Cleantech ticker: 27 Feb. 2009
Cleantech news as it happens — check back for regular updates:
- The US Department of Energy and the Department of Housing and Urban Development have teamed up to improve federal weatherization efforts for homeowners across the country;
- Smaller is better when it comes to battery packs for plug-in hybrid vehicles, according to research from Carnegie Mellon University — larger, more costly batteries don’t lead to enough fuel savings to be worth the price;
- Welsh officials have set a goal of generating 20 percent of the country’s electricity from biomass by 2020;
- The town of Sturtevant, Wisconsin, is testing two new types of smart LED lighting with the goal of reducing operating costs and energy bills;
- Joseph Glauber, chief economist at the US Department of Agriculture, says as much as 15 percent of the nation’s ethanol industry might be idle because of the economy, Reuters reports;
- Valero Energy’s efforts to acquire bankrupt ethanol firm VeraSun Energy is part of the oil industry’s effort to bring about “the collapse of America’s fledgling independent renewable fuel and energy producers market,” says David Blume, executive director of the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture;
- Two associates at IMD argue that the collapse in oil prices and the global economy have caused the “sustainability bubble” to burst;
- New York officials have announced that the state’s wind power capacity has now reached 1,000 megawatts;
- New research from the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres explores methods for enhancing the efficiency of geothermal energy;
- A new report says a proposed eco-town at Marston near Stratford-upon-Avon isn’t financially viable because it would need large public subsidies in order to provide the needed infrastructure;
- Energy Efficiency News reports that the Norwegian government will provide €36 million to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology to help it research and develop zero-carbon buildings over the next eight years.
