CleanTechnica

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Denmark-based Vestas Wind Systems (VWS:DC) had a big week. First, the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturer announced that they would be building a tower manufacturing plant in Colorado. Second, Vestas reported a 94 percent jump in earnings in the first quarter of 2008, as compared to the same period last year.

Although they have yet to disclose the location of the new tower manufacturing facility, it would be situated to complement the company’s fist North American blade manufacturing plant, which recently opened its doors in Windsor, Colorado.

For the tower plant, the company will need a large parcel of land served by freight rail, a combination that Northern Colorado can provide at several locations, including the Windsor location, where construction proceeds on phase two of the blade plant. According to the Northern Colorado Business Review, more than 1,000 new jobs could result from further expansion of Vestas’ manufacturing presence. Read the rest of this entry »

300 garbage collection trucks in California will soon be fueled by the same trash that they haul. Landfill gas will be purified and liquefied, producing up to 13,000 gallons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) daily.

This facility at Waste Management’s Altamont Landfill in Livermore, California will begin operation in 2009. It comes with a price tag of $15.5 million, with grants providing $1.4 million.

Cleaner Fuel

Waste Management is the largest waste management company in North America and operates the largest US fleet of heavy-duty collection trucks. The company has a goal to reduce fleet emissions by 15% by 2020. Read the rest of this entry »

“Negawatts”, a termed coined by Amory Lovins in 1989 to describe savings created by using less energy, are becoming a reality. The fact that saving energy is much cheaper than building new power generation capacity has motivated the markets to create financial and other incentives to monetize that savings. According to an article in Renewable Energy World, several market mechanisms have emerged:

• Demand response: enrolling large users of energy in programs to lower their usage in return for compensation, which helps take pressure off the grid. Examples of demand response networks include Comverge and Gridpoint.
• White Tags: businesses earn energy savings certificates for the energy they send back to the grid based on efficiency measures they put in place. White Tags can then be sold or put toward achieving mandatory emission goals.

The potential of energy savings is largely untapped, but there is plenty of precedent for it in California. “Since the 1970s, California, through the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), has worked with utilities to encourage conservation rather than consumption. As a result, Californians now use about half as much electricity as other Americans.” –Glenn Croston, Renewable Energy World.

Rock Port, Missouri is the first 100% wind powered city in the US. Loess Hill Wind Farm, with four 1.25 MW wind turbines is estimated to generate 16 gigawatt hours (16 million kilowatt hours) of electricity annually. 13 gigawatts hours of electricity have historically been consumed annually by the residents and businesses of this town of 1,400 people.

The local electric company, Missouri Public Utility Alliance, will purchase excess electricity when available. They will then supply power when there is not enough wind energy available. Excess wind energy will not be stored but rather fed into the city’s high voltage line, making it an intermittent source of power.

Several factors made this smaller scale project possible. The city has a bluff within the city limits with good resources, John Deere’s Wind Energy financing the project, and proximity to the power grid.

Related Posts:
What’s Holding Wind Power Back?

Solar Thermal Electricity: Can it Replace Coal, Gas, and Oil?

The Unlimited Potential of American Wind Power: AWEA

In the Blogosphere:

Planetthoughts: First Town in the US to be 100% Wind Powered

There are a lot of cool gadgets out there, but there’s a fine line between what’s cool and what’s useful. This is a green list of gadgets that are useful, but boast the extra-cool factor of using renewable energy. No batteries required!

10. The Ship has Landed

The lightship is a solar-powered LED mounted on suction cups. Result: a portable, hands-free, solar light. It’s even weather proof and weighs a slim 8oz. For under $15, this is the best 8 hours of clean light I can think of, and I might just get one for my car/camping trips/travels.

9. High-tech pool toy? Read the rest of this entry »

BuildingGreen.com features a story on the value that renewable energy can add to a home. Amy Levin, a realtor who completed a LEED platinum registered gut rehab in Washington, DC, had her home appraised at 10% higher value than comparable properties. Interested buyers made offers that exceeded her green investment costs, even though the house wasn’t listed. People wanted to rent her house, even though she built it for her own residence.

The solar panels on the roof heat the water (and they seem positioned to shade the air conditioner, another energy-saver). An article in Kiplinger.com summarizes “sunshine economics”: Read the rest of this entry »

I cover a lot of upcoming or future technology, but it’s time to step into the present and aim for the past. Today we’re going to look at a technology available right now that can make some wanton energy waste history. It’s a surge protector that stakes the hearts of vampire electronics without hassling you, the sleeping victim.

Vampire appliances are pretty much anything you can plug in that still sucks energy when it’s supposedly turned off. Some are pretty obvious - the clocks on your microwave or VCR/DVD player burn all day, everyday. We know they’re not “off” because we cans see their LEDs glow. But other electronics, from your television to your cell phone charger also draw power when they’re plugged in but not in use. Check out a handy graph from Good Magazine. Some gadgets are notorious, like your plasma TV. Estimates claim that 5% or more of U.S. energy usage is insidiously wasted by “stand-by mode” or certain misleading “off” buttons. A whopping 5% may not sound like much, but it adds up to about $1 Billion dollars per year - and energy prices will probably continue to rise.

Be honest - how many times would you go around the house unplugging everything before it got old? Smart greenies have been switching off their surge protectors, but it’s easy to forget while watching your favorite late-night TV show or blogging at 4am. So what can we do about these metal-toothed Nosferatu in our midst? How about a surge protector that turns off all your appliances for you? Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a chance to support a great group making a direct, positive impact on the global community: Northwestern University’s chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World has done rural electrification work in the isolated community of Santo Domingo, Panama. In the words of the Northwestern students:

“We collaborate with the village to provide families with electricity generated by solar panels. We will train and equip community members to install and maintain solar panel systems in the 14 households that comprise their core community. From April 24-May 13, 2008, our Panama Solar Power project is participating in a contest to earn a permanent spot on Global Giving’s website, where donors can view global aid projects and contribute to their favorite ones. If you visit the Global Giving website at this link between now and May 13, you can not only contribute to the project but help assure it a future stream of financial support.”

I love supporting projects like this because of the magnified learning that happens: not only do the villagers get trained, but college students learn more than they could ever learn in a classroom; they learn how to collaborate with people in need and put them in control of their lives.

Tesla Would Be Proud

A few years back, Marin Soljačić was driven from bed by the insistent beeping of his mobile phone. But it wasn’t beeping for him to answer it, it was beeping for him to plug it in. Since that night, the assistant professor of physics at MIT, has been thinking about ways to start his phone charging as soon as he enters his home - without the need for plugs or wires.

Jennifer Chu at Technology Review writes that Soljačić considered using radio waves, but found that most of their energy would be lost in transmission. Targeted methods like lasers require a clear line-of-sight and could be dangerous for anything in their way. According to Chu, he eventually settled on a phenomenon called magnetic resonance coupling, in which two objects tuned to the same frequency exchange energy strongly but interact only weakly with other objects. Read the rest of this entry »

The average Chicagoan spends an hour and a half commuting to and from work each day. With the second largest public transportation system in the country, one million people ride city buses each day. Mayor Daley considered both facts when he devised a plan aimed at easing congestion, commuting times, and air pollution in the central business district. A $153 million federal grant can help make this plan a reality.

Priority Given to Buses Over Cars

The first part of the plan entails creating a 100 mile bus corridor with dedicated bus lanes during peak hours. Kiosks selling bus tickets allow passengers to quickly board buses and many routes will run express, resulting in fewer stops. Traffic lights will be programmed to turn green for buses, helping to keep them in motion. Hybrid buses will be used, reducing pollution in these heavily populated areas.
Read the rest of this entry »