Renewable Energy

First Solar Powered Rickshaw

11thhouraction — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:41:16 -0500

London-based research and design company SolarLab is developing a solar-powered rickshaw. The vehicle, which is due to be launched next year, will derive up to 75% of its power from photovoltaics mounted on its roof, and the rest from pedal power.

"As a London-based company, we understand the tangible effects of pollution and congestion in our city. Our solar rickshaw will offer a radical transport solution for tourists and residents of any major metropolis. More importantly, our design is modular enabling easy conversion to load-bearing vehicles for inner city logistics and supply-chain requirements."

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Site provided by www.dezeen.com

Compact Fluorescent Bulb Recycling Now Available at US Home Depot Stores

11thhouraction — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:27:33 -0500

The Home Depot has expanded the recycling program for compact fluorescent light bulbs begun last November in its Canadian stores to in 1900-odd stores in the United States. Customers can bring in any expired, unbroken CFL bulb the store’s returns desk. “The bulbs will then be managed responsibly by an environmental management company who will coordinate CFL packaging, transportation and recycling to maximize safety and ensure environmental compliance.”

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Site provided by www.treehugger.com

NEW SEARCH ENGINE SEEKS TO BUILD A GREEN FUTURE!

mhaney — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:13:38 -0500

The first Flash Search Engine is an Environmental Search Engine!! http://www.greenplanetsearch.com is now live!

When Mike Haney first presented the idea behind the technology behind

www.greenplanetsearch.com, he was laughed down. Virtually, of course. “Everyone can

dream,: scoffed one, erroneously.

A few people were intrigued. The combination of Haney’s vision of a Flash-driven search

engine, and the plan to create a dazzling environmental education resource, eventually

attracted a loose-knit corps of collaborators, most of whom have never met in person first

among them Andre Roussille, a French computer programmer, and now part owner of the

company.

The upshot from this collaboration, apart from the stunningly beautiful homepage, is the

only people involved in the creation of the search engine, is that the only people involved

in the development devoted environmentalists, who genuinely wish to disseminate good

information to students and educators.

Later, through a similar serendipity, Mr. Haney teamed up with a veteran journalist who

agreed to lend his services to the site, building from scratch a source of environmental

news and policy analysis.

Advertisers will be strictly vetted by the companies shareholders, limited to companies

that are making a meaningful contribution the planet’s health.

The final result, which was launched this week, is the culminating of thousands of

hours of work, and more than a few false starts.

It boasts easily navigable information, experiments, lesson plans, presented in an interactive and graphically enhanced format,

and has an exclusive global climate change resource section for teachers and kids.

If you would like more information about greenplanetsearch.com, or to schedule an

interview with Mike Haney, please call Mike Haney at 305.531.3746 or e-mail info@greenplanetsearch.com.

Arizona State University Taps into Sun with a Huge Solar Project

AZ_Sun — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:01:39 -0500

The nation’s first School of Sustainability was established at Arizona State University. The university, along with the School of Sustainability at its core, has been mounting an unprecedented comprehensive sustainability effort aimed at finding solutions to the most pressing issues the planet faces, and is committed to guiding humanity from its present course of environmental destruction.

ASU is showing how to walk the talk with plans for installing one of the largest rooftop solar-power plants in the United States. The plan calls for 2 megawatts of generating capacity installed on 135,000 square feet by the end of the year.

That's enough to run 4,600 computers and reduce carbon emissions by 2,825 tons per year, or the equivalent of taking 530 cars off the road for a year. Long-term plans call for up to 7 megawatts of solar-generating capacity to be built at ASU in Tempe, with additional solar installations at its campuses in downtown Phoenix and other locations.

"These large-scale solar installations demonstrate ASU's commitment to achieving carbon neutrality through on-site, renewable-energy generation," ASU President Michael Crow said.

ASU is becoming a major player in solar research and sustainability. This is a real-world showcase of its efforts.

Read More @ The Arizona Republic

Future Apple Devices Looking to Solar Power

11thhouraction — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:23:19 -0500

Employees at Apple have filed a patent for integrating solar cells into portable devices by placing them underneath the layers of a touch-sensitive display, according to the filing.

Solar power could help make devices truly portable, freeing from the need for wires to connect them to a power supply.

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Site provided by www.nytimes.com

Tree House - it's in their hands............

Bill McKimm — Sun, 25 May 2008 16:08:40 -0500

we are on a journey that we believe will change early years child education and attitude to the environment, we plan do this in a building that will be built from sustainable sources and will be carbon neutral.......................... does anyone no of any other similar projects happening world-wide? where we can share ideas and inspiration ????? do you have any ideas?

SHEC LABS Solar Thermal Energy for Alternative Fuels, Power and Green Communities

tombeck — Sun, 25 May 2008 12:55:45 -0500

SHEC LABS has been developing Solar Thermal Technology for the production of hydrogen from waste. SHEC is currently commercializing this technology to convert waste methane sources from landfills, agricultural waste, waste water treatment, coal-bed methane and other sources. Methane from such waste sources enter the atmosphere and are 21 time more potent as a greenhouse gas compared to carbon dioxide. SHEC's process dramatically reduces greenhouse gas emissions by both the destruction of the methane the offsetting of fossil fuels in the production of hydrogen. Currently SHEC has interest in deploying this technology in Canada, the United States and Europe.

The Technology:

SHEC has developed the most efficient solar thermal technology in the world as far as we know. The technology consists of a solar concentrator that concentrates sunlight to between 5,000 and 16,000 times. This intense sunlight goes into a solar receiver in which the heat energy of the sun is applied to a process. The emissivity (radiant energy loss) is only 5% which is key to the high thermal efficiency of the solar receiver. The heat in the solar receiver is then applied to a process. In the instance of our hydrogen production process, a thermal catalytic reactor is coupled to the solar receiver.

Other Applications:

The heat reaches high temperatures in excess of the melting point of any metal if this thermal energy in not removed by a process, This heat can be applied to the production of alternative fuels besides hydrogen, the production of electricity and for industrial and residential heating applications.

Solar Energy Availability:

Solar energy has the potential to provide humanity with a clean, renewable and sustainable energy source. The Earth receives 89,000 Tera Watts (TW) of solar energy from the sun. Total human consumption of energy amount to 15 TW. A very small portion of the suns energy has to be harnessed to meet all of the energy requirements of humanity.

SHEC is continuing to decreases the cost of its solar collection technologies with 2nd and 3rd generation design innovations. This in conjunction with mass manufacturing is anticipated to make SHEC’s solar energy a very attractive and competitive option to fossil fuels.

Tom Beck , President & CEO, SHEC LABS

Study Supports U.S. Wind Expansion

Bohemian — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:59:20 -0500

Latest Newscourtesy Worldwatch InstituteStudy Supports U.S. Wind ExpansionWind energy can supply 20 percent of U.S. electricity needs by 2030 at a "modest" cost difference, a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) report says.

The analysis predicts that the 20 percent wind scenario would cost about 2 percent more than sticking with the current energy mix, which relies more heavily on traditional fossil fuels.

"The 20 percent wind scenario entails higher initial capital costs (to install wind capacity and associated transmission infrastructure) in many areas, yet offers lower ongoing energy costs than conventional power plants for operations, maintenance, and fuel," said the report, which was written in conjunction with industry and environmental analysts. Under the scenario, 500,000 new jobs would be created.

To reach their goal by 2030, the department said wind energy installation would need to triple from the current rate of 5.2 gigawatts (GW) added in 2007 to more than 16 GW per year by 2018, with that pace continuing through 2030. The total wind energy growth, 290 GW, would displace the projected use of coal for power generation by 18 percent and the use of natural gas by about 50 percent.

Such a dramatic increase in wind capacity would require large-scale expansion of the U.S. electrical transmission grid to access the best wind resources and relieve grid congestion. Power companies would also have to add gas turbine generators to provide back-up electricity when the wind isn't blowing, which ranges from 25 to 45 percent of the day, according to Thomas Key, renewable energy technology leader for the Electric Power Research Institute.

One of the most consistent criticisms of wind is that, due to its intermittent nature, improved electricity storage is necessary. "We don't have many options for electrical energy storage right now," Key said. "We really need some technological advances to find economic advances on this scale."

The study, however, finds that electricity storage is not needed to reach the 20 percent goal. Andy Karsner, the DOE's assistant secretary of energy efficiency and renewable energy, said claims of wind power unreliability are false. "Wind is in fact one of our least volatile resources," he said at a press briefing.

Wind energy provides just 1 percent of U.S. electricity today, compared with about 7 percent in Germany where the government has provided steady support for the industry since the early 1990s. State laws that require utilities to purchase wind power have recently revived the U.S. industry, and the country has led the world in wind power installations over the past two years.

The U.S. industry remains dependent on a short-term federal tax credit that will expire at the end of this year unless Congress extends it. "We need to fix the production tax credit uncertainty... as part of a plan to get [20 percent by 2030]," said Daniel Kammen, director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley.

The new study estimates that the increase in wind generation would avoid 7.6 billion cumulative tons of the principal greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, from being emitted - the equivalent of protecting about 48 million acres (19.4 million hectares) of forest from deforestation. This would nearly eliminate the projected increase in emissions from U.S. power plants between now and 2030.

"To dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance our energy security, clean power generation at the gigawatt-scale will be necessary, and will require us to take a comprehensive approach," Karsner said in a prepared statement.

The added wind power would also avoid 4 trillion gallons of water from being consumed for electricity generation, the report estimates. Less coal-fired power results in fewer emissions of mercury and the pollutants that cause acid rain, as well.

As the price of fossil fuels continue to climb, Kammen said wind energy may end up costing less than the additional 2 percent that the report predicts. "It doesn't include the ramp up of fossil fuel prices [which rose significantly since the study's completion]...and we haven't even started talking about what the price of carbon will be," he said. "This looks like the bargain of the century."

"Although the 20 percent wind scenario sounds ambitious, the industry has actually grown faster over the past year than assumed in the study's scenario, says Worldwatch Institute president Christopher Flavin. "Wind power is going to be a huge part of the country's energy future." Worldwatch senior researcher Janet Sawin was a member of the study's steering committee and helped author a policy chapter that was later removed from the report.

Staff writer Ben Blocks reports everything environmental for the Worldwatch Institute. He can be reached at bblock@worldwatch.org.

Big Sur Bohemian Club

A new life

Ecochic101 — Sat, 10 May 2008 01:24:34 -0500

I can't wait, my family is trying to get solar this year so that we can produce enough energy to power our new home that we will move into soon. First we are putting in energy efficient appliances then we will install a PV system and hopefully a solar hot water heater too. Then we are planning to rip out most of our lawn and plant an organic garden and get a greenhouse too. We will check with the city to see if they allow you to have chickens in urban areas so we can have some of our own eggs right out of the backyard! Chickens also help keep pest down so we will let them scratch in the garden. We are also planning to get a pruis so we have less impact until we have solar that produces enough electricty so that we can buy and charge an electric car on it. The new place we're moving to has lots of farmers markets too, I can't wait to ride my bike to them and taste the local, organic produce and foods! The city also recycles a ton, most in the nation, so that will be great as well. Oh, almost forgot we are going to try and get a composter too and put in a bird/butterfly garden near the fruits and veggies! LIFE WILL NEVER BE BETTER! MY DREAM IS TO HAVE ZERO NEGATIVE IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT, AND MAYBE EVEN HELP IT!

U.S. Consumers Worst at Being Green

AZ_Sun — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:14:46 -0500

WASHINGTON - Americans rank last in a new National Geographic-sponsored survey released Wednesday that compares environmental-consumption habits in 14 countries.

Americans were least likely to choose the greener option in three out of four categories - housing, transportation and consumer goods, according to the assessment. In the fourth category, food, Americans ranked ahead of Japanese consumers, who eat more meat and seafood.

The rankings, called "Greendex," are the first to compare the lifestyles and behaviors of consumers in multiple countries, according to the National Geographic Society.

It plans to conduct the 100-plus-question survey annually and considers trends more important than yearly scores, said Terry Garcia, executive vice president of National Geographic's mission programs.

"This is not just a one-time snapshot," Garcia said. "Some of the most important information may yet be revealed."
India and Brazil tied for the highest score: 60 points out of 100. U.S. consumers scored 44.9.

In between, China scored 56.1, Mexico 54.2, Hungary 53.2, Russia 52.4, Great Britain 50.2, Germany 50.2, Australia 50.2, Spain 50, Japan 49.1, France 48.7 and Canada 48.5.

Results are based on 1,000 online respondents per country interviewed in January and February by GlobeScan, an international polling firm.

To see how you score, take an abbreviated version of the survey at National Geographic Greendex

How Americans ranked among 14 nations in eco-friendly choices.
Transportation: 14th Place
Housing: 14th Place
Consumer Goods: 14th Place
Food: 13th Place

Source: McClatchy Newspapers
Above article printed in Arizona Republic