CleanTechnica

The summer of 2009 has been cooler than usual in the Midwest, but Mother Nature can still pack a punch.

August has seen some 90-degree days in places like Michigan.

When it get this hot, some people like to stay inside in front of the air conditioner (based on recent Twitter and Facebook updates). But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The air conditioner, I mean.

A “whole house fan” that uses the attic for venting can keep your home cool with less electricity (and for less money) than modern-day air conditioning. Read the rest of this entry »

You know the drill. You flush the toilet, walk away, come back later and it’s still running.

You jiggle the handle. Hopefully that makes it stop. Maybe you take off the top of the tank and swear a little.

Or, you could install H2Orb, a toilet gadget from a California company that takes clean tech to a whole new level. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent study concluded that it’s dangerous to text while driving.

What about texting while bicycling?

That’s also not advised, but a device from a company called PedalPower+ will charge your Blackberry while you ride. It also will charge your iPod.

The device, similar to the old school dynamo systems used to power headlamps via the back wheel of a bike, also stores generated power in a battery and will charge with solar panels even when you’re not riding, according to a report from the Austrailian Broadcasting Corp.

Gizmag, a technology blog, explains that developers spent three years working on PedalPower+, to work out the kinks of safely regulating current to electronic devices via a spinning bike tire.

As a result, the patented technology will charge a mobile phone from flat to finished in about two hours, the company says.

How much? Right now, the devices are only available Down Under. But the company says it’s setting up distributors in the United States and Europe.

(Image Credit: PedalPower+. Caption: Bottle dynamo installed on the back wheel of a bicycle.)

Actor William Shatner, known by us all as Captain Kirk in the original series of Star Trek, has launched a stinging attack on the green credentials of Hewlett-Packard, after leaving a company-wide voicemail message for staff at the firm’s HQ.

“This is William Shatner. You, HP, promised me a toxic free computer by 2009. Now my friends at Greenpeace tell me I will have to wait until 2011. What’s up with that?” he said.
Read the rest of this entry »

Interestingly, while big wind can generate far cheaper power than big solar, small wind turns out to do quite the opposite.

A comparative turbine test performed over the last 12 months in Zeeland, Holland revealed that small wind turbines generate very little power for the money. The smaller the rotor, the less power. So I did some comparisons between small wind and solar. I found something surprising.

Small wind could cost 10 times the cost of residential solar to make the same power.

The energy yield was measured in an average wind speed of 8.5 mph over the year.
Here are the results, translated for the U.S. reader, with the comparative solar costs:
Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s say you have a clothing company that supplies Walmart.

They’ve hinted for years that they are about to demand sustainably produced merchandise.  And last week they announced it: Walmart’s new Sustainability Index.

Governments have been unable to change the world. But the planet’s shopkeeper is just so much more powerful.

Oh dear, you say. We can’t lose Walmart. Let’s answer the first question. 1. What is your carbon footprint?

Well, um…gee.

Let’s start with that one handbag we sell to Walmart: We make the handbag parts in 3 factories in 2 continents and an island. We receive the raw materials for the handbag…

1. by camel to that little handbag clasp factory outside Calcutta (5 miles X 120 days per year; camel eats 356,794 pounds of grain shipped by diesel ship 254,998 miles = carbon cost of 2 tons per year for inbound shipping costs),
2. by UPS to a factory in a business park in Seattle (2,900 miles X 340 days per year; using 57% diesel-hybrid trucks =  inbound shipping carbon cost of 34 tons per year )
3. by airfreight to a little factory on Tuvalu (whatever…you get the idea)

and then we ship the finished product 3,900,798 miles by ship powered by… (and so on…)

…to say nothing of figuring out the carbon footprint at each of the factories:

Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This is the first post by Jessica Jones, Solar Consultant with Vista Solar Inc.

Three Key Questions for Your Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Installer

In the world of solar, there is a perfect storm developing. The current levels of government incentives, ever-rising electricity rates and declining equipment costs, have made purchasing a solar electric system more affordable than ever.  Consequently it comes as no surprise that consumer demand for solar is on the rise. No one questions that a growing market during a slow economy is a good thing, however, with the growing market comes opportunists attempting to enter the field without the expertise necessary to properly analyze their clients’ needs and provide quality solar solutions. Fortunately, you can identify and avoid most of the common blunders these folks are making by asking your installer a few key questions.

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More than fifty years after the electrical industry launched the “Medallion Homes” campaign to push U.S. homeowners into an all-electric future, General Electric is taking it to the next level.  The appliance giant has announced that by 2015 it will have developed a complete all-electric net zero home appliance management system that includes enough solar and and wind capacity to take a home off the grid, and even generate enough power to sell back to the local utility.

Read the rest of this entry »

Those yummy California lemons, avocados, oranges, pistachios or cherries on your table right now could have been very sustainably grown using solar panels.

That’s because a giant California grower has just installed 1 MW of solar power to water their 7,000 acre farm. The 6,400 solar panels power pumps to bring water up from deep wells for irrigation.

(Normally these irrigation pumps are run by fossil fuels - one of the reasons that our food is so unsustainable.)
Read the rest of this entry »

OK, he’s not exactly a retired rocket scientist; he’s a retired airplane product development engineer - but Gary Reysa has built his own homemade very simple-tech solar hotwater system that is the functional and thermal equivalent of commercial systems costing 6 or 7 times as much!

This simple design has survived Montana winters with temperatures down to minus 30F with not even a hint of a problem, while providing an unusually high solar fraction of 94% (75% is typical of commercial solar hot water systems.)

For details and a picture of his solar thermal shed hit the fold:

Read the rest of this entry »