Posted by Thousands of contaminated tracts of land labeled brownfields by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency may eventually provide the valuable real estate needed for renewable energy projects, and New Jersey is at the forefront of using such sites to bolster its status as a leader in solar energy. The utility PSE&G is installing 4,000 solar panels…
U.S. Government Pushes for Truly Sustainable Biofuels
Posted by EarthTechling on January 9, 2013 There’s probably no type of renewable energy more polarizing than biofuels. Many economists and other analysts believe that in their present incarnation – food-crop-based fuels – these alternatives to oil fail to deliver the economic or environmental benefits sought. All the more reason, perhaps, to put money into research that can deliver truly sustainable fuels – which…
Chances are, if you’re in one of about 36 million U.S. households with a smart meter installed, you don’t necessarily know what information is being collected or how to use it. In an effort to make home energy usage data more transparent for customers, utilities and other key electric industry players launched the Green Button…
As the U.S. Congress approved a plan Tuesday to veer away from the “fiscal cliff,” wind energy advocates embraced the bill’s extension of a wind production tax credit that was set to expire at the end of 2012. The one-year extension of the credit, which gives wind companies a rebate of 2.2 cents for every…
As of January 1, traditional 75-watt incandescent light bulbs can no longer be manufactured in the United States, continuing a national transition to more efficient lighting by 2014. The first phase of the new federal light bulb standards, as set forth in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, went into effect last January…
Posted by Fracking has now become so much a part of the fabric of American life that it has earned its first genuine Hollywood treatment. Promised Land, co-starring and co-written by Matt Damon and John Krasinski, opens today in a limited number of theaters, with wider release next week. While the energy industry has girded for battle…
French Design Firm Gives House of Straw a Modernist Touch
Posted by EarthTechling on December 27, 2012 Perhaps the first Little Pig was right all along. In a demonstration about how to build a simple structure made entirely of recyclable or reusable materials, a small Parisian architecture firm called Studio 1984 chose straw as the main building material, designing a cozy, 15-square-meter “nest” that even the Big Bad Wolf would have to admire. The tiny structure, built earlier this fall…
Heat-Mapping Company Finds Thermal Gaps In Homes
Posted by EarthTechling on December 27, 2012 It’s 10 p.m.—do you know where your insulation gaps are? As the winter months descend and much of the country braces for icy weather, a startup company in the Boston area called Sagewell is taking it to the streets to let homeowners know exactly where their heating dollars are escaping, and provides suggestions about how to make their homes more energy…
This map, released today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, provides one of the best views yet of how hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and oil has spread across the United States. It is a snapshot in time, based on 24,879 wells that were “fracked,” or hydraulically fractured, between September 2009 and October 2010. (Related…
A tidbit to consider when you are stringing your tree and adorning your home with lights this year (or next): If all of the holiday bulbs sold this year were energy efficient, it would save 700 million kilowatt hours and the equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions from 100,000 cars. Those numbers come from the U.S.…
