Search: Environmental News, Renewable Energy

A group of UC Berkeley students will be competing in a national inventor's competition this fall with their ultra-affordable solar water heater - even if they lose, they may have already won. Their invention may end up improving the lives of millions of people all over developing countries.

Hosted by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), the zero-emission, globe-trotting Solar Taxi made a pit stop on campus Monday, July 14.

BERKELEY – Projects to help new mothers in Nigeria and orphans in Nepal, and to encourage bike sharing and energy efficiency in Berkeley, are among 50 student proposals receiving a total of $179,000 in the third annual "Bears Breaking Boundaries" competition at the University of California, Berkeley. "Cal students have fantastic ideas for enhancing the curriculum, improving the campus, and addressing major societal challenges such as climate change and global health," said Thomas Kalil, special assistant to the chancellor for science and technology and director of Big Ideas@Berkeley, a campus initiative which co-sponsors the student competition. "The contest is our version of 'American Idol' - it helps shine the spotlight on our most creative, energetic and entrepreneurial students." Also see Business Week Article:

BERKELEY – Some 250 of the world's leading climate and energy researchers, industry representatives and government leaders will convene on Thursday, June 19, in Copenhagen, Denmark, for an international research summit sponsored by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the Copenhagen Climate Council. The conference, "Unlocking the Climate Code: Innovation in Climate and Energy," aims to identify the critical research and development achievements necessary for a successful transition to a low carbon economy. Conference participants will present and debate relevant policy and business models that can support technology innovation in carbon emissions reduction. Nobel Laureate Steve Chu, who is a UC Berkeley physics professor, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and an outspoken advocate of research to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, will give the conference's keynote speech.

Senator Barack Obama Wednesday proposed that the federal government spend $150 billion over 10 years to promote alternative energy and create several million jobs. ...His words reverberated in Silicon Valley, which has been lobbying hard for more federal investment in clean-technology projects. As part of his plan, the Illinois Democrat pledged that, if president, he would invest $10 billion a year in creating what he called a “Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund.” Such a fund, he said, would help finance companies involved in the alternative energy sector.

WHAT if you could make fuel for your car in your backyard for less than you pay at the pump? Would you? The first question has driven Floyd S. Butterfield for more than two decades. Mr. Butterfield, 52, is something of a legend for people who make their own ethanol. In 1982, he won a California Department of Food and Agriculture contest for best design of an ethanol still, albeit one that he could not market profitably at the time. Now he thinks that he can, thanks to his partnership with the Silicon Valley entrepreneur Thomas J. Quinn. The two have started the E-Fuel Corporation, which soon will announce its home ethanol system, the E-Fuel 100 MicroFueler. It will be about as large as a stackable washer-dryer, sell for $9,995 and ship before year-end.

The United States may be late to the battle against global warming and the move toward energy independence but decisive action can still save the day, a Barack Obama adviser who was stumping for the Democratic presidential candidate in Oregon said Thursday. Daniel Kammen, senior policy adviser on energy and the environment, conducted town hall meetings in Eugene and Portland with a message balanced between fear and hope. On the one hand, the damaging effects of climate change; on the other, a raft of proposals that will cut carbon emissions, develop new sources of renewable fuels and clean technologies, and usher in an era of “green-collar” jobs. Kammen knows a thing or two about those issues. He’s a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in energy. He’s the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory that is affiliated with the university. And he’s a lead scientist with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, one of the groups that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore.

Biologists have long studied physical commonalities to infer ancestral relationships between animals. But the more distant the relationship, such as between humans and sponges, the trickier it is to establish connections through simple comparisons of anatomy. Dan Rokhsar, a Berkeley professor of both physics and molecular and cellular biology, and a faculty scientist at the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute, is sidestepping this problem via a different aspect of inheritance: genes. Recently, the skyrocketing price of petroleum and the threat of global climate change have turned Rokhsar's attention toward greener subjects: plants. Now, he is not only providing new insights into our genetic heritage but also clearing a path toward a cleaner, greener future.

The debate over solar power centers on the economic costs and benefits of rooftop solar home systems specifically, such as the 3,200-watt system on my family roof in Oakland, which meets our total annual electricity needs. The argument is that solar power mounted on individual family roofs typically costs 25¢ per kilowatt hour or more (and sometimes more than 40¢ per kWh) - far more than many other options to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions - and thus state and local solar photovoltaic subsidy plans are not the best use of scarce resources.