Happy New Year! & Top 10 CleanTechnica Posts Of 2012

 
Happy New Year to each of you! Hope your 2013 is full of happiness, wisdom, understanding, growth, fun, and (of course) clean energy.

In case you are interested in which of our stories were the hottest last year, here are our top 10 posts of 2012:

10. Say Goodbye to the Fluorescent Buzz

“Scientists at Wake Forest University have developed a flicker-free, shatterproof alternative for large-scale lighting that they claim is at least twice as efficient as CFL technology and less expensive than LEDs,” Elizabeth Smyth wrote just about a month ago. “The lighting is based on field-induced polymer electroluminescent (FIPEL) technology, which uses a nano-engineered polymer matrix to convert the charge into light.” (Read more at the link above.)

9. IKEA NOT Selling $86,500 Prefab Home, But…

Back in February and March, reports around the internet â€" from Huffington Post to CNET â€" were announcing that IKEA had teamed up with ideabox to manufacture and offer an $86,500, 745-square-foot, 1BR/1BA prefab home to customers in the Portland, Oregon area. Turns out that it was really just ideabox offering the prefab home (not IKEA)… but the prefab home was designed around IKEA furniture, and IKEA Portland designers did help a bit.

8. World’s Largest Solar PV Power Plant Added to India’s Grid

Gujarat dedicated 600 MW of solar power to the electric grid in India in April 2012. The “solar power plant” is actually a combination of several solar projects (it’s not the largest “single project” solar power plant in the world), but it does crush any other solar power plant of its type â€" it’s three times larger than the solar power plant that held the world record from October 2011 to April 2012, China’s 200MW Golmud Solar Park.

7. 10 Electric Cars You Can Buy This Year!

In July, I decided to run down a list of 10 electric cars available for purchase in the US by the end of 2012. The post was quite a hit. Several additional electric cars have actually come to market since that time (cars I didn’t realize would be on the market by this time)… so maybe it’s time for an update.

6. What’s the Best Solar Technology for Your Home, Community, Business or Farm?

From thin-film solar panels to concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) to concentrated solar thermal power (CSP), this post runs down several different types of solar technology, as well as some of the main benefits and downsides of each.

5. Hurricane Isaac Has a Wind Power Message for Mitt Romney

Reporting on the big August storm that would later be overshadowed by Superstorm Sandy, Tina noted: “After officially dismissing the role of wind power in the energy future of the U.S., presidential candidate Mitt Romney faced some stiff blowback from members of his own party…. it seems that Mother Nature is weighing in, too. Fresh on the heels of a report that Colorado Representative Scott Tipton has joined the ranks of prominent Republicans who are opposed to the Romney position, Hurricane Isaac has forced the Republican National Convention to cancel the first day of its proceedings, originally scheduled for Monday.” Tina then dove into a variety of policy and political issues regarding wind power and fossil fuels â€" worth a read.

4. Shocker: Conservative Fox News Guest Tears Up Conservative Lies About Chevy Volt

After months of Fox News tearing into the Chevy Volt for some odd reason or another, conservative Bob Lutz stood up to his conservative colleagues and defended the first American-made European Car of The Year… but that didn’t stop the “thoughtful” folks at Fox from continuing to illogically stigmatize the Volt. The  Fox & Friends “entertainers” were surprised a bit last February, though, when conservative Lee Spieckerman (CEO of Spieckerman Media) also made several strong statements in support of the Volt, and debunked numerous common Volt myths. Apparently, the surprise retort got the attention of numerous readers.

3. Report: Global Biofuels Market Could Double To $185.3 Billion By 2021

A February report from Pike Research predicted that the global biofuels market would double over the next decade, from $82.7 billion in 2011 to $185.3 billion in 2021. “Even with this rapid growth, however, significant hurdles remain and could prevent the industry from meeting government mandates,” Silvio noted at the time.

2. 500 Tesla Model X Reservations in First 4 Days

It’s no secret â€" Tesla is a cleantech/greenie/gearhead superstar. And people really want its vehicles. The post above was essentially just a quick repost of a Gas2 article, but it ended up getting boatloads of search views (as well as views from our normal readership, from Facebook shares, and so on). We haven’t heard much about the Model X lately, but when we hear something significant again, we’ll be sure to let you know.

1. Smack! Was that a Mosquito You Killed, Or a Drone?

This post â€" which I think was shared by some very popular Facebook pages (it got a surge of views from Facebook two or three times throughout the year) â€" isn’t our typical CleanTechnica article, but it caught people’s attention and brought in over 110,000 pageviews last year. The article was about a micro aerial vehicle (MAV) â€" or “high-agility flying robot” about the size of a typical bug. The MAV is under development by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. To read more about how a MAV could be connected to cleantech, click on the link above.

Those were our most popular stories of 2012 â€" wish another story or two had made the list? We’ll see what 2013 brings! (And hey, if you like a story, always remember to share it on your favorite social networks!)