Green Education: Clean Technology

Ford probably isn’t the first company that comes to mind when you think “green.” however, it has become quite the green leader, as some of the numbers below will show. Just two days ago I was praising Ford for its plugin electric vehicle (PEV) options and its PEV sales. Well, those clean vehicles aren’t the only things that are cleaner around Ford headquarters and factories these days. The company notes that it cut the CO2 … Read More Ford Cut CO2 Emissions 37% Per Vehicle, 47% In Total Since 2000 was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

Last month, we featured an infographic showing that the Tesla Model S was outselling non-electric luxury brand competitors by BMW, Mercedes, and Audi. Notably, none of these companies have an electric car on the market yet. While Mercedes is working on an electric vehicle option (the Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive), Audi has scrapped its plans for developing an electric Audi R8 e-tron. BMW will be the first to bring one to mass market, the BMW … Read More BMW i3 Electric Car Already Has 100,000 Reservations was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

When pondering the installation of solar panels, some of the greatest grey areas are related to labor and permitting costs. Fortunately, a new project/website has a solution to the permitting issues. The ease of obtaining a permit to install solar panels is dependent on how solar-friendly your region is, but how does one know? In order to determine how solar-friendly the region in which you want to install solar panels is, you have to do … Read More Project Permit Exposes Grey Areas Of Solar Permitting was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

Concentrating solar power could unlock America’s clean energy future and boost solar from intermittent contributor to baseload generator – if we clear the regulatory, technological, and financial hurdles standing in the way, says a new white paper. Is Concentrating Solar Power The Technology That Saves Humanity? was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

Just this week I noted a new tool from the US Department of Energy showing that fueling an electric car is about 3 times cheaper than fueling a gasmobile. Well, those fuel savings add up, resulting in more money in your pocket, as a recent study from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) shows. Here’s more info (and two charts!) from Sophie Vorrath of RenewEconomy: New analysis from America’s Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has come … Read More Electric Cars Much Cheaper Than You Think, Cheaper Than Gasmobiles (Charts) was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

Without a doubt, electric car prices have come down substantially in recent years. And without a doubt, that price slide is going to continue as the price of batteries comes down. More on that from Andrew Meggison in this Gas2 repost: The nice thing about new technology is that, eventually, it drops in price. A flatscreen HDTV used to cost thousands, now there is one in most homes in America. Laptops once cost as much … Read More The Electric Car Battery Price Slide (Chart) was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

One of the key assumptions in determining the cost of electricity from a power plant is how long that power plant will be operational. Almost universally, that estimate is too low. But I think this “mistake” is particularly strong when it comes to solar power — both solar photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar thermal power (CSP). In the case of CSP, the Solar Energy Generating Station (SEGS) project in Southern California, provides a great example of … Read More CSP For 5.57 Cents/kWh was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

One of our readers passed this one along to me. The big takeaway point from it for me is that solar is becoming mainstream. When you’ve got companies like NIVEA using solar power for gimmicky ads like this, you know you’re getting there. And, actually, the solar ad featured in the video below may really be useful for a number of  people — people who don’t want to leave the beach but really need their … Read More Solar NIVEA Ad Charges Your Cell Phone (VIDEO) was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

There is a new bicycle light product called the Monkey Light Pro aiming for your funding on Kickstarter. The innovative lighting product displays animations on both bicycle wheels (specifically the spokes) using multi-colour LEDs. It is both for the sake of the “cool factor” as well we safety. It can impress people, but it also makes it very clear to other drivers in the dark and in substantially cloudy weather that someone or something is present. … Read More Monkey Light Pro Shows Animations On Bicycle Spokes (Has Raised $145,000 Of $180,000) was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

Utilities + solar — it’s a hot topic. And it’s not always a peaceful topic. Today, we’ll lighten things up a bit with a couple of positive utilities + solar lists in this Solar Love repost. The Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) recently released its latest SEPA Utility Solar Rankings. Of course, there are different ways to rank a utility on its solar merits, so we’re including SEPA’s main two lists/rankings below. First, however, a note … Read More Top 10 Solar Utilities (x 2) was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has launched the IRENA Renewable Costing Alliance in oder to better identify the costs of different renewable energy projects around the world, so as to better promote the most cost-effective renewable energy technologies for particular regions. “The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), by way of the IRENA Business Forum, is reaching out to those around the world with projects on the ground, in order to acquire and exchange the latest … Read More IRENA Launches Renewable Costing Alliance was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

Cattails — Typha sp — are a very useful material, one that can be effectively employed for a variety of very different purposes. Throughout history, they have served as a nutritious food source, a source of downy material for bedding, a raw material for wickerwork, a means of cleaning wastewater at sewage treatment plants and of removing toxins from soils, and as a medicinal plant. And now, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics … Read More Cattails As Building Insulation — New Research Brings To Light The Great Advantages Of The Material was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

Solar Impulse, the most famous solar airplane in the world, is flying from historic St. Louis, Missouri to America’s capital city, Washington, DC. This ground-breaking flight is making history for two reasons. The first is that this elegant Swiss craft is flying to the political center of the United States; the second is the flight itself. It is being broken into two separate flights. This is a new change in the plan brought about by less … Read More Solar Impulse, The Solar Airplane, Reroutes To Washington, DC was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

This article was originally published on RenewEconomy. By Sophie Vorrath The council of the inner-west Sydney city of Leichhardt has committed to becoming 100 per cent renewable by 2025, building on its recent draft plan to tackle climate change by reducing emissions in local government facilities. Leichhardt, which last year became the second council in NSW to achieve carbon neutrality, made the commitment last week – a goal it plans to achieve through direct investment … Read More Leichhardt, Sydney Aims For 100% Renewable Energy By 2025 was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).

This article was originally published on RenewEconomy. Today’s Graph of the Day comes courtesy of The Energy Collective, and gives an interesting perspective of the level of renewable energy in the electricity systems of countries across the globe: the lighter the green, the higher the percentage of renewables. But appearances can be deceiving. The sub-Sahara region is bathed in light green, but this is because they rely on traditional biomass – which is not necessarily … Read More How Green Is Your Country? (Map) was originally published on: CleanTechnica. To read more from CleanTechnica, join over 30,000 others and subscribe to our free RSS feed, follow us on Facebook (also free!), follow us on Twitter, or just visit our homepage (yep, free).