By Jennifer Kho •
June 26, 2009
The prospect of green jobs has proven very attractive to Californian job seekers. According to a survey released this week by the Vote Solar Initiative, a solar advocacy group, more than 5,400 people are participating in solar job training programs this year in the state.
“It is clear that Californians of different economic and educational backgrounds are all looking to solar to provide much-needed career opportunities, and the state’s training institutions have stepped up to meet that rising demand,” said Claudia Eyzaguirre, the author of the report, in a press release.
But it’s not clear whether the state will have enough jobs to support these trainees. Part of that will depend on the kinds of jobs they are training for.
By Andrew Williams •
June 22, 2009
An astonishing new survey has revealed that more than 60% of Americans would refuse to stop using their iPods, even if they knew it was seriously damaging the environment.
The survey, which quizzed more than 1,000 people across the US, found that, whilst the majority of Americans are making efforts to buy greener products, most wouldn’t do so if it meant compromising on convenience or comfort.
By Gavin Newsom •
June 15, 2009
San Francisco created the “EcoFinder” iPhone App to help residents recycle and dispose of materials. The open data philosophy behind the app is Government 2.0 at work.
With the release today of San Francisco’s first iPhone app based on a City data feed, recycling just got much easier for our residents.
San Franciscans already lead the nation in recycling – in May we announced a 72% diversion rate of all materials going to the landfill – but we want to do more. Last week we passed the nation’s first mandatory recycling and composting laws. We’ve pledged to recycle 75% of the materials that would otherwise go to the landfill by 2010 and zero waste by 2020.
We will only reach these lofty goals together — with the help of all our residents. That’s why the City’s environment department (@SFEnvironment) has launched an iPhone version of the popular web-based EcoFinder tool.
By Jennifer Kho •
June 11, 2009
At a cleantech panel about business opportunities running up to the 2012 Olympics in London, Dallas Kachan, managing director for the Cleantech Group, said that the second quarter “looks a lot like the first quarter” for cleantech investing so far.
In other words, it’s still down from last year, but deals are still happening and money is still available, he said. “The amount of investment is not continuing to plummet; it’s stable,” Kachan said. “Some might say we’ve reached bottom.”
By Jeffrey Berlin •
June 5, 2009
Where is the grid going, big or small?
By Ariel Schwartz •
May 26, 2009
Electric cars have been getting plenty of attention recently, but what about electric jetskis? The ECO Jetski–the first all-electric jetski–reaches speeds of 50 MPH and has an impressive battery life of three hours. Check out a video of the yet-to-be-released jetski in action below.
Google’s plan to roll-out home energy monitoring systems took a step towards reality Tuesday when the company announced the first round of utility partners for its PowerMeter demand-side energy management software.
The pilot program for Google’s foray into smart grid and energy management infrastructure will be available to select customers at a group of eight utilities that have installed—or are in the process of installing—smart meters. With the move, Google will be making the company’s first significant play in energy-use data, an entirely new dimension of consumer data for the company.
By having real-time information about home energy usage on a desktop (running as a Google Gadget), those using the meter will be able to use their energy more efficiently, save money on their monthly bill, and be able to monitor/reduce household carbon emissions.
By Jeff Kart •
May 19, 2009
Experts call energy efficiency the low-hanging fruit, because it’s cheaper to cut power use than create new energy from fossil fuels like coal.
But our creature comforts — like iPods, cell phones, PCs and plasma TVs — are sucking the life out of advances in energy efficiency around the world, the International Energy Agency says.
In other words, too much fruit is rotting on the vine.
The IEA says in a new “Gigawatts and Gadgets” report that electricity consumption from power-hungry electronics could cause household energy use to triple by 2030. That means increased greenhouse gases from electric generation, and increased electric bills for creating that power.
By Derek Markham •
April 22, 2009
In a public bid for transparency and awareness in home electrical consumption, a Maine family of four is broadcasting their electricity use live via the web and a Twitter feed.
“Amidst massive greenwashing and general noise of the highest profile Earth Day in years, we’ve committed ourselves to one simple act: exposing our home’s electricity use publicly. We’re doing this because we believe measurement of home electrical use is the first step toward energy savings, and that we, as a family, will be motivated by making the data public.” - Troast
By Andrew Williams •
March 26, 2009
Go on, admit it - how many times have you forgotten to water your houseplants? Maybe you’ve even left some of them so long they’ve withered away to nothing. In fact, the chances are that if a plant could talk the thing they’d be most likely to say would be WATER ME!
Well, thanks to a new device, your long-suffering plants will now be able to do just that. What’s that you say - a talking houseplant? Well, not exactly, but thanks to researchers at New York University’s interactive telecommunications program plants will now be able to to tell owners when they need water or if they’ve had too much via the social networking service Twitter.
By Jerry James Stone •
February 23, 2009
Energizer Bunny beware!
Knut Karlsen has created a solar-cell charging battery prototype using flexible solar cells from IFE and some older NiMH rechargeable batteries. The batteries are being coined as “SunCast” batteries and work much like a trickle charger.
