Green
Watching Our Waste
Washington is well established in most segments of the composite-materials supply chain. From Lamborghinis advanced composite laboratory in Seattle, to Toray Composites and SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers plants in Tacoma and Moses Lake, respectively, to Boeings new Everett plant for composite 777X wings, to the many makers of the tooling and equipment needed to put…
Bright Idea: Fired Up
Conventional air-emission-control systems attack the problem at the smokestack with filters and scrubbers. ClearSign Combustion Corp. aims its emission-control technology at a much earlier point in the process, where those emissions are first created: at the flame. The Tukwila company is developing two approaches to reducing pollutants by controlling the flame used in industrial boilers,…
PlanLED Sees a Bright Future
Feeling sleepy at work? Blame it on the lighting. A growing body of research suggests that yellow-toned lighting, which leads the brain to think its the end of the day, makes people sleepy. NASA uses this effect in spacecraft to induce drowsiness in astronauts. Blue-toned lighting, on the other hand, mimics daylight and tends to…
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Commits $10B to Battle Climate Change
The billionaire entrepreneur says it will take worldwide collective action to save the Earth
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is intent on ensuring the planet remains a viable platform for life and business in the future. To that end, Bezos announced on Monday, Feb. 17, the creation of the Bezos Earth Fund, indicating that he will commit $10 billion initially to support the work of groups fighting the devastating impact…
Seattle-Area Energy-Storage Company Group14 Technologies Gets A Capital Boost
The company is developing advanced battery technology to help fuel the nations electric future
Group14 Technologies Inc., based in Woodinville, located just east of Bothell, has successfully raised $14.4 million as part of an $18.1 million equity offering to advance its efforts to develop a better battery to help power the expanding electric-vehicle and energy-storage market. The company, spun out in 2016 from Seattle materials manufacturing company EnerG2, is…
Seattle Solar-Services Startup Omnidian raises $15M to Fuel Growth
The company plans to use the funding to expand its reach in the multibillion-dollar U.S. solar energy market
Seattle-based Omnidian has raised $15 million through a venture capital funding round that will allow it to expand its solar-energy system performance guarantee program, which offers homeowners and business owners assurance that their expensive solar investments will perform as promised. The funding round was led by New York venture capital firm IA Capital with additional…
Tableau Tool Tackles Seattles Terrible Traffic
Software companys new dashboard will help companies visualize employee travel patterns
The nonprofit Commute Seattle has teamed with software company Tableau and the Seattle and Washington departments of transportation to unveil an interactive online tool that allows employers to assess their employees commuting patterns to aid them in reducing traffic congestion in Seattles downtown. The partnership between the Seattle producer of data-visualization software, Commute Seattle and…
Amazon Web Services Takes Another Step Toward Total Clean-Energy Reliance
Cloud-computing unit of e-commerce giant Amazon invests in three new wind farm projects
Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary Seattle-based Amazon that provides on-demand cloud computing services, announced plans to purchase energy from three new wind farms slated for development in Ireland, Sweden and the United States as part of its goal to power AWSs global infrastructure with 100 percent renewable energy. As of the end of 2018,…
Denny Substation Does More Than Just Send Power to Homes and Businesses
The substation provides a new model for community engagement.
This article appears in print in the December 2018 issue. Click here for a free subscription. Substations, the electrical distribution centers that transform voltage from high to low so it can be used in homes and businesses, are typically so utilitarian in design they barely merit a second glance. The South Lake Union 13kV Distribution…