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Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: NCI) today announced the launch of a major multi-client study on the convergence of the Smart Grid with Photovoltaics (PV). This comprehensive and focused study is helping the eighteen participating organizations identify the key technology components of a PV Smart Grid; understand how the Smart Grid could create additional value for distributed PV; gain insight to the implications for utilities; and identify trends and valuable market opportunities.

With appropriate policies and actions, the scientific establishment can be organized to focus its resources on current global threats. To conduct such research, however, it would be necessary to mobilize our relevant intellectual resources and research facilities with the same determination that drove the wartime projects. A program of global scientific cooperation has tremendous potential to address many of the threats and challenges we face.

Eco-efficiency is a management philosophy that encourages business to search for environmental improvements that yield parallel economic benefits. The eco-efficiency module is designed to capture interest, to inform and to engage on issues surrounding eco-efficiency at different levels within an organization.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has released its 2008 Environmental Outlook. Without new policies, the world risks irreversibly damaging the environment and the natural resource base needed to support economic growth and well-being, according to the report. But the Outlook finds that tackling climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and the health impacts of pollution is both achievable and affordable.

This blog describes the building of an off grid passive solar monolithic dome. After the building of the dome is finished, I will write about living off the grid, wind and solar power, energy efficiency, sustainable living and growing organic food. Start at the bottom for the chronological story.

Researchers at the Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University have come up with an alternative way of generating electricity. In a new study featured in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering, lead author Andrew Kato Marcus and colleagues César Torres and Bruce RittmannThey mentioned that they are using the tiniest organisms on the planet—bacteria—for this purpose. They added that they are looking forward to commercialization of a promising microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology. The microbial fuel cell will generate electrical energy by using any kind of waste, such as sewage or pig manure.

For computer experts focused solely on performance, June and November mark the twice-yearly release of the TOP500 list, which ranks the world's supercomputers in terms of "teraflops," or trillions of calculations per second (the "flop" comes from "floating-point operations," a technical term for computer calculations). That list is currently led by a supercomputer at DOE's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) that has a peak speed of more than 596 teraflops. But the November 2007 list of supercomputing speed freaks was accompanied by a newcomer, the Green500 list, which reworks the TOP500 list in terms of energy efficiency. The Green500 list ranks the 500 fastest supercomputers by megaflops per watt, that is, by how many thousands of calculations are performed per watt of energy consumed.

An aggressive pursuit of energy efficiency in the United States over the next 18 years could cut the nation's growth in energy use by 50% or more, according to a new report. The report, "Vision for 2025: Developing a Framework for Change," was prepared by the National Action Plan for Energy Efficiency Leadership Group, which comprises more than 60 leading organizations, with DOE and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acting as facilitators. The report sets a goal of achieving all cost-effective energy efficiency improvements throughout the United States by 2025. If that goal is achieved, the nation will spend $100 billion less for energy in 2025 than it would otherwise and will avoid emitting 500 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. The nation will also achieve $500 billion in net savings from its energy efficiency investments.