sustainable energy

Put Your Computer to Use for Good When You're Not Using It

jplatt — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:00:00 -0500

You're probably using only a fraction of your computer's computing power when it's on. When it's idle, you're using even less. But now you can put that unused processing power to good use coming and help come up with the next generation of solar-power materials.

The Clean Energy Project @ Harvard University aims to create "organic photovoltaics to provide inexpensive solar cells, polymers for the membranes used in fuel cells for electricity generation, and how best to assemble the molecules to make those devices."

The problem is, there are tens of thousands of possible combinations of the organic materials that would be used to create those substances. Which combination is the best?

That's where you -- and your computer -- come in. By downloading the project's software at the link above, your computer will become part of a worldwide grid of similar computers, and will help to calculate the optimal materials during the time your computer would otherwise be idle.

Obviously, an "off" computer is better for the environment than an idle one, but if you're going to be idle anyway, you may as well be doing some good in the process.

Green Your Phone with Renewable Energy Credits

jplatt — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:15:04 -0500

Looking for a way to make your cell phone a little bit greener? Best Buy has an idea -- visit one of their stores to buy wind-power energy credits to offset your phone's electricity use.

The program, called Green Your Phone, offers $10 enewable energy cards that offset the electricity use of two cell phones for two years (the average lifespan of a phone). The cards are loaded with 500 kilowatt hours of certified renewable energy credits (RECs), and purchases support the development of wind power projects in Kansas, Idaho, Wyoming and Minnesota.

The RECs guarantee that a specified amount of electricity is added to the national power grid with wind power or other renewable energy sources.

The "Green Your Phone" cards also include two “Offset with Wind Power” decals, so you can attach them to your phones and show off what you're doing to help save the environment.

The Green Your Phone program was created by a company called Renewable Choice Energy, a supplier of RECs and carbon offsets to both organizations and individuals.

Green Your Phone cards are available now in 1,000 Best Buy stores around the country, and online at their web site. (I hope they just give you the credits instead of mailing you the card, though...)

An Idea to Green Your Grave

jplatt — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:00:00 -0500

Looking for an idea that can help the people you leave behind? The Spanish town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet has turned its cemetery into something better than a memorial. By installing solar panels on top of mausoleums, they have turned the cemetery into a green-power-generating lifeline for the town.

According to an AP report, the cemetery boasts 462 solar panels, which produce enough energy to power 60 homes.

Cemeteries take up a great deal of land that could be better put to use as untouched wilderness, but it's good to see someone producing green change out of death.

Financial Crisis Inspires Investment in Cost-Saving Solar Technologies

jplatt — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:08:34 -0400

Solar power is more than just green -- investors are hoping it will earn them a lot of green.

You might call it a perfect storm for solar. The world financial markets are in turmoil, energy prices are at record highs, and new solar innovations are being announced almost every week. Companies know they can save money by buying solar energy, and banks know that solar is a mature enough technology that it is an investment likely to pay off.

A few weeks ago, GreenTech Media revealed that venture-capital funding in renewable-energy companies more than doubled in the third quarter of 2008, with solar companies raking in a record $1.5 billion. And it didn't end there. Bankers are reportedly lining up at this week's Solar Power International Conference, ready to put their green into green.

So what does this mean for you? The next few years will see even more solar devices, more efficient solar innovations, and more options for home and business energy. And that's good news for everyone.

Want Solar Power? Let RoofRay Calculate Your Solar Potential

jplatt — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:48:24 -0400

Thinking about putting solar panels on your house, but not sure how effective they'll be? RoofRay has an answer.

This great online tool uses Google Maps to calculate the amount of energy that you will likely be able to collect by placing solar panels on the roof of your house or business.

RoofRay is incredibly simple to use. You put in your address, and it pulls up a satellite image of your house or business from Google Earth. Once that image appears, you click on the corners of your roof, and the RoofRay system calculates the approximate square footage of your rooftop. Then you drag a small indicator to tell the calculator which direction your roof slants. RoofRay already knows how much sun your part of the country gets, so its calculators do the rest.

According to my test of the system (which took all of 45 seconds), putting solar panels on my house could generate up to 11,000 watts of electricity at peak performance.

RoofRay also tells me which months will be the best for my solar panels (obviously, December and January won't be ideal). Next, it tells me how much I can expect to save on my electric bills each month of the year. Finally, it estimates the costs of my solar panels, deducts likely state and federal rebates or tax credits, and tells me how much the panels will cost or save me over their anticipated 25-year life.

According to RoofRay, installing solar panels will cost me about $100,000 to start, but create a net positive cash flow of more than $88,000 over 25 years. That's a pretty good illustration of the effectiveness of solar power.

RoofRay won't connect you with contractors to install your solar panels, but if you're just looking for information, this could be the first step toward your energy independence.

Google Goes Geothermal. Can You?

jplatt — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:00:00 -0400

Google recently announced it would invest $10 million into the development of geothermal energy systems. Geothermal, one of the hot new ideas in "clean technology," uses the natural heat under the Earth's surface to provide heat or create electricity.

Could geothermal be the "killer app" of the energy world, as Google predicts? More specifically, can you take advantage of it for your home or business?

Geothermal isn't a new idea (it's been around for centuries), but new technologies are making it a more viable energy alternative for today's electricity-starved world.

Geothermal power for homes or businesses comes in two "flavors": direct geothermal taps hot water under the ground to provide heat, while ground-source heat pumps moves heat from below the surface for heating during the winter and removes heat from the surface in the summer. Geothermal can also be used to drive electric generators in larger facilities and power plants.

So can you use geothermal? Depending on your location, the answer is probably yes. Western states appear to have the best resources, but you might be able to tap into geothermal energy no matter where you live. Talk to your local power company or energy contractors to find out about your options.

For more information on geothermal power, visit the U.S. Department of Energy's Geothermal Technologies Program.

T. Boone Pickens: Building Wind Power in America

kbutler — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

When T. Boone Pickens founded Mesa Petroleum in the 1950s, he took $2500 and turned it into a three billion dollar oil empire. This guy is about as old-school oil man as you can get. But Pickens is a business man above all else – and considering the state of the world’s oil, he’s planning accordingly. According to Pickens, “At current oil prices, we will send $700 billion dollars out of the country this year alone — that's four times the annual cost of the Iraq war. Projected over the next 10 years the cost will be $10 trillion — it will be the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind.”

So what’s Pickens doing about it? This guy is going from Big Oil to Big Wind, investing in a tremendous wind turbine project, starting in the Texas Panhandle. In fact, he’s recently announced plans to expand into Oklahoma. This is all part of the Pickens Plan, an extensive blueprint to promote oil alternatives. The plan is to replace natural gas resources with wind energy, which would then free up to 38% more natural gas resources to replace the current need for transportation -- and therefore our dependece on oil. Yep, Pickens also owns an extensive natural gas monopoly -- but hey, it's clean energy. And people aren't being killed in the Middle East over. All sounds good in my book.

Pickens is promising more than just pulling back on our foreign oil dependence. His wind turbine investments are also turning around the local economies, transforming declining Midwestern Dustbowl towns into revitalized communities. Until recently, the small Texas town of Sweetwater was landsliding towards a depression. Now, with Pickens bringing in the wind industry, it is called “a 21st-century equivalent of the Wild West. German wind technicians who have poured into the area have coined a name for it - the Wind West.”

And for a Texas oil man who has been one of the biggest backers of both President Bushes and the mastermind of the Swift Boat incident of the last election – this ain’t bad politics.

Can You Harness Wind Power or Not?

jchait — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

In my series of posts last week related to choosing the perfect land for your green home, I mentioned wind power. Wind power is cool but not all plots of land will allow for decent wind power. If wind power is something you do want to utilize, either right out of the gate or later on, then you need to choose land that works.

Some wind options include wind-powered water pumps or a wind energy generator. To make sure you can utilize this renewable resource here's what to look for:

You need reliable wind - year round if possible, although many are now simply combining solar and wind. Make sure to study the wind patterns in your area. Mapping wind rates and strengths can take up to a year - obviously because it's nice to know what the wind is like year round. But you can take some shortcuts by using the following resources:

State Wind Resource Maps
Wind Web Tutorial
For a somewhat hefty price WindLogics will map your wind for you. It's costly, but is noted as giving an accurate idea of what sort of wind situation you have.

Identify obstructions to wind flow on your land. Mountain ranges, a valley, a forest, buildings, and other obstructions can all distort the wind that reaches your home.

In my opinion, wind is a much more difficult energy source to estimate than solar. The best plan if you'd like wind powered anything on your land is to read a lot of good books on wind power - start with the Solar Living Sourcebook. for some good book referrals. Even better talk with a housing professional who has experience with wind and wind power density.

Want to learn more about wind power?

Wind Turbine Power: Farmers Turning the Wind Into Gold

Inexpensive Residential Wind Turbine—Wind Power—Alternative Energy For Your Home

Home Wind-Power Turbines Going Mainstream

What YOU Should Know About Wind Power!

Can You Use Wind Turbines to Power Your Home?

Residential Wind Power

Clean, Renewable Energy: The Answer to Global Warming

jchatraw — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

I must admit there are days when my six-mile bike ride to work seems like a straight uphill climb. In those moments of laziness, I wish the Idaho sun could just transport me there aside from the pumping power of Pat and Charlie. And while that may be a reality soon as solar-powered cars are becoming a reality, harnassing the cleanest and best renewable energy source we have for all power usages is a must for the future.

In their book Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy, authors Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks go after naysayers and present some fine arguments on how this can happen and ways to get started.

Here is a green nugget from their book:

"There are many tyrannies in the world, but the worst are tyrannies of the mind, mental straightjackets that imprison imagination. When it comes to energy, the tyranny of the present is a box that confines us to considering only the technologies of today as we envision the future.

"Some say we are helpless in the face of global warming. Those "nattering nabobs of negativism" will constantly point out irrelevant facts about how expensive alternatives are compared to fossil fuels, how inconvenient they are, and how undeveloped they are. Those unfortunate victims of the tyranny of the present cannot envision the inevitable growth in efficiency, declining costs, and ever increasing accessibility of clean and renewable energy.

"We must understand the awesome power of the human intellect. That is the real renewable energy. That intellectual power is now on the cusp of perfecting the ultimate clean energy: solar power. If we see only what is possible today, we will miss the most transformative technologies and overlook clean energy's greatest potential.

Want to learn more about global warming?

Top 10 Lesser-Known Myths About Global Warming

New Report: Doubts Grow About Global Warming

Send an Instant Message, Fight Global Warming

Top 10 Ways to Prevent Global Warming

Global Warming Cartoons

Jared Leto Pushes Back on Global Warming

What You Eat Can Affect Global Warming, New Study Shows

Wicked Fun with the Sun

jchatraw — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:05:05 -0400

OK, let's be honest -- most of us are still looking for our genius side, forget good and evil. But in Gavin D.J. Harper's book Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius, Harper appeals to the eco enthusiast by showing you how to turn some everyday electrical possessions into objects powered by the sun.

Harper's book may seem like a working contradiction of sorts as he explains some environmental issues like telling someone for the first time what global warming is then unloads a diagram on you to convert something into being powered by the sun. However, any book that shows you how to make a solar-powered hot dog cooker is hot!

Enjoy this green nugget ... and go make something useful--and solar:

"As present, the bulk of our energy comes from fossil fuels—gas, coal, and oil. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons, that is to say that if we look at them chemically, they are wholly composed of hydrogen and carbon atoms. The thing about hydrocarbons is that, when combined with the oxygen in the air and heat, they react exothermically (they give out heat). This heat is useful, and is used directly as a useful form of energy in itself, or is converted into other forms of energy like kinetic or electrical energy that can be used to "do some work," in other words, perform a useful function. ...

"Even the fossil fuels which we are burning at an unsustainable rate at the moment, actually originally came from the sun. Fossil fuels are the remains of dead animal and plant matter that have been subject to extreme temperature and pressure over millions of years. Those animals fed on the plants that were around at the time (and other animals) and those plants grew as a result of the solar energy that was falling on the earth."