alternative energy

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Turbine Plan Near Kennedy Home Puts Obama in a Bind

Cape Wind has minimal environmental impact, but is opposed by Mass. Sen.

(Newser) - Ted Kennedy's desire for a sweet Cape Cod view will test Obama’s commitment to green energy, Jim Geraghty writes for the National Review. Kennedy has been trying to stop Cape Wind, a plan to install turbines near the Kennedy compound. An Interior Department review approved the project, but admitted...

Silver Bits Boost Solar Power
 Silver Bits Boost Solar Power 

Silver Bits Boost Solar Power

Particles allow cells to absorb more light, researchers say

(Newser) - Scientists believe they’ve found a way to make less expensive, more efficient solar cells: Just add silver, the Economist reports. Standard cells, which rely on a thick layer of pricey silicon, are costly. Problem is, thinner cells absorb less red light, reducing electricity output by 20%. Sprinkling a few...

Geothermal Energy Hopes Are Booming
Geothermal Energy Hopes Are Booming

Geothermal Energy Hopes Are Booming

Subterranean rocks could supply 10% of power by 2050

(Newser) - Hot rocks beneath the Earth's surface hold much promise for the nation's energy needs, but it's going to take big money to make the science work, the Christian Science Monitor reports. With $1 billion investment over the next 15 years, experts say geothermal power could provide 10% of the nation's...

Winter Chills Green Energy
 Winter Chills Green Energy 

Winter Chills Green Energy

Renewable energy industry works to deal with seasonal variations

(Newser) - Winter weather is cooling newfound enthusiasm for renewable energy, the New York Times reports. Solar panels get snowed up or suffer from lack of sunlight on short winter days, and biodiesel sometimes congeals in cold weather. Wintry weather is a plus for wind power, but turbines can get iced up...

Obama Energy Pick a Nobel Physicist
Obama Energy
Pick a Nobel
Physicist

Obama Energy Pick a Nobel Physicist

Chu was an early advocate for climate change solutions

(Newser) - Nobel laureate Steven Chu is Barack Obama's nominee for energy secretary, the Wall Street Journal reports. The acclaimed physicist, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was an early advocate for finding scientific solutions to climate change, and his lab is doing groundbreaking work in developing carbon-neutral sources of energy,...

Obama: We Need 2.5M Jobs in 2 Years

(Newser) - Barack Obama says he will move quickly once in office to enact an ambitious, two-year plan to save or create 2.5 million jobs, Bloomberg reports. Obama announced his plan in his weekly radio address, where he also warned that “we risk falling into a deflationary spiral that could...

A Look at Obama's Energy Blueprint
 A Look at Obama's 
 Energy Blueprint 
OPINION

A Look at Obama's Energy Blueprint

Going green will help bring US out of crisis: Klein

(Newser) - Detroit's looking for a bailout. China just announced a massive stimulus package, including big investments in transportation and energy. What’s a president-elect to do? Barack Obama would be best served by making good on his promise to create an alternative energy economy, writes Joe Klein in Time. Thankfully, the...

Green Energy Jobs: Will They Save the Economy?

Obama's plans for investment in renewable energy turn cost into benefit

(Newser) - Barack Obama's ambitious plans to use green energy investment to rev up the economy are igniting fierce debate over the math behind them, the Wall Street Journal writes. The president-elect says $150 billion in investment will create five million jobs over the next decade, in construction and installation. Critics charge...

These Stocks Will Flourish During Obama Years
These Stocks Will Flourish During Obama Years
ANALYSIS

These Stocks Will Flourish During Obama Years

Health care, infrastructure, alternative energy look are looking up

(Newser) - Oilmen cheered when George Bush moved into the White House, and investors in Internet companies saw their portfolios gain ground under Bill Clinton. But what's going to be hot once Barak Obama moves into the White House? In Time, Stephen Gandel suggests three sectors and a handful of companies that...

Brooks: Want Real Economic Stimulus? Fix the Roads

A National Mobility Project would create jobs, leaving lasting impact: Brooks

(Newser) - Panic is afoot, so of course, Congress is bearing down on another stimulus package, though the last one seems to have missed the mark. These “politically designed, ad hoc” measures “amount to an economic sugar rush,” David Brooks writes in the New York Times. If he’s...

Gas Prices Are Down&mdash;and That's Bad
Gas Prices Are Down—and That's Bad
OPINION

Gas Prices Are Down—and That's Bad

Investment in green is our only way out of crisis, writes Friedman

(Newser) - Gas prices are dropping at last, back down to an average of less than $3 a gallon for the first time in a year. That's good news for recession-fearing consumers, writes Thomas L. Friedman, but there's a downside: the push to drive less and make Detroit build more fuel-efficient cars...

New Solar Tech Can Top This
 New Solar Tech Can Top This 
glossies

New Solar Tech Can Top This

Solyndra's designs can capture light from any angle

(Newser) - A California company's new, sun-sucking glass tubes aim to solve solar power's practical problems, the Economist reports. Chief among them are flat panels that miss the sun—by looking the wrong way—and cost more than $40,000 per household to install. Solyndra's new technology uses glass tubes that capture...

Oil's Slide as Chaotic as Its Rise

Plunging crude prices can be almost as disruptive as their rise

(Newser) - Crude oil prices have fallen 38% from their July high of $147.27 a barrel, and the decline is causing nearly as much consternation around the world as its meteoric rise in the first half of the year, reports the Washington Post. Oil-dependent governments are worried about revenues and forecasters...

House Passes Drill Bill
 House Passes Drill Bill 

House Passes Drill Bill

'Compromise' bill allowing limited new drilling passes without GOP backing

(Newser) - An energy bill including a partial lifting of the ban on new offshore drilling has passed the House, reports the Washington Post. The vote split largely along party lines, with most Republicans rejecting the package for not going far enough. The measure would allow new drilling beginning at 50 miles...

GM Rolls Out Volt Tomorrow; Hopes for Game-Changer

Automaker sees battery-powered car as turning point for company, Detroit

(Newser) - General Motors will unveil its new Chevy Volt tomorrow, hoping that the battery-operated car will reverse its long reputation as a gas-guzzling industry dinosaur and attract devotees of competitors' hybrids, reports the Wall Street Journal. GM hopes the Volt, a lithium-ion-powered car due to hit the market in 2010, can...

Experiment Raises Hope of Solar Power From Space

Successful test opens the possibility of humanity getting its energy from space

(Newser) - An experiment in beaming solar power has raised hopes that humanity can harness huge amounts of solar energy from satellites, Space.com reports. Researchers sent the energy about 90 miles between two Hawaiian islands via radio waves. The transmission of energy a hundred times further than earlier experiments proves the...

Crowded Northeast Looks Offshore for Wind

Short of energy and too crowded to add plants, US looks seaward for wind farms

(Newser) - The Northeast is the most promising region of the US for major development of wind power, the Wall Street Journal reports, with large coastal cities close to strong offshore winds and a shallow continental shelf good for erecting turbines. The federal government is getting ready to lease 10 tracts of...

Outdated Power Grid Blowing Wind Energy Hopes: Experts

Creaky infrastructure not able to deliver alternative energy to consumers

(Newser) - The nation's outdated and congested power grid is putting a damper on plans to expand renewable energy programs, the New York Times reports. Generating power from the wind and sun is becoming easier—but getting the power to consumers who live far from the country's windiest and sunniest places remains...

Mayor Aims to Make Big Apple Windmill City

Wind could supply 10% of city's power under bold plan

(Newser) - Mayor Mike Bloomberg has unveiled a bold plan to harness alternative energy to power New York City, the New York Times reports. The mayor is calling for windmills to be built on the city's bridges and skyscrapers, and for offshore wind farms to be created that could supply 10% of...

Look to Danes for Energy Know-How
Look to Danes for Energy Know-How
OPINION

Look to Danes for Energy Know-How

Tiny nation responded to '73 crisis with bikes, wind, oil tax: Friedman

(Newser) - Hey, America, looking for a way to solve the energy crisis? Try following Denmark's lead, writes Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times. The country has a few simple fixes that go a long way: Friedman observes half the rush-hour traffic is bicycles; wind provides 20% of the country's...

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