This afternoon the President wrote a letter to leaders of both parties in Congress on the subject of tax breaks for oil companies.  The President's letter comes a day after Speaker of the House John Boehner said that eliminating those tax breaks is "certainly something we should be looking at," adding that, "We're in a time when the federal government's (more…)

Due to its increasing population, the State of Nevada spends approximately $6 billion every year on imported energy. Therefore, numerous lawmakers in the state have turned to an alternative, smarter solution for powering the energy – through the use of renewable energy that is locally produced. Nevada is blessed with over 250 days of pure sunshine (more…)

One of the biggest challenges for the solar power industry is to boost the power-conversion efficiency of solar cells. In response to that, a duo of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Research) researchers have found a little helper in a virus called M13.

Graduate students Xiangnan Dang and Hyunjung Yi (more…)

It’s commonly accepted that incorporating energy efficiency in your home or office will typically save energy and money. In most cases, you’ll be able to estimate the cost-savings you’ll realize by making improvements to your energy system.

What’s more difficult to gauge is the cost associated (more…)

In a previous post, I wrote about the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Innovation Portal, an online tech transfer tool designed to link energy technologies developed by U.S. national laboratories and other research institutions with potential licensing and commercialization partners. (more…)

A large U.S. producer of natural gas from underground shale formations says it will suspend the controversial drilling practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at seven well sites until it has investigated the causes behind a drilling accident last week.

Chesapeake Energy has halted its (more…)

Biofuels have been dismissed by environmentalists as an unsustainable alternative to fossil fuels. But some hope that second-generation biofuels could offer a better solution to the dirty oil crisis.

Second generation biofuel, or cellulosic biofuel, is made of non-food feedstocks such as straw and (more…)

Companies that illegally log tropical forests in Indonesia may in future find it harder to sell their product on the international market, as the most important group of New Zealand timber importers has vowed to quickly phase out purchasing wood from Indonesia that can’t be verified as legally harvested. By (more…)

I recently spent time with Intel hearing about its product and development roadmap for the next few years. Given that what Intel is thinking now decides the computer platforms on which we will be running much of our business in five years’ time, its view of the future carries more weight than most. It was (more…)

The Energy Technologies Institute has completed its third offshore wind energy project, has found that offshore wind energy costs could be cut 30% or more, and intends to build an innovative offshore wind demonstrator project this year.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) recently (more…)