greenhouses

To curb global warming, we're going to have to crack down on greenhouse gases in a big way, says the American Geophysical Union.

The AGU, an organization that publishes and promotes geophysical research, issued a statement Thursday stating that, to avoid a 2-degree Celsius rise in average temperatures, carbon dioxide emissions will have to be cut in half during the century.

"In the next 50 years, even the lower limit of impending climate change--an additional global mean warming of 1 degree C above the last decade--is far beyond the range of climate variability experienced during the past thousand … Read more

Although Detroit's big automakers have been whining about the potential negative impact of higher fuel efficiency standards might have on their business, a report issued this week says they could actually profit from stiffer regulations.

The study, conducted by Citi and Investor Network on Climate Risk studied a proposal in the U.S. senate to raise the CAF? standards. Most car makers would be unaffected in any changes through 2012. General Motors, however, could see an increase of 25 cents a share in earnings as a result of the changes. Chrysler would benefit the least.

The gains would come … Read more

An injection of graphite foam is giving new life to the venerable lead acid battery, according to Firefly Energy.

The Peoria, Ill.-based company has come up with a way to coat the membrane, a fan-like lead lattice that allows the battery to generate electrons, with graphite foam. This change results in a more efficient battery that can extract more electricity from the electrolyte, release more electricity per charge, and endure more charging cycles. The battery also will last longer. The foam gives the membrane a larger surface area for reactions.

Firefly's Oasis batteries are designed for long-haul trucks. … Read more

The Cleantech Forum that took place in Toronto this week had an interesting guest--Rand Waddoups, senior director of corporate strategy and sustainability at Wal-Mart, who regaled the audience with a pretty interesting array of facts and figures on the retailer's green push, according to Cleantech's news site.

Wal-Mart started to revamp its practices and become more green two years ago. The campaign revolves around good public relations, but also cutting costs. When you managed millions of square feet of retail space, small changes add up.

Some of the results:

The company is saving $1 million a year on … Read more

"Without carbon capture and sequestration, we are all toast."

Jiang Lin, a scientist with the China Sustainable Energy Program with Lawrence Berkeley Lab, issued that gloomy proclamation earlier this week, and it's a fitting description of the current world situation when it comes to global warming. To make it worse, I asked Lin about how the world is responding to the challenge. Not well.

"We haven't invested in deep research or spent much money in testing out the scenarios," he said. "There are a lot of uncertainties."

Still, it's not over … Read more

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--How much conventional oil is there left in the ground? Close to 2 trillion barrels, according to Don Paul, Chevron's chief technology officer.

The "geological endowment" of conventional oil--that is, the amount of oil in the Earth--once totaled about 3 trillion barrels, he said during a presentation at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations conference here. We've used about 1.1 trillion. Oil companies with current technologies can't get it all out of the ground, so maybe there is a trillion barrels left for human consumption.

And we're consuming a lot … Read more

If you run the dryer in the daytime and live in California, expect to pay for the privilege in the future.

Peter Darbee, CEO Pacific Gas & Electric, said the utility is currently running a smart meter trial at 25,000 homes and one of the goals is to figure out how to price peak power. Electricity demand is highest in the afternoon and PG&E is trying to figure out much the utility will have to charge for the power to curb demand. By curbing demand, PG&E can cut back on greenhouse gas emissions and, possibly, … Read more

You can make solar panels with impure silicon, claims Roy Johnson. You just have to know how to isolate the undesirables.

CaliSolar, a solar start-up that derives from research originally conducted at UC Berkeley, has come up with a way to make solar cells out of upgraded metallurgical silicon, which is less pure and less costly than the industry standard electrical grade silicon, according to Johnson, the company's CEO, at a meeting at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations conference taking place this week.

Electrical grade silicon is 99.99999 plus percent pure, but it costs $150 to $250 … Read more

Carbon counting, it seems, is a growth business.

Carbonetworks, from Victoria, British Columbia, has developed software that gives companies a way to make financial decisions around their carbon emissions. It's one of several organizations sprouting up and looking to build a business or derive revenue from regulatory limits on carbon.

Although North America does not yet have regulations that cap greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, companies are already keeping track of their emissions, said CEO Michael Meehan, who started Carbonetworks in early 2006.

Even after doing an inventory, though, companies don't have a unified way of managing that … Read more