http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that his administration plans to spend $3.4 billion on producing a safer, more efficient electrical grid. Obama underscored the need to find clean forms of energy by making his announcement at a solar energy facility in Arcadia, Fla. http://phys.org/news176060337.html Technology Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:50:02 EST news176060337 President Barack Obama Tuesday announced the largest modernization of the US electricity grid in history, in a 3.4-billion-dollar bid to launch a new era of renewable energy consumption. http://phys.org/news175870357.html Technology Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:53:45 EST news175870357 (AP) -- Greg Bove steps into his pickup truck and drives down a sandy path to where the future of Florida's renewable energy plans begin: Acres of open land filled with solar panels that will soon power thousands of homes and business. http://phys.org/news175584369.html Technology Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:26:50 EST news175584369 Driven by fluctuations in oil prices, and seduced by the prospect of easing climate change, experts are ramping up efforts to squeeze fuel out of a promising new organism: pond scum. http://phys.org/news175412299.html Biology Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:39:23 EST news175412299 BrightSource Energy has encountered some storm clouds in its quest to bring a solar future to large stretches of the western United States. The Oakland, Calif.,-based developer of solar farms has been forced to scuttle its plans to build a solar energy plant in the Broadwell Dry Lake area of California's Mojave Desert. http://phys.org/news173461215.html Technology Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:30:01 EST news173461215 The US government has spent more than one billion dollars on private sector renewable energy projects from the massive economic stimulus program passed seven months ago, officials said Tuesday. http://phys.org/news172847175.html Technology Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:10:01 EST news172847175 China's hydropower capacity is expected to nearly double to 300,000 megawatts by 2020, state media said, as the nation powers ahead with the development of renewable energy sources. http://phys.org/news172672649.html Technology Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:50:01 EST news172672649 Scientists from the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth are today calling for urgent research to understand the impact of renewable energy developments on marine life. The study, now published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, highlights potential environmental benefits and threats resulting from marine renewable energy, such as off-shore wind farms and wave and tidal energy conversion devices. http://phys.org/news172401061.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:30:03 EST news172401061 The German government on Wednesday agreed a plan to set aside special zones off its northern coast for a host of wind farms that could provide energy for more than eight million homes. http://phys.org/news172327916.html Technology Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:20:02 EST news172327916 The U.S. and China should be able to agree on energy cooperation projects that reduce greenhouse gases and lead to a successful outcome at international climate talks in Copenhagen in December, two U.S. climate insiders said Tuesday. http://phys.org/news172257704.html Space & Earth Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:10:02 EST news172257704 (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to sign an executive order requiring California utilities to get a third of their energy come from renewable sources by 2020. http://phys.org/news172248299.html Technology Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:45:26 EST news172248299 (AP) -- Administration officials say Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is moving ahead with plans to sign an executive order establishing the most aggressive renewable energy standard in the nation. http://phys.org/news172163870.html Technology Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:40:16 EST news172163870 Fusion is best known for powering the sun and stars. But researchers have long been studying ways to transform that power source into future "green" energy that can be used on Earth. A team of researchers from UC San Diego, MIT and UC Berkeley have received a $7 million research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) that could lead us one step closer to making that a reality. The researchers will use the five-year grant for fundamental multiscale studies of plasma-material interactions. http://phys.org/news172162391.html Physics Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:53:34 EST news172162391 (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office said Saturday that he would veto legislation requiring a third of California's energy to come from renewable sources by 2020, choosing instead to mandate the change through an executive order. http://phys.org/news172073284.html Technology Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:20:01 EST news172073284 (PhysOrg.com) -- In half a century, one fungus has gone from being the bane of the Army quartermasters' existence in the Pacific to industry staple and someday, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy's mission to promote national energy security through clean, renewable energy development, a biofuel producers' best friend. http://phys.org/news171126154.html Biology Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:20:03 EST news171126154 (PhysOrg.com) -- The U.S. will need to expand and modernize its outdated power transmission grid to incorporate more renewable energy sources, but balkanized ownership and regulation are going to make that process slow and difficult, according to a new Duke University analysis. http://phys.org/news170955192.html Technology Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:34:33 EST news170955192 (PhysOrg.com) -- As the world's oil supply continues to dry out every day, the question of what will replace oil and other fossil fuels is becoming more and more urgent. According to the World Coal Institute, at the present rate of consumption, coal will run out in 130 years, natural gas in 60 years, and oil in 42 years. Around the world, researchers are investigating alternative energy technologies with encouraging progress - but the question still remains: which source(s) will prove to be most efficient and sustainable in 30, 50, or 100 years from now? http://phys.org/news170326193.html Technology Mon, 24 Aug 2009 09:50:47 EST news170326193 Germany's largest solar park, and the world's second biggest, was inaugurated on Thursday on the site of a former Soviet military training ground in the east of the country. http://phys.org/news169993976.html Technology Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:33:50 EST news169993976 German firms Solar Millennium AG and MAN Ferrostaal AG on Monday said they formed a joint venture to build up to three utility-scale plants in Southern California at a cost about $1 billion each. http://phys.org/news169838636.html Technology Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:30:02 EST news169838636 Expansion of renewable energies should appreciably improve the health status of the 700,000 US workers employed in the energy sector, according to a commentary by Medical College of Wisconsin researchers, in Milwaukee. Their review is published in the August 19, 2009, issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://phys.org/news169831712.html Medicine & Health Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:29:04 EST news169831712 Germany's solar power industry, until recently the world leader in the technology, is facing an unprecedented crisis, analysts say, outshone by cheaper competitors from Asia, most notably Chinese firms. http://phys.org/news169792072.html Technology Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:20:01 EST news169792072 Australia on Thursday passed a clean energy law requiring the country to produce 20 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020 in move that could draw billions of dollars of green investment. http://phys.org/news169791944.html Space & Earth Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:00:01 EST news169791944 The first certified winner of the UC Davis "Western Cooling Challenge" is Coolerado Corp. of Denver. Recent federal tests showed that their five-ton commercial rooftop unit should be able to air-condition a typical big-box store with less than half the energy needed by conventional cooling units. http://phys.org/news169472124.html Technology Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:10:01 EST news169472124 Mine shafts on the point of being closed down could be used to provide geothermal energy to local towns. This is the conclusion of two engineers from the University of Oviedo, whose research is being published this month in the journal Renewable Energy. The method they have developed makes it possible to estimate the amount of heat that a tunnel could potentially provide. http://phys.org/news167913013.html Technology Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:50:01 EST news167913013 The world's first piloted aircraft capable of taking to the air using only power from fuel cells took off in Germany Tuesday, producing zero carbon dioxide emissions, its makers said. http://phys.org/news166191289.html Technology Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:15:33 EST news166191289 Advanced composite materials are playing a vital role in improved design and reduced operating costs for renewable energy technologies. Research presented today will highlight how wind, marine and solar power could address these challenges within the renewable energy industry. http://phys.org/news165567084.html Technology Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:10:01 EST news165567084 General Electric announced plans Friday to open an "advanced manufacturing technology and software center" in Michigan that could create more than 1,100 job in the coming years. http://phys.org/news165254473.html Technology Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:01:38 EST news165254473 A new plant that produces gas from wood was opened in Austria on Wednesday, paving the way towards new possibilities in renewable energy. http://phys.org/news165084883.html Technology Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:30:02 EST news165084883 Germany is one of the leading countries when it comes to efforts related to renewable energy sources. Therefore, it is no surprise that the Institute of Condensed Matter and Solid State Optics at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in Jena, Germany, is a place where scientists are hard at work looking for ways to improve current solar cell technology. http://phys.org/news164035942.html Nanotechnology Fri, 12 Jun 2009 14:32:52 EST news164035942 Cleantech is becoming increasingly popular as an industry. Cleantech companies are those that focus their efforts around innovations associated with environmental sustainability. http://phys.org/news163864763.html Other Sciences Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:00:01 EST news163864763