Know Your Techs

Guardian List of top 100 Cleantech Companies

martinrstone — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:04:03 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

The Guardian newspaper has put together a list of the top 100 cleantech companies.

Quote from the Guardian article

From making biofuels out of algae to producing concrete that absorbs carbon dioxide, our comprehensive has it all on the sectors, businesses and ideas at the forefront of the clean technonlogy revolution.

Tidal Turbine surfaces in Scotland

martinrstone — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:23:51 +0000

Atlantis Resources Unveils the World’s Largest Tidal Turbine in Scotland as revealed in this Bloomberg article http://bit.ly/c29yDx

It seems that tidal turbines are beginning to show their head above water and become a significant contributor of clean energy to the UK.

The tides around the U.K. may provide enough electricity for 1.4 million homes by 2020, the government said in March. The industry, whose investors include Siemens AG and Vattenfall AB, is still in the development phase. The largest source of tidal power in the U.K. is a 1.2-megawatt twin-turbine SeaGen device installed in 2008 in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, by Marine Current Turbines.” quote from the Bloomberg article

Bill Gates advocates energy from spent nuclear fuel

martinrstone — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:54:52 +0000

Bill Gates has been making a visionary speech at the TED 2010 conference . He seems to be saying that to prevent climate change you need cleen energy, which is nothing new, but he has raised the possibility of using spent nuclear fuel as a fuel source. Not only that but he thinks climate change is even more important that tackling disease and poverty in the Third World. Perhaps he should sign up to the 10:10 challenge.

The technology he refers to is travelling wave reactor and the company he refers to TerraFirma

Clean Energy

martinrstone — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:36:10 +0000

With Peak Oil looming and Climate change being seen as the biggest threat to the planet there is a lot of interest in Clean Energy. If you are investing it is good to know what your company is good at and why.

I have listed some of the more interesting ones on Clean Energy Page

Nanotechnology

martinrstone — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:39:18 +0000

How small can you get?

Current technology is down to nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. That’s working at the level of atoms.

Many disciplines are using nanotechnology – physics, chemistry, biology and engineering. In electronics the PC’s Pentium 4 works at 130nm level. Intel has recently (1st qtr 2004) announced the launch of a 90 nm chip.

Why is it so interesting?

Well it holds out for huge medical advances – nano machines driving around your body delivering drugs to the precise spot where treatment is needed. But it could spell disaster in the hands of terrorists and what happens if nanomachines become uncontrollable as they replicate themselves.

The all encompassing nature of nanotechnology means it is helpful to consider nanotechnolgy in three areas nanomaterials, nanobiotechnology and nanoelectronics. As with all new advances there are start up companies leading the way but also the big boys with the money and the capacity to set aside a department. There are also those companies who are not actually nanotechnology companies but provide the picks and shovels for the industry.

The companies in the list of nanotechnology companies (see Nanotechnology page) are grouped into the three areas, by size and whether they are a pick and shovel company.