Published on March 2nd, 2009
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is getting a little greener.
The Waterbury, Vt., coffee maker is adding 530 solar panels to the roof of its distribution center. When complete it will be the largest solar installation in Vermont, the company said.
The 100 kilowatt system will only provide a small percentage of the power the coffee company needs, but the real value of the system is demonstrating that solar can work for business in the Northeast, the company said.
“Renewable energy must be a part of our overall energy strategy,” Paul Comey, Vice President of Environmental Affairs for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., said in a statement. “We
want to show our state and federal governments that solar energy works, and that we need
a policy that provides a broad-reaching structure for renewable energy.”
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Published on March 1st, 2009
Here comes more dour empirical data.
Ongoing deforestation in countries such as Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia has been further linked to the rising demand for biofuels, according to speakers at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS):
“If reduced U.S. soybean production results in a parallel increase in Brazilian soybean production, a potential net release of 1,800 to 9,100 Tg (trillion grams) of CO2-equivalents of greenhouse gas emissions due to land-use change is possible,” [Michael Coe of Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts] wrote in a summary of his talk. That is equivalent to more than 9 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Let’s just hope someone has that cellulosic biofuel breakthrough we’re all hoping for.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Published on October 14th, 2008
Last month, Apple took a big step towards becoming environmentally-friendly by eliminating Brominated Flame Retardant (BFR) and polyvinylchloride (PVR) from its iPods. Now the company is taking another huge step with its notebook computers.
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Published on October 8th, 2008
Finally, scientists have come up with a way to combine my two favorite things: music and sugar. Japanese researchers report in the latest issue of Energy and Environmental Science that they have created a biofuel cell that uses enzymes to break down sugars. Four of the cells combined produce 100 milliwatts of power— enough to run an MP3 player with speakers or a remote-controlled car.
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Published on September 11th, 2008
San Antonio, Texas is making use of its 140,000 tons of sewage generated each year to capture methane gas. The city’s utility board of trustees approved a contract this week to sell 900,000 cubic feet of natural gas derived from the sewage each day to Ameresco, a Massachusetts energy services company.
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Published on September 11th, 2008
New Scientist reports a controversial study that melting ice caps could actually weaken the greenhouse effect. Stanford University scientists studied satellite data from 1998 to 2007 to evaluate changes in sea surface temperatures and quantities of sea ice and phytoplankton (increased phytoplankton activity removes atmospheric carbon). What they found is startling— phytoplankton grew more in areas where ice was disappearing.
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Published on August 31st, 2008
Greenpeace USA rolled through my town, Bloomington, Indiana this weekend as part of its national tour to showcase solar energy. Rolling Sunlight will visit 50 communities across the nation talking to people and filming their own comments on how global warming is affecting their lives or will affect their children’s lives.
Their schedule for the next few weeks follows; the tour will proceed through October 16th where it will end in Washington, DC.
- 9/2 Columbus, OH
- 9/5 Phoenixville, PA
- 9/7 Philadelphia, PA
- 9/10 Elmira, NY
- 9/12 Oneonta, NY
The presence at these events consists of a 26-ft. biodiesel-fueled truck, a video camera, and an “action tent”, plus 256 square feet of solar panelsupplying enough energy to power three homes. At the action tent visitors can learn more about global warming by viewing videos and write a postcard to their local representatives to pressure them to act on climate change legislation. Read the rest of this entry »
Published on August 28th, 2008
Call me a Popeye, but I like having fresh green salads for lunch or dinner. Unfortunately, it is sometimes risky to eat raw vegetables because of the risk of contamination by common bacteria like E. coli, salmonella and listeria. I have long wondered when it would be possible to purchase greens that had been irradiated to kill the bacteria without changing the texture, flavor or nutritional value.
My wait is now closer to ending. On August 21, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of ionizing radiation at doses that will drastically reduce the population of the target bacteria on spinach and iceberg lettuce without harming the food.
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Published on August 26th, 2008
Could cyanobacteria eventually become a more popular biofuel than corn, sugarcane, or even algae? Quite possibly. According to Science Daily, cyanobacteria can convert up to 10 percent of the sun’s energy into biomass.
This is a drastic improvement over the 1 percent rate of crops like corn and sugarcane, as well as the 5 percent rate of algae. With such a high conversion rate, cyanobacteria could replace a hefty amount of fossil fuels without taking up too much land.
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Published on August 25th, 2008
Sunroofs are no longer just an easy route to windblown hair and a sunburn with Sunrise Solar’s introduction of the solar sunroof. The technology replaces the traditional glass sunroof with solar technology that generates electricity to recharge a car’s batteries while either cooling or warming the parked car depending on the weather.
Of course, a solar-powered sun roof does not provide nearly enough energy to power an entire car. It might be enough to keep some ventilation fans blowing, but it couldn’t fully recharge a car’s battery during a single day.
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