Green Technology

Inductive charging is coming to public transportation in Long Beach, California, with the addition of two wireless charging stations for its electric buses.

A look at at some of the best and worst of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair

The latest scandal out of China has to do with Guangzhou, a huge metropolis in the South of the country.

Machines are giving us better and better suggestions for things to read, restaurants to eat at and people to date. Behind the curtains, some of the ways these services are being delivered are also being automated. An article out Wednesday from Data Center Knowledge envisions the next few steps for automating operations inside the data centers. Robots can move literally higher up the stack than humans and still be safe, which means data center builders can build vertically instead of horizontally. That could bring better use of data center floor space. If robots do all the work on the floor, lights might become unnecessary, and poof: just like that, a line item can be nixed from the budget. Deploying robots could also lead to less downtime, as they could act with more certainty than people when it comes to replacing a server or another hardware component. Using robots to grab equipment is “becoming quite feasible,” and Google does it to get backup storage tapes, according to the article. Most gear isn’t really made for machines to handle, though, so this area might be in need of tinkering before it can get widely adopted. The article also makes mention of unmanned data centers, including one operated by AOL. Apple revealed plans last year to build one of these facilities in Prineville, Ore., before saying it would expand the site to add data centers where some people would work. As more companies move in that direction, prices will drop, leading to further market penetration. Despite this, the article suggests that data centers will still need administrators, so not everyone working inside data centers will lose their jobs as this wave of automation carries through — for now. Meanwhile, data center admins can also optimize their facilities by changing out hardware and software to match use cases. Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMware, will talk about his vision for the software-defined data center, and Andrew Feldman, general manager and corporate vice president of AMD, will talk about how companies can do these things at GigaOM’s Structure Conference in San Francisco on June 19. With these sorts of upgrades, while the initial capital expenditures might be high, they could bring operating expenses down for public, private and hybrid cloud providers, resulting in price drops for customers in time. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Locating data centers in an energy-constrained worldThe fourth quarter of 2012 in cleantechThe economics of clean-data-center innovation

Roughly 70 percent of Americans say global warming should be a priority for President Obama and Congress and 61 percent support requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax that would be used to help reduce the national debt, according to a new survey by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. In a national survey conducted in April, 87 percent of respondents said that the president and Congress should make developing clean sources of energy a priority, 68 percent favored regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant, and 71 percent supported providing tax rebates for people who buy solar panels and energy-efficient vehicles. Seventy percent said global warming should be at least a “medium” priority, while 28 percent said it should be a low priority. The poll showed that 7 in 10 Americans support funding more research into green energy sources. One surprising finding was that half of those polled had never heard of the Keystone XL pipeline, a controversial 1,711-mile proposal that would carry tar sands oil from Alberta to refineries in Texas. Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360. Related posts:Concern About Global Warming Continues to Drop, Poll ShowsPublic Support Strong for CO2 Regulation and Clean EnergyMajority of Americans Believe Climate is Warming, Weather Less StableConcerns About Warming Near Record Low in the U.S., Poll ShowsYounger Americans Disengaged About Climate Change, Survey SaysCopyright © 2008-2010 CleanTechies, Inc. and Partners This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. Written by Yale Environment 360. To the comments (Digital Fingerprint: b008bf120fbd682ffd7ee5812c495c9a)Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk said a couple months ago that Tesla planned to pay off the rest of Department of Energy loan in five years, instead of the allotted ten. Now, according to a tweet from Musk, Tesla could pay off the entire loan today, nine years early. Musk tweeted: Given govt loan repayment this week (prob Wed), Supercharger update will be next week. Work continuing independent of announcement. In order to pay off the loan, Tesla is holding an equity and debt offering, and could raise a billion dollars (boosted from the initial $830 million) from selling shares and convertible senior notes. Musk says he’ll buy $100 million worth of common stock in the offering. If Tesla pays back the entire loan today — or sometime soon — it will be a remarkable feat. Tesla raised a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy’s controversial Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program back in the Summer of 2009. The funds helped the company build its factory in Fremont and transition from a small scale manufacturer of its first-gen Roadster electric sports car into a larger scale manufacturer of its Model S electric sedan. Tesla was one of only five companies to receive the loans, and one of three startups. Two of the other startups that raised funds from that program, Fisker Automotive and The Vehicle Group, are struggling. Fisker, which makes the electric hybrid sports car the Karma, is near bankruptcy and The Vehicle Production Group, which makes a natural gas-powered van for disabled passengers, has shut down. Tesla can also afford to pay off the loan early because it’s just come off of its first profitable quarter in the company’s 10-year history. Tesla also generated a record amount of revenue ($561.8 million) in the quarter, and raised its annual guidance of the amount of cars shipped by 1,000 to 21,000 this year. Tesla stock has been on a tear this month, and is was trading at $89.24 this morning. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.Ups and downs for cleantech in Q1Waiting for the EV market to materializeThe fourth quarter of 2012 in cleantech

Oil-Fixing Probe Accelerates as EU Asks Traders for Help The investigation into possible oil-price fixing gathered pace as trading houses from Glencore Xstrata Plc, the $70 billion mining firm, to Gunvor Group Ltd. were asked to provide information to European regulators. Glencore Xstrata, Gunvor and Vitol Group, which aren’t under investigation, along with other firms with offices in Switzerland, are assisting the European Commission with the inquiry, said three people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The commission announced last week that it’s probing whether oil companies colluded to distort prices. Indonesia re-arrests Chevron exec amid tension with Big Oil (Reuters) - Authorities have bypassed a court order and re-arrested an executive at Chevron Corp's Indonesian unit in a graft case that highlights growing tension with big oil companies in a country struggling to reverse a decline in oil production. The attorney general's office said on Wednesday it had re-arrested Bachtiar Abdul, an executive at PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia, despite a Nov. 27 court order that cleared him of any wrongdoing and released him from detention. China’s SUV Fleet to Drive Oil Demand Growth, Bernstein Says China’s growing fleet of sport utility vehicles will offset gains in fuel efficiency and continue to drive oil-demand growth, according to Sanford C. Bernstein Research. Chinese oil consumption will increase at an average annual pace of 5 percent to reach 12.9 million barrels a day in 2018, from 9.6 million barrels a day in 2012, the investment research company said in a report e-mailed today. Its forecast is higher than the International Energy Agency’s outlook for a 4 percent average annual increase for the same period. China Net Gasoline Exports Stay Remain Year High as Demand Slows China’s net exports of gasoline remained near the highest level in a year amid the nation’s weakest domestic oil demand in eight months. Overseas sales of gasoline exceeded imports by 468,553 metric tons in April, according to data e-mailed by the General Administration of Customs in Beijing today. That’s equivalent to 132,360 barrels a day. In March, net gasoline exports were 506,110 tons, the most in a year. WTI Crude Drops a Second Day as U.S. Supplies Gain a Fourth Week West Texas Intermediate fell for a second day after industry data showed U.S. inventories rose for a fourth week, the longest run of gains since February. China’s oil stockpiles climbed for a second month. Futures slid as much as 0.9 percent in New York after a report from the American Petroleum Institute showed crude stockpiles increased 532,000 barrels last week. Government figures today are projected to show a 1 million-barrel decline, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts. The API also indicated gains in gasoline and distillate-fuel supplies, including heating oil and diesel. Crude and Product Stockpiles Gained Last Week, API Says Oil supplies advanced 532,000 barrels to 390.7 million, the American Petroleum Institute said. Distillate fuel inventories rose 459,000 barrels to 118.4 million, the API’s weekly report showed. Gasoline stockpiles also increased, gaining 3.03 million to 219.5 million. Gasoline Falls on Speculation Tornado Didn’t Affect Inventories Gasoline fell on speculation that the deadly tornado near Oklahoma City may not have affected refinery operations in the area. Northwest Gasoline Tumbles on Tankers, as Shell Restores Output Spot gasoline in the U.S. Pacific Northwest dropped by the most against futures since February as tankers carried oil products to the region and a Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) refinery recovered from a power failure. Coal’s Record Slump Poised to End on Output Cuts European coal’s longest slump in at least eight years is poised to end as imports from the U.S. fall and further declines trigger production cuts at mi

We've seen heat-to-electricity technologies that work with high temperatures, but this new breakthrough could allow waste heat to be harnessed from many more sources.

These delightful scones are filled with fresh berries, and are a wonderful breakfast treat when served with honey and a cup of hot tea or coffee.

This video takes us inside an ultra-narrow house in Tokyo, showing how the use of a few clever design tricks to make it feel more spacious.