In a truly staggering breakthrough in LED intensity that will have wide ramifications on electricity use worldwide, the Finnish LED producer Obelux has developed by far the most powerful white flashing LED of all time.

In response to aviation industry requests, Obelux created a flashing High Intensity LED that delivers 200,000 candelas. Current technology delivers just 10 candelas. This marks an incredible 20,000-fold improvement on the old Xenon technology.

These will be installed on over 150 meter tall buildings and masts, replacing the flashing red aviation obstacle lights that are currently in place on masts and tall buildings to warn airplanes. Boosting brightness even further, they will be in groups of three, so that each can deliver 600,000 candelas.

Energy consumption? Just 350 watts!

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In the first emissions trading to be introduced outside of Europe, the New Zealand government has just launched a cap and trade system to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 10 and 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, UPI is reporting.

New Zealand imports most of its oil, but nearly half of the emissions are agricultural, due to the volume of exports from the isolated nation, and they have increased by 25 percent over the last 20 years.

Its nearest neighbor is Australia, but much of its trading is much further away, with the EU. New Zealand has long been a land of sheep farmers, and with an economy of only 4 some million people, has a very high carbon footprint in shipping its products to customers far overseas. When you factor in the carbon footprint of ocean transport, not just exporting, but also, importing, New Zealand is actually not as green as its reputation.

And now, with oil giants like Petrobras nosing around the island nation for an off-shore killing, the announcement is timely.

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In a last-minute race to the finish-line, the CEC has approved a staggering 2,800 MW (or 3 GW) of solar projects this month in California.

Among them are Tessera Solar’s 709 MW Imperial Valley Solar project in Imperial County (scaled down from 750 MW, by BLM request) and NextEra Energy’s 250 MW Beacon Solar Energy Project, the first large-scale solar-thermal power projects permitted in California in two decades.

During the same time, only one 760 MW fossil plant was approved: Mirant Corp.’s 760-MW Marsh Landing Generating Station.

This ratio of clean energy approvals to dirty energy approvals reverses the pattern over the last ten years.

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Are electric cars less catastrophic for our future climate than gasoline cars? Well, duh. But, here’s another study carefully poring over the evidence and showing it to be the case. At least for Europe.

A team of Empa scientists made a detailed life cycle assessment of the current state of the art lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries used in electric vehicles, and published it in the scientific journal “Environmental Science & Technology.” 

Comparing not just the energy sources of gasoline-powered versus electric-powered cars, but also comparing an exhaustively detailed full life-cycle analysis of every step to make a battery versus a combustion engine: what did the researchers find?

The EV is the cleaner way to go.

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The increasing desertification of the planet due to climate change is a serious threat to future humans,  so technology that can create water in deserts is arguably one of the more critical technologies that we need to master.

Wacky ideas that purport to solve serious climate issues are a dime a dozen, but ones that have actually proven themselves – by actually working in the real world – are welcome news.

At two years into successful operation on the largely arid Arabian peninsula, the “fog catcher” is such a concept.

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In a complete reversal of the usual pattern, where water temperatures are generally cooler than land temperatures, for the second year running, the ocean was actually hotter than land in some regions, marking another ominous sign of the strange and unpredictable effects of continued global warming.

After last years records, Deke Arndt, head of climate monitoring at the climate data center said that the pattern is so unusual that meteorologists may want to study that pattern to see what’s behind it.

Sea temperatures are much harder to change than air temperatures, as anyone trying to warm a swimming pool can attest. It takes five times the heat energy to warm water than air.

Despite the difficulty of raising water temperatures, in Indonesia this May for example, ocean water measuring 93 degrees was extraordinarily anomalous: measuring 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.

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The ever-increasing bounty of agriculture has been with us as long as I can remember, but it may have finally hit the dreaded Peak, according to a new study published in CropScience by Robert Graybosch, a geneticist at the University of Nebraska and James Patterson, a geneticist at Oregon State University.

Genetic improvements have increased wheat yields about 1% each year since the late ’50s. But in 1984, several scientists noticed that the average yield improvement seemed to have slowed, in a sign that genetic gain was plateauing.

Graybosch and Patterson then went back in and made a more detailed study, carefully analyzing the last 50 years of data collected by the Department of Agriculture. They found that ever since the early ’80s, genetic gain has continued to steadily drop. And now it appears to have come to a halt.

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For the last 20 years, Republican Senators have been held to single standard of climate denial by the fossil industry which sends them there. But Republican Governors were left alone.

Thus California’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been synonymous with active support for clean energy. Likewise, Florida’s Republican Governor Charlie Crist who flouted Republican dogma with innovative clean energy policies, was a true independent – although, now as a Senate candidate, he’s had to run as one, literally.

But in what may be a harbinger of doom for state level climate and clean energy policies, it appears that the stupid has gotten into Republican Gubernatorial candidates now too.

Wonk Room is reporting that all 4 Republican candidates for Governor of New Mexico are in climate denial. They sound just like Republican Senators.

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According to a study unveiled today by Energy Secretary Chu and VP Joe Biden, the US is on-track to achieve the three major renewable energy  goals that the Energy Department set out to achieve with the $90 billion in Recovery Act investments in science, technology and innovation projects across the country.

1. Make solar power as cheap as dirty energy by 2015
2. Make electric vehicles as cheap as gas ones by 2015
3. Double US renewable energy generation and manufacturing by 2012

All three goals are on track.

The Recovery Act funding for renewable energy will probably go down in history as truly changing America. Only three Senate Republicans crossed the line to vote with the Democrats to pass it. Collins and Snowe survived the wrath of Republican voters – in 55% renewably powered Maine. Arlen Specter didn’t. He will be gone in January, but he has a lot to be proud of in standing up to the Party of No on renewable energy.

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According to a letter sent to the US Department of Energy by Gregory Friedman, the Inspector General, there is some risk that $3.4 billion in American  Recovery Act (ARRA) funds may not get allocated in time to meet the September 30th deadline, which is the “use it or lose it” date. While 90% of the ARRA funds were spent on clean energy,  the remaining funds might not make it.

Most of this was to be for two Carbon Capture and Storage projects to see if coal can be used to make energy without endangering the climate on this planet for the next 100,000 years.

Several billion in funds to demonstrate and monitor CCS are of concern to the Accountability and Transparency Board (pdf). The Carbon Capture and Storage project was to partially fund construction of the first commercial scale, fully integrated, carbon capture and sequestration project in the country.

However, the Department of Fossil Energy has not yet completed its selection process for the $1 billion CCS project. Also, the industrial application of CCS is in danger of not being fully allocated in time. Nearly half the original award amount, $741 million is still unallocated.

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