Cleantech and Environmental News – Latest Headlines

50 Ideas for sustainable cities

Creating sustainable cities requires technical, organizational and financial innovations, in order both to organize urban systems and to establish key business models. These are created when stakeholders collaborate across disciplines to bring creative approaches to new technologies. Fraunhofer's 'Morgenstadt - city of the future' initiative provides the space required to facilitate this kind of innovation and active work.

October 17, 2013 Read more

Solar panels can be used to provide heating and air conditioning

The use of solar panels to produce toilets hot water is standard practice, but researchers at the Madrid Universities Carlos III and Politécnica suggest that they may also be used to provide large offices with heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.

October 16, 2013 Read more

Latin America and Caribbean attract increasing share of global clean energy investment

Funding diversifies across the region as emerging LAC countries promote deployment and strengthen policy support.

October 16, 2013 Read more

Intermittence of wind energy hardly affects CO2 emissions in Spain

Researchers have found that real contribution to emissions targets is positive even in energy markets with high penetration of wind energy.

October 16, 2013 Read more

World clean energy investment heads for second successive annual fall

Third quarter figures show investment a fifth down on the same quarter of 2012, as political will to decarbonise energy mix falters.

October 14, 2013 Read more

Climate and energy targets - EU largely on track but mixed picture across Member States

European Union Member States are showing mixed progress towards three climate and energy targets for 2020, even though the EU as a whole could reduce greenhouse gases emissions by 21% in 2020 with the set of national measures already adopted. These findings come from new European Environment Agency (EEA) assessments.

October 12, 2013 Read more

How research ecologists can benefit urban design projects

Designed experiments are incorporated into commercial construction.

October 11, 2013 Read more

Lemons fly as jet fuel of the future

A University of Queensland researcher hopes to use a chemical found in lemons and other citrus fruits to make clean, renewable jet fuel.

October 11, 2013 Read more

Innovation in renewable-energy technologies is booming

New study shows that research investments and growing markets have fueled a huge rise in new patents.

October 11, 2013 Read more

New device harnesses sun and sewage to produce hydrogen fuel

PEC-MFC device achieves self-biased solar hydrogen generation through microbial electrohydrogenesis at lab scale.

October 10, 2013 Read more

Study: Ethanol not a major factor in reducing gas prices

MIT economist finds that biofuels, contrary to claims, do not meaningfully affect what drivers pay at the pump.

October 10, 2013 Read more

Full speed ahead for electric vehicles

At the foot of the Zugspitze, KIT Campus Alpin launches fleet test with three electric vehicles.

October 10, 2013 Read more

Australia and India to collaborate on clean fuel production

In a time when Australia's liquid transport fuel supplies are declining and our transport needs are growing, a research partnership between Australia and India could provide a solution to a number of energy concerns and ultimately reduce the reliance of both countries on imported fuels.

October 9, 2013 Read more

Study reveals urgent new time frame for climate change

The seesaw variability of global temperatures often engenders debate over how seriously we should take climate change. But within 35 years, even the lowest monthly dips in temperatures will be hotter than we've experienced in the past 150 years, according to a new and massive analysis of all climate models. The tropics will be the first to exceed the limits of historical extremes and experience an unabated heat wave that threatens biodiversity and heavily populated countries with the fewest resources to adapt.

October 9, 2013 Read more

Countries should make carbon pricing the cornerstone of climate policy, says OECD

Credible and consistent carbon pricing must be the cornerstone of government actions to tackle climate change, according to a new OECD report.

October 9, 2013 Read more

Team uses a cellulosic biofuels byproduct to increase ethanol yield

Scientists have engineered yeast to consume acetic acid, a previously unwanted byproduct of the process of converting plant leaves, stems and other tissues into biofuels. The innovation increases ethanol yield from lignocellulosic sources by about 10 percent.

October 8, 2013 Read more

Working together: bacteria join forces to produce electricity

Bacterial cells use an impressive range of strategies to grow, develop and sustain themselves. Despite their tiny size, these specialized machines interact with one another in intricate ways.

October 8, 2013 Read more

Singapore and Korea research institutes to collaborate on biomass-to-chemicals research

A*STAR's Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences inked a Memorandum of Understanding with the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, to promote joint research and collaboration in the field of sustainable chemicals - specifically in biomass-to-chemicals research.

October 7, 2013 Read more