Graphene Organic Photovoltaics: Flexible Material Only a Few Atoms Thick May Offer Cheap Solar Power

While graphene's existence has been known for decades, it has only been studied extensively since 2004 because of the difficulty of manufacturing it in high quality and in quantity.

clipped from www.sciencedaily.com A University of Southern California team has produced flexible transparent carbon atom films that the researchers say have great potential for a new breed of solar cells. Organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells have been proposed as a means to achieve low cost energy due to their ease of manufacture, light weight, and compatibility with flexible substrates," wrote Chongwu Zhou, a professor of electrical engineering in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, in a paper recently published in the journal ACS Nano.

Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Concern About Safety

clipped from www.nytimes.com A confidential survey of workers on the Deepwater Horizon in the weeks before the oil rig exploded showed that many of them were concerned about safety practices and feared reprisals if they reported mistakes or other problems. “This fear was seen to be driven by decisions made in Houston, rather than those made by rig based leaders,” the report said. “I’m petrified of dropping anything from heights not because I’m afraid of hurting anyone (the area is barriered off), but because I’m afraid of getting fired,” one worker wrote. “The company is always using fear tactics,” another worker said. “All these games and your mind gets tired.”

A Worried View of the Amazon From Within its Forest

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com Lou Gold, a longtime commenter who lives in the Brazilian portion of the Amazon basin, is an invaluable member of the worldwide Dot Earth community (people from more than 200 countries have visited the blog). He reacted strongly to my  recent cautiously upbeat statement — made while conducting  an onstage interview with a Brazilian ecologist — about prospects that the rain forests there could persist through this century even as human numbers and appetites crest. Gold posted a series of comments following the Amazon piece, and has consolidated them with a post on his blog,  Visionshare. You can read the full post below.

Your Own Tropical Island Made Out of Plastic Bottles (Video)

On a bad day you might be thinking to yourself, maybe I should do this.

This man has given up his job, family and possessions to build an island that floats on plastic bottles he’s found and used as buoys.

Natural Gas: The New King Of Electric Power

Boom and bust.

clipped from seekingalpha.com On March 24, 2008, Chesapeake Energy (CHK) announced a significant new natural gas discovery in the Haynesville Shale, setting off the ‘great shale land grab,’ natural gas production has grown nearly 14%, which is in sharp contrast to the flat performance of production in the decade before that. While gas production has enjoyed a significant uptick over the last few years, the same cannot be said for consumption.

Steve Cook on Gold

Good information.

clipped from allamericaninvestor.blogspot.com From Steve Cook at CJS Research The price of gold (GLD) traded down last week, touched the lower boundary of an up trend dating from October 2008 and then bounced. It looks like it will open down modestly this morning. All our Portfolios will Add to their GLD position at the Market open. This will bring the size of this position to approximately 9% in each Portfolio.

Night flight for solar plane -- HB-SIA carbon-fiber aircraft

Good slideshow.

clipped from www.reuters.com

Green Building Market to Surge by 2015

clipped from www.jetsongreen.com Over the next five years, according to a subscription report published by Environmental Leader, total United States green building market value is expected to increase from $71.1 billion to $173.5 billion.  The EL Insights report projects a compound annual growth rate of 19.5% in green building market value from 2010 through 2015.  American demand for green building products is expected to reach $80 billion by 2013, according to a separate report by the Freedonia Group, Inc.  The Freedonia report estimated an increase in demand of about 7.2% per year on average over five years.

"Climategate" Leak Report Vindicates Scientists

clipped from www.cbsnews.com An independent British report into the leak of hundreds of e-mails from one of the world's leading climate research centers has largely vindicated the scientists involved, a finding many in the field hope will calm the global uproar dubbed "Climategate." While Russell's report said there was no evidence to show Jones or any other scientist had subverted the peer-review process, it did revisit the now infamous e-mail exchange between Jones and a colleague in which the climatologist refers to a "trick" used to "hide the decline" in a variable used to track global temperatures.

Energy Needs of China’s Consumers Swamping Efficiency Gains

Already, in the last three years, China has shut down more than a thousand older coal-fired power plants that used technology of the sort still common in the United States. China has also surpassed the rest of the world as the biggest investor in wind turbines and other clean energy technology. And it has dictated tough new energy standards for lighting and gas mileage for cars.

clipped from dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com Keith Bradsher has filed an important story showing how the  energy demands of China’s emerging consumer class are overwhelming the central government’s efforts to cut industrial energy waste and blunt growth in carbon dioxide emissions. The article provides a closeup view of the demographic and economic forces that are destined to make Asia the dominant influence on the planetary greenhouse for decades to come, by almost every analysis.

Original content Bob DeMarco, the Photovoltaic Solar Power