GE has developed a new type of LED light bulb that it claims lasts for up to 17 years. GE says that these new light bulbs can provide just as much light as a 40−watt incandescent lightbulb, while consuming only nine watts of electricity.

The bulb´s odd design actually has a purpose: Those "armor spikes" (okay, they really aren´t, but how else do you make a light bulb sound cool?) that surround the light bulb are intended to help project the light toward the areas you want to light.

An article in The Times this week reports on the broad use of new, cleaner garbage incinerators across Europe that convert trash into heat and electricity. In Denmark, these plants have been embraced even in wealthy suburbs because they curb energy costs, reduce the use of landfills and cut carbon dioxide emissions.

But these next−generation incinerators, known as waste−to−energy plants, have not caught on in the United States, where most garbage is still hauled to distant landfills. What stands in the way of the U.S. adopting more of these advanced technologies?

I´m old enough to remember the passive−solar and superinsulation movements in the late 1970s. In 1976, I was involved with passive solar design while at college, where a group of us studied energy self−sufficiency, and in 1978 I moved to Santa Fe to work with the New Mexico Solar Energy Association, which was leading the charge in advancing passive solar energy.

Not long after passive solar began picking up steam, along came the competing idea of superinsulation. This movement, I believe, was created largely in response to early solar homes (both passive and active)−which were often complicated, ugly, expensive, and overglazed. Superinsulation proponents sought to create a simpler solution with small window areas, large quantities of insulation, and simple geometries. Proponents included researchers at the University of Illinois who built the demonstration Lo−Cal House in 1976, Canadian builders of the Saskatchewan House in 1977, and Gene Leger in Massachusetts, who built several highly publicized houses during that period. Physicist William Shurcliff helped to publicize this movement with a book and many articles on superinsulation.

From creation to composting, EcoCradle™ packaging fit into nature´s recycling program. The materials that go into EcoCradle™ are all naturally occurring waste products, like buckwheat hulls, rice hulls, or cotton burrs. Our production process harnesses the natural ability of our organism to self assemble lignin and cellulose into strong bio−composites. Because we grow materials without lots of heat, pressure or petroleum, our process is extremely energy efficient. And once you´re done with an EcoCradle™ packaging buffer, it can be used as mulch in your garden, composted or even thrown away.

EcoRock uses 80% less energy to produce than gypsum drywall

Naturally cured and dried, EcoRock eliminates the energy−intensive, high−C02 generating calcining and oven−drying found in gypsum drywall production.

For those who want to start saving the planet at home, lighting presents a vexing paradox. While incandescent bulbs are wildly inefficient, compact fluorescent bulbs contain hazardous chemicals. With funding from the Department of Energy, RTI International claims to have solved the problem with the invention of nanofiber bulbs more efficient than regular lights, and more environmentally sound than fluorescent bulbs.

The nanofibers themselves have diameters smaller than a human hair, and emit warm, white light when in contact with an electric current. More important from an energy usage perspective, the nanofiber lights put out 55 lumens of light per watt. That makes them five times more efficient than a traditional light bulb.

By Tyghe Trimble
Published on: October 27, 2009

Today, President Barack Obama spoke at Florida Power and Light´s new DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center about $3.4 billion in stimulus money going to smart—grid projects that will help link renewables to consumers. One hundred private companies, utilities, manufacturers, cities and other partners received awards today, including Florida Power and Light, which will receive $200 million to install 2.6 million smart meters.

As these new projects take off, PM will bring you in—depth coverage on how emerging technologies work and what renewables to expect popping up in your backyard. Here is more coverage on the smart grid, solar power, wind power and other renewable energy projects. ..(more)

Note: this is a series of clothes drying ideas contributed by NYTimes online readers and others.

On college campuses, in subdivisions, hotels and even prisons, efforts to transform the way Americans do their laundry are steadily building. Save energy, save money: what’s not to like? It turns out that it takes persistence and research.

Should Americans have the right to hang their laundry outdoors, even if many of their neighbors oppose it and community rules ban clotheslines as unsightly threats to property values? Legislators in Colorado, Hawaii, Maine and Vermont have prohibited anti-clothesline rules, and similar action is being considered in several other states. (Catch up with the issue on The Times’s Green Inc.) How do college students do their laundry, without hanging a lot of clothes in the quad? How do hotels get their guests to reuse their towels? And how do prisons balance their sanitation and security needs yet reduce laundry costs?..(more)

MIT researchers have developed roof tiles that change color based on the temperature, turning white when it´s hot to deflect heat and turning black when it´s cold to absorb it.

According to the team´s lab measurements, the tiles can reflect about 80 percent of sunlight when they´re white and 30 percent of sunlight when they´re black. In their white state, the tiles could save as much as 20 percent of present cooling costs, according to the researchers...(more)

This story is part of a series called How Green Is It? airing on All Things Considered. The series examines some of the things Americans are doing — and buying — to help the environment and whether those steps really are as "green" as they seem.

Windows can provide great views and fresh air, but they also can run up energy bills. That´s why many people opt to replace old drafty windows at home with new energy—efficient ones...(more)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Monday ordered the federal government — the nation's largest energy user — to cut its greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce its impact on the environment.

The president's executive order also requires all agencies to conserve water, reduce waste and use the government's enormous purchasing power to buy more environmentally sound products. Once the changes in place, they could touch everything from the kinds of vehicles in federal fleets to the use of recycled paper and non—plastic utensils in government cafeterias...(more)