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A first of its kind combination of experiment and simulation at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is providing a close-up look at the molecule that complicates next-generation biofuels.

It's not profits or the end of coal (they're pretty confident about both those things). Rather, it's a dwindling resource that you wouldn't expect. There are endless aspects of our energy economy to think about--including an aging power grid infrastructure, the lack of rare earth metals , the need to build more robust transmission lines, and so on

Google has poured hundreds of millions of bucks into clean power over the last few months. But their newest announcement isn't about utilities, it's about getting solar panels on as many houses as possible. Over the past few months, Google has become something of a clean energy superhero, making several investments, including a $168 million investment in California's Ivanpah solar farm and a $100 million investment in the world's biggest wind farm .

A new study from MIT says that natural gas is the key to keeping emissions down while we transfer to renewables.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Magnetic studies of ultrathin slabs of copper-oxide materials reveal that at very low temperatures, the thinnest, isolated layers lose their long-range magnetic order and instead behave like a "quantum spin liquid" - a state of matter where the orientations of electron spins fluctuate wildly. This unexpected discovery by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland may offer support for the idea that this novel condensed state of matter is a precursor to the emergence of high-temperature superconductivity - the ability to carry current with no resistance.

The irradiation of a metal surface with light or electrons can result in the formation of coherent electronic oscillations called surface plasmons, an effect ideal for applications such as optical communications on optoelectronic chips. Unfortunately, however, surface plasmons quickly lose their energy during transit, limiting their on-chip propagation distance. Jing Hua Teng at the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering and co-workers from Nankai University and Nanyang Technological University under the Singapore-China Joint Research Program have now developed nanoscale structures that are able to replenish as well as guide surface plasmons on chips

Clean power from the Earth used to use a lot of water. But a new discovery means that water can be replaced with CO2, which gets left in the ground and doesn't alter the climate

Vast newly discovered natural gas resources and the expectation that demand for the fuel will rise substantially in fast-growing economies are ushering in a "Golden Age of Gas," according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency. Ratcheting up its projections about natural gas consumption, an IEA report yesterday said gas's share of the global energy mix will surpass coal's in the next two decades and by 2035, gas demand will increase by more than 50 percent

Neutron analysis of the atomic dynamics behind thermal conductivity is helping scientists at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory gain a deeper understanding of how thermoelectric materials work. The analysis could spur the development of a broader range of products with the capability to transform heat to electricity.

Sunday, June 05 .p { float:left; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, serif; height:225px; margin-right:25px; margin-top:10px; width:178px; } #wrapper p { line-height:15px !important; font-size:14px !important; } #wrapper { position:; } The reputation of skyscrapers -- all that water use! CO2 emissions! -- is pretty dim. But these towering beauties prove that green doesn't have to mean unsightly

The Fast Company reader's essential source for breaking news and innovation from around the web--updated all day. MI6 Punks Al Qaeda With Cupcakes There's going to be a lot of frowns in the delicious smelling kitchens of

As the clean energy industry emerges from a challenging period caused by the global economic downturn, it is entering a stage of rapid change in which business models are being transformed against a backdrop of regulatory uncertainty. In several key sectors, the market is shifting back toward business structures and technologies that were once abandoned, but are now being revived

Is it possible to separate economic growth from environmental damage? President Obama's nomination today of Natural Resources Defense Council cofounder John Bryson as Commerce Secretary means we're trying. President Obama's nomination today of businessman and Natural Resources Defense Council cofounder John Bryson as Commerce Secretary is a refreshing sign for those who want economic growth and environmental protection to go hand in hand.

The creation of a new quasiparticle called the "hybrid plasmon polariton" may throw open the doors to integrated photonic circuits and optical computing for the 21st century. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have demonstrated the first true nanoscale waveguides for next generation on-chip optical communication systems.

(PhysOrg.com) -- The international ITER project is setting out to store the energy of stars in a reactor. To meet this challenge, scientists must be able to measure the properties of matter in fusion