Restaurants use more energy per square foot than any other commercial business. However, saving energy is possible, as Trish Appleby has demonstrated in her restaurant Donatelli’s Homemade Italian in White Bear Lake, MN. Appleby started thinking about energy improvements because of rising energy costs. “It was easy to see that … [continued]
Scientists at GE’s global research labs have adapted jet engine technology to create a super-thin cooling device that will keep your tablets cool no matter the weather or usage. “It’s like a pair of lungs, it contracts and expands,” says Peter deBock, lead thermal systems engineer at GE Global … [continued]
The International Energy Agency has called for greater political support for increasing the amount of solar thermal power after the launch of a report which found that solar thermal technology could meet one-sixth of the planet’s demand for heating and cooling, saving 800 megatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a … [continued]
As part of the new ARPA-E program designed to bring “game-changing” technologies to market, one of the 43 breakthroughs the Department of Energy has funded is the invention of a metal alloy for use instead of refrigerant in air conditioners and advanced refrigeration systems. The completely new thermally elastic metal … [continued]
By 2020, we will use more energy storing all of our virtual lives “on the cloud” than we will by flying in airplanes. As we all add more and more of all of our all-too-easily-uploaded data to humanity’s ever growing attic where all our virtual stuff is stored, the need … [continued]
[social_buttons] Environment America (EA) released a report titled “Building a Solar Future” this week stating that the US should aim to obtain 10% or more of its total energy consumption from the sun by 2030. Environment America found that “a comprehensive suite of public policy strategies can remove many of … [continued]
Hallowell International in Bangor, Maine, is the manufacturer of the Acadia, a combined heating and cooling system that can be combined with solar or wind installations to take users off the grid. The system can be installed in new buildings or can be retrofitted when consumers are considering green upgrades. … [continued]
Just as data farms need to have that warmth removed, day in/day out, greenhouses, by contrast, need a supply of consistent warmth, summer and winter.
Put the two together and you have a marriage made in heaven. For example; between the Ella Morris and Muessel-Ellison Botanical Conservatories and Potawatomi Greenhouse and Indiana’s University of Notre Dame.
Here’s a very good example of simple tech that works efficiently. Because hot air rises, cool air falls down. So if chilled water is carried through tubes at the ceiling, it sucks hot air from a room; sending down the cooler air. Simple tech is often low carbon technology too.
Sometimes, the best solutions are the ones that nature gives us. Researchers at the University of Bristol in England think that one easy way to counteract global warming is to plant crops that reflect more sunlight. Plants reflect different amount of sunlight depending on their waxiness and growth patterns.
