EnvironmentLA - The City's official site for information about projects and programs that are making Los Angeles more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power - LADWP offers environmental Green LA programs, including Trees for a Green LA, Energy Efficiency for a Green LA, Solar Energy for a Green LA, Electric Vehicles for a Green LA, Green Power for a Green LA, Recycling for a Green LA and Educational Services for a Green LA.
Green LA Action Plan - The City's official plan to improve energy conservation, transition to renewable power sources, and change the ways citizens commute to work and school.
US Green Building Council-LA - A resource for agencies, municipalities, professionals and companies interested in sustainable, green buildings.
(HONOLULU) – Hawaii has found a new place in the sun. With a local in the White House and clean-energy tech booming, this sunny, windy island state is blossoming into an exotic garden of alternative power innovation with nearly $1 billion in clean energy projects underway. The aggressive new initiatives are driven by history and necessity.
Necessity, because Hawaii gets 90 percent of its energy from imported oil, while its isolation makes it vulnerable to frequent power outages (no neighbors to send in reserves – until wave power is tapped). Not-so-distant history, because native Hawaiian culture is rooted in respect for nature, a vibe that resonates “take no more than is needed and squander nothing that is taken”.
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The latest generation of workers in clean technology jobs aren’t all engineers, tech experts and scientists. They aren’t all in Silicon Valley – some are from Detroit or Gary, Ind.
They may come from community colleges or be fresh out of high school.
Before the recession put a stranglehold on most every investment, clean technology was hot. Nearly 80 percent of all the venture capital spent in 2008 went to clean, green investments. The industries slumped for much of 2009, but now investors are returning to clean industries.
Regular Americans are curious about these clean tech companies, too, and they’re asking their financial advisers about them, according to one survey.
What is clean tech? It refers to technologies made without generating significant pollution, which produce products that can replace non-renewable energy sources, like oil, and make us more energy-efficient. Think solar cells and wind-generated power, hybrid or electric cars, green buildings, desalinated water and a “smart grid” that will help businesses and home owners to connect with new sources of power, like wind farms and giant desert photovoltaic installation
Camelina sativa, a member of the mustard family, is an oilseed crop that is proving to have a great industrial potential in the near future. Studied throughout the entire process, from planting to plane, Camelina has shown to be one of the more promising alternatives to petroleum jet fuel, according to a study done at Michigan Technological University.
Solano County, Calif., is getting its first bio-fuel station with the opening Thursday at Plaza Oliver Valero in Fairfield. The station will have two renewable biofuels, E85 ethanol and B5 biodiesel, which are considered cleaner burning and less expensive than comparable gasoline and diesel fuels.
Biofuels are fuels made at least partially from renewable biological sources such as corn, soybeans, or vegetable oil. E85 ethanol and B5 biodiesel are both low carbon fuels consistent with California’s new Low Carbon Fuel Standard and both are clean burning fuels that result in lower Greenhouse Gas vehicle exhaust emissions. Many current vehicles are capable of operating on less expensive, cleaner burning E85 ethanol and B5 biodiesel with no modification.
The friendly skies are getting cleaner thanks to efforts made by Continental Airlines in partnership with Boeing, GE Aviation/CFM International, and Honeywell’s UOP. In early January of this year, Continental Airlines conducted the first biofuel demonstration flight by a commercial carrier in North American. Wednesday, Continental Airlines announced their analysis of this flight in a statement.
The 90-minute test flight, taking off from, and then returning to, Houston, successfully completed many necessary flight operations. Engine 1 operated on 100% jet fuel, while Engine 2 of the Boeing 737-800 operated on a blend of 50% jet fuel and 50% biofuel. The biofuel was made from a combination of algae and jatropha plants, which do not impact food harvests, water resources or contribute to deforestation.
Solazyme Inc., a Bay Area algal fuel company, has won the San Francisco Business Times’ Bay Area Green Business Award for Renewable Energy Fuels.
The awards, presented June 11, recognize the Bay Area’s clean technology companies. A panel of area experts judged more than 200 nominations in 14 categories. Judging took three months.
“The San Francisco Bay Area is the heart of Green Technology innovation, we are proud to be selected for this honor, recognizing the work we’ve done in bringing renewable oil production and algal fuel to commercialization,” said Jonathan Wolfson, chief executive officer of Solazyme, in a statement. “This award further demonstrates the importance of our technology and research and recognizes our position in the industry during this critical time for our environment and for energy security.”
SAN FRANCISCO — You’ve probably heard of wheels powered by biodiesel, favored by indie rock bands, gardeners, and other greenies who want to save the world, one tank of used cooking oil at a time. These veggie-fuel fanatics can pull their trucks up to the local burger joint and haul away excess deep-fryer fat, which they take home and convert to usable fuel. But did you know scientists in university research labs and start up companies are using precision, high-tech gene splicing technology to figure out how to mass-produce biofuel from pond scum?
One such algae pioneer is Harrison Dillon, president and chief technical officer of South San Francisco renewable energy startup company Solazyme, Inc. Dillon, a PhD geneticist with training in patent law on the side, is leading his team of highly-skilled technicians to discover, and create, conditions under which algae will produce oil for food, cosmetics and fuel.
The first stop on my Solazyme tour was the parking lot for a ride in the company’s biodiesel-powered Jeep.
Solazyme, Inc. is a renewable oil production company and leader in algal synthetic biology
The company uses microalgae to renewably produce clean and scalable high performance biofuels, industrial chemicals and health and wellness products
Solazyme grows algae in the dark, and feeds it agricultural and industrial waste products that it uses to produce oil. Algae is incredibly feedstock flexible and because it has developed over millions of years to survive in harsh conditions it can eat just about anything and make oil
The oils produced can be used as replacements for fossil petroleum and plant oils in a diverse range of products running from green household cleaning supplies to cosmetics and foods
Commuters who place their alternative-auto hopes on biofuels but are frustrated by the fuels’ limited availability may soon have a new option: skipping the hunt for a local filling station and instead using a pump of your own.
The E-Fuel Corporation is well underway in pre-marketing efforts for a large appliance that could sit near your house or in the garage and, with the press of a button and the addition of a “feedstock” composed of table sugar and ethanol yeast mix, brew up your own ethanol. The cost has been quoted as somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 per gallon, though the machine itself lists for ten grand (or about seven thousand dollars after federal tax credits).
Corn-based ethanol, once a star on the alternative energy scene, has fallen from favor in the past year, battered by reports that raising corn for fuel raids the world’s pantry and that corn ethanol has a heavier carbon footprint than originally thought.
Many now argue over whether the US should continue to grow corn for fuel or make the switch to grasses that can be grown on less desirable land, with fewer pesticides and fertilizers, or use plant waste to make fuel.
Now a new debate looms: Should the US allow genetically altered corn to be grown for use as biofuel?
The Union of Concerned Scientists wants to stop that genie before it leaves the bottle, because it believes that genetically modified corn will inevitably mix with and contaminate corn grown for food products.
The first commercial air test flights using biofuels took to the sky earlier this month: First Air New Zealand, then Continental Airlines in Houston gave us a glimpse of a greener way to fly. Next up: Japanese Airline, JAL has announced a demonstration flight using a Boeing 747-300 powered by biofuel set for Jan. 30 in Tokyo.
Jennifer Holmgren is General Manager of Renewable Energy & Chemicals for Honeywell’s UOP, a refining technology developer which partnered with Continental on its landmark project. One week later, she was a keynote speaker at Petrotech 2009, an international oil and gas conference hosted by the Indian government, on the topic of emerging technologies (the conference ends Thursday).
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