Wind Power Bumps Up Against Some Limits

by John Rubino on March 3, 2010

One of the raps against “big wind” is the “big” part. Because turbines become more efficient as they get taller, the newest models are skyscrapers — noisy skyscrapers. And this is limiting their usefulness on land. See this, from today’s Wall Street Journal:
The Brewing Tempest Over Wind Power
People living near turbines increasingly report sleep deprivation, [...]

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Fuel Cells: Suddenly Worth Watching

February 21, 2010

Fuel cells — which turn a fuel like hydrogen into electricity and water — have always been one of clean tech’s holy grails. Silent and non-polluting, they would, if they ever work economically, replace both internal combustion engines and coal-fired power plants. The problem is with the “economically” part: Fuel cells do work, but at [...]

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Is This Algae’s Year?

February 15, 2010

Next-generation biofuels are finally ready to deliver — or fail to deliver — on their massive hype. Pilot plants turning everything from forest waste to left over auto-making chemicals are either up and running or will be soon. So by year-end we’ll have a pretty good sense of which, if any, processes and feed-stocks are [...]

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