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Las Vegas to build 30 story vertical farm. What's not to love (well, other than building a farm in an area absent of water)? The thing feeds thousands of people, pays for itself, and drastically reduces the cost of transporting foods long distances. I wonder if they also have a reduction in pesticides since the crops are so high up in the air. It'll be a minor greening of the Vegas image, but I like it a lot.
quote:But yields from a grass that only needs to be planted once would deliver an average of 13.1 megajoules of energy as ethanol for every megajoule of petroleum consumed—in the form of nitrogen fertilizers or diesel for tractors—growing them. "It's a prediction because right now there are no biorefineries built that handle cellulosic material" like that which switchgrass provides, Vogel notes. "We're pretty confident the ethanol yield is pretty close." This means that switchgrass ethanol delivers 540 percent of the energy used to produce it, compared with just roughly 25 percent more energy returned by corn-based ethanol according to the most optimistic studies.
...
In fact, Vogel and his team report this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that switchgrass will store enough carbon in its relatively permanent root system to offset 94 percent of the greenhouse gases emitted both to cultivate it and from the derived ethanol burned by vehicles. Of course, this estimate also relies on using the leftover parts of the grass itself as fuel for the biorefinery. "The lignin in the plant cell walls can be burned," Vogel says.
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Tata to gas hogs? Probably not acceptable to many FirstWorlders as a primary vehicle. But most of the non-work commute time spent in cars is for extremely short trips on surface roads and not freeways. So something similarly priced (with a thousand or so bucks more for front-passenger airbags) might be a great alternative second vehicle for tooling around town: grocery shopping, dropping the kids off at school, catching a movie, etc. No freeway driving. But I suspect that for many Americans especially, spending $35hundred for a safety-version Tata would sound far more attractive than spending $12thousand for a Fortwo.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I read an article in the New York Times today that people are buying Tatas without bothering to learn to drive them. I was in the doctor's office, and I didn't finish the article, but I've got to wonder what kind of licensing or insurance requirements they have in India.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Excellent article Dagonee! I've seen a few articles about different non food based plants as a fuel source, and it looked for awhile like sorgrum (spelling is off) would be the one, especially since it can be planted in depleted tobacco fields, which are rampant all over Virginia and other southern states, and can't grow traditional cash crops these days.
Cellulosic ethanol plants ARE under construction, but it remains to be seen that they will work the way scientists hope. A lot depends on next generation bacteria to break down the plants so they can be processed, otherwise it's much, much more costly. We'll see, but I think cellulosic is getting closer in leaps and bounds. I'm still waiting for more news on biobutanol and octobutanol too.
For Tata, it remains to be seen if those cars will pass rigorous US and European safety standards. Recently made Chinese cars have failed safety inspections in Europe.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Got off work early today because I have a nasty cold. So, here's a tiny weekend update. Not much because weekends are always light. Most of the news seems to be centering around the Detroit Auto Show (which I may go see in a couple weeks, we'll see) and the green cars coming out there (some neat stuff!) but there are a few other updates. Notably:
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I just want to throw this out: I'm watching John McCain on CNN right now, and aside from some wanton and random France bashing and he more or less said exactly what I've been saying for months: that even if we're wrong about global warming, the economic benefits make it worthwhile regardless of the environment.
It's scary to hear my words not only coming out of a Republican's mouth, but a Republican presidential candidate's mouth, and the frontrunner to boot! I don't say that to bash McCain, though I'm mildly skeptical of his commitment to that wordplay, I'm just honestly surprised, and if he really means it, then it's great news! Getting the Republican leadership on board is one of the last great battles that has to be fought before this revolution can explode the way it needs to.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I'm getting lazy, more than a week since my last update. One of my favorite sites that has the most information doesn't work at the moment for some reason, but hopefully that's only temporary. So in the meantime, you get a small but good smattering of info.
Ford touts a revamped Escape/Mariner hybrid. From the looks of things, it's a major improvement. Tiny increase in efficiency, but the big story is the increase in power and performance without sacrificing that efficiency. This is the kind of thing that helps take SUV hybrids more mainstream.
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The nanowire waste heat technology sounds like it could have a real value for cooling clothing. Plug in a discharged battery and the nanowires cool the wearer as the battery charges.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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A lot of big announcements in the last few days. I'd forgotten all the good info you can get when you check these sites out daily.
This one isn't green news, but it effects us. Raytheon has licensed a technology to extract oil from tar sands and shale. As many of you know, shale in the American west holds more oil than all of Saudi Arabia combined, maybe even the whole Middle East combined. It's oil that's a few million years younger than what they have in the ME, and requires a lot of work to be turned into that light sweet crude we love so much. If prices go much higher, you'll really start seeing the push come to dig up Colorado for oil.
Chevy to consider a Hyrbid Camarao. Mostly as a result of the new CAFE rules. It'll be uber expensive if created, but it'll also get awesome performance.
Featured Article Paris plans to build green meeting space. Aside from looking fantastic and providing a great view of the city for visitors, it's powered by renewables, actually reduces smog from surrounding areas, and has a green roof that recycles water for the lagoon inside. I can't wait to visit!
Wind power finally coming to the Great Lakes. In her recent State of the State address, Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm has said domestic energy providers are ready to spend billions on renewables including wind turbines to be built in Michigan as soon as the Michigan Congress passes legislation to clear the way for them.
Explosive growth in Chinese car sales. I've read a lot of articles lately saying that Chinese and Indian cheap cars and explosive growth will cause oil to surge in price over the next couple years. Oil producing companies have almost no hope of keeping pace with demand. Gas might be at $5 a gallon in just a few years.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I'll be perfectly honest. About halfway through I thought it was a bunch of hippy mumbo jumbo. Then it started to sound a little cooler, and in the last five minutes it blew me away a little. That's the kind of interdependent sustainability that we need to embrace, and he's hitting the nail on the head when he says there's no reason to sacrifice the environment for the things we need, the environment is already built to give us those things.
Excellent video Juxtapose.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I was really interested in the article about the push for renewables in Hawaii.
I grew up in Hilo, the rainiest city in the US. I had an idea a little while ago for a device that would harness the energy from rainwater falling in gutters to help power homes. According to my calculations though, such a device running at perfect efficiency (with 130 inches of rain, mind you) would net less than 3 kWh a year.
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I've posted an article before about harnessing rainwater for energy, but it wasn't from gutters, it was from the vibrations and impact that the water makes when it hits your roof. It's being worked on, but I haven't seen anything on it really recently.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Juxtapose: I was really interested in the article about the push for renewables in Hawaii.
I grew up in Hilo, the rainiest city in the US. I had an idea a little while ago for a device that would harness the energy from rainwater falling in gutters to help power homes. According to my calculations though, such a device running at perfect efficiency (with 130 inches of rain, mind you) would net less than 3 kWh a year.
Oh well.
I'm very curious what assumptions you used in that calculation. By my calculation, 130 inches of water over a 1 km square area that is 1 m above sea level has a potential energy just under 9 megaWatt hours.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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quote:I've posted an article before about harnessing rainwater for energy, but it wasn't from gutters, it was from the vibrations and impact that the water makes when it hits your roof. It's being worked on, but I haven't seen anything on it really recently.
I saw that one too. Much more high tech than my idea.
I did my calculations on a per household basis, based on a 1000 sq. foot* roof area with 3m falling distance. I also did a fair amount of rounding.
*This works out to roughly 2360 L per inch of rain.
9.8m/s^2 * (2360kg * 130) * 3m = ~9,00,000J
According to google, 1 kWh = 3,600,000J
If I did something wrong here, I'd love to know about it.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Ah, I see. You were calculating based on the ran gutters on a single house, I was thinking of the rain gutters on the street that would drain a much larger area.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat --a NY Times article which references 2 new studies in the journal Science. The studies take a detailed accounting of what's involved in the manufacture and transport to market of biofuels, including land-use issues.
What's sad is that (edit: corn-based) biofuels will still be pushed hard, at least in this country, for years to come. There's too much political inertia behind it.
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I don't think the article does enough to really explain the differences in biofuels. They're basically talking about corn, or maybe soybeans. But I don't know many people who really know about biofuels that think corn ethanol is a GOOD thing. It's horrible. But it's a stepping stone. If you look at the "well to wheel" for corn ethanol it's extremely wasteful.
But it's not the only biofuel. Fuel from agricultural waste, from carbon sequested algae farms, but plants that grow faster with less energy but YIELD more energy that are being worked on now like soghrum and switchgrass, and a few others, away from corn and into cellulosic ethanol, or biobutanol, or what not, these are good biofuels. It should be noted that not all trees are made the same when it comes to carbon sinks. The biggest, best carbon sinks are basically all in the third world. The worst ones are in the the northern hemisphere. South America and Africa MUST keep their forests intact, and we in the north who have a lot more room to maneuver need to make it easier for them to do so, otherwise they'll ignore our demands and do whatever makes them the most money. Biofuels of the future are going to look at LOT different from corn, and they'll be a lot more sustainable too. In the mean time there are a lot of other things we can do to sequester carbon. Japan is working on genetically modified trees that absorb massive amounts of carbon. I'm nervous at the idea of genetically modified trees, but I'm not willing to close any door until what's behind it has been explored.
I've heard that article talked about a lot lately, and I won't call it irresponsible journalism, because there is an extremely good point in there (the evils of corn ethanol), but they need to do more to really give the full picture or the backlash could harm a vital part of our sustainable energy future.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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There's some math salvos back and forth on it, but it looks like a waste of time, to me. Just not enough energy per unit area to be worth any effort.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Folding bikes in style? Maybe. A company is looking to push production of these for those with concerns for storage and portability. The military has used bikes like this before. They airdrop with folded bikes on their backs, land, and boom, you've got fast transportation compared to walking, and it's easier on the troops. In this case it looks like they are trying to take the inconvenience of the size of a bike out of the equation. I'd be more excited if we actually had a lot of mass transit in the US that'd make this a cool invention for us, but, hopefully it'll gain traction in Asia and Europe.
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Lucky for you guys I don't have to work until the afternoon tomorrow, so I've got time to do a supersized weekend edition. I'll be flagging a couple articles that I think are extra interesting or important. This will come in two parts:
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Huh, I thought power companies were already buying excess power from solar arrays. Maybe just in some states. Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Morbo: Huh, I thought power companies were already buying excess power from solar arrays. Maybe just in some states.
It's a subject that varies wildly, not just form state to state, but from house to house. If it's a partnership, like the local power company built and maintains the array and sells you some power at a fixed rate, then you don't get anything out of it, it's a longterm partnership with defined benefits for both sides.
But in many places, they zero out your energy bill and you get nothing back. I know in the UK you get some sort of complicated system of solar credits which are traded in for actual cash. But yes, it does vary from state to state on who gets what. It's a bit convoluted at the moment, in part because it's still new to everyone.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Amsterdam's city under the city idea is cool. I do have to agree with most of the commentators from TreeHugger, though. Do you really want a bunch of gas fumes in your undercity?
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Concept illustrations of Gravia depict an acrylic column a little over four feet high. The entire column glows when activated. The electricity is generated by the slow fall of a mass that spins a rotor. The resulting energy powers 10 high-output LEDs that fire into the acrylic lens, creating a diffuse light. The operation is silent and the housing is elegant and cord free -- completely independent of electrical infrastructure.
The light output will be 600-800 lumens - roughly equal to a 40-watt incandescent bulb over a period of four hours.
To "turn on" the lamp, the user moves weights from the bottom to the top of the lamp. An hour glass-like mechanism is turned over and the weights are placed in the mass sled near the top of the lamp. The sled begins its gentle glide back down and, within a few seconds, the LEDs come on and light the lamp, Moulton said. "It's more complicated than flipping a switch but can be an acceptable, even enjoyable routine, like winding a beautiful clock or making good coffee," he said.
Of course, it's actually powered by the food energy consumed by the person lifting the weight. Also, I didn't see a mention of how heavy the weight is or whether energy life-cycle costs have been calculated. But it's pretty cool.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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L.A. goes Solar in a big way. I love it. This is exactly the kind of plan that every city needs. It creates jobs and reduces energy consumption. Now if they can link it in with increased efficiency plans, they'll be even better off.
The Department of Energy is getting serious about EGS (Enhanced Geothermal Systems) EGS is a new type of technology being worked on to expand the output of geothermal wells, and to basically create a geothermal well where none previous existed, sometimes using a method called hot dry rock where you introduce water to a hot rock layer under the Earth that has none to create a geothermal resevoir. Progress continues on this relatively virgin technology, but it holds great promise. I've heard some wild theories about potential risks from doing this. Most of it sounds like it's straight out of a sci-fi disaster flick, like we'll cool the core of the Earth and die or something, but I've yet to see an actual study that says there are any ill effects at all.
How's the EU doing on their targets for greenhouse gas reductions? As a whole they aren't necessarily doing bad. We on the other hand are doing pretty bad. The EU is on track to hit their goals as a 27 nation bloc by 2020 for 20% below 1990 levels. As a 15 nation bloc they aren't doing nearly as well, but they've managed to keep their emissions stead since 1990, while ours have gone up more than 15%.
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Now this is ingenious: MSI's Ecolution motherboard has a cooling fan powered by the chipset's waste heat. The fan uses the venerable Stirling engine, and gets 70% efficiency.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Dubya is spouting misleadingly reasonable-sounding words to cover up his fierce opposition to any measure that would clean up the environment and strengthen the economy. With extremely HIGH probability, China and India would be more than willing to submit to a per capita limit meeting that of the actual carbon emissions of the original EU core*members. Such a limit would allow China to double its greenhouse emissions, and India to more than triple its emissions. And the US would have to cut back it's emissions by more than half; by 2/3rds if the EU core were to meet its 2020 goals. But I'm sure such an equitable settlement is not what Dubya has in mind.
* Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the UnitedKingdom.
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An earlier discussion on Georgia's desire to grab water rights by redrawing its border with Tennessee. The "mischief" being an unwillingness to climb down the walls of "the Grand Canyon of Tennessee" to get to the river which filled that portion of the canyon with LakeNickajack after TVA damming.
Also, GovernorPerdue unilaterally decided to allow property owners to keep their private swimming pools filled. Those swimming pools will evaporate huge amounts of water every day; probably enough to keep everybody's ornamental gardens thriving were the water allocated for that use instead, though still not nearly enough to water all of the lawns. Once again proving that money talks much louder than common sense.
I have to laugh at what I just typed. In high school, our principal would always come on the PA system at about 2:40 (25 minutes before school ended) and he'd say "In ten minutes I'll be making an announcement." It always drove my English teacher insane that he interrupted class TWICE for once announcement.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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After four years of trying, GE invents a process to print rolls of OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) sheets. This is significant because OLEDs have the potential to radically alter the way we light our homes and make all kinds of screens. They have the potential to be far more efficient than CFLs or current LEDs. They could eliminate the need for lamps and other traditional lighting sources. It's still a half decade away, but this is a big breakthrough.
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I found this afterwards and I am absolutely GEEKED about it, so it gets it's own post!
quote:This November, the people of California will have the opportunity to vote on a $10 billion bond measure which will show the world they have the vision to put in place the needed infrastructure to meet a crowded future. I know $10 billion is a lot but if you put it into a certain perspective, it's not so bad. Especially if you look at it as an economic investment.
$10 billion probably sounds like a lot for a state government, but Californians have not shied away from spending big bucks to invest in their future before, and in this case especially, it's a cheaper, safer, cleaner infrastructure upgrade that'll save them literally billions by avoiding more costly upgrades.
I'll be following this story closely, and I'm interested to hear what you Californians have to say on the issue.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Meanwhile coal use is skyrocketing. And not just in China and India. As well as the UK (mentioned), Germany and Japan are steadily increasing their use of coal in powerplants. The good news being that US use of coal has been decreasing since 2000 (at least; didn't see a chart for earlier years).
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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EPA implements strict new rules on trains and small boats for their emissions. It doesn't include large ships, but it's still an impressive move. The funny thing is that most of who'll be hit by this are either individuals or small businesses, while large corporations can keep doing what they do, but at least it's progress, even if it is on the backs of the people who can afford it least.
Featured Article A new company called Recycle Bank is trying to get you to recycle more. The idea is that special recycling bins (big ones too) will be coded with an RFID chip, and you then pick through your trash and recycle everything that can be, and they weigh it and give you credits based on the weight of your recycling. The idea is that if people working on sorting lines in recycling plants get paid, why not the consumers themselves? The credits can be redeemed at a lot of stores like Starbucks, a partnership based venture that I'm betting is half of how they make this financially viable. The other half is that recyclables are big business these days at the base price of so many things rises, and for that matter, it's green cred for places like Starbucks.
The only downside is that it could possibly increase consumerism, as people get discounts places they might be more inclined to shop there, but if the list of places you can cash your credits in at is large enough, I suspect people will probably only use them to supplement purchases they would already make. Besides, in the two test cities in the Philly suburbs, recycling rates went from 7% and 35% to 90%. That's a huge uptick.
Why eliminating incandescents entirely might not be the best idea. This one requires a lot of further studying, and I think in some areas it might end up being a wise choice to switch to CFLs or LEDs in the Summer and incandescents in the Winter in the northern states. It depends on a lot of factors though.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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