Published on January 6th, 2010
After the EU signed Kyoto, requiring it to reduce carbon emissions 8% below 1990 levels by 2012, many products and design changed there, diverging from US standards. Cars, for example, became smaller, lighter; and more fuel efficient. Even US automakers not known for efficiency make 62 MPG cars for Europe. Germany and Spain introduced Feed-in Tariffs that paid homeowners to make solar power on their roofs.
But most interestingly, for Americans now considering energy efficient retrofits with a new “Cash for Caulkers” program being considered, a whole new industry was created by the need to supply new energy efficient building innovations. Energy efficient glass.
An assortment of European window manufacturers now make far more energy efficient glass for residential use than here. This makes it possible for even an entirely glass house to meet Germany’s exacting PassivHaus standards (far more energy focused than our LEED ratings).
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Published on January 5th, 2010
Lanner, a business software specialist, just launched a new version of its WITNESS software suite in order to help companies evaluate how their decisions will affect the environment.
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Tags:
Business,
computer,
environment,
evaluate,
evaluation,
financial,
green,
Lanner,
Nissan,
software,
sustainability,
sustainable,
WITNESS
Published on January 5th, 2010
Tata Motors Chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata announced at the Delhi Auto Expo that his company is working on a Nano variant for the American market which could be ready in about three years.
Mr. Tata said that the American version will have a bigger engine and would undergo additional crash tests in order to answer the apprehensions about its safety. An electric version for the developed markets is also said to be in the works. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on January 3rd, 2010
A Minnesota trial run for “Cash for Caulkers” has turned out to be wildly successful. It represents another of the the green-jobs-and-carbon-footprint-reduction projects funded by the Obama Administration Recovery Act funds that has really caught on big time. The first was Property Assessed Clean Energy Financing to make solar essentially free (Joe Biden to Solar Power the USA With PACE Berkeley First Municipal Financing) with this result from just one county: Rooftop Solar = 4% of Sonoma County’s Power.
But another is a Minnesota energy efficiency retrofit plan that appears to be the successful forerunner for Home Star, in the same way that Berkeley First was the model for the PACE program. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags:
$25 million,
attic insulation,
Energy Efficiency,
exterior wall insulation,
Home Star,
Kraemer,
or air sealing,
progressive legislation,
Project ReEnergize,
The Recovery Act,
water heater replacements,
window replacements
Published on January 3rd, 2010
Energy efficient light bulbs are cool already, but they are getting a whole lot cooler. The new LED EcoBulb by Seokjae Rhee raises the green bar with innovative features to save more energy.
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Tags:
CFL,
Energy,
Energy Efficiency,
gadgets,
home,
led,
light,
light bulb,
light bulbs,
Products,
Seokjae Rhee
Published on January 3rd, 2010
Energy efficient housing. It’s not the fun part of greentech. It’s not some astounding new and innovative technology. It’s not going to win any Da Vinci awards for creativity.
But the Obama administration is betting its new Home Star “Cash for Caulkers” program that it’s the one with the greenest bang for the buck. They’ll pay you up to half the cost to retrofit that gas-guzzling house of yours for up to $4,000 and in the process put a quarter of a million unemployed construction workers back to work lowering your energy costs and carbon footprint. The $23 billion dollar program should retrofit at least 6 million houses, and put a dent in the 17% unemployment rate in the construction industry.
Unlike smaller and postponed tax credits for efficiency, the Home Star program would offer immediate upfront money, making investment into energy efficiency feasible, even in these economic times. In the long term it greatly reduces costs for energy which is literally like blowing dollars out the windows. It will pay up to half for better insulated windows, attics, crawlspaces, more efficient hot water and home heating, white roofing for cooling, etc.
Whatever you choose: if it can lower your energy use 20% you’d get half off - because if there is only one thing that you can do to lower your carbon footprint – retrofitting your house to be energy efficient is that one thing.
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Published on January 3rd, 2010
Like some 21st-century version of The Blob, a thick, gooey tide of glycerin is overwhelming world markets. A large part of the glycerin glut comes from biofuel refineries, which put out enormous quantities of crude glycerin as a byproduct. Though high grade glycerin is used to make products like soaps, cosmetics, foods and pharmaceuticals, vast quantities of crude glycerin are simply disposed as waste, sometimes illegally.
Somewhat ironically, glycerin may be riding to its own rescue and helping out the biofuel industry at the same time. A growing number of companies are scrambling to find uses for the abundant stuff. One is Glycos Biotechnologies, Inc. , which is commercializing glycerin-gobbling microorganisms developed by researchers at Rice University. The hungry bugs are at the heart of an energy-efficient bioconversion process that turns waste glycerin into fuels and other products.
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Published on December 30th, 2009
Highways, train stations, and even dance floors: the world is full of vibrating surfaces that could yield a rich trove of clean, sustainable energy. It’s called piezoelectric energy, formed by the conversion of mechanical strain into electrical current. Now a team of researchers in Europe has developed a micro-scaled piezoelectric device that could harvest energy from machinery as well as from infrastructure and buildings.
The tiny devices are ideal for use in powering remote sensing equipment, for example to monitor bridges or machines for early signs of deterioration. In that case they could play a key role in more energy efficient maintenance for wind turbines and other renewable energy infrastructure, while lowering human risk.
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Published on December 23rd, 2009
The Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO) is moving forward with an energy saving process for applying ceramic nanocoatings on metal surfaces. A more efficient process could pick up the pace for replacing toxic chemicals, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, and other hazardous materials with safer, more sustainable anti-corrosion nanomaterials.
Ceramic coatings are nothing new, but the conventional technology for applying them is energy intensive. RUSNANO hopes to improve on that with a more energy efficient design that also results in better performance and a longer lifespan.
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Published on December 19th, 2009
Chemists at the University of Illinois at Chicago have found that nano-sized water droplets can act as molecular chaperons that guide graphene into precise nano-shapes including capsules, knots, rings and even sandwiches. Graphene is a futuristic nanomaterial that forms sheets the thickness of one atom.
The finding is based on computer simulations, which show that water molecules can act on graphene without forming a chemical bond. If it proves commercially practical, it could advance the use of graphene in a wide range of more energy efficient and sustainable applications, from super-batteries and photovoltaics to desalination membranes.
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