clean energy

Impact Investing: Making Your Money Count

For some time, investors who wanted to put their money where their morals were have chosen socially responsible investing -- steering their cash away from firms whose practices they disapproved of. Now comes impact investing, which uses invested funds to solve social or environmental goals and earn competitive returns, too.

Rare Earths, Mother Earth and a U.S. Industry's Revival

China's plans to cut exports of rare earth minerals -- used in alternative energy technologies -- has the rest of the world scrambling. In the U.S., the country's first new rare-earth mine in more than a decade is set to reopen.

Delayed and Shrinking: Masdar City Scales Back Its Clean-Energy Plans

Masdar, the $22 billion green city that United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi is building in the desert just outside its borders, has canceled its plans to generate all of its own clean energy and to emit zero carbon -- and says it's running at least four years behind schedule.

Clean Energy Revenues Grew in '09 -- but Not Solar

Despite the world's economic woes, the global clean-energy market grew in 2009, becoming a $139.1 billion industry and the largest venture-capital category. Even so, solar revenues fell because of plunging prices.

It's Show-Time for Bloom Energy's Supersecret Fuel Cells

After a long period of ever-escalating anticipation, the startup California cleantech company is finally unveiling its technology. Will the claims of breakthroughs in terms of efficiency, affordability and scalability get borne out at last? And how much will the long-term cost really be?

Absence of Smart Grid in Budget Talks Isn't Smart

When announcing his $3.8 trillion budget, Obama didn't mention the "smart grid," long key to his infrastructure spending plans. That's a shame, as improving our utility grid could create jobs as well as make us greener, more efficient and more competitive.