tech

NISKAYUNA, New York--General Electric will spend $1 billion in research and development this year on clean energy technologies, part of its Ecomagination environmental initiative.

The industrial giant announced the investment on Tuesday at its Global Research center here, where it also said that it will put $6.8 million of that into plug-in hybrid vehicles as part of a U.S. Department of Energy project.

The company hosted a day-long presentation at its labs to showcase technology developments in solar electricity, plug-in hybrid components, water desalination, high-efficiency lighting and home energy dashboards, and materials for wind turbines and aviation.

GE … Read more

How do you improve on a sexy, sporty, stylish coupe? Easy--make it sexier, sportier, and more stylish. With the G37 Coupe, Infiniti has built a very powerful and good-looking follow-up to the G35. In addition to its swooping lines and punchy power plant, the G37 comes armed to the teeth with cutting-edge cabin technology, including a hard-drive-based navigation system, music server, iPod integration, hands-free Bluetooth cell phone integration, and a solid Bose audio system. Check out our full review of 2008 Infiniti G37 Sport here.

Investors are betting clean technologies are good for their pocket books. The economic potential of the clean industries is not lost on policymakers either.

On Monday, two Boston-based lobbying organizations--Clean Energy Council and the New England Energy Innovation Collaborative--announced that have merged, creating the New England Clean Energy Council.

The goal of the group is to provide a more unified and louder voice to policymakers as they look to encourage development of clean energy companies, organizers say.

New England is one of several areas vying to create a vibrant clean tech "cluster" of companies. Silicon Valley is already … Read more

WiserEarth, which launched in May, is an open-source database of more than 107,000 do-good organizations, with 5,400 users around the world.

The site incorporates Google Maps, wikis, and discussion groups, as well as listings of events, resources, and jobs. Users can create and maintain profile pages, and chat with members of other groups. Areas of focus range from agriculture to health to media to work, and popular forum discussions involve poverty, gender, and "planetary development." More calendars and regionally focused content hubs are being created.

Participants in the Bioneers sustainability conference this weekend were using WiserEarth … Read more

This classic Airstream trailer outfitted with off-the-grid features got people thinking back to the future at the 18th Bioneers conference this weekend. The sustainability convention in San Rafael, Cal., brings together "bio-pioneers" including scientists, artists, clean tech investors and nonprofit activists.

The 22-foot Safari model, circa 1958, incorporates a composting toilet, wind turbine and solar panels. It has bamboo floors, trimmings and cabinet skins as well as an Alaskan yellow cedar couch bed. Countertops are recycled stainless steel and the bathroom floors are marboleum, derived from flax oil.

Owner Tim Blair, who runs a green design consulting firm, … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas--If you've never seen a machine that makes 3D models out of sugar, you should.

But unless you're part of a relatively small group of people who went to the Maker Faire in California in May, or are one of a few other people who know the machine's creator, you probably have never even heard of the device.

Similarly, you may not be aware--or at least the general public probably isn't--that there is a whole movement going on right now to build advanced, digital, relatively inexpensive personal fabrication and robotics tools that can do or … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--This year in design, green is the new black.

That line has easily been trumpeted by everyone from design trade magazines to consumer media moguls like Oprah. But here at Connecting '07, the annual trade conference of the Industrial Designers Society of America, it's even more obvious.

Headlining the opening day keynote Thursday was Martin Eberhard, co-founder of Tesla Motors, in a talk he called "sleek and green." Eberhard was accompanied by Barney Hatt, designer of the Lotus and the Tesla Roadster, a $98,000 electric-powered sports car that's due at the beginning of next … Read more

Since you're using the gas anyway, why not convert the heat from your car engine into useful electricity?

That's the basic premise behind the work of Terry Tritt, professor and director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Center of Excellence in Thermoelectric Materials Research at Clemson University.

Thermoelectric generators are currently used to convent radioactive heat into electricity by NASA for deep space probes. The same technology could be applied to the automotive combustion cycle, which wastes more than 60 percent of its energy through heat, according to a paper Tritt delivered at the Alan MacDairmid … Read more

If razor-thin OLED screens do eventually supplant LCDs as some predict, there may still be hope for liquid-crystal display technology--in a new shape.

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology has created a circle-shaped LCD that could be used for digital instruments in cars, according to Fareastgizmos. Why a circle? Because it can fit in certain parts of the dashboard better than cornered shapes, as well as particular design styles. (Think speedometers, tachometers and such.)

Besides, it's a much more dignified fate than resorting to a gimmicky engagement ring box.