Green Options

Move over CO2—you’ve been ousted, along with methane, as the biggest offenders of global climate change. According to a new a study by Purdue University and NASA, the major chemicals most frequently cited as leading to climate change, namely carbon dioxide and methane, are actually outclassed in their warming potential by compounds receiving less attention. The majority of “greenhouse gases” are created by humans.

The results were discovered when researchers studied more than a dozen chemicals, or greenhouse gases as classified by their warming properties defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. From there, the team developed a blueprint for the underlying molecular machinery of global warming. The results appeared in the November 12, 2009 issue of the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Physical Chemistry, just in time for the convergence of world leaders in Copenhagen.

Wind turbines have been around since just after the dinosaurs began making fossil fuels.

These days, a team from Purdue University and Sandia National Laboratories are working to make future blades more efficient, more cost effective and more reliable.

In other words: Plans for the smart grid, meet plans for the smart blade.

Engineers have embedded sensors inside wind turbine blades, and are testing the technology at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s [...]

While in spring time Indiana’s thoughts generally turn from high school hoops to auto racing, Indianapolis last week launched a more than $200 million plan to put the region on the lead lap of the race to be a leader in hybrid vehicle technology.

The Indianapolis Star reports area business leaders are calling the effort the Energy Systems Network and says the effort hopes to draw on technical resources already in the region to create a hybrid economy.