Algae biofuel maker Solazyme said today that its microbial-derived jet fuel has passed inspection with flying colors. The South San Francisco-based startup had its algal-derived aviation fuel studied by the Southwest Research Institute, a fuel analysis lab, and it passed the American Society for Testing and Materials protocol, the first algae-based fuel to do so, according to the company.
A key European Parliament committee approved a plan that allows the use of electricity and hydrogen to meet the fuel target. It also voted to include the shipping industry in the EU’s carbon-trading program.
The venture would be LG’s first move into solar-panel manufacturing, and could be a boost for Conergy to meet investors expectations.
The Spanish wind-energy giant said it would buy the utility for $4.5 billion in cash and $3.8 billion in debt.
The company expects to be the first to ship customers thin-film panels made using Applied Materials’ prefabricated thin-film line.
Making air conditioners more energy efficient through the use of semiconductor-based valves would not only reduce the average air conditioning bill by some 20 to 30 percent, but would save the equivalent of 1.2 billion barrels of oil annually. That’s according to the Microstaq team, which are showing off their tiny valves at the Demo conference this week. And like the new “Harry Potter” movie, such energy-saving air conditioners will hit the market in the summer of next year.
The New Zealand company Aquaflow Binomics, which is looking to be the first company in the world to economically produce biofuel from wild algae harvested from open-air environments, said on Wednesday that it has produced the first samples of its “green crude.” The bio-crude can lead to fuels similar to diesel and jet fuel, that can “literally be ‘dropped into’ the existing petroleum fuels infrastructure,” said Aquaflow chairman, Barrie Leay in a statement.
Web site The Car Connection on Tuesday managed to get its digital hands on photos of the what is said to be the production version of the Chevy Volt, the much-ballyhooed plug-in hybrid from General Motors.
Cellulosic biofuel startup Range Fuels is getting ready to reap what it has sown with its biomass feedstock partner Ceres, an energy crop company. Range Fuels announced the partnership for a multi-year test of commercial varieties of switchgrass and high-biomass sorghum planted near its Soperton Plant site in Georgia.
Green Energy Options, a Cambridge, England-based energy monitoring company, has received a £250,000 ($447,287) investment through the Thames Valley Investment Network as part of an £800,000 funding round.
