that allows groups (more…)

I recently attended a meeting of the Clean Energy Coalition in Southeastern Michigan to see and learn more about the Eaton Hydraulic Launch Assist garbage truck purchased by the city of Ann Arbor. Hydraulic hybrids are similar to electric hybrids, except instead of storing energy captured from braking in batteries, the energy is stored in hydraulic fluid. The (more…)