photo: Todd Woody In The New York Times on Thursday, I wrote about a slew of Silicon Valley-backed startups developing new kinds of internal combustion engines that are more fuel efficient and less polluting: BERKELEY, CALIF. – In this city where Toyota Priuses clog the roads and battery-powered Tesla Roadsters and Chevrolet Volts can be [...]
Archive for the ‘environment’ Category
Startups aim to reinvent the internal combustion engine
Posted in environment, green cars, tagged Achates Power, EcoMotors, Pinnacle Engines on April 4, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Prop 23 coalition revives campaign for green policies
Posted in energy, environment, green policy, Proposition 23, renewable energy, tagged Thomas Steyer on March 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In The New York Times on Friday, I wrote about the organizers of California’s No on Proposition 23 campaign resurrecting their coalition to press for green energy policies in the Golden State and Washington: George P. Shultz, the Republican former secretary of state, and Thomas F. Steyer, the Democratic hedge fund billionaire, are reviving the [...]
Power sharing: App connects EV drivers, outlet owners
Posted in electric cars, enviro startups, environment, green cars on March 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
In The New York Times on Monday, I write about PlugShare, a new iPhone app that lets people share their household outlets and electric car charging stations with EV drivers: First there was music sharing and then car sharing. Now get ready for plug sharing. Xatori, a Silicon Valley software start-up, aims to create a [...]
Portlandia to help wean Los Angeles from coal
Posted in environment, solar energy, solar power plants, SolarWorld, tagged Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on March 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Portlandia may not be the sunniest of places, but it’s exporting solar energy in the form of photovoltaic panels used to build carbon-free power plants. On Wednesday, SolarWorld — the German photovoltaic module maker that operates a big factory in Hillsboro, Ore. — announced it [...]
Short-circuiting California’s solar thermal power plant boom
Posted in BrightSource Energy, energy, environment, NextEra Energy Resources, renewable energy, Sierra Club, solar energy, Solar Millennium, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, Tessera Solar on February 24, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody In Thursday’s New York Times, I write about how the nascent solar thermal boom in California’s Mojave Desert is being derailed by lawsuits from environmental, union and Native American groups: SAN FRANCISCO — Just weeks after regulators approved the last of nine multibillion-dollar solar thermal power plants to be built in the [...]
NRG to acquire SunPower solar farm for $450 million
Posted in environment, NRG Energy, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, SunPower, Uncategorized, tagged NRG Energy on January 20, 2011 | 2 Comments »
I wrote this story for Reuters, where it first appeared on November 30, 2010. A subsidiary of NRG Energy on Tuesday said it will invest up to $450 million in a 250-megawatt photovoltaic power plant to be built by Silicon Valley’s SunPower on the central California coast. The New Jersey-based power provider, which operates a [...]
Saving the desert tortoise from solar power plants
Posted in BrightSource Energy, endangered species, energy, environment, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged desert tortoise, Ivanpah, Mercy Vaughn, Peter Woodman on November 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody In the New York Times on Wednesday, I follow up my story on solar power plants and desert tortoises: In an article in The New York Times on Wednesday, I write about how the fortunes of big solar power plants in the desert Southwest can hinge on the way developers handle imperiled [...]
Code enforcement: iPhone app for enviro monitoring
Posted in environment, IBM, water, water tech, tagged Creek Watch, iPhone app on November 11, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Environmental enforcement? Yes, there’s an app for that too. As California’s permanent budget crisis results in continuing cutbacks to environmental agencies, IBM has rolled out Creek Watch, an iPhone app that lets the State Water Resources Control Board crowdsource the condition of the Golden State’s [...]
Why the green energy revolution needs the smart grid
Posted in alternative energy, environment, green policy, green tech, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, tagged Sacramento Municipal Utility District on November 8, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. If you want a birds-eye view of the future of power, scramble up to the roof of a 562,089-square-foot warehouse in Ontario, a city that sits in the smoggy heart of Southern California’s Inland Empire east of Los Angeles. On a roof [...]
China syndrome: California’s Solyndra to close solar factory
Posted in energy, environment, green policy, green tech, solar energy, Solyndra, tagged President Obama on November 2, 2010 | 1 Comment »
photo: White House In Wednesday’s New York Times, I have an exlusive about Silicon Valley solar startup Solyndra’s move to shutter a factory and lay off workers just weeks after it opened a state-of the art plant built with a half-billion-dollar federal loan guarantee: SAN FRANCISCO — Solyndra, a Silicon Valley solar-panel maker that won [...]
