Do you travel a lot for work? I do. Four cross country flights in about a month seems like a fair bit of travel to me. I have often had an issue with the volume of travel and its impact on the environment. While this does not eliminate the carbon released into the atmosphere, it does help to reduce the impact of that carbon.
I would like to encourage any of you who travel a lot for work or fun to consider this or a similar program.
Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
Recently Gensler broke ground on a soaring sustainably skyscraper that is set to become the tallest tower in China. The slender, elegantly spiraling Shanghai Tower will rise 632 meters, making it the latest super-tall to spring up in China’s rapidly developing Luijiazui Finance and Trade Zone. A beacon for a more sustainable future, the skyscraper will feature a high-performance façade that shelters no fewer than nine sky gardens, a rainwater recycling system, and a series of wind turbines perched beneath its parapet.
Climate Change Makes Buildings Go Green
For buildings the future is bright – bright green, that is. New research into how stone facades will be altered by changes in the atmosphere suggests that the days of smutty grey and black buildings are gone.The coming century will see iconic limestone structures like the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, and the gothic cathedrals of Europe and the US turn yellow, reddish-brown, and even green with lichen and moss.
Cities will become more colourful as pollution patterns change and wind-swept rain washes away the black coal soot typical of the 20th century. What’s more, legal requirements to use clean fuels are likely to mean lichens and mosses will grow more easily, turning buildings green in parts.
Travel The World In A Solar Car
he first solar-powered car to travel around the world ended its journey at the U.N. climate talks Thursday, arriving with the message that clean technologies are available now to stop global warming.The small two-seater, hauling a trailer of solar cells and carrying chief U.N. climate official Yvo de Boer, glided up to a building in Poznan, Poland, where delegates from some 190 nations are working toward a new treaty to control climate change.
Boifuels Solve Global Warming Twice
Converting agricultural land to perennial grasses, such as Miscanthus, has a beneficial effect on soil carbon.Converting forests or fields to biofuel crops can increase or decrease greenhouse gas emissions, depending on where – and which – biofuel crops are used, University of Illinois researchers report this month.
The researchers analyzed data from dozens of studies to determine how planting new biofuel crops can influence the carbon content of the soil. Their findings appear this month in the journal Global Change Biology Bioenergy.Plants use the sun’s energy to convert carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the organic carbon that makes up leaves, stems and other plant parts. As plants decay, this carbon goes into the soil. Organic carbon is an important component of soil health and also influences atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Whenever the soil is disturbed, as occurs when land is plowed or cleared of vegetation, some of this carbon returns to the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide.
Scientists have found that a polymer material is an excellent catalyst in a process to produce hydrogen fuel using sunlight and water. The material meets the basic requirements for an ideal catalyst — including being abundant, easy to work with, and non-toxic — and could help this “green” alternative-energy production method become mainstream.
Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
Saving the World, One Home at a Time
A super-efficient system that has the potential to power, heat and cool homes across the UK is being developed at Newcastle University.
It works by burning vegetable oil to power a generator and provide electricity for the home.The waste heat from this process is then used to provide heating and hot water and is also converted to cool a fridge.
At each step, the waste heat that is produced from engine gases and cooling is used elsewhere to recover the maximum amount of energy from the system.
In addition to this, the plant producing the fuel absorbs carbon whilst growing – resulting in near zero overall carbon emissions.
Using these three forms of energy for home use is known as micro-trigeneration and this new design will take the concept of combined heat and power to the next level.
Recently the cities of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland unveiled a massive concerted effort to become the electric vehicle capitol of the United States! This groundbreaking development heralds a nine-step plan that includes everything from buying fully electric vehicles for all government transportation to expediting the approval of charging outlets throughout the bay area, including those located on the street. The creation of this essential infrastructure marks a huge step towards the acceptance of electric vehicles as a viable alternative to those that run on fossil fuel.
Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
China’s First Zero Emissions Building
Situated in Ningbo, China, the University of Nottingham’s new Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies (CSET) is a welcome addition to the landscape as well as the air above Zhejiang province. Inspired by Chinese lanterns and traditional wooden screens, Mario Cucinella Architects packed CSET with a variety of sustainable attributes to make it the the first zero-emissions building in China.Located in a country that relies heavily on coal power to support a population nearing 1.5 billion, CSET’s sustainable attributes are are vigorous as its environmental curriculum. The building is powered by a large array of photovoltaic cells and geothermal energy (which cools and heats the five story floor slabs). Any additional energy collected is stored in batteries that can provide up to two week’s worth of electricity for sunless days.
CSET’s double-glass skin reduces solar radiation, and the large rooftop opening creates natural ventilation while allowing daylight to illuminate the interior spaces. The building also makes extensive use of locally sourced materials in its construction and boasts an onsite rain and gray-water recycling center.
The latest high power LED street lights from European leader JolietTechnology, coupled with ultra efficient photovoltaic panels offers a new generation of energy efficient, pollution free solar street lighting solutions.The advantages of cost effective LED lighting for streets, crossings, parking areas, gardens and public areas compared to conventional sodium lamps are undeniable. Adding a photovoltaic power source offers a new dimension.
The new ‘Cleanstreet’ solar LED street light from Joliet Technology is an integrated mast head fitting which employs two 130Wp photovoltaic modules and a electronic controller to charge batteries which operate the 56W LED lamp unit. The advanced system controller offers a night/day sensor for automatic switching.
The Future of Hydrogen is in Corn
The next alternative fuel in a vehicle’s tank might be nothing more than gas with a little help from corn. However, instead of the usual petroleum-based fuel, this gas will be hydrogen, and the corn will be in the form of corncob-charcoaled briquettes. To further develop this alternative fuel concept, researchers at the University of Missouri and Midwest Research Institute (MRI) were recently awarded a three-year, $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue studying a solution to hydrogen storage in vehicles.“Developmental hydrogen vehicles exist today but current designs require large, bulky tanks of compressed hydrogen gas to hold the fuel,” said Peter Pfeifer, professor and chair of the Department of Physics in the MU College of Arts and Science. “The tanks also have a relatively small range, only holding enough fuel to travel up to 200 miles. We will be working on reducing the size and weight of the tank and increasing the storage capacity by developing storage materials that hold hydrogen at a much lower pressure than the current high-pressure tanks. The new tanks will store hydrogen on the surface of appropriately engineered carbons.”
On a bank of the Mohawk River, a windowless industrial building of corrugated steel hides something that could make floor lamps, bedside lamps, wall sconces and nearly every other household lamp obsolete. It’s a machine that prints lights.The size of a semitrailer, it coats an 8-inch wide plastic film with chemicals, then seals them with a layer of metal foil. Apply electric current to the resulting sheet, and it lights up with a blue-white glow.
You could tack that sheet to a wall, wrap it around a pillar or even take a translucent version and tape it to your windows. Unlike practically every other source of lighting, you wouldn’t need a lamp or conventional fixture for these sheets, though you would need to plug them into an outlet.
The sheets owe their luminance to compounds known as organic light-emitting diodes, or OLEDs. While there are plenty of problems to be worked out with the technology, it’s not the dream of a wild-eyed startup.
OLEDs are beginning to be used in TVs and cell-phone displays, and big names like Siemens and Philips are throwing their weight behind the technology to make it a lighting source as well. The OLED printer was made by General Electric Co. on its sprawling research campus here in upstate New York. It’s not far from where a GE physicist figured out a practical way to use tungsten metal as the filament in a regular light bulb. That’s still used today, nearly a century later.
The invention of the incandescent bulb created the pattern for home lighting: Our light sources are small and bright. Maybe there are a few in the center of the ceiling, and a few in the corners of the room. Because they’re too bright to look at, they need to be reflected and diffused with lamp shades and frosted glass.
OLEDs could overturn all that, with broad, diffuse light sources bathing rooms in a gentle glow. Photographers go to great lengths to diffuse the illumination they use when shooting portraits, because they know we look our best in soft light.
The big glowing sheets could also make light sources out of everyday things. GE imagines putting OLEDs on the inside of window blinds – pull them down, light them up, and you have light streaming from the window, even at night. You could even make OLED wallpaper, since the material is flexible.
Paris Triangulates Green Architecture
Recently Herzog & de Meuron revealed Le Project Triangle, an incredible structure that will rise 200 meters from the Porte de Versailles in Paris. The stunning skyscraper will feature a profile so slim that it casts virtually no shadow, and its orientation will be optimized to take advantage of both solar and wind power. Paris’ new pyramid will be the first high-rise to be approved for construction is the city’s center since 1977, thanks to the recent lifting of a 31-year-old ban established by the previous Mayor of paris, Jacques Chirac.
As utility costs mount ever higher, Americans now have real options to take home energy matters into their own hands with “green” systems that can pay for themselves in as little as a few years.Among the choices: wind, solar, geothermal and a “microhydro” option that is potentially cheaper than a year’s tuition at many state colleges.
Choosing the do-it-yourself route can offer the freedom of going partially or totally off the grid. And, if the energy generated exceeds your actual usage, you can even sell the excess juice to your utility company. But none of this is free.
Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
The world of solar energy has been tumultuous of late in the United States: the BLM essentially bans solar power projects on public lands, then reverses its decision because of public outcry. Not to mention the inaction in the Senate on one set of renewable energy legislation, and the action in the House on another. Here’s another twist in the road of clean energy promotion.Ten Million Solar Roofs In Ten Years
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has introduced a new bill into the Senate to help ease the cost for homeowners wanting to install solar panels. The 10 Million Solar Roofs Act of 2008 will offer rebates for up to half the installation costs of solar photovoltaic systems, and would be in place for the next ten years. In addition to private homes and businesses, non-profit organizations, and state and local governments would be eligible for the rebates.
For the 1.6 billion people living in areas without utility-supplied electricity, Sharp has designed a TV that can get 100% of its power from the sun. The company plans to exhibit the 26-inch LCD prototype at the Hokkaido Toyako Summit, or G8 Summit, in Hokkaido, Japan, on July 7-9.The TV uses about one-fourth the power and has about one-third the annual energy consumption of a conventional CRT TV with the same screen size. Compared to today´s LCD TVs, the low-power prototype uses about one-third the power, and about one-half the annual energy consumption.
This extremely low power consumption allows the TV to be powered from one of Sharp´s triple-junction thin-film solar cell modules, with a surface area of about the same size as the LCD screen. The company plans to market the TV and solar energy system as a combination pair.
Solar Sails – The Future is Now
IT’S an idea that has been plagued by misfortune. Now, proponents of technology that seeks to propel spacecraft using the pressure exerted by photons from the sun on thin “solar sails” look set for another chance to get their idea off the ground.Missions by the US non-profit Planetary Society to test solar sail technology failed in 2001 and 2005, because the rockets needed to get them into space malfunctioned. Now they look set for a comeback as early as 29 July, when a tiny NASA spacecraft called NanoSail-D is scheduled to go into Earth orbit.
The aim is to demonstrate the feasibility of deploying sails in orbit. The spacecraft will unfurl four 3-metre-wide sails made of plastic film coated with aluminium. In addition to feeling pressure from sunlight, it is hoped that the sails will experience a slight drag from Earth’s outer atmosphere. Similar sails could one day be used to bring normal satellites back to Earth after their missions, reducing orbital clutter.
Solar Power, good sense and good cents
Solar energy is clean energy’s rising star, leading the pack in renewable energy investments last year. The Solar Energy Industries Association ( SEIA) reports that 254 megawatts of photovoltaic and concentrating solar power were installed in 2007. The solar energy sector has grown substantially over the past 25 years. At the same time, some investors have also seen substantial growth in their solar-related investments.Visit the Prospectus Ordering Center”Solar energy equipment can be deployed to create power in several ways, thus one can diversify investment within the sector,” said Monique Hanis, director of communications at SEIA.
Solar is experiencing growing support from the local, state, and federal governments. New Jersey, Florida, Maryland, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Washington, and New Mexico have all increased their solar energy incentive programs. Other states have passed laws dictating that more energy be from renewable sources. California has mandated that utilities generate 20% of their energy from renewables by 2010 with that figure rising to 33% by 2017.
Solar Sunday is my weekly roundup of renewable energy and energy efficiency news from around the web.
This sad stretch of eastern Germany, with its deserted coal mines and corroded factories, epitomizes post-industrial gloom. It is a place where even the clouds rarely seem to part.A solar cell is checked on the assembly line at Q-Cells in Thalheim, Germany. More than 40,000 people work in the photovoltaic industry in Germany, helping to revive once-blighted areas.
Yet the sun was shining here the other day — and nowhere more brightly than at Q-Cells, a German company that surpassed Sharp last year to become the world’s largest maker of photovoltaic solar cells. Q-Cells is the main tenant among a flowering cluster of solar start-ups here in an area known as Solar Valley.
Thanks to its aggressive push into renewable energies, cloud-wreathed Germany has become an unlikely leader in the race to harness the sun’s energy. It has by far the largest market for photovoltaic systems, which convert sunlight into electricity, with roughly half of the world’s total installations. And it is the third-largest producer of solar cells and modules, after China and Japan.
American DJ has unveiled a revolutionary new kind of intelligent moving head powered by a mega-watt LED. The company’s new X-Move LED utilizes one super-size 20-watt white LED to create a brawny beam that’s powerful enough to project gobo patterns and colors across floors, walls and ceilings.Comparable to a 250W halogen lamp in output, the X-Move LED’s whopper LED beam shines through the fixture’s color and gobo wheels to create stunning images and patterns that look like they were produced by a traditional halogen or discharge effect. Yet, although the X-Move LED’s effects are indistinguishable from a conventional moving head to the eye, the unit offers the benefits and ease of LED technology, such as a long 50,000-hour rated lamp life and a low power draw. At a mere 44W, it consumes just a fraction of the energy of a traditional 250W effect! In addition to saving energy, this lets you hook up more units on a single electrical circuit.
The U.S Department of Energy (DOE) today released a first-of-its kind report that examines the technical feasibility of harnessing wind power to provide up to 20 percent of the nation’s total electricity needs by 2030. Entitled “20 Percent Wind Energy by 2030”, the report identifies requirements to achieve this goal including reducing the cost of wind technologies, citing new transmission infrastructure, and enhancing domestic manufacturing capability.Most notably, the report identifies opportunities for 7.6 cumulative gigatons of CO2 to be avoided by 2030, saving 825 million metric tons in 2030 and every year thereafter if wind energy achieves 20 percent of the nation’s electricity mix
HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco has been a long time supporter of the green cause too. Famed son of Grace Kelly, and head of Monaco, that little tiny tax-free haven falling into the sea, his foundation has done some serious, ground breaking work on global warming; renewable energies; loss of biodiversity; improving access to water and fighting desertification. In recognition, he has now been named Europe’s “Champion of the Earth” by the United Nations Environmental Programme. On receiving the award, he said: “We can’t go on as business as usual. Those who haven’t realised that yet will be sorry in a few years”. He pledged to “carry out missions to raise the alarm and heighten awareness in the field. The world is facing an unprecedented threat. We must assume our responsibilities without delay and rise to the challenge that history has placed upon our path”.
One of the world’s largest oil producers has begun construction on the first zero-carbon city, powered entirely by renewable energy.Officials from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, touted plans for a $22 billion development known as the Masdar Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in Cambridge, US, on 5 May.
“This is going to create huge business and research opportunities to get beyond where we are today,” says Khaled Awad, of the government-owned Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company.
UAE is the third-largest oil exporting country in the world and sits on 10% of the planet’s known oil reserves. Awad, however, sees the city, which will house an alternative energy research institute, as an investment in alternative energies that will eventually replace oil.
As he pulled one of the sleek new automobiles down a side street Thursday and put the pedal to the metal, its lithium-ion battery-powered engine didn’t give off sparks. It just emitted a powerful hum, something like a much quieter version of a jet taking off.“Accelerate pretty good?” asked Snyder, head of client services for Tesla, who knew the answer.
“I call it a turbine sound,” he said of the sound. “Because it’s an electric motor it’s got 100 percent torque all the time. So it just pulls you like when you’re taking off in an airplane.”
After several years of development, the Roadster – with sleek lines like a Ferrari or Porsche and a sticker price of $109,000 – officially moves from the drawing boards to the market next week when Tesla’s first store opens. It’s near the University of California, Los Angeles, in the city’s toney Westwood neighborhood where Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Hollywood practically intersect.
“Because it’s Hollywood and glamorous, this is the flagship store,” Snyder said.
The next store is to open in a couple months near Tesla’s headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of San Carlos, where the car was developed with venture capital of more than $40 million from such investors as Google Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. More stores are planned for Chicago, New York and other cities by early next year.
Although a fully loaded model can set a buyer back as much as $124,000, that’s still cheap compared with a high-end Ferrari. And its 6,831-cell lithium-ion battery pack gives off no emissions.
The car goes from 0 to 60 mph in just under four seconds and tops out at 125 mph. It goes 225 miles on one charge and can be fully recharged in 3.5 hours, which Tesla officials say should allow most people to drive it to work and back and recharge it at night like a cell phone.
