Curt DespresGoing Green at Your Storage Facility
Surprisingly, the self-storage industry is actually inherently green. Facilities use far fewer resources to operate that most other businesses use to occupy the same space. Many locations have even taken it a step further and have embraced the green movement. The growing popularity of recycling and alternate energy forms has positioned this industry as a [...]
THE GREEN ENERGY B...SSE Chief Executive Test Drives Car of the Future
SSE Chief Executive, Ian Marchant, took the next generation of zero emission vehicles for a spin at the company’s HQ today (Friday 18 May) as the latest hydrogen fuel cell car drove into the city for the first time. The Hyundai ix35 fuel cell electric vehicle is the European Commission’s official demonstration vehicle to test [...]
Scotland Planning to Generate 100% Electricity from Renewable Energy Source
Many nations rely on coal, oil and natural gas for their energy needs but relying on fossil fuels triggers a big problem. Renewable energy resources, such as wind, solar and hydropower, offer clean alternatives to fossil fuels. In the making of renewable energy Scotland is now one step ahead, an underwater turbine which generated electricity [...]
Space-based Solar Power Systems a Step Closer to Reality
Image Courtesy: maficstudios Engineering researchers at the University of Strathclyde’s Institute for Energy & Environment are advancing in their part of a multinational project quest to build a space-based solar energy system that could one day be capable of supplying clean, renewable electricity at scales sufficient to power towns and cities anywhere in the world. [...]
10 Ways You Can Go Electricity Free for a Weekend
As people continue to try and cut back on their expenses the high cost of the electricity bill is one that gets revisited over and over again. In an attempt to lower that bill there are always the tried and true recommendations of turning off the lights when you leave the room, turning the furnace [...]
World’s First Geothermal-Solar Power Plant opens in Nevada
Back in 2009, as part of Obama’s goal to expand domestic renewable energy sources, the Stillwater geothermal power plant was built in Fallon, Nevada, one of several areas in Utah and Nevada identified for geothermal development. Initially the plant had a generation capacity of 33 MW, but just recently Enel Green Power, the renewable energy [...]
Getting to Cost-Competitive Solar Energy
SunEdison founder and former Carbon War Room CEO Jigar Shah took to the pages of The Huffington Post and GigaOm recently to downplay the need for aggressive clean energy innovation. “We actually have all of the cost-effective technology [we] need” to mitigate climate change, he says in the former piece, singling out Bill Gates’ [...]
Six Green Gadgets for Your Home
There’s no better way to start saving money in 2012 than by looking at the way you use energy around the home. There are many items on the market to help homeowners cut costs and keep pounds back in your pocket. Here are some examples of the top six money saving gadgets. These will not [...]
Ceramic Fuel Cells Products Achieve 1 Million Hours of Cumulative Operation
Photo Courtesy: cfcl.com.au Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd reports that its solid oxide fuel cell products have achieved a combined 1 million hours of operation. The company is a leading developer of high-efficiency, low-emission electricity generation products for homes and other buildings. Ceramic Fuel Cells’ first field trial units were operated in Australia, New Zealand, and [...]
Is It Hot In Here? Sizing HVAC to Fit Your Home
Heating and cooling a home takes up a big chunk of a homeowner’s energy dollars, but new HVAC systems have improved in their energy efficiency. Still, a lot of factors go into finding the perfectly-sized system for your home. And don’t forget to hire a professional HVAC contractor! Courtesy: todaysgreenminute.com
10 Ways to Leverage Solar Panels to Reduce Your Electric Bill
Whether it’s the rising cost of energy, a desire to go green, or a little bit of both, you’re considering installing solar panels in your home. Good for you. The advantages and savings can be significant and quickly offset the installation cost. Let’s take a look at ten ways to leverage solar panels to reduce [...]
Green Mother’s Day Gift Ideas
What are some ways to be Green on Mother’s Day? Start by giving handmade, local, organic, Fair Trade, and eco-friendly gifts. Choose organic local flowers. Most flowers are mainly grown in other countries that use harmful chemicals and pesticides. Who wants to bring that into their home? Green Mother’s Day Gift Ideas: • Make your [...]
Backfilling Nuclear Shutdowns With Efficiency And Renewables In Japan, Germany And California?
Electric utilities and policymakers in Japan and Germany have been scrambling for months to find ways to compensate for nuclear power plants shut down in the aftermath of Fukushima. In both instances, fossil fuels are part of the stopgap solution to offset the declines in nuclear generation in the short term, but longer-term energy policies [...]
New York’s Largest On-Farm Biogas Power Project Generates Renewable Energy for Nearly 1,000 Homes
Courtesy: ch4biogas.com COVINGTON, New York, May. 01 – /EWire/ – U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined state and local officials today at the grand opening of New York state’s largest on-farm, ‘co-digestion’ biogas power project, marking an important boost to the state’s renewable energy production and sustainability efforts. The facility is located at Synergy Dairy, [...]
Rivers Flowing into the Sea Offer Vast Potential as Electricity Source
Credit: iStock “Thermodynamic and Energy Efficiency Analysis of Power Generation from Natural Salinity Gradients by Pressure Retarded Osmosis” Environmental Science & Technology A new genre of electric power-generating stations could supply electricity for more than a half billion people by tapping just one-tenth of the global potential of a little-known energy source that exists where [...]
Who uses Renewable Power, in One Map
We keep hearing that renewable energy is booming in the United States, but where is it? Here’s a handy map from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing how much electricity each state gets from wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal (but not hydropower): Maine was the clear winner in 2011, getting 27 percent of its electricity [...]
Iceland Hopes Cheap, 100% Renewable Electricity will Attract Foreign Business
Iceland is the only country in the world which can boast 100% renewable electricity, a fact that it is trying to exploit in attempts to attract foreign investment to help boost its economy which is still recovering from the collapse of its banks in 2008. This is not the first time that Icelanders have [...]
The Plant: My Beer Feeds Your Fish
Courtesy: www.todaysgreenminute.com
Solar-Powered ATM Machines Expand Banking Options in Rural India
For many villagers in rural areas of India, personal banking comes at a high cost. In addition to the expense of traveling to the nearest branch, often in distant cities, they must often forego a day’s work. Vortex Engineering, a start-up incubated at Chennai’s Indian Institute of Technology, has come up with a solution that [...]
Geothermal Heating and Cooling Goes Big at University
Photo: Ball State University Heating and cooling old college buildings can be a very expensive, and environmentally unfriendly, proposition. Ball State University in Indiana, is taking a greener tack though, resulting in the nation’s largest geothermal heating and cooling system. Built using funds from the State of Indiana, the university and a $5 million grant [...]
Why Is Eco-Fashion Important
Photo Courtesy: greenroomvoice.com Since ages, fashion has been one of the most important factors of every civilization. People have devoted their lives to set a new trend and making others look good — or you may say “style in a better way”. It’s a race that everyone wants to win. A parallel race, supported by [...]
India Opens World’s Largest Solar Park
Photo Courtesy: Reuters/Amit Dave The world’s largest solar power field has been switched on in India’s western state of Gujarat. Accounting for 214 megawatts of photovoltaic solar capacity, it becomes larger than China’s 200 MW Golmud Solar Park, which previously held the record. The newly-developed solar power park will be a 500-megawatt system using state-of-the-art [...]
Geothermal Heating System Draws on Limitless Fuel: Sewage
We’re speaking about the gray river of warmth flowing right beneath our feet: sewage. A Philadelphia company, NovaThermal Energy LLC, wants to heat and cool buildings by tapping into the constant, guaranteed heat contained in wastewater. The process is called sewage geothermal. “It’s just like geothermal energy, but we’re using a different well source, so [...]
Solar Charger Messenger Bag to Juice Up Your Gadgets on the Move
Today’s tech driven society just cannot do without electronic devices and virtually use smartphones, tablets and laptops all around the clock. Your work would totally come to a halt if your electronic devices run dry. Keeping this in mind, products that can power up gadgets even when people are on the run are becoming popular. [...]
Earth Day by the Numbers
Happy Earth Day, everybody! More than a billion people in 192 countries take part in Earth Day activities, according to Earth Day network. By the numbers: 4.43 – Pounds of “municipal solid waste” generated per person in the United States each day in 2010. 34.1 – Percent of “municipal solid waste” that ends up getting [...]
Disaster Resilience Part of Sustainability, Too
The Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building at University of California, San Francisco. (Bruce Damonte, courtesy Rafael Vinoly Architects) As the world deals with quakes, storms, waves and eruptions, builders realize that surviving and thriving after these threats are key components of sustainability. By Bill Lascher As eco-savvy as the earthquake-prone Left Coast might [...]
Unstoppable! The Rise of Britain’s Green Buildings
Orlando Bloom has an eco-house; Prince Charles has built a sustainable home, and now even Damien Hirst is turning to green development with plans to build 500 eco-homes in Devon. Despite the economic gloom, the green way of building has never been more popular. And soon, it seems, all building work could be green. The [...]
Proposed Satellite would Beam Solar Power to Earth
The satellite would be made up of tens of thousands of small biometric elements that would deliver megawatts of power to Earth and space missions. Image: John Mankins PASADENA, Calif. — An energy-hungry Earth is in need of transformational and sustainable energy solutions, experts say. For decades, researchers have been appraising the use of power-beaming [...]
2 Ways Small Scale Wind Turbines Will Revolutionize Home Energy Use
Small scale wind turbines are truly becoming a revolution of sorts in the way we achieve our power at home. In the past, all electricity was made in central power plants and distributed to us at our homes. Now, the model is changing fast and we are moving to a society where power is made [...]
Solar-Powered Cement Production without Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Image: Dr. Licht, University of Washington (Nanowerk Spotlight) The global cement industry is currently one of the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide, generating on average about 830 kg of this greenhouse gas for each 1000 kg of cement produced (source: International Energy Agency 2007, Tracking Industrial Energy Efficiency and CO2 Emissions; pdf). Considering that [...]
Corkscrew Wind Turbine brings Juice to Indians Stadium
The helix shape, made from hard plastic, amplifies the wind going to five off-the-shelf turbines.(Credit: Cleveland State University) A quirky helix-shaped wind turbine is an experiment in boosting wind speed to make wind energy viable in low-wind locations, such as cities and suburbs. As the Cleveland Indians play their home games, an experiment in industrial [...]
Green Goes Simple: Conservation at Home
Transform Your Trash By Marisa Belger for Green Goes Simple The jars came first. Instead of sending my growing collection of empty glass receptacles to their usual fate at the bottom of the recycle bin, I did something unexpected — something wild. I peeled off their labels and plopped them in the dishwasher. I [...]
iPhone Apps that Promote a Greener Lifestyle
Guest Post Smartphones are nifty for listening to music, playing word games, and taking vintage photos, but did you know that they can also benefit green initiatives? There are great apps out there designed to inform and connect smartphone users over environmental and energy saving issues. These apps do their part to help people become [...]
Harnessing True Solar Energy
Guest Post Have you ever stopped to wonder where the energy you use every day comes from? Most people rarely give it a second thought when they flick on a light, or stop at the pumps to fill up. The few that do tend to trace it back to one of many conversion points. A [...]
O’Sun Nomad Solar Lamp Concept Design
Photo Courtesy: technabob.com Belgian Designer Alain Gilles has come up with an interesting solar lamp concept called O’Sun Nomad Solar Lamp. This solar lamp is using a LED lamp for energy efficiently, while the solar lamp is rechargeable via AC outlet or expose the lamp directly to the sun for recharge. No idea how long [...]
The Solar Suitcase – Saving Lives Overnight
So many of us take for granted some of the most common things in our lives. We rely on our medical system when we are sick. We have plenty of clean and amply equipped hospitals where we can give birth, or be made well. What if we didn’t have any of those things? What if [...]