A buffet of incentives

A new contest joins a suite of programs -- loan guarantees, cheap financing, public praise -- to prod people to pursue energy efficiency projects in homes and offices. But why do we need so much enticing to do something intuitively helpful? http://

Finally getting it right with lithium ion

Researchers recently figured out that some of their models of lithium ion batteries were based on flawed assumptions. The old model used experimental results, but assumed that battery performance is governed by lithium ion movement between electrodes. The new findings show that it's actually electron movement that's the rate-limiting step, so scientists switched to a new model. 

Going (carbon) negative

The IPCC suggested that bioenergy with CCS could remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. I discussed the merits of this approach in this article.