What a weekend. I went to the Gob Nob open house on Saturday and We staged Community Energy Systems first annual fundraiser, Springfield Scooter Club’s, Poker Scoot. Much more will follow. I have a dentist appointment this morning so all I can record here and now is how EXCITED I was by both.
Gob Nob was amazing. The wind was gusting to 40 miles an hour. The turbine was pumping at 25 rotations per minute and generating 75,000 kilowatts. That was still 20,000 kilowatts SHORT of its top capacity. It was real quiet contrary to critics. We got to go inside!!! More later.
Sunday was the Poker Scoot. The wind was gusting to 30 miles an hour. What a challenge. There we were at Grab-A-Java at 2:00 pm with the wind ripping the registration forms from our hands. Still it was a blast. 5 stops, 5 cards and a winning hand. Springfield to Rochester to Chatham and back to Springfield again. NO Casualities! We raised some dough and some consciousness and made the TV. Yahoo. No wait that is trademarked. Whooo Hoo…Much more later.
About Conservation Central
Conservation Central is a habitat education program, presented by Fujifilm, our Partner in Conservation Education. This program explores the temperate forest, home of the giant panda and black bear, through the following online activities.
Arizona Educators, Students
and Families, Welcome to The Green Frog News!
At The Frog, you will find events, lessons, activities
and other resources to help you, and your students
or children learn about science, the environment,
and social studies.
For the past seven years, the mission of The Frog website has been to
disseminate educational publications, products and resources that support
families, and classroom and home school educators. The Green Frog News is
locally owned and operated.
ARIZONA WILDLIFE VIEWS TV SHOW The new season of the Department’s Emmy-winning television show, Arizona
Wildlife Views, is beginning this week. If you are in the Phoenix area, the first
episode will air on PBS (Channel 8) on Sunday, January 18, at 5pm. It will run at
the same day and time for 13 weeks. In all other markets, you will need to check
with your local listings (for a list of channels visit http://www.azgfd. gov/i_e/awv_tv_channels.shtml.
Ocean Oasis, a giant-screen film, is a fascinating journey into the bountiful seas and pristine deserts of two remarkably different, but inextricably linked worlds — Mexico’s Sea of Cortés and the Baja California desert.
What powerful geologic forces collided to carve out this unique region? What drives the strong currents that make this ocean so unusually rich in nutrients? How does life thrive in a seemingly barren landscape? Ocean Oasis mesmerizes us with revealing and memorable scenes that explore these mysteries.
Glide side-by-side with a graceful giant manta ray as it arches and swoops through water sparkling under the hot Baja California sun. Witness the pageant of migrating whales, the elaborate tango of courting terns, the battles of lumbering elephant seals. Fly over sweeping vistas of snow-capped mountains, vast deserts, palm oases, and mangrove swamps — then plunge into astonishing underwater sequences of rarely seen marine life.
In the making of this extraordinary film, a team of gifted and dedicated scientists explored unknown territories, sometimes at great personal risk. They trekked, flew, and dove to unveil intriguing secrets of isolated areas on land, in the air, and beneath the sea. Now audiences who would never otherwise see these remote wildernesses can experience their captivating beauty and elusive wildlife.
Ocean Oasis is both visually stunning and provocative, compelling in its message that this little-known region is a treasure worth preserving.
Proceeds from Ocean Oasis will support conservation, education, and research in the Baja California peninsula and the Sea of Cortés.
Ocean OasisDVD, VHS, and soundtrack available through the San Diego Natural History Museum Store.
Sponsored by with funding for the website from the
Walton Family Foundation
Students survey the proposed site. Model of a new green housing design.
During the Fall of 2008 and Spring of 2009, graduate-level architecture students from the University of Colorado-Denver met with residents of Greensburg, Kansas to better understand the needs of the community and the devastation of the EF5 tornado that hit Greensburg almost 2 years ago. They spent the next 8 months researching the Kansas climate and the appropriate materials and building techniques for new “green” housing designs.
GreenTown will host supper Saturday, May 2 at 6:30 as part of the weekend of events observing the second anniversary of the tornado. (See entry from April 5, below, for itinerary.) Guests at our First Annual Green Initiative Awards banquet will be treated to a meal made possible by: Local Burger, a Lawrence, Kansas organic/sustainable/local foods eatery owned by Hilary Brown; Good Natured Family Farms, a consortium of over 100 family farms headed up by Diana Endicott; New Grass Bison Company, a sustainable food production and distribution company founded by Jeff Adair in 2001; and Anita Friesen, local Greensburg caterer extraordinaire.
All Things Considered,December 27, 2007 · Greensburg, a tiny town on the vast, flat prairie of western Kansas, is at the center of a grand experiment. In May, a tornado obliterated nearly every house, tree and business.
The twister — among the strongest on record — killed 10 people and displaced almost 1,400 residents. The community had been in steep decline before the storm, but city leaders quickly saw opportunity in the disaster. Perhaps they could revive Greensburg and sustain it for generations to come by making it the greenest town in America.
Rebuilding Better
Less than two days after the tornado, as huge machines began to tear into the wreckage of his hometown, School Superintendent Darren Hedrick managed to put a brave face on.
“Towns are about people, they’re not about buildings. And it’s a huge opportunity to rebuild — not just rebuild it the way it was but maybe rebuild it a little bit better than it was,” Hedrick said.
Though buildings, books and records were gone, Hedrick pledged to open school on time in the fall.
He did.
First-graders recently celebrated the end of an odd semester. Classes were held in small, white trailers lined up a quarter-mile from where most of the students now live. Their teacher, Laura Proser, says winter break marks a welcome milestone.
“We just got our stoplight yesterday, and everybody’s excited about that,” Proser said.
The Greening of Greensburg
Townhomes are beginning to rise from the ragged tree trunks, weeds and ruins off Main Street. They mark a radical departure from traditional low-income housing, according to Duncan Prahl, who is from Pennsylvania and on contract with the National Renewable Energy Labs.
Discovery’s new eco-lifestyle channel Planet Green is partnering with actor and avid environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio to help launch the channel early next year with a touching environmentally-friendly project. DiCaprio is set to executive produce “Eco-Town,” a 13-part reality series which will follow state and local officials in their quest to build an ecologically—and economically—sustainable town in Kansas, aptly named Greensburg.
The series will document the green rebuilding of Greensburg, Kansas, a small town that was leveled by a devastating tornado on May 4th. Environmentally friendly, energy efficient materials and technology will be used to reconstruct the hundreds of homes and businesses damaged by the storm in hopes of encouraging many of the 1,500 residents to return home. We’re eagerly waiting to see what other green programs Planet Green has in store for us.
But does it really take ALL of this to get earth friendly? Do we have to wait for disasters like Katrina to do the things we know are right. Isn’t this Environmentalism by suicide?
An eco-friendly home in Greensburg, Kansas. Photo by Jim Reed.
Darin Headrick, superintendent of schools in Greensburg, Kan., wasn’t particularly alarmed to hear a tornado siren wail on the evening of May 4, 2007. Such warnings are rites of spring in south-central Kansas, and when Mother Nature gets her dander up, “there’s nothing much you can do but get home, put the vehicles away, and get down in the basement,” Headrick says. So he and his wife went next door and joined their neighbors, a couple with two teenage daughters, in their below-ground rec room.
Violent wind, rain, and hail lashed the town. The power went out. Suddenly, Headrick says, “ there was a huge pressure change in the atmosphere.” They heard glass begin to shatter above them, then a sound like a giant wrecking ball.
Miraculously, the planks over their heads held fast. The rest of the house simply vanished. So did every other dwelling in the vicinity. For a desperate hour, the two families searched for neighbors. Eventually, they set out on foot for the dark center of town.
Every house and building they passed had been flattened. “We met people coming from the other direction,” Headrick recalls. “They said, ‘It’s not any better back there.’ That’s when we knew.” Greensburg, population 1574, had been wiped off the map.
Devastated but not destroyed: Greensburg after the twister that killed 11 on May 4, 2007
The tornado that obliterated Greensburg was one of the strongest ever recorded anywhere, with winds of 205 mph and a footprint 1.7 miles wide. The town, only about 1.5 square miles, never stood a chance. Eleven people died. Fewer than a dozen homes were left standing.
The devastation was so complete that folks in Greensburg wondered whether to rebuild at all. Even before the twister, their town had been on the wane, its population graying, its young people moving away. “Rural America is kind of dying,” Headrick observes.
I have always said that if we stopped the polluters with the 10 to 20 story smoke stacks (look around, you know who you are). And we stopped airplanes from polluting then we would not have to worry about lawn mowers, barbecues and hotdog roasts. But still – can’t they see what they are doing to me?
The smart, no-mess, no-hassles alternative to gas powered lawn mowers. Cut the hassle out of cutting your grass with the Black & Decker 24 Volt battery-powered mulching mower. It saves time getting started without the frustrations of pull cords, messing with gas & oil, trips to the gas station, and costly maintenance. And without the fumes and the
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We have developed a patent pending special microprocessor controller for the kit: this acts as the brains for the tractor and incorporates the safety and other features of the tractor,
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Announcing the first commercially produced battery-operated riding lawn mower built in the United States since Wheel Horse discontinued their models in the mid-1980’s. The METI Classic. Please see the Products tab for pricing and specifications.
We have taken the original General Electric Elec-Trak concept and design of the 1970’s, which is proven, and then advanced it. Our first completed model is the METI Classic. The new METI Classic has a body-style which is very similar to the original Elec-Trak with minor changes. By following the original Elec-Trak design, the new Classic is compatible with the attachments built for the battery-operated Elec-Trak, New Idea, and Wheel Horse series of mowers of the 70’s and 80’s. We have upgraded the electronics, beefed up the frame, raised the height of the rear battery box to accommodate taller batteries, and incorporated a stronger lift.
It is rare well at least medium rare that I give credit where credit is due but the Peak Oil folks and Leanan in particular deserve so much credit. Day in and Day out..NO MATTER what the price of oil or gasoline…they still believe that we are running out of the stuff. That is great because WE ARE:
The new director of the National Intelligence Agency caused something of a stir last month when he warned Congress: “The primary near-term security concern of the United States is the global economic crisis and its geopolitical implications.”
On that theme, Hampshire College professor Michael Klare sees the world economic meltdown as already prompting “economic brush fires” around the world and worries whether these could prove “too virulent to contain.”
It seems as if the lyrics “trouble, trouble, trouble” from Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man” have become too real in today’s world.
Last November Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank Group, noted that the global financial crisis would hit hardest the “poorest and most vulnerable” in the developing world. At that time, Mr. Zoellick calculated another 100 million people around the world had been driven into poverty as a result of soaring food and oil prices. These prices have eased. Nonetheless, hundreds of millions in poor nations must try to balance household budgets on incomes of $2 a day or less.
Now he’s forecasting the world economy will shrink by 1 to 2 percent this year, with difficulties possibly extending into next year. That’s much worse than the bank group’s forecast last year. It will be the first time world output has actually declined since World War II. And each 1 percent decline
in developing-country growth rates pushes an additional 20 million people into poverty, Zoellick reckons.
“The political ramifications [of rising poverty] will be great … though hard to predict,” says John Sewell, a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington. Before the election last fall, he assembled a group of experts who urged the incoming president to streamline the nation’s development tools. These are now spread among 12 government departments, 25 government agencies, and almost 60 government offices. “No one is in charge,” the group held.
Powerful droughts around the world could cause food shortages, reversing a dramatic drop in global poverty that the economic crisis recently halted, worries Mr. Klare, an expert on peace and world security.
In Africa and in East Asia, population growth also adds to economic pressures.
As for brush fires, the driest tinder lies in eastern European states such as Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria, he says. There, the people in fragile democracies had the notion that rising prosperity in the 1990s and up to 2006 would continue forever. Now the money from the West has dried up and gone home, leading to an economic bust.
“That is what is driving them to rage,” says Klare. “The promises have been taken away.”
Wind and solar projects may carry costs for wildlife
Sandy Seth, via Friends of the Bosque del Apache via AP
Sandhill Cranes fly in formation into the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, N.M., last year. Environmentalists have raised concerns that the birds’ habitats could be affected by a planned sun and wind power transmission line.
WASHINGTON – The SunZia transmission line that would link sun and wind power from central New Mexico with cities in Arizona is just the sort of energy project an environmentalist could love — or hate. And it is just the sort of line the Interior Department has been tasked with promoting — or guarding against.
If built, the 460-mile line would carry about 3,000 megawatts of power, enough to avoid the need for a handful of coal-fired plants and to help utilities meet mandated targets for use of renewable fuel. “We have to connect the sun of the deserts and the winds of the plains to places where people live,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said recently.
But the line would also cross grasslands, skirt two national wildlife refuges and traverse the Rio Grande, all habitat areas rich in wildlife. The graceful sandhill crane, for example, makes its winter home in the wetlands of New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, right next to the path of the proposed power line. And much of the area falls under the protection of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
The research efforts and infrastructure needed to supply 50% of the energy for space and water heating and cooling across Europe using solar thermal energy has been set out under the aegis of the European Solar Thermal Technology Platform (ESTTP). Published in late December 2008, more than 100 experts developed the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA), which includes a deployment roadmap showing the non-technological framework conditions that will enable this ambitious goal to be reached by 2050.
A strategy for achieving a vision of widespread low-temperature solar thermal installations was first explored by ESTTP in 2006, but since then the SRA has identified key areas for rapid growth. These focus points include
the development of active solar buildings, active solar renovation, solar heat for industrial processes and solar heat for district heating and cooling. Meanwhile, amongst the main research challenges is the development of compact long-term efficient heat storage technology. Once available, they would make it possible to store heat from the summer for use in winter in a cost-effective way.
The ESTTP’s main objective is to create the right conditions in order to fully exploit solar thermal’s potential for heating and cooling in Europe and worldwide.
As a first step for the development of the deployment roadmap and of the Strategic Research Agenda, ESTTP developed a vision for solar thermal in 2030. Its key elements are to establish the Active Solar Building – covering 100% of their heating and cooling demand with solar energy – as a standard for new buildings by 2030; establish the Active Solar Renovation as a standard for the refurbishment of existing buildings by 2030 (Active Solar renovated buildings cover at least 50% of their heating and cooling demand with solar thermal energy); supply a substantial share of the industrial process heat demand up to 250°C, including heating and cooling, desalination and water treatment; and achieve broad use of solar energy in district heating and cooling.
OK maybe not but all the deniers are now having to become cryers…They lost the public because they lost sight of scientific truth, which of course half of them don’t believe in anyway.
Sarah Palin acknowledges global warming is affecting her state
But the former GOP vice presidential
candidate contends gas drilling will help curb rising temperatures
By Kim Murphy |Tribune Newspapers
April 15, 2009
ANCHORAGE — AlaskaGov. Sarah Palin acknowledged Tuesday that global warming is harming her state but said stepped-up natural-gas production could mitigate its effects.
Palin spoke at a hearing before Interior Secretary Ken Salazar — the third of a series he is holding across the country to consider renewed oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf.
The 2008 Republican nominee for vice president said relatively clean-burning natural gas can supplant dirtier fuels and slow the discharge of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“We Alaskans are living with the changes that you are observing in Washington,” she said. “The dramatic decreases in the extent of summer sea ice, increased coastal erosion, melting of permafrost, decrease in alpine glaciers and overall ecosystem changes are very real to us.”
In the past, Palin has questioned the science behind predictions of sea ice loss.
But at Tuesday’s hearing, she made it clear that she recognizes the problem of global warming and cast energy development as part of the answer.
“Stopping domestic energy production of preferred fuels does not solve the issues associated with global warming and threatened or endangered species, but it can make them worse,” she said.
Palin acknowledged that “many believe” a global effort to reduce greenhouse gases is needed.
“Meeting these goals will require a dramatic increase, in the very near term, to preferred available fuels—including natural gas—that have a very low carbon footprint,” she said. “These available fuels are required to supply the nation’s energy needs during the transition to green energy alternatives.”
The federal Minerals Management Service estimates that Alaska’s offshore basins could hold 27 billion barrels of oil and 132 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
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Drill baby Drill. Sustainability, not so much.
As this blogger points out Sarah is always kinda vague about everything. No one can figure out whether that is symptomatic of a vague mind or a generalist’s over intelligence:
Sarah Palin clearly was in her comfort zone when she chatted on-air Tuesday with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt. As The Ticket noted , she presented a persona and offered some lines that could serve her well in her Thursday debate with Joe Biden.
Tuesday also saw the broadcast of another of her several interviews with Katie Couric of CBS.
This segment may not spark more calls from conservative commentators that Palin give up her spot on the Republican national ticket. But in front of the television cameras — and in the face of more pointed questioning — the self-assurance that marked her conversation with Hewitt continued to elude her.
One answer by Palin will do little to quell concerns about her position on global warming. As she did with ABC’s Charlie Gibson a few weeks back, she did her best to skirt a direct answer on its causes.
From the transcript:
Couric: What’s your position on global warming? Do you believe it’s man-made or not?
Palin: Well, we’re the only Arctic state, of course, Alaska. So we feel the impacts more than any other state, up there with the changes in climates. And certainly, it is apparent. We have erosion issues. And we have melting sea ice, of course. So, what I’ve done up there is form a sub-cabinet to focus solely on climate change. Understanding that it is real. And …
Couric: Is it man-made, though in your view?
Palin: You know there are — there are man’s activities that can be contributed to the issues that we’re dealing with now, these impacts. I’m not going to solely blame all of man’s activities on changes in climate. Because the world’s weather patterns are cyclical. And over history we have seen change there. But kind of doesn’t matter at this point, as we debate what caused it. The point is: it’s real; we need to do something about it.
Pardon us for asking, but would it not be difficult to devise an effective policy to mitigate the effects of global warming without a firm grasp on what caused it?
An architect’s rendering of Babcock Ranch, which plans to provide for its electricity needs on site with solar energy
An NFL lineman turned visionary developer today is unveiling startlingly ambitious plans for a solar-powered city of tomorrow in southwest Florida’s outback, featuring the world’s largest photovoltaic solar plant, a truly smart power grid, recharging stations for electric vehicles and a variety of other green innovations. The community of Babcock Ranch is designed to break new frontiers in sustainable development, quite a shift for a state that has never been sustainable and lately hasn’t had much development. (Read “Is Florida the Sunset State?”)
“Some people think I got hit in the head a few too many times,” quips developer Syd Kitson, who spent six years in the trenches for the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys before entering the real estate business in the mid-1980s. “But I still believe deeply in Florida. And the time has come for something completely different.” (See the top 10 green stories of 2008.)
To anyone familiar with southern Florida’s planning-nightmare sprawl of golf courses, strip malls and cookie-cutter subdivisions named after the plants and animals they replaced, Kitson’s vision for his solar-powered, smart-growth, live-where-you-work city of 45,000 people east of Fort Myers is breathtakingly different. That’s why the press conference held today to reveal his development plans for the historic Babcock Ranch property will feature representatives from the Audubon Society, the World Wildlife Fund and the Sierra Club.
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a way to use an ancient life form to create one of the newest technologies for solar energy, in systems that may be surprisingly simple to build compared to existing silicon-based solar cells.
The secret: diatoms.
These tiny, single-celled marine life forms have existed for at least 100 million years and are the basis for much of the life in the oceans, but they also have rigid shells that can be used to create order in a natural way at the extraordinarily small level of nanotechnology.
By using biology instead of conventional semiconductor manufacturing approaches, researchers at OSU and Portland State University have created a new way to make “dye-sensitized” solar cells, in which photons bounce around like they were in a pinball machine, striking these dyes and producing electricity. This technology may be slightly more expensive than some existing approaches to make dye-sensitized solar cells, but can potentially triple the electrical output.
“Most existing solar cell technology is based on silicon and is nearing the limits of what we may be able to accomplish with that,” said Greg Rorrer, an OSU professor of chemical engineering. “There’s an enormous opportunity to develop different types of solar energy technology, and it’s likely that several forms will ultimately all find uses, depending on the situation.”
Dye-sensitized technology, for instance, uses environmentally benign materials and works well in lower light conditions. And the new findings offer advances in manufacturing simplicity and efficiency.
“Dye-sensitized solar cells already exist,” Rorrer said. “What’s different in our approach are the steps we take to make these devices, and the potential improvements they offer.”
The new system is based on living diatoms, which are extremely small, single-celled algae, which already have shells with the nanostructure that is needed. They are allowed to settle on a transparent conductive glass surface, and then the living organic material is removed, leaving behind the tiny skeletons of the diatoms to form a template.
San Francisco and Portland might be engaged in some electric vehicle pissing contest, but I think both cities just got seriously spanked by Chicago!
Yes…Chicago!
The Windy City just unveiled the first solar-powered electric vehicle charging station during the IOC tour. The Solar Plug-In Stations will be used daily by the City of Chicago Department of Fleet Management to power the city’s electric cars.
“Carbon Day and the City of Chicago are demonstrating true innovation, ingenuity and initiative,” said Richard Lowenthal, CEO of Coulomb Technologies. “Solar energy and electric vehicles are an inevitable partnership that is one more step to reducing our dependence on foreign oil.”
(CNN) — When Jon Bohmer sat down with his two little girls for a simple project they could work on together, he didn’t realize they’d hit upon a solution to one of the world’s biggest problems for just $5: A solar-powered oven.
Inventor Jon Bohmer with the oven he has made out of a cardboard box.
The ingeniously simple design uses two cardboard boxes, one inside the other, and an acrylic cover that lets in the sun’s rays and traps them.
Black paint on the inner box, and silver foil on the outer one, help concentrate the heat. The trapped rays make the inside hot enough to cook casseroles, bake bread and boil water.
What the box also does is eliminate the need in developing countries for rural residents to cut down trees for firewood. About 3 billion people around the world do so, adding to deforestation and, in turn, global warming.
By allowing users to boil water, the simple device could also potentially save the millions of children who die from drinking unclean water.
Bohmer’s invention on Thursday won the FT Climate Change Challenge, which sought to find and publicize the most innovative and practical solution to climate change.
“A lot of scientists are working on ways to send people to Mars. I was looking for something a little more grassroots, a little simpler,” Bohmer said Thursday.
Bohmer’s contest win notwithstanding, solar cooking with a cardboard oven isn’t new. Two American women, Barbara Kerr and Sherry Cole, were the solar box cooker’s first serious promoters in the 1970s. They and others joined forces to create the non-profit Solar Cookers International — originally called Solar Box Cookers International — in 1987
Although Germany is still the leading nation in total grid-connected solar photovoltaic capacity, this news now means Spain has surged into second place there. The report comes as an embarrassment for a floundering Japan, who used to lead the world, but now has fallen to third place in total capacity and forth place in added capacity.
Spain added 1.7 million kilowatts of capacity in 2008, followed by Germany at 1.5 million kilowatts. The United States lagged behind in a distant third place at 300,000 kilowatts, followed by Japan with only 240,000 kilowatts. The news is disappointing for Japan, but it should be equally as distressing for the United States, which continues to show only slow improvements year.
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This is why. They give awards for being sustainable!
In 2007, Barcelona won the ManagEnergy Local Energy Action Award for their committment to Sustainable Energy Solutions in Barcelona.The Award was presented to Imma Mayol i Beltran, Vice-Mayor of Barcelona and President of Agència d’Energia de Barcelona, Spain during the plenary session of the ManagEnergy Annual Conference Award by Alfonso González Finat, Conference Chair [left].
Imma Mayol
Deputy Mayor and Chairman of Sustainability, Barcelona
Summary
The goals of Barcelona City Council’s Plan for Energy Improvement in Barcelona (2002-2010) are to increase the use of renewable energy (especially solar energy), reduce the use of non-renewable energy sources and lower the emissions produced by energy consumption in order to meet Barcelona City Council’s international protection commitments. This integrated plan includes a quantification of the energy used and emissions produced in the city and provide scope for municipal action to promote an environmentally sustainable city, reducing air pollution and the consumption of fossil fuels in the process. As part of its plan a Solar Thermal Ordinance has been introduced. The aim of the ordinance is to regulate, through local legislation, the implementation of low-temperature systems for collecting and using active solar energy for the production of hot water for buildings. New buildings and buildings undergoing major refurbishment are required to use solar energy to supply 60% of their running hot water requirements. Since its enforcement licenses for the installation of a total of 14,028 square meters of solar panels have been requested with annual savings of 11,222 Megawatt hours and a corresponding reduction in eCO2 emissions of 1,973 tonnes per year.
Results
The strategies named promotion policies and demonstration projects have been present in the city for several years, with different examples such as the installation of solar systems in schools, sports centres (solar thermal installation in the Olympics Swimming Pool ) or in some other public buildings (solar photovoltaic installation in the Town Hall building).
Concerning legal instruments, Barcelona is the first European city to have a Solar thermal ordinance. According to this bylaw all new buildings and buildings undergoing major refurbishment are obligated to use solar energy to supply 60% of their running hot water requirements. This solar ordinance was approved by the Barcelona City Council in July 1999 and entered into force in August 2000. This new policy has brought Barcelona to multiply per more than 10 the surface of solar thermal square metres (licenses requested), moving from 1,1 sqm /1.000 inhabitants (in 2000) to 13 sqm/1.000 inhabitants [as of march 2004, the licenses requested for the installation of solar panels made up a total of: 19.543 sqm of solar panels (before: 1650 sqm)]. We are happy to see these results and specially to see that more than 20 Spanish cities are now “replicating” this initiative taking Barcelona as a model.
The Barcelona Energy Improvement Plan (PMEB), a 10 year plan adopted in 2002, and the Barcelona Energy Agency, are two major management instruments that ensure the commitment of the City to further promote these energy measures in a planned and structured manner. The Barcelona Energy Improvement Plan proposes a series of measures and 55 projects for local action up to the year 2010, these being centred on energy savings and in the use of renewable energies.
The municipal action promoting a sustainable energy city also works towards the integration of sustainable energy measures in urban developments, an example of this integration are thesustainable energy measures in the Forum Barcelona 2004 area. The major Sustainable Energy measures in the Forum 2004 area are the following:
Urban solar FV power station (10.700 sqm, 1,3 MWpic)
Spain forges ahead with plans to build concentrating solar power plants, establishing the country and Spanish companies as world leaders in the emerging field. At the same time, the number of installed photovoltaic systems is growing exponentially, and researchers continue to explore new ways to promote and improve solar power. This is the seventh in an eight-part series highlighting new technologies in Spain and is produced by Technology Review, Inc.’s custom-publishing division in partnership with the Trade Commission of Spain.
From the road to the Solúcar solar plant outside Seville, drivers can see what appear to be glowing white rays emanating from a tower, piercing the dry air, and alighting upon the upturned faces of the tilted mirror panels below. Appearances, though, are deceiving: those upturned mirrors are actually tracking the sun and radiating its power onto a blindingly white square at the top of the tower, creating the equivalent of the power of 600 suns, which is used to vaporize water into steam to power a turbine.
This tower plant uses concentrated solar technology – otherwise known as solar thermal power – with a central receiver. It’s the first commercial central receiver system in the world.
Spanish companies and research centers are taking the lead in the recent revival of concentrated solar power, as expanses of mirrors are being assembled around the country for concentrated solar plants. At the same time, Spanish companies are also investing in huge photovoltaic fields, as companies dramatically increase production of PV panels and investigate the next generation of PV. Spain is already fourth in the world in its use of solar power, and second in Europe behind Germany, with more than 120 MW in about 8300 installations of PV. Within only the past ten years, the number of companies working in solar energy has leapt from a couple dozen to a few hundred.
Power from the Sun’s Heat
Southern Spain, a region known the world over for its abundant sun and scarce rain, provides an ideal landscape for solar thermal power. The tower outside Seville, built and operated by Solúcar, an Abengoa company, is the first of a number of solar thermal plants and will provide about 10 MW of power. The company SENER is completing Andasol 1, the first parabolic trough plant in Europe, a 50 MW system outside Granada that will begin operation in the summer of 2008.
Solar thermal power, also known as concentrating solar, works by utilizing the heat of the sun (unlike PV panels, which work on the principle of the movement of electrons between layers when the sun strikes the materials).
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At one level this is great. At a personal level it sucks.
Whenever you save energy, you not only save money, you also reduce the demand for such fossil fuels as coal, oil, and natural gas. Less burning of fossil fuels also means lower emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the primary contributor to global warming, and other pollutants.You do not have to do without to achieve these savings. There is now an energy efficient alternative for almost every kind of appliance or light fixture. That means that consumers have a real choice and the power to change their energy use on a revolutionary scale.The average American produces about 40,000 pounds of CO2 emissions per year. Together, we use nearly a million dollars worth of energy every minute, night and day, every day of the year. By exercising even a few of the following steps, you can cut your annual emissions by thousands of pounds and your energy bills by a significant amount!
Home appliances
Turn your refrigerator down. Refrigerators account for about 20% of Household electricity use. Use a thermometer to set your refrigerator temperature as close to 37 degrees and your freezer as close to 3 degrees as possible. Make sure that its energy saver switch is turned on. Also, check the gaskets around your refrigerator/freezer doors to make sure they are clean and sealed tightly.
Set your clothes washer to the warm or cold water setting, not hot. Switching from hot to warm for two loads per week can save nearly 500 pounds of CO2 per year if you have an electric water heater, or 150 pounds for a gas heater.
Make sure your dishwasher is full when you run it and use the energy saving setting, if available, to allow the dishes to air dry. You can also turn off the drying cycle manually. Not using heat in the drying cycle can save 20 percent of your dishwasher’s total electricity use.
Turn down your water heater thermostat. Thermostats are often set to 140 degrees F when 120 is usually fine. Each 10 degree reduction saves 600 pounds of CO2 per year for an electric water heater, or 440 pounds for a gas heater. If every household turned its water heater thermostat down 20 degrees, we could prevent more than 45 million tons of annual CO2 emissions – the same amount emitted by the entire nations of Kuwait or Libya.
1. Replace old light bulbs with energy saving fluorescent bulbs. They may cost more, but will save you much more in the long run.
2. Turn off all electronic devices that are not in use. Not only turn them off but try to remember to unplug them. You will be surprised how much you will save with this simple step!
3. Air dry your dishes. When washing in a dish washer, the heat generated during the wash cycle is more than enough to dry your dishes.
4. Clean or replace air filters regularly. This can vary depending on the filter you are using. It’s important to follow the instruction found on the packaging. If you no longer have it, here are some basic guidelines:
Deep Pleated = Once or twice a year
Ordinary Flat or Pleated = 2-3 Months
Traditional Fiberglass/Polyester = Monthly
It is also important that your air filter fits properly and air is moving through it and not around it.
5. Close vents and doors in unused rooms. No need to cool or warm areas that people are not in.
The truth is definitely becoming clearer. Thanks to widespread news coverage and Al Gore’s book and documentary, people are becoming more and more aware that energy needs to be conserved, even if it means inconvenience. Recycling isn’t something only “tree-huggers” do anymore. Even big companies are getting into the habit of recycling and reusing their waste products. My local Wal-mart has barrels set up to collect used plastic bags and one of the local grocery stores uses their cardboard boxes instead of bags for their customers to carry their purchases home.
With all the basics covered; changing light bulbs, recycling your paper, plastic and metal goods, and turning off the faucets when brushing your teeth, you are doing a great job of conserving the Earth’s natural resources. But there is more that you could be doing. Follows is a list of lesser-known ways to conserve energy in the comfort of your own home.
Replace the filters on your air conditioner every month that you are using it. By running the machine with a clean filter, it doesn’t have to work as hard and doesn’t need to use more energy to achieve the keep the rooms cool.
Turn down the water temperature on your water heater. By lower the temperature of the water to 120 degrees, the heater won’t have to use as much energy to heat up the water to a warmer temperature. It’s also safer to have the water heater lower if you have young children in the house, as the hot water won’t scald them if the heater is turned to 120 degrees or cooler.
Avoid over checking your food while it is cooking in the oven. Every time you open the oven door while it is on, the temperature inside the oven drops as much as 30 degrees. The oven then has to expend energy to bring the temperature back up. By reducing the number of times you open the door to check on your meal, you can save energy.
Avoid washing your clothes in hot water. Most clothes that are not stained can be cleaned in cold water (it’s also better for the dyes and less harsh on the fabric). Clothes that are dirty but not overly stained can be pretreated and washed in warm water. Hot water is really only necessary for heavily stained clothes or if you are trying to eliminate pests such as lice. Many detergent companies are formulating their products to work as well in cold water as in warm and hot in order to help consumers conserve energy.
Adjust the blades on ceiling fans for seasonal changes. The fan company (and occasionally the blades themselves) will inform you of the optimal position for your fan blade to keep the air circulating during the summer and winter months.
Doing these five things may seem like an inconvenience, especially when all our lives are so busy already. Just remember that we only have one planet and it is up to us to treat the best way we can.
Jennifer Carpenter is a work at home mother of three, two teens and a preschooler. She writes about parenting, social, health, and financial issues from her home in Warwick, RI. Jenn also hosts a website discussing the different ways she is making money online and achieving her financial freedom.
Virgance, the unique ‘Activism 2.0? startup that is looking to improve the world while making money in the process, has announced the latest addition to its portfolio of campaigns. The company has revealed that beginning six months ago it began quietly acquiring a number of blogs, namely the Green Options Media Network – a collection of 15 blogs, each of which is focused on a different portion of the environmental space. Since the acquisition the blog network has managed to become profitable despite the floundering economy, and has seen its writing staff grow significantly. But according to Virgance, they’re just getting started.
Green Options was founded back in 2007, and has grown to around 2.5 million monthly unique visitors. The network’s most popular blogs include Gas 2.0 (a blog focused on alternative fuels) and CleanTechnica, a blog that examines the latest trends in clean tech. The network sees around 30-40 new blog posts a day, though some of the niche blogs are updated less frequently than the others.
Every year, excess fertilizers and animal manure flow down the Mississippi River and empties into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving an increasingly large swath of the gulf completely lifeless.
The Gulf’s “Dead Zone,” as it’s commonly known, is largely the result of excess fertilizer use; as the NOAA website on the gulf hypoxic zone puts it, “Nutrient over-enrichment from anthropogenic sources is one of the major stresses impacting coastal ecosystems.” When too much fertilizer and animal waste flow off of farm and ranch lands, it adds too much nitrogen and phosphorus to the water, which depletes oxygen, results in algae blooms, and drives off fish, shrimp and other aquatic life.
Gov. Charlie Crist announced Wednesday that Florida would significantly scale back its $1.34 billion deal to restore the Everglades by buying 180,000 acres from the United States Sugar Corporation.
At a news conference in Tallahassee, Mr. Crist outlined a far more modest proposal: $530 million for 72,500 acres, with an option to buy the rest by 2019.
“We feel this is the best opportunity, the best financial scenario we can present,” Mr. Crist said, adding, “The economy has been what it has been, and we have to deal with the parameters we are given.”
The new proposal, if approved by the South Florida Water Management District and the board of United States Sugar, would amount to the second major revision of a plan that began last June as a purchase of United States Sugar, all assets included, for $1.75 billion.
Monday, April 20, 2009 at 10:08AM
No Gas to Mess With
Easy Starting
Environmentally Conscious
Case Study (45 KB PDF)
