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photo: Todd Woody In The New York Times on Wednesday, I wrote about floating solar farms: PETALUMA, Calif. — Solar panels have sprouted on countless rooftops, carports and fields in Northern California. Now, several start-up companies see potential for solar panels that float on water. Already, 144 solar panels sit atop pontoons moored on a [...]

photo: Todd Woody In The New York Times on April 12, I wrote about San Francisco International Airport’s new “green” terminal: SAN FRANCISCO — If the prospect of flying holds all the appeal of a cross-country bus trip, the $6,500, lipstick-red leather Egg chairs at San Francisco International Airport’s Terminal 2 are intended to return [...]

image: General Electric In Thursday’s New York Times, I write about General Electric’s bid to to become a major player in the U.S. solar industry: SAN FRANCISCO — In a move that could shake up the American solar industry, General Electric plans to announce on Thursday that it will build the nation’s largest photovoltaic panel [...]

photo: BrightSource Energy I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Some good news on the environmental front for a change: Global investment in green technology in the first quarter of the year spiked 52 percent compared to the previous quarter, to $2.57 billion. That’s according to a report released Tuesday by the [...]

photo: Todd Woody In The New York Times on Thursday, I wrote a follow-up to my story on efforts to reinvent the internal combustion engine: As I wrote in Thursday’s Times, several start-ups backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firms are developing a new type of internal combustion engine that promises a striking boost in [...]

I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. When it comes to the future of electric cars, as with other green technologies, the wild card is China. The People’s Republic has invested billions in renewable energy and has become a solar superpower in photovoltaic manufacturing. It’s also poised to one day potentially blow [...]

photo: Todd Woody In The New York Times on Thursday, I wrote about a slew of Silicon Valley-backed startups developing new kinds of internal combustion engines that are more fuel efficient and less polluting: BERKELEY, CALIF. – In this city where Toyota Priuses clog the roads and battery-powered Tesla Roadsters and Chevrolet Volts can be [...]

photo: Todd Woody I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. One of the biggest knocks against electric cars, other than their current range, is the rather steep upfront cost due to the price of the battery. Of course, you’re essentially pre-paying much of your fuel costs for the life of the car. [...]

photo: Todd Woody I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. As the first mass-market electric cars start to, slowly, hit the streets, the big question is whether battery-powered vehicles are the future or a fad. The answer won’t be known for years but a new report from GTM Research offers some interesting [...]

In The New York Times on Friday, I wrote about the organizers of California’s No on Proposition 23 campaign resurrecting their coalition to press for green energy policies in the Golden State and Washington: George P. Shultz, the Republican former secretary of state, and Thomas F. Steyer, the Democratic hedge fund billionaire, are reviving the [...]

I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Over the past year, a revolt against the rollout of utility Pacific Gas & Electric’s smart meters has swept through Northern California as some customers claimed the devices’ wireless transmission of electricity data was harming their health. In response, city councils in a number of [...]

photo: KB Home In The New York Times on Thursday, I wrote about a home builder installing solar arrays as standard equipment in new developments in Southern California: Among the standard features offered for new homes at Manzanita at Paseo del Sol, a KB Home development in a desert suburb southeast of Los Angeles, are [...]

I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Recession-wracked California is truly going down the toilet. For green energy, that is. In a gift to headline writers everywhere, the California Energy Commission on Wednesday handed out nearly $1 million to fund an experimental project to convert what it politely refers to as “biosolids” [...]

photo:  jfraser I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Where could you get 797 people to stand in line outside a nightclub to attend a $100-a-ticket fundraiser for a nonprofit that advocates for solar energy? Not-so-sunny San Francisco, of course. The queue to get into the Vote Solar Initiative annual spring equinox [...]

I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. By the third day of any conference, one’s eyes begin to glaze over. But Lisa Gansky provided an intellectual jolt on the final morning of the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco this week when she appeared on stage to talk about “the Mesh.” That’s what [...]

photo: CoolPlanetBiofuels In The New York Times on Thursday, I wrote about Google Ventures funding a Southern California startup that is developing mobile biofuel refineries that will travel to the fuel source to process agricultural waste and other biomass: Google Ventures has led a $20 million financing round in CoolPlanetBiofuels, a Southern California start-up that [...]

photo: San Luis Obispo County In The New York Times on Thursday, I wrote about a United States Department of Energy official affiming that loan guarantees for nuclear power projects would continue in the wake of the Japanese reactor disaster. He also said loans for a “significant” number of large renewable energy projects would be [...]

In The New York Times on Tuesday, I wrote about the strategy of San Francisco billionaire Tom Steyer, the leader of the campaign against Proposition 23 last year, to fight efforts to restrict the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions: Is Thomas F. Steyer the anti-Koch? For years, Mr. Steyer, a billionaire San Francisco [...]

photo: REC Solar I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. The United States solar businesses boomed, as usual, in 2010, growing 67 percent to $6 billion, according to an annual report released Thursday by an industry trade group. That’s been the story for the past several years, but what’s notable is that [...]

photo: Todd Woody I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. The California Legislature is moving to put into law a regulation requiring the state’s utilities to obtain a third of their electricity from renewable energy by 2020. But how did California’s three big investor-owned utilities do in meeting a previous mandate to [...]