Coming up very quickly is an exciting conference called Bioneers, where over 10,000 people converge to hear from leading innovators about solutions to our environmental problems, and to talk with one another about how we can look to nature for the answers on how to save our planet.

I’ll be there to cover some of the very cool technological and social advances discussed, and our very own Ken Rother will be there as well to discuss online social activism and engagement (yes, indeed, he’ll be there to brag about all you TreeHuggers!).

My enthusiasm for the conference has reached a boi…

photo: Jennifer Boyer.

Back in June the US Department of Energy announced that it would be investing $90 million into research advancing Enhanced Geothermal Systems— a geothermal power technology which could expand the already considerable geothermal power potential of the United States. Well the DOE has announced the lucky winners. There are 21 awardees who will be receiving a total of $43.1 million over the next four years; with the cost-sharing provisions of the Fundin…

For those of you who like building your own PCs and are always on the lookout for ways to make it greener and more energy efficient, Western Digital has an improved version of its hard drive, called Caviar Green, to help you out. The company states that the new hard drive uses 20% less energy and performs even better than the previous iteration.

It can get pretty aggravating when companies push hard that their product is eco-friendly and green just because it consumes less energy. WD is nudging close to the greenwashing l…

Images via Pedalite

A few years ago we got all excited about Pealite’s self-charging bike light as a cool way to be seen without having to use batteries. Well they’re putting out another cool product – the solar-powered Anklelite. …

Honda Insight Hybrid 2.0
The all new Honda Insight hybrid version 2.0, still officially a concept car but probably very close to what the production model will look like, has been generating a lot of buzz lately. Finally some competition for the Toyota Prius from a dedicated hybrid model, and it’s going to be cheaper to boot (around $18.5k).

New Honda Insight Blog
Honda has just launched a new Insight Hybrid b…

photo: Daniel Figueroa

This one’s a twist on decentralized solar power generation, the solar-as-service model of energy development, and traditional utility-owned power. National Grid has announced that is has filed preliminary paperwork to develop up to 50 MW of solar power in Massachusetts under the state’s Green Communities Act. Big deal, right? Fifty megawatts may be a drop in the energy demand bucket, but the interesting thing is in one of the w…

New Jersey Offshore Wind Farm
New Jersey has approved a new huge offshore wind farm (346 megawatts). The 96 turbines will be installed in a grid pattern between 16 and 20 miles from land. The project, which would be in deeper water than most other offshore wind farms, would cost more than $1 billion and wouldn’t start producing electricity until 2013. The state has set itself a goal of 20% renewable energy by 2020.

NIMBY or No Big Deal?
As you can see from the image above, turbines that are between 15 and 20 miles away are very hard to see. This should help with the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) factor. Rea…

Photo via Jason Bain

Toshiba is catching on to what a lot of other electronics manufacturers already know: free recycling programs of electronics are a good thing for the company, the consumer, and the environment.

They’ve given the concept a nod by expanding their free recycling program beyond just laptops, and it now includes many consumer electronics, <a href…

photo: Jurek Durczack

It may not be nearly the ridiculously large potential claimed by geothermal power in Australia, but a new report commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation indicates that one-third of Australia’s power needs could be met through wave power installation. Oh, did I mention that Carnegie Corp manufactures wave power-cum-desalination technology? I only say that in the spirit of full disclosure, not to necessarily cast doubt on the report findings. Carnegie says that even using “conservative” estimates yields an enormous underutili…

RoofRay has put out an embeddable widget that lets users view rooftops in their area via satellite imagery, draw out a solar array on a certain rooftop, and get an estimate for installation of that array. Basically, it’s their website in an embeddable format. It’s a pretty cool way to make getting an estimate quick and easy. But it can also go into depth about what the drawn array will be able to do.

Check out the widget and give it a try …

Phil Hollmann

Normally when grand statements are made about a nation’s offshore wind power potential the mind naturally conjures up briny images. In the US however, thanks to the Great Lakes though, another area of potential offshore wind development exists sans saltwater. A new report from Michigan State University’s Land Policy Institute says that, in Michigan alone, offshore wind power developments could generate 10 times more power than the state currently generates from fossil fuel sources: That’s 321,000 megawatts of electricity. There’s a catch though:
…

Photo: Samsung Press Image

And it’s no exaggeration when we say “sipping.” The MV100 Tower and the MZ100 Slim Tower both use just 60 W while operating in power-save mode, and just 1 W when in stand-by mode – that’s less than many energy-sparing LCD monitors. …

Image courtesy of Perf Go Green

Perf Go Green, a new biodegradable plastic company based in New York, has developed a line of products that may significantly aid in eliminating plastic waste. Their products include a wide range of bags, from commercial trash bags to plastic drop cloths. Considering the huge volume of bags that hit the landf…

AP photo by Eric Gray

The widespread environmental devastation caused by Hurricane Ike has been pretty well documented—the oil spills (about a half a million gallons worth), a missing drill rig, and destroyed pipelines and infrastructure were all bad enough to register as environmentally catastrophic. But there’s yet another unfortunate victim to the storm’s wrath—the largest biodiesel refinery in the US….