If this Brazilian feasibility analysis works out as planned, jet fuel might move over to the sweeter and greener side of the environmental ledger.

Chemists have been trying to find a way to construct reliable batteries with tin or silicon electrodes because they both have the potential to store very large amounts of energy per kg of batteries. (People often confuse power with energy – you should understand the difference before continuing.)

A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has figured out a way to deliver low cost solar energy at night as well as during the day, by combining a concentrated solar power system with a molten salt heat storage system. Concentrated solar and salt storage are two familiar technologies and this would not be the first attempt to merge the two. However, the MIT team is focusing their system on bringing down installation, operating and maintenance costs. If the concept proves workable, it could help small towns and communities take themselves off the grid with a reliable, steady stream of clean energy.

First Solar has achieved a world record-setting cadmium-telluride (CdTe) solar photovoltaic (PV) cell efficiency of 17.3%, the Tempe, Az.-based thin film solar PV manufacturer announced yesterday.  The new world record blew away the previous record of 16.7%, which was set back in 2001. Testing was conducted at the US Dept. of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Golden, Colorado.

Renewable energy from a wind turbine sounds like a great and green idea to most folks – that is, unless you happen to be living next to the turning blades.

Recycling is taking new turns, this time in the hotel industry.

The item being recycled: concrete tubes – the kind used for water and sewer lines. And for what use are these tubes being recycled? They are hotel rooms on the cheap — priced at $42 a night.

A horticultural wonderland, known as the Eden Project, featuring over one million plants, is very much worth the visit.

Developed by founder Tim Smit, this remarkable site is located in Cornwall, UK, on what once was an abandoned clay mine, dormant for some 160 years,

Visitors to the Eden Project will discover a rich and abundant garden considered by the Guinness Book of Records to be the world’s largest greenhouse. is a unique resource center for people who want to know more about nature and the environment.

It lives on damaged, infertile, and eroded soils, improves the ecosystem of forest floors, removes CO2 from the atmosphere and produces a sugary sweet juice at an amazing rate. The Arenga Sugar Palm is arguably Indonesia’s best-kept secret.

A Canadian waste plastic-to-fuel company, John Bordynuik, Inc. (JBI), has developed a process that uses those plastics as a feedstock, and turns them into fuel.

Under the moniker, Plastic2Oil, this alternative fuel company is branding itself as the domestic alternative fuel company that first developed and scaled an original processor that converts difficult-to-recycle waste plastics into separated, refined fuels.

When we think of all the solar innovations, they seem relatively new, but some are older than many imagine. The solar cooker is one of these. In ancient times, the Romans used mirrors and glass that didn’t just give light to their homes and bathhouses, but also enabled them to create an oven. The major cities of Rome were often crowded and wood for fires was sometimes far away. The citizens still needed heat to make food, so they took a Greek idea of using glass to magnify heat and applied it to use as an oven. Our technology has progressed quite a bit since then, but the principle remains the same to use the energy of the sun.

The drive to replace coal-burning electricity with natural gas continues to run into environmental speed bumps.

Research scientists writing for Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) report that while directional drilling and hydraulic-fracturing technologies are dramatically increasing natural-gas extraction, the aquifers overlying the Marcellus and Utica shale formations of northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York show systematic evidence of methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction.

This is too wild to pass up….

An NYU student from Brooklyn, Andrew Schneider, decided he wanted to create a swimsuit that would cool his beer. The result: using flexible solar photovoltaics surrounded by plastic, he created a bikini that can power your iPhone, iPod or similar device. Apparently, he’s getting to work creating a male version as well, the iDrink. This one, having more surface area, will be able to power a 1.5 amp peltier junction that can cool a beer in a custom coozy.