**Electricity from trash? Landfill gas catching on as a power source**

Many companies and communities have found a way to transform an
environmental burden into a money-making resource by using methane
produced from decomposing garbage to produce electricity. Landfills
produce this greenhouse gas for decades after being covered over with
soil, and in most cases, the gas seeps into the atmosphere. By capturing
the gas, burning it, and using the heat to generate electricity,
greenhouse gases are reduced and electricity is produced.

**The Solar Decathlon\--a competition of houses completely powered by
the sun**

Every two years, the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency
and Renewable Energy and its co-sponsors host a competition of
solar-powered homes, homes that provides all the amenities of a normal
house without drawing a single watt of electricity from the grid. Solar
panels provide all the energy needed to power the homes and provide
comfort and convenience without damaging the environment or depleting
our natural resources. The international competition showcases the most
innovative ideas in engineering and architecture in often striking
exterior and interior home designs. Contact John Horst at 303-275-4709
or john.horst@go.doe.gov, or visit
[http://www.solardecathlon.org](http://www.solardecathlon.org/) for more
information.

**Runnin' on vegetable oil**

Just fill up your tank with French fry grease at your nearest fast food
restaurant and drive away. A few years ago, it would have made for a
good joke, but many people today do something very similar, and the
trend is for vehicles powered completely by plant-based oils and by
mixtures of plant-based oils and regular diesel fuel, know as biodiesel,
to become more and more common. Biodiesel is growing in sales at a
number of stations across the country, and it has advantages over pure
diesel\--it burns cleaner, it\'s often cheaper, and it reduces our
nation\'s dependence on foreign sources of oil. Want to know more?
Contact us.

**Green power thriving and it\'s more than window dressing**

Do you know what type of energy resource produced the electrons flowing
into your home that provide the power for your lights, heating, air
conditioning, cooking, and refrigerator? Few people do. They just know
that when they flip a switch or plug in a device, it works more than 99
percent of the time, and as long as it works, most people don\'t have
the time to think about where the electrons came from. Few people
realize every time they flip a switch an extra puff of black smoke
leaves a smokestack somewhere and adds to the pollution that is warming
our planet and damaging our health. Those who do think about it do
nothing and feel guilty, or they ease their guilt by getting their
electrons from green power sources. Don\'t have space on your roof for
solar panels? Your subdivision\'s covenants prohibit them anyway? Your
neighbors are too close for you to install a 50-foot tower with a wind
turbine? Well, there are other options. You can buy Renewable Energy
Credits. Doing so doesn\'t change the source of the electrons coming
into your home, but it does add enough clean energy to the mix to offset
the less clean energy you\'re currently using. Want to know more?
Contact us.

**Alternative fuels, like ethanol, are spreading like wildfire. What\'s
the current state of the technology, the economics, and the availability
of the fuels?**

Ethanol, which is produced mostly from corn in this country, is
experiencing a growth boom, with more and more farmers planting corn,
more and more ethanol plants being built, more and more service stations
installing pumps, and more flex-fuels vehicles are being produced. What
does all this really mean? What do the economics look like now and for
the future? Is this boom going to bust or just keep growing? It seems to
be evolving so quickly it's difficult to know what's next. Want help
sorting it out, or just have specific questions? Contact us.

**Plastics and other materials from biomass now a reality**

A demonstration project to produce plastics from biomass by partners
Archer Daniels Midland and Metabolix has proved to be a success and is
leading to the first commercial plant using the technology. DOE funding
and technical assistance helped in the project\'s success. The plant, to
be built in Clinton, Iowa, with startup scheduled for 2008, will convert
agricultural raw materials such as corn sugar into a versatile range of
plastics that have excellent durability in use but are compostable in
both hot and cold compost and are biodegraded even in the marine
environment.

**Many Native American tribes find new technologies fit traditional
values**

Most tribes have abundant renewable energy resources on their
reservations, and many have discovered tapping the resources can provide
power for homes and industries, earn revenue, provide a cleaner
environment, and help create jobs for tribal members, without
sacrificing their traditional values of respecting the natural
environment. It\'s a perfect fit for many tribes, and DOE is providing
financial support and technical advice to help them achieve that goal.

**DOE-funded invention wins prestigious R&D100 award**

A new product to be used in genomics research, the Plant Phenotype
Characterization System, has been selected by an independent judging
panel and the editors of *R&D Magazine* as "one of the 100 most
technologically significant products entered into the marketplace over
the past year."  The Department of Energy funded the development of the
product, thus helping refine it and bring it to market. The first
device, known as ROOTVIZ FS, was installed at Duke University to support
rice functional genomics research. Want to know more? Contact us.