What have you heard about clean coal? That it involves vats of liquid carbon dioxide annexed away underground? That it's dangerous? That it's never been done before? In an exclusive interview, Scientific American's energy and environmental editor David Biello sits down with The Takeaway to chat about the technology formally known as "carbon capture and sequestration" ("CCS"), carbon balloons, and carbon geysers— the newest Old Faithfuls.

Check out more of what Biello has to say on Scientific American, where he did a week's worth of carbon capture and sequestration coverage.

And for more coverage of what a "new energy economy" will look like, check out The Takeaway's Power Trip clean energy series.

Okay, okay, we heard you. You, our listeners, smartly pointed out that with all the energy efficient appliances in the world (and thousands of pounds of algae) future energy consumption will continue increasing because population is increasing. The Power Trip was shaking it's head — how could we forget to talk about this? Today, we'd like you to meet David Biello, an associate editor at Scientific American online who joins The Takeaway to talk to about population, energy, and why when one goes up, it's still possible for the other to come down. (Come on, you're as surprised as we are.)

Before every new technology there comes the moment of invention. Before there was ethanol, someone had to look at biomass and say, "There's energy in them thar leaves." For the last day of our Power Trip energy series, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla joins The Takeaway from the TED conference in Long Beach, California. Khosla, whose company risks millions of dollars every year to fund upstart energy technologies, ruminates on creating billion dollar industries out of wild ideas.

Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and philanthropist, addressed the crowd at this year's TED conference with his thoughts on saving the world with a new kind of philanthropy. It's long, but funny. Really.

Just how power hungry is internet giant Google? The Takeaway's Power Trip heads to the Google campuses in Mountain View, California to find out. John Hockenberry sits down with Bill Weihl, the company's green energy czar (that's his title, no joke). On the interview agenda: the company's top picks for which alt-energy sources will rule the future clean energy economy, including solar with a twist. Plus, Weihl talks about the need for government energy subsidies, and why the company still ain't talking about the power consumed by a Google search

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If you knew where all the energy zooming into your house was being used and wasted, would you change the way you consume power? One company is banking on it. Our Power Trip heads to Redwood City, California to talk to Joe Polastre, CTO and co-founder of Sentilla. The company has invented an unassuming rectangular box that tracks —dollar by dollar, watt by watt—how much energy the appliances in your home are using. Clothes dryers and air conditioners beware: your energy guzzling ways are secrets no more.

Trouble viewing this video? Check out the YouTube version (click "watch in high quality" for best quality).

While green investors are throwing money at solar, wind and nuclear technology, researchers are exploring some innovative and surprisingly attractive alternatives to the alternatives.

Read our top ten list, including notes on the possible impacts of the technologies in 2020 from The Energy Roadmap's Garry Golden.

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When most people stumble across a polluted pond, they would sigh over the fate of our beloved planet and maybe quote some Thoreau. Fortunately, there are some very crafty individuals out there who see a polluted pond and devise a way to both clean up the pond and create a renewable energy source. As part of our Power Trip we go visit an algae company in Washington State where green goo in dirty water is being turned into biofuel.

Want to see the algae start-up in action? Watch the video. For more stories from our Power Trip, click here!

The Takeaway is on a Power Trip, taking an in-depth look at the future of energy: technologies, ideas, innovators, and your stories about the one thing that you won't give up to save energy.

All this week, The Takeaway is on a Power Trip, taking an in-depth look at the future of energy: technologies, ideas, innovators, and your stories about saving energy.

Political and industrial leaders are now in near consensus: The world must change how it produces and consumes energy to address the geopolitical and environmental challenges of our current energy systems. The transition will take decades, but the vision is starting to come into focus.

Continue reading...

We continue our discussion on the future of energy with blogger Garry Golden.

Listen to more from Garry Golden in The Takeaway's Power Trip series:
With energy, where do we go from here?
Introducing the new energy economy

President Barack Obama has pledged to reduce our carbon emissions by 80 percent come 2050, and that means saying goodbye to carbon-spewing coal and oil plants. But we can't wave a magic, rhetoric wand to change from black energy to green. So how do we move forward in establishing a new, clean power economy? To launch our Power Trip energy series, The Takeaway is joined by Garry Golden, a futurist and energy blogger who lays out the yellow brick road toward green energy.

Listen to more from Garry Golden in The Takeaway's Power Trip series:
More on the future of energy from Garry Golden and Introducing the new energy economy.