Algae Startups Confront Promise of Miracle Fuel With Big Summer

After years of hype as the mucky green grail of the oil crunch, algae is finally taking on its "impossible" hurdles to move from test tubes to barrels. With key players in this budding industry laying their bets on the winning biofuel formula, how long will it take before ...

• NEW BLOG: Why GM Gave Me a Hydrogen Car

As Flood Waters Rise, Geeks Aim to Save Midwest With 3D Rig

As the Mississippi continues to pound levees, a team of St. Louis environmental scientists have strung together high-end DLP projectors, strapped on their 3D glasses and set out to tell Americans where not to risk it next time.

• PLUS: Tips & Gear Ideas to Avoid Natural Disasters

New Solar Thermal Rig Makes Clean Energy Easy as Boiling Water

Ausra has built a prototype that will become the largest solar thermal energy facility in the U.S. The core of this system is an array of flat mirrors that reflect sunlight to boil water in an elevated tube, producing steam that drives turbines to generate electricity.

• PM NEWS: Photovoltaic Costs Dropping Fast

Hacking Earth Against Warming, Scientists Favor Fake Volcanoes

Could cannons, balloons and high-wire planes send sulfur back into the atmosphere and save the planet? As the Senate debates a controversial climate-change bill, meteorologists and economists alike say geoengineering solutions aren’t so far-out anymore.

• PLUS: Progress for Carbon Sequestration's Global Warming Fix

How to Hide Recycling Bins in Your Kitchen: No-Mess Space Saver

Organize with the array of cans, bottles and newspapers that collect in your home with these helpful tips for designing the ideal recycling storage unit.

• KNOW YOUR FOOTPRINT: Tons of Tips for Recycling 2.0
• DIY: How to Replace Your Garbage Disposal

Micro Fueler Is First Ethanol Kit for Brewing Backyard Biofuels on the Cheap

The E-Fuel Corporation, a Silicon Valley startup, has introduced the first ethanol refinery system designed for home use. The backyard fueling station can create a gallon of pure E100 ethanol from 10 gallons of sugar—with offsetting cost options galore.

• PLUS: Coskata’s $1/Gallon Tech Starts Ethanol 2.0

Efficient Centrifuge Enriches Nuclear Power Future: How It Works

America's only domestic supplier of nuclear fuel has created an advanced centrifuge that officials say is the world's fastest and largest, able to produce enriched uranium using just 5 percent of the electricity required by the company's previous design.

• PM NEWS: New Plants Pave Clean Road for Nuke Power

Spongelike Air-Capture Gadget Scrubs Away Carbon Emissions

Researchers have invented a phone-booth-size device that can take back those emissions we can’t prevent—the ones that have already reached the atmosphere.

• PLUS: Geothermal Power Holds Model for Clean Energy
• TECH WATCH: 4 Geoengineering Attack Plans

Wave-Powered Boat Goes Beyond Record With Green Design

It didn't take long out of the gates for the Suntory Mermaid II to prove its maiden voyage a success, since the goal of the journey is to prove that a boat relying solely on eco-friendly wave power can operate outside the confines of a lab.

• VIDEO: Spare Air Tank Gadget Test Dive
• BUYER'S GUIDE: How to Buy a Personal Watercraft

Weather Modders Aim to End Droughts With Efficiency by Sky

Cloud seeding has lost its mad-scientist overtones recently as the U.S. is plagued by drought and scientists predict that water shortages will worsen with global warming. For many regions, engineering the weather is now viewed as an absolute necessity.

• TECH WATCH: Wastewater Could Help Fight U.S. Drought—and Anthrax
• PM NEWS: Plug-in Cars May Drain U.S. Water Supply, Researcher Says

Flexible OLEDs Double Efficiency as Organic Light Prices Lower

Using a process similar to modern newspaper printing, General Electric has created flexible sheets of OLED lighting. With an output of approximately 30 lumens per watt, the bending panels are twice as efficient as incandescent lamps.

• PLUS: 4 Things to Know Before Buying an OLED TV

Report Sees Dire Future for Warming's Impact on U.S. Transport

A new study by the National Research Council, in collaboration with the Transportation Research Board, has a clear message for transportation professionals: It's time to stop thinking of climate change as a future problem, and start dealing with its realities now.

• GEEK THE VOTE: Clinton vs. Obama on Infrastructure

Startup Makes Cheap Solar Film Cells ... With an Inkjet Printer

Konarka said this week that it has successfully manufactured its affordable Power Plastic solar film using an inkjet printer. In addition to decreasing reproduction costs, the printable cells can be applied to everything from indoor sensors to RFID installations.

• UPDATE: Konarka Aims for Commercial Film by '08

Wastewater Could Help Fight U.S. Drought—and Anthrax

One solution for today's droughts—to reuse more treated wastewater—has led scientists in search of a chemical-free alternative to the chlorination normally used for disinfection. We meet a team of researchers that may have found it.

• PLUS: Tips and Tricks to Squash Your Water Footprint
• VIDEO: How a Teenager's DIY Water Cleaner Saves

How Cheap LEDs Could Efficiently Power Africa and Beyond

Lighting Africa is a $13 million World Bank initiative that has steered the global race to develop a better light bulb in an even more challenging direction: Make bulbs efficient, affordable and rugged enough for use in developing countries, with LEDs.

• PLUS: Turning Parts to Power for Remote Regions
• VIDEO: Third-World Alternative for Wind Power

Sun Stays Sluggish as Weathermen Fight for Anti-Ice Age Funding

If the sun remains this quiet for another a year or two, it may indicate the star has entered a downturn that, if history is any precedent, could trigger a planetary cold spell that could bring massive snowfall and severe weather.

• BREAKTHROUGH: Engine Could Slash Solar Costs
• REEL TO REAL: 10 Questions for Sunshine’s Scientific Advisor

6 New Products Leading the Gadget Industry to the Green Side

The Greener Gadgets conference offered experts a chance to discuss steps the industry is taking to lessen its footprint—and let us feast on a next-gen collection of eco-friendly design that's setting trends for a world struggling with sustainability.

• PLUS: 5 Great Uses for Old Electronics
• ANALYSIS: Gadget Bigwigs Go Green, but Green Enough?

Geothermal Power in Alaska Holds Hidden Model for Clean Energy

At Chena Hot Springs, a visionary owner and an ingenious engineer tap into one of the world's most overlooked energy resources to produce electricity, heat buildings and soon, they hope, generate hydrogen.

• GREEN LIVING: More New Energy Breakthroughs

Top 4 Eco-Friendly Gadgets Coming This Year: Live @ CES 2008

For all the tough talk urging people to stay green, there was little in the way of game-changing, eco-friendly technology at CES. Still, after scouring the floor for enviro-gear, we picked some of the most compelling offerings out there.

• PLUS: 5 Great Things to Do With Old Electronics
• PODCAST: The Age of High-Tech Recycling

Super Soaker Inventor Aims to Cut Solar Costs in Half

The Atlanta-based independent inventor of the Super Soaker squirt gun (a true technological milestone) says he can achieve a conversion efficiency rate that tops 60 percent with a new solid-state heat engine.

• TECH WATCH: Top Geek Sees PV Parity by 2012
• UPGRADE: Charge Your Gadgets With Solar Power

Why Treasure Island Is the Super-Green City of the Future

A blighted island in San Francisco Bay could become the world’s hottest property, a showcase of sustainable design. With cities now consuming 75 percent of natural resources, it’s just in time.

• GEEK THE VOTE '08: Check Up on the Candidates' Environment and Infrastructure Positions

New Clean Coal Plant Could Power 150,000 Homes by 2015

Illinois will be the home to the FutureGen coal gasification plan, which aims to convert coal into hydrogen and electricity while capturing and storing CO2 underground. That might mean 275 megawatts without dirty emissions.

• HOW IT WORKS: Coal Gasification
• PLUS: Is High-Tech Mining Clean?

New Plan Could Power All UK Homes With Wind by 2020

Wind's future took a step toward prominence when the United Kingdom unveiled a plan for one of the most ambitious expansions of wind power the world has ever seen. Through offshore turbines, the country hopes to harvest up to 33GW of energy.

• PLUS: How to Fix U.S. Wind Power Setbacks
• GREEN MACHINES: Deadly Wind Farms Saves the Birds

Climate Engineers Build UAV, Radar to Process Subzero Mystery

Engineers at the University of Kansas are combining digital radar equipment with unmanned aircraft for the first time to give scientists a much-needed edge in studying a wafer-thin blanket of water under a 3000-meter-thick glacier at the ends of the Earth.

• PLUS: NASA Flies on Space's Edge to Study Climate

Global Warming, Eh? Canada's Beer Fridges Eat Energy, Study Says

With daily temperatures below zero during the winter, it's a wonder why Canadians even need electrical coolers for beer. But these aging iceboxes, a staple for one in three Canadian households, can consume up to five times as much energy as a modern fridge.

• PLUS: Out with the Old Appliance, In With the Green

Know Your Footprint: Green Tips Galore!

PM's three-part series breaks down the state of American home efficiency, with projects for your house on cutting costs and upping energy smarts, water conservation and recycling know-how.

How to Get Out with the Old Appliance and in With the Green

So when do you say “when” to the refrigerator that’s been with you through more leftover birthday cakes than you can count? When its contribution to global warming becomes reflected in your electricity bill.

Efficient, Cancer-Free Scanner Could Mean Ixnay on the X-Ray

Ideally, doctors and airport security personnel would scan your body with high-end devices that don’t kill you after prolonged exposure. And while X-rays do a pretty good job, a new portable scanner suggests we may soon have a better option: T-rays.

• PLUS: New Brain Scans Invade Your Private Life

Solar Super Plane Prototype Ready for Takeoff in 2008

From concept to construction, the Solar Impulse has been hailed as a savior—the first major attempt to fly a plane without fuel, and to fly it around the globe. So for record-setting adventurer Bertrand Piccard, the unveiling of its prototype was a long time coming.

• PLUS: Inside Piccard's Solar Shot Around the World

Solar Chandelier Feeds LED and Pollutant-Killing Plants (for Mucky Post-Katrina Trailers and Beyond)

Hanging in your office or bedroom, the Green Light collects uses a solar awning to power a six-watt LED lamp. The bulb then shines at NASA's favorite wavelengths to promote photosynthesis in the plants growing below.

Eco-Disco: Self-Sufficient Dance Floor to Power First Green Nightclub

The average nightclub, with sound systems pumping and lights blazing three times a week, consumes 150 times more energy than a four-person family every year, according to Enviu, a non-profit that’s bringing green design to the dance floor—literally.

• PLUS: 25 Green Designers Doing It Right

3 Questions for Al Gore: His Green Home, the Future of Ethanol and More (with Video)

We sat down with the former vice president turned environmental activist to find out what steps he’s taking to reduce the carbon footprint of his own Tennessee home, and to get his take on one aspect of the energy bill now making its way through Congress.

• GREEN LIVING: 23 Ways to Reduce Your Footprint
• DRIVE GREEN: How Far Can You Drive on a Bushel of Corn?
• ANALYSIS: Inside the Energy Bill's New MPG Standards

4 Geoengineering Attack Plans to Fight Climate Change

As the war on global warming heats up, some scientists argue that meddling with the environment might be the only way to save it.

Studying a Mystery of Global Warming, NASA Will Fly on Space's Edge

After multiple delays working in the constraints of the space agency’s notoriously hobbled Earth-based research budget, a team of atmospheric scientists is set to take advantage of new satellites, balloons and planes during a mission this summer in Costa Rica.

• Q&A: MIT Climate Scientist on NASA's Earth-Based Priorities
• Q&A: NASA Chief on Agency's Non-Space Funding Issues

Timber Smugglers—and How You Can Stop Them

The booming black market for illegal logging is turning endangered wood into big bucks, and rainforests into decimated playgrounds for international crooks. But DIYers can help drive reform by staying aware and buying smart. Learn how in a PM special report.

• PLUS: Guilt-Free Wood Buyer's Guide
• PLUS: New Tech Cuts Down the Timber Racket

Pond-Powered Biofuels: Harvesting Algae Energy

Using a complex (and still expensive) photosynthetic process, breakthrough innovators have developed biodiesel and ethanol on this Colorado plain from an unlikely source that just might give alternative energy the bump it needs: little green goo (i.e. algae).

• PLUS: Biofuel Breakdown
• BEST OF GREEN DESIGN: Eco-Friendly Beermakers Help Algae Growth
• GREEN LIVING: PM's Guide to Sustainability

Re-engineering America's Beaches, 1 Tax Dollar at a Time

Pumping sediment onto the nation's shore is an expensive fix for the erosion caused by coastal development — and often a bad fix at that. Inside, how you pay for boondoggles at the beach in the midst of forecasts for rising sea levels and stronger storms.

• PODCAST: Top Scientist on Why Beach Bummer Projects

Turbine Turbulence: How to Fix U.S. Wind Power

It's simple, free and always on. So why is the U.S. more than 2 million times below its potential output for one of the most popular alternative-energy sources in the world? PM.com explores 3 obstacles — and how to beat them.

• JAY'S GREEN GARAGE: Leno Preps for Wind Turbine on Top of the Shop
• TECH WATCH: Underwater Wind Turbines Make Rivers Sustainable
• PLUS: 4 Geoengineering Attack Plans to Fight Global Warming

Lab Test: Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs

They're efficient, long lasting and, now, cheap enough to justify the huge reduction on your power bill. But can the new breed of energy-saving fluorescents hold their own in brightness and warmth against the classic incandescent bulb? We ran seven bulbs through our optical course to find out. Warning: The results may shock you.

• PM NEWS: Switch One Light Bulb, Save $30 Each Year on Your Power Bill

The Best of Green Design: 25 Smart Ideas and Thrifty Products

At PM, green design means good engineering: saving money, energy and natural resources. We salute these innovators who are doing things right, so you can save the world with your home.

• LOOKING AHEAD: The Future of Green Design
• LINKS: Go Directly to the Big Green Thinkers

Crunching the Numbers on Alternative Fuels

How far can you drive on a bushel of corn? As the race to board the alternative-fuel bandwagon heats up, Popular Mechanics discovers the truth about bio fuels in a special report.

• PODCAST: The Truth about Biofuels
• BREAKTHROUGH: Harvesting Alternative Energy from Algae
• ANALYSIS: The Problem with Silver Bullets

Crunching the Numbers on the Real Hydrogen Economy

Wild promises abound, but can the simplest element in the universe really power our homes, fuel our cars and reduce our contribution to global warming? Popular Mechanics finds the truth about hydrogen by examining all the hurdles—production, storage, distribution and use.

• PM NEWS: Filling Up at a Hydrogen Fuel Station
• BREAKTHROUGH AWARDS: Cheap Hydrogen
• TEST DRIVE: Ford's Hydrogen-Powered, Plug-in Hybrid (with Video)
• TEST DRIVE: BMW's Hydrogen-Powered 7-Series (with Video)

Power Pioneers: The Energy Family Returns

At the end of a yearlong quest, our man off-the-grid taps into the wind, ramps up his solar array — and surveys the future of energy production.

• PLUS: Energy Family Blog
• SUBSCRIBE: Add Our Off-Grid Dad to Your RSS Feeds, 3 Times a Week

Breakthrough Awards: Cheap Hydro, Bulb Slayer, Plug-in

In PM's annual salute to innovations that will shape our future, we honor the teams behind GE’s low-cost electrolyzer, Vanderbilt University’s quantum-dot LEDs, Tesla Motors’ revolutionary electric car and more. Plus: 10 benchmark products, including an efficient home energy system and a smart diesel engine.

• BREAKTHROUGH: Hydrogen on the Cheap
• BREAKTHROUGH: The Car Charger
• BREAKTHROUGH: Lighting the World with LEDs
• PODCAST: Genius Roundtable with Burt Rutan, Tesla, GE and More Winners

The Next Atomic Age: Smarter, Safer Nuke Power

Could nuclear power be the next source of green energy? With the threat of global warming looming and the need for renewable resources pressing, environmentalists are finding an unlikely bedfellow in nuclear power.

• PODCAST: The Nuclear Option
• PLUS: The Great Nuclear Debate
• PM NEWS: Energy Production's Carbon Future

Re-inventing the (Green) Skyscraper

The 46-story Hearst Tower is an energy-efficient, structurally strong, environmentally sound addition to New York City's skyline. And if we may say so ourselves, our new home looks pretty cool, too.

• PM NEWS: Hearst Tower Certified with Top Green Ranking
• PM NEWS: Going for Green-Office Gold
• PLUS: For Green CEOs, Energy-Efficient Buildings Mean Big Business
• VIDEO: Tour the Hearst Tower

Solar House Competition: Ideas You Can Use

When 18 teams of students built a solar neighborhood in the nation's capital, they created a showcase of the best new technology for conserving energy and harnessing the power of the sun.

• • VIDEO: Take a Video Tour of an Award-Winning Solar Home

5 New Ideas to Power Our Future

With the outlook for oil uncertain, it's time for new ideas. Here are five emerging technologies—from buoys that harness the power of waves to bacteria that extract electricity from wastewater. Together they can keep the world humming.

• PLUS: Are Methane Hydrates the Energy Source of the Future?