background preloader

Science/Tech/ Energy

Facebook Twitter

Mobile. Buildings eat up a huge amount of energy—about two-fifths of the country’s total use—so to suppress their appetite for power, efficiency entrepreneurs are churning out a suite of nifty technologies, like automatically shading windows, smarter thermostats, and high-tech heating and cooling systems.

Mobile

But a new report from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Preservation Green Lab concludes that constructing new, energy-efficient buildings almost never saves as much energy as renovating old ones. Renovated buildings outperformed new buildings on energy savings in every category: single-family homes, multifamily complexes, commercial offices, “urban village” mixed-use structures, and elementary schools.

Genetically Engineered Stomach Microbe Converts Seaweed into Ethanol. Eastern Oregon biofuel refinery wins $235 million federal loan backing to make ethanol from poplar trees. In a few years, you could be filling up with fuel made from Oregon poplar trees, wheat straw and corn stalks.

Eastern Oregon biofuel refinery wins $235 million federal loan backing to make ethanol from poplar trees

Financed in part with a $235 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today, ZeaChem plans a $390 million biofuel refinery in Boardman capable of producing up to 25 million gallons of ethanol per year. The Colorado-based energy company expects to be producing fuel and valuable by-products by late 2014. EdSurge. Molly Miller: Hidden Costs of Design Decisions. Photo: GSA's U.S.

Molly Miller: Hidden Costs of Design Decisions

Custom House, Baltimore , MD. Steven Forrester's small Colorado engineering firm is four years old. While he started DMA Engineering during tough economic times, he is holding his own because of clients like the city of Louisville, where his firm recently designed a solar thermal lap pool for a city recreation center. Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research. Students and researchers at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) are striving to improve the quality of life in our nation while preserving the natural resources and the environment for future generations.

Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research

At the Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research (WISER), more than 50 faculty members are currently involved in energy and sustainability research and educational activities across the colleges and institutes at IIT. Digital technology that collects, communicates and reacts to data, allowing the system to adapt to trends in electricity usage and to change supply accordingly. Advanced design tools for gasification processes based on the computational fluid dynamics approach, produced hot gas cleaning and novel sorbents for CO₂ removal and hydrogen separation.

Innovative sustainable high rise buildings that actually produce energy, utilizing renewable sources such as wind, sun and geothermal. IIT will become the most sustainable, urban university campus in the United States. Photovoltaic Research Center. This graphic shows color-coded simulation results from advanced computational models used to characterize the properties of materials used in organic photovoltaic solar cells in efforts to better understand the physics involved and to improve the technology.

Photovoltaic Research Center

The new Network for Photovoltaic Technology research center led by Purdue University and funded by the Semiconductor Research Corporation, aims to develop such computational capabilities for broad range of PV technologies for higher efficiency and reduced manufacture cost. (B. Ray, P. Nair, E. García, and M. Download image WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University will lead a new research center to improve photovoltaic solar cells as part of a national effort to bring alternative energy technologies to the marketplace.

Wind Power Without the Blades: Big Pics. Magenn Power Inc. Oregon State University, College of Engineering. The tech predictions for 2012 - Digital Life - Digital Life. Siliconrepublic.com editor John Kennedy goes through his tech predictions for 2012 from the fabled Apple TV and iPad 3 to the impact of Windows 8 and hybrid cloud on the enterprise.

The tech predictions for 2012 - Digital Life - Digital Life

Apple iTV Writing in his biography of the late Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson told how the Apple co-founder realised he had “finally cracked it” in terms of how he would reinvent the TV for a world made weary of multiple remote controls. In the wake of Jobs’ passing much of the world’s tech press began to speculate once more on the likelihood of an Apple-made TV. Not to be confused with the existing Apple TV – a wireless home hub product that brings digital content from the web to the home TV in high definition – the view is that since Apple has cracked music, smartphones and most recently tablet computers and was already a master in terms of display technologies like Retina, an iTV (suggested name) would be a natural stretch. Munster predicted the Apple TV will debut in the market in time for Christmas 2012. Data to be a defining tech trend in 2012.

The start of this year was marked by a tech industry obsession with where to put growing mountains of information gathered online and by sensors increasingly woven into modern lifestyles.

Data to be a defining tech trend in 2012

5 Steps To Measure The ROI Of Digital Media Channels. Many marketers have worked hard in 2011 to develop appropriately customized ROI measures for social media.

5 Steps To Measure The ROI Of Digital Media Channels

I have dedicated a few previous posts on how to approach these measures.

Bio Energy

How to see the best meteor showers of 2012: Tools, tips and 'save the dates' Swiss chemists emulate cheese rind to create self-cleaning surface material. With new water desalination method, potable water for disaster areas. Environmental News, Commentary, Advice. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Chemist Invents Environmentally Friendly Plastics of Tomorrow. This ScienceLives article was provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Chemist Invents Environmentally Friendly Plastics of Tomorrow

Marc Hillmyer loves plastic. BrightSource Energy. Year in Review: Solar industry puts Oregon at center of escalating trade dispute with China. View full sizeMotoya Nakamura/The OregonianREC Solar employees install solar panels at Gladstone High School.

Year in Review: Solar industry puts Oregon at center of escalating trade dispute with China

Plunging solar-panel prices and declining European subsidies are squeezing companies including SolarWorld, a German business that employs 1,000 in Hillsboro. Storms hit Oregon's fast-growing solar sector in 2011 as the state emerged at the center of an escalating international trade dispute rocking the renewable energy industry. State economic development officials had high hopes that solar manufacturing would succeed the semiconductor industry as a big employer, given that the two sectors use similar raw materials and worker skills.

Scientists Develop Affordable Solar Panels That Work In The Dark.