Green Education: Clean Technology

A new programmable Honeywell thermostat with Wi-Fi was designed to help power companies reduce brownouts and blackouts when electricity demand surges due to hot weather. The new programmable thermostat uses Honeywell’s Total Connect Comfort app. Air conditioners draw an enormous current when running (500 to 2,400 watts per room unit). Plus, they cycle on and off, causing large, sudden electricity demand spikes. The more we can cut down on A/C usage, the better. South Sioux … Read More New Thermostat Helps Utilities And Their Customers Reduce Brownouts And Electric Bills 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).

Coal India produces about 80% of India’s coal and they are installing a 2 MW solar power plant at one of their coal making sites. Sampalbur coal plant in Odisha will be the location of this moderately-sized solar facility. However, the company is also planning to install similarly sized solar plants at a number of other locations around the country. Hilariously, Coal India told local media they are installing solar to reduce their energy bills. … Read More Massive Coal Company Going Solar 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 originally appeared on the Roen Financial Report. The stock market has been paying attention to SunPower (SPWR) in a big way. At the end of May the stock hit an annual high of 23.76, a gain of 125% from where it was just a month earlier. That price is quadruple levels it was trading at in the beginning of the year. Since May, the stock has seen about a 17% correction, and is trading … Read More SunPower Still A Good Investment? 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).

Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) are for the high rollers. As such, those looking to make the solar revolution a citizen revolution have been less enthusiastic about clean energy MLPs than others. But clean energy MLPs would still bring additional clean energy investment that would benefit the plant. We featured the anti-MLP argument the other day, so today we’re reposting from Climate Progress the broader pro-MLP argument made by Richard Caperton of the Center for American … Read More Clean Energy Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) Will Bring More Clean Energy Investment 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).

Carbon dioxide gets a lot of press by virtue of the sheer quantities with which we pump it into our atmosphere, but it is by no means the worst of the greenhouse gasses humanity is exhaling with each day that goes by. One such greenhouse gas that poses a much more damaging effect than carbon dioxide is hydrofluorocarbon, known as HFCs, and prominently used in refrigeration and air conditioning. According to ‘ThinkGlobalGreen’, a website dedicated to … Read More China And US Agree To Phase Out HFCs 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 DOE has just launched a wonderful tool that some people will love and others will hate. Its new eGallon tool shows people how much it costs to fuel up on electricity versus gas. Why will some people hate the useful tool? I see two possible reasons: 1) they’re guzzling so much gasoline that it’s depressing to look at the facts (e.g. how much that costs them), and 2) on the flip side, some EV … Read More Compare Cost Of Fueling Electric vs Gasoline Cars With DOE’s New eGallon Tool 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 the website of Sandia National Laboratories on June 11, 2013 (minor changes incorporated). LIVERMORE, Calif.— Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have confirmed the particle-by-particle mechanism by which lithium ions move in and out of electrodes made of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4, or LFP), findings that could lead to better performance in lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, medical equipment and aircraft. The research is reported in an article entitled, “Intercalation Pathway in Many-Particle … Read More Better Lithium-Ion Batteries Via “Popcorn Pathways” 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).

General Motors was quick out of the electric vehicle box with the Chevy Volt. The Volt vs Leaf (and plug-in hybrid electric vs 100% electric) duel has been a fun one for a long time now. However, with increasing competition, the Volt is not in its prime. Some substantial price cuts are now available that are surely aimed at staying in the competition and getting 2013 Volts off the lots before the 2014 model rolls … Read More $4,000+ Cut For Chevy Volt (Now) 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).

California just set a record for solar power generation with 2GW on the state's grid, 5% of last Friday's peak demand, shining new light on the role renewables can play in our clean energy future. California Smashes Solar Record With 2 GW Generated Across State Grid 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).

A couple of big solar records were set in Q1 2013 in the US. For one, 49% of all new US electricity generation capacity came form solar, the most ever for a first quarter. Secondly, 723 MW of solar power capacity were installed and put online, again a Q1 record for the US. Let’s run down a bunch more of the facts and highlights from the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) and GTM Research’s latest US … Read More 49% Of New US Electricity Capacity Is From Solar, Q1 Record (Report) 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).

According to a Daimler press release, an electric production vehicle has circled the Nürburgring Nordschleife (north loop, in Nürburg, Germany) in under 8 minutes, the first time that has been done. The car is the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive. The track it succeeded on is 12.9 miles (20.8 km) long. For the first time, an electrically-powered series production vehicle circles the Nürburgring Nordscheife in under eight minutes. The record for the SLS AMG Coupé Electric … Read More Mercedes SLS AMG Coupé Electric Drive Circles The Nordschleife In Record 7:56.234 Minutes 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).

Oxford PV have announced that they have achieved a new efficiency high-watermark for their new photovoltaic technology of 15.4%, continuing the march towards scale-up and commercialisation. Spun off from Oxford University in an attempt to put all of founder Dr. Henry Snaith’s intellectual property under one roof and solve the issues of satisfying global solar demand — “namely high cost, dependence on scarce elements and toxic materials, short lifetimes, and complex manufacturing processes” — PV … Read More New Class Of Solar Cell Reaches New Efficiency Breakthrough 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).

Covering the Tesla–Texas Auto Dealership saga for awhile, I was hopeful it was going to all turn out for the best. Apparently, that wasn’t the case. As we noted back in April, 80% of polled Texans thought that Tesla should be allowed to directly sell its vehicles to consumers. Even a former Texas car dealer, Sterling McCall, wrote an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle on why he thought Tesla should be able to. As part … Read More Tesla Sales Model Rejected In Texas Despite Citizen Support 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).

A new green fuel cell is in the works courtesy of the US Army’s “Center of Lethality,” aka the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center headquartered at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. The fuel cell is designed to run on corn ethanol, which we don’t find particularly exciting nowadays, but it could end up playing an important role in the Army’s ability to manage the hazardous materials waste stream from its munitions manufacturing operations. The … Read More Army’s “Center of Lethiality” Targets Green Fuel Cell To Recover Waste 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).

Palo Alto is a leader in so many ways. It is one of the best bicycle cities in the US, and it is also becoming a clear leader in solar (as well as many other things). Here’s more regarding its latest solar news via Solar Love: Solar permitting, obsessively onerous, is one of the biggest obstacles holding back even faster solar energy growth across the United States. Several studies have identified this, and have identified … Read More Palo Alto Streamlines Going Solar 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).