Learn in Transportation, Solar Power and Efficiency
The Year in Green Innovation

In 2011, a Seattle nonprofit broke ground on the largest net-zero energy building in America, the president laid out a path to putting

Greenest Lightbulb Ever
The simplest way to start saving energy is to toss energy-sucking incandescent light bulbs. The best technology to replace them with?

Solar Boom
All through 2011, the price of solar panels zoomed downwards. California reached a solar milestone: The state has installed

May the Best Solar Panel Win
Solar innovators are still searching for the cheapest, most efficient solar technology. This year, they dreamed up

Alternative Jet Fuels Take Off
Airplanes use more fuel than most of us want to think about, but their carbon footprint is starting to shrink. The first commercial flights to use biofuel blends

Plug-in Hybrids
Toyota introduced the plug-in Prius, and Chevrolet pushed the Volt, an electric-gas hybrid. But, o

Liquid Batteries for EVs
Car companies promised that future charging stations will be able to fill up an electric vehicle in 10 minutes flat. But researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology came up with

Buildings That Eat Smog
Cover a building with a new type of aluminum panel, and a special coating will attract smog particles and break them down. Rai

Cloud-computing Home Heaters
Microsoft Research had an energy-saving pitch for homeowners: Why not install a computer server instead

Electric Biking
When this bike won the Oregon Manifest design challenge, it proved that even the most elite of cycling enthusiasts had decided to embrace

Slow Zones
New York City opened its first 20 mile-per-hour “slow zone,” which will make streets safer for pedestrians but also encou

Weak Hooks
Fishing fleets searching for yellowfin tuna and swordfish too often hook the overfished bluefin tuna. But when fishing boats use weak h
Pocket-Charging Cell Phone
Forget solar chargers. This concept phone sucks up energy from heat, which means that it can subsist off

Ecofriendly Guinness
You know that plastic ball that’s in your can of Guinness? (It creates the head of the beer.) It doesn’t need to be

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Alessandra Rizzotti commented about 14 hours ago
Alessandra Rizzotti commented about 14 hours ago