Blogroll
A World Record for Energy-Efficient Lighting
Philips has announced that it has developed the world’s most efficient “warm white” LED lamp. Designed to replace the fluorescent tube lighting that is ubiquitous in offices and industrial facilities, the new TLED (tube-style light emitting diode) has the potential to reduce worldwide energy consumption by more than 7%. Innovation in the LED lighting industry is generally measured in terms... Read More
Entrepreneurs are bringing light to Nepal – and you
For the one in five people around the globe who currently lack electricity in their homes and businesses, available and affordable energy resources are critical to their community’s efforts to reduce poverty, improve public health, and increase educational opportunities. These are primary drivers behind the United Nation’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative. This initiative’s... Read More
Landmark EV report answers question: where are we?
Last year, the EV City Casebook set a baseline for global electric vehicle (EV) market discussions. This month, the landmark Global EV Outlook (GEO) report took readers from this city-focus to a global one, painting a data-driven picture of the global EV market trajectory. Authored by the Clean Energy Ministerial’s Electric Vehicles Initiative (EVI), these reports show that EVs are emerging as... Read More
The Power Is in the Data – reports reveal the status of global clean-energy transition
As any analyst will tell you, the power is in the data. To know where we are going, we first must know where we are. But, setting global energy baselines is anything but easy. This month, at the Clean Energy Ministerial meeting in New Delhi, the International Energy Agency released two reports – “Tracking Clean Energy Progress 2013” and the “Global EV Outlook.” The latter includes landmark... Read More
Solar Suitcases meet Fish with Human-Looking Teeth – Best of the Blogs, 3rd edition
The latest Scientific American “Best of the Blogs” video is now available online and featured blog posts from March 2013. Included are short videos highlighting topics that range from gluten intolerance to fish with human-looking teeth. And, starting at 4:28, one can find a section on Plugged In’s article “Saving Lives with a Solar Suitcase.” Thanks to Carin Bondar and... Read More
Fuel Cell Vehicles Coming Off the Bench? Maybe. Maybe Not.
Fuel cell vehicles are back in the news this week with the announcement of a new innovation partnership. According to the three auto-manufacturing heavyweights involved – Daimler, Ford, and Renault-Nissan – this new collaborative partnership approach will allow the industry to bring fuel cell vehicles to driveways around the world. All in the next 5 years. But, before these vehicles... Read More
A (Dimming) City of Light
The French are taking a stand against light pollution. Starting this summer, most non-residential buildings in the country will have to shut off their lights at night in order to “reduce the print of artificial lighting on the nocturnal environment.” According to France’s environment minister, Delphine Batho, this shift will reduce total annual energy consumption by the equivalent of 750,000... Read More
Guest Post: Burning Buried Sunshine
Oil – The Least Efficient Source of Energy By Scott McNally [This post was originally published on Scientific American's Plugged In on February 14] Solar energy is often criticized for its inefficiency – that only about 10% of the sunlight that hits a common commercial solar panel will be converted into electricity. Similar criticisms are voiced against biofuels, which have a solar energy to biofuel... Read More
Electric Vehicle Deployment – Where Should We Be Today?
Guest Post by Tali Trigg [This post was originally published on February 20 on Scientific American's Plugged In] Electric vehicles (EVs) have come under siege in the media in the past two years, with several observers pointing to shortcomings like driving range, performance in cold weather and resale value as indicators of their imminent demise. Do we know for sure that EVs will overcome all these... Read More
Everything is (Old/New) Energy
The world’s energy is primarily rooted in fossil fuels – oil, natural gas, and coal. Add in nuclear power, and you have the fuels behind the vase majority of the world economy. And, we have not really changed the fundamentals of how we harness energy in over a century. But, according to Roger Duncan – the former general manager of one of Texas’s major utilities, Austin Energy... Read More
