Getting cheaper, but…
Monday, November 5th, 2007Solar power is becoming increasingly affordable around the world — for those who can afford it, at least. According to a recent article on Yahoo news (“Solar Energy May Help the World’s Poorest”), “A surge in investment in solar power is bringing down costs of the alternative energy source, but affordability problems still dog hopes for the 1.6 billion people worldwide without electricity.” While governments in most already developed countries are finally realizing the necessity of developing and promoting alternative energy sources, families in poorer countries are being left behind. This includes many nations otherwise well positioned to take advantage of solar technology, including those in equatorial and tropical regions that receive comparatively large amounts of sunlight. The majority of families in these regions currently utilize energy methods that are not only inefficient, but are also physically harmful. According to Professor Stephen Chu, a Nobel laureate physicist, 1.6 billion people worldwide live without electricity while another 2-3 billion use energy “in a primitive way [that is] very damaging to health.”
The article further underscores the relative inadequacy of solar policies in the United States compared to other developed countries. According to the article, an average German household can earn the equivalent of almost $3,000 a year in government subsidies for installing solar panels, more than double the annual cost of their electric bill. Current New York state law allows net-metering of only up to 10kW exclusively for residential systems. This relatively meager amount does not provide sufficient economic incentive for home owners to retrofit their energy systems. Click here to find out more about ways in which you can help our lawmakers amend this short-sighted legislation.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Legislation, Photovoltaics | Permalink
Solar Decathalon
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
Recently, the National Mall in Washington DC was transformed into an outdoor exhibit for the future of home design. The Solar Decathalon is held every other year and focuses on a unique design challenge.
Student lead teams from around the world competed to build live-in prototypes for houses with accustomed American features–and sometimes more. The houses were required to meet certain energy usage requirements like a TV, computer, hot showers, etc, and also meet indoor climate requirements like temperature and humidity moderation. All this while being completely off grid.
A team from Germany, where solar incentives have driven the market for years, won the competition, ahead of teams from University of Maryland and Santa Clara University. There were 20 finalists invited to come to DC.
At 9am this Sunday morning on CBS Morning News there will be a segment on the competition by the NYT columnist David Pogue.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Photovoltaics | Permalink
60mpg, sportscar fast…. and a Hummer?
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Crazy car tuner John Goodwin has done some unbelievable things in the past, but his current project takes the cake, and was featured on the cover of Fast Company magazine.
John got his hands on a 1985 jet turbine which he is planning on dropping in a 2005 Hummer H3, promising to be the latest in a long series of huge green cars that Goodwin has engineered. He is currently working on a 1960 Lincoln Continental conversion for Neil Young with the target of 100mpg. More on the unbelievable Hummer conversion from the magazine (because he’s a better author):
Like most hybrids, it’ll have two engines, including an electric motor. But in this case, the second will be the turbine, Goodwin’s secret ingredient. Whenever the truck’s juice runs low, the turbine will roar into action for a few seconds, powering a generator with such gusto that it’ll recharge a set of “supercapacitor” batteries in seconds. This means the H3’s electric motor will be able to perform awesome feats of acceleration and power over and over again, like a Prius on steroids. What’s more, the turbine will burn biodiesel, a renewable fuel with much lower emissions than normal diesel; a hydrogen-injection system will then cut those low emissions in half. And when it’s time to fill the tank, he’ll be able to just pull up to the back of a diner and dump in its excess french-fry grease–as he does with his many other Hummers. Oh, yeah, he adds, the horsepower will double–from 300 to 600.
“Conservatively,” Goodwin muses, scratching his chin, “it’ll get 60 miles to the gallon. With 2,000 foot-pounds of torque. You’ll be able to smoke the tires. And it’s going to be superefficient.”
He laughs. “Think about it: a 5,000-pound vehicle that gets 60 miles to the gallon and does zero to 60 in five seconds!”
A high school dropout from Kansas can do this and Detroit can’t do what?
Posted in Biofuel, Energy Efficiency, Transportation | Permalink
Green beer, but not dyed
Thursday, October 18th, 2007
Right here in NYC, our very own Brooklyn Brewery uses 100% certified wind power electricity, and another east coast brew-crew, Peak Organic, is, well, organic.
But a Colorado company is taking leaps and bounds in the direction of lowering the environmental impact of their brewing. New Belgium has many energy saving features built into their factory like windows that automatically open based on temperature, waste steam that preheats incoming water, and an onsite water-treatment facility that creates methane for electricity generation. They get the rest of their power from local wind farms, and buy carbon offsets on the CCX.
The next thing they are working on? Partnering with a biodiesel algae farm to put to use the concentrated CO2 that brewing beer makes.
Popular Mechanics has a slew of other awesome green design, like an eco disco floor.
Posted in Biofuel, Energy Efficiency, Food, Sustainability | Permalink
OFF, Light Switch Hook
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 
Artist Scott Amron of Amron Experimental is making it easier to keep the lights turned off by encouraging you to hang your wet laundry or any other assortment of things on his OFF light switch hook. According to Amron, his design
OFF, the light switch hook, provides a hanging function when in the OFF position. It is a fully functional light switch. It was designed to persuade people to use less energy.
OFF is not the only design product coming out of Amron Experimental that encourages reduced energy consumption, check out the Die Electric, the Shelf, the Candull and others.
Posted in Energy Efficiency | Permalink
Outsource your IT to save energy
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
Economic staples like specialization of labor and free-markets shine through in all different places, and energy efficiency is no different. BusinessGreen blog reports that according to a European study businesses can achieve significant energy savings by outsourcing their data centers to large centralized computing facilities.
Centralized facilities have a much greater incentive to invest in energy saving measures because of their economies of scale. The more computers they run, the more they stand to gain from using less energy. Many business on their own do not use enough energy to justify the investment in energy saving infrastructure.
Posted in Energy Efficiency | Permalink
Still room in the high efficiency lighting market
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal, in a news article picked up by Treehugger, details the national attention that some Wisconsin companies have been getting for their work in energy efficiency. The big prize up right now: The Clinton Climate Initiative is spearheading a $5billion campaign to increase efficiency in 16 large American cities.
Featured is a company called Orion Energy Systems that uses bulb and computer technology to reduce the load of large factory and gym lighting by 50%. The gains are so impressive that they have startled energy companies, who have placed calls to factories after the conversion, wondering what happened.
Posted in Energy Efficiency | Permalink
Global Warming Roundup
Thursday, October 4th, 2007Another week, another spate of global warming-related essays, action and non-action.
At the New York Times last week, former Czech President Vaclav Havel attempted to revive to moral argument for combatting global warming, saying:
It is also obvious from published research that human activity is a cause of change; we just don’t know how big its contribution is. Is it necessary to know that to the last percentage point, though? By waiting for incontrovertible precision, aren’t we simply wasting time when we could be taking measures that are relatively painless compared to those we would have to adopt after further delays?
There can be no doubt that for the past hundred years at least, Europe and the United States have been running up a debt, and now other parts of the world are following their example. Nature is issuing warnings that we must not only stop the debt from growing but start to pay it back. There is little point in asking whether we have borrowed too much or what would happen if we postponed the repayments. Anyone with a mortgage or a bank loan can easily imagine the answer.
Amen to that. I highly recommend reading the entire piece. Every day that passes with no movement on new CAFE standards, or that another non-green building goes up, or that we go without a comprehensive carbon-reduction plan is another day we get closer to seeing irreversible effects from climate change. Recent news reports say that scientists are stunned at how much the Arctic ice has receded this year, and our former colleague Ben Jervey is currently on a boat near Greenland making a journey that has only been made possible by the melting of sea ice.
Posted in Energy, Energy Efficiency, Global Warming, Green Building | Permalink
Strangely named Fetish to debut soon
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
The car company Venturi will finally debut their premium price electric sports car this month, rumor has it. Named ‘Fetish’, it will compete with that super-upper-echelon-car-category with a price point well over half a million dollars. I bet it goes fast, though.
Posted in Energy Efficiency | Permalink
