Published on June 23rd, 2009
The California solar market faces a serious potential roadblock next week, warns Solar Nation. The policy that allows us to roll our meter backwards when we generate more solar electricity than we use — Net Metering — is capped at 2.5 % of system peak load. Once we reach that limit, solar net metering sunsets out.
And we are now almost at that limit. If the Legislature does not extend net metering by June 30th, that solar roof you planned in a year or two might soon be unaffordable.
If you want to stop it, take action through Solar Nation: Don’t kill Net Metering!
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Published on June 17th, 2009
The old saying “step on a crack, break your mother’s back” may not apply to sidewalks for much longer now that MIT researchers have figured out why concrete breaks down. As a result of the discovery, structures like buildings, bridges, and yes, sidewalks, could last for hundreds of years longer than they currently do. A nuclear waste container built to last 100 years could, for example, last 16,000 years.
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Published on June 8th, 2009
When it comes to environmental news, doom and gloom often rules the day. And it’s easy to get discouraged. But scientists from Yale University say most polluted ecosystems can recover in as little as 5 or 10 years.
The study means it’s not too late to turn things around if societies commit to cleanup, restoration and sustainability, according to Yale’s analysis of 240 independent studies. The findings appear in this month’s issue of the peer-reviewed journal PLoS ONE.
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Published on June 2nd, 2009
Right now, there’s no wind in the Great Lakes, but lots of talk.
There’s a bit of money, too, totaling about $100,000 from the federal stimulus package, aka the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The Great Lakes Commission has been granted $99,740 to develop a set of “Best Practices to Accelerate Wind Power in the Great Lakes and Beyond.”
The end result will be a guide to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to protecting the environment, being sensitive to community concerns and … building wind turbines in the water.
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Published on May 19th, 2009
Experts call energy efficiency the low-hanging fruit, because it’s cheaper to cut power use than create new energy from fossil fuels like coal.
But our creature comforts — like iPods, cell phones, PCs and plasma TVs — are sucking the life out of advances in energy efficiency around the world, the International Energy Agency says.
In other words, too much fruit is rotting on the vine.
The IEA says in a new “Gigawatts and Gadgets” report that electricity consumption from power-hungry electronics could cause household energy use to triple by 2030. That means increased greenhouse gases from electric generation, and increased electric bills for creating that power. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on March 30th, 2009
US Scientists have revealed how natural gas locked up in frozen water crystals could provide massive amounts of energy, and claim that it could even be totally emissions-free.
The astonishing claim was made by Tim Collett of the United States Geological Survey at last weeks national meeting of the American Chemical Society. Collett told the gathering that, to the naked eye, clathrate hydrate (CH) looks like everyday ice but, as well as being partly made of water, the molecules are also organised into “cages”, which trap individual molecules of methane.
Remarkably, a new method of extracting the methane and ’swapping’ it with carbon dioxide could turn the substance into a revolutionary carbon-neutral fossil fuel.
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Published on March 23rd, 2009
Energy efficiency initiatives that reduce electricity and gas usage could save consumers and businesses up to $168 billion, says the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). The report comes on the heels of the Campaign for an Energy-Efficient America: a group of business leaders, industry groups, and environmental advocates calling on Congress to enact a federal energy efficiency target.
“Energy efficiency is one of the most effective ways to address our nation’s energy and climate challenges while creating jobs and saving Americans money,” stated Steven Nadel, Executive Director of ACEEE. “In these difficult economic times, investment in energy efficiency makes more sense than ever and should be a top priority for our nation’s leaders.” Read the rest of this entry »
Published on March 12th, 2009
Microsoft has announced plans to make both their headquarters and their products more environmentally sound.
With energy-conservation, use of renewable energy, improved data center design, and reduction in air travel, the company plans to reduce their carbon emissions by 30 percent compared to 2007 levels by 2012.
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Published on February 17th, 2009
A Swedish town announced last month that it will use cremated bodies to provide heat, and now the British town of Reepham has decided to heat many of its buildings by burning oil made from melted cow and pig carcasses. Are dead bodies— human or otherwise— the next big thing in heating?
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Published on February 10th, 2009
Millions of people around the world heat their homes with charcoal burned on small grills. Now a group of Japanese scientists has developed a biomass charcoal combustion heater with a thermal efficiency of 60-81 percent— a big step up from current biomass stoves, which have an efficiency of 46-53 percent.
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