A few years ago, during the height of the green patent fast track craze, I wrote a post on cleantech companies generating PR about their patent applications being accepted into an accelerated examination program or being granted by such a program.

Though the excitement has died down and the (more…)

An international team of researchers has developed a system that will help Chinese farmers convert massive amounts of pig waste into a renewable source of energy and fertilizer.

The project, led by Australia-based Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC CARE), uses (more…)

The Texas House and Senate passed Senate Bill 385 in May. If Governor Rick Perry approves the bill, the state will break new ground by developing plans for commercial and industrial property assessed clean energy (PACE) programs. This bill will redesign Texas’s approach to PACE, focusing on the commercial and industrial sectors rather than on (more…)

Here’s an article from SmartGridNews that raises an interesting and important question about the siting of renewable energy projects. Siemens is asserting that the large European governments are in the process of wasting 45 billion Euros by not properly thinking through the consequences of its siting decisions. (more…)

U.S. scientists have developed what they say is the first integrated nanosystem capable of replicating the process of photosynthesis, a sort of “artificial forest” that could one day lead to the production of hydrogen that could be used to power fuel cells.

Composed of nanowire structures — including silicon (more…)

BioGasol is a Danish company that has developed a biomass pre-treatment system comfortably situated upstream in cellulosic biofuels production. The system, called Carbofrac, provides more efficient and lower cost biochemical conversion of lignocellulosic feedstocks such as wood and agricultural waste.

The company owns at least nine U.S. patents and (more…)

In order to become environmentally conscious you have to start somewhere. Why not start at home? It is true that the first step to any lifestyle change has to start with yourself. Going green is no different. Often the initial expense of making updates to our homes causes us to hesitate. But the truth is that while going green may take some initial expenses, in (more…)

Methane measurements collected during a scientist’s road trip across the U.S. indicate that local emissions of the potent greenhouse gas are higher than previously known in many regions.

Using a gas chromatograph mounted to the roof of a rented camper, Ira Leifer of the University of (more…)

Belo Monte Dam is a controversial mega dam being built in the Amazon on Indigenous land. The old project conceived during the military dictatorship (1964-1985), and which was revived by the Lula government, is the bête noire of Brazilian environmentalists due to the damage it will cause to a pristine region in the Amazon. It will pave the way to tens of other dams in (more…)

Who doesn’t wish they had invested in Apple when it was $16 a share? Quite often, timing the market is more intuition than science. Those who know analog to digital inflection points are watching LEDs. Get it right, and enormous wealth can be created. Time it wrong and you’re left in the dust, like Polaroid. (more…)