energy | The Ferris Files

The Weekly: Oil Spreads, Forest Are Spared, and Green Ideas Sprout

News and solutions of the week from the world of cleantech and sustainability. […]

The Weekly: The Gulf Threatens a New Victim, China Throws Money Into Wind

News and insights of the week from the world of cleantech and sustainability. […]

The Weekly: Oil Rigs, Electric Cars, and Google’s Curious Investment

This week: Are oil rigs a threatened species? Also, rain falls on the electric-car parade, and Google makes a curious investment. […]

The Weekly: Offshore Wind Wins, Offshore Oil Pollutes

Two Tales of Ocean Energy: Major events in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico laid out the U.S.’s energy choices in stark contrast. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill made landfall in Louisiana, a week after the offshore rig caught fire and sank. Oyster beds and wildlife are at risk, and the spill may grow to be one of the largest in U.S. history. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar gave the green light to the Cape Wind installation, the first offshore wind farm to be approved in U.S. waters. Its 130 turbines, projected to be up and running by 2012, will provide 75 percent of the electricity needed on Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket Sound. […]

The Weekly: UPS Hates Styrofoam, Prius Plans a Minivan

A roundup of the week’s news in sustainability and clean tech. […]

The Weekly: Light Bulbs that Last Forever, Glaciers that Don’t, Solar Planes that Try

This week’s cleantech and sustainability news from around the Matter Network. […]

The Weekly: Obama Drills, the Grid Lobby Powers Up, ConAgra Sees the Light

Top News: This week, President Obama startled both his allies and critics with a plan to permit drilling for oil off the Southern Atlantic states and in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile the Secret Service, in a stroke of karmic justice, denied the president’s request for a hybrid limo. […]

A Visit to India’s Largest Wind Plantation

At the southernmost tip of India lies the Muppandal Wind Farm, the biggest source of wind energy in India and one of the largest in Asia. I drove through it by accident a few days ago and and can report that Muppandal is as curious and multilayered as India itself. […]

How India Puts Itself on a Power Diet

On a recent trip to India, I came to understand one reason why India’s per-capita electricity consumption is 15 times less than that in the United States. […]

The Wind Turbine’s Tiny Cousin

Why is it that many solar panels are the size of a hallway rug, while a typical wind turbine is the size of an office building? I’ve always wondered whether we would ever learn to harvest wind on a smaller, simpler scale. Turns out we can. […]

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