What if a wind turbine didn’t have a gearbox and electric generator in the nacelle, but instead a highly efficient air pump that sent compressed air down a pipe and into a storage network?  That is the vision of General Compression, a privately held Massachussetts company that raised $8.1 million from 70 investors in April [...]

A company that is quietly competing to possibly become the biggest manufacturer of thin film photovoltaics on earth is Optisolar, headquartered in Hayward, California.  Optisolar already has a manufacturing plant at their Hayward headquarters, and has just signed a lease to construct a 600,000 square foot manufacturing plant in Sacramento, California.  (ref. Sacramento Housing & [...]

While we appear tantalizingly close to having all-electric and extended range electric vehicles (EREVs) on the road very, very soon, thanks to advances in lithium ion batteries, how close are we to having utility scale electrical storage?  Since the storage capacity of EV batteries range from 10+ kWh (for EREVs) to 50+ kWh for all electric EVs, clearly there [...]

Solar thermal power is considered an important step towards developing large scale sources of clean electricity, but within this sector there are some very distinct applications of the technology.  Bright Source Energy, with offices in Oakland, California, and Tel Aviv, Israel, is building next generation “power tower” solar thermal power plants.

The power tower.
(Photo: Bright Source Energy)

The stated advantages of [...]

Believe it or not, with hundreds upon hundreds of entries - most of them lengthy diatribes filled with quantitative factoids - we have never posted a press release.  Well everything comes in good time, and this is an interesting press release.  Heat transfer and heat storage fluid indeed!  This is the missing link, the central point, [...]

According to SolarBuzz.com, solar modules of 125 watts (peak) or higher are selling for about $4.80 per watt.  To make a long story short, that price is still way too expensive to compete with regular utility-produced electricity.  If you want to install a photovoltaic system on your home or business, expect a price tag, after labor and [...]

In 2004, in mid-career, already having grown and sold two companies, and after an extensive investigation into the energy-related applications of nanotechnology, Matt Trevithick joined the Venrock team.  Venrock was started in the 1930’s by Laurance Rockefeller, with their first big hit being an investment in McDonnell Aircraft Company.  Since then, Venrock has scored again and again, making [...]