Oil and Coal Could Cost US $30 Trillion By 2030 Says Study

America’s economy and quality of life as we know it is at risk, according to a new study released by Environment America. The study claims that “big oil and dirty coal” could cost the United States $30 trillion dollars by 2030, four times the earnings of American workers in 2007 alone. According to the study, 85 percent of America’s energy is supplied by fossil fuels. American consumers and businesses spent 7 percent, or $921 billion, of the nation’s GDP on fossil fuels, more than the total spent on education or the military. Full Story : DigitalJournal.com….

Extreme Wind Power Calls for Killer High-Altitude Kites

High-altitude wind streams boast more than 100 times as much power as needed to meet the planet’s electricity needs at any given moment, according to research by Stanford University’s Cristina Archer and Ken Caldeira. Entrepreneurs are refining models of wind-turbine kites that fly as high as airliners. Theoretically, these extreme wind power kites would float high enough for powerful jet streams to flow through their turbines more than 10 times faster than winds would flow near the ground. Full Story : Cleantechlawandbusiness.com….

Black Pixel: Is it possible to Save Energy one Pixel at a Time?

Greenpeace Brazil has a simple proposition for us: let’s save energy by annulling one pixel of our computer screens. According to the project presentation, one pixel will save 0,057 watts per hour, so if one million people join, it will make 57 thousand watts per hour. This is equivalent to 1425 40W light-bulbs turned off per hour and can save up to 70 kilogrames of CO2 (if the energy for that came from a coal plant). From the campaign they make it clear that this only works on CRT and plasma monitors. Full Story : TreeHugger.com…

Google Announces First Utility Partners for New PowerMeter

The pilot program for Google’s foray into smart grid and energy management infrastructure will be available to select customers at a group of eleven 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. Full Story : CleanTechnica.com…..

Australia to build world’s largest Solar energy plant

Australia plans to build the world’s largest solar power station with an output of 1000 megawatts in a A$1.4 billion (US$1.05 billion) investment, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Sunday. The plant would have three times the generating capacity of the current biggest solar-powered electricity plant, which is in California, Rudd said during a tour of a power station. Full Story : Reuters.com…..

FedEx Aims for 30 Percent Biofuels by 2030

FedEx wants a third of its jet fuel to come from biofuels by 2030, the company’s chief executive said Wednesday in a speech delivered during a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Aviation Summit. The target, dubbed “30 by 30,” aims to take advantage of second-generation biofuels from feedstocks such as jatropha, algae, switchgrass and camelina, as first reported by GreenWire. FedEx provided text of Smith’s remarks to ClimateBiz.com. Full Story : Climatebiz.com……

Offshore Renewable Energy Regulations Announced in US

The United States Interior Department issued regulations governing offshore renewable energy projects that use wind, ocean currents and wave power for producing electricity. The offshore leasing rules for electricity production had stalled for two years over of a turf dispute as it were between governmental agencies, but that bottleneck has been broken. Nearby coastal states will receive 27.5 percent of the royalties generated from electricity production. Full Story : Treehugger.com……

Linux the Greenest Operating System?

Linux requires less processor power and less advanced hardware than Windows or Mac OS X, you can use hardware much longer with Linux. That means less landfill problems, and less production of new equipment overall. According to a new study Windows users have to upgrade their computers twice as frequently as Linux users. Full Story : Greencomputing…..

Spam e-mails killing the environment

A recent report by McAfee security firm, said the estimated 62 trillion spam e-mail that get sent each year consume 33 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power 2.4 million homes. In addition, spam e-mail releases as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 3.1 million cars consuming 2 billion gallons of gasoline. Full Story : ITworld.com…..

Spain Leads the World in New Solar Energy Development

According to a newly released draft of a report by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), Spain now leads the world in added photovoltaic capacity. Spain added 1.7 million kilowatts of capacity in 2008, followed by Germany at 1.5 million kilowatts. The United States lagged behind in a distant third place at 300,000 kilowatts. Full Story : Ecoworldly.com……

U.S. companies waste $2.8B per year powering unused PCs

Computers that are powered on but not in use are expected to emit approximately 20 million tons of CO2 this year alone, roughly equivalent to the impact of 4 million cars, according to a report released by 1E and the Alliance to Save Energy . In U.S. alone companies waste $2.8 billion annually to power 108 million unused machines. Full Story : Infoworld.com…

Solar panels in the Sahara ‘could power the whole of Europe’

All of Europe’s energy needs could be supplied by building an array of solar panels in the Sahara, the climate change conference has been told. A £50 billion investment by governments over the next ten years would be enough to make Saharan solar power an attractive and viable prospect for private investors. By harnessing the power of the Sun, possibly in tandem with wind farms along the North African coastline, Europe could easily meet its 2020 target of generating at least 20 per cent of its energy from renewable sources. Full Story : Timesonline

Buckingham Palace Tops List of the Least Green Buildings in London

Buckingham Palace is found to be the top energy inefficient building in London. Buckingham Palace, the main residence of British sovereigns for almost 175 years, leaks so much energy it could be a sieve. Thermal imaging of the 775-room palace showed heat flowing from closed, curtained windows, pouring from the roof and streaming through cracks in the walls. In 2008 Buckingham Palace’s energy bill was close to $3 million.

Google PowerMeter

Google said it is developing a smart grid tool called Google PowerMeter that will show home energy consumption almost in real time on a user’s computer. Google says the tool will help consumers to track their home energy usage and thereby lower demand. Google PowerMeter, now in prototype, will receive information from utility smart meters and energy management devices and provide anyone who signs up access to her home electricity consumption right on her iGoogle homepage.

@ a glance : Russia sets conditions to resume gas flows to Europe via Ukraine

Russia’s state gas monopoly Gazprom said it would resume supplies to Europe via Ukraine on Friday if an agreement allowing a EU-led monitoring team to track gas flows through Ukraine was signed. Full Story : Xinhuanet……

@ a glance : Russian gas via Ukraine to south-east Europe halted

Russian gas supplies via Ukraine to south-eastern Europe and Turkey were halted on Tuesday and Austria and the Czech Republic reported sharp falls in supplies in a deepening row between Moscow and Kiev. Full Story : BusinessSpectator……

@ a glance : Russia blames Ukraine for obstructing gas talks

Russia said on Wednesday that the chances of concluding a gas deal with Ukraine in time to avoid a supply cut on January 1st were slim and blamed Ukraine for obstructing last minute talks. Full Story : FT.com…..

US oil agency accused of ethics violations

The US interior department agency Minerals Management Service was accused of ethics violations, ranging from accepting high-priced gifts from energy companies and manipulating contracts to cocaine use and sexual misconduct. An investigation by Minerals Management Service Inspector General Earl Devaney revealed, nearly a third of the staff of the Denver Minerals Management Service office accepted gifts from oil and gas companies between 2002 and 2006. The report also says that several employees “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives”. MMS collects roughly $10 billion in royalties each year.

Bacteria: Alternative Energy Source in Future

Hydrogen is the environmentally cleanest and most abundant fuel. But extracting it from other organic materials or  water,  needs significant amount of energy, and it is currently not an efficient process. Fortunately, scientists are have discovered certain bacteria that exhale hydrogen during the normal metabolism.

These particular microbes grow in hot temperatures nearly boiling point of water. These thermophilic (heat-loving) bacteria is known as Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus found in a hot spring in New Zealand. Hydrogen Fuel cell vehicles are available in California and the New York area. These vehicles run off of hydrogen gas and emit only water vapor. Therefore in future, Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus microbes can be used as an alternative energy source to power our vehicles.

Image Credit:http://i44.photobucket.com

Google invests in Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy is the heat of the Earth, which can be tapped into to produce electricity. Even though it has great potential as a renewable energy source it doesn’t get much attention it deserves. 2% of the heat below the United States at depths of 3-10 kilometers would be supply 2500 times the nation’s current energy needs. Through its philanthropic division Google.org, Google will be investing nearly $10.5 million into three projects researching advanced geothermal power. The technology Google focuses on is called EGS. EGS produces heat and electricity by harnessing the energy from hot rock deep below the earth’s surface, expanding the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude.