T. Boone Pickens

I’ve been watching Pickens with a high degree of curiosity as he pitches his energy plan. On one hand I see a guy worth $4b that isn’t in this for the money, yet I haven’t seen too many billionaires that were not always looking for a 45 degree angle on a deal. I was therefore […]

Obama and McCain on Electric Cars

Interesting analysis on the candidates proposals for alternative energy and vehicles.

PM’s Geek the Vote series takes an in-depth look at the presidential candidates’ policies and positions on science and technology. In this installment, car-tech experts evaluate the stances of Senators John McCain and Barack Obama on America’s future electric vehicles, including funding for […]

A123 Systems IPO

I long ago stopped watching IPOs but A123 Systems is going to be one to watch. The company makes advanced lithium ion batteries that are primarily targeted to the transportation market and as you can imagine this has been a hot growth market. A123 alone went from less than $1m in revenue in 2005 to […]

Zigbee and Smart Appliances

I hadn’t written about Zigbee is so long I had to go back to my old blog to search for it. I remain pretty bullish on this category of technology but am pragmatic about medium term results for several reasons.

Commercial power users have a lot of incentives to retrofit facilities with energy saving technology and […]

LEDs, the Green Option Even if They Are Blue

For all the talk about the lowly light bulb being a primary front in the ongoing journey to becoming green, the fact is that there are few good options to replace the incandescent when it comes to light quality, cost, and environmental impact.

I have a few CFLs in the Nolan household but I simply don’t […]

Cleaner Jet Engines

This is great news. Technology people like to point to clean tech solutions that are literally decades away from mass market because they are the more intellectually interesting problems to tackle. Environmental zealots think the government should just start banning anything that emits exhaust, throwing us back to the Neolithic period somewhere between the Copper […]

Kalex Systems, Turning Waste Heat into Power

I met the CEO of a Kalex Systems recently, really neat guy with a fascinating company. The company’s technology is based on the Kalina Cycle, a method for recovering heat and converting it into mechanical power. I get excited about technologies like this because so much of the available energy at our disposal is thrown […]

LED Lighting

I like home LED lighting but only for very specific applications, like counter lighting and for cabinets. The diffusion and color temperature of these lights is odd and they don’t get better as they warm up, like CFLs do. While this development is welcome, the chief business development guy just gave me an excuse to […]

T.J. on Cleantech

T.J. Rodgers remains far too sane to be talking about public policy, clean tech, and energy policy.

T. J. Rodgers discusses the promise and pitfalls of the most popular alternative-energy sources (other than solar). Ethanol? Rodgers says it’s a “total waste.” However, bioengineering and genetic engineering that address the entire corn plant, rather than […]

India’s Tata backs air-power car

This is actually a pretty promising technology. I don’t know too much about the inner workings but one factor that is key to the viability of this system is they have dramatically reduced the weight of the vehicle, which means look for it in compact offerings predominately. For the developing world this should be a […]

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