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Topic Page: Clean Tech
Bigger, better and faster doesn’t always have to mean more energy. PF Members offer their solutions on how technology can improve our lives AND have less impact on the planet. Have an idea in Clean Tech? Tell us
Related Categories : | Architecture | Business | Efficiency | Electric Cars | Engineering | Science |
Webisodes
How does YouTube Consumption Affect the Environment?
THIS WEEK: Have you ever wondered ‘What’s something I do everyday that impacts the environment and I don’t even know it?’ #Thinkfwd student Charles Pulliam-Moore sheds light on an idea you might never have thought of: how green is YouTube?
Empowerhouse: Community-Based Sustainable Living
THIS WEEK: How to turn a Solar Decathlon house into a home. GW students Melissa Turley and Jon Fenech followed Team Empowerhouse through the Solar Decathlon. Their innovation? Making it affordable enough to be a Habitat for Humanity home.
WATCH!
A Solar Conversation with Secretary Chu
THIS WEEK: In this week’s webisode, Planet Forward’s Frank Sesno interviews Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu at the 2011 Solar Decathlon! Chu talks about the coolest innovations, and even wonks out a bit on r-values and building materials.
SD2011 Trend: Green Roofs
Check out this week’s webisode where Planet Forward’s host Frank Sesno speaks with Don Ferrier of the National Association of Home Builders at the Solar Decathlon about the costs and benefits of green roofs.
Solar and the City – Team New York’s Solar Decathlon House
THIS WEEK’s WEBISODE: The Solar Decathlon teams are in Washington DC! Check out Team New York’s Roof Pod — it sits atop a sky rise building and helps generate power PLUS: Brendan Owens, Planet Forward’s newest Expert weighs in the use of new building materials.
WATCH!
Solar Decathlon – Tennessee’s on Top
Viewers voted and TENNESSEE is on top in the race for the Solar Decathlon! Check out the Tennessee team’s use of solar energy, insulated windows and a remote control iPad. Ask expert Bill Worthen what HIS thoughts are on the Tennessee team’s Living Light House.
WATCH!
DOE's Solar Decathlon Brings #SunnyIdeas to Planet Forward
This week, we begin Planet Forward’s coverage of the Solar Decathlon! 20 collegiate teams from around the world are designing and building sustainable solar homes. In this week’s WEBISODE, we take a look at the unique use of water in The University of Maryland‘s home.
WATCH!
Energy Pimp Your SUV – Make it More Cost-Effective than a Prius
In this week’s webisode, we take a look at a video submitted to us by Sewanee’s Eco-Auto Club. The students set out to take a 1998 Ford Explorer with 231,000 miles and transform it into a more energy efficient “Eco Explorer” vehicle. Would you do this to YOUR car? WATCH!
Wind Beneath Their Strings
Here is a new way to deliver energy to those who need it. The women in one small community in Guatemala have wind, they just need a way to harness it. Enter enthusiastic students from the University of Michigan College of Engineering.
Bringing Experts to the Innovators
Innovators need feedback to make their great ideas even better. So, we try to connect experts with our PF innovators every chance we get. In our WEBISODE this week, a top architect gives feedback to 3 ideas — green urban rooftops, hemp-based building materials and large-scale passive solar. Bill Worthen, the National Director and Resource …Read More…
Energy Secretary Bill Nye?
Planet Forward met up with Bill Nye at the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision Awards last week. See the first item on his #EnergyToDo list. Tell us yours on twitter. (@Planet_Forward)
Hertz’s EVs Charge Up Car Sharing
Who knew lessons from preschool could apply to smart communities and our energy solution?! Check out this new initiative in Washington DC that takes the concept of sharing to a whole new level. Would you ditch your ride for one of these shared EVs?
TV Segments
Filtering Dirty Water, By Losing the Filter
This week, tackling one of the great challenges of our time – water. The engineers at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) say they have the answer that could make it cheaper and less energy-intensive to clean water. It has no moving parts and no filter. Instead, it uses a vortex to separate the contaminants from …Read More…
Pursuing a Better, Lighter Battery
The Army Research Lab in Maryland is looking for new ways to make lithium iron batteries that weigh less, but last for long periods of time without recharging.
Creating Eco-Friendly Cement
Researchers at Drexel University are trying to lower cement’s carbon footprint by using technology of the past to build sidewalks the future.
Verdant Power: Harvesting Power From the Sea
Planet Forward’s Bloomberg West debut featured Verdant Power, an innovative company that is building underwater turbines to harness the power of the tides. See what challenges they face and tell us what you think!
Innovations at the Solar Decathlon
Planet Forward host Frank Sesno tours the Solar Decathlon with Don Ferrier, home builder and President of Ferrier Custom Homes. Take a look at some of the top innovations at the SD2011!
Solar Decathlon: The Race to Build the Most Efficient Solar Home
Peek into the solar powered house designs from Middlebury College in Vermont and University of Maryland. It’s all for the Solar Decathlon competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Demand Response: Enernoc Applies Social Media Tech to the Power Grid
Social networks have the power to link cultures across continents. See how energy demand response companies, such as Enernoc, wired their networks to fend off this summer’s heat waves, which scorched communities from New York to Texas.
Planet Forward Announcement: Innovators of the Year
It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for! Hundreds of submissions, thousands of votes, and now TWO Planet Forward Innovators of the Year! See Planet Forward host Frank Sesno, announce the winners on Nightly Business Report!
Home Energy Saving Device
Can researchers find an easy button that will get Americans to save energy? Some experts say we waste 40% of our energy in our homes. Could this be the gigantic energy reserve, hidden right under our doorsteps, that we need?
Planet Forward on Nightly Business Report: Will Infrastructure Charge the Electric Vehicle Movement?
It’s a chicken and egg problem: no place to charge, no reason to buy electric cars; no electric cars, no reason to build places to charge…one Planet Forward member shares an innovation that could change that.
Planet Forward on Nightly Business Report: Innovation at one of New York’s Iconic Structures
How many windows are in the Empire State Building? Watch our Nightly Business Report segment to find out and learn about the building’s innovation retrofit.
Behind the Scenes: Planet Forward’s New NBR Segment
This Thursday, Planet Forward member Danny Kennedy, will show you his idea on PBS’s Nightly Business Report. Check out this behind the scenes reel from our NBR shoots and don’t forget to set your DVRs to record Nightly Business Report this Thursday.
Articles From the Blog Related to Clean Tech
Aloha Alternative Energy
In the past week I was lucky enough to be asked to travel to Hawaii with a good friend of mine over spring break. It was my first trip to Hawaii and I was unsure of what was to come—I knew there would be beaches, surf and sun but what surprised me most when I …Read More…
Top Ten Highlights of Cleantech in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Ottawa is the primary capital of the country of Canada. It is located in the province of Ontario and is the second largest city in the entire province and the fourth largest city in all of Canada. It is located along the Ontario – Quebec border. It is home to places like Center Block on …Read More…
Steven Chu at ARPA-E: Let’s Make Breakthroughs
Written by Eric Vermeiren What do jet engines, computers, transistors, the internet, and the Global Positioning System (GPS) have in common? They all owe their existence to early stage investment by the U.S. Government. When it comes to emerging technologies and industries, very often the barriers to market entry can be prohibitively high for purely …Read More…
Solar: Does Size Matter?
A key issue for scaling up solar is where to put it: on every home or in huge arrays on the desert? Some businesses, like Sungevity, are trying to get solar panels on every home by breaking down the up-front cost barrier. They partner with financial institutions to spread the cost of going solar into …Read More…
Driving Innovation: Washington DC’s Auto Show
What will it take to get more electric vehicles on the road? Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon and James Wisemen of Toyota got a head start at that question at yesterday’s Policy Summit at the Washington DC Auto Show. It was the day after the President’s State of the Union address, where he reiterated his …Read More…
5 Ideas to Charge-up the Electric Car
Tesla Roasters might remain the sexiest EVs on the road, but what are Planet Forward members excited about? We list our top 5 ideas in electric cars.
Innovator Update: Solar is 100,000 strong and growing stronger!
Contrary to some of the media circus’ coverage, solar is doing great. Sungevity’s Danny Kennedy tells us why in this innovator update.
Initiating Innovation at the Solar Decathlon and EPA P3
The 2011 Solar Decathlon officially ended on October 2nd when director Richard King sent a warm thank you to everyone involved. But the Solar Decathlon happens every two years, and King ended his thank you like a starter cuing off a race. “I can’t wait to do this again!” he wrote with refreshing sincerity and energy.
But it’s true, we all can’t wait to do it all over again. But, what’s next? Why do government agencies take on competitions like these? PF’s Anthony Cefali takes a look>>
A Window Into Efficiency
Every year, I spend countless hours putting those plastic sheets over my windows for insulation. The bigger the window, the bigger the pane in the glass, the more time I spend and the more energy I lose to the winter. We often neglect insulation when it comes to energy expenditures because it only lowers heating …Read More…
Dispirited Animals
John Maynard Keynes, a giant in modern economic theory, famously wrote that “Most, probably, of our decisions to do something positive, the full consequences of which will be drawn out over many days to come, can only be taken as the result of animal spirits…” This notion, laid out in his seminal book The General …Read More…
Briquettes From Boulder
Last friday I attended the 2011 Open Minds exhibition at the National American History Museum. The exhibition featured inventive work from the best student teams across the nation. There were solar sanitation systems from the Georgia Institute of Technology, portable showers from the Art Center College of Design, a rickshaw bank from MIT and many …Read More…
Obama Calls for Green Fleet, Reduction of Oil Imports
Facing some of the most intractable foreign policy situations of his term, President Barack Obama is looking inward. In a major speech on March 30th, Obama outlined his plan to reduce oil imports by a third over the next decade and a half while transitioning the federal government to an all-alternative-fuel vehicle fleet by 2014. …Read More…
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