$620 Million for Smart Grid; Turning CO2 Into Fuel; BMW Vision gets 63mpg while blasting 356hp; Solar Demand Prompts Production; Waste Heat Could Power Computers, Cell Phones

Secretary Chu Announces $620 Million for Smart Grid At an event in Columbus, Ohio, Secretary Chu announced that the Department of Energy is awarding $620 million for projects around the country to demonstrate advanced Smart Grid technologies and integrated systems that will help build a smarter, more efficient, more resilient electrical grid.

Turning CO2 Into Fuel Imagine a machine that could suck carbon dioxide right out of the air and magically transform it into a usable product. It may seem like wishful thinking, but that’s exactly what researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories hope to do.

BMW Vision gets 63mpg while blasting 356hp Wow. This BMW Vision is a diesel plug-in hybrid that cranks out an awesome 356 hp. But the astonishing part? It packs that impressive wallop and still gets 63 miles per gallon.

U.S. Solar Demand Prompts Domestic Production Partly driving the uptick in the solar industry is the U.S. federal government’s fast-tracking of more than 2.4 gigawatts of renewable energy projects in California to help them qualify for stimulus funding, together with more interest for new projects due to lower panel pricing.

Waste Heat Could Power Computers, Cell Phones Computers, cars and cell phones all have to get rid of excess heat to run properly, creating a significant energy waste. Researchers at MIT believe they’ve developed a way to reclaim a majority of that wasted energy and turn it into electricity.