A new solar laser could be instrumental in the quest to use magnesium as a source of energy.

Quoted: From MIT. Information on Emerging Technologies & impact on business & society

Renewable does not mean green. That is the claim of Jesse Ausubel of the Rockefeller University in New York. Writing in Inderscience's International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology, Ausubel explains that building enough wind farms, damming enough rivers, and growing enough biomass to meet global energy demands will wreck the environment.

Over at The Oil Drum Robert Rapier argues biomass energy has a very limited role to play as compared to solar photovoltaics.

The fundamental problem here is that photosynthesis is not very efficient. Consider the rapeseed oil yield above. Gilgamesh made a table that is basically the solar capture/conversion to oil from various crops. The gist is that only a few hundredths of a percent of the incoming solar energy gets converted into liquid fuels. Of course some did get converted into other biomass, which could be otherwise used for energy, but generally we get a very low capture of the sun's energy for use as liquid fuels. (This exercise can still be proven by assuming the theoretical limit for photosynthesis. One must just make more assumptions and it is not as easy to follow for a general audience).

This installation is projected to produce enough electricity for approximately 1,000 California homes or 30% of Google's peak electricity demand in our solar powered buildings at our Mountain View, CA headquarters.

We built this page to monitor and share the day to day production of clean, renewable energy from our very own rooftops. Keep checking in to see how we're doing. We think the future looks bright!

Quoted: The official site for Tesla Motors, makers of the Tesla Roadster, the high-performance electric sports car. Includes performance, engineering, styling, and purchasing information.

Quoted: The latest alternative and renewable energy news headlines, syndicated by rss from a variety of clean energy news sources.

The Network for New Energy Choices (NNEC) is committed to providing local governments with ideas and information to generate clean, affordable power from local, renewable energy sources. With over $400 billion in annual procurements, state and local governments are in the best position to jump-start a new clean energy economy. Working with a growing coalition of nonprofit groups, municipal officials, business leaders and academics NNEC is promoting creative and objective ideas for financing community-based clean energy, helping to dispel misinformation about renewable energy in the media and advocating for critical utility policy reforms that will usher in a new world of energy choices for all Americans.

Concentrated solar power (CSP) is one of the simplest potential solutions to our shared energy crisis. It works by, surprisingly, concentrating solar energy using mirrors, which heat up a solvent, which then powers turbines or stores the heat produced in molten salts for later use.