Biofuels, based on non-food feedstocks, are huge right now, and bound to get bigger. There are certainly not without issue, as many don’t seem to be very resource efficient, but if they can be brought to a reasonable point of their net energy consumption and cost, they may prove to be one the [...]
A powerful, if a bit optimistic, outlook on the new energy economy. A good friend and I were out kayaking the other day, and he raised the idea that after 9/11, Bush had perhaps the best opportunity ever to work on divorcing us from oil. If he had said, “We need [...]
Referring to Shell, the article says this:
The oil titan has quadrupled its budget for renewable-energy projects this year, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Similiar to what I posted earlier about the influence on oil, I think these guys increasing their influence could be major. Even 2-300 Million a year would be a considerable investment for this [...]
Tesla makes a cool car, but a low volume 2 seat sports car that sells for 100K will never be mainstream. Getting a major manufacture to build a small but useful city car, all electric, will make a big difference. BMW is building between 500 and a 1,000 all electric Mini’s. With [...]
This study isn’t focused on Clean Tech, but is a more general study of VCs’ attitudes. It shows a drop in confidence for the third quarter, hardly a surprise given the current economic situation. Of course, the study only started 4 years ago, a pretty short time really. I personally think we are in the [...]
Batteries are the weak point in many clean tech ideas. They tend to be heavy, inefficient, and not very environmentally friendly. But systems like electric cars and thousands of other products depend on them. To paraphrase an old saying, Build a better battery, and the world will beat a path to [...]
Don Dodge writes an interesting blog post about starting a company during a downtime, it includes: “Customers are willing to try new things to save money in bad times. When things are going great they don’t want to take risks on a tiny startup. If you can save them money in bad times…they are happy [...]
Chrysler Aspen hybrid and Dodge Durango hybrid have managed an EPA-estimated 20 MPG city and 22 MPG highway rating.
Reasonably impressive numbers. Not great, but for a big SUV, pretty good numbers. Off course, if people buy this when all they really need is a small car, there is no net gain. [...]
Clemson University will lead a $1.2 million bioethanol research project to find the best way to produce plant-based fuels in South Carolina and the region. The US Department of Energy awarded the grant to Clemson, which will collaborate with DOE’s Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken.
The purpose of the grant is to assess the potential [...]
Regulation can drive business, or stifle it. California has set ambitious new climate change plan, and being as that California is the center for Clean Tech in the U.S., companies here or hoping to sell here are going to be affected by it.
California published a radical climate change plan this week, outlining [...]
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