Energy.gov

We checked back in with Bill Picciano, who we last spoke to in October 2009 after he'd recently been hired at the Savannah River Site (SRS) through the Recovery Act. Now he's permanently employed at the Site as an Associate Engineer/Technical Support Specialist - a job he's proud to have.

Thanks to a Department of Energy Recovery Act grant, Gwinnett County, Georgia is taking some of the grossest stuff on earth and turning it into some of the greenest stuff on earth.

If you’ve ever driven by an industrial plant, you’ve probably noticed big white plumes rising from the tops of the facilities. While it might look like smoke or pollution at first glance, most of the time those white plumes are comprised of steam and heat, or what Ener-G-Rotors CEO Michael Newell calls waste heat. Mike and the researchers of Ener-G-Rotors are finding ways to use this escaped steam and turn it into energy.

“If you build it, they will come" ...to recycle. That line from the 1989 film Field of Dreams is as good a way as any to describe how the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma’s new regional recycling center is being received.

Find out how researchers from the Department of Energy are using technology and innovation to bring clean-burning cookstoves to the developing world. Their project is helping increase safety for families while simultaneously reducing deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2008, flooding and tornados tore across Iowa, devastating communities and natural landscapes across the state. More than 30 percent of the trees in Parkersburg, a small town hit hard by the tornado, were displaced and destroyed. Thanks to one local non-profit and Recovery Act funds, volunteers are "re-greening" the community.

Hydropower harnesses water power to create reliable, clean and plentiful renewable energy, but dams can have an unintended impact on wildlife — fish swimming through turbines can get caught and die -- which can be detrimental to the entire river ecosystem. The impact can be minimized, though, with new technologies being designed by engineers at Voith Hydro.