Green Options » R&D

Green Economy = More Jobs

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:21:53 +0000

A new report released today says that if we shift our economy — to a greener, low-carbon economy — we will have more jobs, not fewer.

Earlier this week, Tony Blair (former prime minister of the UK) and the Climate Group reported that if we worked to avoid climate change we’d create 10 million new jobs by 2020 — worldwide. Another recent study by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council says that such a shift could increase employment in the EU by 2.7 million jobs by 2030.

One more report, released today by the Global Climate Network (an alliance of nine influential think tanks) comes to similar conclusions.

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Congress Slashes Obama’s Energy Education Program in Energy and Water Bill

Yael Borofsky — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:17:14 +0000

Last Wednesday, the Senate passed the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill (H.R. 3183), appropriating $34.3 billion in energy spending for FY2010. Although the bill made good on Obama’s campaign promise to shut down Nevada’s Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility and funds numerous Army Corps of Engineers’ water initiatives, the bill is shockingly silent with regard to Obama’s energy education program RE-ENERGYSE.

A recent article by TIME’s Bryan Walsh also calls attention to Congress’s stinginess with Obama’s Energy Secretary, Steven Chu’s proposed “energy innovation hubs,” to which the House appropriated $35 million of $280 million he suggested. This allotment is enough to pay for one hub, not the eight R&D centers called for in Chu’s proposal.

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DuPont’s Solution to Fragile Solar Cells

Lisa Wojnovich — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:55:13 +0000

One of the biggest problems with solar cells currently on the market is that they are extremely easy to break. Companies intent on manufacturing any sort of solar powered products have to find solutions, and few have yet been perfect. Hoping to change this trend, DuPont recently announced the launch of two new lines of encapsulants specifically designed to contend with the trials inherent in manufacturing photovoltaic products.

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NASA and DOE Developing the First Space-Based Dark Energy Observatory

Timothy B. Hurst — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:23:20 +0000

NASA and the Department of Energy are working together to build the first space-based observatory designed to understand the nature of dark energy.

One of the most significant scientific findings in the last decade was that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. The acceleration is caused by a previously unknown dark energy that makes up approximately 70 percent of the total mass energy content of the universe. The discovery of dark energy showed that empty space is filled with a mysterious energy that increases as the universe expands. While Einstein initially proposed a cosmological constant that could explain the dark energy, it is the amount of dark energy that is difficult to understand.

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