May 28, 2010

Stuart Schaefer’s home sits on a quaint, tree-lined street in Wyoming, Ohio. Although he’s always enjoyed the neighborhood and his house in the Hamilton County suburb, he now has reason to enjoy it even more: Schaefer recently had an energy audit done on his 80-year-old home and is saving money on energy bills by putting some of the auditor’s recommendations to work. [More]

May 28, 2010

In a challenging economy, many companies are forced to lay off workers to keep doors open. But officials from Kentucky's energy and economic offices have another idea: cut energy use—not staff—to save money. [More]

May 28, 2010

DALLAS – May 25, 2010 -- The American Wind Energy Association held its annual Windpower conference, hosting a record-breaking 23,000 people and a score of top officials, including former President George W. Bush and Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Cathy Zoi. All speakers stressed the need for more wind-generated energy in the U.S.

Assistant Secretary Zoi, of DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, noted that the Department is working with other federal organizations on offshore wind standards to support wind energy deployment. There has to be “a shift in the political equation” to pass clean energy legislation, Zoi told the crowd. [More]

May 28, 2010

'Main streets' in Clackamas County, Oregon, are undergoing a makeover – an energy-efficiency makeover.

As part of the Clackamas County Energy Efficiency on Main Street Program, local businesses in 13 communities are getting energy makeovers in an effort to help business owners save hundreds of dollars each year and revitalize downtown areas. [More]

May 28, 2010

Arizona Western College (AWC) wants to be the go-to for solar, says Bill Smith, director of facilities management. AWC is based in Yuma, Ariz., and that, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the sunniest place on Earth. [More]

May 27, 2010

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will be saving nearly $4 million a year by switching a portion of their current natural gas-fueled steam plant for one powered by biofuel. The move is part of an Energy Savings Performance Contract that will ultimately cut the Lab’s fossil fuel consumption by 70 percent per year---saving 120,000 barrels of oil, the same amount used to power 4,500 homes in one year. [More]

May 27, 2010

A floating platform, simple turbine and tropical oceans could be the key to producing 30 percent or more of the total energy the world consumes today, according to Lockheed Martin. The technology in play: Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC). [More]

May 26, 2010

President Barack Obama today visited Solyndra Inc. in Fremont, Calif., to highlight the construction of the company’s second thin film solar manufacturing plant, a result of a loan guarantee made available under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Because of the plant’s expansion, the Fremont area has witnessed a surge of 3,000 construction-related jobs; Solyndra expects as many as 1,000 long-term jobs will be created after the plant construction is completed. [More]

May 26, 2010

Just north of the U.S.-Mexican border, San Diego’s Otay Water Treatment Plant processes up to 34 million gallons of water a day. Thanks to the city’s ambitious solar energy program, the facility may soon be able to do that with net zero electricity consumption. [More]

May 26, 2010

Oil and gas price fluctuations and environmental concerns are driving innovators to find new ways to power our vehicles. That’s the focus of The EV Project, a new program of ECOtality North America, which was awarded a $114.8 million Recovery Act grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. The EV Project will create a network of charging stations for participants’ electric vehicles and gather data on the stations’ usage. [More]

May 25, 2010

Most warehouses are filled with items such as equipment, boxes and food. But walk into the Intermountain Weatherization Training Center's warehouse in Clearfield, Utah, and you see something unexpected: a life-size, 1,280-square-foot house with two floors, three bedrooms, a living room and working appliances. [More]

May 24, 2010

Hydropower harnesses water power to create reliable, clean and plentiful renewable energy, but dams can have an unintended impact on wildlife — fish swimming through turbines can get caught and die.
The impact can be minimized, though, with new technologies being designed by engineers at Voith Hydro. [More]

May 24, 2010

General Mills is a well-known name to anyone who has gone to a grocery store. But what you might not know is that the delicious Cheerios you nosh on may soon be made using a unique form of renewable energy. The company is deploying its first on-site biomass steam boiler at its milling plant in Fridley, Minn., where it produces oat flour for its signature cereals, including Lucky Charms. [More]

May 24, 2010

Mounting the electrical equipment for a solar array 12 feet off the ground on the side of an art studio building seemed like a safe height at first: it would be well above the 100-year-flood mark and out of reach of vandals. [More]

May 24, 2010

Superintendent Tad Everett had two priorities when deciding on a new system to replace the aging oil-based boiler heating and cooling systems for the seven schools in his district: improving learning environments and saving on energy.

“Once we began researching possibilities, it didn’t take us long to realize that our best option was geothermal energy,” says Everett.

With two geothermal systems installed and one under construction, northeastern Illinois’s Sterling Public School District is well on its way to achieving better learning environments and cutting energy costs. [More]

May 20, 2010

The Pennsylvania College of Technology is providing training for the state's growing weatherization workforce. The program has served as the model for six additional training centers in Pennsylvania alone. [More]

May 20, 2010

A weed Civil War soldiers used to write letters home may hold the secret to cheaper and more efficient solar energy today.

Researchers at Wake Forest University’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials in North Carolina have discovered that red dye from the pokeberry weed makes their low-cost, fiber-based solar cells even more energy efficient.

The center’s director David Carroll says the solar cells, which have been patented under the company FiberCell, Inc., can create twice the power existing solar flat cells produce. The cells have more surface area and can trap light at any angle, meaning they can take advantage of the sun from dawn to dusk. [More]

May 14, 2010

During his recent commencement address at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Energy Secretary Steven Chu hailed the ingenuity of the engineers responsible for the Industrial Revolution. He noted, however, that the carbon emissions from that pivotal era have caused the world’s climate to change drastically. [More]

May 14, 2010

When the assembly line was introduced to the automobile industry, everything changed. Cars were produced with less error in less time, and each one was exactly the same as the last. As a result, the industry boomed.

Astraeus Wind, LLC hopes to bring this type of success to wind turbine manufacturing by standardizing the blade manufacturing process. The company wants to experiment with new materials to strengthen the blades while creating an automated process to assemble them, creating identical blades in a fast, efficient manner. [More]

May 14, 2010

Sierra Club was founded almost 120 years ago with the mission of protecting wildlife and habitats by advocating clean energy use and encouraging Americans to live eco-friendly lifestyles. Sierra Club Oregon Chairman Wes Kempfer is doing his part to further those goals by trying to make his home energy-efficient and wants to spread the word to his fellow members and all Oregonians. [More]