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Want to Go Green? Buy a Rolex, Stop Paying Taxes

And quit visiting your in-laws too? Saul Griffith explores the low-watt lifestyle.

There's really something for everyone, even those on the political fringes of the left and right, in Saul Griffith's energy plan.

Griffith -- an MIT-trained scientist, MacArthur genius grant recipient and serial entrepreneur whose ventures include a kite for extracting power from atmospheric winds -- is trying to get people to stop thinking about their personal energy consumption in terms of a carbon footprint and start thinking about it in… Read More ›

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Skyonic Gets $3 Million To Show if Carbon-to-Baking Soda Works

Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain vinegar.

Can biscuits stop global warming? Maybe.

Skyonic has received a $3 million grant from the Department of Energy to create a simulation and study the feasibility of SkyMine, an industrial process it has developed to convert carbon dioxide into baking soda.

If all goes well, the company will then apply for a second grant to build a large-scale facility in which to house the technology. The idea is to build the plant at Capitol Aggregates, a cement… Read More ›

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Smart Appliances: What to Expect

The Smart Oven? Trials begin later this year.

Appliance manufacturers have been concentrating on reducing the power consumption of their products since California's 1978 passage of Title 24, the landmark set of regulations that first mandated and codified energy efficiency standards.

But until now, manufacturers haven't concentrated too much on the question of when appliances are most likely to be operated. With the advent of smart grid technologies, that hopefully will change. We recently… Read More ›

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Amazon Getting A Boost From Green

Sustainability info helps close the deal, says GoodGuide.

San Francisco--On average, only around two percent of searches on Amazon result in a sale, according to Dave Mandelbrot, chief business officer at GoodGuide.

On the other hand, the leads generated by green shopping aggregator GoodGuide result in a ten percent closure rate on Amazon sales, Mandelbrot reported during a panel discussion at the Sustainable Capital Forum sponsored by investment bank Wood Warren in San Francisco.

This data point,… Read More ›

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Bridgelux Expands LED Bulb Options, While Luxim Does a Plasma Street Light

A 60 percent drop in price helps everything.

Bridgelux is trying to put LEDs wherever it can.

The company last year came out with LED arrays -- essentially groups of LEDs that can share common components to reduce overall costs for the general lighting market. This year, the company has come up with refined versions of those arrays for specific markets.

The RS Array Series, for instance, are designed to replace the metal lamps and high-wattage fluorescent bulbs seen in hotel lobbies and… Read More ›

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The Space-Age Disco Ball For Combating Climate Change

Three mirrors can make a 20-kilometer beam of light used for measuring carbon dioxide.

Smoke and mirrors: that is one way to think about the Picarro Wavelength-Scanned Cavity Ring Down Spectroscopy instrument.

The $50,000 machine employs lasers and a specially designed chamber that contains three calibrated mirrors that Picarro claims can measure greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane with far more accuracy and geographic specificity than conventional detectors.

The device is also relatively easier to use, which,… Read More ›

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The Tuesday Deals: Lumenergi Lands Big Contract; Demand Response at Dairies and SCE Buys Solar

Another good day for the little guys.

Think of this as demand response, minus the daily urgency.

EPS, which makes energy efficiency and control systems for the food industry, has managed permanently to shift nearly 1.5 megawatts of demand to off-peak times, saving customers $232,000 annually. EPS essentially consults with companies to determine what functions can be shifted toward off-peak periods and then implements the energy-savings plan. In this case, it shifted power for an… Read More ›